ã€ŠHopeã€‹


 Prologue: Hopes Wager

    The legion marched. Thousands upon thousands of relentless soldiers with a singular purpose, stretching from horizon to horizon. Except the field had no horizon and they weren¡¯t exactly soldiers. And the place they marched was no field, but the very precipice of nothingness. The Twilight rift, the boundary between reality and the opposite. They marched, not into the great beyond but from within - as little as that word meant in this context. An army of no flesh, skin or blood. Only white bone. The undead legion advanced.

    Heedless, they trod forth as a cluster of magic flew towards their ranks. The projectile was a pure contradiction: A mass of Void and Light, the two elements most volatile and unwilling to combine. The two which would always struggle and writhe when forced together. Yet, they merged, albeit temporarily, because of the third element in the mix. Just like the Lightmother Lumen and the Voidmother Umbra had once been united by their adoration of the Flame-that-is-origin Ignis, so were the two components of that spell combined through the virtue of mediating Flame, however shortly.

    And what a unity they formed. For the endless legions, for all their uncountable numbers and tireless march were far from indestructible. In a blazing moment, the sphere detonated. All light ceased to be yet it shone the brightest it ever had. Reality, as thin as it already was in the Twilight rift, buckled and bent under the pressure for a moment. And then all was consumed by the afterblast of pure Flame. In just a blink of an eye, the legion was no more.

    The casters, two figures standing where the rift led into firmer reality, however, only frowned. Because even if the army burned. Even if the Twilight rift, vast beyond comprehension, was now empty. Even if the attack was a resounding success. One thing remained. A simple truth, yet crushing:

    It had moved. The boundary of the senseless beyond had become just a bit closer to the boundary of reality. It wasn¡¯t by much - less than a hair¡¯s breadth, in fact. But a single grain of sand added every decade is going to fill a desert when given all of eternity. And then it will spill over, eventually devouring everything. For as long as no one can stop that single grain of sand from perpetually appearing, all is already doomed.

    That was their failure. For no matter how much effort, sacrifice and determination they poured into their magic, the conclusion was already foregone. They were 9, solemn guardians of reality. Yet they couldn¡¯t protect. Not truly and forever. One day, far, far in the future, the boundary would become too close and the undead legions would truly pour into the Realms and dimensions. And when that time came, all would be lost.

    ¡°What a wretched fate we have been dealt,¡± one of the two casters muttered. His skin was ebony and his ears were sharp enough to cut. His clothes were woven of the purest impresence that could only be found in the depths of the Void while his flesh bore piercings forged of solid flame. ¡°I wonder if the Fatebinder had foreseen this too before his death.¡±

    ¡°As if this would have come to be if Logos had foreseen the Betrayer¡¯s schemes,¡± the other figure shook his head. His appearance was much simpler: That of an average human. At first glance, even his clothes seemed deceivingly humble, though upon closer inspection they were woven from the plasma of stars, the merger of flame and light. ¡°No, such were the schemes that even Father flame himself had not predicted this conclusion.¡±

    ¡°Still, are we truly so desperate?¡± the black figure asked. ¡°Do we truly have to take the kind of risks you suggest? Perhaps their advance will wane. The rift might stop shortening, or the source might run out of power. The Aspects may have been nigh-omnipotent, but out there whatever remains of the Betrayer must be diminishing," even though those words were said, neither of them believed they could be true.

    ¡°And yet we still must act, brother,¡± the starclad figure grinned with sadness, ¡°for we do not flinch in the face of doom. For the flame of creation courses through our very souls! For we do not fear the unknown: We were there when it was first reforged into shape!¡±

    ¡°Leave your preaching for someone who cares for it,¡± the first person was not taken, ¡°We are not our parents. The Aspects are dead and now you tempt the same Fate. What will remain, brother, if you too are gone: If this fragile leap of faith is a plunge into solid ground? We were never taught fear but neither were we taught to resist it. And I am terrified of what tomorrow brings. More than of the Betrayer¡¯s legions. More than of the inevitable doom. Because those are evils we know. And this time we would have to be the ones to brave the unknowable.¡±

    ¡°Low spirit (yours) -> restrain, please,¡± a third figure suddenly appeared directly next to the two brothers, yet neither of them reacted to his appearance, ¡°Consequence = foul luck.¡± The person itself was quite different. Unlike the other two he did not possess a skin or body of flesh and bone. The surface of his humanoid form was carved into solid rock, sculpted with uncanny detail. Were the materials not grey, few would recognise him for what he was.

    ¡°Felt like telling us the damage this time, Golem? Or are you finished?¡± the Light adorning man asked, that sad smile still on his lips.

    ¡°Unprecedentedly widespread ~ damage,¡± the being of stone frowned, ¡°Divided attention, result: insufficient divination. Several entities -> enter reality, method: Fabric tears.¡±

    ¡°That will have to be left to the others or their followers, although I hate to add more to their worries,¡± the light clad caster shook his head, ¡°Time is unabating. We have perhaps a few more minutes before the next tide. Please tell me you bear at least some good news Golem.¡±

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    ¡°Inscription project = finished,¡± the rock creation noded, taking out an amethyst like jewel, ¡°Recommendation: Do not use. Fateweaving (me) = subpar. All measures == taken. Estimated success <100%¡±

    Looking towards the distant horizon of oblivion, the black-clad figure asked: ¡°Then do you believe the gamble will completely fail?¡±

    Even though his expression was not confident, Golem shook his head. ¡°Function achieved = 100%. Secondary effect -> inestimable. Finding (user) ~ impossible. Memory loss (user) ~ certain. Strings of Logos consumed. Greater Fateweaving result = 20 years of success guaranteed.¡±

    ¡°Faint hope,¡± the figure in light chuckled. ¡°But hope nonetheless. Allow me to say: Whether I return or do not. Whether I prevail or crumble. Whether I am evermore or no more. It has been a privilege to have been alongside both of you for the aeons past.¡±

    ¡°Ready up for usage (soon),¡± the sculpted person only nodded solemnly, handing over the gem, ¡°Enter in ~ 1946 seconds. Perfect time, reason = unknown. Final words stored for relaying.¡± then Golem paused for a moment and spoke while bowing his head ¡°Goodbye, old friend.¡±

    ¡°Oh, brother. Oh brother of mine,¡± the other beholder was not as contained with his reaction though. His face finally turned back to face the other two, many lines streaking down his cheeks. The tears were neither water nor blood: They were as dark as his robes, the pure ebony that only the Void could emit. ¡°What will I do without you? What will I do? Father had burned out, mother is truly no more, yet now you too would depart?¡± his Void woven robes lost much of their integrity and began to wave like strings in the wind; half still clinging to him while the rest barely remained connected to the mass. Even the jewelry of solid flame suddenly looked half melted. ¡°I would be truly alone. I would have nothing left. What good is a universe when it is hollow? What use is hope when it costs me everything? Let¡¯s just stay the way we are. Spentd the next aeons in the battles we know. Hunt and hurt in the ways we understand. And simply accept that there is no solution! Please, brother, you have to understand that is the way! PLEASE!¡±

    ¡°My dear brother,¡± the figure in Light stepped closer. Though his reaction was far less potent, his regalia too had stirred, fluttering along with his emotions. His hand reached and wiped away the tears of void. Even as they burned his fingers he did not flinch. He placed his palm on the dark skin of his brother¡¯s cheek and ignored the excruciating pain as his hand sizzled and decomposed.

    That was their very own curse. Among the 9 guardians, the two brothers were different. 7 have been created, crafted by the greatest creators - the very architects of reality. Each a masterpiece without equal. Yet two, two of them had been born. In a union bearing the Flame-that-is-origin. And yet, the other half had been Void and Light. And the universe had an inviolable rule: The purest Void cannot coexist with the purest Light. Not for more than a moment. Not even among half-brothers. Not even when it made every longing touch and lonely embrace burned with the agony that can only come from grasping the absolute anathema of one¡¯s own essence.

    He let go of his brother, revealing burned flesh where a cheek had been. And more tears. But neither of them complained about the pain. Instead they fixed onto each other''s eyes. At the horizon the first of the next wave of undead breached through the boundary but the moment lasted just a bit longer. A memory to commit. The promise of departure and hope. And then it was over.

    Everything returned to focus as the jewel was taken from Golem''s hands. No further words were needed nor were any said. The legions had already engulfed much of the Twilight rift as the son of Light and Flame turned towards them. Next, the jewel in his hand was shattered. The world followed.

    Simple steps were enough to reach the undying army in an instant as something fundamental changed about him. The clothing dissolved but did not reveal skin. Even the seemingly human face was no more. Feet and hands grew less distinct as the body bloated. In not too long he was a sphere, merger of the purest flame and light: The core of a Star.

    The abominations melted underneath his mere presence. Even space shifted to better accommodate his will, bringing the countless hordes close enough to incinerate without actually moving them. Soon they were no more, but that would not stop him from pressing forward. To the boundary of reality. The breach into the lawless madness, where the Aspects had not brought order before their demise. He pressed into the beyond.

    Ashen gray of bone was clearly audible to him for a short eternity. The sound was ''afterwards'' replaced by the taste of pure white with black spots. And then sensation wasn''t. He briefly lost the corners of his conical shape before that concept too became voided. Every step took him exactly a random distance in every direction at once. Time lost meaning. That would drive most insane, though thankfully madness required the concept of a mind to exist. Moreover, this was familiar to him. He had been there, at the beginning. Before the universe will have been created. Where time was a brazen idea of a newborn Aspect. Where memory and possibility were one and the same. At the place of only a single certainty: His Name.

    Restlessly he will have remembered the moment of his Naming. In the nothing of endless instants a voice had pierced through and ordered order into chaos. The Fatherflame, Ignis. For he had deemed it timely to name the son of his consort, the Lightmother Lumen. Through his wisdom as vast as a grain, the son will have been deemed worthy to bear the legacy of both his parents. And thus it had been decided, with words imprinted upon the very foundation of the universe as well as his Soul: He must always be Ignis Lumen. Even if he forgets, even if he dies. No power in the universe could scour the Names spoken by Ignis, no matter how long ago the Allmaker had perished.

    That was the essence of their plan. For as long as his Name existed he would one day return. He would walk the path of mortals, the strife of mortals and the end of mortals and he would emerge stronger. For when he returned he would be powerful enough to banish the Betrayer''s legions once and for all. He would destroy the remnants of who had once been the Soulgranter and then the realms would finally have eternal peace. For that was a cause worth dying for: Hope.

 1.1 - Cat and mouse

    Irwyn and Waylan ran across the sprawling streets as a squadron of a dozen property guards pursued them. There used to be over thirty on their heels, so that was progress at least. Though it should have been far fewer this far away from the manufactorium.

    The entire area was a heresy against the very concept of urban planning: Just low-income houses that had sprung up around the plentiful employment that the aforementioned industrial complex provided. It had been a great financial move done by the owners some 35 years prior during the reindustrialisation, or so Irwyn had read, since they bought only the land itself and made the desperate workers build their own lodgings in the empty area.

    Long term, not so great, Irwyn mused as he, in the corner of his eye, caught a particularly tall guard smash his forehead into a completely meaningless beam sticking out of a nearby building. Then he fell on two of his compatriots who lost line of sight for a few seconds and were therefore out of the chase as Irwyn and Waylan took two lefts and a right in about 20 steps. That was another problem with the haphazard nature of construction: It was impossible not to get lost unless someone had scouted the whole place out extensively. Which is why they really should have lost the pursuers by that point.

    They turned onto another long street with the last 9 guards right behind them and Irwyn finally felt why exactly that was. The frontmost guard was holding something and glancing at it whenever the two teenagers tried to lose them. Irwyn had felt the bit of magic within at the beginning of the chase and assumed it was a weapon. In hindsight, it was probably some sort of tracking device instead. How it worked Irwyn could not begin to guess, he had no formal education in casting and all he knew he had essentially figured out by himself. Far from the neat formations that formed proper magical items. That being said, he did have an idea on how to stop a tracking item and the perfect opportunity was coming up.

    Just above them was a stack of empty crates, attached to the wall of a building just by rope and a rack. With great satisfaction, Irwyn used some magic of his own. A spark flashed and the hemp incinerated at several locations it had been attached to the wall, immediately causing the wooden boxes to plummet beneath, exactly between Irwyn and the pursuers. Though only Irwyn knew what actually happened as he worked hard to hide his magic. Unsanctioned casting supposedly had a harsh punishment but more importantly it brought the attention of exponentially more dangerous pursuers than borderline petty theft did. The trick with manifesting his flame completely remotely had taken Irwyn years to figure out, that was a long time for a 16 years old street rat like him. It took him even longer to combine it with casting on multiple precise locations at once. But the results were well worth it.

    Irwyn wasn¡¯t quite done though. They had planned their escape route carefully and so were running with the sun in front of them. That way it was completely believable when Irwyn used a tiny burst of light to blind the guards. They would just assume it was the sun, especially because the rare casters that traveled through Ebon Respite were associated with many things but using magic sparingly was not among them.

    Last was the tracking device. Irwyn lacked the knowledge to rig it in their favour but he had learned a trick during his career as a thief: Magical devices went haywire when flooded with enough raw magic. So that is exactly what he did, feeling the outer layer of whatever the enchantment was crack under the pressure as he and Waylan dipped around another double corner. They kept running for a bit longer but soon realised they had lost their pursuers and stopped to catch their breath.

    ¡°Fuck me sevenfold, cunt was dat?!¡± Waylan, as per usual, cursed as soon as he stopped wheezing.

    ¡°Language,¡± Irwyn barely managed and had to take a few more deep breaths. His endurance was decent, just a good chunk worse than Waylan¡¯s. ¡°They had some kind of tracking device. I think I managed to scramble it.¡±

    ¡°You reckon they realised?¡± Waylan frowned.

    ¡°No,¡± Irwyn shook his head and they slowly began to walk. "They will not even suspect it among thieves like us. There are no certified casters in the entirety of Black Respite ever since lord Mage Bastard passed away last summer."

    "Good riddance, the ol'' cocksucker," Waylan spat.

    "I do agree that our city is better for his absence." Irwyn nodded. "Left here or the next street?"

    "Here," Waylan affirmed. "You reckon the lovebirds and Big Max got it."

    "They better do after the distraction we earned them." Irwyn grinned. "If they do not I am confident we get to laugh at them until the next Solstice."

    "What ya reckon we gettin'' for dinner since the celebration?" Waylan changed topics as they navigated the complex streets.

    "I did not inquire what Narcinia intends to prepare for the occasion," Irwyn admitted. "I prefer surprises in the food."

    "Yet you used ta always bitch about me mystery pot," Waylan grinned.

    "I remember quite distinctly mentioning ''food''. Though I will be sure to contact you the next time I require a potent laxative." Irwyn returned the smile.

    "Garh," Waylan grasped his heart in an exaggerated gesture. "Et tu, cunt?"

    "No need to remind me why I regret forcing classic literature upon you, Waylan." Irwyn sighed.

    "Any literature, Irw." Waylan corrected. "We are at the place, right?"

    "Behind the corner next to the pole," Irwyn shook his head. "We moved it a bit further out of sight, remember?"

    "Right. Me shitty head, ey?"

    "Please, Waylan, language," Irwyn sighed again as he walked around the corner. There, three familiar figures were already waiting for them. A very tall man holding a sack of loot, although cleverly disguised to look like a farmer with potatoes, and two youths, barely older than Irwyn, positively attached at the hip.

    "Maxim, Kalista, Rainer," Irwyn greeted in acknowledgment, "It appears you have succeeded."

    "Of course we did," Kalista spoke with a giggle, shamelessly hanging from Rainer''s neck. "You pulled such a distraction we had the time to stop by the manager''s office and grab their accounting."

    "What happened though?" Rainer seamlessly spoke as soon as the last syllable left Kalista''s lips. It was a small thing but Irwyn had been noticing how well the two spoke together. "I wouldn''t expect Waylan to be noticed."

    "They been waiting for us, cunts. 50 guards in our ass with magic trackin''."

    "They had a caster?" The tall man spoke for the first time, all eyes turning to Irwyn.

    "Of course not," Irwyn shook his head. "Some kind of enchanted device but nothing major. The kind of stuff I imagine apprentices make a dozen of when training and then sell to break even on materials. I just confused it for a few moments so we could get out of range. They will all assume it just malfunctioned."

    "Good." Maxim nodded. "That is a secret we don¡¯t want getting out."

    "Repeating the obvious," Kalista rolled her eyes. "Let¡¯s head back.¡±

    And so they went. Along the streets of the city, chatting but never quite dropping their guard. One could never know when some guard remembers their face, that is why they rarely did jobs with the intention of being seen. And they were also quite young, even Irwyn at 16 would probably be basically impossible to recognise in a year, especially by someone who barely got a look. And he would make sure not to work around the manufactorium for a good while.

    Soon enough the houses turned more and more ragged, the street worse kept, and the people increasingly haggard. There was no exact boundary but gradually the group entered the sprawling slums.

    They did not stop, however, they each put on an armband: A bit of cheap grayish cloth with a faded dark blue sewing of a teardrop for all to see. It was nothing fancy but each was clearly made to be identical, or close to. They did not become any more or less on guard as they walked down the crumbling road though. The folk were not known for their mercy among the most desperate.

    ¡°...And I am confidently telling you that those were not imbued magical scrolls,¡± Irwyn explained, continuing their conversation. ¡°The logarithmic increase in material cost means that scrolls are either prohibitively expensive or literally just a fancy light source. There is no way an average cloth merchant could afford something that would sting you, much less hurt.¡±

    ¡°It worked pretty well in browning Waylan¡¯s pants,¡± Rainer snorted. ¡°Though we should revisit just to check. Even if they are crap I am sure a good coin could¡­¡±

    ¡°Trouble coming.¡± Kalista suddenly interrupted. And indeed just a moment later another group approached them from the front, one made of at least 15 people. They were wearing armbands of various cloths though each with a distinct red star.

    ¡°You seem to be carrying quite the haul on our turf,¡± a central figure emerged from among them. A young man, maybe 17 with 2 nasty scars on his face. People like that were trouble, especially so young, as Irwyn had learned first-hand. One big scar, that was a person who has had their thrills and dangers, then got hurt bad, almost died. Most people would not risk as much after that, become more cautious. People with 2 as obvious as those? They got burned by the flame and jumped right back in.

    ¡°The Tears have a treaty with the Stars.¡± Irwyn declared. ¡°We are guaranteed safe passage.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah of course. You are completely safe, ain¡¯t I right lads?¡± the leader turned around to the somewhat hesitant nods of his crowd. ¡°But you know, it¡¯s hard doing rounds around these streets. Me and the lads could use a little something.¡±

    ¡°Are you all sure you want to fuck with us?¡± Kalista instead turned towards the crowd as Irwyn already formulated their escape. Obviously, they couldn¡¯t fight 3 times their number of armed men so they had to run. Maxim wasn¡¯t the best sprinter so just in case, they would need a distraction. For that Irwyn reached into the pouch on his waist, filled with coloured sand. Of course, the difference between coloured sand ignited by magic and alchemical flare powder was effectively nil and no one could tell the difference once the grains melted. That¡¯s why it made a very convenient excuse in tough situations.

    ¡°Stop!¡± However, before the situation could further escalate a voice sounded from behind the Stars. An older man in rough leather armour stepped out. ¡°Andre, you absolute shithead. I take a piss and your dumb ass tries to rob the Tears?¡±

    ¡°Uncle,¡± the young ''leader'' had the grace to slightly blush but protested, ¡°They are hardly a hard target. Just thieves.¡±

    ¡°Stop and think for a moment for once, Andre,¡± the older man¡¯s expression cringed in disapproval. ¡°Why did the boss get a damn deal with ¡®just thieves¡¯? We don¡¯t mess with the Tears because the last people who did lost every coin and then their fucking pants as they shat on the latrine,¡± that left the younger man clearly at a loss for words, though the surrounding crowd nodded in distinct approval. Seeing that, Andre got a bit red, scoffed and walked away without a proper rebuttal.

    ¡°Sorry for the scare,¡± the older man turned around and smiled. ¡°Though the lads would have stopped him if they didn¡¯t know I was coming.¡±

    ¡°He ran his mouth hella lot, Pat,¡± Waylan was still looking in the direction the youth had departed. ¡°Who he be?¡±

    ¡°The boss¡¯s third son. Just arrived from the Other side,¡± the man sighed. ¡°Can¡¯t make plans for shit, way too aggressive and a damn deviant. But he is an unbreakable helion in a fight and we will need that with the Snakes.¡±

    ¡°So the cold war is escalating.¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°We hit them hard yesterday so it might as well be war already. Not like you have to worry too much.¡±

    ¡°Yes, could you please stop bringing up the latrine story?¡± Rainer chimed in. ¡°It happened once. I don¡¯t want that as my legacy.¡±

    ¡°Look up, we are famous. I will never forget the look on his face,¡± Kalista laughed instead. ¡°Good riddance.¡±

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    ¡°It makes a good story,¡± Patrick, because that was his full name and Irwyn refused to use shortcuts whenever avoidable, laughed. ¡°And the new blood are often so poor they would rather lose every last coin than get fucked over like that.¡±

    ¡°We should get going,¡± Maxim reminded them, still carrying the large sack over his shoulder.

    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s a Solstice today, isn¡¯t it. I shouldn¡¯t take up more of your time then. Just send my regards to the old Fowl.¡±

    ¡°Will do,¡± Waylan nodded and they were let through.

    "Do we delay the trials?" Kalista asked after they were out of earshot, "A lot more won''t make it back at the start of a turf war, armband or not."

    "Fuck, it happens now of all times," Rainer cursed. "The old man won''t be happy."

    "The old man definitely already knows." Irwyn pointed out ¡°He had Aaron occupied since yesterday. This might be why.¡±

    "I say we delay it," Waylan cut in. "Shit''s tough enough for the kids without bloodthirsty assholes bashin¡¯ each other heads in."

    "There will be a vote," Irwyn sighed. "Everyone will decide then."

    "We have even votes after last month," Rainer frowned. "What if we draw?"

    "Give Narci the tiebreaker," Waylan suggested.

    "That''s hardly a tiebreaker. She objects to the trials altogether." Rainer shook his head.

    "Cooks and their golden hearts," Kalista sighed wistfully.

    Then soon enough they arrived at their destination: An overgrown orchard that had turned into more of a hedge maze. Beyond it, a large worn down building. Once a town hall, from what Irwyn had gathered, before Ebon Respite had grown into a sprawling industrial zone and swallowed up all nearby settlements. Though that had been before Irwyn was born.

    Irwyn approached the door and knocked twice which immediately caused a young voice to sound from within: "Password."

    "Hey Ol! It''s us." Waylan immediately proclaimed.

    "Birds were honey," Irwyn quickly said the actual password of the day before the person inside could protest, or worse: oblige. He was not in the mood for another argument about password security with Waylan.

    "Welcome back!" The door swung open, revealing a girl no older than 12 with a bright smile. "Did you get it? You did, right?"

    "You betcha," Waylan immediately laughed. "How could da best duo and their help fail?"

    "Yes, he was quite heroic as he turned tail and ran," Kalista snickered.

    "It be called distractin'' Kali."

    "Sure, sure." Rainer waved his hand in an exaggerated gesture. "I am sure Olga understands the necessity of strategic retreats."

    "Hey Big Max," Olga wasn''t really registering the conversation though. Her eyes glittered with excitement. "Is that entire sack filled with the thing?!"

    "Yes," Maxim simply nodded with a small amused smile.

    "There is just¡­ so much!" Olga''s eyes were as wide as her mouth. "With this much everyone could get an entire chunk!"

    "We will leave the splitting to Narcinia," Irwyn smiled. ¡°Now, if you would not mind, we would like to come inside and rest before dinner."

    "Oh? Oh!" In her excitement Olga had not realised she was blocking the doorway with her body and quickly stepped aside, slightly panicky.

    "Always keep a cool head," Maxim advised as he moved past. "Don''t panic even if you get shot. You will make it much longer then."

    "T-thank you!"

    And then the group was in. A quick dozen steps through the entrance hallway and they stepped into an expansive hall. Though it might be more accurate to describe it as a shelter considering the plethora of sleeping bags and cheap mattresses. All across the hall young children were scattered in groups, enjoying the toys of various make; even a few teens were among them, though they tended to separate from the youngest and far less numerous. And at the back end of the hall sat an old man, surrounded by the children, decrepit but with a wide grin on his face. And all knew him by that nickname that described him, for he was as devious as an¡­

    ¡°Old Crow!¡± one of the children near him exclaimed, showing him a very expensive-looking puzzle box they had managed to solve. Irwyn even remembered stealing the one from a Roadstreet merchant.

    ¡°Well done Jeremy,¡± the old man kept smiling as Irwyn approached with their group. ¡°Keep it up. Every puzzle you solve makes you a bit smarter. And being smart is very good.¡±

    ¡°Old Crow,¡± Irwyn approached and offered the elder a slight bow of respect; as did everyone else in their group. ¡°We have what we went for but they were expecting us. The word has gotten around the industry,¡± Irwyn immediately reported. ¡°I think we should do the Solstice raid a day early next time and then maybe hit the same place two times in a row to keep them guessing.¡±

    ¡°It was only a matter of time until someone figured out the pattern,¡± Maxim added from the side. ¡°I would have thought Aaron would have caught wind of it though.¡±

    ¡°That is fault on my side,¡± the Old Crow sighed. ¡°I had Aaron dedicated to a different assignment the last two days. One that is unfortunately far more grave than semi-prepared security. I am calling an urgent meeting, with you we have everyone here,¡± the elder said and the group of 5 immediately lost all their leisure. Many things could be said about the Old Crow but he didn¡¯t mess around with his own. Now that he looked Irwyn saw that basically every teen in the room was standing up and heading towards one side of the hall. One particular entrance, in fact.

    The building they lived in used to be a village hall a long time ago before being swallowed up in Ebon Respite¡¯s expansion during the reindustrialisation. Then the place had fallen into disrepair in the emerging slums until Old Crow had found it and decided to set up his charity mission here.

    That much was relevant because the building had a whole lot of rooms of all sizes and even an actual meeting room that they now used. It even had a bunch of chairs and a desk at one end. And behind that desk sat another familiar youth a bit older than Irwyn, wearing his distinct spectacles and ink-stained sleeves.

    ¡°Everyone is here,¡± the Old Crow nodded, looking around the room. The Tears had 23 ¡®adults¡¯ with a vote, though the Crow was the only one actually over 20 and most were below 16. They had all gathered in the room as Irwyn noted Maxim securing the door against eavesdroppers as he usually did. ¡°Aaron, explain the situation.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Old Crow,¡± the spectacled youth stood up with a severe expression. ¡°A dangerous situation has arisen, not just across the slums but across the entirety of Ebon Respite. I have been investigating and can confidently say that the Old Swallow is dead.¡±

    ¡°What?!¡± Kalista exclaimed, startled, and Irwyn was barely able to hold himself back. Because everyone knew of the Old Swallow even if few had met him; for he was - or had been - the undisputed best thief in the city when it came to cracking vaults. He had infamously once stolen an heirloom ring from a Magelord¡¯s vault as he was passing through the city.

    ¡°How certain are you?¡± Maxim asked with a frown, though little emotion appeared on his face.

    ¡°Almost completely.¡± Aaron shook his head. ¡°If not for his reputation and older deeds I would have been certain when his head arrived at the Guild.¡±

    ¡°Is it big game bounty hunters? To catch the Old Swallow they would need a capable divination caster and someone to block his retreat.¡± Irwyn guessed.

    ¡°Unfortunately I suspect the situation is much, much worse.¡± Aaron shook his head again and Irwyn noticed the uneasy tick of his left hand. ¡°The Old Swallow broke the third tenet.¡±

    ¡°Fuck,¡± Rainer muttered as Irwyn felt chills down his spine. Oh.

    ¡°The third tenet?¡± one youth asked uncertainly. He looked only thirteen and was among the youngest in the room. Irwyn couldn¡¯t for the life of him remember the boy¡¯s name.

    ¡°The tenets of the Guild,¡± Irwyn explained, ¡°Though they are more like good advice for people like us. In order of importance. First, never dabble in necromancy, lest even the worst scum among us will come to purge the Betrayer¡¯s rot. Second, never break a promise made to another one of us lest all abandon you. Third, never, ever, steal from, rob or threaten a Blackburg lest the Duke¡¯s bloodline shows you the Wrath that had forged our duchy from dust.¡±

    ¡°He tried to rob a fucking Blackburg?!¡± the youth that had asked before immediately recoiled and so did two others who apparently did not know beforehand. Irwyn had assumed that everyone had known the tenets by adulthood so perhaps he should advocate making sure that they actually did before the children ventured into the world. But that was an issue for another time.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Aaron nodded gravely. ¡°A sealed carriage had arrived in Ebon respite two days ago, bearing the Black Castle insignia. I did not dare inquire any further. What makes me certain that the Old Swallow had tried his luck at it is the state his head was in when delivered: His eyes and blood had been turned pitch black while whatever took his head had been an impossibly clean-cut despite going straight through a vertebra. I believe he had been tortured and then killed by Void magic. Anything to add Irwyn?¡±

    ¡°I would need to see the head to learn much more,¡± Irwyn frowned. As the Tears¡¯ resident and only caster, matters of magic and mage tradition almost always deferred to him in some way. ¡°This might sound a bit morbid but were his eyes possible to remove? It seems clearcut enough but the Blackburgs presumably practice the old ways of Umbra, they would have replaced his eyes with magical constructs that have no actual physical manifestation: Hollow eyes of nothing for the fool that saw even less. It would be a complete confirmation.¡±

    ¡°I will try to inquire but we should assume that House Blackburg was crossed and that they will retaliate.¡±

    ¡°We will have to delay the trials and all lay low,¡± the Old Crow spoke grimly. ¡°We will dip into our reserves to buy food and not take any work for at least a week. Warn our allies tomorrow then dig in and hide until the Blackburgs leave. Anyone against?¡± he looked around the room but no one raised their hands.

    ¡°The Stars and The Snakes are about to have a go at it. It could be a smokescreen.¡± Rainer suggested.

    ¡°We cannot count on that,¡± Aaron, however, did not agree. ¡°The Tears are known in the slums and Blackburgs are not incompetent. Moreover, it was a thief who messed with them this time. I fear they might insist on a pound of¡­¡±

    ¡°Wait.¡± Maxim interrupted raising one hand and pointing the other towards the door he was standing right by. 2 seconds later a knock sounded on the door.

    ¡°The food¡¯s ready,¡± a young girl¡¯s voice said. ¡°Narci said to come eat while it¡¯s hot.¡±

    ¡°We can get our plans together tomorrow morning,¡± Old Crow suggested. ¡°Better not to let the kids know something is wrong on their big day. You will hold the speech again, Irwyn?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Irwyn nodded. He had done so the last 6 times.

    ¡°Good. Enjoy the food and try to not worry too much today, everyone. It¡¯s your birthday too.¡± The old man shot them all a warm smile and Irwyn couldn''t help but return it. For all his faults, he was the closest thing their lot had to a father.

    Returning into the hall the tables were already made, as few of them as there were. Most of the food, a generous serving of stuffed meat rolls with potatoes, was actually laid on long stools of different heights just tall enough for kids of all ages to eat while sitting on the floor. As one of the ¡®adults¡¯, Irwyn had the privilege of sitting at one of the tables in a corner by the stairs. Waylan and the rest went right with him, each taking seats almost at random, just sticking to their confidant groups. Well, with the exception of the Old Crow who had the seat of honour, a separate small table just for him at the edge of the whole arrangement. By the time they got seated most of the younger kids were already half done with their meal since it was basically impossible to keep hungry children from something so delicious.

    ¡°How is it?¡± a young woman, though still a bit older than Irwyn, asked them from a nearby table not long after they also dug in.

    ¡°Definely one of yer best, Narci.¡± Waylan complimented, his mouth half full.

    ¡°I concur,¡± Irwyn said, too numb to Waylan¡¯s table manners to cringe after so many years.

    ¡°Please speak so we non-casters can understand, Irw,¡± Rainer chided while Kalista, unapologetically sat in his lap, enjoying the meal. That at least earned a humble smile from Narcinia, their resident chef. Even though she was older than Irwyn, she wasn¡¯t a full adult since she never went out to work, but everyone still loved her because of her exceptional cooking - no big surprise considering she was about the only person in the building who had not learned to cook by putting together whatever could be scraped and seeing if it was edible after boiling.

    Despite the jolly mood there was not much more talking as the exceptional meal vanished from each plate. No one would leave any leftovers, Irwyn was sure of that much. And then it was time to introduce their loot of the day; the sack had gone straight to Narcinia to divide up before the urgent meeting. When the meal was done she vanished into her domain, the kitchen, together with her younger assistants and brought out the day¡¯s loot. It was rather simple really. Few would think of bothering to steal something like that since it wasn¡¯t very expensive. The issue, of course, was quantity and status. Because if Irwyn tried to buy enough to give everyone a chunk he would immediately, if rightfully, be questioned about where he stole that much money and where he could possibly be bringing that amount. But despite that, it was worth every risk because as soon as the little kids saw it their eyes grew twice the size. To them it was something really special. A luxury they might have never gotten to experience otherwise.

    Narcinia brought out platters of cake and the room exploded in cheers. Every kid got themselves a good chunk with the exception of that one boy who tried to steal someone else¡¯s last Solstice. Irwyn and his group got their servings too, rejoicing in the stimulation sugar brought after a long day. It might not have been a completely unique experience for him but it was very satisfying nonetheless.

    ¡°Well then, I should probably get on with my speech,¡± Irwyn smiled after refusing to lick the plate clean and got a thumbs up from Waylan as he stood up. It was the darker half of dusk already so the room was relatively dimly lit with only the candle lanterns. He was not particularly visible in that atmosphere; not yet.

    He made his way to the stairway at the end of the room and stepped up a few steps to be visible from anywhere in the hall. Considering the loud chatter, even if he were to shout he would only end up ignored. So instead, Irwyn raised his hands towards the room and focused. The first time he had done this 3 years prior it had been a struggle, requiring exhausting concentration, prohibitive time and significant exhaustion. Nowadays a barely conscious nudge of his mind was enough for all the lanterns in the large hall to extinguish at the same time while a brilliant halo of light rose above him, twisting and wobbling. Suddenly every eye in the room was on him as conversations died out.

    ¡°Today is Lumen¡¯s Solstice. The longest day of a year,¡± Irwyn started. Thankfully he wasn¡¯t struck by a fit of stage fright this time. ¡°But do you know why we celebrate it? Why everyone who doesn¡¯t know their own birthday chooses the Solstices instead?¡± He looked around the room, trying to make eye contact with as many of the children as possible, though in truth he couldn¡¯t see much, the main light source in the room focused on him.

    ¡°Let me tell you a story. The greatest of all legends. As it is told by The Book of the Name.¡± Irwyn played around with the brilliant halo, making it gradually shrink and focus the Light on his face, his own magic wouldn''t blind him. And so he began: ¡°At the beginning, there was only the Flame¡­¡±

 1.2 Flame

    ¡°At the beginning, there was only the Flame. Besides it was a lack of things so absolute even nothing didn¡¯t exist. It was before time and before thought. Before magic itself. And it was all there was.¡±

    ¡°Until the Flame decided to create. And it was the first creation of the Flame-that-is-origin as it spoke and created from naught a name. The Name. For it named itself with a word embedded at the beginning of all. Such that it can never be erased. And The Name was, is and forever will be Ignis.¡±

    ¡°When The Name came to be, Ignis chose to create more and he named The 8 Aspects. And as they were named, from Ignis¡¯ power they too came to be. They were Lightmother Lumen, the Virtuous. Voidmother Umbra, the Sinful. Fatebinder Logos, the Omniscient. Timebringer Chronos, the Omnipresent. Realmforger Astremus, the Vast. Lifegiver Vitaros, the Deceiver. Toolbearer Parios, the Implacable. And lastly, the Nameless Aspect whose Name was concealed and forbidden, lest just the mention tempts the acts most foul. For the last aspect must be known only as The Betrayer.¡±

    ¡°And as they had been created, so they came to create. First Chronos brought forth the very time and space. Then Astremus forged all the realms we mortals live in. Vitaros gave us the possibility of the first mortal life and the Betrayer granted mortals souls. Lumen gave us the day and the stars while Umbra made all the darkness and night in-between into her domain. Parios imparted to mortal flesh the capacity for magic while Logos gave mortals the knowledge to live and prosper in the new reality we had been born into. It was an era of wonders. Where there was no wrong. The Era of the Aspects.

    And now the Aspects are dead. As is Ignis, despite his greatness. For they had been betrayed and slain. That is the story of the First Betrayal and of why there is no evil worse than necromancy.¡±

    ¡°But first we come to why we celebrate the Solstices. And to the rivalry between Lumen and Umbra, the two consorts to the Flame-that-is-origin. Despite their affection for Ignis, Light and Void are opposites and anathema - they cannot coexist. And so, when Lumen sought to bring the mortals her warm light in an eternal day, Umbra objected. She demanded her own eternal night upon the realms.

    To settle such a dispute Ignis has decreed a compromise: That upon each world night and day would interchange in a cycle. On Lumen¡¯s Solstice the day shall be the longest, closest to the eternal daylight she had once envisioned, thereafter the days grow shorter until Umbra¡¯s Solstice when the night¡¯s length is the greatest; and then nights grow shorter once more in such a cycle. Year after year.¡±

    ¡°In the ages past, these days held great power. When on Lumen¡¯s Solstice there could not be a single ray of darkness even in the deepest crevice of the earth. Where virtue filled the hearts of all people who beheld it. When on Umbra¡¯s Solstice the night was starless and full of sin. But not of sin as we understand it today, for back then there was no evil. There was no hunger, grief nor suffering. Back then sin and virtue were just an expression of people that carried no good or bad. For it was an era where all was well. But that all changed after the first Betrayal.¡± Irwyn felt grief well in his heart from just telling the story.

    ¡°It was felt on every world, across every realm. Every person knew it immediately with absolute certainty. Ignis was dead. And so were the Aspects. For they had been betrayed by one of their own. The Betrayer had slain his maker and his kin, forever tainting all things. It is from that very act that all evil in the world comes. The First Betrayal. Ever since then, true magic has faded. The perfect Era of the Aspects was no more and all which is wrong had come to be.¡±

    ¡°But even though the true wonders of the past are long gone, our gratitude must remain. That is why we still celebrate the Solstices, to honour Lumen and Umbra even in death. Why those of you who do not know the day of your own birth nor parents may at least take up the grace of the Lightmother or Voidmother.¡±

    ¡°Because gone it may be, there once used to be wonder beyond description. And as long as we tell the stories, as long as we honour them, something of the Aspects remains in each of us. So when you are at your darkest hour, when you cannot see hope; remember: You each carry a small fragment of that greatness.¡± Irwyn finished and bowed, dismissing the bright halo above his head. There was a moment of silence before someone started clapping. Soon enough the hall was taken over by applause that made Irwyn blush. With the wave of his hand, he quickly reignited all the lanterns and quite awkwardly staggered from the stage.

    ¡°Good didn¡¯ freeze up dis time,¡± Waylan gave him a thumbs-up as soon as he was seated. The next moment he turned and grinned at Rainer who, with a scowl, threw a few coins at him.

    ¡°You are betting on this kind of stuff?¡± Naricinia looked something between amazed and appalled.

    ¡°Betting a few coins on everything makes life a lot more exciting,¡± Rainer shrugged. ¡°And you get better at making the important bets.¡±

    ¡°Thank you for your continued faith Waylan,¡± Irwyn smiled. ¡°I told it would be rewarded this time.¡±

    ¡°Well, ya told me dat last time too,¡± Waylan grinned, trailing a fake tear with his finger. ¡°Brought me down low, I tell ya.¡±

    ¡°You like the speech Narci?¡± Kalista asked. ¡°Your first time hearing it, right? Tell him he uses too many fancy words.¡±

    ¡°I still don¡¯t understand some of them,¡± Waylan chimed in.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t have trouble understanding,¡± Naricinia said, yet her expression turned a fair bit awkward. ¡°The thing is¡­ well¡­. you see¡­¡± she trailed off.

    ¡°If you have any critique I would like to hear it,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°My friends here only know how to complain about vocabulary after I revisioned it 3 times to make it as simple to understand as possible without losing the meaning.¡±

    ¡°What is a ¡®crevice¡¯ supposed to be anyway?¡± Rainer asked to which Kalista whispered something to his ear, earning a grin, ¡°huh.¡±

    ¡°The thing is, my father was really religious but, well¡­ he worshipped the New gods.¡± Narcinia finally said. ¡°And well¡­ you see¡­ so do kind of I¡­¡±.

    ¡°That is unusual in our duchy but not unreasonable,¡± Irwyn smiled, trying to dissuade her worries. ¡°The New gods do probably exist, though they most certainly did not create our Realm as they claim to have done.¡±

    ¡°You cannot know that!¡± Narcinia snapped back, raising everyone¡¯s brow at her sudden combativeness.

    ¡°Well, I read a lot and came to my own conclusions,¡± Irwyn shrugged, not noticing his own small frown. ¡°For example, in the 9 Duchies of the Federation, all 9 Duke households openly worship or at least acknowledge the Aspects of old. I think that the greatest magelord bloodlines would know the best who really created magic. Moreover, the New gods have gaps in their mythos; for example, they claim flame to be an element equal to the others, yet only flame does not have lesser manifestation like the other 8, not to mention¡­¡±

    ¡°Enough, Irwyn,¡± Maxim stopped him, ¡°That is not how you convince people of being wrong. This will only result in an argument and ruin everyone¡¯s evening. Whether the belief is right or wrong doesn¡¯t matter to a person who believes hard enough.¡±

    ¡°But¡­¡± Irwyn was exasperated for a moment until he looked at Narcinia. The timid girl was biting her lower lip and glared angrier than Irwyn thought she even could manage. ¡°Fine. Let us not talk about this anymore.¡±

    ¡°I will go organize the dishwashing,¡± Narcinia said and stood up with a bit too much force, leaving the group around their table with a sudden bitter aftertaste.

    ¡°Truly a ladykiller, Irw¡± Rainer snickered. Earning an amused shush from Kalista.

    ¡°I may have gone too far,¡± Irwyn admitted, though still frustrated that anyone would choose willful ignorance.

    ¡°You are doing that thing again, Irw,¡± Waylan shook him from that thought as Irwyn realised that, yes, there was a small flame dancing between his fingers; he immediately snuffed it out. It was a bad tick to have. Especially considering that it would be trouble if word spread to officials about him being a caster. Showing the kids some magic to inspire them was a calculated risk. They never left the street, much less the slums, until they were old enough to work. And by then they would be loyal and smart enough to not talk about it. He considered it a worthwhile price for giving them something special to remember, Logos knows they often need it.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Even if a few were to tell over the years, no one would believe that their group of street-rat thieves was hiding a caster. They were just too rare in Ebon¡¯s Respite as most were all syphoned to the nearby capital, City Black, to pursue higher education and far better career prospects. Being an orphan with technically no recorded identity or guardian robbed Irwyn of that opportunity though.

    ¡°Sorry, I will go read in my room,¡± Irwyn sighed, getting a nod from everyone.

    ¡°Have a good one,¡± Kalista waved

    ¡°You too.¡±

    ¡°Oh, we will,¡± Rainer answered instead and Irwyn did not dignify that with an answer nor bother inspecting his leer.

    ¡° ¡®Morrow then,¡± Waylan waved him off while Maxim just gave him a firm nod. ¡°Night.¡±

    Quickly, Irwyn slipped to the center of the room and then upstairs. A few of the kids tried to talk to him but he just waved them away, not in the mood to, well, talk anymore. As a benefit of adulthood, Irwyn had his own room. His was among the larger ones, in fact. Though that was both by merit and necessity because Irwyn¡¯s hobby took up a decent amount of space.

    Opening the door, it looked more like a library than a bedroom with bookshelves taking the 3 long walls, the bed being right next to the door.

    Irwyn basically jumped down into the bed a ball of light manifesting above his finger, quickly bringing visibility to the windowless room. It was much simpler than the show he had held below, just a simple light. And it was so dazzling and beautiful despite the simplicity. Although Irwyn loved books he read a lot less often than the others might have believed. Because he enjoyed reading but magic was just so much more to him.

    The infinite permutations and alterations possible called to Irwyn like nothing else. Books were good for knowledge. For words and phrases that made him feel refined rather than like the street rat he was. To understand history and people. But deep down he knew that if push ever came to shove, it would be his magic that would pull through for him. Distinguish him from the rest.

    And so, he practiced. The single bubble of light split into two without reducing in size. Then 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and finally 128. Sweat began to pour from Irwyn¡¯s forehead even before the last division. When he had first started this exercise when he was 9 he could barely manage to control two. It took him a year to reach 4, 2 more to reach 8, and another 2 for 16. But then improving became easier. The older he got, the faster he improved. At 14 he could barely manage 16 but just two years later he was already attempting 128. In the past month since he had first manifested that number he could feel the rapid improvement. The exhilaration of his multitasking and control getting slightly but noticeably better after each session. With those emotions filling him, he tried to move the lights.

    It was hard. Half of them barely flickered when he tried to send them all on predetermined routes. Some didn¡¯t move at all while a few actually collapsed, deprived of their source by Irwyn¡¯s insufficient focus. Even those that moved weren¡¯t perfect, oftentimes shooting off course. Occasionally two collided, causing a brilliant explosion. Irwyn maintained this for a minute. Then 10. At 15 sweat was pouring down his face and he felt the beginning of dull pain at the back of his head from the continuous focus, more and more mistakes happening. At 17 he finally slipped, the entire spell dispersing in one last bloom of light.

    Irwyn collapsed into the bed, the room once again completely dark. He finally felt the horrible headache coursing through him, downright paralyzing together with the mental exhaustion but still there was a wide grin on Irwyn¡¯s face. It was just a tiny bit longer than yesterday.

    He just lay there for 10 minutes as the headache receded and his sweat dried. The exhaustion passed quickly enough, thankfully, and he returned to normal; normal being a fair bit tired after a long day but without most of that debilitating fatigue he had come to associate with complex casting. So he began the next exercise:

    In the dark room 5 beams of light emerged. Despite that, they shed almost no light. They were focused to the point that only their targets were illuminated, 4 books. So Irwyn shut his eyes, focused, and read out: ¡°The reindustrialisation; a summary. The Legend of the Duke of Wrath. Strange sects of the Black Duchy. The 9 duchy Federation; a traveler¡¯s guide.¡± All titles from his ¡®history or close enough¡¯ section. Then he opened his eyes, moved the lights to another section and closed them again. It took him 6 rounds before he had to stop.

    Despite the seeming simplicity, he was soon sweating no less than in the first exercise.

    Even though he was feeling what the light touched in a very limited radius it was overwhelming. The light was focused but it was still light. Some of it spread, dimly covering the whole room. Every grain of dust in the air, every indentation of the wall, every little skittering bug; all were caught in it. And Irwyn had to filter that out and concentrate on the books. Feel that slightest difference in depth compared to the surface, the shift in colour or texture. Then he had to reconstruct all that information into a complete image or at least close enough that his brain could comprehend what it actually was. Even after many years, progress was slow and usefulness limited, daylight or even moonlight being too overwhelming, omnipresent, to grasp anything before he passed out from the strain. Still, Irwyn dreamed of the day when he could grasp all that light touched. Or at least sneak a peek through a wall without passing out.

    Next on his routine was flame. Of the 9 elements, Light and Flame called to Irwyn while the rest didn¡¯t even respond to his beckoning. He hadn¡¯t bothered trying for too long before he abandoned learning the rest. If they were so much more difficult to grasp, why bother? It was better to master what he felt fit him perfectly. Probably. Of course, sitting in his library bedroom, Irwyn did not dare to actually juggle a hundred fireballs like he did with light. Even though he could extinguish small flames quickly it was a shortcut to a scorched collection and a really awkward conversation with the Old Crow. No, instead Irwyn manifested just a single sizable ball of flames atop his palms and made it shrink, condense. It only stopped getting smaller when it was the size of his eyeball, then more flame ignited around it, being sucked in. More and more was devoured but that little burning marble, faster and faster. Roughly a minute later it stopped. The flames still appeared around it for a moment but it would take no more. Irwyn smiled as he grasped the saturated pebble of flame.

    It was solid to the touch and pleasantly warm. It would probably scorch anyone else, but flames loved Irwyn so he did not burn. He felt the power stored in it though he did not actually understand how mighty it was. Would it burn a person to death? Melt through a wall of wood? Of stone? Irwyn had no idea, he had never dared to use it. There was no place where he could after all. It wasn¡¯t something he could do safely inside the privacy of a building but there was no place outside where an explosion of magical flame wouldn''t be seen. Even in the slums, someone would very likely take notice. And it was not like he could just walk out of the city to test out a bit of magic. So with a sigh he began to unravel the magic in his palm, actually taking longer to safely break it apart than creating it, most of that power coursing back into him. Then he reformed and unwove it 10 more times for good measure. It was all about how fast he could do it after all.

    Next on his routine was sensing flame rather than light. And it was frankly incomparably easier, considering flame tended to burn anything it directly touched or go out trying. So instead of focusing on his immediate vicinity, Irwyn felt outward and the world expanded. It was different from light. There were still many, many, sources he felt but they were isolated and constant. At most an ember would launch away and hit the ground or maybe even something, but it was so much easier to focus when each hotspot of information was distinctly separate.

    He felt a group huddle around a flame contained inside some kind of a barrel, the occasional spark revealing their great shivering numbers. He felt a pyre burning and something writhed on it; perhaps Human, hopefully not, though the shape seemingly matched uncannily; something to mention to the Old Crow tomorrow. He gradually felt the thousands of candles across the slums, at least one disappeared every few moments, often snuffed out or just not replaced this late into the evening; the candles in the main hall below were also felt. He felt the roaring bonfire 2 rooms over¡­

    The roaring bonfire 2 rooms over?

    Irwyn jumped out of his bed and sprinted out of his room. The fire was getting bigger every moment, going through an exponential increase. And it was natural fire, meaning Irwyn had to first change it into a magical one before he could even start to smother it. Not a problem with a few candles, a serious issue with a roaring inferno taking up half of the large room.

    Irwyn burst through the door and saw only fire, sprawling across the wooden walls, furniture and even the ceiling. How did it get so bad before anyone noticed it? Irwyn could not help but ask himself, releasing as much magic as possible in an attempt to subdue the fire but there was just too much. And Irwyn realized he has next to no experience actually extinguishing big fires like this. He hesitated for just a moment and then jumped straight into the inferno. The flame was not magical but still, flames loved Irwyn. And he did not burn.

    Choking on the smoke and general lack of oxygen was a different problem though. Irwyn wanted to curse not taking a deep breath before bursting through the door. The next moment he was through, on the side of the room that wasn''t actively burning; yet. There he found Rainer and Kalista staring down at the 10-meter drop under their open window. They were clearly panicking and also very naked.

    "Are you alright?" Irwyn yelled and fixated on containing the flames. He couldn''t stop them all at once but he could focus on gradually taking them down from one side, now that he knew no one was actively choking to death. He tuned out the outside world and closed his eyes. He could feel the flames, restrained in front of him but still spreading in the other directions, trying to eat right through the walls. To stop them he needed to claim them first, for that he needed to flood them with enough magic to make them burn that instead of the room. So he took a deep breath, choked on the smoke, coughed a few times and then opened the figurative floodgates.

    It wasn¡¯t something he had done before but he squeezed as much magic as he could from his body. He felt sudden warmth coursing through his veins and surging out from every pore like an avalanche. It was so much more magic than Irwyn expected, slamming right into the flames, transmuting their very nature; until they no longer burned on wood and oxygen but on magic itself. And then it was his to grasp and control, so he condensed them, much like he had formed a ball of solid flame earlier, except rather than adding to the flame gradually it was all cascading at once. He strained and struggled as the tide of flames surged but eventually, it all turned into a single marble of solid flame on his palm. He breathed in relief and began to slowly and carefully break it apart. That he was familiar with, enough to turn to his two wide-eyed friends, summoning a wisp of light bright enough to illuminate the now dark room.

    ¡°Can you please explain to me what the f¡­ what in the world were you doing?¡± Irwyn felt a surge of rage and fear. If he hadn¡¯t perceived the flame in time¡­

    ¡°I¡­ I think we tipped over the lantern into fabric and didn¡¯t notice?¡± Rainer said and laughed very nervously. Kalista in the meantime ignored them both and walked into the blackened part of the room, barely flinching at the still considerably hot blackened floor. But most of the heat had left along with the fire.

    ¡°Hey! Do you realise what could have happened if I did not notice?¡± Irwyn raised his voice towards her, angrier. ¡°Even if I got here just a few minutes¡­¡±

    ¡°Yes Irw, thank you, fuck you.¡± Kalista snapped at him as she knelt next to a burned pile of something. ¡°It¡¯s all fucking gone,¡± she muttered.

    ¡°I will just let you jump next time then¡­¡± Irwyn bristled.

    ¡°Yes okay, thank you oh great saviour!¡± she screamed, shocking Irwyn into silence. ¡°I just almost fucking died, spent minutes thinking about jumping to my probably death and lost all my shit. I might be a bit fucking emotional right now!¡± she then tried to reach into the still scalding pile, except Rainer grabbed her hand to stop her and dragged her into an embrace; that movement also revealed that she was crying her eyes out, red from the tears and smoke. Irwyn also finally realised what that pile was: Silk. A lot of very expensive and completely incinerated silk that Kalista would always claim from her share whenever they got their hands on some.

    ¡°Thank you Irwyn,¡± Rainer said, shaken but significantly better off than Kalista. ¡°You absolutely saved us there, ok. I will treat you to a meal or something. But please, let us calm down a bit, ok?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sorry,¡± Irwyn felt a bit guilty for his outburst and sighed, ¡°I will go tell everyone what happened since we probably woke the whole building.¡±

    ¡°No, we didn¡¯t,¡± Rainer smiled weakly, stroking Kalista¡¯s hair with one hand and pointing up with the other. There Irwyn finally noticed the bit of magic emanating from there that he missed, or rather forgot about, in the earlier adrenaline rush. Just a small inscribed charm with a simple effect: Isolating noise. ¡°That¡¯s why no one heard us screaming for help.¡±

    ¡°Fine, we can deal with this tomorrow morning,¡± Irwyn sighed, exhaustion from the withdrawing adrenaline washing over him, ¡°Rest well.¡± He finished and left their room, taking the light with him. Thankfully, no one was running around and asking questions about the noise, though that same enchantment had almost made the situation into an absolute disaster.

    Tired and upset, Irwyn went into his room and fell asleep, forgoing the rest of his routine.

 1.3 Eye for a fingernail

    Irwyn walked with Waylan down the street in the early morning, though the sun was already relatively high up since it was the day right after Lumen¡¯s solstice. In the end, Kalista and Rainer did not get chewed out badly, considering a near-death experience and significant reduction in possessions were a lesson enough for what was essentially an accident. Since they still endangered everyone though, they got the worst work for the day: Getting in touch with the aptly named Sewer rats.

    The Tears had a bunch of allies and a few enemies in the slums. It¡¯s been a while since they got involved in an open war; no one messed with them ever since they robbed the last gang so bad most members deserted and the rest literally lost the cloth off of their back and then got bashed in by other gangs paid in their own stolen coin. Most gangs also were not quite so low to go after kids. The long period of peace lead to alliances and those led to obligations. Such as telling their allies when a storm was heading their way. Since Irwyn did prevent their home from burning down, the duo got to choose where they would go, something Waylan was ecstatic about, though they would have probably ended up being chosen for this particular ally anyway.

    ¡°Do ya really need ta wear dat?¡± Waylan complained, pointing at the small badge attached to Irwyn¡¯s collar. It had no adornment, just a single small quartz-like marble. ¡°Can¡¯t ya detect casters yourself?¡±

    ¡°I can feel casters, but we do not want them to know I am one.¡± Irwyn nodded and pointed at the piece of rock, ¡°Also this thing might be more sensitive than I am. The Aspects know I have spent way too many hours training to not constantly trigger it while not even casting.¡± he explained.

    ¡°Just sayin¡¯, others could use it,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°Still haven¡¯ done figurin¡¯ how to make more, right? We barely got ¡®nuff for everyone. And fuck, we could use more.¡±

    ¡°Language. Sadly no, enchantment still eludes me.¡± Irwyn grimaced, it was a very big stain on his pride. ¡°Maybe I am missing some kind of tightly controlled reagent? The kind no one ever steals because they do not get transported out of magelord mansions. Or maybe it is some specific form of magic that does not appear in the final product. Or maybe it is the same problem I have with writing. I wish we could finally find An Introduction to enchanting, or some other book like that,¡± they talked as they reached their target.

    The building they entered was actually at the very edge of the slums. Close enough that the folk who worked at the nearby manufactoriums would have little qualms about venturing here for business while they didn¡¯t need to actually rely on the guards for protection, instead relying on a big gang, the Stars, that technically owned the territory, not too unlike the Tears Irwyn was part of. Their ventures were, after all, historically beneficial to be on good terms with.

    Anyway, that is what Irwyn thought about to distract himself from the strong perfume permeating the brothel. The receptionist quickly ushered them to a table in the back when she recognised them and just a minute later they were welcomed.

    ¡°Way-way,¡± a figure burst into the room with an overjoyed giggle. She was a small lady of about 20 years and thankfully had the decency to at least cover her otherwise revealing clothing with a shawl.

    ¡°Hey sis!¡± Waylan exclaimed with a grin, ¡°Slow day?¡±

    ¡°Turf war just started,¡± she shrugged ¡°Most regulars got called into action and the folk from outside don¡¯t come here durin¡¯ the day.¡±

    ¡°You will have time to catch up later,¡± Irwyn fake coughed. ¡°We are here for a serious matter today, could you please call down the Madame, Meilin? It¡¯s urgent.¡±

    ¡°Ok. Teres, go call Mama, Tears here on important business,¡± she called to one of the two younger women who had entered with her. Teres nodded and immediately left.

    ¡°Is it bad?¡± Meilin asked, taking a seat next to Waylan.

    ¡°About as bad as it gets.¡± Irwyn nodded grimly, ¡°Old Sparrow broke the third.¡±

    ¡°Fuck me,¡± Meilin cursed. ¡°He dead then?¡± she got two nods. ¡°They might not come for us but you are in deep shit, birds of ladder and whatnot.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t say,¡± Waylan half-chuckled while Irwyn suppressed a cringe at the butchered idiom. The things you live to regret teaching.

    ¡°We do not know what exactly he tried to steal,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°Maybe the fallout will not be catastrophic.¡±

    ¡°Anything to drink?¡± at this point the last girl in the room leaned towards Irwyn. Unlike Meilin, she did not even attempt to cover herself up in a blatant attempt at simplistic seduction. To which Irwyn responded with a deadpan face, staring directly into her eyes and a ¡®no thank you.¡¯

    ¡°If he were dis easy to crack¡­¡± Waylan laughed while his sister giggled as well. ¡°...There wouldn¡¯ be a bloodey bounty on takin¡¯ his ass.¡±

    ¡°A bounty?¡± the girl just looked baffled.

    ¡°Yep, yep,¡± Meiling nodded. ¡°That¡¯s why the Old Crow sends him here with Way-Way, no amount of threatened good time makes him give us a fairer deal,¡± she jokingly pouted.

    ¡°Either Irw or the lovebirds,¡± Waylan nodded, ¡°Since they only see each other. Speaking of dem, you wouldn¡¯ fuckin¡¯ believe what happened last night¡­¡± Waylan was about to start retelling the story, no doubt with a couple exaggerations in every sentence and significantly more swearing, when the door swung open, an older lady entering.

    The Madame was around 40 as far as Irwyn knew but she looked a lot younger. Skilfully applied makeup hid any wrinkles and exceptional care maintained her skin¡¯s luster. Probably. Irwyn had read a book but he had no experience as a beautician.

    Her reaction to the news was a mix of shock and wariness but she didn¡¯t doubt the truthfulness. No one would make this kind of thing up to their allies and Aaron had a reputation as a source as well as a direct working relationship with establishments such as theirs in the area. It happened when they finished giving out the information and while Irwyn¡¯s less and less subtle hints they should leave were being ignored by Waylan. There was a subtle shift in magic. A presence. 2 actually.

    Looking down at the stone that is supposed to detect exactly this kind of thing, it was dark and dead. In a split moment Irwyn made a decision and as subtly as he could released the slightest smidgen of mana to trigger the gem. Its slight but piercing glow instantenously caught by the people around Irwyn.

    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°Please tell me that ain¡¯t ain¡¯t what I think it is.¡± Meilin paled.

    ¡°Waylan, take your sister to the cellar and do not come out until I give you the signal,¡± Irwyn immediately shot Waylan a glance who, without hesitation grabbed Meilin and took her away. ¡°Madame, we must prepare for guests. And fast. Or a guest at least.¡±

    ¡°Meilin, get the good wine from my stash. Teres, go warn the front and then get the bottle. Then leave us alone.¡± the Madame sighed with tiredness and trepilation.

    ¡°What is the plan?¡± Irwyn remained seated.

    ¡°I don¡¯t damn know? Politely ask them to not kill us?¡±

    ¡°It has been a decade since Ebon Respite last caused trouble for the Blackburgs. The retaliation might not be too bad,¡± Irwyn tried to be reassuring even if he did not believe his words.

    ¡°Or they make sure it¡¯s gonna be another before someone else dares,¡± she instead also realised the possibility that had been giving Irwyn¡¯s heart a serious workout. He did not remember the last time the Blackburgs were crossed but the Old Crow definitely did. His reaction spoke volumes. When the oldest Fowl in the region gets nervous you might as well bloody panic.

    The two of them sat in silence as Irwyn felt the 2 presences approach. As they grew closer Irwyn felt his heartbeat spike, his hand shook and logic receded. He never noticed the wine being brought in and poured. Nor that the gem was now glowing on its own. All his attention was at the approaching auras. Drawing ever closer.

    Two men stepped through the backroom door. Both clad in neat black cloaks, far better make than anyone would usually dare wear openly around the slums. Same went for the rest of the clothing underneath them. The two did not hide their faces so Irwyn could also tell that except their clothes they were nothing alike. One was an elder, perhaps as old as the Old Crow, while the other was younger, possibly below 30, and full of vigor. The old man was reserved and controlled, letting nothing slip past his facade while his partner was radiating anticipation and hostility. Not good, Irwyn thought. Because neither of them would likely be possible to convince with words, no matter what their intentions were.

    ¡°Good morning to you, fine gentleman,¡± the Madame put on a strained smile, gesturing to the two seats. ¡°What might you be looking for?¡±

    ¡°They saw us coming, is that a provocation, Calm?¡± the younger of the two immediately turned towards his elder and Irwyn felt his heart immediately jump into his throat.

    ¡°Look at the situation first, Rage,¡± the older spoke in accordence with his¡­ Nickname? Monicker? ¡°See the quartz on the young lad¡¯s coat? Clearly a lesser magical item capable of detecting mana. You have failed to properly restrain your presence. Again.¡±

    ¡°Is that how it is?¡± Rage shot Irwyn a murderous glance, which was not a great start, though the pecking order between the 2 Blackburgs was made blatant.

    ¡°Good morning to you as well,¡± Calm ignored his partner and sat down at the prepared seat. ¡°It seems a certain unpleasantness has come upon this fine town recently. Though from your stiff expressions I do not need to explain.¡±

    ¡°You call this wine?¡± Rage also sat down, taking a single sip and spitting it back into the cup. ¡°Is this a provocation, Calm?¡±

    ¡°Think about the sitation first, Rage,¡± Calm shook his head. ¡°Consider where we are. Being offered something to drink is already better than can be expected.¡±

    ¡°I hate to interupt you, fine gentlemen,¡± Irwyn bowed slightly in supplication. ¡°May we inquire as to what may be your inclination on this fine visit?¡± he tried to be polite and speak like what he imagined people in high circles might.

    ¡°Look at that, Calm!¡± Rage burst out laughing. ¡°The whoreson thinks himself eloquent! Is that a provocation?¡±

    ¡°Now, now, Rage. Look at his armband. He is not a whoreson but a thief,¡± Calm maintained completely impassive expression as Irwyn felt a hint of anger at the complete disregard of his self.

    ¡°Look at that grimace, Calm!¡± Rage stood from his chair like cold water poured down Irwyn¡¯s back. ¡°Look at that mounting rage.¡± he took his glass, still full, looked at it for a moment and then threw it straight at Irwyn¡¯s face. Irwyn barely dodged out of the way, some of the wine splashing on his face and clothes while the nice glass shattered at the far end.

    ¡°He dodged. Is that provocation, Calm?¡±

    ¡°Sit down, Rage. You will follow the orders we have been given.¡± For the first time, Irwyn realised, the old man looked away from them to stare Rage down. There was no change in expression, no hint of malice or anger, but Rage immediately followed the order, seemingly mellowing down. ¡°I sincerely apologise for my partner here. Young and burning with too much passion. Bloodthirsty with no foresight. As to our business, it is, of course, retaliation.¡± At which point Calm reached into his coat, withdrawing a slick-looking pitch black box.

    ¡°What would you have us do?¡± the Madame asked mirroring Irwyn¡¯s trepidation.

    ¡°Nothing too unreasonable considering your relation to the offence given,¡± Calm nodded his head, giving the two of them some hope. ¡°Please, fill this box with 5 eyes of the personnel of this establishment by tomorrow.¡±

    Irwyn¡¯s mind halted. So did the Madame¡¯s clearly as they did not respond.

    ¡°They are not responding. Is that a provocation, Calm?¡±

    ¡°We have delivered what we came here for, Rage.¡±

    ¡°What about the thief?¡± Rage¡¯s sight traced Irwyn with malevolence once again.

    ¡°You cannot just kill every thief you see, Rage. What would people do when they need something clandestinely stolen in the future? Moreover, he is not on our list.¡±

    ¡°Lucky you, huh,¡± Rage stood up again, taking a long step around the table and half leaning towards Irwyn for a loud whisper: ¡°Better pray you are not on someone else¡¯s.¡±

    ¡°That will be all,¡± Calm stood up, taking a sip from the wine and for the first time his expression changed; he ever so slightly cringed.

    ¡°You are forgetting one thing, Calm,¡± Rage walked back to his partner, giving him what was clearly some sort of handsign, though none of the kind Irwyn knew.

    ¡°Ah, Yes. You are right. Great offense was given, after all.¡± At that, Rage¡¯s face twisted into a horrifying smile and Irwyn felt his presence shift. The controlled shell ruptured revealing beneath what should have been obvious as the man spoke:

    "Run forever,

    However,

    None may avoid

    Maw of the void"

    Irwyn felt the magic take place with each syllable. The black impresence of the void assembled in a beautifully terrifying form of a beast grafted from runes. It was gluttony and wrath, a jaw of magic begging to be unleashed. To devour flesh or stone. Magic given will. Could Irwyn do something like that? He couldn¡¯t even imagine how he would resist an attack of this sort. It was completely different from his magic. Rather than the tight control he had spent his life improving it was wild yet so much more powerful. Even more importantly, even if he could resist it, could he get away with directly offending agents of house Blackburg?

    Then the spell leapt, like a hound let off its leash. It was so fast Irwyn did not even realise what had happened before it flew past him, striking through the door leading uptairs. The scream of the eavesdropper followed right after before it was silenced with a sickening crunch. Irwyn froze, still staring at Rage with wide eyes.

    ¡°As per our order, 5 eyes and one head,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°We will not require the head physically. I hope you will excuse my tardiness. As you can imagine, our workload has been significant. If you would, enjoy the rest of your morning and see you tomorrow.¡± Then he stood up and left along with Rage. But Irwyn did not react to that. Nor to the shouts and shrieks from behind him. His eye were still staring at that spot where that terrifying man had stood. Slowly, so painfully slowly, he turned around; saw the blood and gore. And well¡­

    Joined the cacophony of screams.

 1.4 Cornered rats

    Irwyn still felt slightly sick as they were heading back home some hours later. He had seen people die before but nothing nearly so graphic, malicious. Waylan¡¯s reaction was much more subdued but Irwyn had needed some time to calm down. Thankfully he had skipped breakfast.

    ¡°Is there nothin¡¯ we can do?¡± Waylan muttered into their awkward silence. He had known the victim, unlike Irwyn, even if not too well. His visage was that of deep hidden fury, though Irwyn could read that much from his oldest friend''s expression.

    ¡°Do what? Kill them?¡± Irwyn snapped, surprising even himself. ¡°They are trained, older and more experienced. That f¡­ damn spell was nothing like anything I have seen before. Not just power, but it was fundamentally different from what I have ever achieved. How do I match something I learned 2 hours ago was even possible when they had clearly perfected it for years? And even if we could somehow ambush them, then what? If they do this for a failed theft they might literally scorch the entire slums to ash if a Blackburg dies.¡±

    ¡°Fuck, I get it,¡± Waylan cursed. ¡°I just ¡®ate it. The whole ¡®reap what you sewed¡¯ ain¡¯t ¡®ere.¡±

    ¡°Please spare at least the idioms Waylan,¡± Irwyn pleaded. ¡°And there never was any justice here to begin¡­¡± Then he cut mid-sentence as he felt the presence approach. Just one but obscured in a way he had not felt before. The magic, as if alive, insisted there was nothing where it was but it could not hide the presence of itself nor that it was just spread out enough to hide a single person. Nor did it stop Irwyn from realising its intention hid that deep rooted wrath and gluttony that he felt not so long ago.

    ¡°Code 9,¡± Irwyn loud-whispered and very intentionally turned his head to be looking exactly 180 degrees away from the approaching presence. The good-for-nothin gem was not glowing but Waylan did not doubt for a second as he prepared to dodge or bolt at any moment. Code 9 meant a caster in pursuit, something they had never used before but was right on their mind nevertheless.

    They no longer talked but they kept walking, pretending nothing was wrong. The presence passed a corner and then followed them, maintaining distance. Was it Rage? Or was it just coincidence that the magic felt so similar. Wrath and Gluttony both mythologically belonged to Umbra who patroned the Void. Maybe it was common for skilled void casters to have that underlying intention in their magic. And if not, where was Calm? Irwyn felt around and felt no other presence.

    What he did feel was the concealing magic strain. Expanding like cloth being slowly torn apart from inside by a flexing muscle it was not large enough to contain. Something was disrupting it. Is it a spell from the inside? Irwyn guessed. If so, was it offensive; lies and misdirection before a dagger in the dark? It was bright outside though and they would not need to lie to his face about wanting to kill him. Maybe rage was after revenge for some perceived ¡®provocation¡¯. He did not seem like the stable kind. That would explain the absence of Calm.

    The streets were mostly empty, something Irwyn had attributed to the starting turf war and rumours about the broken Third spreading, but perhaps that was not all. They would end up completely alone in a deserted alley at some point in the architectural anarchy that was the slums and the Blackburg caster would probably strike at that time since he had waited so far. Unless he ran out of patience.

    But their pursuer would eventually strike and Irwyn had to be ready. Between light and flame he would need to defend with the latter. Light and Void were, after all, anathema and annihilated each other, giving a massive advantage to whoever was offensive in such an engagement while Irwyn had no illusions about being able to shoot down moving spells, something he had never done before.

    It was when they finally entered a completely deserted alley that Irwyn felt the magic lash out. He felt that ravenous beast burst out, gluttony and wrath given teeth and a jaw. Waiting for that very moment Irwyn jumped, putting Waylan behind him as he poured his everything into a shield of solid flame, manifesting it with all the speed and power he could manage. He prayed to all the Aspects that it would be enough to block because there was no dodging that beast. He braced.

    And there was¡­ no impact.

    The spell missed, passing by Irwyn with a mocking hiss before it fell apart behind them. Intentionally wide, Irwyn realised as a familiar figure emerged from where the magic had hidden him from sight across the street. Rage looked at them with a mocking grin.

    ¡°You have quite the guts, embarrassing me in front of Calm,¡± the man yelled. ¡°Unable to hold my presence, geh, I knew something wasn¡¯t right with you. A rogue mage in this backwards dump!¡± Waylan was slowly inching away during the speech, preparing to shoot away as they had planned if a situation like this ever arose.

    ¡°At least I have some luck. Do you have any idea how much the Blackburgs pay for captured rogue magess on their territory?¡± he raised his finger towards them with a grin and Irwyn felt that slight shift of mana that suggested the beginning of a spell. ¡°Alive or Dead.¡±

    ¡°Behold

    Dark bolt¡±

    A projectile of pure darkness left the man as Irwyn kept reinforcing his shield of flames. It was not Void, Irwyn noted, but darkness. Darkness was the lesser manifestation of Void, the same as Light had Glow or Time had Space. The difference was that darkness lacked that all-consuming impresence of the Void. The spell itself was incomparably less powerful than the void beast of a spell unleashed before, moreover, it lacked the intent. It was also not aimed at Irwyn this time either. The mass of black harmlessly flew to the right of them and dispersed.

    ¡°Shame her ladyship Avys is so insistent about no children being harmed. Would make collecting my bounty awkward,¡± he sighed dismissively. ¡°Now, if you would just surrender without losing a few fingers so I can continue with my schedule.¡±

    Irwyn¡¯s heart was beating out of his ears but he still noticed one part of the speech: ¡°You are not actually part of House Blackburg,¡± Irwyn said as he gave Waylan a hand sign behind his back. That meant that if Irwyn managed to actually win the whole slums would not be erased. Probably. That just left the hard part.

    ¡°You think the Duke has nothing better to throw his best manpower on than street rats like you,¡± Rage scoffed. ¡°It¡¯s actually kind of hilarious how delusional you are about your own importance. You are just a juicy bonus on my next payroll, little thief. Now come with me.¡±

    ¡°I refuse!¡± Irwyn declared. His shield of flame was completely saturated at this point and radiating heat.

    ¡°Good! I get to take a few fingers for that provocation! Behold, Dark bolt¡±

    It was faster than before. Much faster. Irwyn felt the flash of traveling mana before the spell struck his shield; and knocked him head over heels. The shield had no dent but it didn¡¯t work very well as a, well, shield. When the spell struck it the different magics collapsed each other and exploded. The shield might hold much more power than the dark spell but it was far less useful when it kicked you after every block, even if it didn¡¯t completely fall apart.

    ¡°Seriously, that¡¯s not even a real shield!¡± Rage seemed to be having a jolly great time mocking Irwyn. ¡°My 14 years old nephew has better barriers than that. Who in the world taught you to block like that and are you sure they weren¡¯t just messing with you?¡±

    The only answer he got was a fireball.

    ¡°How to live?

    I give

    to that question

    Void¡¯s bastion¡±

    Unfortunately, the answer to that was also on Rage¡¯s tongue. He spoke the words unnaturally quickly, yet all too clear to hear as a wall of transparent nothing rose around him. Despite that, they were still glutonous, eager to devour the spell Irwyn had just formed as it approached them. Seeing that it would be devoured whole, Irwyn instead detonated the spell into a wave that tried to maybe find a gap while covering a large area.

    There were none.

    ¡°That was better. For a complete disgrace like you. It¡¯s rude to chant so quietly by the way and it won¡¯t help you,¡± Rage snickered. ¡°But if you want to play, sure. Dark bolt, dark bolt, dark bolt.¡±

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    Three spells flew in quick succession, Irwyn bracing for the inevitable impact; they were too fast to physically dodge even if he felt them coming. The first explosion of mutual annihilation shoved him, the second knocked him off his feet and the third, arriving just as his legs left the ground, sent him flying backwards. The bruises certainly would not help him in the rest of this fight.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t think you could outlast that,¡± Rage was approaching closer, the omnidirectional walls of magic still surrounding him as he walked over the remaining embers of Irwyn¡¯s previous spell. ¡°But enough games. I would hate for someone to find us and insist on a share, so, regretfully, I will take a hand.

    Run forever,

    however¡­¡±

    Waiting for that exact moment, Irwyn raised the prepared pillar of flame at the man¡¯s feet, using the burning ground as a conduit for his surprise attack, disrupting the chant that seemed to be integral to the man¡¯s spellcasting.

    And it did nothing because the Void¡¯s bastion did not forget about attacks from underneath, greedily eating the flames again.

    ¡°¡­None may avoid

    Maw of the void¡±

    The beast pounced at Irwyn. Hungry and malicious. Seeing it once again, Irwyn felt the sheer difference between this spell and the bolts. The maw opened and it wasn¡¯t just a construct, it knew that it was seeking to tear through Irwyn¡¯s shield and arm. The magic was aware as it struck. Block damn it, Block! Irwyn hoped beyond hope, knowing full well his shield would at best be hurled away.

    The spell struck and bounced.

    Irwyn and Rage both looked at the repulsed monstrosity with wide eyes. It snarled one last time before it fell apart, deprived of its purpose and thus intent the moment it failed. Irwyn inspected his shield again and realised it had changed. It was no longer just a mass of solid flame. It held intent. The singular intention to Block. And since there was intent on both sides it became a contest of raw power which Irwyn¡¯s shield somehow won.

    ¡°How did you do that?¡± Rage demanded, suddenly cautious rather than gloating. ¡°Dark Bolt,¡± he shot, but not at Irwyn but at the lingering flames near him, frowning further when nothing obvious happened. That gave Irwyn the time to gather together a completely saturated ball of flames, surpassing even his best training times. Moreover, he wished for it with all his will to burn. To incinerate all it touches. And then he hurled it.

    It was slow, so when Rage noticed Irwyn had not stopped casting to answer his question he still had more than enough time to counter:

    "Speak the words

    of the worlds

    against corruption

    Black disruption"

    An incorporeal wall arose in front of the already seemingly impenetrable bastion, right in front of the ball of flame as it was about to strike it. The manifestation was clearly far less skillful than the maw spell and different in nature. It was chaos and discord, meant to unwind whatever passed through it, destroying any form. Irwyn was uncertain whether it would completely decompress his magic or just weaken it, however, he did not get the opportunity to find out.

    An overcharged beam of blinding light struck the wall right in front of the fireball.

    It was not his most proficient spell, however, that was not what mattered. What was important was that it was an instant beam of light. Fast enough that Irwyn could finish casting it as the ball of solid flame was already sent. What was even more important was that it was Light. The anathema to Void.

    Filled with the intent to breach, the wall of disruptive black was shot through, not quite breaking but losing so much of its area around the impact point that the ball of Flame passed through without issue. The effect the beam had on the Void bastion spell was far more dramatic: They both shattered, the collision of the two elements resulting in mutual obliteration. Rage was so surprised by the beam he did not react before the flames engulfed him.

    Irwyn felt the wave of heat all the way to where he was standing. The solid flames lost their cohesion and decompressed with a slight bias in the direction of the intended target. Not that the spell was not indiscriminate. Irwyn had always wondered what the detonation of solid flame would look like; he never imagined that the whole street would become a blazing inferno in an instant. Many of the wooden buildings of the slums caught fire, some directly turning to ash in the areas of greater intensity. The sound was deafening as air was compressed in the shockwave, pushed by the sheer volatility of the explosion.

    Irwyn had doubts he could survive just the detonation itself and that was not actually even the main intent of the spell. It was meant to burn and if he didn¡¯t do anything it might actually burn his own home to the ground. He began to focus on taking control of the remaining flames so that he could extinguish them, they were still mostly of mana, his own in fact, and were therefore not too difficult to gras¡­

    A pulse rippled through the area. The flames vanished in an instant. And not just the flames. Light itself grew slightly dimmer, time became a bit less consistent, Irwyn felt the very ground he stood on become infinitesimally less solid. Irwyn felt deep down in his very core that something was forcefully made weaker.

    Rage stood tall. His flesh burned and hideous, but no longer even sizzling. His clothes had all been incinerated, leaving him completely naked except for one item. An ornamental necklace that had previously been hidden underneath a cloak, it was an artistic depiction of the 9 elements in a circle, the 8 surrounding the centermost flame. Rage stared at it dumbly for a moment, lost somewhere between confusion and agony. Then his mind caught up with the events and all the pain was seemingly overcome by the embodiment of his moniker.

    ¡°How? And how dare you!? What have you¡­ How¡­ Do you have any idea what you have done, you rat!?. You absolute waste of a soul?! This is impossible! An illusion!¡±

    Irwyn recovered half-way through the monologue from his own surprise, reprimanded himself about the loss of attention and then tried to deliver an instantaneous light beam through the eye, hoping he could hit. Magic itself was sluggish as he called it forth, restricted. It resisted manifesting anywhere beyond his skin and the moment any attempt at a spell left his body it instantly fizzled out. Panicking, Irwyn looked at the amulet and realised it was cracking at a visible pace. Magic so far outside Irwyn¡¯s comprehension he couldn¡¯t begin to guess what was going on was tearing the magical item, nay, artifact, apart from within each passing second.

    ¡°You will not get away with this, you hear me. I declare you the greatest enemy of house Blackmaw! As long as anything you hold dear exists I will come to extinguish it, you understand? For this a thousand deaths is not enough. DO YOU EVEN COMPREHEND WHAT YOU JUST COST ME?¡± the man seemed to be swapping between confusion and wrath before he finally settled on cold, seething Rage. ¡°I am Frederick von Blackmaw. Last of my line. In the name of my ancestors, the glory of my house, you will die.¡± Irwyn tried again to gather any magic as he felt Rage harness magic of his own, clearly unaffected by the amulet. Gritting his teeth, Irwyn gathered all the mana he could inside his body, meticulously assembling a desperate beam of light. The amulet would break soon, that would be his only chance. A lethal blow before he himself was hit; because there was no way to dodge. Yet he knew fully well it would not be in time.

    Irwyn felt deep dread as the spell seeped out of Rage. It was several steps above even the maw. So unbelievably refined Irwyn had not realised magic could reach such a level of perfection. And it did not come from just Rage. Irwyn felt it drawing from something else to reach that unparalleled flawlessness. It was GLUTONY incarnate. Such all-consuming hunger it could only be known by a creature who had been born deprived of everything else.

    ¡°We do not rattle

    at the dawn of battle

    and in that lull

    I call upon in full

    on our ancestor¡¯s agony

    The toothed legion of ebon¡­¡±

    And then a rock hit him on the back of the head.

    In a zone where no magic could exist a mundane projectile did the job perfectly as Rage had not re-erected any barrier, either overconfident or overcome with fury. Either way, he lay on the ground, the casting interrupted by the sudden removal of consciousness.

    ¡°Just in the nickel of time, eh,¡± Waylan walked in from a side street not far behind Rage, slightly burned on his arms, his expertise in disappearing only matched by his ability to butcher idioms. The amulet finally shattered into fine dust, magic instantaneously returning to normal.

    ¡°Please, do not make me immediately regret surviving, Waylan,¡± Irwyn managed a strained and nervous chuckle, adrenaline draining from his system making him almost collapse. He opened his mouth to speak again when he felt something pop into the world.

    The army of a thousand ebony black beasts stood atop Rage¡¯s unconscious form. Except not quite. They both were there and were not. A superposition of Irwyn¡¯s plane and wherever they usually resided. Probably the Void itself. The beasts were malformed and each unlike the next. From tentacular horrors larger than buildings to small critters reminiscent of large rats. They all, however, shared one characteristic: Each and every single one of them had a disproportionate dislodged jaw large enough it could seemingly fit their own torsos.

    ¡°Are you seeing this?¡± Irwyn muttered with wide eyes, showing Waylan open palm as the sign of stop. Flee or fight? Hope they only see movement? Irwyn was already contemplating how to survive this new disaster. However, he soon noticed the beasts were not paying him any attention. Instead, they all focused on the unconscious man on the ground.

    ¡°Seeing wa¡­?¡± Waylan was just about to ask when the beasts tore into the man. They bit and gnawed and tore, pushing or throwing each other just to get one step closer to the carnage. They devoured him whole until there was not even a fragment of bone left where Rage had been not a moment ago. Then the beasts tried to bite the mangled meat out of each others¡¯ chewing mouths just to get that tiny bit more while the smaller beasts ate mouthfuls of dirt just to get to a single droplet of blood.

    Then the bizarre feast was over, the monsters all vanishing as quickly as they came.

    ¡°I suppose ya saw what just tore the cunt to shreds?¡± Waylan said, wide-eyed. ¡°Because I sure as fuck didn¡¯.¡±

    Irwyn stared for a moment longer. It was gruesome beyond belief yet it all happened so fast he couldn¡¯t process any repulsion or disgust. The lack of smell and general dislike of the target of violence also probably helped him recover faster. But most of all, it was the sense of urgency: ¡°We need to go, now! Every caster in the whole city probably felt that.¡±

    And so they ran, Irwyn suppressing both his mana and his mind attempting to process what it had just seen, hoping against hope he could prevent himself from leaving a trail of vomit.

 1.5 Calm and the storm

    "Long story sort, we er in deep shit." Waylan surmised. They had come home and immediately insisted on privately meeting the Old Crow.

    "Now you are just doing it on purpose," Irwyn shot him a look.

    "Obviously," Waylan shrugged with a grin. Despite his annoyance, it at least helped Irwyn distract himself from the near-death experience.

    "We can assume they will now be looking for a rogue caster in the city," The Old Crow spoke over them, though he did let a slight grin escape. "Though I don''t think it will make it harder for us specifically. No rumours about a caster among us have arisen the last time Aaron checked half a month ago. Moreover, there was one piece that could help us greatly."

    "The comment about ''her ladyship Avys'' insisting no children were killed," Irwyn nodded, "She is the duchess of Black, right? But she was not mentioned much in the books I read."

    "Avys Von Blackburg married into the house some 40 years ago right before the succession struggles started," Old crow shared. "I know that she is from outside the Duchy federation but no one among my contacts knew from where exactly when I inquired about her back then. It''s quite likely that she was the biggest driving force behind the reindustrialisation despite most official sources not even mentioning her, that had to do with the misogynistic legacy of the late Duke of those years.¡±

    ¡°Miso-what?¡± Waylan looked at the Old Crow dumbly

    ¡°Prejudiced against women,¡± Irwyn explained, frowning slightly. ¡°From what I have read such attitudes seemed to actually be lesser here than in the other duchies though.¡±

    ¡°30 years is a long time,¡± Old crow wiggled his eyes in that motion he used instead of a shrug. ¡°It¡¯s hardly a secret that the current Duke Blackburg married her for love, even breaking the tradition of harems that has supposedly been prevalent since the Duke of Wrath who founded their house. Lady Avys is known for her unusual traits among high nobility. For example, she is known to insist on personally choosing the clothes of her servants for each event she hosts; likes to present esoteric artworks in front of audiences; and has practically escalated a cold war with the Duchy of Yellow over the treatment of child servants.¡±

    ¡°Something like that happened?¡± Irwyn frowned, having never heard of such a thing.

    ¡°Well, it happened about a year before the Lich wars from 16 years ago and never quite reached full-on warfare. Lady Avys insulted the Duchess of Yellow, something really scathing about blood of children I think; relationships were already strained and border skirmishes started happening soon after. By the time the armies had gathered for a real fight the Lich wars suddenly sparked up giving them something better to do. That being said, the Lich wars hit our Duchy a lot less with an army and many people already expecting the next worst thing.¡±

    ¡°That at least means the Blackburg agents will leave ¡®children¡¯ be,¡± Irwyn returned to the topic at hand. He could interrogate the Old Crow about histories he had never known to ask about later.

    ¡°We plan aroun¡¯ dis,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Me and Irw are fine. Anyone older den us has to hide¡­¡±

    <hr>

    Irwyn lay in his bed, juggling 2 balls of light absentmindedly overhead. It had been 2 days since the fight and the Tears were completely holed up in their base. No one went in or out. The situation around the slums was probably escalating but they had the stockpile of food to last at least another week. From what Maxim had reported, the Blackburg agents interfered in the turf war between Stars and Snakes, intentionally or not, sweeping in and burning half a dozen leaders at pyres at seemingly random. That was before the Tears isolated themselves, so hard to say whether that was the only retaliation against the largest gangs or how it would influence the conflict. They didn¡¯t even know if anyone they usually dealt with got done in. The few other groups that got hit before the Tears warned them had similar stories as what Irwyn had seen at the brothel: Always at least one casualty and a demand for eyes.

    The latter was probably even far worse than the murder because it was down to the gangs to decide who would get mutilated. No matter who gets forced or made to volunteer there would be bad blood left behind in some form. How many of those gangs would just fall apart completely in the aftermath? Trust was a rare enough commodity among most groups already and this just shattered it. Irwyn had to think that much was intentional. It was heartless and cruel but deep down Irwyn had to admit that it certainly achieved one thing:

    No one, not even the worst madman, would mess with the Blackburgs in the foreseeable future. Maybe for a full decade before another overconfident idiot with no one sensible to stop them tried to pull off what Old Sparrow died for.

    Worse, a few hours ago a memo arrived from the Guild, informing them that the Old Hawk got done in too. The infamous assassin known for taking out his targets from 2 streets away had died like everyone else in front of trained and motivated casters.

    That made the Old Crow the last Fowl in the Ebon Respite and a likely target. Thankfully, most of the gangs didn¡¯t even know the Tears were led by a Fowl and the people who knew mostly didn¡¯t get where they were by having loose tongues. Still, it remained a distinct possibility that they would come here for the head of Irwyn¡¯s de-facto father. Or of his closest friends-or-family.

    Which is why he hadn¡¯t slept for the last 2 nights, using the few precious potions of wakefulness they had managed to hoard over the years. The timing was critical for what they needed to pull off and a moment of inattention could result in all he held dear turning to dust. Half a dozen times he felt the remnants of a distant spell brush against his perception; just fragments of magic that had dissipated to the point where he couldn¡¯t begin to guess what spell they might have once been but still distinct enough to cause a perceptible shift in the ambient mana. He had never even known spells could disturb it, though it made perfect sense in retrospect. No doubt this was a common thing in cities with a greater concentration of mages.

    There were many things Irwyn didn¡¯t know about magic, as was made clear by his fight with Rage. Or Frederick von Blackmaw as the man had introduced himself at the end. A minor noble house at the brink of dying out, or possibly beyond now, according to an older book on magelord lineages in the Black Duchy Irwyn had in his library. At least reading was somewhat possible while constantly on guard for approaching Blackburg agents. Proper magic training, however, was out of the question. Besides the risk of being haphazardly noticed it required his complete focus and induced exhaustion. And the problem that had been stumping him was a great one indeed:

    He could not figure out how to imbue his magic with meaning again.

    Clearly, it was something he could do since he had done it in the fight, but he couldn¡¯t quite replicate it. Was it the stress and panic; The desperate desire to live? Or maybe magic was just looser because of Rage¡¯s casting. Or it was his own anger. Or something he didn¡¯t even realise could have been a factor. Either way, Irwyn could not afford to properly focus on figuring out what it was. Any such attempts would stop him from constantly searching for any approaching presence. So all he did was juggle the weak spheres of light to desperately pass the time and take the edge of his mounting fatigue. Their output small enough that no one would be able to tell them apart from the several weak enchanted items they had around.

    It was nearing dusk when it finally happened.

    Something approached their base. The old town hall turned shelter was hidden among hedges, but one noticeable presence approached. A familiar one. Irwyn ran out into the hall, shouting out that it was time. Having anxiously waited for this moment for literal days, everyone got into motion; with the dexterity of people who avoided professional guards for a living. Not that there was all that much to actually do at the moment as most preparations were finished well beforehand. It was mostly just people getting into position. It was maddening enough to be unable to go outside, staying in their one specific spot for possibly days would have been too much for most of them.

    By the time Irwyn got to his seat in the main hall, he and Waylan were visibly the oldest teenagers around.

    ¡°Irw, Waylan, someone in a nice black coat is here!¡± Olga shouted as she entered the room, holding the familiar glowing quartz. Behind her appeared a familiar face. Calm was alone this time, his expression no less emotionless.

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°It would seem like we meet again,¡± the older man said as he sat down at the table with Irwyn and Waylan. His eyes had been darting around the room from the moment he entered. Not just around the room, Irwyn realised; he seemed to be deliberate at where he was looking, his gaze often hovering for a few moments at a time.

    ¡°Yes, sir Calm. It would seem that way,¡± Irwyn nodded, squirming a bit. At least he didn¡¯t need to pretend he wasn¡¯t nervous.

    ¡°Then you also know what I am here for,¡± Calm said and reached for something beneath his cloak.

    ¡°I suppose we do, sir.¡± Irwyn nodded, his hands sinking beneath the table where a simple crossbow was attached, Waylan doing the same. Not that they had any intention of using those, but it made them look desperate enough to even consider attacking a clear caster. Because if they convinced Calm that they were completely at their wit¡¯s end he would assume that he was in control rather than being deceived. And people in full control don¡¯t double-check. Hopefully.

    ¡°Before that¡­ Our last meeting got me thinking,¡± Calm pretended to not notice them grasping weapons and pulled out a bottle with 3 beautiful ornamental glass goblets, each engraved with the details of very expensive artisan work. The kind of stuff magelords with too much money to realistically spend collected. ¡°I realised that anyone willing to serve the drink from last time must have never experienced proper wine. I understand you are just children but I have decided to indulge,¡± He poured them each a bit from the bottle, the liquid thick and sparkling. ¡°This is known as Eidolon wine. Something I have to import from outside the Duchy at a significant markup. However, every time I have a drink it truly reminds me of home. Give it a try, it¡¯s not strong.¡±

    Or so he said. But Irwyn did not touch his glass. Is this a trap? he considered. For all he knew partaking would make them no longer children and therefore fair game in Calm¡¯s eyes. Who could know how people with such disregard for life thought. Waylan also hesitated for a moment but unlike Irwyn slowly reached for a glass, maintaining eye contact with Calm. Irwyn wasn¡¯t sure whether to stop him.

    ¡°Wait,¡± the glass was halfway to Waylan¡¯s lips when Calm stopped him. ¡°That is not how you drink Eidolon wine,¡± he snatched the glass away from Waylan with a dexterity that a career thief had to admire. Then he placed the 3 glasses together and passed over them with his other hand. Irwyn saw something drop into them. Then he reached for something else in his coat. ¡°You see, Eidolon wine is unique in it that it tastes exceptionally bad on its own, however, it changes the taste when you add something. Do you know what?¡±

    ¡°I have never heard of it,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°As per tradition, you add a bit of poison. And then a universal antidote,¡± he shook the pills in his hand and then skillfully placed one into each glass with a single smooth motion. ¡°It may look absurd to an outsider but where I come for this has been refined to an art. Serving unpoisoned wine is actually considered one of the gravest insults. Though I am far from the best, once upon a time I have been trained as a poisoneer. Go ahead. Give it a try now. I insist.¡±

    He stared Irwyn and Waylan down for a moment before they both complied. Irwyn had never really indulged in alcohol. He knew that Maxim or Aaron often claimed most of the ¡®good stuff¡¯ out of their share when they got some, however, for him, it never ¡®hit the spot¡¯.

    The Eidolon wine was nothing like any such drink. It was more than just a gulp of liquor. It was the bitter taste of grudge and regret on his tongue. Then it was the sourness of a mistake or miscalculation. In the end, it was the sweetness of a job well done as it finally went down his throat; of forgiveness and a new beginning. Because it was not wine, it was a self-contained message, crafted by men following a tradition of artisans from times immemorial. Inscribing their mastery onto a canvas of grape and magic. Because the wine was magical, Irwyn realised. Just the tiniest bit of mana in every drop.

    ¡°It can be quite a journey,¡± Calm interrupted Irwyn¡¯s thoughts, a smile appearing on his face for the first time. Irwyn wasn¡¯t sure whether that was a good or a bad thing.

    ¡°Unlike anything I could have imagined,¡± Irwyn admitted. ¡°Though I am not quite sure why sir would waste something like this on us.¡±

    ¡°It is an apology, of course,¡± Calm answered as if it were a matter of fact. ¡°You see, when I saw you back at the brothel all I knew was that the ¡®Tears¡¯ as everyone calls you were a gang of thieves. I have assumed that you two were just runners, resigned to mediocrity as disposable pawns and therefore did not pay you any mind. But that isn¡¯t the case,¡± he motioned around them to the room, the children were pretending, and failing, that they weren¡¯t all paying as much attention as they could to the conversation. ¡°You see, I have once been much like you. An orphan with nothing to my name but a smidgen of talent and the desperate grit to cling to life. And to this day it is what I respect. Not the lordlings of the mage houses who have never known struggle. Not the decadent prosperity that many enjoy in the Duchy of Black nowadays. What I respect is someone who knows what it means to sink or swim,¡± he pointed his finger and Irwyn felt his heart almost stop.

    ¡°This only reinforces that. You realised that we wouldn¡¯t hurt children and decidedly did whatever you thought necessary to survive and protect each other. That is why I will pretend I did not notice the old man in the basement,¡± his finger moved. ¡°Or the couple behind the hollowed-out wall,¡± and moved it again, twice. ¡°Or the other 2 hidden lads. Because for all you can call me merciless I believe people like you deserve a chance.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know what to say,¡± Irwyn eventually managed, his heart still beating out of his chest. Their desperate scheme had been seen through as if it was nothing. And Calm could change his mind at any moment.

    Then it would come down to a fight where Irwyn would have to reveal he was a caster and this time there was absolutely no way he could get away with it even if he defeated Calm.

    ¡°Of course, I cannot just let bygones be bygones. A great offence was given after all,¡± he reached into his coat, which in hindsight definitely had more carry space than it should though Irwyn felt no magic from it, and pulled out a familiar black box that made Irwyn sweat. ¡°I have noticed you have a surprising collection of minor magical trinkets. I will be confiscating all of them.¡±

    Irwyn breathed in and out. That was bad, years upon years of accumulation had led them to what they had. Some from before he was even taken in. But still, it was far better than what he had been afraid of a moment ago.

    ¡°I will go get them,¡± Irwyn nodded without protest, standing up. Waylan remained seated and silent. Perhaps for the best as he was not the most eloquent in polite company. The main reason he was even with Irwyn was that they may have been seen together at the brothel 2 days ago.

    Running up the stairs Irwyn opened up the stashes they had prepared; including the two decoy ones with just a few items and a few more valuable individual pieces that had been hidden separately. Except he took just a small risk. Bundling them together, Irwyn discreetly completely drained all the magic out of a few that were essential, then put them back out of sight, betting Calm wouldn¡¯t notice and he could recharge them later. Such as one that cleared up stove fumes in the kitchen or a certain noise isolation talisman. When he came back down Waylan and Calm were seemingly ignoring each other in total silence. Irwyn plucked the last item, the quarts sensitive to magic, from Olga and approached the table again.

    ¡°Is that every last one of them?¡± Calm looked at Irwyn who suddenly felt magic. From their eye contact formed a connection and through it, a bit of something entered Irwyn. It had the intention to dominate. To compel obedience. Except, Irwyn realised, it couldn¡¯t quite do that. Perhaps the method simply didn¡¯t work against other casters because Irwyn felt it grasp something but fail to move it the way the magic wanted. Hopefully, that was not noticeable, Calm¡¯s poker face revealed nothing.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Irwyn affirmed, scowling a bit to sell the act. Among other things, he was certainly a proficient liar. Especially when it came to authorities.

    ¡°I see,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°In here then,¡± He opened the black box for the first time and Irwyn realised that it was no ordinary item. In fact, it was downright ridiculous he had seen no hint of it being enchanted before now because the enchantments were so unbelievably complex and intertwined Irwyn couldn¡¯t begin to understand what was happening, except that it had something to do with the element of Time/Space. Not only was it the first enchantment with intention Irwyn had ever seen, it was clearly several levels even above what Rage had been casting, except maybe that interrupted final spell. Had they actually left something like this at the brothel?

    ¡°If you would,¡± Calm beckoned and Irwyn, full of fascination, inserted the sack of their enchanted items into the box that clearly contained several times its volume. Then Calm closed it and the enchantment was gone. No matter how hard Irwyn focused he could not feel it. ¡°That will be all,¡± Calm concluded and got up and left towards the exit.

    ¡°Oh, one last thing,¡± and just as Irwyn was afraid, he once more turned around, staring directly at Irwyn. The same magic from before assaulted him through the eye contact, however, manyfold stronger. It tried to compel him, grasping at him from the inside. But still, whatever it was, his mind remained firm and unhindered. ¡°Have you seen Rage since we last met?¡±

    ¡°No, I haven¡¯t,¡± Irwyn was shaken ever so slightly but he had expected a last-second ambush. Calm had done the same thing the previous time as well. Therefore he had managed to even convincingly fake a moment of confusion.

    ¡°I see,¡± Calm nodded, seemingly satisfied though not letting actual emotions affect his expression. ¡°Then I truly bid you a good evening. Perhaps I will reach out if I ever require your kind of service around Ebon Respite.¡±

    And then he finally left.

    But Irwyn did not dare breathe out. He waited for Calm to be completely away from his senses and then a few minutes more. Only then did he tell everyone to get out of their hiding places and let Waylan give them a slightly exaggerated turn of events, still not letting down his guards. He expected the last moment twist. Perhaps Calm noticed he was a caster and was returning with backup. Or he mistook the nature of Calm¡¯s magic and the man knew that Irwyn had lied about Rage. Maybe the man would just plain change his mind. Either way, Irwyn still stretched his senses.

    Until dusk came and then an hour more. Until fatigue finally overtook him and he fell asleep.

 1.6 Hidden in plain alley

    And so, two weeks have passed. Yet their slums were not the same in the wake of the Blackburg agents; the one-eyed Star¡¯s thug they had just finished speaking with was proof enough of that.

    ¡°It do be fucked that Pat got done in like that,¡± Waylan commented.

    ¡°Language,¡± Irwyn tried half-heartedly, pondering the implications. The turf war was forcefully interrupted not long after starting when the Blackburg agents captured and burned at stake several of both gang¡¯s influential figures. Then they went directly to the leaders to enforce the ¡®eye tax¡¯ as many had already dubbed the horrific demand. The Stars paid it while the Snakes they had fought against had become headless instead. Not that either choice was very good considering that the Stars now had a lot of members who knew that their boss essentially chose himself over them.

    Old Crow predicted that the Stars would have new leadership by the end of the year. What that meant for their alliance with the Tears remained a dangerous mystery; though there was little Irwyn knew to do to affect the actual outcome.

    Either way, that was not what Irwyn and Waylan had set out to deal with. Instead, they were out because of their ¡®trials¡¯. Usually, those would have happened right after the Solstice, however, the extreme events had put them back this far; they had actually only begun the day prior.

    ¡°According to the star, he was last seen entering the dead-end alley over there,¡± Irwyn said. It had taken them a while to track this much information down.

    ¡°And how does he know dat?¡± Waylan questioned as they entered. The alley was between two buildings of seemingly haphazard materials and ended with a surprisingly well-made stone wall; probably something from before this place became the slums while the houses came later.

    ¡°Wanted to rob him, saw the badge and thought twice,¡± Irwyn answered, the alley was a dead end after all. ¡°Probably lied about changing his mind but either way, no one left afterward.¡±

    ¡°Climbed over the wall?¡± Waylan suggested, stepping closer. He inspected it for a few moments before concluding: ¡°Nah, too smooth.¡±

    ¡°No blood or signs of struggle visible around,¡± Irwyn opinioned. ¡°Look for a secret entrance.¡±

    ¡°Maybe he used a rope?¡± Waylan guessed.

    ¡°Look around first, I don¡¯t think we gave him one,¡± Irwyn shrugged and looked around. The walls of the alley seemed like a pretty hollow mishmash of wood and stone but who knew where there could be a crack that the 12 years old could have slipped through. Irwyn¡¯s eyes wandered around the wall when he felt a kind of strangeness. It wasn¡¯t quite a hunch but it told him that there was something beyond a specific wall. So he approached and touched it, realising what that feeling was:

    The wall was enchanted.

    ¡°Over here,¡± he muttered for Waylan and tried to feel what was going on. The enchantment was a bit strange, as if obscured. Perhaps that was why he hadn¡¯t noticed it sooner. He tried to pierce through it but didn¡¯t really know how to. His magical sense was something he used instinctively rather than really understood. Whatever the enchantment was, it was blocking his senses from entering at all, with minimal leaks that even let him know there was something. Perhaps he¡­

    ¡°Here,¡± Waylan interrupted Irwyn¡¯s course of thought as he pushed a half-broken stone slab which sunk into the wall. The next moment a roughly door-shaped section moved outwards, forcing Irwyn and Waylan to take a step back, and revealing a stairway down.

    ¡°I suppose that works,¡± Irwyn nodded and reinspected the enchantment. Now that the door was opened it was no longer hidden. And it was quite complex. On a scale where 1 were the best enchantments the Tears ever managed to snatch and 10 was Calm¡¯s Blackbox, this was 3 or 4. The magic had the intent of isolation albeit it was not very distinct. He could also tell that there were multiple sections, some of which were no longer functional. The why might be explained by the next thing he noticed: The enchantment was low on magic. However, looking at it the whole thing connected to something further down and felt overall capable of holding a lot of power. In other words, it might not have been recharged for a long time, perhaps years.

    ¡°I think whoever built this has either abandoned or forgotten about it,¡± Irwyn commented as they descended the stairs after having closed the door behind them. It would have been completely dark if Irwyn hadn¡¯t summoned a few orbs of bright light. What the light revealed were spiderwebs and moss along the stone stairwell, some of which had been disturbed by someone really short very recently. Probably the person they were looking for, though if they had been stuck there since yesterday it didn¡¯t bode well.

    At the bottom of the surprisingly long stairway lay an antechamber with a withered metal table and rubble all around it. Despite the thick trails of dust, there was a book visible on top of the table, someone had swiped away some of the dust to reveal the title:

    ¡°The nature of the Named, by Magelord Viriterus von Lonera,¡± Irwyn read out loud, his heart beating faster with a spark of desire. Books written by actual casters possibly about magic were something he had always wanted to get his hands on but never could. Moreover, he could feel the slightest hint of the book being enchanted in some way. Looking around the table more he noticed an old ink well, some black sediment that probably used to be ink at the bottom covered by a layer of dust. Was this place built by the magelord who was writing this book?

    ¡°I think there is more underneath this,¡± Waylan pointed to the big pile of rubble in the corner he had been inspecting in the meantime. It was all finely cut pieces of something, probably half-decayed wood.

    ¡°Wow,¡± Irwyn gasped, feeling its magic. ¡°The Book of the Name, probably in full edition.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t ya already have that one?¡± Waylan raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°What I have is a transcript written in ink. But on the very first page of that, it is clearly mentioned that just mortal letter cannot capture its full nature. It is the book about Ignis and the creation of everything after all,¡± he looked around some more and came to a conclusion when looking at the surrounding rubble that looked kind of like pieces of shredded wood and paper which were then left to rot. ¡°I think this might have been a bookshelf. But someone or something cut it apart, probably a spell, and only the enchanted book survived unscathed,¡± he crouched down and after a few seconds found a bit of paper with a half of a faded word on it. Not that it was particularly useful.

    ¡°We can figure dat out later,¡± Waylan said, pointing at the door leading out of the antechamber. ¡°If it has magic shit it might have magic traps and wat-not.¡±

    ¡°Language, but you have a point,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s move on,¡± And so they opened a wall, revealing a large hallway, Irwyn going first on guard for magical traps.

    ¡°I think there is something,¡± Irwyn said as they moved through the hallway towards a door at the other end. There was nothing there, not even light as that had to be provided by Irwyn. But he felt magic of some kind getting progressively stronger as they ventured further. The magnitude of it was revealed when Irwyn touched the doorknob. He shot Waylan a hand sign to be careful as he pushed into the room that he once again felt was isolated to obscure the great amount of magic coursing within.

    What lay beyond was a massive hall. Too massive in fact to be hidden underground like this. Logic dictated that the high ceiling should poke into the street and the large area should one way or another interfere with the sewage system. Yet this place had laid undiscovered for who knows how long. There they also found who they had been looking for: A boy of maybe 12 years old standing upright without moving, facing away from them.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Tom,¡± Waylan shouted and almost stepped around Irwyn who stopped him with a wave of his hand. Something wasn¡¯t right. There was a lot of magic in the air but some of it felt different. There were bubbles of all sorts around the place. To see what they did Irwyn took the smallest coin he had on him and threw it into the closest one he could sense. The coin flew on its arch and then completely stopped midair as it reached the bubble.

    ¡°I think this is some kind of Time/Space magic gone awry,¡± he said approaching the bubble. Then raised his finger and tried inserting his own magic into it. There was no reaction at first but with enough increased input it suddenly imploded, essentially bursting. ¡°Good, I think I can remove it without damaging the inside. We just need to be caref¡­ damn,¡± just as it finished bursting, Irwyn felt 2 new disturbances just a few steps away from them. They were different from the other bubbles at first but just a second later they formed fully, becoming just like the rest. ¡°Ok, there are bubbles of probably frozen time or space all around us and 2 new ones just popped in as I removed the last one. I can feel it about 2 seconds in advance so stick right next to me and be ready to jump.¡±

    ¡°Noted, he¡¯s stuck in one of dem, right?¡± Waylan confirmed since Irwyn had neglected to explain that part.

    ¡°Oh, yes,¡± Irwyn nodded and they approached. There were two smaller bubbles in the way which they avoided with a wide berth as they approached the frozen boy. Irwyn had the opportunity to also finally properly inspect the room. Not that there was much to see, there was rubble everywhere, or more like dust with pieces of rubble. It was all cut so finely it might as well have been dust; whatever had shredded the assumed bookshelf had also done its work here. Or rather it looked like may have come from here in the first place. Then as they approached he noticed the single undamaged object had been hidden from sight by the time-frozen boy: A pile of pearly white bones from a human skeleton, fully intact and barely decayed with the exception of a single flower growing out of a crack in the forehead; a beautiful petalless teal bloom, swaying gently.

    ¡°Get ready,¡± but then they were in front of the frozen boy and Irwyn had to focus on that. He raised his hand and slowly, carefully, pushed his own mana in. Then the bubble popped and he tackled Waylan to the ground. A moment later a new bubble formed exactly where they had just been standing, two more appearing nearby.

    ¡°Don¡¯t move!¡± Irwyn yelled, mostly at the just unfrozen boy who seemed a bit dazed.

    ¡°Irwyn, Waylan?¡± he asked, confused.

    ¡°Don¡¯t move,¡± Waylan reiterated. Irwyn stood up and helped Waylan do the same. Then they maneuvered around the bubbles and started to bring the boy towards the exit.

    ¡°Do you know what exactly happened? How did you find this place?¡± Irwyn asked, careful about new bubbles popping up randomly.

    ¡°Well, I mostly stumbled into it¡­ I kind of followed a rat into the alley and then leaned on the wall. Then it kind of opened so I went here to get a look. I see the totally badass skeleton with a flower so I come closer and the next thing I know you are shouting at me to not move. How did you even get here right behind me?¡±

    ¡°You were gone for ton longer than dat,¡± Waylan explained. ¡°Some sorta magic-time-wat-not.¡±

    ¡°Good thing it was the two of us who went after you,¡± Irwyn said as they finally got out of the expanded hall. ¡°The Trials are already worse than usual, it was very reckless of you to come down here. Just imagine if it was an active secret hideout or something along those lines. You would be another kid not coming back without a trace.¡±

    ¡°Sorry,¡± the boy replied averting his gaze. ¡°But I did finish my job. Good and clean, no one even noticed me until I was long gone.¡±

    ¡°That is good, though you should be more careful of approaching literal skeletons,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°That being said, I am about to do the exact opposite.¡±

    ¡°Do as you peach,¡± Waylan shook his head with a knowing smile as if those words actually meant anything. Irwyn did not answer the blatant provocation.

    Instead, he stepped into the room, leaving the doorway open for Waylan and the boy to keep looking. He oriented around the bubbles without issue but kept his guard. He inched closer and closer until he was just a few steps away. Then he jumped back. Just as he had half-expected, a new bubble formed when he got too close. Or rather, one disappeared at the far end of the room and reappeared where he had just stood. He had no real idea about the why though. Moreover, it was now also clear that the skeleton and flower were themselves stuck in a particularly large bubble. The main reason he hadn¡¯t noticed at first was because the damn flower was somehow swaying ever so slightly in spite of that; which only served to reinforce that it was clearly magical and likely very valuable.

    Seeing the situation Irwyn had 2 options: Either back off and leave the flower where it was or try to take it along with the involved risk. He was considering and inspecting the enchantments when he realized a slight problem.

    ¡°Hey, one question,¡± he shouted at the doorway. ¡°How come you could see the skeleton or even get here if there are no lights?¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± the boy said, ¡°There were definitely lights when I came through though, although they were real dim.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Irwyn nodded, focusing on the enchantment. Just as he had suspected, the whole thing had lost a significant amount of the already diminished stored mana. And it probably lost more every time a bubble formed or moved. ¡°You should move back into the antechamber.¡±

    ¡°Ante-what?¡± they both said at once.

    ¡°The room we came through,¡± Irwyn grimaced attaching a ball of light to Waylan¡¯s shoulder. It would dissipate quickly without his direct control but it should last for a few minutes. Waylan and the boy nodded and left Irwyn to do his thing.

    Irwyn took a few deep breaths as they left and looked at the flower. It was a bit greedy but if Irwyn had realised anything recently, it was that he was wholly insufficient. He needed more power and more understanding of magic. The stronger he became the safer he would be. But to get there he needed to take some risks. This one seemed like it could be a relatively safe one, depending on how his next experiment turned out.

    He called upon his mana once more, but this time it formed into a knife of flames. He tried stabbing the bubble in front of him; it visibly contorted but did not pop. So he withdrew the knife, waited for it to stabilize again and then engulfed it in a wave of flames. It burst instantly, 3 more forming nearby. Reacting quickly, he moved his wave of flame to where one of the new ones was forming causing it to instead vanish and reappear a lot further away just a moment later. With that confirmed he felt genuinely confident and so went for it.

    He rushed through his own flames popping the bubble surrounding the skeleton as well as the new one that had tried to stop him. He grabbed the flower and gasped as it tried to fight back with mana of its own. That did not make him hesitate though as he overwhelmed it in an instant and ripped it out. Then he made for the door, 6 new bubbles having already formed, completely blocking his way out. For each he popped 3 new appeared, seemingly intentionally trying to block him in. With no other choice, he kept popping them as he made a beeline for the door rather than maneuvering around as he had initially planned. And as he dashed the 3 for each popped turned into 4. Then 5. By the time he was 3 quarters of the way out, the mana in the enchantment was dipping dangerously low. Still, he ran and ran.

    It was at the moment he reached the doorstep that the enchantment finally cracked. With a deafening thud, the room contorted and then compressed in on itself. What had been a hall just a few moments was suddenly a barricade of crushed stone rubble, the force of the escaping air sending Irwyn flying. That might have been a good thing though as he avoided all the fragments thanks to that.

    It took him a few moments to calm down enough to stand up and a few more to regain his hearing. When he returned to the antechamber, Waylan and the boy were already waiting for him, having gathered the 2 enchanted books for him.

    ¡°I am starting to suspect you suddenly enjoy causing commotions, Irw,¡± Waylan cackled, seemingly unbothered by the impact.

    ¡°Yes, very funny. Let us leave before anyone comes to check out what happened and somehow finds us,¡± Irwyn grinned back, looking at what was left of the flower: The stem had completely withered away while the petalless bloom had solidified, turning into a borderline gem concealing magic within, isolating it much like the enchantments; he put it in his pouch for now. They went back up the stairs, this time Waylan in the front. When they reached the secret door Waylan stepped out first to confirm the situation.

    ¡°Sooo, good and bad news,¡± Waylan said as he returned. ¡°The cunt we met on solstice dat wanted to rob us? He be waiting for us outside with 12 lads. The good is he is leaving ''cause ¡®a fucking building just sunk into the ground, boss, you gotta go see for yourself¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t they see you?¡± the youngest boy worried only for Waylan to wave his hand without worry.

    ¡°Nah, don¡¯t ya know? I am invisible when I wanna ¡®cause no one ever spots me, ever.¡±

    ¡°Like the guards at the Solstice raid who definitely did not see you as they chased us,¡± Irwyn shot him a grin.

    ¡°That was on purpose I keep telling ya¡¯all. Distractin¡¯ and wat-not¡±

    So they waited for a bit longer until most of the Stars gangster left before moving out, using a well-timed beam of blinding ¡®sunlight¡¯ to escape the two leftover guards they barely slipped away. Unnoticed.

 1.7 The ink of arrogance

    Irwyn lay on his bed the next morning, the book lying in front of him. The nature of the Named, by Magelord Viriterus von Lonera, the title read. Last night Irwyn had dived into his lexicon of noble households and found something fascinating: The house of Lonera was founded only some 35 years ago by Magelord Viriterus, a renowned Time/Space caster, who had originally been born into a very minor branch of House Blackburg. Then, just 2 years later the house had gone extinct with Viriterus¡¯ disappearance. Likely the skeleton Irwyn had found.

    There was also a note about that having a significant effect on the succession struggles of the main house Blackburg, however, Irwyn¡¯s knowledge about that ended with the knowledge that something of the sort happened and that the current duke Blackburg was not known to have any living siblings. Back to the book, Irwyn took a deep breath and opened it.

    And immediately realised it was unfinished.

    The pre-word still had notes on alternative sentences, possible changes to points, and an insult addressed at ¡®the damn disobedient brat¡¯. It was overall a self-centered rant about how he was acknowledged by even the dukes of Teal and Black, how he was better than his colleagues and how he had always known he had been destined for greatness.

    Still, Irwyn read it with interest because it gave him insight into the mind of the dead caster. Moreover, the last paragraph of the page fascinated him. It read:

    ¡®And as such, I have naturally come upon the great divide of claiming a Name of my own. To find even faster the path upon the very apex of magic, I shall document upon the nature of the Edict wielders, be it the Named of ages past, present or soon to be myself.¡¯

    Just the idea of the very apex of magic or at least what some would consider as such. Irwyn felt the metaphorical butterflies in his stomach as he turned the page.

    ¡®To claim a Name is to become one with both it and magic. It is also why this leap is the great divide, because a Name can only be claimed by a creature of pure magic while a creature of pure magic can only exist if a Name sustains them. In other words, one must tear both their body and soul apart either at the same time or one after another to successfully ascend.

    Of course, once a Name is claimed the bearer achieves nigh immortality. Age does not decay those no more of flesh, they become avatars of the concepts they have polished beyond equal.¡¯

    What is the difference between a concept and an intention in magic? Irwyn thought. Were they synonymous? Irwyn had, after all, decided by himself to call what he imbued into magic intention. Perhaps they might be one and the same. Or perhaps concepts were higher, something more potent than the intentions stemming from fear or desire. Either way, he read on, talks of immortality too far beyond what he could imagine for himself to ponder at the moment.

    ¡®Throughout history many have claimed names. Who at our circles had not heard of the infamous Soul-catcher or the Archduke of Red? Even still, records from before the founding of our 9 Duchy Federation are scarce as the Tyrant¡¯s library had been burned to the ground as he had been overthrown. And make no mistake, for it was no mere tyrant but The Tyrant who the first 9 dukes challenged and overcame. And true legends they were. Conflagration, Thousandsight, Temperance, Twinpresence and most importantly Wrath. Or as he had later become known, the Duke of Wrath! Albeit my distant ancestor had perished in a great Lich war centuries ago, his influence and tradition have never left.

    For example, to this day the firstborn son of the second wife among the main Blackburg bloodline serves as the high general, as it had been with the first duke¡¯s own children. Or the first son of the fourth wife becoming a dedicated scholar¡­¡¯

    The rest of the page was mostly filled with a description of the surprisingly stringent roles each child of the house Blackburg was obliged to follow precisely. Not to mention going off-topic, the information was clearly outdated as the current duke had vehemently refused any wife beyond his first. Good for her ladyship Avys, Irwyn supposed, the stringent roles seemed to him a bit dumb. What happens if the firstborn son of the 4th wife is neither naturally scholarly nor celibate or if the first daughter of the third is less than chaste by the age of 18? Maybe the rigorous rules were just exaggerated by the writing, or perhaps the born and bred Magelord lines simply did not think along the same lines as the common folk. Turning the page there was an illustration and Irwyn nearly dropped the book.

    Seemingly they were just an array of squiggly and straight lines or shapes, not immediately reminiscent of anything. Yet that was just the surface as Irwyn felt it whisper to him of rage and fury. Of Wrath. It was the frown of an eye before a rampage. It was all that would be before a silence of a wake, as empty as the void itself. All that stains must be ground to nothing.

    It took Irwyn several minutes to break away from that magical state of just helplessly staring at the lines. Then he hungrily read on. ¡®A more keen reader would have noticed the supernatural sensation caused by the mark of Wrath. A truly keen one would already understand its nature fully. But I shall enlighten the rest as well. What you might or might not have experienced was no illusion, nay, it was the antithesis of a lie. Though it requires the enchantments of this book to remain, it takes no power nor borrows any spellwork. It is simply the written manifestation of what the Duke of Wrath had once stood for. As long as the name of Wrath exists, and like all names it shall exist forever, a universal meaning will remain for its symbol. It is a Truth that my ancestor had found. And as long as no new claimant takes and reshapes the name Wrath, this symbol will maintain a smidgen of its power even if written into the dirt with a pebble.¡¯

    If that were the case, do the Aspects also have marks like this? Surely it must be so, after all, just Ignis¡¯ name held the barest hint of something when spoken or thought about. Moreover, such marks may perhaps not be affected by Irwyn¡¯s writing problem.

    ¡®As a Named being, the Duke had naturally attained the insurmountable power of Edicts. In the final confrontation with the Tyrant he had brought down an Edict of Wrath, which has contributed to the regrettable formation of the Scar on our lands.¡¯

    Irwyn put down the book at this point and went looking for a different one, thinking of the edicts in the meantime. It was difficult to quantify besides clearly being some sort of powerful magic; Irwyn had next to no reference frame after all. He had no idea how or even if magic was classified by the wider society of casters as the recent incidents were the most he had ever interacted with any. All he could do was keep in mind that running from someone casting an ¡®edict¡¯ would be a good idea. It didn¡¯t take him long to find the new book he was looking for, titled ¡®The landmarks of the Black duchy¡¯. Unfortunately, the table of contents did not have the ¡®Scar¡¯, albeit Irwyn was sure he had definitely read about it somewhere before. Next, he looked for ¡®The 9 duchy Federation; a traveller¡¯s guide¡¯ where he found a short description along the section of places to avoid.

    ¡®The Scar is an artefact of a great battle from before the federation¡¯s forming. It spans a part of a mountain range in the Northern region of the Duchy of White (close to the cartographical centre of the federation). The area is affected by a perpetual magical turbulence. The boundaries of space are frail, causing monsters (and rarely also people) to constantly arrive from other realms, making it a major source of rare alchemical and magical items despite the great danger. Most lich wars (including the most recent one) have been caused by a greater lich infecting through this area. The Scar is considered impossible to remove by intervention and is surrounded by a military blockade supplied by all 9 Duchies. It is believed to be shrinking.

    The Everburn Isthmus is technically not a part of the Federa¡­¡¯

    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    Irwyn pulled himself away from reading further. He could refresh himself on places to avoid he would probably never come close to later. The tourist guide didn¡¯t specify that the ¡®great battle¡¯ was supposedly one that allowed for the federation¡¯s founding, however, Irwyn was inclined to believe that the Magelord who had decided to pay much more focus to this would know better. It also put more perspective on the power of these edicts if their effects could last for centuries.

    He returned to the ¡®Nature of the Named¡¯ and double-checked the language used. Yes, indeed, it was ¡®contributed to the creation of the Scar¡¯. In other words, it was more than just one such spell. Maybe something related to Space/Time or Realm/Matter considering things from somewhere else kept appearing there, supposedly. Either way, he read on.

    The rest of the two pages involved a retelling of the Duke of Wrath¡¯s life after those battles; very little about his involvement in the federation¡¯s founding but a lot about the traditions he has introduced in his domain. He had then died some 200 years later in a great lich war. Irwyn noted that the Duke of Wrath had never been referenced by any birth name or a nickname of any sort as he turned the next page.

    There he found another mark. It was fire but not quite. It was the in-between of ignition and ash. There was only burning, no before nor after. For all things may burn. The Flame would never be extinguished, as long as the Name that is Ignis remained, so would this one incinerate ad infinitum.

    Even with his limited knowledge, Irwyn understood that whoever this mark belonged to had been far more in tune with the concepts involved, going so far as to tap into the Name of The-flame-that-is-origin. Or it could just be that Irwyn was simply able to feel such connections much better because of his own affinity: His Light was the antithesis of the Void where the 7 sins, Wrath included, stemmed from; flame on the other hand was an irreplaceable part of Irwyn.

    ¡®The Archduke of Red, the Conflagration. To this day remnants still burn the Scar from the Edict of Conflagration he had called against the Tyrant. Unlike my ancestor a far calmer man vital to the Federations founding, often even credited with the very idea¡­¡¯

    Irwyn wanted to continue reading but most of the two pages were actually empty and that was where the coherent storytelling ended. After was just a note reading ¡®Request sent to the Flame''s archive for their preserved sources and an interview, write a note to check your mail¡¯, leaving most of the writing space just empty. Turning the page, Irwyn found even more stubs and comments. ¡®How do you ¡®misplace¡¯ the records of Twinpresence¡¯s mark?¡¯ read the first one, followed by a completely empty double-page. Next one read ¡®To do: Write a derogatory leaked letter about the Duke of White being an overly paranoid asshead with no regard for history¡¯, and then one more double-page with ¡®If we weren¡¯t in this damn cold war with the Brightbeaks I wouldn¡¯t need this many proxies and expense just to get a god damn historical symbol.¡¯ Apparently, Magelord Viriterus had intended to finish writing these sections once he had obtained the marks of these particular Named which he clearly never did. Irwyn felt a bit grumpy about that.

    The next page at least immediately returned his good mood. The mark was of dual nature to Irwyn¡¯s surprise, it was both seeking and taking away. It was the thrill of pursuit as well as the rapture of capture fulfilled. It was both action and consequence.

    What that meant unfortunately Irwyn wouldn¡¯t get to know. All the page read was ¡®The Soulcatcher is, as far as I could find, the only Named to arise without a direct bloodline or backing of the Duke houses. Because of that information on him is scarce.¡¯ what followed was a tirade of notes mentioning libraries, census data and other statistics from all across the federation as far as Irwyn could tell. Apparently the ¡®scarceness of information¡¯ was not an underestimation as the author had insisted in the notes that he was not going to stop before figuring out where a damn Named was even born.

    The next two pages were completely empty.

    And so were the next. Irwyn kept flipping through the thick book but there was nothing else to find. Whatever sources, reference materials or other pieces of research data were in use, they had clearly not survived the test of time and magical fallout like this enchanted book had. All that he had was an unfinished book of a long-dead magelord. Irwyn put the book away and tried to lie away the upset in his bed.

    How much could he have learned if the book was finished? So many secrets so tantalisingly close yet just out of reach. The odds were that he would never get his hands on something like this ever again. The insights of a magelord eager to share at the tip of his fingertips. Each page could have guided him down a different mystery of magic. And. It. Was. Unfinished.

    Irwyn turned around and screamed into his pillow.

    When he calmed down he tried to be at least a bit positive about it. He had 3 marks with incredible and deep meaning to study after all. One even matched his flame perfectly. It might take him months to fully discover what that path hid and even then he would likely return to it for years to come. Still, his foul mood would not go away, turning the next hour into an unproductive mess of churning thoughts.

    He was only awoken from that stupor when someone knocked on his door.

    ¡°Do you need something?¡± he asked after getting over to open the door, a hint of irritation still distinct in his voice.

    ¡°Geez, chill Irw,¡± the young lady said. It was Olga, probably trying to mimic Waylan or someone else with an attitude. Not like Irwyn cared overmuch about such things; she was a child after all, a few years before her trials. She on the other hand tried to cross her arms and act offended but after a few seconds of Irwyn¡¯s intense stare relented, ¡°Aaron wants a word with you about something. He be at his office.¡±

    ¡°Thank you I will go see him right away,¡± it was a good distraction. He considered for a moment and then continued. ¡°Also, please keep in mind we only need exactly 1 Waylan,¡± then he strode past her as she sputtered. Irwyn made his way down the stairs, through the big hall where all the kids played and slept, and into their meeting room that otherwise served as Aaron¡¯s office.

    When he entered Aaron briefly looked up from the paper he was working on, made brief eye contact and then returned to his work. Understanding how busy Aaron undoubtedly was, Irwyn did not mind. He had to sort through numerous documents written in poor handwriting, balance their budget, note down verbal reports and then occasionally do something extra like Irwyn¡¯s request. To be fair, he had some help from some of the other adults but the Old Crow would only step in if things got really dire. It was no secret that the Fowl was essentially grooming Aaron as his successor and believed firmly in a sink or swim philosophy.

    ¡°Thank you for waiting, I called you here because of this,¡± Aaron finished the sheet of paper, put it away while taking another one from a different stack, and without wasting any time immediately got to the point. ¡°Does this look like the flower you found?¡± it was a drawing of a petalless bloom with striking familiarity, except it was black rather than teal.

    ¡°Yes, but it was a different colour,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°I feared it would be so,¡± Aaron sighed. ¡°Well, we definitely won¡¯t be able to fence it. It¡¯s called a ¡®Lordbloom¡¯, an exceptionally magical flower that grows only in extremely mana-dense environments with a very specific fertilizer that can change the very nature of each specimen. I suppose you can guess what I mean by the euphemism.¡±

    ¡°The corpse of a magelord,¡± Irwyn said. He had suspected that might be the case and the name only confirmed it. After all, why else would it be growing out of the skull? ¡°How did you safely figure out what it was?¡±

    ¡°Easy,¡± Aaron grinned, always eager to brag. Maybe that was not the best word because Irwyn had to admit Aaron had some excellent ideas. ¡°I got in touch with the one-handed alchemist from the Other side, I gave him a list of traits, most of which random, and asked him to give me basic information on herbs both magical and mundane that he knew about that had any of the combinations. Though it isn¡¯t like a mana beacon or something after transforming right?¡±

    ¡°No, it feels no different than a really weak enchanted item,¡± Irwyn shook his head, ¡°This one in particular is isolated and hard to notice, like the magic of the man it grew from.¡±

    ¡°Sure, not like I can tell the difference,¡± Aaron shrugged, ¡°The missive didn¡¯t even mention the transformation. Not a big surprise One-hand never actually saw it before retirement if it¡¯s something like this. Damn shame we cannot do smack with it.¡±

    ¡°Does even Old Crow have no contacts who would buy it from us?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°That¡¯s an ultra-premium magical ingredient you got your hands on. You can fence some minor magical stuff for the few casters from the guild at other cities but anyone with the prowess to use this is gonna be a powerful magelord themselves. And then they are gonna ask questions like ¡®where did street thugs even get this?¡¯ and ¡®Do I really have to pay for it?¡¯. Not worth the risk.¡±

    ¡°So what am I even supposed to do with it? It is Time/Space attuned so I cannot really use it myself in any way.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. A pretty paperweight?¡±

    ¡°Fine, thank you for at least figuring out what it is,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°I will hold onto it, maybe I can figure out something useful in the future.¡±

    ¡°Your welcome.¡±

    ¡°You are,¡± Irwyn corrected.

    ¡°Well, see you at tomorrow''s briefing,¡± and it went right over Aaron¡¯s head.

    Aaron returned to his documents and Irwyn to his room. At least he had the Book of the Name to read now. He had read it many times before, however, he was sure the full edition was going to be an experience to remember.

 1.8 The divide between riches and starvation

    ¡°That¡¯s a job for Rainer and Kalista,¡± Aaron spoke, midway through the morning briefing, ¡°Take Waylan with you as back up.¡±

    ¡°More like dey will be me back up,¡± Waylan grinned but no one reacted to his bravado.

    ¡°Solo work for me then?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Yes, you are on informants today,¡± Aaron pointed at a piece of paper that Irwyn would be able to take after the meeting. ¡°Bunch of type 1, one type 2 and a type 3, I have the list for you here. I also need you to get an order from One-hand on the other side since you will already be adequately dressed.¡±

    ¡°Flashpowder?¡± Irwyn guessed. They had been running a bit low, the increased tensions multiplying the cases where they had to run from someone aggressive.

    ¡°Yes. I will give you notes for everything,¡± Aaron confirmed and continued giving out tasks, the Old Crow observing from the corner but not getting involved directly. Ever since the Blackburg crisis he had been getting less and less involved with Aaron¡¯s decision-making.

    When the meeting ended Irwyn got ready and headed right out.

    <hr>

    It was hardly the first time Irwyn was at Road street, or at least that was how everyone unofficially called it since there were actually several streets forming it. On a map it looked like a massive laceration, basically dividing Ebon Respite into two; by itself, the Road street was practically a separate city. That was no surprise, Ebon Respite originally stood directly between City Black, the Duchy¡¯s capital and City of Dusktake, a far southern trade hub on the border with the Duchy of Teal. That was, after all, in its name: The last respite before City Black. Road street was built around serving the people passing through, at most stopping for a night.

    There were opulent hotels, overpasses over the busy roads, massive warehouses and the constant presence of well-geared guards. Traffic flowed relentlessly but most would at most stop to resupply at one explicitly set up for that purpose. Many didn¡¯t even bother stopping, just going straight through the city. Those going towards the Capital were after all at most a day¡¯s journey away from their destination and those headed the other way were still fresh. Another part of the traffic were exports from the many industrial zones of Ebon Respite, the countless manofactoriums utilising the cheap and disposable labour and then quickly exporting to a major trade hub of City Black or fencing their goods to traveling merchants heading the other way.

    Among the sons of merchants, hotel owners or stablemasters Irwyn would not stand out in his current attire.

    He had donned his best from when they managed to snatch an entire cache of clothing for some young master of somewhere less than a year ago; it fit him perfectly now. And Rainer had sewed him extra inner pockets. He walked around, pretending well to belong but still on guard as he of all people knew how good of a target he might look like among other thieves, though most weren¡¯t confident enough to operate this close to the center. It takes one shout and there are immediately 20 guards looking for the pickpocket, approaching from all directions.

    Judging by the sundial erected upon a large building it was about time, so Irwyn found his way to a small but very specific park, finding himself a seat at a bench. The parks around the center were numerous but rarely full, the majority of the traffic being people just going through. Apparently just their existence made the buildings around them more valuable so there were plenty despite the general unuse.

    It did not take 5 minutes before a middle-aged man, around 30, found his way to Irwyn¡¯s side, holding newspapers.

    ¡°What a weather we have today,¡± Irwyn commented, the man pretending to be reading his papers. As a major export, paper was more than affordable, though Aaron has proved himself a better source of important news in Irwyn¡¯s eyes than the directed and redacted ''Blackpapers''.

    ¡°It will probably rain tomorrow,¡± he muttered.

    ¡°And the day after,¡± Irwyn nodded and looked around. There were people around but no one was paying them attention. Irwyn took a note prepared by Aaron containing the passwords for the next time as well as a small pouch with a very exactly calculated number of coins, the man passing back another note in turn. This all happened in just a moment, Irwyn standing up to mask any such motion.

    ¡°I have to go. Goodbye, sir,¡± Irwyn did not spare the man another glance as he took off.

    That was the first type of informant that the Tears worked with. Independent brokers, bribable workers or investigators for hire. That was Aaron¡¯s specialty after all, to gather a gargantuan pile of snippets, rumours and unverified claims and turn them into critical intelligence to sell or use. As far as Irwyn knew, that was also exactly how the Old Crow had become a Fowl long before founding the Tears. Rumours had it that in his prime he would have better census and trade data than the city officials.

    As far as the informants went Irwyn had been specifically warned to not trust them. At any moment they could choose to doublecross them; sell them out or just plain report them to authorities from a sudden conscience tumor. That is why they knew next to nothing about who they were actually selling this information to. All contact would be done at a specified time at a specified day of the week using a specified password and notes with specified wording. The only thing that changed was that it would be a different teenager or rarely a kid who did the exchange. Part of the strategy was that people would think they were just runners and therefore were less likely to think that betrayal would accomplish anything.

    A lot of the Tears actually went out for this kind of work every day and despite the costs, the profits they made were enormous. Either they got wind of very good marks to hit themselves or they sold invaluable information to other gangs.

    Either way, Irwyn then proceeded to contact 6 more such informants, one every 30 minutes. Some he would meet at parks just by Road streets, others near shop displays, some further away at a variety of locations. By the time he was done, it was nearing noon and he went to meet the next type of informant.

    He walked into the tavern-or-restaurant not far from the main Road street, a business that was the second type of informant: An entire establishment collaborating with the Tears. There could be places like the brothel at the edge of the slums or taverns like this one. Here in the middle of the city he was, of course, far less brazen. Instead of walking up and showing a badge at the front desk he took a seat, some of the servers might not be in on the deal after all; trustworthiness could be scarce in the serving industry when the counter option to work wasn¡¯t always starvation. It didn¡¯t take long for a server to approach him, a young woman not that much older than Irwyn.

    ¡°Welcome to our establishment!¡± she spoke with the fake enthusiasm of a waitress. ¡°Say, you wouldn¡¯t know mister O, would you?¡±

    ¡°What a coincidence, I am actually acquaintanced with mister O,¡± Irwyn smiled. This one was clearly in on their deal, he almost vaguely remembered her face from the last time he had been sent here but wasn¡¯t quite sure; there were a lot of places like this.

    ¡°Mister O¡¯s friends are obviously welcome,¡± she spoke as she handed Irwyn his menu, slipping him a small stack of notes, Irwyn giving one back right away. He browsed for a while and then ordered lunch. In the past this was highly desired work because of that, but ever since Narcinia took over the kitchen the desire to order food from outside had sharply declined by the virtue of no longer being always better than what they had at home. He paid after the meal, giving the same waitress the agreed-upon payment for the information as well as the price of the meal.

    Next he went for another park bench, however, the informant he was meeting with next was of a different kind.

    ¡°Hey, Irw,¡± a young woman, just barely above twenty, took a seat next to Irwyn. She hardly even pretended to be reading the newspapers, though Irwyn was almost surprised she bothered to bring some at all. This lack of care for procedure was something he had come to know her for after all.

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    ¡°Margarate, it has been a while,¡± Irwyn nodded to her but kept looking around the area. Just a few pedestrians around but no one paying them any attention.

    ¡°You still speak weird, huh,¡± she grinned.

    ¡°And you still disregard information safety,¡± Irwyn could not help himself but return it.

    This was the third type of informant. What happened to the Tears when they grew up? One of two things. Most had become so accustomed to the life of crime they moved on and advanced that career, joining the Guild, setting out on their own or selecting one from the plethora of gangs that wanted people with their expertise and experience. The rest had decided that they were not meant for fieldwork after experiencing it for years, so Old Crow used his old contacts to forge them a flawless identity as an immigrating orphaned but educated young adult, setting out to earn a living in Ebon Respite. That, of course, wasn¡¯t cheap and although Old Crow was running a charity he was very much a proponent of give and take. They were after all using the skills he had taught them to make a life for themselves, lives he had most likely saved in the first place by taking them in. So in return for a legal identity, they would pay the Tears back in some way. That could take many forms, for example, Irwyn knew that one of their former members had managed to become an actual inspector, though most chose to provide insider information to pay off that debt and often continued profiting afterwards.

    Margarete? She worked as a secretary for a major merchant group.

    ¡°I got something seriously big this time around,¡± she didn¡¯t delay and took out a small bundle of tied-up notes. ¡°This is my reasoning a proof but the short version: A magelord is going to be storing something for a whole week at our Magical Vault.¡±

    ¡°Are you serious?¡± Irwyn¡¯s eyes widened in surprise as he took the note but did not open it. ¡°Why would he not just move it to City Black, it¡¯s just another day¡¯s journey away, less with good carriages.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the big thing, Irw,¡± she grinned a toothy grin. ¡°This is just conjecture but I think it¡¯s something so magically potent the client cannot reliably hide it at Black City, at least not for a reasonable price. It might be a legitime artefact.¡±

    ¡°We just had the whole Blackburg catastrophe. I am not sure we want to take a risk like this,¡± Irwyn admitted, but he certainly felt a pinch of greed rise within him. First we must confirm this is actually something valuable, decisions can come later, he forced some restraint onto himself.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s for you guys to figure out,¡± she just shrugged. ¡°My rate is the same 10% of the haul, 20% if you need more help.¡±

    ¡°I will get this to Aaron so it can be discussed,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Well, I am sure you will let me know,¡± she smiled, knowing full well that if it really was an artefact, there was no way in the world the Tears would not do whatever it took to steal it.

    They had the unique advantage of having a caster after all.

    <hr>

    The city became destitute once more as Irwyn passed to the Other side¡¯s slums, which were a fraction of the size. Essentially, a branch of the Stars gang completely controlled them, or it would be more accurate to say that the Stars had started out on this side, they had since expanded over Road street and now controlled just as much turf on both sides of the city. The logistics of smuggling things or people through the relatively tightly guarded Road street was a unique challenge in itself, though Irwyn would need to ask Aaron about specifics.

    He was headed to the alchemist everyone called One-arm, you wouldn''t be able to guess why; it still irked Irwyn he had to use a nickname though. One-hand, no other name ever provided, had apparently once been very well employed before a failed concoction took out his arm and a significant portion of several buildings. Paying off the damages turned him destitute and with no other option he moved to Ebon Respite to start work with the only people who didn''t care about his ruined reputation: The gangs.

    That being said, he was well-liked and respected among the slum lowlifes. Even with one arm he could refine gunpowder to the much more useful flashpowder and make some very specialised potions that Road street alchemists wouldn''t sell. Irwyn remembered he had once sold them a potion that when in contact with the air turned into highly hallucinogenic gas, no questions asked, though the price for illegal potions was certainly astounding. That would only get worse because rumour had it that the Blackburg agents confiscated his entire stock. Why they would let him go after that was anyone''s guess. Irwyn thought they didn''t think criminals like them were worth even the time to escort to a guard station as they weren''t part of their mission.

    It was at this time that he felt something being denied about existing. It was the same kind of magic Rage had used to sneak up on Irwyn back then but it was simply much worse executed. Irwyn was able to tell that it was definitely Void magic and that the person using it was of small build. They were also moving towards him.

    Not panicking, Irwyn kept walking as if nothing has happened but preparing to burst into action at any moment. Soon enough it was on the same street as him. Then it passed him without a pause. Irwyn remained vigilant but whoever that was they weren''t after him.

    One-arm¡¯s shop was at the end of a well-hidden alley, out of the way and sight. As soon as Irwyn approached he immediately realised who the hidden person had been after; seeing the missing door guards was almost enough but the remnants of magic made Irwyn suspect the worst. As soon as he entered the unguarded workshop, his fears were confirmed.

    The gruesomeness of it made Irwyn want to vomit but he was just a bit number to the wanton death than a few weeks ago. The door guards probably went in after hearing some commotion and were beheaded by an unnaturally sharp edge, cutting a fair bit into the wall and reinforced door. The thugs inside, 2 of them, suffered much the same fate. From the look of it they never got the opportunity to even dodge as there was distinctly only one spell scar on the walls behind each body.

    One-arm¡¯s end was far more gruesome. Almost ritualistic in a horrible way. He too was decapitated but post-mortem received additional treatment: His eyes had been removed and replaced with ebony black constructs of magic. Hollow eyes of nothing for the fool that saw even less. A traditional execution by the old ways of Umbra. Except Irwyn didn¡¯t quite understand what One-hand, the overly cautious alchemist, could have done to deserve this retaliation. The only thing that came to mind was that maybe he made some potion that was used against someone with the means to orchestrate an assassination but this kind of death was not supposed to be for an offense by association. It was originally meant for necromancers who refused to disavow the Betrayer¡¯s magic in the crusade following Ignis¡¯ death, as Irwyn now knew confidently after re-reading the Book of the Name in the full edition.

    Looking around, Irwyn quickly located the log book, it was written in code but the times were unencrypted, according to it Irwyn had at least an hour before the next customer was supposed to come. That being said he wasn¡¯t gonna waste any time, quickly scouring the place for documents that could hint at why this happened. In the end, he got besides the logbook some shopping lists, a coded experiment journal and a stack of letters he didn¡¯t have the time to read through. Then he quickly took their original order, a few valuables that would fit into his already filled inner pockets and booked it. If he did not take it, someone else would anyway. Still, that did not mean he wanted to be in any way associated with whatever had gone down.

    This was trouble. A lot of trouble. He was supposed to meet with another 2 informants in the evening but skipped those in favour of getting Aaron on this as fast as possible.

    <hr>

    Irwyn went straight to Aaron¡¯s office upon returning. Upon opening the door he saw that Waylan, Kalista and Rainer were already inside, looking visibly nervous.

    ¡°More bad news?¡± Aaron asked with a tired grin that said he expected as much.

    ¡°One-hand is dead,¡± Irwyn nodded grimly.

    ¡°Let me guess: Eyes plucked out and replaced with a black mass after beheading,¡± Aaron ¡®guessed¡¯.

    ¡°Who else?¡± Irwyn immediately realised the implication.

    ¡°Fucking lots,¡± Kalista cursed, leaning on Rainer. ¡°The boss of the Stars, the new boss of the Snakes and half a dozen other leaders from all over. Not to mention all their damn guards¡±

    ¡°Do you know when?¡± Aaron asked instead, turning towards Irwyn.

    ¡°I was coming on time for the trade and I am pretty sure I felt them leaving,¡± Irwyn replied.

    ¡°That about matches the timeline,¡± Aaron nodded and took a note. ¡°From the looks of things we have one caster going on a rampage. They have limited information or at least didn¡¯t go after anyone who isn¡¯t widely known. They mark their target with this horrific void eye ritual. And we have no idea why in the world they are doing this.¡±

    ¡°Shit¡¯s gonna go down bad,¡± Waylan grimaced. ¡°This is too soon after dat last altocity.¡±

    ¡°Atrocity, Waylan,¡± Rainer corrected with a chuckle before Irwyn could but at least that relieved the atmosphere a bit.

    ¡°Well, I at least also have some good news,¡± Irwyn sighed, reaching for a very specific information package. ¡°I think we might be able to get our biggest mark yet.¡±

 1.9 The brink of disaster

    "Dat the shop?" Waylan asked, looking from a distance at the Road street restaurant. It was well past dusk, the alchemical lamps illuminating parts of the rich districts. Another difference between this place and the rest of the city. Obviously, their group stood away from sight.

    "The Gobblers Respite," Kalista read, staring through her monocular. "Gotta be the place.¡±

    The crisis with a rampaging caster was still ongoing but Aaron and Old Crow have reluctantly decided that it was relatively unlikely they would be targeted. The Tears were known to be children and it remained true that the Duchess of Black would not allow people to slaughter children. And it wasn¡¯t like staying home would make it much better, only Irwyn could maybe protect himself and that was a significant maybe with unpredictable consequences. The caster that was running around was perhaps worse at hiding than Rage had been but that did not necessarily imply being worse in a fight between casters. Moreover, half the reason Rage had lost was that he greatly underestimated Irwyn and was caught off guard repeatedly; it was stupid to rely on incompetence for survival.

    ¡°Aaaand, the owner is out,¡± Kalista declared with a stage whisper, listening with one ear to their conversation but never relenting in observing. ¡°Locked the front door and left, lock looks basic enough from here.¡±

    ¡°Me turn then,¡± Waylan nodded, flashing his lockpicks. He was wearing all black, including a full head cloth mask. As were all of them for a night job like this. Then Waylan stepped out of sight and disappeared. At least to Irwyn¡¯s sight and probably Rainer¡¯s too. Only Kalista could confidently spot Waylan sneaking in the night; assuming that she knew about him beforehand.

    ¡°So you know why Narci wants us to rob this place in particular?¡± Rainer asked.

    ¡°Is that not rather obvious?¡± Irwyn stared at him a bit dumbly.

    ¡°I mean¡­¡± Rainer looked at Kalista for support.

    ¡°It absolutely is, dear,¡± she was still looking through the monocular but noticed, or perhaps anticipated, the pleading look.

    ¡°Ok, I might not have been paying the most attention in the briefing,¡± Rainer admitted.

    ¡°And why is that?¡± Irwyn sighed. Rainer just put a hand behind his head and did not answer, however, based on Kalista smug snort Irwyn decided that he would rather not know.

    ¡°Fine, she wanted us to retrieve a personal memento and rob the place while we are looking for it,¡± Irwyn explained.

    ¡°From there of all places?¡± Rainer questioned. ¡°Did she use to cook there or something? She had to have learned somewhere.¡±

    ¡°Waylan¡¯s in,¡± Kalista announced but then remained silent to let them continue their conversation.

    ¡°Well, technically,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°That place used to be called The Gobbler, ran by a chef. About a year ago a magelord was passing through and ate a meal there, apparently, it had not gone down well and they ended up puking in public. Not long after ¡®accidents¡¯ started happening. Thugs came in to thrash the place while guards ignored them, professional obnoxious guests, thieves. You can imagine. Soon enough the place was driven out of business and the owner supposedly committed suicide. Then the new owner, a former business rival, swooped in and bought it out for dirt cheap. That¡¯s as much as Aaron could find and I am not going to ask Narcinia where exactly she fits into that. Are you?¡±

    ¡°Fair point,¡± Rainer grimaced. ¡°She must have a grudge if she wants us to also rob the place, right?¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± Kalista nodded. ¡°Also, we have a code 3 from two streets over, no badge,¡± code 3 meant thugs of some kind that did not look friendly. ¡°I don¡¯t think they know about us but better be quiet,¡± and so they were. Irwyn did not even see them but implicitly trusted Kalista on her specialty. They waited for a few minutes in silence before Kalista announced that Waylan is waving for them to come in; and that the thugs were gone.

    ¡°No one in,¡± Waylan whispered as soon as he let them enter, quickly closing the door behind them. It was dark but any light source would be easy to spot through the windows. Irwyn, unfortunately, had not yet managed to make light stay inside just a room, therefore they had to rely on the street illumination as well as moonlight because lighting up a restaurant well past closing was a shortcut to meeting a guard patrol.

    ¡°A safe on the second floor,¡± Waylan whisper-announced. ¡°Second room on the left, not even hidden."

    ¡°On it,¡± Rainer nodded and went upstairs. That was his job.

    ¡°Found the spatula?¡± Kalista asked.

    ¡°Nah, not yet. I spotted a few but pro¡¯bly not the one.¡±

    ¡°You two look, I will do my part,¡± Irwyn nodded and got to work. Kalista and Waylan would find the memento but there was a reason why Irwyn went to almost all robberies on Road street:

    Fancy places had magical items.

    The place was very well kept so orienting even in the darkness was no problem; few tripping hazards. In the main room of the restaurant, he immediately found a few similar enchantments which he was pretty sure were odor removers imbued into small marbles which he promptly pocketed. There were a few elevated tables to the side that even had small silencing enchantments; in the bag they went. Next was the kitchen in the back. The first thing he found was a preservation field; those were not that hard to get but very expensive to keep running, still, he took it. Next was a single marble embedded into a wooden tool of sorts, this one Irwyn didn¡¯t immediately recognize.

    It was something to do with the element of Realm/Matter. It made things looser, less attached, though only ever so slightly and seemed to work selectively? It boggled him for a good minute before the realization struck: It was a grease remover. Probably. Either way, in the bag it went. With nothing else in the kitchen, he left Waylan and Kalista to do their thing and headed upstairs. By the time he had arrived Rainer had opened the safe despite the abysmal lighting and was counting through the loot.

    ¡°How is it looking?¡± Irwyn asked in another whisper. There were not any magical items on the top floor as far as Irwyn could tell.

    ¡°Not great, being not their only place and all, but it will probably sting,¡± Rainer said, not looking away. Irwyn went for another look around the second floor but it was basically just barren guestrooms. No magic items. He took whatever looked small and pricey from the decorations and that was about it. With that he went back downstairs to keep watch by the door. The night seemed calm.

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    ¡°Irw, come over.¡± Kalista stage whispered from the other side of the room and waved him back into the kitchen. There she led him into the pantry where Waylan was already waiting with a stack of spatulas. Closing the door behind himself Irwyn immediately understood and summoned a ball of light. There were no windows in there.

    ¡°I think this is it,¡± Waylan announced after a few moments of searching. One particular spatula had the letter ¡®N¡¯ engraved into it in seemingly gold. They looked for other possible candidates but upon finding none Irwyn extinguished the light and returned to the main area while Waylan and Kalista went to pack the Silverware. Rainer was already waiting by the door on the lookout, his loot long packed.

    ¡°Should we ransack the place as well?¡± Rainer suggested. If Narcinia was after some sort of perceived revenge they might as well.

    ¡°Do we want to make it obvious it was targeted? For all we know the owner is conn¡­¡± Irwyn was saying but couldn¡¯t finish his sentence as a loud boom sounded from outside. In the distance, Irwyn could see and feel a pillar of flame rising from the center of the city. Kalista and Waylan immediately rushed out of the kitchen, still closing their sacks.

    They shot each other a glance and did not need to say out loud that they were running before the guards had the time to swarm them. Following Waylan and Kalista they just barely made it out unnoticed.

    <hr>

    A week later and Irwyn was mopping the floor. The career caravan guards, albeit currently employed in Ebon Respite, that were supposed to be looking after them had been enjoying cards for the past hour and it would be the time to make their move soon. He could, after all, feel the magic from all the way where he stood.

    Waylan was with him as well as 3 other younger men from the Tears, they had each just recently survived their Trials to become full ''adult'' members but were still acting mostly as the cover for Irwyn and Waylan, being between 12 and 13 years of age.

    The tensions in the city were at an all-time high; the gangs of the slums were essentially revolting. The rampaging caster kept killing, except they became much more selective and perhaps smarter. People that were not that well known started getting done in; the paranoia certainly did not help stability. In the meantime the Stars were in a full civil war over succession, Irwyn and Waylan had to avoid them daily, while other large groups descended into chaos. Splinter groups formed, alliances shattered, a lot of people died. That was before Irwyn accounted that a significant portion of the slum population thought that the only way to stop a genocidal caster was to provoke the city guard into a war. For now, the conflict remained at greatly increased security plus the nightly raids.

    What Aaron, Irwyn and everyone with any awareness were afraid of was how far the officials could be pushed before they cut their losses and called for a more extreme pacification solution. The kind that significantly reduced the labour force.

    Anyway, the guards were really engrossed in their game and Irwyn nodded to Waylan it was time. His friend was the first to vanish and Irwyn shortly followed, the rest of the boys remaining to clean as cover.

    And where were they? At one of the main storehouses of a major merchant group. The one which happened to have their one and only Magical vault. Margarate, the former Tear turned secretary, had managed to get them hired for the cleaning as dirt-cheap labour so that Irwyn could inspect the enchantments.

    And all that because Aaron had been able to confirm it: There indeed was going to be a magical item of incredible value stored here in just a week. Exactly what, no one had a good idea really. Just that it was something maybe consumable and highly magical. Old Crow got in touch with some old friends from all over the Duchy in order to make sure where the item was coming from and more importantly, who they would sell it to once stolen. And they would need to sell it quickly. It would be out of Ebon Respite within 2 hours of being stolen and bidding could begin as soon as they knew what it actually was. Because unlike ingredients, high-grade magical items or even artifacts were always in extreme demand and the Guild was more than happy to guarantee the transaction for a cut of the sale.

    ¡°This place be a bloody maze,¡± Waylan muttered as they quickly made way through the sprawling corridors. Even after having studied the map it was a bit of a struggle to not get lost; that might have also been intentional. The map showed a lot of dead ends and subtle loops tightly wound around the warehouses or vaults, however, those had signs pointing the way straight to them as well as the exit. The good stuff could only be found if you knew the way; or stole the building plans. However, Irwyn wouldn¡¯t scare away the bigger prize by breaking into some other storage area, not at this point. Despite the struggle with navigation the map was accurate and Irwyn could feel the vault getting closer. Within 5 minutes of leaving, they were there, a massive vault door literally glittering with magic.

    What was better, it was empty and open.

    Irwyn did not need to tell Waylan to keep guard as he entered. The first thing that achieved his attention was the hunk of enchanted metal used as a door. Whatever spellwork was imbued in there it was beyond what he could decipher, although there was no intention imbued into it. On Calm¡¯s Blackbox scale it was a 2. It was a toss-up whether Irwyn would be able to burn through it. Thankfully he wouldn¡¯t have to.

    The walls were far worse defended. All Irwyn could feel from them was a simple enchantment that hardened them, simple enough Irwyn with his lack of expertise easily recognized it.

    ¡°I have got it,¡± Irwyn nodded to Waylan and they immediately made their way back. A guard crossing the corridors nearly spotted them but in the end they got back to their group unfound; being gone for at most 15 minutes the guards supposed to look over them did not even notice. That being said, the hard part of the scouting operation was over and without a fault. Now came the tedious. They had to sell the act that they were an actual cleaning crew after all.

    <hr>

    ¡°And den the fucker slipped into dat fucking latrine. I couldn¡¯t believe me eyes but all of sudden barely got away,¡± Waylan was recounting some of the exploits from his earlier years to the others. All exaggerated and extra profane.

    ¡°Language, Waylan,¡± Irwyn sighed half-heartedly. The rest of their group were younger and sufficiently awed for Waylan to keep going while Irwyn kept a constant vigil. The slums had grown significantly less safe even for them. There was no telling when some idiot tried to rob them despite their armband. And it was difficult to retaliate because someone had advised all those idiots to remove their own identification before they tried. Aaron had even suggested getting involved in this civil war to get a side they wanted into power, a motion the Old Crow vetoed.

    They were getting close when Irwyn felt it. And he almost tripped.

    ¡°Waylan, code 9. Inside the building.¡±

    ¡°Code 9?¡± one of the younger men asked.

    ¡°A caster, fuck.¡± Waylan cursed. ¡°Y¡¯all stay here and hide. Wait ¡®til someone gets ya!¡±

    ¡°We are going in, fast,¡± Irwyn nodded. They rushed through the hedge maze and knocked on the door. ¡°Horses will be milk,¡± Irwyn said the password of the day, tense. The caster was further inside in one of the side rooms, clearly using magic to hide themselves. The young boy on door duty seemed calm and when questioned about ¡®anything strange¡¯ he had not noticed anything. That at least calmed Irwyn down a bit.

    They ventured further in, practiced in dodging conversations with the curious kids all around the main hall; instead, Irwyn led the way straight towards the caster. Into Aaron¡¯s office.

    After a moment of consideration, he decided that it would be best to pretend nothing was wrong. He signaled Waylan as much and then knocked on the door as he normally would.

    ¡°Come in,¡± Aaron¡¯s voice sounded, Irwyn suppressed a sigh of relief. Whatever the situation was everyone was still alive. He just had to keep it that way.

    Inside the room, Aaron had entered full mastermind mode. A bulletin board with maps, drawings and notes covered the wall behind his desk. Old Crow was sitting next to him, doubtlessly double-checking and discussing their ideas. The price was big enough for him to get fully involved. Maxim, Kalista, Rainer and a few other ¡®adults¡¯ were also in the room, probably throwing the occasional suggestion or answering questions about their area of expertise.

    And among them, like a wolf in sheep¡¯s clothing, the caster swayed. Unnoticed, going from note to note, exposed document to exposed document. Listening to all their plans, coming to understand perfectly all that they knew or planned about the heist.

    They were so fucked.

 1.10 High stakes persuasion

    "Welcome back," Aaron greeted, blissfully unaware of the grim reaper leaning over his shoulder. Irwyn''s mind went into overdrive. "Any issues?"

    "No problems occurred," Irwyn replied. Just act like you always would. Ignore the sweat. "As we have all expected, we have a code 9 on our hands," most of the people in the room became alert, though not all.

    "What''s code 9" one of the younger ''adults'' asked, catching Irwyn off guard. How do they not know our internal codes!?

    "It mean that there be magical obs¡­ obsticle? Whatever, magical stuff blocking access," Waylan, bless him, seemed to have anticipated that response and had the perfect answer discreetly warning everyone in the know that there was no doubt the caster was listening to them.

    "We should make it mandatory to learn the codes before taking the Trials," Irwyn grumbled, as he normally would, probably. "About the code 9, it will be easier if I show you on the map. We need to figure out a quiet, non-lethal solution to it," Irwyn said and approached the bulletin wall, taking out the map he has used to navigate the labyrinthine warehouse. Just as he had hoped, the hidden caster immediately positioned themselves to get a better view. This close up he realized that they were actually quite short. "So basically, the vault door just radiates magic from the enchantments. There is no way we get through that. But we do not actually need to, because the walls are not nearly as well reinforced. There is still some magic but it is so much weaker that it either does not provide that much defense or is focused on preventing only some ways of intrusion. Maxim, maybe you would have a better idea of how to get in through here.¡±

    Taking the clue, Maxim moved next to Irwyn making sure he was positioned on the opposite side of the map. That way the only way to look at the map from up close would be to stand essentially between them, which is exactly where the caster ended up going. Irwyn moved the map ever so slightly so that the vault room would be roughly level with where the infiltrator''s head seemed to be and then tapped the room saying ¡°Right here,¡± his heart jumping to his throat.

    ¡°Explosives will not do,¡± Maxim nodded. ¡°We could maybe burn through the wall but getting acid capable of getting through enchanted stone, however lightly, will be problematic now that One-arm got done in.¡±

    ¡°Excuse me,¡± one of the young ¡®adults¡¯, who clearly had not realised the crisis interjected with confusion. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t we just¡­¡±

    ¡°NOW!¡± and in doing so provided a distraction. Because whatever fraction of a second of edge they could obtain could make all the difference. Irwyn¡¯s magic that had been restricted just a moment ago surged with all the power he could imbue in such a reversal, brilliant beams of light erupted from him. And the threat of death had one benefit at least: He suddenly found it strangely easy to imbue intention into his magic, unlike in the past weeks of struggle. So he willed the light to disperse.

    Irwyn had no distinct knowledge of how exactly Void/Darkness allowed someone to be completely invisible. Nor did he know how powerful, if any, barrier the caster had used for protection underneath the deceit. What he did know for sure was that those protections were made solely of Void magic.

    And Void and Light were anathema.

    His magic shattered the caster¡¯s protection the same way he had ambushed Rage. In a conflict between Light and Void, the element on the offensive won almost by default. Therefore their foe was unveiled within a split second of the signal Irwyn gave. He did not have the time to properly take in their appearance yet though because basically the moment their protections crumbled they received a stone to the head from Waylan¡¯s sling, followed just a moment later by Maxim¡¯s hook punch and Aaron¡¯s cane lunge, all aimed at rendering whoever that was unconscious. Irwyn prepared more magic, flames and light pouring into each palm as he quickly assessed the situation. Thankfully there was no surge of hostile magic to react to. He took a deep breath and looked.

    The person, lying face-first on the ground, was indeed short. They had long black hair, loosely falling down their black robes. Overall they appeared downright frail with stick-thin arms, childish fingers, and the small build. Strangely small build in fact.

    ¡°It¡¯s a fuckin¡¯ kid,¡± Waylan¡¯s curse summarized their thoughts perfectly as he approached. Though Irwyn thought that the caster might have rather been around their own age, perhaps slightly younger at most.

    ¡°Maxim, if you would?¡± Old Crow brought over a chair as Maxim lifted the young girl, and that became more undoubtable every passing second, into the chair. But besides all else, the unconscious caster was also an indiscriminate murderer.

    ¡°Well, she looks a bit younger than us,¡± Rainer frowned while the less experienced ¡®adults¡¯ in the room were still recovering from the sudden burst of action. Unfortunately, Irwyn did not have that luxury. Because he could not afford a single moment spent inspecting her soft and pretty features, nor the small trail of blood running down her nose from the ambush. All he could focus on was her chest. There on the robe, precisely sewn into the fabric at doubtlessly great expense was a piece of heraldry; Gray background put behind two blocks of magically darkened black, stacked on top of each other seemingly forming a reversed T, except at the top of them were distinct ramparts and inside were small square windows, giving way to the gray background. In other words:

    The Insignia of house Blackburg.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± Kalista voiced the opinion of those who noticed perfectly. Even Irwyn could not complain about it being inappropriate for the situation. His mind returned to panicked thought, desperately looking for a solution.

    "The ancestral symbol of House Blackburg," Old Crow stated grimly. "We cannot let go nor can we keep her. This is a problem."

    "We gonna have ta let ''er leave in the end," Waylan said.

    "In my opinion, there is more inherent risk in letting her go," Aaron opinioned.

    "We cannot keep her for long," Maxim shook his head. "No one here can properly capture a mage not to mention that someone will come looking sooner rather than later."

    "That is not what I meant and you know it," Aaron shot the whole room a hard glare.

    "We ain''t killing a fuckin'' kid," Waylan spoke with a burst of cold anger. "And fuck you for even suggestin'' we do."

    "She is hardly a ''kid'' considering her body count," Aaron immediately counter argued as Waylan''s expression became progressively uglier.

    "Is she even the same caster?" Maxim interjected, looking at Irwyn. Irwyn did not react, too absorbed in his own thoughts.

    "Irw," Rainer shook him, snapping him out of it.

    "Sorry. What did you ask?" Irwyn nearly jumped in surprise but a rough plan was forming in his head. Or more like the basis of one.

    "Is this the same caster you felt leaving One-hand''s shop?" Old Crow also asked for confirmation.

    "Yes she definitely is," Irwyn said, he was certain of that at least. He raised his hand for silence as he took a deep breath to sort out his thoughts. "Alright. I have an idea what we can do to get through this, but I need everyone''s help and expertise."

    "What do you need," Old Crow nodded, clearly taking charge rather than leaving this in Aaron''s hands.

    "We need to force her into a magical contract."

    "Magical contracts are rare and very specific," Old Crow immediately said. "I don''t know anyone who would be able to craft us one, much less in time."

    "Not that kind of contract. I got the full book of the Name recently," Irwyn shook his head, explaining. "One particular passage says: ''The two wanderers could naught trust the word of the other nor could they succeed alone. Thus they spoke and swore on the Name that governs the skies above to betray not one another. For that very magic coursing within each was the extension of Her and therefore bound both to their very core."

    "Again but dis time not gibbish," Waylan looked at him flatly. Most of the others immediately understood though.

    "In other words, oaths sworn on the Names of Aspects are binding when spoken between casters," Irwyn summarised. "We need her to swear to me on Umbra''s name to leave us alone."

    "This is long-shot conjecture," Aaron frowned. "And we are betting a lot."

    "I think it will work," Old Crow spoke after considering. "I have a vague recollection of hearing about a similar contract in the past. And it''s much better than the alternatives."

    "We will need to intimidate her," Irwyn said. "Make her believe that our only other option is to kill her."

    "Kalista, keep an eye on her and tell us at the first sign of her waking up," Old Crow agreed and immediately started giving out orders, then he turned towards the young ''adults'' in the room instructing them to bring him rope and a big sharp knife from the kitchen. Next, he spoke to the rest of the room "For this to work we need to be in a clear position of power. She is going to try to intimidate, threaten or disturb us. We must not show the slightest weakness to break through the arrogance children of magelord houses almost always have. So if you think you are gonna flinch, leave now."

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    " ''Ight, am out," Waylan said with an angry growl. "I ain''t got the stomach to watch this shit, even if needed."

    "Alright. Go get a silencing gem and guard the door with it. We mustn''t be disturbed," Old Crow did not let that stop him for a second. "Rainer, you just stay in the line of sight with crossed arms and look intimidating. The rest of us will do the same when she awakens."

    "We got the stuff," at that time the ropes and knife arrived, passing by Waylan as he left.

    "Good. Go guard the door with Waylan when he gets back. Let no one in until we are done here. Maxim, Tie her to the chair, hands on her knees, minimal possible movement. Place her so that she is facing away from the window, a bit of free space in between. Actually, Irwyn, make artificial light behind her so that it casts a long shadow."

    "Alright," Irwyn nodded and did so, swept up in Old Crow''s pace.

    "When she wakes up she will inevitably try to cast. You need to feel when and immediately stop her. Can you manage that."

    "Yes," Irwyn nodded.

    "Good. You will have to be the main speaker since you need to form the oath. Everyone else will support you the best we can. Once again, we need her to believe that we might actually kill her if she doesn''t conform, even though we really cannot. You and Aaron figure out the exact wording, no loopholes."

    "Yes," both Irwyn and Aaron moved to the side.

    "Maxim, do you know how to properly hold a knife to someone''s throat?"

    "Cannot say I do."

    "Come, I will teach you," Old Crow nodded, this apparently a skill he had neglected to teach before. "Let''s start with the dull edge first. Don''t be afraid to draw a bit of blood when the time comes."

    And so everyone got to work. Irwyn and Aaron were figuring out possible loopholes, Maxim how to handle a knife in very specific circumstances, Kalista looking for the slightest twitch of wakefulness and Rainer being silent so that everyone can do their job. When they had things figured out Old Crow spoke out a list of instructions and they tried to practice, however, soon their time ran out.

    "She is waking up," Kalista proclaimed, standing next to Rainer at the far end of the room; both had their arms crossed and tried to look as intimidating as possible. Maxim immediately took his place with a knife on the caster''s throat, the artificial light behind them making it very clear that he was the tallest and bulkiest person in the room, even to someone who could see only the shadow. Irwyn took his place in a chair directly in front of her but with some distance while Old Crow and Aaron adapted similar poses to Rainer and Kalista.

    Then it was go time.

    ¡°Finally awake, are you?¡± Irwyn said, magic already coursing through him on a hair-trigger. The tied caster half-opened her eyes, flinched ever so slightly and then closed them again as if it was not obvious that she was wide awake. The next moment she immediately tried to gather magic for a spell of some kind. Irwyn did not need to figure out what it was, he immediately shot a prepared beam of half-solid light at her, intentionally scratching her cheek, then bending the trajectory out to not hit maxim before it dispersed. She flinched much harder than Irwyn would have expected, dismissing her own spell; that also made the knife in Maxim¡¯s hand draw blood from her throat making her certainly aware it was there.

    ¡°None of that,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°Try that again and I will give the big guy behind you a signal to slit your throat,¡± he said, maintaining a poker face, thankfully a skill he had perfected. Maxim grunted in affirmation as deeply as he could, probably sounding threatening to anyone who did not know him. The caster went silent and so did Irwyn. Old Crow had very specifically advised him to let her speak first if things turned out like this, so he just stared. The first great hurdle had been passed, so that was great; she stopped casting when Irwyn interrupted her with a spell of his own. If she had not the situation could have crumbled quickly.

    ¡°Fine, what do you want?¡± after a minute she could no longer bear the silence.

    ¡°You are not asking the questions here,¡± apply more pressure, surrender no initiative. ¡°And my question is: Who are you?¡±

    ¡°Of course, you don¡¯t even know,¡± she actually scoffed, gall suddenly returning to her alongside anger. Did she assume that we had targeted her? ¡°I am none other than Alira von Blackburg! 17th in the line of succession, and you will release me this instant, peon.¡±

    ¡°I do not think that is going to happen,¡± Irwyn shook his head processing. 17th probably wasn¡¯t the main bloodline, unless her Ladyship Avys was¡­ no, she certainly was a daughter of some branch family or something, who knows how mage lord family successions work? there certainly were not any books he had found on the topic. ¡°You are too dangerous to let go with what you know about us.¡±

    ¡°Like I have the time to deal with rats,¡± she scoffed again, playing on the arrogance. That needed to be broken through.

    ¡°You seemed quite curious snooping around. Not to mention that you have taken your time with a lot of people these past few days. And none of us are fond of becoming a ¡®fool who saw even less¡¯,¡± that at least got a reaction: She went quiet again seeing that they knew; she did not even try to deny the ritualistic murders. Instead, she looked around the room. Irwyn could almost see the gears in her head turning, looking for a weakness. Old Crow had none to be seen, as old and experienced as he were that was no surprise. Aaron, likewise, showed nothing obvious besides maybe his spectacles some people might be insecure about. Then her eyes wandered to Rainer and Kalista standing next to each other and she made a guess.

    ¡°You know, I heard that some mentalists torture young lovers for practice,¡± she spat with undisguised fury in her tone, looking directly at the pair. ¡°Supposedly taking them apart in front of one another causes an unequalled suffering in each that they may try to replicate in an offensive spell. You will let me go this instant.¡±

    ¡°Hey Irw,¡± Rainer did not stutter or break the cold expression. ¡°Remember how I argued we shouldn¡¯t kill her?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Irwyn nodded even though they had no such conversation.

    ¡°I would like to take that back.¡±

    That seemed to finally break her tempo. She looked genuinely startled by the turn of events for a moment to the point even the anger in her eyes seemingly dimmed. That was the time to strike.

    ¡°So let me simplify this for both of us. We cannot let you go but killing you is a lot of trouble. Therefore there is only one solution: You will swear to me an oath upon Umbra¡¯s name to leave us be.¡±

    ¡°You do not have the qualification to get me into any oaths,¡± she kept scoffing. Her arrogance nor anger abating. That was not a good sign. She was still not afraid at all as far as Irwyn could tell. So he pushed.

    ¡°You do not get to choose. After what you did to all the others there is no way we will let you just go without a guarantee. Killing you would be massive trouble but my guess is we have at least a few days to get the hell out of Ebon Respite before someone comes knocking. You were running all around the city after all, I bet no one knows exactly where you are.¡±

    ¡°Absolutely hilarious,¡± she looked at him without a trace of laughter. His speech did not move her at all. Does she realise we are just bluffing? ¡°How about you stop jumping at shadows and watch your own!¡± she proclaimed with all the bravado in the world. Irwyn expected something to happen, pushing his senses as hard as he could, magic manifesting over his palms in anticipation.

    But nothing did. The room was unmoving. Not a speck of magic manifested or so much as shifted anywhere besides his own. What was stranger was that Alira seemed to be genuinely confused. Then the arrogance suddenly broke, giving way to tangible fear. Whatever had given her all the confidence had apparently not worked. Irwyn sweated and tried not to think about what if it had.

    ¡°More willing to do as I say now?¡± he used that moment of her insecurity to speak.

    She hesitated for a solid while but eventually, to Irwyn¡¯s immense relief, acquitted. ¡°Fine, what do you want me to swear.¡±

    ¡°You will swear to me upon Umbra¡¯s name that you will indefinitely not directly or indirectly harm us, be it physically or otherwise. Never knowingly do something that you believe would directly disadvantage us nor attempt to make anyone else do so in your stead. You will interpret this oath as restrictively as the words allow.¡±

    ¡°Swear to whom?¡± she asked and Irwyn hesitated. But just for a moment.

    ¡°You do not need to know my name, if you do not already.¡±

    ¡°Fine. I swear it then,¡± she tried.

    ¡°You will repeat my exact words and swear it on Umbra¡¯s Name,¡± Irwyn, obviously, did not consider that enough. She struggled against the idea, clearly offended by the very thought of it, but eventually, that gnawing fear of death had won out, reinforced by all the tricks Old Crow had hastily bestowed upon them. And so she swore, on Umbra¡¯s Name.

    Irwyn felt the vow form, an undeniable bond manifesting between them from naught, fettering each to their words, albeit Irwyn had sworn none in this case. He also realised that it took something from each of them, exactly what he was not sure. Perhaps there is a limit on how many such oaths can be taken. For a moment he was afraid that someone would immediately notice Alira¡¯s oath as soon as she returned wherever she had come from but then the feeling suddenly fizzled out. He could no longer feel the faintest trace of the contract.

    ¡°I hope I never have the displeasure of meeting you again,¡± she scoffed one last time, but not as willfully as before, while magic gathered within her. Irwyn prepared a counter just in case but was feeling confident. ¡°Impresence of the Void,¡± she said and vanished again, seemingly slipping out of her bindings with no issue. Irwyn felt her as she opened the door and rushed out. He remained silent until she was out of the building and out of what he could sense.

    ¡°She is gone,¡± he sighed and sagged in relief. It went as well as they could possibly expect. No one was dead and they were as safe as they could hope to be given the circumstances. He could see Waylan through the now open door, still providing silence with the enchanted stone, most of the ¡®adults¡¯ as well as Narcinia who seemed to be rather exasperated about the whole situation.

    ¡°So now we hope it worked? And if so we also bet that it cannot be just removed.¡± Aaron questioned, as logical as always, though even he was clearly quite glad it was over.

    ¡°I felt the oath form between us. And I felt it take something from each of us. Even if it is possible to null an oath sworn on Umbra, which I doubt would be easy, it might not be worth it to lose something over nobodies like us.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope it is that way,¡± Old Crow nodded. ¡°Either way, we don¡¯t really have the option of running away. There is no escape from a dedicated enough pursuer. It¡¯s best if we just act as if it worked completely because there is nothing we can really prepare for in the other case.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s calm everyone down and return to planning,¡± Aaron sighed. ¡°A few hours ago I received a confirmation: The artifact, or whatever it actually is, left with a heavy escort yesterday morning marking their arrival in 3 to 4 days. We will have to steal it before they realise Ebon Respite is essentially a lit powderkeg and move it or increase security; which means we will act on the day it gets here. Let¡¯s go back to planning.¡±

 1.11 Live and take

    The city stank.

    Not just the usual stench of the slums, mostly because they were on Road Street, but something far stranger and fouler, unlike anything he knew to compare it to; no one else, seemed to smell it either so it might be magical in nature and omnipresent.

    Either way, he had to put that out of his mind. They had been staking out this place for almost three days now and a carriage literally leaking mana, even though there were several restrictive enchantments as far as Irwyn could tell, had finally rolled up in front of the labyrinthine warehouse complex. Well, the carriage part was mostly Kalista speaking since they were hidden on a roof a bit too far away for him to properly see with the naked eye. He just felt the magic, and he also did feel most of the source move as Kalista reported four figures leaving the large carriage with a large strongbox.

    ¡°That is definitely our mark,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°I can feel it a bit better now but it is a bit strange. The magic leaking from within tastes a bit like both Fire and Light but not quite like either.¡±

    ¡°I have no clue what that means.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sorry. I think I can also suddenly feel two casters, they were probably hidden in the carriage, but their presence is¡­ faint.¡±

    ¡°Two smug-looking assholes in bath robes commanding around the two grunts carrying our loot,¡± Kalista confirmed as the quartet entered the building. ¡°Faint?¡±

    ¡°How to put this... One of them is definitely Void but they just don¡¯t feel that much like Void. For example, if Alira felt like 10 out of 10 Void, this person feels more like a 1 or 2. Same for the other one who feels like he would be Time/Space.¡±

    ¡°Well, no surprise some poor sod sent as an escort is not exactly up to standards of house Blackburg. Can you take them?¡±

    ¡°Maybe, but I can definitely get a jump on them. If Blackburg agents could not tell I was a caster those two certainly will not.¡±

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go back and call it in. It¡¯s dusk in a few hours and we need to get ready,¡± Kalista retracted her monocular and crept towards the ladder at the edge of the roof. It was better to not stand up and risk being haphazardly seen.

    Irwyn nodded and followed suit. They would do one last round of scouting before going in but one thing was for certain:

    The heist of their lives was happening that very night.

    <hr>

    Irwyn was damn nervous and the consistent stench did not help. Still, their group walked through the tunnel. Maxim, Waylan, Rainer and himself all went in while Kalista, as well as another group, waited outside to give support if need be. They had many contingencies but the plan itself was relatively simple: Get to a wall adjacent to the vault, burn a hole through it without the mages noticing, let Rainer unlock the strongbox and then get out before things went to hell.

    That probably was not going to work which was why they had a cartload of back-ups for every scenario they had managed to think up.

    The tunnel was a blessing as it spared them the trouble of actually getting inside, apparently, it was an escape chamber leading from the warehouse manager¡¯s office though it could also be used to get in if you had an inside woman who knew that the current manager never stayed overnight and was not particularly strict about how to keep secret layouts plans all that secret.

    They filled into the office and Waylan immediately went out to scout as he would for this operation. In the meantime, Maxim made sure his uniform was properly adjusted, which it was; he looked perfectly like just another guard on a night shift. He would be their rear guard.

    Waylan returned to the room and gave them a hand sign of all clear. They would not speak a word before the heist was over or things went way out of control. The group snuck out and went down the agreed-upon route, fully based on the map they had all memorised.

    Waylan generally sneaked ahead of the group and warned them of any possible patrols, the hallways were dark but not pitch black, the occasional wall lamp providing just barely enough light to see their ebony-clad figures if one knew they were there.

    Irwyn counted the turns and how many times they had gone straight at an intersection, comparing it to the image of the layout he had in his head. He had the advantage of being able to roughly feel where the vault was at all times so navigation would be down to him in case everyone else lost track.

    And it was much harder than just following a fixed path. Waylan had to take them on multiple detours because of patrolling guards. Even with all the insider knowledge they had, it was impossible to actually rely on matching the supposed guard patrol paths. The guards were people and with minimal oversight, they realistically went wherever they felt like, some even just resting against a wall somewhere, alone or in chatting groups.

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    Maxim even had his broken lantern prepared, as well as a cursing explanation of it breaking and a comment about complaining to the shift manager that they knew the name of. Fortunately, that did not come into use.

    As they were getting close Irwyn tapped on the wall, just loudly enough to gather attention on him. They were in a short hallway, Waylan having just returned with an all-clear. With hand signs and a bit of pantomime Irwyn conveyed what he felt: That only one of the casters he had felt earlier in the day was there, the Void/Darkness one. Unfortunately, they were also inside the vault.

    That was not the scenario their group had hoped for. Best case the casters would not be anywhere near. On the other hand, one of the casters was not in the warehouse complex at all, Irwyn was sure of that much. The main reason he could only determine that was the case from so up close was that the over-enchanted vault door and leaking treasure impeded how accurately he could sense the circumstances from a large distance. As they reached the enchanted back wall of the vault, Iwyn could feel the caster was in the middle of the sealed room. He couldn¡¯t see inside but they seemed to be sitting or standing still in place. So Irwyn¡¯s group waited for them to move.

    As confident as they were, there was no way someone inside the vault would not notice the walls melting and react before they got to restrain them. In the meantime, Irwyn got to confirm that the enchantment had not changed and that there definitely was no alarm attached to them.

    It took almost an hour before the caster moved. During that time they had to get out of the way of a passing guard twice, confirming at least that this area was not secured significantly more than the rest of the building.

    When they did move, the caster came to the very corner of the room, one accessible from where they were. Irwyn signaled as such and immediately got to work. Perhaps there would not be another such opportunity.

    Magic built up inside Irwyn as he carefully restrained it from leaking from within his body. He took a deep breath and placed his palm against the wall as everyone moved far away from him. Flames burst from his palm and the wall melted, the stone unable to bear that heat with the enchantment barely helping against a kind of intrusion it was not designed to prevent. He felt the enchantment crumble as a hole was torn into it; in just a second he was almost through, molten rock flowing out with a bit of help from the half-solid flames moving it. Instead of burning straight through and possibly killing the person on the other side, Irwyn leapt from his prepared pose and burst through the remaining few centimeters of the loose wall, tackling the mage in doing so.

    As it turns out they had caught him, for the mage was visibly male, with his pants literally down, sitting on the improvised toilet installed for him in the corner. As the man was dazed Irwyn quickly filled the caster¡¯s mouth with solid, albeit harmless, light proceeding to bind his legs and arms. It was a bit of a gamble but it seemed like most mages needed to speak to actually cast, Irwyn would keep a constant watch over him for any buildup of magic but it was better than constantly knocking him unconscious for however long they needed to open the strongbox.

    Irwyn did not burn. That could not be said about his clothes that he had to hastily extinguish as well some of the fire spreading over the caster. Irwyn¡¯s full black attire was damaged but that much was acceptable he supposed. Clothes were replaceable, all that mattered was that his face remained hidden. Keeping a bit of focus on the gagged and dazed caster he returned to the burned hole. With significantly less urgency he enlarged it and shaped it until he felt like it looked as though someone had dug through. Not that it would make any real difference once someone interrogated the caster but he felt like it was worth the extra few seconds to possibly confuse some investigator later. Then he cooled the rock down, the heat in them had come from his very own flames after all, and beckoned for Rainer to come in.

    Then they got to work on the strongbox while Waylan and Maxim kept watch beyond the wall. They were on a clock now. When someone came by and noticed the torn-down wall there would be only so much time that could be stalled for before someone started yelling alarm across the entire building.

    First off, Irwyn inspected the highly magical chest with their loot, the locking mechanism in particular, and sighed in relief because his most hopeful guess had been fulfilled: Whatever protected the lock was made of void magic. This was the Duchy of Black after all and such enchantments were probably the most accessible. That made things easier for them as Irwyn manifested lockpicks of pure solid light, handing them to Rainer.

    Next, he carefully watched for any hint of magical buildup or a trap while Rainer fiddled with the lock itself. Based on his expression it was apparently very well made mechanically and based on the void magic layers that kept being dispersed it also had a surprising amount of enchantments, though not quite as many as the vault door and without any hint of intention behind the magic.

    It took several minutes, far longer than Rainer would usually take with even the most complex locks, but then it finally opened. There was no click, in fact, no sound at all; instead, Irwyn felt the leaking magic magnify tenfold and spew forth as the opening seemed to interrupt the enchantment hiding it.

    Cautions of a last-second trap, Irwyn motioned Rainer to move away, his friend immediately moving over to the tied caster to move him out of sight from the hole, and carefully opened the strongbox himself.

    Inside was a single crystal.

    But just that word did not do it justice for it was so much more, for within that crystalline structure were contained the very skies. But not night or day or dusk or dawn but all skies and none at the same time. It was like every impression of heavens above had converged into one and despite the impossibility of it had all been merged into one unshakable impression. However, despite the beauty, it was problematic; Irwyn¡¯s brain knew what it was seeing while it was unable to actually translate it into coherent thought or memory, quickly starting the onset of a headache as his mind tried to cope with the illogical images.

    Yet Irwyn could not look away for a part of him yearned. Yet another was melancholic. A few were happy at just the proximity, some screamed in anger. It was confusing beyond words, so many mixed emotions and thought rampaged through him to the point he could not think straight, or even so much as think at all. Instead, he instinctively reached out. He touched the mesmerizing crystal.

    And something awoke.

 The dream of desert skies

    Sunlight caressed Irwyn¡¯s skin as he lay in the scorching sand. As far as eye could see there was only the desert; except at the horizons where mountains of glass stood, closing the entire valley in. The light of the 2 stars overhead reflected off of them, turning the entire region so hot some of the sand had melted into more glass. That only amplified the extremely intense light, dense enough that it seemed almost physical, that is if one had what it took to not be completely blinded.

    It was obviously a very comfortable place for Irwyn.

    He stared at the skies throughout the day and throughout the night, for longer than he cared to count. But that was fine. He had all the time he could ever wish for. And wasn¡¯t time quite an excellent thing? Perhaps third only behind Lumen¡¯s light and Ignis¡¯ flame.

    It was during one such day that a mortal entered the desert. Irwyn felt him from a hundred miles away, such was his presence. Not quite what he would call powerful, but on the brink of greatness. For days that wanderer traversed the harsh wasteland of sand and glass, not stopping to rest even at nights. With purpose they marched until they arrived at Irwyn¡¯s place of rest. Seeing such determination, Irwyn awarded him a glance and a welcoming smile, just like his Mother always would.

    ¡°He who wanders shall find and thus you stand before me,¡± Irwyn proclaimed, people like theatrics ¡°What does your soul desire that it would walk this desert without a second¡¯s respite?¡±

    ¡°Guidance, Named one,¡± the gnarled elderly man answered with a kowtow. Such was the way of these lands, thus Irwyn did not mind. ¡°9 decades ago I have come to this place with my master as he had once with his own. On a pilgrimage to witness a Star in flesh. Back then my teacher was not worthy of your attention and it fills me with humility that I am. My whole life I have dedicated to understanding the stars and suns above. For 3 decades now I have reached the zenith of mortal flesh yet never have I found that final spark. As I approach the end of my natural life I have remembered your form from all those years ago and came seeking guidance.¡±

    ¡°I see!¡± Irwyn laughed. ¡°It is good to see children with ambition. Indeed, I can feel the Starfire churning within your very soul, pleading for that one final leap. To claim the great honour. So show me then, the deepest heart of your magic and I shall tell you what is it that you lack!¡±

    ¡°Then see the culmination of my life. My magnum opus of magic:

    Across the hills broken,

    among children and men

    such words were unspoken then

    that would bind the very Light;

    eternal and bright.

    Like the stars beyond my head.

    And such was their dread

    that the very Flame

    they would try to tame.

    By them torn

    I will have sworn

    to yearn

    and burn,

    that I would never run,

    Be Like The Sun¡±

    And the magic danced. Millions of rays intertwined with thousands of intentions and hundreds of concepts into a canvas of the man¡¯s very soul. Irwyn followed their complex patterns and impossible geometry as they manifested along the chant. Just as the final word fell it all collapsed onto itself, merging into the man¡¯s very being.

    And the effect was immediate.

    The air boiled and sand combusted. The blindingly bright desert valley was somehow outshined by the sheer intensity of what stood there now. The man¡¯s skin was flowing like plasma, his eyes taking celestial brilliance. And in those eyes was made bare the passion and desire. To learn and understand. To truly yearn and burn. For even if the spell spanned at most a few miles, even if it lasted for just a few moments, the man had truly become like a living star. Well, almost.

    ¡°Exceptional,¡± Irwyn smiled as the magic gradually faded out. He, of course, did not burn. ¡°Among the many mortals, I have not yet seen one create such an interwoven spellcraft. Truly, in sheer power it may perhaps surpass some of the lesser Edicts. And yet it is wrong.¡±

    ¡°Wrong?¡± the man repeated, a bit of sweat on his face from the effort.

    ¡°Indeed. You understand much of how stars scorch, how they incinerate and melt. But that is not all they do. Because without one more thing, even if that thing is so minute it will not change anything, it cannot be called a star. Do you understand what you are missing?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± the man shook his head after a few minutes of thought. Perhaps with that hint, he could have figured it out eventually but Irwyn was in a pleasant mood. It was always pleasing to meet a fellow beloved of the skies, no matter how petty they were.

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    ¡°Look above us then. What do you see?¡±

    ¡°The two suns of our world.¡± the man answered after a short deliberation, deciding that Irwyn would not mean the clouds.

    ¡°Almost but still wrong, just like your magic,¡± Irwyn shook his head instead, pointing upwards. ¡°The large one is the Sun of your realm. From when the first stalk of grass sprung he has watched. Every harvest and every tree had come and gone under his vigil. Under his care. For that is what the Sun are: Guardians and caretakers. Albeit at times they bring death, in the end, they do care. It would not surprise me if he knew you by name,¡± Irwyn chuckled and shifted his finger to the other one. ¡°She, on the other hand, belongs to the Sol. A wanderer with no realm to call her own, resting here and there for a few centuries at a time, only ever as long as the Sun finds them desirable upon their firmament. In a way, she is like you: Full of scorching ambition. But unlike you, she does have that small shard of something. You see, stars are Flame and Light. You understand well what The-flame-that-is-origin brings, however, you must not forget that Lumen too is part of every star, no matter how distant to your own path. Do you now understand what you lack?¡±

    ¡°My Starfire¡­ it must have some of that nourishing care,¡± the man nodded, visibly suppressing the smile creeping upon his lips. And Irwyn could tell that now he would without a doubt claim one for himself.

    ¡°It need not be much. Just a thousandth of a thousandth of a percent is enough, perhaps even less. So little it will not change the efficacy of your magic. But it must be there, always and forever. Such is the nature of Stars.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, my path is bright once more,¡± the man kowtowed once again. Then curiosity entered his eyes. ¡°But if you wouldn¡¯t take offence, I wish to ask one thing: Are you too then of the Sol?¡±

    ¡°Hah,¡± Irwyn couldn¡¯t help but chuckle at the question, the man taking no offence and patiently awaiting an answer. ¡°No, for I have no need for a star of my own for a simple reason... Actually, perhaps it is better if I show you. It may also help her.¡±

    ¡°The Sol above us?¡± the mage remembered Irwyn¡¯s earlier words.

    ¡°Yes. In a way, she is much like you. Also seeking a Name of her own. Except she does not have the mortal privilege of claiming one.¡±

    ¡°Do those born immortal need to follow a different path?¡±

    ¡°Yes. What she must do is a feat nigh impossible in a single mortal lifespan, or in a hundred. She must forge a Name from naught. I have seen her wandering the Lightmother¡¯s skies many times before. She too may be close. So I will show it to you both: The paragon which you pursue.¡± Irwyn stood up and flexed his hand. The magic came to him naturally for it was his nature as much as the magic¡¯s nature was him. He needed not a long chant for that suggested effort. He needed not speak the words for them to resound as they were the Truth.

    In my Name

    beneath Light¡¯s skies

    I proclaim

    AN EDICT OF STARS

    And a bubble rose from his palms, ascending into the skies above. All light dimmed, all flames flickered. For just a moment that blindingly bright desert darkened. And then it all erupted anew as the Edict¡¯s magic shone, outdoing in a flash what the stars above could from such a distance. Then it rose further and further, until the very skies changed.

    For now there shone three brilliant orbs instead of two. Three stars.

    ¡°You¡­ created a star,¡± the mortal man gaped.

    ¡°Such is the power of greater Edicts,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Albeit it is not a true star yet for it lacks a soul of its own. But that will come naturally with time, just as ______ has designed. Until then your Sun will look after the shell. Though that also means that he will ask the Sol to leave as few Realms are meant to withstand the shine of three stars,¡± just as he said that it indeed happened. The star of Sol shrank and seemingly fell out of the skies. In its descent, it headed directly towards them. ¡°Or I suppose she will come to greet me first.¡±

    ¡°Salutations from one of Sol to one of the Skybringers, albeit I know not your Name,¡± the voice sounded first, the star itself gone, obscured; instead a lone figure descended. She looked much like a human, or more accurately, humans looked much like her. She carried with her intangible, almost disturbing beauty. A keen observer would realise that she was perfectly symmetrical; not just her features or build but down to every single last strand of her long hair, every smidgen of dust on her face, even the very wind split perfectly around her. Such was the nature of the Name she sought to forge. Her appearance as a thin young woman was a choice Irwyn did not particularly care about.

    ¡°No need to bother with titles,¡± Irwyn flashed a circle of Starfire in a common greeting as he chuckled. ¡°If everyone bothered to name them all I would lose half a day each time I spoke with someone. But no matter, now that you are here, perhaps the both of you have an opportunity. A mortal man and an Empyrean, both on the cusp of greatness. Talk and perhaps you shall learn something from one another. Or perhaps not. That is up to you. As for me, I have enjoyed this place long enough. Yes, I think I will go there next,¡± he raised his hand, snapping his fingers. The two opened their mouths to ask him something but he had spoken exactly as much as he had meant to. So a brilliant flash of light enveloped him, distinct even in the blinding desert.

    And in that flash he stood in a verdant gorge, a river flowed beneath, giving life to untouched wilderness, like the relatively ancient oak trees. It was also indescribably far away from the desert, in a completely different realm.

    All skies were his domain after all. And wherever there were skies he too could tread unhindered.

    He lay down and looked at the skies above. A single Sun waited there, it too was unique. Then the night came and all the constellations were different. Or more accurately, viewed from a different angle. Different perspective. Irwyn would keep looking for as long as he cared to.

 1.12 Words spoken, broken

    Irwyn recoiled as the vision faded, thoughts coursing through his head. Snippets of magic so beyond his comprehension just a shadow of its image caused him a headache. Old feelings that were his but also were not. Just the sheer scope of the senses he never had yet suddenly lost made him dizzy.

    But first among those was the warmth. It was neither light nor flame but right in between. Simultaneously more and also less than the sum of the parts in many ways. It was¡­

    ¡°Starfire,¡± the word escaped his lips and felt just right as it rolled off of his tongue. A flicker of it ignited in his palm and for a moment he just stared at it. He had always felt an affinity to light and flame but now realised that those were just the side effects of this. Controlling the Starfire was so much easier. And perhaps that was not just because his talent with it was better. He felt overall far more capable of controlling magic; to what extent he would need to test extensively.

    Then he registered the constant shaking and insistent stage whispers right into his ear. It was Rainer who at that point looked rather nervous.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± Irwyn whispered back. ¡°Something just¡­ whatever, how long was I out for?¡±

    ¡°Almost 15 minutes. What happened to you and the item?¡±

    ¡°The item?¡± Irwyn looked down and almost cursed. The crystal was gone. The reason why they had thought it might be some kind of consumable thing was that someone had overheard that the mages were explicitly not allowed to try using it. Now Irwyn confirmed why; it was single usage. He tried to feel for it in the surroundings but it wasn¡¯t anywhere. He had unconsciously absorbed it through the vision, or something along those lines. ¡°I think it is gone. We should leave first, I need to wrap my head around what actually happened.¡±

    That being said, Irwyn returned to the awareness of where they were and what they were doing. So he reached out with his senses again and immediately noticed two things: Firstly, the area in which he could feel magic had expanded greatly, perhaps half as far further away then it was just earlier in the day; Far further before his ability to sense things grew too unfocused to actually pick up anything meaningful. The second thing was a cluster of probably 5 casters headed in their exact direction, one suspiciously familiar.

    He immediately dragged Rainer to the hole they had entered through, making sure that the original caster was still very much bound and helpless, and tapped on Maxim¡¯s shoulder. That also caused Waylan to make his appearance from a nearby dark corner.

    ¡°The item is gone, we are made, multiple casters after us,¡± he whispered, thankfully no regular guards had come by in the meantime. ¡°Maxim, you blend in and get out when you can. Keep in mind they might have been told. The rest of us are coming out straight that way and preparing for a chase,¡± the casters were getting closer every second. Soon enough they would be at the warehouse.

    ¡°That be a wall, Irw,¡± Waylan chuckled.

    ¡°Did I stutter?¡± Irwyn said and ran into the wall, directly opposite to where the casters were coming from, summoning that newly acquired Starfire. He found it almost disturbingly easy to infuse them with the intention of burning through the walls. An ability that had mostly eluded unless he was facing death had suddenly become a benign challenge. The walls evaporated in a moment, even the removing the heat so that Waylan and Rainer could run through immediately was instantaneous.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t ya say ya couldn'' do dis shit wen we planned?¡± Waylan caught up first.

    ¡°That was before,¡± Irwyn said, considering between saving his breath for the upcoming dash and explaining. ¡°The artifact, I think, is something that makes a caster stronger. Once.¡±

    ¡°Just for a while or¡­¡±

    ¡°I do not think this can be taken away. At least not the important parts,¡± Irwyn kept burning through the walls as fast as they could jog. He really hoped there would not be anyone behind any of them because as much as he would hate to hurt any bystanders he refused to put their lives at risk by getting through slowly and carefully. One of them got a bit close, standing on the other side of a long corridor as they ran through, he was stunned for a moment by the bright flash of light but by the time he got to run after them they were already a good bit ahead. It did not take them even a full minute to burst out of the building into the night street. That was not much comfort though as the casters clearly noticed and sped up significantly. Irwyn raised his hand and shot a beam of light into the night sky, it formed a specific arrangement of dots and lines, which Kalista on standby would interpret as ¡®do not help, get the hell away¡¯.

    The trio broke into a sprint. A few seconds later he was on the brink of losing control of that signal magic so he tried to make it explode as bright light right in the direction of their pursuers though it did not seem to have any effect.

    They needed to get off of Road street as soon as possible, the night traffic wasn¡¯t much, however, the recent de-facto war between the city and desperate gangs meant guards were everywhere and on alert, especially near a place like this. Irwyn could already see a dozen appearing and heading towards them.

    He blinded those blocking the way or particularly fast with bright rays of light but just the mental strain was already making him sweat. There were so many and each was a moving target. And the casters behind them were getting closer despite them running at top speed. They could not outrun, they needed to somehow hide. But the streets were swarming, if he were to lead the casters away right now he was not sure Rainer could get away. Waylan probably could but this did not line up with what Rainer was good at. He and Irwyn were already wheezing. But if he waited there would not be time for himself to flee. A plan of a sort formed in his head, at least.

    ¡°I¡­ have¡­ an¡­ idea¡­¡± Irwyn managed with labored breaths. ¡°I¡­ need¡­ a¡­ stree¡­t¡­right¡­ above¡­a¡­sewer.¡±

    ¡°Fo¡­llow¡­¡± Rainer did not quite have the leisure to wave as he took charge of their direction. Irwyn could feel that at the current pace the clearly flying casters behind them would soon have a line of sight. The city guards had somewhat thinned at some point as Irwyn kept blinding them. They were leaving the high-class areas and were getting more into the efficient apartments housing workers. Irwyn was not really sure where they were, too busy keeping them from getting swarmed, he understood just the rough general direction. He got to be more aware when the guards decreased; those that usually stayed around these parts had probably already approached to intercept and were therefore mostly already behind them.

    ¡°How¡­ Long¡­¡±

    ¡°A minute,¡± it was Waylan who replied instead, seemingly much more at ease with the current pace. Well, at least he knew who was going to tease him about more exercise if they all made it out alive.

    ¡°When¡­ I yell¡­ ¡®Yearn¡¯... run¡­ and¡­ not¡­ look¡­ back. Danger,¡± he barely managed and concentrated. Unless their pursuers sped up suddenly he might just barely make it. He remembered the vision. That one spell, he remembered it word for word. All the power in it. Of course, it was not something he could possibly reproduce. But if he could summon just a fraction of it, it might be enough.

    In the past month, he had interacted with more casters than in the rest of his life before combined. And everyone, except Calm, seemed to be very keen on chanting these incantations to summon magic. Obviously that made him wonder if he could make use of that. However, he did not know any incantation of Light or Flame. Well, now he knew one spell. Considering he had no confidence in escaping just by throwing cones of flames and beams of light, he decided it might be the best option to gamble on it. So, internally he repeated those words.

    Across the hills broken,

    among children and men

    such words were unspoken then

    that would bind the very Light;

    eternal and bright;

    He felt something shift and tried to focus on the memory. There was too much to copy if he had a week, much less just a few moments. Instead, he tried to copy the very rough shape and bring out a single meaning: That of burning. Or at least a fraction of it.

    Like the stars beyond my head.

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.And such was their dread

    that the very Flame

    they would try to tame.

    And clearly, the casters in pursuit had noticed too because they sped up. It was just a tiny bit, almost frantic. He had perhaps seconds before they had a direct line of sight. At least there were no guards in sight at the moment.

    By them torn

    I will have sworn

    Rainer indicated they were on the right street. Hopefully, he was not wrong because Irwyn¡¯s entire escape idea hedged on there being sewers directly beneath his feet.

    ¡°to yearn¡±

    and burn,

    He yelled at his companions as he stopped his sprint, turning on his heel to face the casters he could now just see coming over the rooftops. Three of them immediately fired some sort of projectile but he did not feel what they were, the spell eating up all his thoughts. He could feel it clearly now. The power of the chant itself. Of those words. Even if he could perhaps bring out only the slightest fraction of what he had seen, just thinking them along with a barely similar image of the structure they were meant to be used through, the amplification was far beyond his own abilities. If this is what words can do, then perhaps the most valuable commodity among mages is not money, but the words of spells themselves.

    that I would never run,

    ¡°be like the sun¡±

    Starfire covered him and erupted. For a few rapturous moments, Irwyn felt everything around him. The projectiles of Void, incinerated in the outburst. The buildings around him, the people watching wide-eyed through their windows. Waylan and Rainer disappearing behind a corner, sticking to his plan without complaint or understanding. The 5 casters, floating in the air, held by threads of unfamiliar magic.

    He wished for them to burn and the spell obliged without any need for conscious effort. Instead of melting half the street, the incandescent Starfire was suddenly directed. Only a small bubble remained around him, the rest erupting towards the group of 5. Two of them had previously created some kind of void shield, one clearly tried to maneuver them out of the way by altering whatever spell had been keeping them flying while the last 2 realised the absolute futility of trying to block this when 4 of them were Voidmages and instead tried to attack the tidal wave with more Void based projectiles. All of them would be futile. Irwyn could tell they would burn to dust. Starfire was still part Light and therefore would annihilate any void protections. His mind did not connect that with the consequences. In the moment of casting that spell he could only feel that endless gratification, for he recognised among them a traitor. A small betrayer. And they would bu¡­

    Then the sixth caster, which Irwyn had never noticed the slightest trace of, shattered the spell with a swipe of an ebony blade.

    Reality came crashing down on Irwyn as the spell, which he now realised had greatly inhibited his capability for thought, was lacerated by a force far greater than its own. There stood an elderly man who was also not quite there. His face was full of wrinkles around his pitch-black eyes, sclera and all, the same colour of everything about him, from hair, to clothing to probably the man¡¯s very soul. And what a wonder he was to look at. Despite the fear and despair Irwyn had to admire that fullness the man had achieved in terms of magic. In the vision, he may have seen great magics but the senses which felt them had not quite been his own. But this? Irwyn knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was the most powerful caster he had ever seen, bar none. Everything about him, from his barely noticeable presence even as he shattered great magics with ease down to every dark corner or alley basically begging to accommodate him. Yes, Irwyn felt it quite well: The man¡¯s very presence changed the world around them. As for who he was Irwyn had a guess.

    ¡°A shadow,¡± he muttered. Or perhaps a Shadow. He would not know how to judge. No wonder Alira had held no fear back then if she believed this master was watching over their shoulders. They had been playing the games of children and Irwyn just did not meet the requirements to realise. Then it was no surprise that¡­

    Then the ground under Irwyn cracked and he plummeted down into the sewers below. Such had been his plan from the beginning: To force them away with the spell while he burned into the sewers, then disappearing before the sewage steam settled and they even realised he had fled.

    How naive he had been, he supposed. There was no getting away from that. Not for him as he was now, perhaps ever.

    His head hit a rock and he lost consciousness.

    <hr>

    Irwyn awoke chained to a wall. Or at least as far as he could tell by the rattle of said shackles and general difficulty of movement. His head hurt bad, not to mention the smell. Then he opened his eyes and saw nothing. It was completely pitch black. He did, however, hear other chains slightly rattling near and close. He tried to feel out, for Light and Flame, almost instinctively and realised that he could not. In a moment of panic he tried to call upon his magic and realised that the chains around him devoured every smidgen of it as soon as it begin to gather within Irwyn.

    As long as those were on him he would not be able to cast any magic.

    ¡°Anyone out there?¡± he spoke into the mostly silent halls, not quite shouting.

    ¡°Was that a fucking kid?¡± someone spoke from the side and the rattling of chains seemed to increase. He was far from alone.

    ¡°Who you with, kid,¡± another voice asked from the other direction.

    ¡°Tears,¡± Irwyn eventually said. He had considered not responding but perhaps he could learn something by being straightforward.

    ¡°Figures,¡± someone else spoke. ¡°I heard one of you once stole someone¡¯s pants while they shat.¡±

    ¡°Yes, though my friend hates it whenever someone brings the story up,¡± Irwyn agreed.

    ¡°I suppose you are not here for ¡®inciting revolution¡¯ like the rest of us,¡± the first voice spoke. ¡°I am Derrick, from Stars, if you were wondering.¡±

    ¡°Donovan, a Snake,¡± the other voice followed suit. ¡°Bunch of people around here but most don¡¯t speak no more.¡±

    ¡°Where are we even?¡±

    ¡°Somewhere below the city administration,¡± Derrick answered. ¡°A chap from earlier was conscious when they dragged him here. Had no clue they had a place like this down. Probably ¡®cause hardly anyone walks out again.¡±

    ¡°Were you with the rioters?¡± Irwyn asked. ¡°I heard the fighting was getting bad, lot of dead on both sides. Lot of bystanders hurt.¡±

    ¡°Nah, it was that cocksucker, Andre,¡± the man grunted. ¡°Stabbed me and my mates in the back. Not a shred of his father in him.¡±

    ¡°I got caught in a revenge raid,¡± Donovan interjected. ¡°Pure bad luck. Got bashed over the back of my head while taking a piss and woke up here. You?¡±

    ¡°I¡­¡± Irwyn hesitated. He did not want to say too much. On the other hand the proverbial cat was out of the bag either way. But how would he even put it? And what repercussions could it have for him and perhaps the others? He had always been very careful to not let anyone outside the Tears know he was capable of magic.

    Before he decided on his words, a low rustle came from a far away distance. Then it got progressively louder.

    ¡°Bang your chains to let those further in know that someone is coming,¡± Donovan advised. "Don¡¯t make eye contact, don¡¯t let them hear you so much as a whimper. Hush now, we can speak later.¡±

    Irwyn did as he was told, the entire area descending to only the rustling of chains and no other sound. He stopped when those around him stopped and waited. It took what felt like minutes before he saw light in the far distance. Then it came ever closer. Eventually, it got close enough for Irwyn to see again; not that he could see much. He wasn¡¯t quite in a cell, it was more like a dead-end corridor. All he could see were the two crude stone walls on both sides of him, a gap for the central path, and an identical arrangement on the other side, except the chains there were empty. And probably not suppressing magic. The only detail was a symbol he did not recognise, probably a way to identify the inmates. There were no iron bars, the chains did enough to restrain movement. Nor was there a toilet of any sort, which explained the persistent stench of feces Irwyn had been fighting hard to ignore. Staying in a place like this over a prolonged period would be torture, perhaps worse.

    The light of a torch finally reached him and surprisingly stopped. Two men in modified guard uniforms had dragged another man through the main corridor which Irwyn had now realised was not very spacious. They tried to put the man they were carrying into the chains but it was quite awkward because of the lack of space; the guards could not both fit into the smaller corridor side by side and one had to carry their torch. The prisoner was also completely limp which did not help. Irwyn noticed that blood was already pooling underneath them, the person clearly injured. The guards apparently saw too because after a few minutes of fiddling with the fetters they decided that just getting the man¡¯s wrists under lock and key was good enough and left.

    The light was almost gone when it suddenly started getting stronger again. Irwyn had thought that the duo was perhaps returning but no, the light was different. It did not have the flickering or orange-ish tint of torchlight.

    Therefore, it was most likely magical.

    Irwyn¡¯s heart clenched as two different figures walked into his field of view. One a tall man, a living shadow that had humbled Irwyn not long ago. And the second a young woman, perhaps younger than Irwyn himself. A smug smile plastered on her face with all the twisted self-satisfaction of someone nursing a wounded ego. It was little surprise though, considering Irwyn had felt her among the casters that had chased him. There she stood:

    Alira von Blackburg.

    Irwyn had made a gamble based on desperate conjecture with a bit of hopefulness. For a solution in a hopeless situation. That an oath made on an Aspect''s Name would be both binding and not possible to negate. Since they were not immediately wiped out in retaliation he had assumed it had worked. Mostly because he did not want to think about the alternative.

    That they lost the gamble with their lives on the line and the other side decided to take their time collecting.

 1.13 Fetters

    For a few moments, Alira just stood there smugly, the magical lantern illuminating her expression. Irwyn thought that she would say something, however, she did not. He tried not to speak either as the shadow fixed him with a bored glare. Except that glare was becoming sharper and sharper. And in those eyes Irwyn saw death, creeping closer every second. There was only so long he could face that before speaking.

    ¡°Why did you bother with bringing me here?¡± he asked and the pressure abated. Alira¡¯s grin, however, only deepened with apparent self-satisfaction.

    ¡°You have to pay for your crimes,¡± she proclaimed. The sick smile both disturbed and disgusted him; because he was powerless. ¡°As does everyone else who ever was in your company.¡±

    ¡°Is it not the will of her Ladyship Avys for children to not be harmed?¡± Irwyn tried. He did not have much ground to stand on, but perhaps a higher authority had the slightest chance of holding. He did not hope for much but for just a split second, her eyes widened with what he knew was her expression of fear. Even if it was for just that short moment he was sure it had been there.

    ¡°You do not understand the Duchess,¡± she spat, not even grinning anymore, just seething. ¡°Exceptions can be made as long as no one finds out. Which no one living will. And I will make you pay for what you did. Not just for what you did to me but because now I know for certain: You were the one who murdered Frederick,¡± then she calmed down, a sick smile upon her lips.

    ¡°So high and mighty you think everything and everyone is below you. That we should just grovel and die when you ask us to,¡± Irwyn scoffed, remembering the man who was called Rage; or Frederick von Blackmaw. Irwyn held no sympathy for someone who would have had only scorn for him. It was not like letting his temper run would make the situation any worse. ¡°You believe yourself so untouchable you would break an oath sworn before an Aspect¡¯s name. I might be ignorant in the ways of the mage houses but not for a second do I believe that such pacts can be broken with no consequence.¡±

    ¡°Who do you even think you are?¡± Alira was all mocking laughter again; though just as malicious as before. She reached under her collar and pulled out what Irwyn could only describe as a black yet glimmering amulet. He did not need his senses to know it was magical. ¡°Fate and Oaths can be subverted for a price. All it takes is to just transfer the cost to something else. Yes, your obnoxious insistent on the Voidmother¡¯s Name does make that more difficult but hardly ¡®impossible¡¯. You overestimate yourself if you think any oath made to a nobody like you has the weight needed to be unbreakable, no matter what other tricks you try.¡±

    Irwyn looked at the talisman again as she rubbed it in. It seemed¡­ too easy. Too convenient of a way to escape from sworn words unharmed. But perhaps that was to be expected. House Blackburg had led the Duchy of Black for centuries and they have had every opportunity to accumulate knowledge and resources. For all Irwyn knew, that talisman could be worth more in raw materials than the entirety of Ebon Respite. Still, it made him bitter and angry. The Aspects may be dead but Irwyn still considered himself someone who followed their teachings. And so was supposedly house Blackburg.

    ¡°House Blackburg proclaims itself the extension of Umbra¡¯s Void upon our realm,¡± Irwyn practically spat. The unfairness of it all was eating him up, not to mention Alira¡¯s arrogance. ¡°Yet you so easily scorn what was sworn on her Name. I do not know the means by which you avoided your obligations but I refuse to believe it would be so easy. You may kill me or torture me for your own satisfaction but one day, and I say this with all my conviction, there will be consequences. Because of what you are. An oathbreaker.¡±

    ¡°Hah, he is absolutely delusional, shadow,¡± Alira just laughed at him while the shadow did not have the slightest change in expression; nor did he move. She, on the other hand, mocked him viciously as she laughed and laughed and laughed. Irwyn averted his eyes, angry and humiliated.

    Then Alira suddenly stopped.

    Irwyn looked again and saw even the shadow¡¯s eyes widen in surprise; Irwyn and Alira were the same. For the amulet had a large crack running across it. And from that crack arose utter blackness, far deeper and darker than a mundane colour could ever achieve. Then, from that one scar, the amulet splintered to pieces. For a moment there was silence. The next instant her screams began.

    Irwyn watched with both gratification and horror as Alira fell to her knees and screamed her lungs out. At first, her head was facing the ground. But when suddenly snapped up and looked straight at him, he realised something that made his skin crawl:

    The book of the Name, in the full edition, specified that the ¡®eyes of nothing for a fool who saw even less¡¯ were originally conceived for necromancers who refused to abandon their magic after the First Betrayal. Alira herself had administered this ritualistic mutilation to her victims all across Ebon Respite. What he had assumed was that such a thing was always meant and only possible post mortem.

    Before him writhed proof of the opposite.

    Her eyes blackened and expanded, practically popping out of their sockets as black tears ran down her cheeks; the very same tears which eroded and burned her skin and then mixed into her bloodstream. Ebony veins popped up across her once pretty face and then seemingly tried to force their way out Alira''s flesh. All the while she screamed without a pause to breathe.

    Irwyn had at most two seconds to watch with morbid fascination until the shadow interfered. A wisp of something Irwyn could barely see left his palm and buried itself into Alira¡¯s neck. The screaming cut off as she collapsed, losing consciousness. That did not stop the veins contorting beneath her skin, as Irwyn clearly saw while the shadow picked Alira up.

    The man looked at Irwyn for a second, his face back to emotionless, he raised his hand and Irwyn¡¯s heart clenched. Is this how I die? But instead, it was that same black wisp from just before. Apparently, he had chosen to not kill him; yet at least.

    Before the spell hit him, Irwyn saw the shadow force open a hole into nothingness, perhaps the Void itself, and vanish with a single step. Carrying Alira with him.

    Then Irwyn was hit and immediately lost consciousness.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    <hr>

    His headache was better when he awoke. The smell much, much worse. It was not just human waste. Irwyn realised it was now mainly the same stench he had been feeling across the city for the past few days. Which was strange because he had thought that was something he could only smell because of his ability to sense magic; which was currently sealed off by his chains.

    Just in case, he tried again but any magic he managed to gather was immediately sucked into the fetters which heated a tiny bit, almost unnoticeably.

    ¡°How long was I asleep?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°You still alive?¡± a familiar voice spoke from the side. Irwyn knew that he was the one from the Stars but realised he had already forgotten his name. Something starting with D.

    ¡°Yes, for now. Not like I am not completely¡­ fucked,¡± he allowed himself a curse.

    ¡°I thought they killed you¡­ Didn¡¯t know the tears had a caster.¡±

    ¡°That was kind of the point. If no one suspects it, no one would look for one.¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t you magic us out of this place?¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately, these chains eat up any magic I try to cast.¡±

    ¡°Well, ain¡¯t we both fucked.¡±

    ¡°Was there not another person earlier? D¡­ D¡­¡±

    ¡°Donovan. Yeah, they dragged him away before. I wanna say a few hours ago, not long after all the screaming with you, but for all I know, it could have been days. Or less than an hour. Been here for a while now, fucks with my head.¡±

    ¡°I think that is the point,¡± Irwyn grimaced. The cold, smell and desolate darkness were not getting to him yet but he understood it was probably just a matter of time.

    Suddenly, loud rattling sounded right in front of Irwyn, probably from the corridor directly opposite to his own. He looked up but didn¡¯t see anything.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Irwyn asked, the man seemed half-dead when they dragged him here. Instead of an answer, the chains shuddered even more frantically and Irwyn felt like the stench got worse. However, there was no voice. Perhaps the person on the other side was awake but could not speak.

    It was at that time that the distant rattling started from the entrance. Irwyn copied them as he had last time as did the Star, letting people further in know that someone was coming.

    ¡°You probably already understand, but don¡¯t make eye contact. Don¡¯t let them hear you so much as gulp,¡± the man from the Stars advised, either for Irwyn or the newly awoken man. Maybe both. Irwyn stopped moving when enough time had passed but the man opposite to him did not.

    ¡°Calm down,¡± Irwyn loud whispered but it had the exact opposite effect: whoever was opposite to him got only more frantic. Biting his lip, Irwyn shut up. He did not need more attention on himself than he already had. He was not about to stick out his neck for someone he did not even know.

    It took a while before the torchlight grew near, then it stopped right before Irwyn¡¯s corridor. He saw the silhouette of the man across him for a moment, visibly struggling with his bindings, but then the torchlight diverted as the guards apparently entered the corridor right before Irwyn''s. He could hear the rustling of chains being returned to someone as well as muted groans of pain. It was a few minutes, unless Irwyn¡¯s sense of time was already off, before they were done locking the bindings again.

    The guards were probably about to leave when a loud tear followed by harried grunting sounded from opposite of Irwyn. And they noticed. A figure walked into Irwyn¡¯s line of sight, carrying an oversized baton; it looked almost more like a proper club. The guard did not hold the torch so he just blindly walked into the corridor opposite of Irwyn and swung. Audible thuds sounded from the blows as the guard flailed without restraint. But there were no cries of pain nor indication of stopping, just more thuds and rustling of chains. Actually, the rustling was much quieter than earlier.

    It took the guard until he needed to take a breath that he realised something was wrong. ¡°Light,¡± he called out with a bit of a wheeze. He turned around and there was another tear. The guard turned just in time to see the jaws lunging for his neck. Not that it gave him the time to react. With a horrifying crunch, the maw bit out the guard''s throat. The man clearly tried to yell out but that was difficult without a windpipe so instead, he died with a silent scream on his facade.

    Then the apparition was no longer in the shadows and Irwyn could see it in its full terror. It had been bound by both its wrists as Irwyn had seen before. And he realised that the earlier rattling was it struggling hard to break free of those exact bindings. Of course, a mortal body could not quite break solid steel no matter how it struggled. It could, however, break itself. Because where steel was unrelenting, flesh and bone gave way. The creature, its maw bloody, had torn its arms off in the escape. And it was no longer human, that much was obvious. The aggression and the mortal wound, which no one living could possibly inflict upon themselves nor survive, were already enough. But if there was any doubt it was the eyes that made it beyond apparent to Irwyn: They were completely white, as if hollowed out of everything except the sclera. And when Irwyn made eye contact for the slightest moment they burned with relentless and eternal hate. An appetite for destruction beyond sating.

    ¡®You may have felled me but enough it shall be not,¡¯ Irwyn remembered reading those words in the Book of the Name. Spoken by the champion of the Betrayer at the very end of the Great Crusade. When the first lich was slain and even his Name was forbidden and forsaken. ¡®We each have sworn, engraved it upon the father¡¯s gift. To never forget. To never forgive. From the frailest to the greatest we shall never stop. Never waver. Until all is dust.¡¯

    In those eyes, Irwyn saw those words reflected. The eternal grudge of the undead.

    Then the zombie, if that even was what it was, silently ran after the guard who had been trying to flee with the torch while screaming.

    After the initial shock faded, Irwyn realised that he needed to get out, immediately. With an undead running around it was only a matter of time until his turn came and deprived of his magic he would be helpless. Not to mention there could be more.

    He did not understand his bindings, therefore the only option he had was to try and overwhelm the enchantment. With desperation he began gathering as much magic as he could, the chains quickly devouring it. But he grasped for more and more. And for each bit, the chains grew ever so slightly hotter. In less than a minute they were hot enough to burn skin in an instant. Too scorching for anyone to touch or hold onto. So fiery that they began to glow red.

    But Irwyn did not burn.

    As he poured more and more magic into his fetters the metal gradually began to contort, unable to withstand the ever-increasing temperature. It was a testament to the enchantment¡¯s craftsmanship that this was not enough to even disrupt its magic. It was only when the metal melted, when it dripped down Irwyn¡¯s skin and sizzled on the ground below, did the restriction finally break.

    Irwyn took a steadying breath as his magic returned to him. He summoned his light and strode into the corridor. Not far away was the second guard, next to a torch that was slowly burning out on the ground. The man was still bleeding from the neck.

    Then Irwyn, to his horror, tried to sense magic. There was some in the remnants of his chains, he could feel much in the distances, especially directly overhead. That much he had expected of course. What disturbed him so was that he could not sense the undead in any way. And to judge by the sudden silence and complete stillness?

    It had certainly sensed him.

 1.14 Behold the dead, they know only hatred

    Irwyn stared into the corridor for at least a minute. Still there was no motion, not so much as a sound besides the rattling of chains. With dread he had to admit one thing: The undead was aware of him and intelligent enough to act like this.

    Irwyn had many areas of confidence, reaction time and close-quarters combat were not among them. It would be incredibly dangerous to try and walk through the main corridor and rely on burning the zombie to ash before it shattered his spine. So he absolutely did not do that. Instead, he erected a wall of solid but somewhat transparent light in place, blocking off the direction the creature had run off into. That way at least he would have an early warning even if it couldn¡¯t stop it. Then he backed off to where the Stars goon was fettered, though he only located him on the second attempt, the first corridor he had looked into was actually empty.

    ¡°We need to get out of here and we need to help each other,¡± Irwyn told him. It would be dangerous to put any trust into the man later but for now, they were allies of necessity.

    ¡°Get these damn chains off me and I will call you my new boss.¡±

    ¡°No need to go that far. Just don¡¯t move for a moment,¡± Irwyn instructed. When the man properly stilled he approached and carefully cut the fetters about in the middle using his flames. He knew that metal tended to conduct heat but he was not sure how much or how quickly and burns were never a good start to a desperate alliance. When he felt that it was actually not as bad as he had feared he recut a bit closer to the Star¡¯s limbs, freeing him with just a bit of chain hanging off of the man. He looked into the corridor, the wall of light was still blocking the way out off, and picked up the dead guard¡¯s dropped baton.

    ¡°Ok, take this, we have a serious problem,¡± then he handed the weapon to the star. ¡°I hope this one works for you.¡±

    ¡°No worry years of practice,¡± the man stretched his hands and legs, then did a quick practice swing. When he walked into the corridor he saw the dead man with their throat ripped out and did a double take. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you did this one.¡±

    ¡°No, there is an undead somewhere in the exit¡¯s direction,¡± Irwyn pointed. ¡°It has lost both arms but I have no idea where it is, meanwhile I think it knows exactly where I am. I can burn it quickly but I am screwed if it manages to jump me.¡±

    ¡°So I go ahead first. Well fuck,¡± the Star cursed. ¡°Better than the other options I suppose. Let¡¯s get out of here before your Blackburg friends come back to burn this whole place down.¡±

    ¡°That will be an absolute mess,¡± Irwyn sighed. They had killed unrelated people over a failed robbery. He did not want to think about what would happen over this. ¡°But we can only worry about it if we get out alive. I will create you some light, we need to check it one corridor at a time.¡±

    And so they went. Irwyn would move the barrier of light a corridor forward, creating light while the Star would carefully check each corridor. What they saw¡­ disturbed Irwyn. He had wondered why there were only 2 people talking with him when he first awoke. Just a single look revealed the sheer cruelty of why that was. Half the people Irwyn was pretty sure were already dead, chained in pools of their own blood. The rest were a sorry sight to behold; he did not spare them many glances but very few of them looked like they could possibly walk on their own legs.

    ¡°How come you are fine?¡± Irwyn could not help but ask when they were about halfway through. He kept moving the wall of light to still be in front of them so they could afford a moment of respite.

    ¡°They got so many people to fuck up it wasn¡¯t my turn yet,¡± the man grunted, apparently also in a bad mood from the sight. Irwyn thought he heard someone cry out for help and forced himself to ignore it. He did not have the time to carry a stranger out; nor the physical strength really¡­

    Then Irwyn heard something shuffle behind him. He spun around, saw those hollow white eyes filled with hatred and did not hesitate. A cone of frankly too much Starfire with all the intention to incinerate burst out and the undead was no more; same could be said about several corridor walls. It had been uncomfortably close; if Irwyn had not noticed it sprinting at him from behind it could have been too late.

    ¡°How did it even get behind us?¡± Irwyn gasped, not actually tired just a bit shocked. He tried to really not think about the alternative scenario.

    ¡°No clue, you said you saw it coming this w¡­¡± the Star was shrugging when suddenly the wall of line Irwyn had placed in front of them shattered as something burst through. It was just as they had lowered their guard, just the sheer surprise delayed Irwyn¡¯s reaction by at least a second. So did the shock of seeing the attacking creature: It was the armless undead. The thug had tried to defend himself with the baton but the ambush was too effective. A blow to the temple did not even make the undead stagger as it bit out the man¡¯s throat. By the time Irwyn managed to send a bolt of Starfire his newfound ally of necessity was already falling to the ground with a fatal wound. The undead, on the other hand, was struck by the Starfire, looked up, and rushed Irwyn as half his torso burned away in an instant. Just barely, Irwyn was able to gather up for another cone, stumbling backwards as the undead was burned away just in the nick of time.

    He looked at the Star choking on the ground but it would be too late even if Irwyn could use healing magic; the man¡¯s throat had been ripped out and if he were not dead yet it was a matter of the following seconds. It made Irwyn realise two things: There were more undead and they were smart enough to coordinate over a distance, or at least react to his magic. For all he knew there could be 2 more waiting to ambush him in the next corridor. He needed to protect himself.

    One of the prisoner corridors he was standing next to was empty so he quickly stepped there to put his back against the wall. Then he started to work on a possible solution, shutting down any creeping guilt. Because he had always been trying to hide his magic it had not really occurred to him to create an omnidirectional barrier. The fight with Rage made it seem like he would be able to see any attacks coming from a direction and stop them. As for the other fights¡­ well, they were not exactly normal fights between mages and he had not had much time to think about them afterward. So, he had little idea where to begin to form something like that.

    First off, he tried the obvious: A simple sphere of Starfire to surround him, excluding the wall at his back. But that had a major issue: namely that he could not see anything. Having a wall of flames between himself and any danger was nice and all but it was not worth losing sight. Creating holes to see would not suffice either, the undead had clearly shown a high level of intelligence, perhaps enough to hide away from his eyes and Irwyn did not fancy another ambush.

    After a solid minute of pondering, he tried to implement his second idea. Light, as Irwyn had found out long ago was far more difficult to condense than flames. He could make semi-solid barriers with light that barely gave out any glow but he had never figured out how to do that without losing out on the power. In other words, his solid light did not release a blinding nova when chipped, nor did it have much stopping power. Flames on the other hand were easier to condense, to make solid and saturated, however, it took much longer to create or dispel in larger volume and became far too hard to downscale; in all his training he could not make solid flames thinner than thick knitting needles.

    Starfire seemed to combine the best of both of those attributes.

    A mesh of glowing strings came alive around him. They were almost as thin as hair but condensed to the point Irwyn was relatively sure they would be harder than steel. Not to mention that anything trying to break it would have to withstand the raw heat and incineratory tendencies of his Starfire intended to do just that. The walls sizzled and Irwyn quickly stood up, pulling the cage-like barrier closer around himself and closing the space where he had stood against the wall. The gaps were relatively small, but with how thin each strand of Starfire was, Irwyn could see without an issue.

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    Feeling somewhat safer, he set out, actually feeling pretty good about figuring things out this quickly.

    He was immediately ambushed. It was so soon Irwyn had not even been tense yet. There was still a good way away from where the exit should be and Irwyn was preparing for a grueling long journey of checking one corridor at a time. He was not sure whether the undead had predicted as much or if it was just chance that they attacked him right away. He had no way of knowing if they had already been there if they moved while he was figuring out his magic. If the barrier did not work Irwyn would be torn apart before he could react possibly even if he was not caught off guard.

    But it did work. Because the two undead, one from each side, charged at him directly through the Starfire mesh and quite literally fell apart. The pieces of what had been two bodies fell at Irwyn¡¯s feet, carried that far only by the momentum of the charge.

    The main reason he was not sprayed with their blood was that the sheer heat cauterised the wounds. Still, the red began to pool beneath his feet the next second as things were dislodged in the small chunks; Irwyn immediately stepped further forward while intently not thinking about the gore and chastised himself for being off guard in a place like this.

    Which was the perfect distraction for him to be caught unprepared again as two more undead rushed him just from the next corridor.

    The barrier held steadfast and Irwyn stepped away from the blood again, this time prepared to defend himself from an ambush in the next corridor. But there was nothing. Now that he had a moment to calm down and consider he felt, well, empowered. What could someone even do against this? Well, besides casters, guns, accurate bowmen, probably slings, not to mention pit traps¡­ Alright, Irwyn had to admit he was still far from invulnerable, however, in close quarters against specifically enemies without the option of range he was at an insurmountable advantage.

    However, he was not going to let his guard down anymore. Who knew if one of the undead found a gun somewhere and figured out, or just knew, how to use it? They had surprised him enough as things stood and even though there were very few guns across Ebon Respite it made sense for some to be in this place.

    Since Irwyn had nothing to fear from the rushing undead, he prepared to create a thicker shield in the direction of anyone jumping him just in case of projectiles and then he walked forward; already, Irwyn anticipated the next ambush. But it never came.

    Perhaps there were just no others. Or, far more worryingly, the undead had decided there was no point wasting their numbers on Irwyn and were letting him leave. He could not afford to go and check every single prisoner in the whole dungeon for signs of undeath, especially since many of them were right in the middle.

    It sickened him, because the only choice available to him was to leave them to feast on the few still living.

    Clenching his teeth Irwyn finally arrived at the exit, a solid metal door that was, as Irwyn tested, locked. He melted the steel out of his way and entered. He considered for a moment finding something to block the entry hole but decided against it. Yes, the undead would get out but it was just dawning on him how dire the situation actually was.

    Undead in Ebon Respite? There was absolutely no way this could escape the Blackburgs'' notice. If this was not isolated inside the dungeon they probably already knew. And it was less than a day¡¯s journey by fast carriage to City Black. How long for a group of flying mages? He wondered. And how ¡®scorched earth¡¯ are they intending their resolution to be.

    He picked up the pace as he ran by a more spacious hall with several side rooms. Thankfully, the exit was the only door at the other end, a wide stairway leading upwards without twisting. There was a checkpoint at the top but Irwyn immediately realised that it was worryingly unmanned.

    The checkpoint led inside a building of some sort. 3 long hallways in Irwyn decided that it was probably the administrative office he had been told the dungeon was beneath. It took him several minutes of running around before he finally found an exit of a kind: A second-story window leading to a small garden by the plaza.

    As soon as Irwyn opened the window, the foul stench got noticeably worse. Irwyn was basically certain at that point that it was at the very least correlated with the undead. Because there were a lot of them as far as Irwyn could see. He could see fighting the next street over and unless some gang had managed to get members that fight beyond dismemberment, those combatants were not alive. The guards on the other hand were and were also quite clearly struggling.

    Batons were all good for keeping order but they did jack against enemies willing to get their head half bashed in in exchange for even a glancing blow. Some of the guards had swords, which fared better but not exactly great, and Irwyn was pretty sure he saw some abandoned crossbows not far from the fight.

    He created steps of solid flame to get down, it being significantly more durable than light and he had barely enough control to get his shoes only very hot instead of straight up scorched. Not that it would burn him either way, but running barefoot was not something he wanted to do at the moment. When he was on the ground Irwyn took a short breath, considered, suppressed a curse and then headed towards the fighting. No matter any grudges or differences in ideology, this was a full-blown undead incursion as far as Irwyn could tell. That meant that there was only exactly one side Irwyn could join. And that meant fighting because every undead he killed could be the same as saving someone¡¯s life. That being said, he was not going to go far out of his way, he had just literally escaped prison right after seemingly wounding a Blackburg, but any undead Irwyn saw on the way?

    They would burn.

    <hr>

    Irwyn was finally home. On the way he must have killed, or whatever word he was supposed to use, at least 5 large groups of undead and at least 6 smaller ones. He was careful but there were no big surprises. Being a caster actually worked in his favour because not a single guard doubted him for a moment when he came to rescue them. What was worrying was that he first hit 5 large groups and then 6 small. Unless that was a coincidence, they realised there was someone wiping them out in numbers and decided to split up.

    It also had the side effect that about every gang in the Ebon respite would know he was a caster by the end of the week. Not that that carriage had not long set off.

    The numbers of the undead were frankly staggering. And most of them were from the gangs, their badges still displayed on their shoulders, or other clues on those who did not wear them in the fighting.

    It made sense in a way. Ebon Respite was packed as far as open property was concerned. A few rich folks could afford a private graveyard but most of the people who died would be buried outside the city. That meant getting the corpses out there, the labor of digging graves, and whatnot more. Usually that was paid for by family or rarely by other acquaintances as far as Irwyn knew. The slums did it similarly, except it was the Guild that gathered the corpses for a symbolic, and often waived, fee and used mass graves they kept track off. Dead bodies had to go somewhere after all and few around these parts could afford a full funeral.

    The problem came with the recent massive increase in violence. So close to City Black, Ebon Respite was simply not built with doubled or tripled death rate in mind. The purge by Blackburg agents strained what the Guild could provide and generally threw things into disarray. Then the war between the gangs and guards escalated, not to mention the in-fighting inside and between individual groups, and that was a lot of dead all around the city. Then it came down to common sense and human nature. A dead friend or coworker? Well, you look after them. Make sure they are not left lying to rot. But a bastard from the other side?

    Why not just toss them in the sewers?

    That times several thousand, then the dead begin to rise and there is a disaster.

    ¡°It is me, Irwyn,¡± he crossed the almost-hedge-maze in front of their hideout and knocked on the door. ¡°I do not know the password right now.¡±

    ¡°Irwyn, thank the Lightmother,¡± a young woman of around 12, and Irwyn felt bad for forgetting her name, basically kicked the door open and rushed to hug him, visibly teary-eyed. He looked behind her and noticed the distinct lack of noise from the common room.

    ¡°Did we evacuate?¡± he asked and she nodded.

    ¡°Yes. I should not even be here but I was sent to run messages around the time the molesters started hunting people. I was close enough to here so I decided to hide until it¡¯s over. Can you bring me away?¡±

    ¡°Did anyone mention what evacuation plan we were doing?¡± Irwyn asked as he nodded. Obviously, he would not just leave her here but he had to also move fast.

    ¡°I remember Old Crow saying we''re doing plan C and leaving some clues in Aaron¡¯s office. Dunno what that means though.¡±

    ¡°You would have been told in a few months, once you settled in as an adult,¡± Irwyn nodded remembering the details of that one. ¡°It is basically just figuring out what backup hideouts we use and who goes where so that we know where everyone is. Or at least where they are supposed to be. Alright, I will take you away but I do not have the time to bring you to your group.¡±

    ¡°So where are we going?¡±

    ¡°That much should be obvious,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°I need to speak with the Old Crow."

 1.15 Wisdom of the Old Fowl

    The place Old Crow would be staying at was a regular apartment building in the mediocre part of the city. Irwyn was pretty sure he remembered the address right. Places that had addresses instead of vague directions were much easier to find, if you could remember what the address was that is. Irwyn vaguely recognized the area so he had probably worked there at some point but that was about all he knew about it.

    They entered the building and didn''t seem to raise any eyebrows. Irwyn thought he looked very ragged for the area but considering that the people were mostly whispering about the undead appearing all around the city in the last few hours. And it has only been hours, Irwyn had found out. Of course, pointing out exactly when would be difficult but he had the obvious suspicion that it coincided with Alira getting essentially smitten.

    They approached the right apartment and knocked the password. One long knock, three quick ones and another long. The password would be the same for all the emergency hideouts as it would be essentially impossible to remember one for every place or change it daily.

    "And who might you be?" the familiar and reassuring voice sounded from beyond.

    "Just kids looking for the old man," Irwyn did not try to hide the relief in his voice. If there was anyone who would know what he should do, it would be the old Fowl.

    "Well I will be dammed, Irwyn," the door opened. "Come on in. I cannot wait to hear how you pulled that escape off. Will the two of you have tea?"

    "Sure," the girl Irwyn has escorted here nodded while Irwyn shook his head. Soon she sat in the background while Irwyn and Old Crow spoke, the latter enjoying tea, which was a bit weird because it was Irwyn''s first time seeing him drink the beverage.

    "Is a drink enough to confuse you?" the old man mused.

    "Just seems strange, seeing you do something new," Irwyn admitted.

    "It is exactly the opposite," Old Crow pointed at his cup. "I am reviving an old habit. I remember how I would always drink this particular brew when I was excited a long time ago. I tend to keep some on me out of habit."

    "You and excited?" Irwyn smiled, finding such association with the stoic elder inaccurate to say the least. But the Old Crow''s eyes flickered.

    "I don''t think you quite understand your own achievement," he mused. "But tell me everything, from the start of the heist."

    And Irwyn did. The beginning was without comment as it was nothing unexpected. When it came to the vision Old Crow had straight up asked for a moment to process. He asked some questions, such as if he remembered any names, Names or a few very specific details, which Irwyn did not. He would have to re-read through the Book of the Name, which Old Crow had thankfully brought with him, when he had a moment as Irwyn was almost certain it would give him some answers.

    When it came to their escape the old man first asked to confirm that Irwyn has indeed become able to harness Starfire. Then Irwyn told him of his plan to burn into the sewers with a spell to escape, how he had, for a moment, lost his senses, and how he was utterly overwhelmed despite the power he had wielded at the moment.

    ¡°Do you think you could use that spell again?¡± Old Crow asked.

    ¡°I do not know,¡± Irwyn admitted. ¡°I tried to just copy what I remembered because it was right in my head. I will definitely try to figure things out eventually but I am unsure whether I could do it again right now since those memories are not that fresh.¡±

    Then Irwyn spoke of his capture. Old Crow did not comment on what had happened to Alira, though he seemed to be in deep thought. Sparingly Irwyn touched on what he had witnessed in the prison when leaving. And then he finally got around to the undead.

    ¡°Did they try to use any weapons?¡± Old Crow asked. ¡°Maybe try to speak to you, pretending to be someone asking for help?¡±

    ¡°No, no they did not,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°Actually there was someone calling for help but I do not know if they were still alive. The undead on the street were the same, just using their limbs or jaws. Is that strange?¡±

    ¡°Not particularly. Undead can arise or be made to in many different forms. Obviously, those are classified in some way,¡± Old Crow explained. ¡°What you encountered were most definitely ghouls. People risen in their own bodies not long after death. That being said, ghouls have massive variations and different classifications. Type 0 ghouls are slow and shambling, similar to zombies or other most minor undead that can appear.

    "What you met were the so-called type 1. They are much more intelligent, I have heard comparisons to wolves or cats. They use simple tactics, traps, and know to retreat from a lost battle. They can also communicate over very short distances.

    "Type 2 are cunning, capable of both speech and deception, they know how to use weapons they would have been able to before death. Type 3 retains their full intelligence and whatever skills they held in life, sometimes even enhancing those abilities. Generally, only people with ¡®strong enough personality'' or ¡®potent traits¡¯ can become this kind of undead. There have been cases during lich wars of such creatures acting as infiltrators among the living. The Betrayer¡¯s magic that binds them also allows them to rot far slower, sometimes even hiding the smell for months.

    "After that, it gets trickier. Some call the next type 4, some call it type 3b, I think the Duchy of Black officially prefers 4. Basically, type 4 ghouls are what happens when someone extremely dangerous becomes a type 3 ghoul. Intrinsically, 3 and 4 share the same traits but while 3 are considered lesser undead, 4 are considered greater undead on individual bases.¡±

    ¡°Is that a big difference? Between lesser and greater,¡± Irwyn asked. This was not something he had ever stumbled upon in a book. Or in a conversation really. The attitude most people had about the undead was to try and not to think about it while there was no crisis connected to them happening at the time.

    ¡°Type 3 can often reach death counts in the hundreds, before they are removed. Their ability to hide the main reason for it. A type 4 can slaughter an entire city overnight. Or cause equivalent damage through other means. Imagine an alchemist, with all the knowledge and resources to poison the very air. A physician that can dedicate himself to spreading diseases instead of curing them. An important official that can patiently guide entire regions to starvation.

    ¡°And lastly is tier 5. That is reserved for when a powerful caster becomes a ghoul with all his wit and magic. Although obviously rare, those can be ruinous on their own if not discovered and eliminated quickly.¡±

    ¡°I thought that undead casters were called liches?¡± Irwyn said.

    ¡°There are countless kinds of undead. In the end, we use classification to help us communicate but the undead do not need to adhere to our neat labels. What defines a ghoul is that their bodies remain mostly as they were in life while their souls, albeit deformed beyond recognition, remain firmly attached to that body and will disperse when the body is destroyed. What we call liches are in short undead casters that have anchored their souls to a simulacrum, an external object to which they may return when their bodies are shattered. They are so notorious because they are by most metrics the most difficult to kill undead, only slayable if their simulacrum is destroyed or a significantly more powerful Soul mage takes the field to prevent them from returning. Not to mention that almost all undead casters attempt to become liches themselves if they believe there is a chance of success. That leads to there being relatively a lot of liches in any war with the undead, which is also how they got a name like Lich wars.¡±

    ¡°You know a lot about this, considering you never taught us,¡± Irwyn sighed. It would have been very useful to know earlier in the day.

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    ¡°Well, I did survive 3 of those Lich wars,¡± Old Crow chuckled. ¡°And after the first I would never spare any cost to be as prepared as possible.¡±

    ¡°Are incursions like this¡­ usual?¡± Irwyn had to ask.

    ¡°Usual? Absolutely not,¡± he shook his head. ¡°Especially not this close to City Black. They can detect this sort of thing in advance unless there is someone actively raising the undead, which I don''t think there is for many reasons. My guess is that someone was told to deal with it and ditched their responsibilities hard. Maybe hunting down a grudge over a promise rather than doing their duty.¡±

    ¡°You think Alira was supposed to deal with it?¡± in a way it did make sense. Heiress of house Blackburg with all those other casters around her? If there was a way to prevent the dead from rising it was not a stretch that Alira¡¯s entourage could get it done without any more backup.

    ¡°Exactly. Either way, there will be a hell to pay for someone.¡±

    ¡°Will there be another purge?¡± Irwyn could not help but ask.

    ¡°Irwyn, why do you think the Guild is allowed to keep existing?¡± Old Crow smiled strangely instead of answering.

    ¡°Because it would be too hard to root it out?¡±

    ¡°That might be a part of it. But no. The simple truth is that through the Guild every facet of crime is organised to some extent. There are basically no thieves, thugs, muggers or what-not without clear affiliation to one group or another. And that means that everyone has something to lose. In other words, everyone has something to fear. Because if they destroy the guild, which house Blackburg frankly could with relatively little hassle, there would then be individual criminals again all across the duchy filling the vacuum. And from there it is a simple equation of effort: Either spent incredible resources on protecting all their assets against interest from desperate thieves or intimidate everyone at once with the occasional show of force; make sure that no criminal ever crosses their bottom line and if they do that it doesn¡¯t happen again. On the scale of the whole duchy, even counting the lost taxes caused by crime of all kinds they actually save an incredible amount of resources. So no, there will not be another purge in Ebon Respite. Because if there is, the city¡¯s underworld will completely fall apart, ground thin by recent events.¡±

    ¡°But to be sure, would that not require them to have many collaborators? People in very high places in the Guild or the gangs,¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°Obviously it does,¡± Old Crow¡¯s smile did not slip as he sipped his tea. ¡°I could actually point them out to you in Ebon Respite. I think I know everyone who is on the take from house Blackburg, controlling the underworld to fit Blackburg interests in exchange for the occasional favour or gift.¡±

    ¡°Do they not have any problem with all this cruelty? With their dead friends rotting in a cell.¡±

    ¡°Think about what gangs were not hit particularly hard during the original purge,¡± Old Crow shook his head. ¡°They might find it distasteful but in the end, when it comes down to us or them? I bet anyone would love to have house Blackburg behind them when their hounds are unchained. As for the murder spree caused by Alira, she was acting of her own discretion, completely unaware of the fine balance of things as they were. Or maybe just ignoring it.¡±

    ¡°You think or are you certain?¡±

    ¡°The latter. Because I know how many important people under Blackburg¡¯s thumb she killed without even thinking about it twice. It will take years, and a lot of resources, for them to rebuild the damage she had caused. And that is before we take into account the casualties of the desperate gang attacks or the undead. I think what you saw in the prison is the same. I know the usual Blackburg doctrine for a situation like this and what you described certainly is not very much alike.¡±

    ¡°I still do not like it,¡± Irwyn admit. A lot of people were dead or maimed. People who had nothing to do with the cause of the purge in the first place. Even if no close acquaintance got hurt it was still firmly in the category of ¡®hurting people for no good reason is bad¡¯.

    ¡°That¡¯s fine. It will be a few years before you get properly dragged into the Guild¡¯s politics. Just keep in mind what I said,¡± Old Crow shrugged. ¡°Now let¡¯s talk about how you will escape the city.¡±

    ¡°I will be escaping the city?¡± Irwyn repeated, a bit surprised.

    ¡°Obviously. They might not be able to afford another purge here but you have still gravely wounded an heiress to house Blackburg, no matter how low in the line of succession. There is absolutely no way you can stay in Ebon Respite. In fact, you should not stay anywhere close to here.¡±

    ¡°Do I even have a chance of escaping when they look for me? I saw what that shadow could¡­¡± Irwyn was saying when the Old Crow interrupted him with a hand gesture.

    ¡°Despite what it might seem like, house Blackburg is not exactly united. Without getting into specifics, branch families and the main line have rivalries and disagreements among each other. Now I don¡¯t think anyone would be brazen enough to openly shelter you but there is no doubt in my mind that whatever branch family Alira belongs to has enemies in equally high places. The kind that would be willing to obstruct your pursuers just to spite them when I make sure certain memos make it to their hands.¡±

    ¡°But I will still have to run,¡± Irwyn said again. He was, well, surprised. It was obviously, in hindsight, the only solution. But it had not even crossed his mind. For all his life Irwyn had lived in Ebon Respite, at least as far as he could remember. At most he had once or twice been to the outskirts but never any further. Not once.

    ¡°We don¡¯t know how much time you have left before they come looking. And you must be out of the city by then,¡± Old Crow reached for a map that he had conveniently scrolled up within reach and spread it in front of Irwyn. It was a rough map of the whole of Ebon Respite. ¡°Here is what you will do: You will go to the South, along Road Street until you reach the end of the city. Along the way you will burn every undead that you so much as sniff and make sure that people see you do it. The more the better. Then, as soon as you are out of sight you will put up your hood and return here as sneakily as you can. In the meantime I will prepare you some supplies and money to set you up for your journey. Then you will instead head out of the city to the west. There is no official road there but there is a dirt path. Or there used to be, I will get you an old map. On foot it will be about 3 days before you reach a small village. Don¡¯t let anyone see you there if you can. Out of the village leads a single road further Northwest to the town of Drathsol where the Guild has a presence. I will figure what areas of the duchy you need to avoid and send you a letter with more directions. If the worst comes to worst, you can try to head further West and reach the Duchy of Yellow. They will absolutely not deny assylum to a talented light caster like you, however, only do this as a complete last resort because if you do that it would be a small humiliation to the whole of house Blackburg. That is when the Duke himself might hear about you and decide to not let you get away with it.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Irwyn was breathing a bit hard but he understood the plan. Old Crow would know the best way, when it came down to it he always did. ¡°Can I say goodbye to the others?¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately, the people you really want to talk to are in the opposite directions of where you need to go. And there really might be no time to spare. I will retell your story when this mess blows over.¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± Irwyn stood up, steeling himself. Old Crow was right. Time was of the essence, he could process what he was feeling later. ¡°Thank you,¡± he nodded and turned towards the exit.

    ¡°One last thing,¡± it was at that moment that Old Crow called out. Irwyn turned around just barely in time to catch a small trinket the Old Crow had hurled at him. Confused, Irwyn inspected it before his breath caught in his throat. It was just a small ornament: 3 claws forged in silver to form a proper foot. The craftsmanship on the level Irwyn would expect from the most high end shops in the whole of Ebon Respite, not something given to him. And it was a heavy thing that he had been granted; not because it weighted much but because what it represented.

    A silver Fowl¡¯s foot.

    ¡°This¡­ do you mean¡­¡± Irwyn was at a loss of words.

    ¡°Absolutely,¡± Old Crow¡¯s smile grew wide, almost ear to ear. ¡°Or do you think there is anyone else in the Guild who had outspelled an heiress of house Blackburg? Oh, don¡¯t give me that look. Even if the truth is a bit different the main point remains: There is no one among the younger generation that is your equal in spellcraft among the guild. And now that there is no point in hiding that, I figured that I might as well make it official. From now on, if anyone questions who you are, reply, and say it proudly, with your title. For you are unequalled. For you are the Young Mockingbird.¡±

    ¡°Thank you¡­¡± Irwyn was at a loss for words for a moment. But then a thought crept into his mind. ¡°Why mockingbird though?¡±

    ¡°I felt like it fit someone who spat into the face of house Blackburg and then probably lived.¡±

    ¡°I should make sure that is how it goes,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Thank you again. For everything. I cannot overstate how grateful I am for all you have done for me.¡±

    ¡°You can figure out your speech on your way South,¡± Old Crow nodded. ¡°And it will hardly be the last time we see each other. Go out and grow. Make allies, make enemies. Suffer and grow. So that one day you can come back here, look down at that brat of an heiress to house Blackburg and watch her kneel in submission.¡±

    And so he went. Following the plan to the letter. When he returned for the supplies they did not speak again because if Irwyn were to say everything on his mind he might remain for a full day more. When he was on the edge of a treeline, on the brink of a forest he had never seen despite being just an hour of jogging away from where he had spent his whole life, he looked around at Ebon Respite. A small, probably backwater, city. Rife with industry and suffering. Yet it were those streets that raised him and forged him into who he was.

    He swore to himself that he would make Old Crow¡¯s last words come true one day. Then he disappeared behind the trees.

 Intermission: Calm after the storm

    Calm, and that was actually his full real name, looked through the casualty report again, ignoring the annoying crow singing behind his office''s window. Almost 3 days ago the dead had risen all across Ebon Respite and he had been called to figure out what happened. Such a matter could not be taken lightly, however, because an heiress of a major branch was involved it would be too much of a risk to send someone the branches perceived as competent.

    Politics were all about perception after all. Letting someone see what they expected was oftentimes far more efficient than hiding the truth. Case in point: The ''hidden'' man reading over Calm''s shoulder was genuinely convinced that the supposedly inferior mage would be absolutely unable to sense him.

    Arrogance and conceit were such beautiful things. Thanks to them the branches actually believed that the succession struggles were a close affair. That the current Duke got his seat more thanks to luck than through ruthless schemes. And that suited the true House Blackburg, which Calm humbly considered himself part of despite the lack of any blood relation, just fine. If immediately after the succession struggles all the branch families, and there were a lot of them accumulating over centuries of unregulated polygamy, had united, they could have legitimately overthrown the ruling new Duke and Duchess. 3 decades later they were a shadow of what they once were. Goaded into mutual self-destruction by a deft hand they considered weak. Their collapse was only a matter of time.

    He opened another dossier, one that detailed the accumulation of necrotic magic over the days before the sudden rising. Of course, he already knew the document by heart, severe soul surgeries in his early childhood had allowed him to develop perfect memory, among other things, however, it was better if the man who thought himself hidden did not begin to suspect that. It was not quite the time to uproot the pretenders to Pride. The document itself contained two graphs and a commentary. The first was the overall progress of the buildup along with the theoretical expected curve which it mostly followed; then at one point it suddenly spiked by over 300%, about an hour before the first sightings were reported. The second chart represented minute by minute detail of the spike, clearly showing that although unexpected, the increase was linear. That suggested the sudden increase was likely natural rather than caused by an actual necromancer. Though a natural source that could quadruple such buildup was in itself extremely worrying.

    Realising that no, Calm was not stupid enough to read through secret documents when expecting a visit from a stealth specialist, the man behind him finally moved away, opened the door from the inside to pretend as if he was just coming in and then took a seat opposite of Calm, finally dismissing the magic and pretending as if he had just arrived.

    ¡°Good of you to finally show up,¡± Calm feigned annoyance as he looked up from his paperwork, leaving a quick note and a bookmark to really sell his performance.

    ¡°I have other things to do than answer your questions,¡± the man replied with the usual obnoxious dismissiveness.

    ¡°For hopefully obvious reasons I will record this,¡± Calm said and put a recording stone on the table before him; and a second one was already in the special compartment he had gotten installed for this exact purpose after certain experiences. The man before him was a shadow of House Blackburg; raised from childhood through a brutal regime refined over the centuries by the noble family to create properly indoctrinated agents of the highest caliber. A shame that half of them were completely insufferable towards Calm, despite their similar backgrounds; well, in all fairness, they did not know. And not being known was exactly what Calm had worked so hard towards.

    ¡°Serve yourself,¡± the shadow was dismissive, however, Calm felt him sharpen, becoming slightly more alert. It was not a shift in expression or a nervous tick; the man was too well trained for that. What he was not trained in was to fully conceal the fluctuations of his very soul. Why would he need that after all? Soulreading was such an obscure skill in the Duchy of Black and frankly, not usually very useful against elite assassins. The only hypothetical use was hiding from necromancers who could sense souls and those abilities were already restricted by the advanced soulwards any high-value agent would have prepared for such a mission despite the incredible cost.

    ¡°Just to reiterate, I am speaking with the shadow currently codenamed Oxen, please confirm.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that is me.¡±

    ¡°His Lordship the Duke...¡± Calm started, intentionally not mentioning the Duke by name because he knew the person across him had somehow got it in his head that Calm was not worthy of it. ¡°...would like to hear from you the reason that young ladyship Alira von Blackburg, which had been under your care and guidance, had not fulfilled her duty of preventing undead from rising in Ebon Respite.¡±

    ¡°She had been injured,¡± the man replied curtly.

    ¡°Who could have done such a thing under your eyes?¡± Calm faked surprise, raising his eyebrow. Then he immediately corrected it, reinforcing the impression that he did not have perfect control over his expressions. Avys had spies everywhere so he had obviously heard at least a description of the sorry state the young ''heiress'' was in; to Calm it seemed more like a curse than an attack but he was no expert in Void magic.

    ¡°They will be taken care of,¡± the shadow did not elaborate.

    ¡°That implies that such a person is still on the loose,¡± Calm immediately deduced. ¡°This is not a simple matter. You have the obligation to report such dangerous individuals.¡±

    ¡°He is not a significant threat,¡± the shadow genuinely thought despite the half-dead state of his charge, no matter how incompetent that one in particular was. ¡°And my obligations are to house Blackburg. Not to you.¡±

    ¡°I have the sigil to act with the Duke¡¯s authority,¡± and he produced such from his pocket.

    ¡°Then I can confirm its validity and return to this conversation next week,¡± the man said, his petty scheme clear: He wanted to stall until he and his backers could cover up the situation. Even if they could not lie in an investigation afterward, it would be difficult to ask questions Calm didn¡¯t know about or interrogate people he never suspected were involved.

    ¡°Fine, I will communicate to the Duke your unwillingness to cooperate,¡± Calm manufactured a frown and felt the man¡¯s thinly veiled smugness. He considered the situation for a moment and decided that he needed to know. The situation was fresh and had possibly massive implications. It was worth the cost. He had prepared a contingency for this situation though using it was going to reveal a bit of his competence and put the opposition on guard. ¡°One last thing then,¡± Calm sighed to make the shadow believe he was admitting defeat and tossed him the sigil to ¡®validate¡¯ at the same time he activated an enchanted stone imbued into a ring. It was actually relatively advanced for an accessory: A heavily encrypted speaking stone. One of those that could be re-calibrated to connect with different members of the same spell network. The person on the other side was prepared for the moment.

    ¡°You will not move or attempt to flee, shadow, in the name of House Blackburg,¡± the voice spoke. ¡°Nor will you hide, attempt to prevent yourself from hearing further commands, or intentionally lie.¡±

    ¡°You¡­¡± the shadow snapped to attention with sudden surprise, so much so that a little even leaked into his facade. Then came anger, but smothered with just a bit of fear. Because this was a strategy designed specifically against people like him. To ensure loyalty from their most fearsome assassins, they were each bound by very strict oaths. Not the spoken kind, rather, the 4 pages of carefully reviewed text forged into a contract that used up the kind of binding materials the Duke had to approve personally kind. Among them, they were obviously strictly bound to obey house Blackburg and its heirs. It was a fetter that they were incapable of breaking even if willing to die. There, of course, had to be some distinctions and exceptions. It would, for one, be ridiculous if a relatively unimportant bottom heir barely clinging to the title could just order them to sabotage or kill those above him. So in order to completely restrain a shadow working for the branch families, all he needed was someone who technically outranked everyone who could be possibly involved in the wording of their oath. That being said, Calm could not just contact someone all the way in City Black. In the one second it would take to form the magic, the shadow would realise what was happening and escape before any commands could be imposed upon him. An oversight in the ancestral contracts that house Blackburg had not adjusted for generations, one Calm suspected to be intentional; because this sort of trick could work both ways.

    Calm waited for a few more seconds before a young woman entered the room. Although she was already 17 Calm struggled to consider her attractive rather than just cute, despite the engineered beauty she possessed. Such things apparently happened towards children one knew from their birth. He allowed a smile to form on his face, for all of the people he pretended to she was one of the few he genuinely cared about, as far as he knew at least. Her features were much sharper but her long ebony hair was just like her mother¡¯s when they were the same age.

    ¡°Young ladyship Elizabeth,¡± the shadow almost hissed, still so off balance he failed to control his emotions fully. But he could not escape from this trap. If he had been more on guard he might have noticed the familiar girl waiting in the lobby of the hotel next door to the administration. But the shadow did not check; why would he, in an area with no hostile threats to someone of his power.

    ¡°You will answer truthfully from now on,¡± she reiterated just in case and took the seat Calm offered her as he stood up. The Duchy of Black was still strict on hierarchy so on a semi-official occasion like this he stood half a step behind her. She would likely insist to make it up to him later with a tea party or whatever new trend she might have come to fancy since he last saw her. ¡°Tell me, how exactly did Alira get injured?¡±

    ¡°I am not completely certain,¡± he tried.

    ¡°Then tell me what you believe,¡± but Elizabeth had been taught better than to fall for that trick.

    ¡°I believe she was struck down for breaking an oath,¡± he didn''t grit his teeth while Elizabeth played the part of a stone-cold interrogator, but Calm could tell that the man wanted to.

    ¡°Did she not take precautions?¡± she pressed.

    ¡°I had personally ensured she was using a class 4 talisman. And it had worked completely fine before it suddenly broke,¡± a few more words than necessary, Calm noted. Probably pride over even the suggestion he had let her break oaths without sufficient protections.

    ¡°With whom and how did it happen?¡±

    ¡°Some nobody thief with a bit of magic,¡± the shadow said, completely emotionless in voice again while his mind was venomous, finding someone else to direct his anger at. ¡°The talisman worked just fine. Class 3 would have already been overkill for someone like that, but I decided to go a bit higher because they had insisted on an oath directly to Umbra. When we had him captured, young ladyship Alira wanted to gloat and met him face to face. When he called her an oathbreaker the talisman inexplicably and suddenly broke.¡±

    ¡°And where is ¡®he¡¯ now?¡±

    ¡°Gone¡­ He escaped.¡±

    ¡°Gone? How?¡± Elizabeth broke character out of sheer surprise. She was taught very well but still relatively young. Even Calm himself had felt severe disbelief.

    ¡°I left him unconscious in manabane chains when young ladyship Alira was injured and prioritized giving her medical attention. When I returned I found this,¡± he reached into the empty air as magic rippled. A secure storage in the Void itself, in a corner so far away from anything the odds of it ever being found by someone else were nill. The Void was vast beyond comprehension, even all the denizens of it occupied barely a fraction of a fraction. Then shadow withdrew a hunk of mangled metal. Chains, except their ends had been badly damaged. Melted, he realized.

    ¡°How much blood was left behind?¡± Calm asked. Shadow looked at him and kept his mouth shut.

    ¡°Answer,¡± Elizabeth commanded him.

    ¡°No blood. Or anything else.¡±

    ¡°How is this even possible?¡± Elizabeth questioned, unsure.

    ¡°Manabane chains work by draining any mana as it is drawn from the vessel, preventing spellcasting,¡± Calm explained. ¡°This power needs to be expelled. A common design expels excess mana as heat and it would be, theoretically, possible to feed them enough mana to make the metal melt. However, that would also quite literally burn off the limbs of anyone held by those chains.¡±

    ¡°Yet there was no proof of injury left behind,¡± shadow nodded and Calm could tell he also wanted to know how this happened.

    ¡°It would be possible,¡± Elizabeth realised. ¡°Mages who have attuned themselves excessively to an element can become increasingly resistant to the element and even its natural manifestation. However, the melting point of enchanted steel is not something a nameless mage should be able to withstand,¡± her eyes turned to the shadow who had introduced the mage as a ¡®nobody¡¯. To his merit, the shadow spent a moment thinking. Calm even felt the exact moment he came to a logical conclusion.

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°It was an after-effect of the artifact,¡± he said with confidence. ¡°He retained resistance to flames I did not detect because of the chains.¡±

    ¡°Artifact?¡± Elizabeth frowned because that word was not used lightly; and it was rather late into the conversation for it to come up now.

    ¡°The thief used some kind of consumable artifact to temporarily allow him to control Starfire at the level of early conceptualization.¡±

    ¡°Compared to?¡±

    ¡°I have observed him beforehand struggling to wield basic intention,¡± shadow replied. And Calm had to admit it was quite the leap in power. An entire stage, bypassed. But that wouldn¡¯t distract him from the real issue in the sentence.

    ¡°So you are telling me there is a rogue mage who had achieved early imbuement,¡± Calm said. Such power was just on the boundary of what all shadows would be compelled to immediately report ¡°That is a reason more to tell us everything about him. We cannot have someone capable of destroying smaller settlements overnight just wandering the city.¡±

    ¡°We are looking for him,¡± shadow said. ¡°He was seen leaving Ebon Respite in the opposite direction of City Black. It is only a matter of time until he is hunted down,¡± and then they would make sure there was no witness to their own incompetence willing to share.

    ¡°You neglected to mention how they got their hands on an artifact,¡± Elizabeth returned to the subject.

    ¡°It was stolen from a vault in the city in a night raid.¡±

    ¡°And were you aware that they were planning to steal it?¡± Calm immediately latched on.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Then I know who to direct this complaint from Marquis Longstrider about an unidentified magical item of significant potency going missing along with the staff guarding it,¡± Calm raised the associated report from the pile on his desk. ¡°Which coincides with the many reports of mage combat the night before the undead rose," He could almost see the timeline now. "Why did you allow young ladyship Alira to take an oath.¡±

    ¡°I was instructed by her father to not interfere unless she was in danger so that she may gain experience with real life,¡± shadow did not even struggle against that one. It was a relatively common practice across many noble houses in the entire Federation.

    ¡°And what plentiful experience,¡± Calm grumbled, reaching for another pile. ¡°She wouldn¡¯t happen to be the mysterious caster who had been accused of murdering several important figures in the underworld of Ebon Respite, very much including several which had been cooperating with house Blackburg for up to a decade, and had been believed by most interrogated thugs to be the main reason for the borderline uprising?¡±

    ¡°Young ladyship Alira had simply been looking for a trace of who had murdered Frederick von Blackmaw while he was in your company,¡± another attempt at diversion from the topic. Though Calm had to admit that had been a mess. He had to undergo several very invasive sessions of enhanced interrogation with a lot of witnesses to be clear of suspicion. Then the case had gone completely cold, until now at least. It was clear there was a new prime suspect.

    ¡°That was not the question,¡± Elizabeth remembered to not get distracted though, just as she had been taught.

    ¡°I believe she has slain some low-lifes.¡±

    ¡°Now correct me if I am wrong:¡± Calm started, a full picture forming in his head. ¡°Young ladyship Alira was hiding through her magic, looking for other targets when this caster found, ambushed and subdued her, forcing her into an oath, I assume one to leave him alone, you decided not to interfere. Then you figured out that this person will be involved in the theft of an unknown relic not owned by her and rather than stopping them beforehand, young ladyship decided to let him have it and subdue him afterward. The time of the broken oath coincides perfectly with the spike in necrotic energies as measured from the capital. It is a known phenomenon that oathbreaking, as it institutes betrayal, may cause an increase in the Betrayer''s magic. Therefore, it is logical to assume it was the broken oath which caused the spike, making the undead rise several days before our projections.¡±

    ¡°Is he correct?¡± Elizabeth, of course, had to ask to get an actual answer.

    ¡°Yes,¡± the shadow said though he did not comment on any potential missing details.

    ¡°Then the last thing we need to know is a description of the caster,¡± Calm nodded. If they could get to them first, who knew what advantage was there to be had. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t happen to have made a portrait already?¡± the shadow shook his head. ¡°I thought as much. Well, I can send out basic descriptions, a rogue caster should not be too difficult to find if he visits any larger city. What does he look like?¡±

    And the shadow answered. In needlessly excruciating detail, to the point, it was difficult to form a coherent image as the description kept jumping back and forth to be as confusing as possible. However, what captured his attention was that when it came to the age, the shadow had just said: ¡°Not old.¡±

    ¡°Be exact about his age,¡± Elizabeth frowned, also noticing, and Calm suppressed his own. Because what reason would there be for the shadow to be evasive about that? Calm could even feel his unwillingness to speak before the man¡¯s oaths forced him to.

    ¡°He did not appear much older than her young ladyship Alira,¡± he internally grit his teeth again. Calm did a double take, barely remembering to make his surprise register on his expression. Elizabeth had the opposite problem as her jaw dropped visibly. The wording again, Calm thought. Although Alira was long 16 she did appear a year or 2 younger. In other words, the mysterious caster could be as young as 16 too.

    ¡°Who knows about this?¡± Calm asked and the shadow looked at him, he felt that anger flare again underneath, even making the man''s visage actually twist ever so slightly.

    ¡°Answer.¡±

    ¡°That would be only me and young ladyship Alira,¡± he said. ¡°The accompanying mages have not even seen him properly.¡±

    ¡°Any contacts, allies?¡±

    ¡°I paid a visit to his gang not even an hour after he was caught but they were already long gone. Without a trace.¡±

    ¡°Which gang was that?¡±

    ¡°They had a tear sewn into their armbands,¡± and that obviously stirred Calm¡¯s memory, along with the description. Of two young men he had decided to share a drink with. But they were not casters, Calm was confident. He had not felt a spec of magic from them; even though they were both strangely resistant to his soulreading and his magical suggestion had a surprisingly hard time taking hold on both he had judged that to be just strange natural disposition. But perhaps he had been wrong. To assume infallibility of oneself is inherently a fault, a principle he had learned to live by.

    ¡°I would request that this information does not spread,¡± he said, turning to Elizabeth.

    ¡°You will not report anything about this caster to anyone else nor anyhow suggest that anyone pursues him in relation to this situation or another reason, nor will you pursue them yourself,¡± she declared to the shadow. It would not last forever, commands wore down eventually if the oathbound struggled against them, which this shadow would, but it would give them the edge they needed. Because in the hierarchy of the contract, even the heads of the branch families did not outrank Elizabeth¡¯s words.

    ¡°You may go now and remember what to not do,¡± she said and the shadow disappeared with one last glare. Calm felt him leave the building but not before the man took the recording gem. Calm had been using pairs ever since that had happened the first time rather than stopping them. Keep as much hidden as possible. Thanks to Elizabeth''s last command the shadow would not be able to share it with anyone for a good while anyway.

    ¡°He is gone,¡± he sighed, allowing his feelings to surface. ¡°Well done. Nothing for me to complain about.¡±

    ¡°He is going to struggle against it, right?¡± she also relaxed, becoming far more casual in private. ¡°How long are my words going to last? And is it even worth it?¡±

    ¡°Talent is a strategic resource,¡± Calm smiled. ¡°If the shadow is right, this mysterious caster might genuinely be your match in magic and talent. Not to mention I suspect I might have met them without realising they had mana.¡±

    ¡°They managed to hide even from you?¡± she raised an eyebrow, not hiding her expression. He had personally trained her in many aspects so she was well aware she could not do such a thing herself.

    ¡°Well¡­¡± he suddenly cut off. ¡°Someone is coming,¡± there was a knock on the door a few seconds later before a young man¡¯s voice sounded.

    ¡°Apologies, I was told to bring up tea,¡± the man was polite and truthful, though Calm did not recognize him based on the voice. That didn¡¯t mean much considering he had always only stopped at Ebon Respite for at most a few days at a time.

    ¡°Come on in,¡± Elizabeth exclaimed when Calm gave her a nod in confirmation. The man, a handsome enough lad, brought a platter with two large mugs. To his credit, his expression did not change when he saw the supposed important official Calm had introduced himself as still standing behind a seated young woman. Calm liked tea, though he usually brewed it himself. He would later inquire who on the staff was perceptive and considerate enough to notice.

    Naturally, he took both cups to his hands first. Poisoning was not common in the Federation but it was a needless risk to take with an experienced poisoneer like him nearby. He caught a whiff of the scent and quickly determined it was not any poison he knew, and he knew most. However, it was very vaguely familiar while he couldn''t quite place the aroma. Exotic. He reinforced his senses and memory with a push of magic and then remembered where from. He had drank this tea in the past; exactly once.

    He looked at the crow, still singing behind the window. He had ignored it, it was just a bird after all. Not a hint of magic on it. And birds could not spill secrets. Only, there was one distinct exception that came to mind.

    His soulreading told him that the young server was completely neutral and professional. That he patiently waited to be dismissed without any significant emotions involved. But when he turned again he was greeted by a wide grin, stretching from ear to ear. Eyes that mocked him for his carelessness.

    ¡°Damn,¡± and the bird had heard everything that was just said. Calm allowed himself the biggest outburst of genuine emotion in the last decade and then calmed down again. He needed a cool head for what was to come.

    ¡°Damn indeed,¡± the old bastard sat down where the shadow had sat just earlier.

    ¡°What is happening?¡± Elizabeth asked, realising something was wrong.

    ¡°It just so happens that good young Calm is not as faultless as he would like to be,¡± the man bowed deeply in the chair, reaching for his face. Then as he rose, he tore off the mask, meticulously prepared to be truly lifelike without a smithereen of magic, and revealed his real expression. That of a withered old man.

    ¡°I apologise, I should have suspected something. This is, unfortunately, an old acquaintance. He is a very major figure of the Guild that governs the underworld all across our Duchy, as it has for over a century. I have closely worked with him during the succession wars where he had rendered vital services. However, in doing so he had managed to grasp multiple secrets too important to risk leaking. Thus this man had become too dangerous to kill and basically blackmailed house Blackburg into far better terms than the Guild deserved after your parents obtained their rightful position.¡±

    ¡°Terms which had been broken here,¡± the old man said with that reserved smile.

    ¡°You are well aware this was not within our control.¡±

    ¡°That does not stop me from demanding the rightful compensation. A lot of people have died.¡±

    ¡°You do not feel like magic,¡± Elizabeth interjected. She had been staring hard, trying to detect anything.

    ¡°Of course not. Magic is not the only path to power. Though I do have to admit that it would be foolish to follow the others in a place as rich in mana as your Duchy Federation,¡± he waved at the crow behind the window which waved back at him and then took flight. ¡°Mine is in particular so obscure even where I come from few would know how to deal with me, so used to dealing with only other mages. People like me will never have a chance to claim a Name, but I did not have the talent for it anyway. And for all my deficiencies, I have managed to become the one man house Blackburg has come to somewhat fear.¡±

    ¡°You should not overestimate how much damage what you know could do,¡± Calm stared at him, not allowing irritation to take root.

    ¡°Yes, yes, I jest,¡± the old man waved his hand. ¡°I know how much I can get away with. I still have maybe 40 years left in me and would rather not spend them running from elite assassins. Though I would like to congratulate young ladyship Elizabeth on reaching the imbuement stage as you mages call it, which I believe is at your age considered ¡®unbelievable¡¯. Unless something has changed in the last 16 years? I have largely secluded myself since the last Lich war.¡±

    ¡°I am not sure what you are talking about,¡± Elizabeth tried to feign obliviously though she was taken off balance.

    ¡°There is no point in denying,¡± Calm had to unfortunately admit. Elizabeth¡¯s talent had been downplayed in the recent years so as to not alarm anyone before she was ready. The meteoric rise of her eldest brother had given the Branch families too big of a start and her potential was even greater. ¡°Whatever strange power he nurtures, he can read souls far better than me. And hide his own from others. If you came here you want something, especially now that you have another secret we want to be kept. So what is it?¡±

    ¡°Oh, no need to get so nervous old friend. We actually want basically the same thing.¡±

    ¡°Do we?¡±

    ¡°Yes, of course. I want a personal ally within the main house Blackburg for when your position becomes so stable you decide that you can risk sending someone to silence me permanently. You want ever more weapons to use against the branch families in the preparation of when you inevitably wipe them out.¡±

    ¡°And how would those be the same thing?¡± Elizabeth asked. But Calm already understood.

    ¡°You know the boy,¡± Calm stated the obvious implication.

    ¡°His name is Irwyn. But know? That does not describe our relationship. I have first seen him a decade ago, walk out of a burning hellfire of a building, delirious from fumes but unburned; not even a reddening. I watched him manifest light out of nothing for the first time with the natural ease of a virtuoso. I have witnessed my last fateseeker shatter when I tried to measure his future. That¡¯s why I fully committed to my little project in this small town. Raised him to be as competent as I possibly could. Because I saw in him my own future.¡±

    ¡°You are assuming that we will accept whatever you have to offer,¡± Calm tried to not let him completely control the situation but deep down understood that the man only acted when he knew and controlled all the cards.

    ¡°We both know how Avys thinks, Calm,¡± the old man just smiled. ¡°I am offering her the keys to the heart of an impressionable young prodigy with the potential to one day claim a Name of his own. We both know she would be willing to pay twice as much as I will negotiate for out of respect.¡±

    ¡°Then what? You sell out someone who trusted you so that you can profit?¡± Elizabeth asked with obvious distaste.

    ¡°Sell out is the wrong word, it implies betrayal. He is almost certainly going to be overall far happier than he would have been if I had not taken him under my wings. And I am hardly sending him out to something unpleasant. In fact, I am negotiating for him an envious privilege.¡±

    ¡°Still, you just stay on the sidelines and profit off of your manipulations,¡± Elizabeth still felt wrong about the idea. Perhaps it struck too close to home, Calm thought. ¡°If he truly becomes as powerful as you claim he can, it would make you untouchable.¡±

    ¡°Young ladyship, when two dragons fight to the death, do you know who always wins in the end?¡± he smiled again and Calm recalled those words. He had told him the same when they had first met. ¡°It''s the hidden Old Crow that gets to feast.¡±

 Intermission: There will be a reckoning

    It was not a place because it simply was not. Even the use of the word ''was'' implied the existence of time, which was untrue, or of any concepts considered universal in, well, reality.

    Those few who knew of it called it the Beyond, the not-a-place that could be only reached by passing through the Twilight rift. It was the without of the universe. Because no matter how mighty the Aspects had once been, they could not contain all of infinity when they created their laws and concepts.

    But for the sake of simplicity, the word ¡®there¡¯ would be acceptable to use, albeit inaccurate.

    And it was ''there'' that the only island of reason outside of the universe resided. Just the smallest breach in the less-than-nothingness, a place where time mostly existed, along with the other laws of reality.

    However, the existence of these foundations did not make the place safe. It was quite the opposite, in fact. If anyone were to find this place, which was fundamentally practically impossible, they would realize that only death awaited anyone who came here alive.

    Alive, being the important word.

    For it was this bubble somewhere ¡®there¡¯ which hosted the last vestiges of greatness. What remained of the first kinslayer. Of the being that nigh all others hated. The one so feared even his Name was forbidden and forgotten, lest even hushed whispers of it allow it to reach through.

    For there lay the Betrayer¡¯s corpse. Without a doubt, he was dead, just as all the other Aspects. However, he who held the power over death did not fully abide by its rules. So something lingered, a putrid ball of sheer malice, determined to fulfill the last wish it no longer remembered wishing. A mindless amalgamation of regret.

    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    And from it, for it was a person no more, came the undead. Too many to count, too many for a mortal mind to even properly visualize. The legions had to be endless because between them and their target was the Beyond. And there was no such thing as a straight path there, even if the way was well-trod. Geometry or time had no meaning there after all. Getting to the Twilight rift could take them a single second or a hundred times longer than the universe existed. It could be a single step away or down a path they would never stop walking.

    But that was anticipated. There were enough. Even with near complete attrition, the doorways would always be filled to the brim. Until the first war finally came to a true end.

    And ¡®then¡¯, despite the impossibility of it, the ¡®there¡¯ was found. A single being appeared above the Betrayer¡¯s corpse, yet no undead attacked. It was as if they completely evaded any notice despite standing right there; an observer like no other.

    ¡°This world is a _________

    and it shall be ________,

    for since its very __________

    it has been _______¡±

    His words sounded but then a frown appeared on his face. He looked everywhere at the same time and spoke again.

    ¡°This is needlessly rude. My words make no difference either way,¡± he said, not the slightest hint of emotion in his voice or expression. His eyes still shone that strange gray but not-quite-gray.

    In response, the endless legions stopped. For just an infinitesimal moment they all stared at him and then they continued as if nothing had happened.

    ¡°Do as you like then. We both know that you hold more power than I. But there are other ways my words can be said if they cannot be spoken. So do as you always have. I will remain the observer. But we will see who has the last laugh this time,¡± he finished speaking. Then he wasn¡¯t ¡®there¡¯ anymore.

    And the undead marched, forever and ever and ever and never.

 2.1 All forest trips go and end well...

    Irwyn looked at the deer again, a good two days into his journey through the forest path. It sat on a clearing, staring directly at him as its majestic antlers towered to the skies. He was not very sure how deers worked but he was relatively certain that they were not supposed to usually have ivory crowns that looked larger than their entire torsos. Now if that was all, Irwyn would have just considered it a curiosity. An exceptional specimen. The problem was that he had already done that, half an hour earlier.

    The scenery looked far too familiar. So did the massive deer. But he was pretty sure the path had not circled in any way. There was no connection along the way and except for the clearing nothing really looked all that familiar. Well, it was a forest so a bit familiar, but not strikingly so like the deer.

    He took off his backpack to consult the map. It would be dusk in a few hours and that would make it only harder to get unstuck if he was in a loop. The issue was that Irwyn was really not used to forest trekking. He had lived in a city his whole life. He would probably genuinely freeze in the night if he couldn¡¯t literally conjure up a flame. He had more than enough supplies thanks to Old Crow; though at the expense of everything else. The backpack of mostly food and water should last him for more than long enough but getting lost would cost him time and as someone on the run that was not ideal. The sooner he got to Drathsol, the better.

    With no better option, Irwyn marked the tree he was standing next to with a quick scorched X clearly visible from the dirt path he trod and moved on. The trees surrounded him again. Same-ish but different. The path was overgrown and in obvious disuse, to the point Irwyn had to burn a way through a small thicket or two. That only supported that he was not going in circles as those would not have regrown. The path wound all around, never quite straight, so he could not tell what exact direction he was going or where he actually really was.

    Then Irwyn came upon the same clearing again. The same striking deer with far too overgrown antlers, the same stare it gave him. At that point, Irwyn obviously felt that it was strange. However, he was leery about coming closer to investigate. He felt no magic from anywhere in the area. So if this was mundane, he had nothing to really worry about; maybe someone had placed identical statues around for some reason? Not like Irwyn could tell from that distance. And if it was magical, well, after his last experience, Irwyn knew better than to approach a caster he could not feel any hint of magic from. He looked around for his scorch mark on the nearby trees, did not find it, and moved on, ready to react to a possible magic strike that did not come.

    He headed into the woods and 30 minutes later, Irwyn was pretty sure almost exactly, the deer stood there in that damn clearing. Not sure what else to try, Irwyn walked the next section far, far slower, however, after roughly the same amount of time the deer appeared again. At that point, it was getting dark. After some hesitation, Irwyn decided to deal with whatever was going on in the morning. He headed further down the path and paused after roughly 15 minutes, setting up camp on a particularly long stretch of the road with no immediate corners the deer¡¯s clearing could appear behind after a misstep.

    He set up a small campsite, which meant a dry patch to put his sleeping bag on and some leaves to cover his backpack next to the base of a tree. Old Crow had warned him about scavenging animals in the night though Irwyn was not sure what better solutions there were for that. Then, after some consideration, he opted to erect soft barriers of semi-transparent light around himself. They did not exactly shine, however, they were definitely well visible in the night. On the other hand, the foliage was quite thick and the stars bright so it would not be too bad. He would try to keep it going as he slept, something that he never could do in the past. However, ever since the vision the artifact, or whatever it was, had invoked during the heist he had experienced significant improvements in many facets of magic. Maintaining limited magic while he slept was one of them, even though it left him significantly more tired the next morning. Still no luck with enchanting, unfortunately. But in all honesty, he did not yet have the time to properly explore his new limits, just some surface-level experiments.

    Sighing, he went to sleep, believing that he would at least be shaken awake if his light barriers were breached.

    <hr>

    Well, he was clearly wrong about that point. Irwyn was not sure what woke him up, however, it was still deep in the night. His barriers and campfire were gone. So were the trees of the thicket around him. And so were the very stars above, everything had gone pitch black. The only thing that allowed him to see was the light that he summoned from his fingertips.

    But it was dim. Smothered. He saw only grass and grass as far as his light could illuminate; that and the stump of the tree where he had hidden his backpack, the leaves covering it strangely out of place. Irwyn stared at it for a few moments and then picked it up. Without supplies, it would be difficult to make the rest of the journey and if whatever awaited him could not be overcome with magic he could abandon the pack then; if it even could be outrun in that case.

    He set out, darkness and grass all that engulfed him. No flowers. He finally realised after a full minute of walking. It was just tall grass and nothing else. He wanted to reach the tree line again but after good 10 minutes of walking straight forward, there was still no hint of it.

    At that point he had run a bit thin of patience, suppressing the creeping uncertainty. He felt not the slightest hint of magic. So he decided to give himself a bit more light to see. It channeled through his arm, so familiar, as it rose up in what was supposed to be a piercing glow. Instead, it barely illuminated a few extra meters.

    At that point, Irwyn was basically sure whatever the darkness was, it was magical despite his inability to sense it. And he knew full well that Darkness was distinctly a lesser manifestation of the Void while he was on the run from a magelord household of infamous Void casters. He reinforced his decision that being low profile was probably futile and it would be better to see whatever was happening.

    If normal magical light did not work, he would make it pierce. That intention spread through Irwyn and his spellwork. For a split second, it was day again. Irwyn saw the trees and flowers beneath his feet. Though he would have expected it closer, the treeline was quite distant in all directions. And for a split moment he also spotted that majestic deer, with the crown of antlers that defied expectation. Still sitting on its clearing. Staring directly at Irwyn, because they now shared that patch of tree-less land.

    Then the dark retook hold. Irwyn was flung back into the plain of endless grass.

    ¡°What do you want?¡± Irwyn half yelled, feeling his heart accelerating. Someone or something was doing this. And now that he thought about it, they probably weren¡¯t a Blackburg agent. ¡°I saw you. Come here and we can talk. Or guide me to you if you so prefer,¡± but there was no response.

    With no other option, Irwyn kept walking. He tried to pierce with his light again but it did nothing that time. He walked for at least a full hour, dread welling up slowly with every step. Just as he was considering that maybe he should just stand in place, there was finally a change. A ruined building suddenly towered before him, half sundered remnants of architecture Irwyn did not recognise. Well, his sample size was not particularly large to begin with. It was fascinating but well... hollow. Old walls of degraded stone, supports that were crumbling and not really holding anything up anymore, the clear yet still completely black skies revealed by the missing roof.

    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    When Irwyn entered his field of view expanded, no longer quite as suppressed. Ever more proof that something was consciously guiding him here because his light was stopped exactly where the holes in the ruins were. At least he could see the whole structure. Not that there was much beyond what he could tell from outside. It took him a moment of staring at the monotone walls to notice the anomaly. At the far end, and he thought it was no coincidence that it was as far away from him as possible, there was writing on the wall. 3 symbols that looked nothing like any language Irwyn had ever seen. Clearly, he was meant to approach.

    ¡°So a young one comes! And just in time!¡± a booming voice sounded right behind Irwyn who flinched. He had not noticed any movement, much less any magic but behind him now stood a form. That of a deer with those gargantuan antlers. Except it was changed. Its eyes now distinctly glowed with emerald green while the form was different too. It unnerved Irwyn and it took him a moment to realise why. Because the deer was now leaner, the teeth had gained slight sharp tips no herbivore would need, its very legs had been strained like a spring, prepared to pounce. That not the appearance of a deer but that of a predator dressed as one, down to the most minute details. Irwyn could not imagine who would possibly manufacture such except nature itself.

    ¡°What do you want from me?¡± Irwyn stepped away warily, ready to fight back immediately. Not that he gave himself good odds. Or any odds for that manner. He still could not feel any magic. And the last time he could not feel the magic from someone had taught him a lot about humility and futility.

    ¡°It is fortuitous that a child of men comes at such a time!¡± the voice was booming and echoed, even though the place full of holes should probably not allow for such acoustics. ¡°For it is thee who is here. Brought by fate, demanded by the time of need. You come into my domain when a duty is required! For herein lies sealed a He. A kin to the first one forsaken and forgotten. One forsaken from death itself! But alas, the seal I have kept wavers. It grumbles and strains and crumbles. Had you come any later than tonight it would have broken free to the dismay of all that yet live. So fulfill thy duty: Rewrite the words of the seal before you. BY A MORTAL SOUL, IN MORTAL BLOOD!¡±

    ¡°BY A MORTAL SOUL, IN MORTAL BLOOD!¡± the last sentence echoed, but not quite. It was as though the voice spoke it not once but a thousand times over in the same moment and then let it defuse as countless echoes in a cave, which they were certainly not in. The part about ¡®fated¡¯ was also slightly jarring in context because, well, it would be difficult for him to follow the instructions.

    ¡°I apologize,¡± Irwyn started carefully. ¡°But I do not believe I can fulfill what you demand of me.¡±

    ¡°WHAT?¡± It exclaimed with a hint of fury. ¡°Is a little pain so precious to you? That you would doom yourself, this entire nation, and perhaps the whole realm just to avoid a bit of discomfort? Are you truly so small and petty, one of fate?!¡±

    ¡°Please do not misunderstand. It is not that I am fundamentally unwilling. It is just that I am fundamentally unable to do as you ask of me.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± the deer looked at him and Irwyn was pretty sure he saw befuddlement replace some of that predatory tension. ¡°A child could do this.¡±

    ¡°I think it is easier if I show you,¡± Irwyn sighed and put down his backpack, deciding to demonstrate with ink rather than his blood. The deer, whatever it really was, let him rummage through it until he found a pen. Thankfully, the Old Crow had packed one without realising it would be useless. Then Irwyn approached the wall with the 3 symbols and copied the leftmost one. Or at least tried to. He genuinely did his best, trying to get down the shape in one long stroke. It was also very simple, 1 central straight line intercepted by two more straight lines roughly through the middle. However, when the pen moved away what remained was nothing alike. The image was disrupted, twisted into strange shapes his hand could not have physically produced. There were gaps at places he did not lift up the pen and doubled lines despite him only ever moving forward. All in all, it was so wrong that it was straight up implausible.

    ¡°Do that again¡­¡± the deer apparently agreed because even the echo and deepness of the voice disappeared. It was suddenly much more humanoid, Irwyn would wager even female. His original attempt just vanished with no trace of any magic. Not complaining Irwyn did. The result was both different and the same. It was still nothing alike the symbol, however, it was also wrong in many different ways than the first try.

    ¡°Unbelievable,¡± she muttered, and the voice distinctly belonged to a woman. The deer approached to investigate Irwyn¡¯s drawing from up close, forcing Irwyn himself to basically jump out of the way of the oversized antlers, almost stumbling to the ground. ¡°Oh, sorry,¡± the deer absentmindedly apologized, seemingly not acknowledging the complete 180 in its demeanor. Then the massive antlers just vanished. They did not fall off or shrink back. One blink Irwyn saw them, the next they were not there anymore. He also realised that the stars were back and he could see the thickets beyond the ruins.

    ¡°Alright, you have to explain to me how you did that,¡± the deer turned to Irwyn, borderline casual, which really did not go well with the stature of a slightly deformed ancient beast.

    ¡°I am not exactly ¡®doing¡¯ that. It just kind of happens,¡± Irwyn admitted. ¡°But first, was there not some great evil about to be unleashed?¡±

    ¡°Forget about that, this is WAY more interesting,¡± the deers just dismissed Irwyn¡¯s concerns. Considering the complete lack of urgency in those words, Irwyn figured the situation had been significantly exaggerated to him just before. ¡°Alright, EVERYONE, GET IN HERE! You need to see this!¡± Irwyn felt the magic in those words deep in his core. Which was strange because he still felt no other magic from the deer.

    ¡°Oh, yeah, sorry about that,¡± the deer said, seemingly knowing what he was thinking. ¡°Like this and that aaaaand, you should be fine now,¡± as she spoke the world opened up to Irwyn again. The magic was suddenly obvious to notice. It was very well controlled, however, nowhere near invisible, taking on the vibrancy Irwyn associated with Life/Vitality. In fact, it enveloped Irwyn from every direction to the point it was absolutely ridiculous he had not noticed even a hint of it until that very moment. How had she done that?

    ¡°Well, you are really, really perceptive for a human but you are still completely reliant on your body of flesh to tell your soul what is happening. At your level, all the information has to go through your brain when it wants in or out. All I need to do is convince your head that you feel nothing and then there is no practical difference.¡±

    ¡°Can you read what I am thinking? I do not think that was Soul/Mind magic.¡±

    ¡°Nah, she can¡¯t,¡± it was actually another voice that answered. Irwyn turned around and saw¡­ a massive soap bubble. Big enough to fit his whole torso. It did not have a mouth but the voice came from within. ¡°Howdy, chuckaboo. You got a Name yet?¡±

    ¡°No I don¡¯t,¡± the deer scoffed back.

    ¡°So imma gonna keep calling you keeps. Anyway, young dude, what she does is that she manages to perceive all those wack bodily functions stuff you less magical beings seem to be intrinsically reliant on. Human brains are hella complex but when you spent the due quantity of time observing how they tick just looking real good starts to suggestionize what''s up.¡±

    ¡°The ¡®due quantity of time¡¯ she mentions¡­¡± another new voice spoke, this time it was a relatively small shrubbery with large roses sticking out of it that had grown out of the stone ground. ¡°...is more like ¡®several mortal lifespans¡¯ than ¡®several years¡¯. Hey, keeps, you got that Name yet?¡±

    ¡°You know well damn I don¡¯t. Stop asking!¡± the deer snapped back a bit, though it seemed in good humour based on the tone. But what did Irwyn know?

    ¡°What¡¯s the commotion up about?¡± a big carp swam through the air. ¡°Oh, hey keeps, you got a¡­¡±

    ¡°Shut up,¡± the deer interrupted. ¡°I will get it eventually and then I will be the one laughing at the rest of you for not even trying!¡±

    ¡°Sure keeps, whatever you say,¡± a massive sunflower with a stem thicker than Irwyn¡¯s arms walked in, and the logistic of that very human-like movement were not actually happening; despite the telling swaying it actually just hovered. ¡°Anyway, this better be really interesting. It¡¯s been a while since someone called like this,¡± and indeed, more strange creatures or things kept appearing. A rock with a face, a monkey with 16 arms, a leaf the size of a table and many, many others. Before Irwyn knew it, it was an entire audience. A party. A fair.

    ¡°Alright, sisters!¡± the deer spoke. ¡°I am genuinely confused about what I had witnessed today so maybe some of you can explain. Show them what you showed me, human!¡±

 2.2 Bamboozled sisters of Life

    ¡°Hey, keeps, why did ya scribble ¡®I am an ass¡¯ on your wall?¡± the bubble interjected, stopping Irwyn from actually showing them. ¡°Had I been made aware that thee was gonna be that bricky with such a confession I would¡¯ve¡¯d asked a gigglemug like you for dat earlier.¡±

    ¡°I was told that the entire nation might fall if I do not redraw this so-called ¡®seal¡¯ with my own blood,¡± Irwyn explained, though even he struggled a bit to understand what the bubble was saying. Is that how other people feel? At least no one tried to interrupt him like he had feared they might. The atmosphere had grown downright jovial but he was testing the waters whether that also extended to him. And he had to be careful, surrounded by powerful strangers.

    ¡°Seriously, keeps, that is what you are telling people nowadays?¡± a cabbage monster actually toppled over, laughing while chuckles sounded all around the place.

    ¡°I am really bored okay?¡± the deer huffed, tried to cross its arms and almost toppled over on the account of being a four-legged cervid. That only caused an additional eruption of laughter and giggles from the crowd. ¡°Not a lot of people walk through here anymore. I need to get the most fun from whoever does!¡±

    ¡°She even implied a great necromancer was sealed here,¡± Irwyn chuckled along, expanding on the story. Unfortunately, the gathering suddenly grew silent at his comment. Well, judging by the stares those with visible eyes were giving the deer, Irwyn realized that part might not have been entirely made up.

    ¡°What... I was being really cryptic okay¡­¡± the deer suddenly looked guilty in a way that an animal really shouldn¡¯t be capable of. It was the direct opposite of its unnaturally predatory anatomy.

    ¡°Was she?¡± the rose shrubbery asked, probably Irwyn.

    ¡°Well, the first forsaken and forgotten has to be the Betrayer, since his Name was obscured from history. And the kin to the betrayer has to be some kind of necromancer. Not to mention you called them a He.¡±

    ¡°Wait, a step back. You can tell ¡®He¡¯ from ¡®he¡¯?¡± the deer gaped.

    ¡°Well, yes?¡± Irwyn thought that was a given which, judging by the murmur in the crowd, it was not.

    ¡°It usually comes naturally to those with great magic,¡± the rose shrubbery explained, ¡°However, your control over magic seems a bit¡­ meager for that yet.¡±

    ¡°I understand well I am still lacking in terms of magic,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Hey, you are pretty good for a human so young,¡± the carp probably tried to comfort him. ¡°You are young right? For a human, I mean.¡±

    ¡°Yep, he do be. A decade passed he mayhaps could not properly even babble!¡± the soap bubble wobbled in confirmation. Am I the only one struggling?

    ¡°So we are actually standing above a¡­¡± Irwyn looked down. He felt nothing of the sort except the spike in heartbeat.

    ¡°No this is just a replica I built,¡± the deer quickly shook her head. ¡°I obviously wouldn¡¯t bring anyone to the place I am supposed to guard. Duh.¡±

    ¡°Wait. You built a replica of a ruin?¡± Irwyn asked before he could stop himself. It also brought the conversation away from the apparent slip by the deer.

    ¡°Well¡­ maybe,¡± the deer broke eye contact again.

    ¡°She built four,¡± the smiling rock proclaimed with finality.

    ¡°I am really bored out here, okay?¡± the deer deflected

    ¡°That does not justify telling a mortal about the damn seal, you venison head!¡± the floating big leaf spoke, accompanied by an angry whistle.

    ¡°Watch it before I turn into a caterpillar and have you for a midnight snack.¡±

    ¡°I might be speaking from a place of ignorance but¡­ why even seal a dangerous necromancer or whatever it is beneath here? It sounds like it has been here for a while, why not just destroy it?¡± the beings looked at each other after Irwyn¡¯s question. They seemed hesitant. For a few moments there was actually silence.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine to tell him,¡± the one who broke it was the sunflower.

    ¡°You sure, flowey?¡± the deer asked, surprised.

    ¡°Starfire is coursing through him at that young age. I can tell that much at least. And you all know that no one hates the undead more than the Stars. Anyone blessed by them will, inevitably, come to despise the undead, one way or another. Of course, if fatty wants to read his Fate and confirm that would be better.¡±

    ¡°Nah, nah and nah again,¡± a voice sounded from an empty space Irwyn had not paid any prior attention to. Except, it was not empty, not quite. The wind? But that also did not feel like it. ¡°I ain¡¯t touching that fucking shit with a ten-year pole. Someone scrambled the usual signs into an ungodly shitty mess. I don¡¯t think the Fatereader could be bothered dealing with this cockery.¡±

    ¡°Do you know who meddled with your Fate?¡± the deer turned towards him, hungry with curiousity. Irwyn thought about it for the moment just to not give an insult but he obviously had no idea who would have possibly done that. As far as he remembered he had not met a Fate caster in his entire life. Yet saying ''no idea'' was unlikely to satisfy his hosts. Just host? he was not sure.

    ¡°There is no need to answer,¡± the rose shrubbery stopped him. ¡°My sisters here seem to be forgetting that some secrets are better to be oblivious to. We do, however, owe you an explanation for the promised entertainment,¡± Irwyn expected some pushback or comments but none of the other contradicted the shrubbery. In fact, they had stopped their bickering to let her speak. ¡°Are you aware that when someone claims a Name they stop aging? Or what even a Name entails?¡±

    ¡°Yes, at least for the most part. I have read some old notes that spoke of the base nature of Names,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Well, successfully claiming a Name has other benefits which are largely determined by the Names above the one that a mortal claims. For example, Names related to light are affected by Lumen and her healing so the Named closely related to light gain incredible regeneration and resistance to even the most powerful magical afflictions. The reason why the lich is sealed beneath this forest rather than just destroyed is also related to this. Can you guess from that much?

    ¡°Could it be¡­¡± Irwyn thought and the implication was both obvious and terrifying. ¡°Could it be that those Named supplicant to the Betrayer cannot be truly killed?¡±

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Yes,¡± the shrubbery sighed with tangible emotion, perhaps sadness or maybe something complicated and forlorn that could not be described with just a single word. Or a hundred. ¡°Anyone who becomes Named beneath the Betrayer¡¯s aegis fuses their very soul into that Name. And all Names are by their very nature fundamentally indestructible. Though at least because of that necromancers have a much, much harder time becoming Named,¡± she explained. Irwyn connected it to what he had heard in the vision. Mortals could claim names but immortals had to forge them, or so it was said. He also noticed that the word ¡®claim¡¯ was deliberately not used by the shrubbery. Could it be that a name can only be claimed when the previous holder dies? Irwyn guessed. It would make intuitive sense. He thought about asking for a moment but decided it was not worth it to maybe anger them with potentially secret knowledge. That would just make them ask more questions.

    ¡°Okay, we have completely derailed this entire thing!¡± the deer spoke again. ¡°I did not call you here to laugh at me but to look at this!¡± then the deer tried to point with a hoof towards the wall but in a way that deers were clearly not designed to do and nearly stumbled again. ¡°Show them!¡± she commanded and Irwyn, under many curious kind-of-gazes, did. He redrew the shape and it twisted beyond recognition.

    ¡°What the fuck,¡± the empty space commented.

    ¡°Alright, I did not see that coming,¡± the floating fish admitted.

    ¡°Rocks my whole world view,¡± the literal rock said.

    ¡°Could you not?¡± asked the sunflower and not towards Irwyn.

    ¡°This is strange. I don¡¯t think I have ever seen anything like it,¡± the rose shrubbery spoke after many comments and it surprisingly seemed to silence the chatter with even some mutters of surprise. Irwyn would guess that whatever hierarchy there possibly was, the rose shrubbery was high on it. ¡°How have you done this?¡±

    ¡°It is not something conscious,¡± Irwyn grinned bitterly. ¡°This just happens, whenever I try to write or do anything remotely close. I have seen pebbles roll away on a flat surface when I tried to kick them into shape. It extends to other things in my life as well: Anything tangible I physically create seems to fall apart. I have suspected it most likely also stretches to my magic, however, I have been hoping to somehow prove the opposite.¡±

    ¡°Is that a curse?¡± the fish asked.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t fucking feel like one,¡± the empty air replied.

    ¡°What did you feel, old sis?¡± the deer asked.

    ¡°The truth is, I did not glimpse anything,¡± the shrubbery said, then shook along with a chuckle. The others had gone strangely silent again. ¡°All I can tell you is that it is almost certainly not a curse. Whatever affects you, it bears no malice nor intention to harm."

    ¡°If it¡¯s not a curse it could be an oath; fatty?¡±

    ¡°Fucking hell,¡± the empty air cursed another time. ¡°Yeah, I can kind of feel an oath now that I am looking for those signs. But it has to pact a metric shitton of power to alter stuff to this degree. But I¡¯m not looking any deeper into it. I just bet that whoever messed with his fate is responsible for this too.¡±

    ¡°I have no memory of making such an¡­ oath,¡± Irwyn said.

    ¡°And that might be intentional,¡± the shrubbery said. ¡°If it can rewrite the world around you with such ease, there is no reason it couldn¡¯t do the same to your mind.¡±

    ¡°Am I being affected?¡± Irwyn almost stumbled at the implication.

    ¡°Most likely not,¡± the shrubbery reassured. ¡°If the oath was enforced by rewriting your mind it would not bother changing what you write; it would just make you incapable of writing.¡±

    ¡°It is, however, ironclad fucking unbreakable,¡± the empty air opinioned. ¡°I have seen some oaths that make the participants mostly unable to break them rather than imposing a penalty but this goes several steps above that. If I weren¡¯t scared shitless I would want to dissect this.¡±

    ¡°It is for the best we vanish such thoughts,¡± the shrubbery spoke again.

    ¡°Wait, does that mean that I will be unable to ever delve into enchanting?¡± Irwyn quickly cut in, his heart aching a bit. He had long suspected that may be the case, however, he had always held on to hope. The inability to create had always been less pronounced in his magic. As long as he kept his magic connected to him he could shape it, even form simple symbols with it. Even if that only applied as long as he applied direct connection to his magic, he had always hoped to one day be able to genuinely enchant. ''Extremely powerful restriction'' did not lean towards that.

    ¡°Ye cur of folly, think not of what ain¡¯t gonna happen,¡± the bubble interrupted him. "Prithee think for a fraction of a moment about how much time it would take ya. Mastering the intricate art of enchantment ain¡¯t exactly lemon squeezy. It requires some pumpkins quantity of wealth and knowledge to just barely get started, man. Better be to utilize your gifts elsewise.¡±

    ¡°What she meant to say,¡± the deer translated. ¡°Is that learning enchanting is a big commitment. So spending all that time and resources on yourself will be similar or even better in the end.¡±

    ¡°I suppose that is a good point,¡± Irwyn restrained his impulse to sulk. When he looked at it that way he truly had no idea where to get started with enchanting. If he could enchant and had spent years developing that skill rather than further improving his specialties, perhaps the recent crisis in Ebon Respite would have ended differently for him. He had another dozen questions on his lips, however, he did not get to ask them.

    ¡°Enough. We have already meddled overmuch. We have had our fun. it is late into the night and I am sure the young man has places to be tomorrow. Until next we meet, sisters¡± the shrubbery announced and no one dared contradict her. Especially not Irwyn. ¡°fatty, if you would.¡±

    Irwyn felt the sudden build-up of magic. The atmosphere was already dizzyingly dense with magic from everyone¡¯s presence, however, the spike was still distinct, coming from that talking empty spot. Before Irwyn properly processed it he was already somewhere else.

    ¡°I believe this is just before where you were headed,¡± the voice of the rose shrubbery sounded right next to him. ¡°Not much further and you should be out of the forest.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Irwyn fumbled, taken off guard by the complete change of scenery. He had clearly just been teleported with the casual nonchalance that defied his common sense. ¡°May I ask one more question?¡±

    ¡°Be careful young man. Today was very much the exception, not the rule with us,¡± the voice spoke and Irwyn realised he could not see its form anywhere. ¡°You have amused us and that shall be price enough for what you have learned. And I will allow exactly one more inquiry for I already know what you seek as well as that you already know the answer.¡±

    ¡°The Book of the Name. It mentions the immortal daughters of Vitaros, fickle tricksters known as the fae. Yet is that truly what you are? Because some of what I have seen would fit those stories perfectly yet some contradict them directly. I have read of shapes shifting with each breath and bargains both great and terrible, hidden behind devious schemes. But that is not what I have seen. Instead, I beheld the magic of many Aspects unlike the pure Life of the stories,¡± the curiosity was too great. He needed to know.

    ¡°Ah, of course. Rarely do we gather as so. As a sign of respect to one another as well to our guests we restrict ourselves to one form and to one nickname for a whole gathering. But perhaps this would be more up to your expectations?¡± as if to answer the question, the forest changed. In fact, there was suddenly no longer a forest but an orchard of giant roses of every colour and shape. They towered taller than even the trees; thorns thicker than Irwyn''s arms sprouted from the ground and kept growing. In just a few seconds he found the smallest ones reaching above the clouds, completely cutting off the night sky. Then he stood in a desert, a hundred suns shining down on him. Then it was a land of salt covered in unnatural darkness of the void. The next one was so short Irwyn missed it completely, still reeling from the sensory overload. The one after Irwyn found himself drowning in the middle of the ocean, leviathans of the sea swimming past him.

    Then he was back in the forest. Not particularly wet nor dry. No remnant of salt nor sand on his shoes. As if those places had never happened; because they never did.

    ¡°Remember that the Lifegiver is also the Deceiver. To deceive is to change and to live is to deceive. Shape is a suggestion and even magic itself can be fooled. Hope I will still be as generous the next time we meet,¡± the voice ceased and then there was silence, only the background noise of the woods remained.

    Irwyn took a few minutes to collect himself, still dazed. With his first step he tripped over his backpack that he was relatively certain hadn¡¯t been there when he raised his foot. When he got up he found the dirt path, right next to a marking telling him which direction to go. He found himself leaving the woods at dawn, a full day sooner than he had expected, his head full of thoughts and impressions. Those might stay with him for the rest of the journey.

 2.3 The merchant of Fates

    Irwyn reached the first fields in just a few hours, the sun still a while before its zenith. He had expected as much as they were vaguely marked on the map. He was headed towards a village that was not even named and he would likely not even directly enter. The forest road had vaguely connected to a much more trod dirt path that farmers used to better access their fields, however, if the old map was still accurate the field path would eventually split into two, one leading into the village and the other connecting to the only real road leading out of the village. A barely maintained gravel path that went almost directly to the city of Drathsol, the place the farming settlement exported their crops to. Since he had more than enough supplies he would avoid the village altogether and hopefully reach Drathsol before dusk.

    That part of the journey started off as he would have expected, just a boring walk through the countryside. He made it past the split without issue, not meeting a soul on the way, at most he saw some people working the fields in the distance. Then he was on his way to Drathsol, on a path that should connect to a proper trade road just about a 10-minute walk before the city itself. Unfortunately, there was a sudden and jarring interruption as Irwyn came up upon a wagon standing by the side of the road. It was one of those travelling merchant carts that doubled up as a portable shop with a window on the side. Except, Irwyn noted, that there was no horse to pull it, in fact, there was strangely not even the harness and supports for such purpose that horse-driven vehicles almost universally had, nor was there a seat for the driver. Irwyn was going to pass right by it when the window suddenly opened and from it came a burst of magic Irwyn had not perceived at all the moment before. He jumped back and brought flames just beneath to his fingertips, ready to immediately defend from an attack. However, none came. Instead, a voice called out.

    ¡°Good post-morning to you my friend!¡± a man exclaimed from within the coach. ¡°Now you shouldn¡¯t be so on edge, it does no favours to your health. Youth should be enjoyed, not spent jumping at shadows.¡±

    ¡°Who are you?¡± Irwyn looked at the man with a frown for he felt, without a doubt, a significant amount of magic that he was not even trying to hide. How much exactly was difficult to judge; Irwyn had never gotten a measure of the shadow and the fae were¡­ different than humans in the way they radiated power, at least as far as Irwyn was able to tell. He could, however, feel that this man was seemingly holding significantly more raw magic than Rage or Alira had. And then there was the strange flavour of his magic. Two nights ago Irwyn would have had no clue what it was, however, he felt that it was vaguely similar to the fae that took the form of empty but not-actually-empty space. And that one seemed to have a relation to both Time/Space and Fate/Causality. Maybe their merger, like Irwyn''s Light and Flame became Starfire, though that was just conjecture.

    ¡°...an extraordinary travelling merchant, though you may call me Bhaak,¡± the man slightly bowed as Irwyn realised he had missed the start of the sentence, lost in his thoughts. Stupid to not pay attention when I could be attacked, Irwyn admonished himself. ¡°But it is rude to take introduction but not introduce in turn, wouldn¡¯t you agree?¡±

    ¡°I am Irwyn. What are you doing here, this is not exactly a prime trading spot,¡± and what mage in their right mind would work as a merchant? It was more than suspicious.

    ¡°Awaiting a customer, of course,¡± the man chuckled. ¡°And by the looks of it, I may have been awaiting you.¡±

    ¡°That does not make much sense,¡± Irwyn frowned, more suspicious by the second. This road was scarcely travelled and connected Drathsol only with a bunch of farmers, maybe some average craftsmen at best. Definitely not where you would hunt for customers. That being said, Irwyn suspected it had something to do with the Fate magic the man seemed to possess. Did he divine I would come here? but that would contradict the fae who made it sound like tracking him through divination would be exceptionally difficult, maybe even impossible.

    ¡°I go where I need to go to achieve the best bargains,¡± the man waved his hand. ¡°If I relied only on what makes sense I would hardly earn much the way I do business. You see, I specialise in providing what my customers need, often before they realise it themselves. So, what do you need?¡± Irwyn felt the magic in those last words as something intangible twisted. It tried to reach out faster than he could react but when it touched him it just snapped back. Rebounded. Irwyn took another step back.

    ¡°What did you just do?¡± Irwyn really contemplated summoning a wall of flame between them that very moment. He was probably exposed as a caster anyway. He did not, however, want things to turn hostile against this mage of unknown power and affiliation.

    ¡°You are very sensitive for your age,¡± the man shrugged, still completely casual despite Irwyn¡¯s growing wariness. ¡°Unless, that¡¯s not your real age? Are you a shapeshifter of some sort? It would explain why your Fate is so tangled up. But you wouldn¡¯t be that twitchy if you were older, I guess.¡±

    ¡°That is not an answer.¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes. Definitely as young as you look,¡± the man sighed over-dramatically. ¡°I just attempted a bit of reading. A minor divination if you would. I specialise in getting customers exactly what they need after all. It can be hard to sell a cure to a disease they don¡¯t suffer from yet without a bit of help. But I can do it well enough without a crutch, just watch me. Much can be learned from observation and the surroundings. Where am I, actually?¡± the man asked the question to the air and Irwyn felt magic shift but not towards him this time. It seemingly did not move away from Bhaak before it scattered. ¡°Yes, yes. Coming from a farming village with nothing else in sight but you don¡¯t clothe like that, especially that cloak. What sort of rogue would wear that in a small community? So you are avoiding something or someone, going off the big road but don¡¯t feel so wanted that you would avoid roads and settlements altogether. Very sensitive to magic at your age but I don¡¯t see no heraldry, no sign of allegiance. A young rogue mage then?¡± he eyed Irwyn whose poker face was too strong to give anything over the guess. Internally, he was freaking out though.

    ¡°Well, I shouldn¡¯t pry into the exact backgrounds of my clients. Unless you need someone to share with, of course. I offer therapeutic chats pro bono with any trade! No? Well, back to what you need. A young man trying to keep away from someone. Perhaps¡­ Do you have a mask to hide your face?¡±

    ¡°No¡­¡± Irwyn answered after a few seconds of hesitation. Bhaak was drawing a lot of conclusions that could be potentially dangerous to Irwyn if they reached the wrong ears, however, it was probably riskier to just walk away in the middle of the conversation. The man did not seem like he would detain or hurt Irwyn despite most like being more than capable of doing so. As long as he remained happy, that is.

    ¡°That will do then!¡± Bhaak nodded with satisfaction. He waved his hand and Irwyn felt something contort, fall apart and then come back together. Then a whole counter appeared in front of the man, layered with masks of all kinds and make. From simple cloth to opulent artisan pieces carved into gold. Irwyn stared at it and baulked. There had to be dozens; in fact, Irwyn could see way more than could reasonably fit on the counter. The edges were strangely blurred and the spacial geometry of it made no logical sense, however, Irwyn¡¯s eyes could see all of them just fine. There was definitely some magic going on, but he did not possess the knowledge to figure out what was expanding beyond that space was manipulated to fit more into less. And that the magic was chock full of intention to the point Irwyn could not begin to guess what was what.

    ¡°This¡­ is a lot,¡± Irwyn hesitated. Just taking in the number of masks a collector would not scoff at made him feel strange.

    ¡°Just look and see what catches your eye,¡± Bhaak smiled. ¡°If nothing does, perhaps I can offer something else. I believe we can come to a mutual bargain. I always do!¡±

    With that said, Irwyn humoured him. Trusting a stranger was usually very low on the list of things Irwyn did, however, feeling like the stranger could theoretically easily erase Irwyn from existence with whatever offensive magic Time caster used sure did do wonders for Irwyn¡¯s willingness to cooperate; unless they crossed a line, that is.

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    The mask themselves were impressive. Irwyn¡¯s eyes did not linger at the opulent carvings into various metals. Not to mention how expensive those would have to be, they stood out too much. Just cloth to cover his face did not sit right with Irwyn either though. The ones on display were a bit too brightly coloured and if Irwyn were to use cloth to cover up his face he might as well just burn eye-holes into rags.

    What was far more promising were the wooden masks. They were well carved and most coloured, however, it was clearly ¡®an hour or two of effort by an experienced craftsman¡¯ rather than ¡®a master artisan spent a year on this¡¯ kind of quality. Some were bright and otherwordly, depicting myriad colours and striking creatures, those Irwyn dismissed from his sight. He was looking to hide his face, not wear something even more memorable. What fit his needs better were the animal masks. His eyes quickly went to the birds, he was a Fowl after all. It would be fitting. One colour scheme in particular captured his attention: A black beak and shades of gray adorned it. Could it be¡­?

    ¡°The mockingbird mask,¡± Bhaak announced, and Irwyn snapped back to attention. He had completely lost his guard again. Perhaps there is some such magic at play here, Irwyn shuddered. He hoped that he usually wasn¡¯t this careless. Unfortunately, the whole coach was too heavily enchanted for Irwyn to tell what they were actually each doing. He looked back at the counter and realised that the mask he had been eyeing at the end was the only one he could see. No matter where at the counter he looked, he would be always staring directly at it while all the others were simply gone. Another casual display of twisting space.

    ¡°You clearly went for the bird masks right away. Bird¡­ Fowl. We are in the Duchy of Black after all,¡± the man quickly reached another conclusion. ¡°The Guild is still around, yes? What¡¯s happened around here lately?¡± another blast of magic erupted from the man and seemingly dissipated into the air. ¡°I see. Well, I have to say, becoming a Fowl at your age is impressive, Young Mockingbird,¡± Irwyn felt his usually solid poker face almost shatter. There were two possibilities. Either the man had known from the beginning or he could just instantly find out recent news very few people knew about. After all, whatever letters the Old Crow had sent out, it would have been sent only a few days ago and information in the guild tended to spread downwards gradually as rumours rather than mass announcements. And if he had that power, what more could he just as easily find out?

    ¡°Yeah, I can see why you would be this careful. Branch of house Blackburg is somehow involved? More details. Yeah, an injured heiress is¡­ Ouch. Well, they don¡¯t seem to have your sketches in circulation yet for some reason, not even a proper description so someone might have helped you out,¡± the man kept breaking every expectation. ¡°Well, no need to fret. I have never once in my life let slip a customer¡¯s secret. Not an important one, anyway. But maybe it will help to say you have actually met 2 of my older customers?¡±

    ¡°I have?¡± Irwyn questioned, decisively choosing not to do the same about how Bhaak had determined that. He had given up grasping any control and decided to be lead by the self-proclaimed merchant for the time being.

    ¡°Yes. Old Crow for one. I assume you know him well enough considering he pretty much declared you a Fowl,¡± Bhaak nodded his head. ¡°How is the ancient bugger doing? I have some of his favourite tea in stock when he runs out. Though he apparently stopped drinking after the last Lich war.¡±

    ¡°You sold him tea of all things?¡± Irwyn looked at Bhaak strangely but felt a big portion of the tension leave him. It was one thing to meet an enigma of a caster, another for them to be someone who knew someone. And Old Crow was not just anyone but someone who had been a Fowl as far as anyone could remember. And the man had no real need to deceive Irwyn.

    ¡°Well, he likes a blend that doesn¡¯t grow in the Duchy Federation,¡± the man shrugged. ¡°Though anything beyond that goes under client confidentiality. You can ask him yourself if you want to. That being said, here, the mask,¡± it appeared in Bhaaks hand as he stretched it out towards Irwyn.

    ¡°We haven¡¯t agreed on a price,¡± Irwyn said warily out of habit. Better to know what something is worth before taking it.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see, a mockingbird mask, full face. This one was made¡­ More details¡­ In Steelmire. Huh. Anyway, it¡¯s lightly enchanted to fit better and not restrain the line of sight, though it¡¯s made to be really hard to detect the magic within. Whoever made this definitely did it with stealth and infiltration in mind. As for the cost. Well, I am not in the business of beggaring my clients. Since that is the case, I will take that thing behind your left ear for it.¡±

    ¡°Behind my ear?¡± Irwyn asked and reached there despite not feeling anything with his skin. However, as soon as his fingers reached up it became clear that something was indeed placed there. He grabbed it and brought it before his eyes but the object was completely invisible. All he could figure out was that it was a rod with a bulb at the end. Or maybe more of a stem? Irwyn thought it might be a flower, though he still could not see it nor feel any magic from it. ¡°What is this?¡±

    ¡°An orchid of impresence. It comes from my other client you have met,¡± Bhaak grinned. ¡°She, and only she, can make these. As many as she damn pleases, apparently, though that doesn¡¯t mean she does. They are a collector¡¯s items in some circles and she makes damn sure they remain sparse so that she can extort me with a bunch of them every once in a while.¡±

    ¡°The fae?¡± Irwyn realised the obvious culprit. Invisible yet clearly there? That did fit the description of one of them as well as the flower. ¡°The one they called¡­ ¡®fatty¡¯ I think.¡±

    ¡°Well, that name doesn¡¯t really matter when dealing with them,¡± Bhaak shrugged. ¡°They ain¡¯t got a name until they have a Name, if you catch my drift. Most of them just chose or get their nicknames chosen randomly and change those around pretty frequently. Thinking about it, it was probably the orchid which brought me here. Your Fate is way too convoluted for me to just stumble into it. Bah, I will have to get her a referral fee. Anyway, the mask for the orchid. You wouldn¡¯t have anyone to sell it to anyway.¡±

    ¡°I am hardly a great client, all things considered,¡± Irwyn had to admit as the mask and flower exchanged hands. Paying essentially nothing for an enchanted mask was too much of a bargain to reject. Even if the orchid could be worth much more, it had uncertain value and no clue on where to sell it. The mask would help him in the immediate future, Irwyn was already thinking about when he would and wouldn¡¯t use it.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much about it, you will make it up to me next time,¡± Bhaak just laughed.

    ¡°You seem¡­ sure that we will meet again,¡± Irwyn observed, hoping to get an explanation.

    ¡°Well obviously. The fae don¡¯t recommend just anyone,¡± Bhaak spoke matter of factly. ¡°You see, I only ever make 2 types of new customers. People who are at the last stretch of their lives and people who are at the start of a meteoric rise. Well, sometimes both, but that¡¯s Fate for you. If you live long enough, you will want to buy stuff that makes the mask¡¯s worth look like a grain of sand in the desert in comparison. And of course, I will be there to provide. Maybe next time you will sell me that little thing in your money pouch.¡± the man said and Irwyn¡¯s heart skipped a beat after having mostly relaxed. He had almost forgotten about it but it was there nonetheless. Hidden in Irwyn¡¯s pouch. The crystallised bud of a flower he had found in an abandoned laboratory beneath Ebon Respite. Growing from the skull of a deceased Magelord. Something of value so great Irwyn had no frame of reference as to what it was actually worth. And the man clearly knew about it.

    ¡°Do you take me for a bandit?¡± Bhaak shook his head in an exaggerated manner, clearly noticing Irwyn¡¯s spike of distress. ¡°Though, of course, when you figure out what you need I would be happy to take that off your hands. Usually, I would find you when that time comes but you are a bit more troublesome, huh. Alright, keep this a secret but when you really want to trade with me, you should find someone really important, or another customer, and ask them to say my name 3 times. I will probably get to them within a week unless something extra exciting catches my attention so stick around. Don''t abuse this, though. I am a busy trader. Alright, that concludes our business I suppose. You don¡¯t seem in the mood for chatting. Adios!¡± the man exclaimed as he fully withdrew into his coach.

    The window on the side flew shut the moment he finished speaking and then Irwyn felt magic spike sharply. He had the time to take 2 steps back before it happened. Magic rose and rose and rose. Then the world changed. Irwyn¡¯s vision swam as his mind struggled to comprehend the sheer complexity of the magics at play. Unlike in the vision, he had to rely on his own senses and knowledge which were completely inadequate. At some point, Irwyn fell on his butt and sat there for several seconds which felt like minutes. Then the magic was gone, leaving behind only an undirected fraction of itself. Irwyn looked up a moment later and the cart was no longer there. Nor was it anywhere in sight.

    Of course he just teleports around, Irwyn cursed and massaged his eyes. The man was so far above what he could understand or deal with. At least he was gone. Irwyn certainly had no intention of calling on him for the time being.

    He put the mask into his backpack and returned to his path towards the city of Drathsol, his head growing ever heavier with thoughts about the experience.

 2.4 New town, little time

    Irwyn double-checked everything for the last time as he approached the intersection. It was late afternoon, nearing the evening, when Irwyn finally saw the gravel path connect to a proper road in the distance. He had been walking all damn day, as he had been several days in a row, so his feet hurt; though not as much as by the end of the first day of his journey.

    Decoy pouch, check, Irwyn went through the lot of things he meant to do before entering the city. He had had a while to plan his entry properly as well as other things. Having a bait money pouch was one of them, tied to his belt while the real one was safely tucked in an inner pocket of his shirt. The mask was at the top of his backpack, not visible but Irwyn had trained a bit to take it out without having to remove the whole baggage from his back.

    Drathsol did not have a wall. In fact, none of the cities in the region around City Black had any real fortification. Irwyn had once read it was intentional: So that if was ever an invading force they would not have a solid staging ground against the capital. Drathsol itself was significantly further away from City Black than Ebon Respite which, as Old Crow had warned Irwyn, meant that there would very likely be multiple casters in the city. In fact, the man Irwyn was supposed to meet with was a Fowl caster staying long term. But that was a concern for later, first Irwyn had to enter.

    He had expected a checkpoint of some kind, if only to check incoming goods, Drathsol was a major city on a trade route from City Black after all, however, there was nothing of the sort. Maybe the guards didn''t maintain it in the evenings or there was a different system in use. Not that Irwyn would complain about an easy entrance.

    The next step was finding the Guild. Old Crow had given him a name, or rather a title, of the Fowl that he trusted enough to look after whatever instruction he would send Irwyn. Now all Irwyn had to do was find the man. Or woman. Or whatever. Turns out that titles based on birds tend to be mostly gender neutral. What mattered was that they ''could be found at the Guild''.

    Irwyn had multiple plans to figure out where it actually was. Drathsol would be different from Ebon respite but not unrecognizably so. Irwyn had been working with and around criminals basically as long as he could remember and obviously noticed some patterns. At first, Irwyn walked among the crowds, just like any other visitor, until he spotted some decrepit-looking buildings in the distance. Separating from the crowds was not hard, it was almost dusk at this point but the streets near the city entrance were still very busy, likely from travelers who had pushed to not have to camp outside. Irwyn wasn¡¯t sure how far away the nearest settlement was that way.

    Soon enough he managed to find a small alley leading to a dead end between 2 buildings. There he took the opportunity to put on the mockingbird mask. He also realized it played into his hand in other ways than just hiding his identity. Because he was no longer just Irwyn, a thief. He was a real Young Fowl of the guild and had to act the part. The thing was, even though Irwyn was confident in his bluffing, he didn¡¯t exactly have an intimidating build and great displays of magic to awe anyone from the underworld were better avoided while who knows how many people wanted to capture him. Yet a mask played into his newfound persona. When he was younger he sure as hell would have been many times warier and respectful of anyone wearing a full-face bird mask claiming to be a Fowl compared to, say, an average-built teenager.

    He returned to the street, still clearly a proper middle-class district, and headed further towards the clearly unkept structures. It took him just minutes to reach areas where there was far less foot traffic. The buildings looked progressively worse for wear and so did the people. It wasn¡¯t quite as bad as the slums in Ebon Respite but Irwyn could feel the difference in the progressively warier eyes around him. It almost felt like home.

    His decoy pouch was clearly visible as he kept an eye out for potential pickpockets. If one went for it he would be ready to grab them. He was especially looking out for the kids as those tended to be the most likely of that profession from his experience. Unfortunately, no one seemed to have fallen for it as Irwyn found an opportunity for his plan B.

    He slowly and carefully erected a thin barrier of light around himself. It was barely a thin film that Irwyn had worked hard on during the last few days of travel. Now that Irwyn was on his own he had no one watching his back for potential club or stone in the dark. He needed to be able to protect himself from things he didn¡¯t see or couldn¡¯t quite dodge. At the same time he couldn¡¯t exactly walk surrounded by a mesh of solid flames or he would be caught in a week. So he had figured out his current defense. A hair-thin sphere of transparent light. Well, mostly transparent as well as almost completely dim. The shine was so tuned down it was difficult to spot near basically any other light source, including the stars on a cloudy night. The same went for transparency: Irwyn could barely notice there was something as he tested it and he knew to actively look for it. Out of everyone he knew probably only Kalista would be able to notice without being told.

    All that, naturally, came at the cost of integrity. Perhaps in the future he could make invisible walls as solid as steel, now, however, the barrier tended to crumble and shatter if he walked into a tree too fast. That was fine though. It would deflect a strike or a projectile that Irwyn didn¡¯t see coming. And that would give Irwyn all the warning he needed to stop screwing around and fight without restraint.

    Satisfied, Irwyn approached a dark alley. He noticed the lookout easy enough, a man pretending to be loitering at the other side of the street. It was almost amateurish, the man didn¡¯t even have a second person to pretend to have a conversation with. Irwyn walked to the crossroads between the alley and the street, waited for the lookout to look at him, made 3 solids seconds of eye contact obvious even through the mask and then stepped into the obvious ambush.

    Irwyn had to suppress his old instincts telling him he was in danger because rationally he was not really. Whoever had set this up were clearly no veteran gangsters because there was not a trace of magic. Irwyn had never personally participated in stuff like this but he knew how they worked. A big time group wouldn¡¯t have set up this far away from the main street, rather choosing to get in a single good ambush in the wealthier neighborhoods and then running for it before any guards could react. And they would bring along magical items as a contingency, just in case things went really bad.

    No, he was walking into a bunch of bottom feeders he could most likely bluff into doing what he wanted. Well, not technically bluff since he was actually a Fowl caster with business at the Guild but he hoped he could convince them without having to blatantly reveal his ability to wield magic. And if things turned sour, well, his fight with the undead had clearly shown Irwyn what level of threat mundane gangsters would pose if he let go of all restraint.

    ¡°Now then, come on out if you would,¡± he announced after taking a dozen steps into the alley. He could see a few obvious hiding spots so he made sure to be directly staring at one of them as the would be ambusher walked out of it. Irwyn tried to make deliberate eye contact with the surprised and rough-looking man and then spun on his heel in one smooth motion, putting on a show as he observed the situation without being obvious about it. 6 people in total, including the two who followed him from the main street. He made sure to end up facing them.

    ¡°I need someone to guide me to the Guild,¡± Irwyn interrupted the lookout. He had waited for the man to breathe in when he was about to say something. Old Crow had always insisted that most verbal battles were about putting the other side off balance. Break expectations, don¡¯t show weakness. And if that didn¡¯t work you probably messed up or were dealing with someone too competent. ¡°I have business with the Old Owl,¡± Irwyn dropped the name casually. He stood straight, making sure to sound confident and it came to him naturally. This was no different than manipulating guards or merchants. Maybe even easier because he likely understood these people better. And they respected the Fowls.

    ¡°And who are you?¡± the man said, uncertain. He looked at the mask and couldn¡¯t see through. Irwyn may not sound old but he though he hardly sounded like an obvious teen. With his features hidden he could most likely pass for someone middle-aged, especially if he played into it.

    ¡°You may call me the Mockingbird,¡± Irwyn said, still staring the man down. His ¡®strange¡¯ speech that his fellow had mocked him also supported him. No one except him would speak like that in the slums. No one except maybe the people high up. What did a poor street rat know about eccentric Fowls, after all? The big backpack was definitely a negative though.

    ¡°A Fowl?¡± someone behind him whispered. A girl, very young. Not that it mattered.

    ¡°I have never heard of you,¡± the person standing next to the lookout said, somewhat doubtful but uncertain.

    ¡°I am just passing through,¡± Irwyn lightly shrugged still staring down the silent lookout. ¡°I figured that it would be rather rude to not greet the locals,¡± his statement was followed by a short silence.

    ¡°What do we do boss?¡± a different voice behind him asked. Irwyn did not speak again. It could make him sound like he was in a hurry or afraid.

    ¡°I reckon it ain¡¯t worth the trouble to mess with the fella,¡± the lookout finally spoke, clearly sweating from the constant stare from Irwyn, turning to the man next to them.

    ¡°Fine,¡± the other man agreed after a moment. ¡°Stink, bring the Fowl to the Guild, then come right back,¡± Irwyn did not turn around to look. He just nodded his head slightly and set off to leave the alley.

    ¡°Just a piece of advice,¡± Irwyn said as he was close to passing the leader. ¡°Have a second person talk with the lookout. Your current setup is just blatantly obvious,¡± he said and then walked by. If he were a nobody the man probably would have lashed out at the criticism but Fowls did carry a real level of respect and that tended to unstuck even the most stubborn idiots. Irwyn also figured that if the man was thinking about anything else it was much less likely he would try something stupid at the last second.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    Irwyn only looked back when he left the alley. The men were resetting the ambush, exchanging some words. He was followed by the girl, probably no older than 8. She wore rags and looked underfed, not exactly an ambush material. Probably someone¡¯s relative, maybe a daughter, with no one else to look after her.

    Still better than starving on the street as an Orphan in Irwyn¡¯s opinion.

    ¡°Lead the way,¡± he simply said. The girl nodded, clearly a fair bit out of her comfort zone and went down the street. Now that he had a guide, Irwyn tried to figure out other stuff about Drathsol. For one, he noticed that people did not seem to wear any obvious signs of affiliation to a particular gang. That either meant that there was a different system in place or that he was in a neutral territory of some sort. Maybe there just were not enough gangs to warrant a deep-ish system like Ebon Respite had.

    He also had not yet felt any other casters despite the significantly greater density of minor magical items. It was a bit puzzling though not alarming. Drathsol was supposed to have a lot more casters than Ebon Respite, but even 50 times almost nothing wasn¡¯t necessarily noticeable.

    ¡°There,¡± the girl eventually pointed down a seemingly abandoned alley deeper into the poor part of the city. ¡°The Doormen don¡¯t wanna no one around for no reason.¡± she excused herself and turned to leave.

    ¡°For your trouble,¡± Irwyn took one of the few coins out his decoy purse and put it on her shoulder, trying to not be obvious to anyone looking. ¡°Remember to hide it on your way back,¡± he did not want the girl to be robbed after all. She nodded him a thanks and left. The corridor she had pointed him towards was dark and not unusual as Irwyn entered, already holding the little Fowl sigil hidden in his hand. A silver foot styled after a bird¡¯s claws.

    ¡°State your business,¡± a gruff voice spoke from the side. Irwyn slowly turned and there, in a small creek Irwyn had assumed was just a dent in a wall, two men stood. They both wore identical masks, simple and grey, covering the whole face.

    ¡°Old Owl should be expecting me,¡± Irwyn revealed the Silver fowl foot to them and stood confidentially. And it should be the truth. The only point of failure was the expected letter never arriving in Drathsol or then in the other Fowl''s hands.

    The masked ¡®doormen¡¯ as the girl had called them shared a glance, one of them nodded, turned around and entered a hallway Irwyn could not quite see too well without questioning him further. The other one moved out of the way and Irwyn followed. He got to find out that the Guild of Drathsol was actually more of a complex labyrinth of sprawling tunnels. He was pretty sure he had heard the sewer water running above or beside them a dozen times during the trip. The walkways were also very tight, at most places the taller ¡®doorman¡¯ had to walk with a slightly bent back. Halfway through their 10-ish minute walk, Irwyn lost track of how to get back or roughly where he was. The place just had far too many intersections. His guide through never hesitated.

    Irwyn knew the right door before the ¡®doorman¡¯ even nodded towards it. Because it was the only one enchanted they had come across. He could feel the magic, isolating what lay behind. That being said, the enchantment was far from the best and the walls didn¡¯t have a spec of magic. Because of that, Irwyn had no problem feeling the caster in the room as he approached, though whoever it was, his magic did not give off an immediate impression, dormant.

    Irwyn¡¯s guide left and Irwyn approached the door. He felt himself trip some kind of very small spell, one he had not even noticed when distracted by the door, and the man within the room immediately rose and approached the room entrance from the other side.

    They arrived around the same time and Irwyn made the snap decision to not knock as a pulse of the same subtle magic passed over him. The door did, after all, seemingly isolate the room for the most part. The knock would not be heard in that case. And just as Irwyn had half-expected, the door then opened, just as he would otherwise be about to knock. It would have caught him with a raised hand if the detection magic of some kind had not made him warry.

    Though, in all fairness, Irwyn liked the trick. He could see himself doing it when he figured out detection magic of some sort.

    ¡°Come on in,¡± to his credit, Old Owl, though the man seemed more middle-aged than elderly, did not even raise an eyebrow and turned around, walking back to his desk. That much should be expected of Fowls after all. Irwyn could hardly be the first person to ever see through his trick. ¡°So, you are the Young Mockingbird,¡± the man said as he took his seat and Irwyn immediately felt a burst of magic form slightly to the right. Just barely out of his line of sight. His neck moved almost instinctively, allowing his eyes to see only empty space. What they did see, however, was a wide grin and intent stare.

    ¡°Well, with that sensitivity to magic you deserve the title even if you could only barely cast,¡± the man said. ¡°Though I assume that is not a singular talent.¡±

    ¡°I would rather not comment,¡± Irwyn said, the mask still on his face. He had, after some deliberation, decided to not remove it. He was offered a seat opposite to Old Owl and took it.

    ¡°We should do some work together when whatever trouble you got into blows over,¡± Old Owl didn¡¯t seem to take any offense. ¡°I suppose I shouldn¡¯t be surprised that Old Crow¡¯s eye is as sharp as ever. Here,¡± he then handed Irwyn two sheets of folded paper, not even bothering to return them to their original packaging.

    A letter and what appeared to be a map full of notes. Irwyn quickly read.

    M,

    I have reached out to a contact which is deeply opposed to the group that has caused you trouble. They have agreed to assist you, at least in some form. I have attached a coded map that will inform you which places you should avoid as well as the city where you will meet my contact. They will find you after arrival. O, who I assume had given you the letter, can arrange for you to travel along a merchant caravan of some kind, though, I recommend transitioning to a different trade group in every major settlement.

    You should also know that your hidden friend has decided to follow in your footsteps and leave the city in pursuit of Fowlship. Your wise friend is likely to do the same once the situation stabilizes.

    Best regards,

    C

    Irwyn put the letter down and digested it. Obviously, Old Crow was trying to be as obtrusive as possible. How many people did a letter pass through when sent through the Guild¡¯s channels? How many of them would risk finding someone to secretly unseal it for them just in case the information was valuable? Old Owl had not even bothered pretending that he had not read it. All the secrecy wouldn¡¯t give Irwyn a pause.

    What did were the two people who were apparently leaving Ebon Respite. ¡®Your hidden friend¡¯ was obviously Waylan¡¯s semi-secret moniker. Every adult had one, Irwyn¡¯s had been ¡®Your bookish friend¡¯. In hindsight, Irwyn probably could have guessed Waylan would refuse to be left in the dust by him, even if that meant separating from his sister. His best friend did have an exceptional talent for going unseen and unheard so Irwyn had little doubt Waylan could make a Fowl if he improved a bit more and then managed a remarkable feat or two.

    What did startle Irwyn was the other name. Because ¡®your wise friend¡¯ referred to the Old Crow himself. Is he actually leaving Ebon Respite? Irwyn wondered but there was not much reason to lie, besides betting that someone who snuck a peek at the letter could decipher that information and do something specific with it. Which was unlikely. Thinking back, Irwyn had heard from some of the older adults that Old Crow didn¡¯t use to always stay with the Tears. He used to only drop by occasionally when he was traveling through Ebon Respite. It was around the time that Irwyn was taken in a decade ago, around 6 years old then, that the Old Crow settled in with them and also upscaled the whole semi-charitable operation. Everyone just assumed that the elder probably chose to retire, which would make this his comeback to the underworld. How old even is he?

    ¡°You can set out first thing in the morning,¡± Old Owl interrupted his thoughts. ¡°I can arrange the first merchant group on credit, if you know where you are even going by then. You can pay me back when you make it big.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Irwyn nodded. Saving some of his significant but limited funds would not go amiss. ¡°Though I admit that I am a bit wary of being seen by anyone.¡±

    ¡°Well, no one seems to be looking for you around these parts,¡± the older Fowl shrugged. ¡°At least not yet. I don¡¯t know what wasp nest you stirred but I would have heard about a manhunt on a scale that warrants that paranoia. And there would have been sketches everywhere. My advice is that whoever you travel with is much more likely to remember someone wearing a mask than a stranger¡¯s face.¡±

    ¡°You have a point,¡± Irwyn nodded but kept it on for now. He had no doubt that whoever he ended up traveling with would report his description to the Old Owl one way or another, however, that was different than seeing him firsthand. And Irwyn had unfortunately been tangled up on the opposing side of House Blackburg, he was not going to risk that they might eventually post a bounty that would give even Fowls a pause. Perhaps insisting on the mask might do nothing in that case... Either way, it at least made him feel better about the whole pursuit thing. ¡°Is there anywhere I can stay the night?¡±

    ¡°Down the hallway, take the first right, then the second door you see,¡± Old Owl nodded. ¡°Come see me when you wake up and I can get you on your way.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, I will do that. Good night,¡± Irwyn stood up and left. He probably could have left a better first impression but he was still a bit rattled with leaving home, the fae, the teleporting merchant as well as not being that great of a negotiator. He was taught and knew some tricks but simple manipulation would have probably been an insult when employed against anyone who had made a full Old Fowl.

    He found the room and locked himself in, a chamber that barely fit a bed and a small night table. There were no enchantments inside as far as he could see. A candle had not been provided so instead Irwyn summoned a bit of light and began to decipher the map. It was, as always with Old Crow, annoyingly complex. At least he was long used to not being able to take any notes. It took him a good half-hour before he had figured out which places were marked as which. Apparently, the whole West was a deathtrap for him, with almost no city big or small marked anything less than dangerous. South was not that much better. To the North and East there were a few clusters of problematic areas but it was far better. The safest areas seemed to concentrate to the North-East of City Black, though the Northern Pass that served as a border, as well as the shoreline cities, were marked as dangerous. Irwyn supposed they would be obvious targets for scrutiny. And of course, there was the meeting place, in the middle of a big area deemed as ''safe-ish'' by Old Crow. Because nowhere was truly safe for him for the moment.

    Irwyn lay down, the mask surprisingly comfortable even for sleeping, and thought about the place. Because it sounded very familiar. The city of Abonisle. Or as one book had called it, the Veil Watcher.

 The dream of sins creation

    The Cradle of light was brilliant.

    The birthplace of Lumen and Irwyn¡¯s own. The focal point of all skies and heavens which all the light in the entire universe touched, even if only as a reflection. Brightness incarnate. A place where he could just lie however long he desired, never wanting for anything more.

    And Irwyn was pouting. It¡¯s probably been years since he had started, though he was not sure. Existing in a place that had time was still¡­ strange to him. He could still remember the ¡®before¡¯ if it even could be called that. Where all moments and impressions melded together, each lasting a fleeting eternity.

    But father-flame had demanded form. He had required that reality be made and so it had been. Now that the groundwork was finally done the aspects were busy with shaping its occupants. A process he had been forbidden from participating in.

    ¡°Come on brother,¡± a voice sounded, muted. For it did not belong in this place. Rather, it was born of the direct opposite. Only by Lumen¡¯s will was it even allowed to reach here at all. ¡°I know you are angry but please let me at least show you. I finally finished my work and even mother says I had done well.¡±

    ¡°Then you should go gloat to her about it!¡± Irwyn sent back. It did not really matter to where. He willed for his voice to reach the other person and so it would. For a being like him, reality bowed to please.

    ¡°I am not gloating, alright? I just wanted you to see,¡° the voice sounded again. Irwyn considered for a long while but eventually, reluctantly, arose.

    ¡°Fine,¡± he said as he appeared outside the Cradle. That much was simple for him. He was Starfire and therefore could move like light if he so wished.

    His brother waited for him a bit further away. At the boundary where light and void struggled against each other. He was the opposite of Irwyn in many ways. His skin as dark as the nothingness from where he came, ears long enough to reach beyond his shoulders and a certain feeling of frailty Irwyn could not quite put his finger on. Well, their father had said that the last one was only a matter of time until they ¡®matured¡¯ from such deficiencies; that children were meant to be imperfect. He just hoped it would be just a few centuries longer at most before they became ¡®better¡¯. Perhaps then mother would retract his restrictions.

    ¡°Thank you, really!¡± the wide smile relieved Irwyn¡¯s distaste somewhat. No matter how angry he was at his mother, he could not bring himself to blame his other kin for it. It was just not in his nature. Like the stars, he cared. Or perhaps the other way around.

    ¡°Lead on then,¡± Irwyn could not help but copy the smile as his brother lead them a bit further beyond the boundary.

    The void grew increasingly thick with every step even though they were just at the outskirts. Irwyn could resist it, for now, through the sheer difference in potency between the environment and his being, however, there was a limit to how far even he could go. The void was anathema to his light. Even Lumen herself could not shine all the way to the Impresent Shell, the birthplace of Umbra. So his brother brought him just deep enough to be safe and then made sure they could see what they came to observe.

    Void was inherently nothingness after all and that nothing could be moved out of the way if one was skilled enough in bending it. Folding it. Until any place within the entire void was just a single step away. And his brother was lesser only to the Voidmother herself. Just like Irwyn could traverse to any place with light, his brother wielded the void in a similar manner.

    So they looked as the first being appeared. It did not know they observed it, it never could have. Even with his senses dulled Irwyn could tell it was not Named at a glance. Though its form was strangely familiar.

    ¡°It looks a lot like you,¡± Irwyn almost frowned. Indeed, the body shape was roughly like his brother''s, and him to an extent. The skin was dark but not quite the pitch that came from the complete absence of light, the ears were long but not nearly as on their inspiration.

    ¡°Mother calls them Elves,¡± his brother nodded. ¡°After Lumen made the Empyreans seemingly in your image, mother decided she would match her. She did not ask for my input but I thought you should see them.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Irwyn nodded. It made only sense that Umbra would never be willing to be outmatched by his own mother. ¡°How do they handle birth? You do not have stars, right?¡±

    ¡°Well obviously not, but I invented the equivalent,¡± his brother smiled as the image before them shifted. What Irwyn saw next was just a pure black scene. No creature, nothing. Except that part of it seemed much darker? Irwyn focused and noticed that the darker area was roughly spherical. Also, even his dulled senses could tell that there was definitely some flame involved in the scene, even if it could not be seen.

    ¡°You made stars but with void instead of light,¡± Irwyn realized. ¡°Well, I suppose it is obvious implication of your Voidflame.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have thought of it if not for you doing it first!¡± his brother replied ¡°It will also take a while for my Edict to settle. Mother had insisted I take it steadily after¡­¡± then he caught himself as Irwyn¡¯s expression quickly clouded. ¡°...Sorry. But I am sure you will be fine! Lumen is just worried that you would do something reckless again. You know she wants what¡¯s best for you.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I should not take my frustration out on you,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°I am just¡­ a bit sad. Even though pain is so horrible, I truly felt Alive back then¡­ More than ever before.¡±

    ¡°Well, anyway, I didn¡¯t copy your stars exactly,¡± his brother tried to distract him from his thoughts, returning to their previous conversation. ¡°It¡¯s more like I reversed them. Instead of radiating outwards they drag everything inwards with a pull that few things could escape. Until nothing remains nearby. A perfect black hole in the void itself.¡±

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    ¡°It is a good idea. It makes the most of how your Voidflame works,¡± Irwyn nodded in praise though he would NOT pat his brother on the back. They would not touch. Could not touch. For by their very nature, they would forever be the anathema of one another.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± he kept smiling. ¡°But that is not everything I have been up to. I worked with mother on something else: We call them the demons.¡±

    ¡°Just like my mother¡¯s angels,¡± Irwyn could already guess, remembering the bitterness of not being allowed any involvement with creating them.

    ¡°Well, yes. But we took a different approach,¡± he explained. ¡°Let me show you,¡± the vision shifted away from the black hole, instead focusing on a pack of strange creatures. Their forms were similar to the soulless animals or monsters that had been gradually appearing across mortal realms, except their jaws seemed strangely large. He was hardly the most knowledgeable but he was pretty sure no mortal creature had maws bigger than their torsos.

    ¡°The devourers, demons of gluttony,¡± his brother explained. ¡°They embody my mother''s hunger, to swallow all that is unwanted, uncared for. They will devour the very worries of the mortals across the realms. Even sadness or despair.¡±

    ¡°They can eat thoughts?¡± Irwyn was surprised. That was not usually aligned with the void.

    ¡°Well not exactly. The Named Gluttony takes all such things into himself, replacing them with the infinite nothingness within him. Some of his greater kin could indeed take away the very thoughts that cause unhappiness, swallowing them whole.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Irwyn could understand. It would be perhaps a stretch for most but if their whole kind relied on Gluttony with such meaning it would indeed work. Just like the angels, the demons seemed to be closely interwoven with a single Names as whole species, gaining great advantages in return.

    ¡°Let me show you the next,¡± his brother waved his hand excitedly and a new image appeared. These creatures seemed gargantuan, though size comparison was difficult in the black nothingness of the void. Their bodies seemed like those of very stretched and mangled horses. But they were far, far longer than taller, each with dozens of legs to even bear their weight. Tentacled appendages swirled on their back, some seemingly keeping something from falling off.

    ¡°The bearers, demons of wrath,¡± his brother said proudly. ¡°They gather wrath upon their back, bearing its burden with utmost patience. First their own, then that of others. Harboring it so that it be harnessed for power when the need arises.¡±

    ¡°You mean if the need arises,¡± Irwyn grinned. ¡°These are¡­ so different.¡±

    ¡°I convinced mother we should not make them all so similar like the angels are.¡±

    ¡°So, what¡¯s next?¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°The succubi, demons of lust,¡± the image shifted, revealing formless dark blobs.

    ¡°They are¡­ I am missing something, am I not?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°They take away mortal desires, manifesting in their shape to relieve them,¡± his brother explained. ¡°Obviously they cannot take anything from us.¡±

    ¡°Makes sense,¡± Irwyn nodded. He was slightly curious whether the Named Lust could take away from other lesser Named but dismissed the thought quickly.

    ¡°Next are the demons of sloth, the stilled,¡± what appeared was more of flora than fauna. It did not move, it did not breathe. I just stood there, completely devoid of any motion. A single massive bud, tightly shut.

    ¡°They take away all lethargy and laziness. All fatigue and tiredness, claiming it for themselves. They cannot move on their own but that is hardly a problem in the void. Eventually, they will be dragged to the mortal realms by its motions.¡±

    ¡°You made one of the sins a plant,¡± Irwyn could not hold back a chuckle. ¡°An actual, unmoving plant.¡±

    ¡°It works alright!¡± he was a bit embarrassed.

    ¡°It¡¯s a wonderful idea. It probably would have never crossed my mind if mother had allowed me to help create the virtues.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± he averted his gaze for a moment. Then he refocused and changed the image, continuing. ¡°The demons of greed, kobolds,¡± he said, revealing the tiny creatures. Smaller than youngling humans even, though there had been some similarity. The little things were bipedal after all. There was some similarity with dragons as well, with tiny and thin scales, tails to stabilize them, and vaguely inspired snouts. Though Irwyn doubted they shared many of the good properties.

    ¡°They will sense excess wealth and take it away. Keep what would otherwise be a burden to mortals,¡± his brother explained.

    ¡°Why are they so tiny though?¡± Irwyn questioned. ¡°Imagine such little things trying to invade a dragon''s hoard. They would not make it past the door. Unless they are extremely powerful in magic instead?¡±

    ¡°No magic. At least nothing they can project,¡± he shook his head. ¡°And they would never need to take away from a dragon. There would be no point since monsters don¡¯t have souls. Moreover, they grow stronger in numbers. Up to a point.¡±

    ¡°Strong enough to make up for their tiny frames?¡± Irwyn had to ask.

    ¡°Yes and more than that,¡± he said with excitement. ¡°If enough of them gather they can become as powerful as a Named! Well, there would need to maybe be millions of them for that though and all would need to agree to work together.¡±

    ¡°How is that possible?¡± Irwyn was surprised. The barrier of a Name was an insurmountable gulf to get over for most. At least he had heard that was the case from some of the lesser Named he had spoken to. He wondered what would allow these creatures to close it with just numbers.

    ¡°I will show you later. They usually only do it in the mortal planes when they need to,¡± his brother smiled mischievously. ¡°I promise you will be awed when you see it. Actually, we should go right now!¡±

    ¡°What about the last one?¡± Irwyn asked. "7 sins, just as there are 7 virtues."

    ¡°...We can see it later I suppose,¡± his brother said but Irwyn recognized the deflection for what it was.

    ¡°Why do you not want to show me?¡± Irwyn immediately questioned.

    ¡°Well¡­ it¡¯s pretty embarrassing,¡± he admitted.

    ¡°Did you do something wrong?¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s not that,¡± he shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s only, for pride mother had insisted to have her way¡­ I guess it¡¯s easier to show you.¡±

    With a moment of hesitation the image they saw changed for the last time. Irwyn was confused for a moment because he saw the back of a figure strikingly similar to the Elves he had seen earlier. Except perhaps its ears were longer and its skin contained that perfect darkness of the void that could only come from utter lack of light. When the figure turned around Irwyn felt, for the first time in his life, a smidgen of horror. Because what he saw was not just a creature made in his brother¡¯s image. It was an exact copy. Everything down to the smallest detail was replicated on that creature. Every piece of muscle, every inch of skin texture. Completely replicated.

    ¡°Are¡­ all the pride demons like that,¡± Irwyn asked, unsure what the unfamiliar emotion in his chest was but he did not like it.

    ¡°There are no ¡®demons of pride¡¯, brother. There is Pride himself and none other,¡± his brother said but rather than being terrified a slightly embarrassed smile snuck upon his lips. Almost bashful. Giddy. ¡°Mother said that her Pride must be singular. All the power of a race concentrated into a single being. One that would oversee and remember everything forever as proof of what she had achieved for anyone who asks. That anyone who bears the name of Pride must have every reason to embody it. And so, she had told me, it is only right that Pride would be her greatest pride. Me.¡±

    ¡°I am not sure what to say¡­¡± Irwyn admitted. A few moments of silence fell over them. Something rose within he but he did not understand it. He had never felt anything like it before. It confused him, made him feel tired. Feel strange. ¡°I¡­ thank you for showing me what you have created. They were wonderful. Brilliant ideas. I really do not think I could have come up with many of them. However, I think the exposure to the void is taking it¡¯s toll on me. I think I will go rest now.¡±

    ¡°No problem,¡± his brother smiled while the clone, the imposter, seemed as though it looked at him. As if it could see them, staring back.

    The next moment Irwyn was back at the Cradle of light.

    Then he slept, with desperation he did not understand.

 2.5 Its been how long?

    Irwyn awoke with short gasps, his mind reeling to adjust to no longer having senses the body never had. His vision swam together with nausea that kept him in place for moments longer, the fabric of his bed grazed against his oversensitive skin uncomfortably.

    Gradually, he managed to recover enough for coherent thought. It was still a while before dawn, he knew. But that was not on his mind at the moment.

    Irwyn had assumed that his first vision had been a one-time thing, caused by the strange artefact that had seemingly dissolved in his grasp on that heist gone awry. Yet suddenly, he had serious evidence to the contrary.

    He had to consider what that meant for now and for the future. Would the visions continue? It seemed possible, even likely now and Irwyn would have to plan with that assumption in mind. After all, there was not much preparation involved in having no such further visions. That wasn''t even mentioning the content of that vision. Or was it a dream?

    At least Irwyn was quite confident whose eyes he had seen through this time. After all, in the Book of the Name there was only one son of Ignis and Lumen, sharing the name of both. That begged the question whether that first vision had also been from the same perspective. It seemed possible - both shared great power over Starfire, though that could just be because Irwyn did control it too and thus warranted visions of his betters in that art - though if they were the same the first vision must have been much later chronologically. After all, in the new one he had been almost juvenile emotionally.

    Besides the identity of whose memory he had beheld, the contents were fascinating and by the end disturbing. The seven demons, the seven sins, Irwyn remembered them mentioned in the Book of the Name, though not quite as the vision had shown them. He quickly found the section:

    And in opposition and equation, thus Umbra insisted; that for each virtue manifest that Lumen had borne, so she would forge into flesh sin. And they are thus:

    Bearers for Wrath - for their fury would gather and fester onto their back.

    Kobolds for Greed - the small with the greatest appetite for taking.

    Devourers for Gluttony - in hunger that knows not an end.

    Stilled for Sloth - they who sap all that which allows motion.

    Succubi for Lust - to tempt and be tempted in turn.

    And lastly, those of Pride - extinct and no more in the Betrayer¡¯s wake.

    And indeed, the descriptions in the book were distinctly different from the vision. Though that did not necessarily mean they were wrong. After all, the vision had clearly transpired before the First Betrayal. And the Book of the Name had repeatedly told him that Sin used to be much less negative of a concept at that time, only twisted by Umbra¡¯s death into something far fouler. If that was the case, the demons would have likely been changed as well.

    And perhaps Irwyn would have left it at that if not for the last. For the demon of Pride. Singular demon while the Book implied multiple. And that could not be right even if Pride had truly died in those days. In that case, Irwyn had to admit that either the vision or the Book were at least partially incorrect. As for which Irwyn came to a realisation after a bit of thinking: The Book of the Name, albeit a text he had looked up for guidance and insight, must have been written by someone. It could not be providence, for it spoke much of the Death of Aspects and of what followed. And that meant it could only contain what the author had known. For one, the account around the First Crusade albeit containing fascinating descriptions of righteous wrath against necromancy and its banishment across all realms had been rather sparse in actual details.

    In other words, the Book of the Name described reality and its history as the author believed it to be, not as it necessarily was. For secrets could be as ancient as Time. With that in mind, Irwyn chose to believe in his visions. At least until he had a bigger reason to doubt them. Not that it mattered too much at the moment.

    Knowing he would not be able to sleep for now, Irwyn sat up and continued to digest what he had learnt and felt. It was near the end of that deliberation that he realised there was light still floating next to him from when he had gone to compare his knowledge with the Book of the Name. And he had summoned it so easily that he never even registered casting or maintaining the magic.

    Have I truly improved that much? Irwyn questioned. His magic had become noticeably easier to wield after his first vision, it would not be without merit to consider the same effect repeating itself. Unfortunately, that might be difficult to accomplish, as Irwyn did not really have a proper benchmark as to what degree his magic had reached. He had been, after all, on the run ever since. It had been¡­ less than a week since that failed raid. And felt like far longer. And the most ¡®free¡¯ time Irwyn had was spent treading through a barely-not-traitorous path through woods and trying to construct magics he thought would be needed for his continued survival. Never quite in the state of mind to properly push his limits and see how far they had gone.

    A mistake, in hindsight. Though there was little he would be able to do about it now. He considered redeeming that fault immediately, though, unfortunately, that would be ill-advised with Old Owl so very near and definitely keeping an eye out.

    Whatever his limits were, it was only prudent to not casually reveal them to others; even to likely allies.

    The next day, Irwyn shared a silent breakfast with the old Fowl and then went on his way. As Old Crow¡¯s letter had told him, he would head towards Abonisle.

    <hr>

    Reaching the next big town at dusk of the second day since departure, Irwyn thanked the caravanner and vanished into the streets. He made damn sure no one was following him before he finally took off the mask and looked for an inn to stay the night.

    He checked out the first thing after dawn and then, instead of looking for a new group to travel with, loitered around the major streets; scouting them out. The first thing he expected Old Owl''s merchant friend to do was to contact every damn peddler with a wagon and ask them to make particularity sure to get him a good picture of any young man with his hair approaching them for a ride.

    He has already gone through so much trouble to keep his face disassociated from the Young Mockingbird, as he could nowadays rightfully call himself, it would be a damn shame to give it up at the last moment. And if anyone were to try and retrace his steps, they would not expect him to be so patient, accounting for the blatant paranoia.

    So, he instead waited for early noon and checked in at another inn, planning to stay for exactly one more night. That allowed him to leave the conspicuous bag behind and move around the city. The next few hours Irwyn spent enjoying the city sights, local cuisine and purses. He had gotten a good enough look earlier to confidently go for some of the easier targets even on mostly unfamiliar turf; clearly inattentive people who wore their coin as if the idea of theft had never once crossed their minds. Irwyn has, after all, been in big part a professional pickpocket since he could remember. And it was an efficient way to replenish his funds; or immediately spend what he got on a new bag, an unworn cloak, and a freshly baked snack. Maybe he was being overly paranoid¡­ On the other hand, Irwyn could easily dismiss any argument made against being more careful by simply remembering that damn house Blackburg would be out for his hide; they probably were already. Any day now he expected wanted posters or at least verbal descriptions to begin circulating.

    For that, he had a few things in mind. First, he would be letting his beard grow out. Well, a beard was a very generous word. So far he could only feel the slightest start of something that might one day resemble a beard. The issue was that as Irwyn was only 16 he never exactly had the time to figure out the whole facial hair thing properly. He was taught how to shave without cutting himself by Maxim and that was about it, only ever using that a scant few times.

    At least his hair was better off. With the Tears, he would always cut it short before his hairline started interfering with his line of sight. On the run, he decided it would be appropriate to let his mane grow as far as it would go. With a bit of luck, it could deceive someone looking for him in a crowd.

    Next, he got 2 pairs of fake spectacles, putting one of them on. It would make him harder to recognise.

    The last change was a bit more attention-grabbing: He bought a bit of hair paint that he then applied to a single braid, making it burning red. And not just any natural shade of ginger but a distinct burning crimson that Irwyn imagined people in the Dutchy of Red would have approved of. It would be eye-catching when Irwyn didn¡¯t have his hood down; and bring all the unwanted attention away from his other features. The wanted posters or whatnot wouldn¡¯t have such an eye-catching mark after all.

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    People could gawk for all he cared, just as long as they would not see the peacock for its feathers.

    Satisfied with his do-over, Irwyn returned to the tavern a decent few hours before dark. To avoid any confusion about his changed appearance he slipped in stealthily, not too difficult considering the time of day and few guests, and dropped off his purchases.

    Next came disposing of his old bag. He could keep the cloak and wear it as Mockingbird, that was fine, but the bag would have to go. It was too distinct a feature, better not risk it. Could I burn it? Irwyn eyed it. He was not sure what the fabric was actually made out of. He could tell it wasn¡¯t silk or anything expensive but could not quite tell the difference between cotton or hemp or linen. Did those even burn differently? Burning stuff smelled, obviously, but perhaps he could control how hard as to not be noticed.

    Irwyn moved his things to the new backpack he had bought and then prepared to take the old one apart. He solidified two plates of light into makeshift scissors, then experimentally tried to cut the fabric. At first they weren¡¯t sharp enough but by the third attempt the fabric parted and by the fifth it barely resisted. Though Irwyn could see this actually being a decent enough exercise at manipulating the thickness of his solid light into sharp constructs. And cutting edge light offered other obvious applications if he could master it.

    When he had gathered several strips, he attempted to burn them one by one. Just a few small pieces. The first burned away almost instantly, clearly quite flammable. The smell was that of burning paper and it was reasonably faint. The following few tries produced the same result. Nodding, Irwyn cut the backpack into much larger chunks, opened the window, made sure no one was looking, and got to work. The method was fairly simple: Take a cut, burn it over a bowl of solid light, toss the soft gray ash out of the window. By the time he was done some of it was left on the floor but that was hardly noticeable while he was actively looking for it. It only took him less than 20 minutes to be done with the evidence, though the stench had grown noticeably worse after he started also burning some dirt that had stuck to the fabric. He looked at his work, satisfied and took a deep breath.

    With that done, he was completely free until the next morning. For the first time in a while he let go of the constant worry at the back of his head and the urge to move forward or do something meaningless. Because it was finally time to test the limits his magic.

    But maybe he could first grab an early dinner in the common room. Irwyn had a feeling that he might miss it otherwise.

    <hr>

    With the shutters closed and the late noon sun still obscuring him, Irwyn finally got to casting. If he wanted to check his limits he would start with the same routine he had developed years ago. And so he began, sitting on his bed, as a ball of light arose from his palms and then smoothly split. Into 2 then 4 then 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128. And that gave Irwyn a pause. A few months ago, he could have barely held on to that number. His control would have been slipping from the strain, his mind would have stuttered from the sheer multitude and he had never been able to keep that number moving for more than 20 minutes.

    Now, 128 felt as light as 2 to his mind. Each he felt individually yet that great feat of multitasking had not even felt straining. Does that apply to just magic? Irwyn immediately wondered if this translated to a much greater capacity for splitting his focus for more mundane activities.

    256, 512 and still it felt like barely a strain. At that point, Irwyn was almost intimidated by that sheer difference because he felt the limit was nowhere in sight. 1024, 2048 and it was not his mind that reached the limit. It was the room. From floor to ceiling, everything was covered by his dimmed orbs of light. To the point that Irwyn, realising this, began to worry about someone noticing the magic from afar.

    Pondering, he withdrew the magic letting it all disperse. He immediately went to sate the previous bout of curiosity and reached for his Book of the Name, opening it at random. Then he tried to read both the open pages at the same time. Results were mixed, leaning negative, as he did have no real benchmark at all about how good he used to be at this sort of thing. However, considering that he could barely kind of read two pages at once and struggled to retain most of the content even from a text he had read before, the extreme improvement to multitasking seemed clearly exclusive to magic.

    It was not unexpected when he found out he could solidify flame into saturated balls faster than he could measure, he had somewhat already done that before after all.

    Then he tried his Starfire and was not surprised here either that it was even more responsive than the Flame or Light, as minuscule as that difference in perception was. Realistically, if he could not figure out where his limits were for the other two elements in his current environment, he could hardly figure out that one. Experimentally, he manifested a few spheres of Starfire and condensed them much like his flames in an instant. When that was done he made them into strings, strangely much like he was drawing from a spool. Despite having all that power of his flames, the Starfire was as flexible as Light. Realistically it would be much better to create these strings from the beginning rather than bothering with the spheres, which he tested out worked out just fine. This was supposed to be benchmarking so for the moment he would leave out testing intentions.

    Also because Irwyn had tested that mostly to mentally prepare for the next exercise. One of the things that his Starfire could not do: It was time he figured out how well he could feel things through Light.

    Irwyn had once held dreams of practically seeing through walls by perceiving through the light beyond them. Of course, this had eluded him for years. The furthest he had gotten had been a thin-ish concentrated beam in otherwise complete darkness used to read book titles. Any attempts made during the day would always just knock him out and leave behind a bad time of headaches. Which was why Irwyn lied on the bed and took several deep breaths before delving into the perception.

    There were countless particles of dust. Bed bugs hid beneath the mattress¡­ In the room a floor down¡­ 2 buildings over. The wood had an incomprehensible number of uneven surfaces and myriad shades of colour. There were 27 masses of clouds covering the skies. The bee was visibly overburdened. The falling crates would probably either main or kill the poor young woman. That part of the road was granite, though dirty. The underside of the eggplant seemed rotten, the¡­.

    Irwyn snapped out with sweat pouring down his forehead, the first signs of a headache already accumulating at the back of his head. It was too much. Far too much. How far did he see? And how far could he? The sheer quantity of information was overwhelming. His mind could only retain snippets, almost still images associated with impressions, that might or might not have been his. All of that what might have been less than a seconds as far as he could tell.

    No wonder even attempting this used to always knock him out.

    This way he at least learned where the issue lay and could work towards a solution. Maybe he could change the scope and only perceive larger things; or he could figure out how to perceive only a specific part of the omnipresent daylight; or he could figure out if enough magic would allow his brain to process that impossible amount of information; or some other solution he wasn¡¯t immediately seeing.

    His imagination of the incredible possibilities that seemed more possible than ever before were only interrupted by the coming of a brutal headache. Oh and how he hated those. Not even the pain itself, just the associated debilitation and mental sluggishness. He despised feeling his thoughts grind to a halt, occupied by the sensation of suffering and further hobbled by whatever ailment was causing the actual migraine. And from experience, it would likely be a long one.

    But he would suffer it and a thousand more if that was the price to pay for improvement. Though Irwyn would just need to learn to be more strategic and only undergo such things if they were genuinely necessary.

    Not being able to continue his exercise, Irwyn went to sleep, already lying in the bed. He had to rest for the next day.

    <hr>

    Irwyn set out well before dawn. Thankfully his headache had receded throughout the night, another improvement compared to the past. The streets were dark and no one seemed to pay him any attention as he headed for the Northern gate. There stood a large mostly empty area dedicated to the loading of merchant caravans planning to leave the city. There he would find someone willing to take him 1 town further North-East, a bit closer to Abonisle.

    And that all went well except for one small incident.

    He had already agreed with a merchant to take him, leaving in an hour, and was just loitering when he bumped into a stranger while turning around.

    Not usually something note worthy, just one of those embarrassing clumsy moments on a crowded street.

    The issue was that when their shoulders made contact, Irwyn felt the magic within the person react to his own. And from the mirrored flabbergasted stare, so had the other person. They were covering most of their face with a cloak and a shawl, revealing only a few strands of blue hair and blue eyes that seemed ever so slightly uncanny at first glance.

    ¡°Would I be right to assume that you are someone who value privacy?¡± the figure asked first after several seconds of mute silence.

    ¡°I would consider myself such,¡± Irwyn replied carefully, his heart pumping. Being noticed in the first few days despite all the care he had taken was very low on the list of things he wanted.

    ¡°Then perhaps it is for the best we never saw each other, yes?¡±

    ¡°On Ignis¡¯ name, we will keep it a secret.¡±

    ¡°On Ignis¡¯ name,¡± the stranger nodded and basically ran off into the crowd.

    Irwyn looked after him for a few more seconds and then returned to loitering. Though the oath failed him last time, he had felt it form again. Weaker than what it had been with Alira but good enough. He had seen that the stranger had been just as nervous as him. At the very least the man seemed to have enough problems that they wouldn¡¯t try to figure out where Irwyn was headed.

    And Irwyn already had enough of his own. He would take extra care to cover his tracks again in the next town and that would be the end of that.

 2.6 Travel trouble

    Three weeks had passed since his meeting with Old Owl and Irwyn, who at this point had the start of a beard, did as his mentor had suggested. Jumping between merchant caravans that had the extra space for a passenger or moved slow enough for him to walk with them. The monetary strain was noticeable but not urgent, in part thanks to the occasional opportunity to replenish. He would have more than enough for lodgings and food for a few weeks after reaching Abonisle. Then he could either see if Old Crow¡¯s contact¡¯s support was also monetary or he could find work with the Guild.

    Frankly the most difficult part had been barely using any magic for all this while.

    After years of basically daily training in the safety of their home, Irwyn had never quite realised that abstinence would unnerve him so much. Every time he stayed in a town overnight or could disappear for a while he had used it to its fullest, trying to make his light as invisible as he could while he kept pouring in as much power as he could to scratch the itch. In that area at least there had been notable improvement:

    Irwyn had managed to make a proper invisible and semi-undetectable barrier of solid light around himself. The trick had been, besides continuous practice, to imbue it with the intention of hiding. That, however, meant that he could not simultaneously also make it defend or block which for a barrier was less than ideal. Imbuing a second intention into the same magic so far eluded him. He was either missing something or just needed more experience. Still, he had achieved switching the intentions in that barrier in less than a second or erecting a second intent-imbued shield of Starfire while keeping the invisible one active. In the first place, he wanted the hidden barrier to block the start of an ambush.

    If there was any issue, it was his newest acquaintance which Irwyn still had very much mixed feelings about. As he passed the gate he quickly noticed those two blue eyes staring from beneath the hood, one of them still feeling uncanny to the point Irwyn had begun to suspect it was artificial. It seemed his ¡®friend¡¯ was still headed the same way.

    They had met many times during these past weeks of travel. After the third they had modified their oaths to more widespread secrecy, not to mention mutual oaths that they weren¡¯t actually following each other. Though they did not know where they were headed, Irwyn was beginning to suspect that their destination would be the same. Which could be an issue since he still wasn¡¯t quite confident how far that mutual secrecy would go whenever a proper manhunt for him began.

    On that point Irwyn was blatantly fascinated that it hadn¡¯t already. At the very least that absurdly powerful Shadow/shadow following Alira had a good look at him and all his involvement. It was mystifying how there wasn¡¯t a wanted poster or at least a description around every corner. Irwyn didn¡¯t believe for a second that they had given up on persecution though. This was, after all, the same house Blackburg that had gone on a brutal terror campaign throughout the whole Ebon Respite¡¯s underworld just for attempted theft.

    ¡°How was your trip?¡± Desir, because that was the man''s name asked. Irwyn could not quite tell how old he was though he was guessing at least below 25 or even younger.

    ¡°Awful seat and the cart was loud,¡± Irwyn mock sighed. ¡°How was yours? I have not seen you for... 4 days.¡±

    ¡°Took a different road. To the East rather than West,¡± the man nodded. Well, Irwyn might have also gone through there but it was barely shorter but a lot closer to City Black. He didn¡¯t confirm nor deny going the other way though, which the other man obviously expected and did not push Irwyn for an answer.

    ¡°Any interesting rumours on your side then?¡± Irwyn asked. Not just because the pursuit was on his mind. He had been asking this question repeatedly specifically to avoid suspicion for the time when the other man knew something actually important.

    ¡°I heard about some mess South in Ebon Respite. You wouldn¡¯t know anything about that, would you?¡± Desir asked, his blue eyes carefully observing any reaction.

    ¡°Cannot say I do. What happened?¡± Irwyn did not show the slightest crack in his poker face though. He had expected this would happen eventually and wouldn¡¯t let himself be caught off guard.

    ¡°Apparently necromancers. Rumour has it the Duke had personally gone out to wipe out a cabal not too far away.¡±

    ¡°Good riddance that, I suppose,¡± Irwyn grimaced, not unusual when necromancy was mentioned, to better hide his thoughts. He distinctly did not get the impression that there were actual necromancers in Ebon Respite, mostly because they would have definitely been caught in Alira¡¯s rampage and even her guard would have most likely made sure to remove them if he found any. And Old Crow himself had said he also thought the undead had risen ''naturally''. But then, he hardly knew the full picture nor had any real expertise in how difficult necromancers were to actually find.

    ¡°True,¡± Desir nodded. ¡°Then there is the other thing that is more local. Apparently, kobolds are roaming the roadsides North-East for the past week.¡±

    ¡°Demons?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow, ¡°How has no one hunted them down yet?¡± those were bad for trade. Worse than monsters because they were far smarter.

    ¡°Apparently, they are just stalking the roads and hiding,¡± the blue-eyed man shrugged. ¡°They avoid any group equipped to deal with them and raid the smaller caravans. Rumour has it, it might be a whole week longer before enough actual troops are gathered to root them out of the area, even then, it might be another week after that before the roads are back to normal.¡±

    ¡°Not great if I were to head that way,¡± Irwyn nodded, already thinking. He was very close to his destination and staying here for so long would be his last resort.

    ¡°Well, if you are, you better hurry,¡± the man shrugged. ¡°There is only one caravan setting out for the next two days as far as I know, heading directly for Abonisle.¡± and skipping the last 2 towns on the way, Irwyn mentally added. ¡°The caravan master is as paranoid as you, so better don¡¯t mention you know me. Considering the siege engine of a vault he is bringing I cannot say I blame him. Best head straight there before he changes his mind about allowing any more passengers.¡±

    ¡°I appreciate the tip,¡± Irwyn nodded in thanks, received the nod of acknowledgement, and then they parted ways. Essentially, along the same lines as most of their previous interactions.

    Irwyn did not wait around and quickly headed to the other side of the small-ish town. After weeks of travel he had figured out where the caravans generally loaded so it was not particularly hard to find where he needed to be. There were multiple caravans stationed here, though the one that would be setting out soon was obvious at a glance. Besides the flutter of people moving around, preparing for departure, Irwyn immediately spotted the massive metal vault, its enchantment leaking enough magic he could feel it from a hundred meters away.

    Still, Irwyn did not head straight there. He went to the closest caravanner he could find and inquired as to whether they intended to head out soon. Of course, he was told that was not the case. Still, Irwyn repeated this with 3 other groups before someone finally directed him towards the vault. If the caravanner was ¡®as paranoid as him¡¯, well, Irwyn would have left someone on the lookout for new arrivals if he had the personnel to spare. Just to spot the least careful infiltrators.

    ¡°Do you have any place left for passengers?¡± Irwyn approached the closest person who seemed to be managing the various caravan hands. The whole setup was a lot more than just the massive vault, having at least three dozen carts as far as Irwyn could see. That was one of the biggest Irwyn had beheld so far.

    ¡°Where are you headed?¡± the man stared Irwyn down for a moment but then asked.

    ¡°Anywhere North-East, really. Towards Abonisle,¡± Irwyn pretended not to notice. The man measured him up for a few moment longer before he turned around.

    ¡°Hey, Horatio, another one wants to tag along!¡± he shouted towards the apparent caravan master. Or at least the owner, considering the blatant opulent jewelry and a whole squad of over-armed bodyguards. The man had apparently already been watching them, or Irwyn most likely, and one of the bodyguards beckoned Irwyn closer.

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    ¡°So, why would a young lad be desperate enough to risk demon infested roads?¡± the man immediately questioned Irwyn as soon as he were in ear-shot, not even bothering with a greeting.

    ¡°Just figured it would be cheaper in the long run than getting stuck in this hole for who knows how long,¡± Irwyn shrugged nonchalantly, pretending he did not really understand the risks. Obviously, he had gotten his story straight weeks ago. Multiple stories in fact, to fit any situation.

    ¡°And for what reason are you headed this way?¡±

    ¡°My pa got done in by a bad cough,¡± Irwyn shrugged, though it hurt him inside a bit to use slang to stay in character. That only helped make his grimace more genuine. ¡°Apparently have an aunt in Abonisle. Figured it might be better there. Just got to town a few hours ago and ain¡¯t gonna stay stuck this close if I can help it, you know.¡±

    The man took out a small pebble, one which Irwyn quite easily recognised as something very similar to the ones the Tears would use to detect casters. Thankfully, Irwyn was not betrayed by his years of training in keeping his magic as subtle as possible with exactly one such gem. Satisfied with the result, the man finally spoke with a nod: ¡°Fine, you get two meals a day and a seat in one of the wagons. We are not stopping overnight and it will cost ya.¡±

    That worked just fine for Irwyn, though he pretended to hesitate for a bit over the frankly exorbitant price. About 4 times as much as Irwyn had expected this last stretch of the journey to cost him. Leave it to merchants to exploit desperate or stupid youths with few other options, Irwyn supposed. Despite that he was satisfied. Heading straight for Abonisle and travelling through the night would save him up to a full day. He might have gone for this even if there were other options. The sooner he was in Abonisle, the better.

    ¡°We are leaving in two hours, best be gone before the damn monsters swarm more,¡± the clerk plus driver that had counted out Irwyn¡¯s payment on the side nodded.

    "Not actually monsters, you know," Irwyn corrected. It might not be strictly necessary but it didn''t break his character either and he drew satisfaction from it.

    "What?" the man was clearly surprised by the comment.

    "Book of the Name says demons have souls. Monsters don''t."

    ¡°Just be here or be left behind,¡± and that was the end of the discussion.

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn nodded and went to find lunch. He had come to enjoy the comfort of eating at a proper establishment before another few days of journeying.

    <hr>

    As chance would have it, Irwyn shared the carriage with his blue-eyed acquaintance, Desir. That did not mean they acted particularly familiar though. In fact, they had not talked during the first day of the journey and apparently both preferred it that way.

    For the first 20 or so hours of the journey, they never stopped for more than 15 minutes, only to distribute meals. Irwyn had no idea how the horses could keep going and he was not eager to pry at this time. At least the vault was self-explanatory considering the surges of magic its self-propelled movement gave off. And all was going well, really. As well as Irwyn could expect.

    Then, because Irwyn couldn¡¯t just arrive at Abonisle without incident, there was an unexpected stop.

    Followed by the scream of gunfire.

    Irwyn made quick eye contact with Desir, then left the carriage as he happened to be seated right by the exit. What welcomed him was surprisingly enough not complete chaos. Yes, people were walking around, surprised by the sudden stop but the sounds of battle had ceased.

    ¡°Everyone, please stay calm return to your seats,¡± it was the caravan leader, projecting his voice through a magical item. He had done so before so that was not surprising anyone. ¡°We will set out again in 5 minutes. There is no cause for worry, one of the guards just got a bit too trigger happy with an animal.¡±

    And that was almost a sensible explanation. Except, Irwyn felt something, like a downwind smell. In the air there were motes of void magic. Ever so slight.

    Such as the kind that would probably appear if those demons reported in the area had been close.

    Irwyn exchanged another look with his acquaintance, who had also gotten outside and he could tell that they had felt the same thing. There was no exact assignment of seats, though the inner ones were more desirable as the breeze by the entrance was supposedly quite cold. Irwyn found it to be just fine and preferred the fresher air, which is why he had opted to sit there, not to mention the improved ease of leaving in an emergency. This mattered because this time around, his acquaintance had opted to let everyone else get inside first and now sat right opposite to Irwyn at the entrance.

    When the caravan moved again, Irwyn was on his guard, trying to feel for traces of the void magic outside the caravan while also carefully observing the passing treeline. The background presence of Void seemed nothing above the usual ambience, though to his surprise, it took him only five minutes to spot one lurking around. A small creature with a snout and thin scales across it¡¯s body, hiding in a tree top. As small as a child. A kobold. A demon of greed.

    Supposedly they avoided large armed groups in the area. The whole reason this caravan even set out, besides kobolds being relatively harmless. They were much like children. Even in numbers they were not that dangerous for someone prepared, unless there was a horde load of them.

    Except, Irwyn remembered from the vision being told that they would grow stronger in numbers. What that meant, Irwyn had no idea. What was the difference between 10 and 100? 100 and 1000? Considering he had not even heard of this ever happening before, Irwyn assumed it was not something blatantly noticeable. At least not in low numbers.

    That was when, during his musing, Irwyn spotted a second one. This one hidden in a bush. Considering it had been less than 10 minutes since their stop that did not look great. Irwyn glanced at his acquaintance who was just like him staring at the treeline in the opposite direction and waved his hand for attention. Then he tried to sign the word ¡®spotted¡¯ in the only sign language he knew, the one he had been somewhat taught for work with the Guild, and followed it by 2 raised fingers. The blue-eyed man nodded, either knowing the sign or just guessing the obvious meaning, and shoved Irwyn 4 fingers of his own. Then he signed to continue with natural ease of someone used to non-verbal communication in heated moments.

    That certainly implied answers to some questions about Desir''s background and posed twice as many new ones. Still, Irwyn was determined not to pry when not necessary. Instead, he decided to indeed continue observing.

    By the time they stopped 3 hours later for a meal, Irwyn had spotted well over 40 kobolds. On one hand, they could be the same ones. Running after the slow-ish pace of the caravan and hiding, maybe to spook them or look for stragglers. But that was the optimistic option and Irwyn always assumed the pessimistic view: That these were the scouts for a much larger force.

    ¡°I have about 50 total, give or take,¡± Desir said. They had taken this opportunity to step aside with their meal, a hearty broth with bread, to discuss in privacy.

    ¡°A bit over 40 on my side,¡± Irwyn nodded, a bit grim. ¡°I do not like this. For all we know there could be a whole army.¡±

    ¡°I suppose that depends on what¡¯s in the vault, doesn¡¯t it,¡± the man sighed.

    ¡°You think they are coming after it?¡± Irwyn frowned but immediately realised why. ¡°Of course, demons of greed. They can probably smell something valuable to them from miles away.¡±

    ¡°And they have been gathering since we set out. Maybe even before we did. I don¡¯t know about you but I have doubts the caravan is prepared to withstand a tide.¡±

    ¡°I have heard that kobolds supposedly become more powerful with numbers,¡± Irwyn decided to reveal. ¡°I am not sure how exactly but supposedly it does not have an upper limit.¡±

    ¡°Are you thinking what I am thinking?¡±

    ¡°We ditch,¡± Irwyn nodded. Better walk than be dead.

    ¡°Good. But not yet. You have any interest in riffles?¡± the blue-eyed man said.

    ¡°Cannot say I do.¡±

    ¡°Those rifles that the bodyguards who follow the leader around carry are enchanted,¡± he explained. ¡°Restricted goods. Enchanting firearms requires a special permit and each such piece requires an individual license just to own and use privately. Meaning people don¡¯t really bother with making any of those subpar. Considering how paranoid the caravan leader is, the odds are better than not that he would have us shot if we up and left and I wouldn''t count on any barrier stopping a shot from one of those.¡±

    ¡°So we need a distraction,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Like a swarm of kobolds attacking from all sides.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± the blue-eyed man nodded. ¡°If they never attack, it¡¯s all good. If they do, we get out in the chaos and follow the road all the way to Abonisle. I can hide us visually from other people with a spell I know, especially in the dark; and the odds are that creatures from the Void will attack us at night. My magic won¡¯t fool the demons though.¡±

    ¡°I know some magic that I believe would be effective against them, whether we need to cut our way through or just dissuade pursuers.¡±

    ¡°We are agreed then,¡± the blue eyed man nodded. ¡°Best we change our routine from now on so that we are fresh after dusk.¡±

    Then they returned to their carriage, though not before agreeing to the amendment to their mutual oaths. In case of an emergency, those were better to have sorted out in advance. If they had to travel a long way in demon infested territory after an ambush the duo would inevitably have to rely on one another to an extent.

    Though it did not happen that night. Nor the one after. Oh, the demons kept gathering in increasing numbers and there were several more emergency stops but they did not attack.

    They waited until the last night. When Abonisle was close enough Irwyn could quite literally feel the city''s magic in the distance.

    Then all Void finally broke loose.

 2.7 Demons, Demons and yet more Demons

    Like the first time, it started with a sudden stop and the scream of gunfire, mere minutes after dusk. Irwyn and Desir were out of their wagon in a moment. And this time around, it did not end with one or two shots. It was a bona fide hail of bullets from what Irwyn was hearing. As tensions had been increasing the duo were not the only people quickly departing the caravan. Rumors had naturally spread over the last few days; a few people pointing out figures in the trees or thickets were naturally connected to the kobolds said to be in the area. Fear had been at its highest point the previous night and slowly receded as they neared Abonisle. A lot of people were becoming hopeful that they would be allowed to reach their destination undisturbed. And close it was indeed. Irwyn felt the city in the distance, like a beacon of magic. Though not the best judge of distance, he thought the caravan could get there by dawn if uninterrupted.

    Of course, that was optimistic or maybe even wishful thinking. Irwyn worked with the worst assumption. That all the prior provocations and failed attacks were not just testing their defenses but were meant to slow them down for the real raid to gather.

    And that seemed about right given the sheer quantity of kobolds he could see in every direction.

    Illogically, the demons had chosen a place where most of the caravan was on the top of a hill. Though at second glance, that did not actually make their defences notably better, uphill having more of an effect with barricades and battle lines at work. What it did do was obscure the actual numbers of the kobolds while applying the psychological effect of seeing only demons as the eye could see in all directions.

    Irwyn glanced at his blue-eyed companion, still covering up most of his face with a shawl and a cloak, and received a nod of confirmation. As people were either trying to run towards the center to cower or towards the front to fight the demons, of course excluding those frozen with dread, Irwyn and Desir found a place reasonably out of sight. Well, the demons could probably see them just fine but they found a spot obscured enough that it was unlikely any of the very busy guards would notice them. Irwyn dismissed his invisible Light barrier as he felt the man start a chant:

    ¡°A dozen fled

    A journey of dread

    And as one

    In Void were gone¡±

    Then a sphere of void magic enveloped them. The sound outside became a bit more muted and harder to see. Irwyn also felt strangely uncomfortable deep down, though he was pretty sure that was the conflict between any void magic affecting him in contrast to his affinity with Light. And they were probably much harder to see from the outside.

    In the meantime the caravan itself continued fighting. Irwyn felt flashes of magic as one magical weapon after another was expended. Unfortunately for the caravan there were no actual mages present besides the hidden two about to desert and being in the Duchy of Black, most of those weapons worked on Void magic. Which the kobolds, being literal demons of the Void, were resistant to. Make no mistake, the blasts and spears and spikes still tore through them on direct hits, yet they were not quite as deadly as if they had been used against humans. An orb of black exploded, washing a large area in inky darkness as the kobolds staggered, then mostly shook it off and continued, only those directly at the epicenter being more than inconvenienced. A spray of ebony fragments was sent in another direction yet only good hits had any effect, glancing blows barely scoring any damage and partial hits not piercing quite as deep as they were supposed to. Of course, there were other spells imbued in that repository of magical weapons at the display. Sprays of fire or sudden growths of giant sharp grass cut through the numbers easily, anything to do with Light being particularly efficient, solid beams cutting through them and continuing into the distance, though there were very few of those. At that time Irwyn realized another thing: The demons were quiet. Far too quiet. As they were torn sometimes limb from limb they did not so even wheeze, much less scream. Not a single one

    ¡°Let¡¯s go. It will fool the other people but not the demons. Though they will probably pretend not to notice us until we are properly surrounded. Be ready when I drop the spell,¡± Desir said with a nod.

    And so they went. Irwyn decided not to glance back at the people they were leaving behind. If they got away from this siege everyone would just assume that the two them got killed and dragged away or something along those lines. If the whole caravan was overrun and everyone killed, well, Irwyn would feel bad; but not bad enough to risk betting his life on being even able to make a difference and then not being found by his pursuers because of the public display.

    In the end, it has always been about protecting himself and those of his own to Irwyn as far as he could remember. That before anything or anyone else.

    They walked at a brisk pace, standing side to side and keeping close, choosing a moment when a rain of rock splinters created a hole in the line of demons before dissipating back into magic. Entering into the breach, there was an eerie lack of blood and viscera. It wasn''t just that the demons did not bleed but most of them did not even leave a body behind after being killed. Irwyn spotted the last remains of those just killed melting into an inky liquid, then evaporating. That also didn''t bode well for the caravan as the demons were not obstructed by themselves. No mountain of corpses rose to slow the horde down.

    And a horde it was, Irwyn realized as soon as they could properly see downhill. The legion of kobolds simply did not stop. Much of his vision was obscured by the treeline but everywhere he looked he saw the little scaled creatures moving in unison. Another thing he observed was that despite their numbers they were strangely organized: They did not shove or get in each others'' way. Just by the sheer scale, Irwyn would have expected them to constantly bump into one another but everywhere he looked they marched like a perfectly organized machine.

    They made it halfway down the hill, the demons simply parting in front of the duo, as if something nudged them out of the way. The demons never so much as glanced in their direction, the army moving around them with unnatural seamlessness. And as they reached far enough into their ranks, every single kobold in their immediate vicinity suddenly turned and charged them without as much as a grunt.

    "Now!" Desir yelled as the magic hiding them vanished, Irwyn already springing into action. He had put much thought into how much he was willing to reveal and how. He had been shown that although oaths taken upon the Aspects'' Names were binding, they were certainly not unbreakable. Yet he had to weigh that against any immediate demonic risk to his life. So he would see how much he could keep close to his chest without risk and if he had to reveal more, he would.

    ¡°Burn,¡± he said and released a wave of flames imbued with the same intention as his word. He has had a chance to experiment with incantations along his travels, though nothing conclusive, they did indeed make magic ever so slightly easier to cast. It also made it infinitely less flexible. That fire he told to burn could only burn. He could not change it to be more physical, could not shift it into different shapes and alterations after it was already cast. Dismissing it quickly would become actually difficult, despite coming straight from his magic. In other words, the spell could only do what its description allowed. And the empowerment was simply not that significant. Irwyn could barely tell that, at least for him, simple spells were empowered by less than a single hundredth, maybe two hundredths if he spoke several lines. They were also easier to control in their established boundaries and consumed less magic by about the same amount but Irwyn¡¯s control had undergone drastic improvement and internal reserves of magic had never been an issue for him, at least not yet. So, in conclusion, it was simply not worth it for Irwyn to use incantations, the benefits less than the time lost on speaking. He could re-visit the idea when he moved on to greater magics.

    Of course, the exception was when he was pretending to be normal. Every caster around his level he had met had used chants. The only two exceptions were Calm and the shadow accompanying Alira, the latter being several dozen notches above him and the former being a complete unknown on the scales of power. So when Irwyn needed to not stand out, like when he was literally on the run, chanting was a good bluff.

    That being said, the demons burned. He had dimmed the flames as much as he could under the chant¡¯s constraints so they hopefully would not be too visible from the caravan under assault but that took nothing off of their efficacy. It was no Starfire, which he assumed would be exceptionally effective against any being from the void, yet the burn imbued flame still incinerated everything in a large circle around them in just a few breaths. He had expected them to turn to dust, instead, the kobolds directly dematerialised into that black mist he had seen their corpses dissolving into before. Then the second wave rushed them and he burned them away again, speaking ¡°Burn,¡± and preparing for the third. Except they were not attacked again. No demons entered the area slightly larger than the circle he had burned around them anymore. In fact, they weren¡¯t even looking at the duo, just completely ignored them and went around, not so much as sparing them a single glance.

    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°Are they¡­ leaving us alone?¡± Irwyn hesitated.

    ¡°They probably decided we are not worth the trouble considering they have an actual target,¡± Desir said after a startled pause. ¡°Good for us. I spotted a tall hill that way. Far enough to not be under attack but high enough we can judge the overall situation. From there we can either head straight for the road or go the hard way through the thicket if that¡¯s too swarmed. Abonisle should be close enough to make ever forest journey manageable.¡±

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Irwyn nodded and they were on their way. The moonlight was enough to walk unsteadily so Irwyn opted not to bring any attention to them with light of his own. It took them at most 20 minutes to reach the hill, after 10 the demons had suddenly cut off and they were no longer surrounded. Just another sign of their strange, downright supernatural coordination. But maybe that was usual for demons or for kobolds in general. Irwyn simply did not know.

    When they arrived at the top of the hill, they watched the caravan battle winding down. The explosions of magic were almost gone at this point, just the last vestiges of their reserves still erupting. The whole caravan had shrunk, gradually overwhelmed as it concentrated around the vault itself. Even the gunfire was winding down and judging by the numbers Irwyn could see in the magical lights that had been set out at some point. From the distance their fire was rather muted. The population had been reduced¡­ significantly.

    Irwyn felt bad about it. But not horrible. They were all complete strangers and he would not risk his life for them, he reaffirmed himself internally.

    Then there was a change. With an audible crackle, the vault inched open. Bit by bit the top slid out of the way until it was almost completely open. Then, the last part was pushed away far more quickly as something forced its way out. A giant black beak followed by an ebony head half as large as the vault itself. Then the body made it clear that the vault was far larger on the inside than the outside. The creature that crawled out was a massive bird, except none like anything Irwyn had ever seen. It had 3 pairs of wings larger than its body, 3 eyes and a second smaller beak tugged underneath the first, oversized onyx-like feather covering its body though they seemed almost like they were liquid, even from such a distance. As soon as it was free it looked at the approaching hoard, and well, it took a deep breath, gathering magic like a siphon. Then¡­

    ¡°Like solid bark,

    Protection from the dark¡±

    Desir chanted perhaps a second before the bird screamed. The screech was deafening even from so far away and judging by the rippling transparent film, it had also been imbued with something more dangerous than just sound. Irwyn was quite glad that Desir had seen it coming because he certainly had not.

    ¡°They were transporting an Aspect damned Wrathsinger,¡± Desir stared, apparently so taken aback he did not even try to hide that he knew what the thing was.

    ¡°How bad is it?¡± Irwyn glanced at him. It looked like a Void monster but Irwyn could not tell more.

    ¡°Well, just look at what the opening has done,¡± he pointed down and Irwyn saw that there were no longer any kobolds almost third of the way down the hill. He spotted the few last dregs of their bodies dissipating into smoke. There was also no longer much of a caravan left, the scream quite literally melting halfway through most of the carts and assumedly the survivors.

    ¡°That is a lot of power,¡± Irwyn nodded and immediately got to erecting barriers of flame; Light would not do much defensively against void magic. He had managed to make it mostly see-through by stacking 4 thin barriers together, imbuing each with protection. That way they could still watch the scene, even though it was somewhat red-tinted. Any incantation be dammed, he needed to be able to reinforce them if it got worse.

    ¡°If it wasn¡¯t planarly restricted we would both be dead,¡± Desir shook his head. ¡°Fully grown ones can supposedly just erase everything in thousands of miles around them in the Void itself, which is where they are native.¡±

    ¡°Then we better get moving,¡± Irwyn nodded and was about to just turn away when he noticed the change. Because fearsome the bird might be, it had not been the hunter that night.

    There had been perhaps 2 thousand visible pairs of eyes staring at the bird after it screamed, reflected in the moonlight. And that was perhaps only a third of them, those facing in Irwyn¡¯s direction.

    Then Irwyn blinked and there were only a thousand. Before he processed that there were only 500, then 250, 125. By the time Irwyn realised what was happening there were perhaps 15 pairs of eyes that he could see, staring at the bird. But those pairs were larger. So much bigger that Irwyn could tell even from such a distance that they could not possibly belong to a creature as small as a kobold. The next thing he knew, 1 pair of eyes belonging to a behemoth walked up that hill. It was no longer the meek little creature. It was a singular giant in a scale mail, its snout hiding a jaw large enough to swallow buildings whole. And it was not the only one. Two more identical massive demons arose from closer downhill where Irwyn had not been able to see their eyes as they merged. Not until they began to tower over the trees.

    ¡°I suppose that¡¯s growing more powerful in numbers,¡± Desir muttered, spellbound by the spectacle, and Irwyn was also shocked. How would such merger even work? Completely ignoring the restrictions flesh should have, how could their souls possibly accept this sort of merger? Demons, unlike monsters, undeniably had souls after all. The inner mechanics were so beyond Irwyn¡¯s understanding he could not even begin to imagine them.

    Then the 3 titans rushed the Wrathsinger. It tried to scream them away again, yet they did not even flinch, just continuing to run uphil towards it. When it struck Irwyn¡¯s barrier, he realized with surprise that the impact was orders of magnitude weaker than he would have expected form the sheer amount of magic, even dissipating with distance should not affect it so much. It did not even crack his first barrier while he was prepared to create additional, extra solid defenses in anticipation of the existing ones shattering. Seeing the Kobolds, if that was still what they even were, unaffected by its shriek, the Wrathsinger attempted to immediately fly away. Except, it leaped into the air, swung its wings and simply did not fly. It had a moment to be confused before the demons were on top of it.

    The monster kept screaming and screaming as it was torn to shreds. But up close it seemed to have no other power besides its voice. At least no other power that it thought worth trying against the armored behemoths. The whole spectacle took perhaps less than a minute before one of the kobolds managed to dig its massive claw into the creature''s abdomen and tore out a smooth black orb approximately the size of a room. Then, without stopping for a moment, swallowed it.

    About 3 seconds after that, Irwyn felt a question get answered. The particular question was: Why would the kobolds bother attacking as a horde when they could just do this. The answer was quickly apparent as the presence of Abonisle, the city magical enough Irwyn could still feel it in the distance, became about 10 times more intense. The next moment, one of the massive kobolds was pierced through by a proportionally massive black spear which proceeded to suck the entire creature into itself before seemingly vanishing into itself. It looked a bit like a visibly melting icicle, except much faster and Irwyn felt little magic emanating from it. Yet still, it had instantly gotten rid of one of the 3 gargantuan demons.

    Rather than escaping the remaining two kobolds barely moved. In fact, only the one who had not eaten the Wrathsinger¡¯s core took a few steps to stand directly between the unmoving other demon and Abonisle. About ten seconds later, the city in the distance flared again. This time Irwyn refused to blink, still the spear appeared in the creature¡¯s body faster than he could perceive. It simply was not there and then it was the next instant. No shockwave or whistle of the wind, no trail of magic in its path. In fact, the spear itself barely felt like magic. Though before Irwyn could understand it, it swallowed the kobold and imploded. Again, the demon was powerless against it.

    The last giant stood there for a few more seconds before suddenly it grew. Within a few moments it became perhaps half as larger than it had been just prior. It stopped growing just in time for Abonisle to flare again. At the last moment the ends of the demon''s limbs dissolved into a tightly packed smaller kobolds which immediately attempted to flee, however, when the spear once again appeared a moment later only perhaps a few dozen managed to not get sucked into it.

    Then there was silence. Irwyn and Desir did not speak for a moment taking it all in.

    ¡°Did the kobolds¡­ absorb the monster?¡± Irwyn eventually voiced out.

    ¡°Does not seem like a worthwhile trade for getting wiped out,¡± Desir mused. ¡°But hey, demons of greed I suppose.¡±

    ¡°That only means they most likely did not get wiped out,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°How confident can we be that any of them were actually killed?¡± they had, after all, dissolved into smoke while paying no attention to their losses. So then, where did that ebony mist go? Even when that first spear appeared they did not attempt to flee in fear, just seemingly bought enough time to finish digesting, only furthering Irwyn¡¯s suspicion. That perhaps kobolds did not truly die just because their flesh was destroyed. At least not when done in this way.

    ¡°Well, it doesn¡¯t matter right now,¡± Desir sighed eventually. ¡°I have a rather gruesome suggestion though.¡±

    ¡°Do tell,¡± Irwyn looked at him.

    ¡°How much wealth do you reckon survived that?¡± he pointed at the ruins of the Caravan.

 Interlude: Leaving the Fowls nest

    Old Crow sipped the last drops of the tea, his heart beating with excitement. It was not quite as strong as he would have liked but he had to ration his last 3 portions. One he had just finished, the next one for after dusk, and the last at dawn. His stash had run out in the past month. That being said he returned to work as yet another real crow flew in through the opened window. 8 others were already on the table. Not quite dead but¡­ comatose. And next to them was a small flask.

    What he was doing was not technically magic. He just beckoned the crow closer and grasped its soul with his hand. That was actually the distinction between animals and monsters: Animals had souls while monsters did not. A crow in particular had an overly large soul. So much so that their brain could actually not use it to half the full potential. Normally just a bit of trivia, maybe something to study. Except it made them exceptionally suitable for possession, the souls large enough to accommodate more yet relatively little will to fight domination, or they were very useful if one was refining essence.

    Many, perhaps even most places in the world, would have condemned what he was doing as necromancy and hunted him as a lynch mob. The Duchy Federation was no such place. Say what you will about their mage-cratic upper classes, systematic discrimination or unchecked autocratic governments, the Duchy Federation did not mistake superstition for fact when it came to laws and more sublime parts of reality. After all, the whole Duchy of White were the experts on soul magic, yet none of it was necromancy. Not technically.

    Ultimately, necromancy required raising the dead in some way to actually be necromancy. And although refining souls into raw essence was certainly a skill most necromancers would master, it was not considered forbidden.

    That meant that Old Crow¡¯s actions were only illegal because he was unlicensed. Not like he would be able to get one even if he cared to; the Federation tended to forget there was more to power than just magic. That other paths had their peaks too.

    So, he grasped that bird¡¯s soul and ripped it out without any qualms. The animal collapsed, deprived of consciousness and never to wake; it would stay like that until it either died or its biological functions failed. Crow brains in particular could not operate without a soul to guide them. Then he took out a prepared pinprick and began gently stabbing that soul.

    What was actually the difference between a human soul and the soul of a crow in the end? It was really mostly about sheer size and density which was then imprinted by a personality as it grew. Infants had the purest souls, yet also the weakest. Because souls grew with time, whether their vessel was able to benefit from that growth or not. Crows could reach the limit of their bodies as quickly as in 30 days while humans could take decades or even longer as the abilities of their flesh improved. Gradually imprinting personality and other things.

    Crows were far simpler. Even the almost 12 years Old Crow had kept these nine had barely influenced their souls. To the point he could slowly and carefully rip out any impurities. And after less than an hour of work, he held in his hand the pure essence of a soul, which he promptly dumped into the bottle where the other 8 already awaited.

    It was a prime resource for anyone with the expertise to use it in proper magical rituals as well as other uses. Shame the Old Crow himself could not do actual magic nor trusted anyone competent enough with soul sorcery. That was for later though. With the bottle full, he hid it inside his backpack along with the tokens and the 4 books which he had hand written. Though he did make sure it looked nothing like his own handwriting, a simple exercise for someone of his experience. They were not for himself, of course, he knew the contents by heart, but to accomplish what he decided that information had to be written down.

    He glanced at the sun, seeing it was about time he got going to arrive at the meeting early. As would everyone else, he assumed. They usually did unless something else preoccupied them.

    Ebon Respite had changed in the past month in a way. And in different ways, it had stayed the same. After all, most of the disquiet had been caused by the gangs going through the second round of culling, then getting desperate and escalating the conflict out of the underworld and slums of the city. Of course, a second sun seemingly appearing in the middle of the city followed by an undead incursion is the kind of thing that tends to curb any such enthusiasm. Not even the maddest bastards in the city would keep their heads up when there was seemingly a real possibility of house Blackburg sending more mages to restore order in that brutally efficient way they were feared for.

    The streets were calm, like a road that had undergone a storm and someone had just finished clearing out the debris; so well restored after a disaster that no filth has had a chance to settle in. Or return. Well, that would change soon, Old Crow mused as he walked into a building. It was just a regular apartment complex really, except it was close to the slums and legally not in use after the recent disasters. The structure was stable enough though and it worked perfectly well for secret meetings.

    He went straight to the second floor, found the right door, and knocked out the password. He needed not speak a word as he was let in by Maxim. Only 4 people were in the room. It would have once been 6 though 2 had already left on a journey of their own.

    ¡°Old Crow,¡± Rainer nodded his eyes filled with the respect that reflected in all 4 pairs. And Old Crow had to admit he had raised this generation well. Just the right amount of sentimental to make significant betrayal very unlikely yet calloused enough to become exceptionally competent. Some may see what he had done as malicious or evil. He had, after all, slowly manipulated them for years, gradually guiding them into the mould he had decided most fitting. The Fowl himself saw it as no such thing. He had forged them into people who could achieve greatness and made sure they were also the kind of people that would crave it, or at least some kind of exceptionality. In that way, he had given them all the tools they need to fulfill their dreams which he too had subtly given them. That would make them happier than most and than the vast majority of abandoned orphans like they had once been. In fact, he had done them a great service, and only naturally collected his fee in loyalty.

    Now, the 6 teenagers he had seen the most potential in might not seem like much at first glance, but Old Crow did not think in the terms of the present. Everything he truly cared about was safe at the moment. He looked 20 years into the future, once they have had the time to grow into experience and assemble alliances. Forge their own organizations and yet still, maintained that mutual friendship they never realised they had once upon a time been guided into.

    And of course, when they became the big movers and shakers of the generation they would not get in the way of their old teacher as long as he did not cross certain lines. And there was perhaps no one in this entire realm who knew better not to cross lines than the Old Crow. After all, everyone was so busy staring at the carrion eater that he guided them to believe that they forgot to ask the other important questions. Even Avys von Blackburg, devious as the Duchess was, likely did not even suspect what Old Crow actually was and knew. Or maybe someone was better at this than him for a change and she had figured him out already without leaking any hints. Not that he planned to stand on any side she was not on and as long as Irwyn lived he had insurance that he would never have to. Avys was one of the very few people that Old Crow respected as a schemer equal to himself despite her youth.

    ¡°As you may have guessed, there are important matters to discuss,¡± Old Crow spoke after they each found a seat. His pack was placed by his legs, though that would only come into the conversation later. It was all about timing. ¡°Unfortunately, I believe it likely that trouble may yet return for us specifically.¡±

    ¡°We are talking more ¡®cataclysmic¡¯ trouble I suppose,¡± Aaron sighed tiredly, yet beneath flickered anticipation. That deep-rooted desire to solve things. Thanks to Old Crow guidance it was applied to real issues such as running an organisation or avoiding inevitable calamities.

    ¡°Only if we let it,¡± Old Crow nodded. ¡°I have been delaying this conversation for as long as reasonably possible but it is about time we spoke about the consequences of what Irwyn had done.¡±

    ¡°You told us all what happened, Irwyn only did what he needed to survive,¡± Rainer said protectively, as was his nature. Perfect, based on their expressions they were not even considering blaming one of themselves, just as he had expected.

    ¡°If only life was only about assigning fault,¡± Old Crow chuckled as if it was ridiculous to even suggest Irwyn could have been in the wrong. ¡°I am, unfortunately, quite sure the enemies he has made will not care.¡±

    ¡°I would think they would have gone after us already,¡± spoke Maxim with a voice of reason. Old Crow glanced at him and even could not read any emotion in the boy¡¯s expression. Which did not mean he was feeling none, he had just been taught how to control his face and body beyond what would be considered reasonable. To be the actor that could perfectly play any role he needed to.

    ¡°There had been outside factors stopping pursuers. Now, I believe it is for the better you are not too aware of the inner politics of house Blackburg,¡± he said, mostly because Aaron could genuinely gleam something dangerous to himself from a few hints. ¡°However, that obstruction will most likely soon disappear and there will be very dangerous people pursuing Irwyn at all costs.¡±

    ¡°And they might come and see what the connection is here,¡± Kalista observed. It was what she was good at after all and slowly that skill was seeping even into conversations. Into less literal seeing and more the symbolic.

    ¡°Exactly, which is why I have a plan that will make them give up on their search here. If you would extend your left hands?¡± he said and reached into the backpack, taking out 4 identical black tokens as the quartet obliged. Then he placed each just between the wrist and elbow on the arm for each of them. The tokens bubbled for a moment before they sunk into their skin, not leaving even a mark. And as Old Crow was made to understand, no feeling either.

    ¡°If you would explain?¡± Rainer was confused and slightly worried by the clearly magical effect, yet there was enough trust it was not quite fear.

    ¡°I believe congratulations are in order,¡± Old Crow grinned. ¡°After all, very few people become ¡®important assets of house Blackburg¡¯ and even fewer do so forever hereafter and without any obligations,¡± they all stared at him for a moment and had a second take at their wrist still unchanged.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°And that will protect us from retaliation?¡± Maxim asked.

    ¡°Well, the third tenet still applies. Don¡¯t mess with house Blackburg,¡± Old Crow explained. ¡°But when it comes to crossfire, you will find yourselves strangely fortunate, much of that extending to people working for or with you. And if services are required you may find yourselves much more employable. Of course, as long as you don¡¯t claim such work clashes with your existing obligations.¡±

    ¡°Which we don¡¯t even have,¡± Kalista whistled, ¡°Even for you this is a crazy thing to manage, Old Crow.¡±

    ¡°Ah, you see the actions of certain Alira von Blackburg had violated good half of the treaties the Guild maintains with house Blackburg. The Guild was entitled to compensation,¡± Old Crow allowed himself a chuckle. ¡°And of course, there has been only one Fowl left in the city to negotiate what form that compensation took.¡±

    ¡°This is wonderful,¡± Aaron nodded, ¡°but what are the odds that whoever comes looking does not simply have our minds scoured for anything useful, exposing this whole thing in the process?¡±

    ¡°You are forgetting the bane of any massive and untouchable organisation:¡± Old Crow kept smiling, though his heartbeat started slowing. Unfortunate¡­ the tea had been even weaker than he had thought. ¡°When the mages, and they will certainly be such, come looking, fully aware they are a month late, and find their leads already marked as important assets well¡­¡±

    ¡°They will assume someone else already checked and it¡¯s not worth the trouble of defying the protections our status is supposed to offer us because we wouldn¡¯t be just walking around if we knew anything important,¡± Aaron realised the solution.

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Old Crow nodded, though the smile on his lips no longer as genuine. His heart had already returned to how it had been before the tea. Still, he was confident in the solution. With his understanding of house Blackburg he gave it the odds of 98 in a hundred to work. Those were chances he was willing to bet important assets on rather than damage them.

    ¡°But do you have such a mark, Old Crow?¡± Kalista asked, her eyes suggesting she was already sure of the answer.

    ¡°Of course not,¡± Old Crow said. ¡°I rely too much on being untraceable. Although the tokens can be only tracked by those directly empowered to by house Blackburg I cannot afford even that. Therefore I will be leaving Ebon Respite, consider this the first half of my parting present.¡±

    And at his words they gaped, dumbfounded. Of course, it had most likely never even occurred to them that he would leave. That he could. He had been part of their lives since their early childhood after all. They could hardly even remember the times when he was not yet around.

    ¡°When?¡± Maxim was the first to recover, even traces of shock vanishing from his face after just a couple seconds; it was proof of how deeply shaken he was at the news that he showed anything at all. The others took a good bit longer and it was only this quick because they were well-trained. He was, after all, shattering their worldview in some ways.

    ¡°Tomorrow,¡± Old Crow smiled ever so slightly.

    ¡°You could have given us notice,¡± Aaron sighed, slightly frustrated, though more at the idea of what that meant for his administrative role rather than at Old Crow. The boy also couldn¡¯t quite hide the excitement at the challenge behind his eyes. Old Crow was not completely sure the boy even realised it was there.

    ¡°I could have but then, perhaps you would have the time to dissuade me,¡± he chuckled with familiarity as he lied, the one person they would not suspect. It was, in fact, the opposite. He did not want them to realise that they could not change his mind nor that he did not actually need to leave. ¡°And I have brought you a second present,¡± he reached and pulled the 4 bound books from his pack, and handing them each to their suitable new owner. He had hesitated about giving them away, even to his prodigies, but in the end he had determined the investment worth the risk.

    Kalista received her book first and, just as Old Crow had expected, immediately started reading it from the front. The order after that did not really matter as long as Aaron was last, though he did take his time to give the girl enough time to figure out the point, just so that he would not need to make it himself. It was hardly necessary at this point, of course, but doing things in such a way would affect the 4 just slightly more deeply. Insignificant on its own but stacked together with thousands upon thousands of such small, seemingly forgettable things? Well, that was how loyalty and respect were built. Gradually and secretly.

    ¡°These are?¡± Aaron asked as he was handed his own. As always, he prefered hearing from a trusted source when available rather than check it himself.

    ¡°You could call them guides I suppose,¡± Old Crow poorly pretended to be in thought. Everyone of them knew him well enough to know he had planned what to say and just played along the act. More theatrics. ¡°You have heard of what Irwyn had accomplished. And what great power his magic is. Any magic really. It is an exclusive, though incredible, path, but certainly not the only way to power. Where I come from, what the book describes is called Honing. The act of gradually improving specific abilities of your bodies.¡±

    ¡°Gradually, which means we could have started years ago,¡± Rainer looked conflicted at that. Almost disappointed. Which was fine, because Old Crow did not need to even speak to restore that faith and then raise it.

    ¡°Because we did, love,¡± Kalista finally looked up, pointing at the passage she had been reading and stared at Old Crow. ¡°This is the spotting excercise you taught me when I was nine,¡± she observed and became that additional step more loyal. She even practiced that excercise to this day after all, which is why Old Crow had featured it at the very front.

    ¡°Please understand, this is not a secret shared lightly,¡± Old Crow nodded. ¡°You see, they were not exactly acquired coordially and their past owners would recollect them without heed to collateral damage if they so much as caught a whiff of them,¡± he spoke and technically did not lie. They certainly would have gone that far, back when they still lived. ¡°I ask that you keep the contents hidden, best even from each other.¡±

    ¡°What if we complete ours,¡± Aaron asked.

    ¡°You need not worry about that,¡± Old Crow waved his hand. ¡°Properly internalizing even one of them could take you each up to a full century based on what talent I have observed and that is only because you are suitable to those I have chosen for you.¡±

    ¡°Do you also study these then?¡± Maxim asked, not betraying any emotion as he had been taught.

    ¡°Yes, I do perform such Honing, thought I cannot claim true mastery despite the many years I have spent,¡± he chuckled in mock embarassment. He did not lie. After all, the most fundamental principle of Honing was that True Mastery was by definition unachievable.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how we can thank you,¡± Kalista said, slightly choking on emotion as well as she tried to hide it. She could be quite emotional for those in her closest circle after all.

    ¡°You may overestimate its worth,¡± Old Crow smiled gently. ¡°It will make you better but not equal to a proper trained mage who had spent third of the time on their own power,¡± at least not on the scale of a single lifespan. ¡°But as I have always taught you, all I ask is give and take. Remember this in 10 or 20 years when you can offer something I need. Become the type of people that will make me look at you with pride. This is, after all, the time of opportunity. Ebon Respite is in disarray, shattered. And with oh, so much vacuum in its underwold,¡± he said off-handedly, almost like he did not mean it. But he saw the fire of ambition begin to sparkle behind their eyes. If he was any judge of character, the city would be theirs by the decade''s end.

    And they all thanked him, grateful. Exactly as he had wanted. He gave them a last look, considering the future. The piercing eye, the deft hand, the rapid mind, and the faceless man. They made quite the group.

    And as Old Crow headed back home from his meeting he still thought of them. The 6 children which he had given such special treatment to. Gently sunk his claws so deep into. 2 had already left on a journey and the other 4 were too as prepared to leave the nest as they ever would be. And it had made them happy, if indirectly, and would continue to do so in the future. Or at the very least happier than they would have been without him. The most enthusiastic altruist would, after all, always be the one who received something equal in return.

    And then he stopped thinking about the 6 and thought of the hundreds. People great and small, though often the former. Grown up hatchlings, most kindly remembering that old man who had once helped them at their lowest. Remembering that respect, loyalty, and favors owed.

    Well, it was high time to collect a few.

    He brewed the second last dose of the tea and went to sleep.

    <hr>

    When Old Crow set out his heart was thundering in his chest. He had saved up on the night tea the day prior so that he could afford a full dose before heading out. And without hesitation, he headed straight down south, leaving the city through the opulent Road Street. A few minutes of fast jogging and he found a dirt path less traveled, leading to a small farming village to the east.

    And there, as soon as he was far enough away that no one could possibly see, he came upon a carriage.

    The kind you would expect from a travelling merchant ready to open it up and use as a shop. Except those rarely camped out in the middle of nowhere without any beast of burden to move them.

    As he knew it would, the side opened when he approached revealing a familiar face.

    ¡°Morning you ancient leech,¡± Bhaak greeted, already holding an oversized jar full of tea leaves.

    ¡°Morning you skittish snowflake,¡± Old Crow grinned, as genuinely as he was still able to.

    ¡°Now I resent that. Your duchy is the coldest place I have been all decade and that¡¯s more magical than actual real snow,¡± the man huffed and put the tea on the counter. ¡°So, what do you have for me this time.¡±

    ¡°This,¡± Old Crow handed him the bottle of purified crow souls. ¡°Have a look youself.¡±

    ¡°High quality, as always,¡± Bhaak observed, taking one from his collection of hidden monocles to look at it through. ¡°What else do you need,¡± he then asked. Because those were worth more than just rare tea. A lot more.

    ¡°I need to hitch a ride, down South to Steelmire.¡±

    ¡°All the way to the border,¡± Bhaak nodded. ¡°And from there I assume you will make your way North, cashing in favours to get whatever you seek from your latest prodigy.¡±

    ¡°So you have already met,¡± Old Crow noted. ¡°What do you think then? Irwyn is quite something for such a Young Fowl, wouldn¡¯t you agree?¡±

    ¡°I never divulge customer secrets,¡± Bhaak said, more out of principle than anything, but then grew serious. ¡°Though if I were to give an old customer some advice, it would be this: I have no idea what you are planning, however, I would recommend that if that plan involves him surviving the next decade, make sure you two end on the same side.¡±

    ¡°That strong an impression, huh,¡± Old Crow almost wanted to whistle. Instead he just smiled, more genuine than he thought he still had in him. His heart was still beating hard. ¡°No need to worry on that side. I have every intention of being even deeper in favour by then.¡±

    ¡°Glad to hear that,¡± Bhaak nodded and waved him in. ¡°Come on then, I am starting to feel another tug. Better we are on our way before it compels me to follow, yes?¡±

    And Old Crow obeyed that instruction, stepping into the carriage as Bhaak graciously opened the door for him. He entered into an expansive mansion, though that did not startle him. It was not his first time using this rather special service. Then there was not much time for chatter or gossip. Bhaak focused and less than a minute later Old Crow stepped out of the carriage, half the duchy away. They exchanged last greetings and went their own ways. It could be decades before they would meet again, just like this time but that did not mean it required extra sentiment. 10 years were not that long in the greater scheme of things.

    So, Old Crow found the closest road and by the end of the hour he walked into Steelmire, his heart still beating so hard he could hear it.

 2.8 Across the bottomless lake lies a city of black and gold

    What remained of the caravan was worth surprisingly little. Anything even remotely magical seemed to have been completely destroyed by the Wrathsinger¡¯s screams, well except the now empty vault which was only half obliterated but impossible to loot. The same went for most of the wealth; turns out sufficient void magic can, in fact, melt away gold. Where the matter went, Irwyn had no idea. It could have been completely erased for what was left of it. All that remained were a few rare gems that were basically untouched, which the two of them divided half and half. Since there were fewer than expected, Irwyn assumed that they were those particularly resistant to void magic while other jewelry was also destroyed. Not that they searched that thoroughly. They just grabbed whatever was visible and left before someone could show up. Abonisle would likely send people to investigate and if they could teleport to the scene it might not even take them that long; Irwyn had no idea what protocols were in place for a situation like this, how long it would take them to prepare or even how close they would be willing to risk coming in blind.

    They could see Abonisle in the early noon, delayed by taking a longer way around to approach from the West rather than from the south where the previous night''s fighting took place. The city obviously knew about that considering their drastic response so approaching from that direction would be very suspicious and extraordinarily stupid.

    When they finally came over a hill and first saw the city, Irwyn¡¯s mouth almost fell wide open. Abonisle, nicknamed the Veil Watcher, was known to reside right on top of an anomalously thin boundary between their Realm and the Void. That is what the tourist guide Irwyn had read said.

    What it did not mention was that it wasn¡¯t just some background magical effect or a few de-facto portals. No, the city was seemingly built upon a gigantic island in the middle of an even larger lake; except, it wasn¡¯t a lake but a fifty-meter sheer drop leading into absolute and unnatural blackness, inky vapour-like streams of void magic rising from it.

    The Veil from the nickname was quite visible, Irwyn supposed. No wonder the city was a magical beacon: It was at least partially tapping into the Void itself. There was no doubt in Irwyn¡¯s mind that the city was getting massive advantages out of it one way or another. It was, after all, known as the closest centre of magic North-West of City Black itself.

    Which was probably at least in part why Old Crow had directed him here. Abonisle had one of the most concentrated caster populations after the capital as far as Irwyn understood. That meant that rather than stand out in some backwater, Irwyn would get lost here among the other fish. He did not actually know much more about the city. The book he had once read had not mentioned much more as far as he could remember though he had done that it a long time ago.

    Which was still strange considering how incredibly unique the architecture appeared at first glance. Inland, Irwyn could see tall buildings getting progressively higher. The city was almost like a staircase at that first glance: Taller and taller buildings growing from the ground the closer they were to the centre, 3 massive towers staring down at the whole city from at least twice the height of the other already incredibly tall buildings around them somewhere in the middle.

    The way to reach Abonisle was obvious: Half a dozen robust bridges lead over the abyss between the city and solid ground; they had bearing pillars reaching into the black below, supposedly somehow managing to bear the weight there, as well as long and thick enchanted wire reaching down from pairs of spires on each side of the bridges. It was probably an architectural wonder, except Irwyn knew very little about architecture. Much less about bridge building.

    There was actually no other traffic besides them on the road, most likely because of the demons. That meant they did not have to wait in line to get stopped at the first checkpoint; just before entering a bridge there was a small barricade next to a guardhouse that had been placed into one of the twin bearing spires at that side of the bridge.

    The guards wore a black uniform, like half other things in the duchy, and did not really bother them too much. They had an obvious gem meant to detect mages imbued into the top of their gloves, though neither Desir nor Irwyn triggered it. Irwyn thought one of them was looking at him a bit too intently as they noted down their names, however, they made no further trouble for them so Irwyn opted not to comment on it.

    Then they were walking over the long bridge and Irwyn for the first time in perhaps ever felt vertigo, almost stumbling on the way. He had some experience standing on top of buildings, though never particularly keen on travelling over rooftops, however, staring 50 meters down into a completely black abyss was a different experience altogether. Even if there were tall and solid metal handrails enchanted to boot and the road was noticeably wider than even the Road Street of Ebon Respite. Because they were somehow still the only travelers he opted to walk close to the center. Hopefully he would get used to the walk in time, or he could also just avoid leaving and returning through the bridge as much as possible.

    ¡°Quite a view isn¡¯t it?¡± Desire chuckled, visibly amused by Irwyn¡¯s reaction. He seemed¡­ looser now, more relaxed than during their travels. Not that they had talked much ¡°Now, Irwyn, after yesterday I suppose one could say we know each other, eh?¡±

    ¡°I will give you that,¡± Irwyn understood his meaning. ¡°Then since we know each I suppose you know more people to introduce me to.¡±

    ¡°Well, I doubt you would come to Abonisle in particular without a reason,¡± Desir nodded. ¡°And let¡¯s not pretend either of us are going any further. There is not much in this direction until all the way to the Northern border, so unless you intend to leave the Federation altogether we were both head here all along.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough. You are right,¡± Irwyn saw no further need to continue the pretense. Although they were skimming around it a bit, there were enough hints to figure out that the two of them were rather familiar. Although neither would say it, they both understood that each was connected to the Guild and the underworld at least to some extent. There were just too many little details that were unlikely to come from anywhere else.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know if you ever were to a big city,¡± Desir acknowledge Irwyn¡¯s confirmation and continued speaking. ¡°However, things tend to work differently in our circles.¡±

    ¡°Please, elaborate,¡± Irwyn was willing to admit his ignorance. It was weakness, if slight, however, he was most likely going to get involved with the Guild anyway depending on how long he stayed; and on what was the nature of assistance received from Old Crow¡¯s contact. Better than he admits ignorance to someone he is already on decent terms with.

    ¡°There are 4 elderly birds in Abonisle, if you catch my drift, each the extraordinary kind. Although they are supposedly only related to the Duchy-wide society, well, everyone else works under one of them or finds themselves in trouble.¡±

    ¡°And you have a suggestion about who I should associate with,¡± Irwyn easily realised. He would hear out the pitch and consider it afterwards then.

    ¡°I deal with the Ibis,¡± Desir nodded. ¡°They have by far the most casters among the 4 and know their way around up high and close to center. I believe it is also the best choice of association for you since Ibis is all about quality over quantity, which you bloody damn are.¡±

    ¡°I will consider it,¡± Irwyn though about it for a moment and then nodded. It sounded good on paper but he would not just take Desir¡¯s word for it. In Ebon Respite underworld politics took place outside the Guild itself, which remained a neutral mediator and somewhat limited in influence, though he was familiar that conflicts between powerful gangs could get easily out of hand. And getting stuck on the wrong side of that was often lethal. ¡°I have an acquaintance up high to meet,¡± at least Irwyn assumed that whoever Old Crow would connect him with was influential outside the underworld, otherwise he would have given him a Fowl¡¯s name. They will find you after arrival - the letter had said. When that was Irwyn had no idea.

    ¡°That¡¯s all I wanted to hear for now,¡± Desir nodded with a smile. ¡°I have to settle my business while you deal with your own. Giving you time for research, say we meet in a week? I know a good spot. You should still try to explore the city though, it¡¯s very unique.¡±

    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Irwyn said as they closed in on the other side of the bridge. Another checkpoint stood there in an almost identical arrangement. With the limited traffic, they had no trouble getting through quickly, except both of the guards who waved them through stared at Irwyn just a bit too intently.

    Three out of four was not likely a coincidence. Unless he had committed an extreme faux pass with his fashion, someone was expecting him. Someone with their fingers deep in the Abonisle city guard at the very least.

    Irwyn just hoped it was his upcoming allies rather than pursuers.

    After they were through Desir recommended him an area where to find lodgings, understanding that Irwyn would not fully trust a recommendation of a specific establishment. It was in a good area that had little underground influence bleeding into the above-board businesses, at least according to the blue-eyed man.

    ¡°Last thing before we say goodbye, and Irwyn, please listen to me on this one,¡± Desir said with sudden seriousness.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Irwyn was already on alert because of the guards, though he tensed further at the tone.

    ¡°You really, really, really, need to shave that off,¡± he pointed at his face where Irwyn had been attempting to grow the start of a beard during his travels. Except, it never really took off beyond a slight stubble. Not even a hint of a mustache had appeared despite the month of time and the rest was... far from what he had hoped for.

    ¡°That bad?¡± Irwyn tried not to sound defensive. Fair enough, he might not have had access to a good mirror and little experience with this kind of thing but he didn¡¯t think it was horrible.

    ¡°So bad no one was willing to tell you,¡± Desir nodded, still completely serious. ¡°I hope you can take my advice on this as honest. Especially if you are going to meet someone.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, I will deal with it,¡± Irwyn sighed and nodded, intently not thinking about all the people he had met over the past month. Well, he had met Old Owl before his apparently horribly failed attempt at facial hair started and basically everyone else were strangers that he expected to never meet again. Except Desir, as it happened. If that relationship went anywhere and Irwyn lived that long he could already see being mocked for it as a joke in two years'' time.

    Afterwards they said their goodbyes and were on their ways. Irwyn followed the directions Desir had given him and found himself quickly in the good-but-not-quite-rich part of the city. With the whole City built on an Island, horizontal space was seemingly precious and the further in he got, the taller the buildings were; in the distance, he could see those 3 massive towers radiating magic but that was a long way away from him still. And it was not to say that everything else was not radiating magic; magic was so thick in the air Irwyn worried it would be harder for him to detect individual spells in it. The street he had arrived on seemed to be almost focused on tourisms as Irwyn spotted several establishments advertising available lodgings calling themselves ¡®hotels¡¯ and multiple ¡®restaurants¡¯. Irwyn was rather hungry, though he decided to first find a room and¡­ follow Desir¡¯s advice.

    It was surprisingly easy to obtain accommodations. Well, perhaps not surprisingly, Irwyn just expected there to be hassle at the final stretch. The place he chose was relatively higher class than what he was used to on his travels. They just asked for 2 days upfront and after he paid none of the staff so much as commented about his disheveled appearance. There was also a lot of staff. And the building had way too many floors. Perhaps it was a bit of a cultural shock to Irwyn to see that basically every damn building in the entire city had more floors than anything he had seen in Ebon Respite or most of what he had witnessed on his travels.

    The next bit of surprise was the elevator. Irwyn had read about elevators like this which was the only reason he had recognised it. If a relatively middle-class place like this could afford to run one, no doubt requiring great maintenance and magical upkeep, Irwyn had to re-evaluate even more things about Abonisle. He knew that Ebon Respite had been backwater, or rather over-exploited, but he had not realised the difference would be quite as big in the availability of, well, everything it seemed. Across all the years living in the city and seeing at least descriptions of the most expensive and extravagant places, he was reasonably confident not a single place had an elevator not meant explicitly for raising wagons with goods, and those were large clumsy contraptions that went up perhaps a single level. Though at least he did not have to walk the stairs up to the 7th floor in this instance.

    He came back down 30 minutes later, shaved and somewhat better kept. The room was much better than Irwyn would have expected. Yes, it was quite expensive but it was reasonably spacious and very well-kept. He had asked and was told that he could stay as long as he wished, though he would probably inquire about renting a small apartment. Of course, only once he figured out how that even worked, considering his whole life in Ebon Respite he had never had to personally deal with property law and just stayed at various inns across his travels. An oversight in his education, he supposed.

    He proceeded to find a nice ¡®restaurant¡¯, not an inn with meals or a tavern which in itself was a bit of a novelty, and ate a meal there. A good meal, comparable to the high bar he had gotten used to with Narcinia. Yes, it was also rather pricey but looking at his current finances he would be fine with this kind of lifestyle for at least a month longer even if he never replenished them. Then, after consideration, he decided to dip into them further and went looking for clothes. His travelling gear was too disheveled, informal and potentially recognisable. He would not go as far as to burn it this time around as he had with his first backpack, however, it would be for the best if he could look the part for his undoubtedly many upcoming meetings.

    The shopping had brought him a bit closer to the central spires of Abonisle; Irwyn figured that he would look upstream first and then backtrack if the prices were too high. That was how he found a massive ¡®mall¡¯. It was a strange concept to Irwyn, though it made sense in Abonisle, an entire market district condensed into one large 10-story rectangle with the area of several buildings where basically anything could be found for sale. It was a level of amenities Irwyn had not so much as contemplated.

    What was even more fascinating were the disclaimers that the top 2 floors required a license to practice magic in order to access. In other words, there were enough licensed casters in the middle class area that they were worth actively catering to, even if they were most likely far above average in income. That was such a leap from Ebon Respite. Irwyn had been aware that City Black, the capital being just a day¡¯s travel away from his hometown, had been actively syphoning basically every speck of magical talent born for education and whatever else, but by the sheer scarcity of them he had assumed that they were rare. He had seen maybe 5 casters the whole time he had lived in Ebon Respite until the Blackburg revenge purge and only one had ever stayed in Ebon Respite long-term, leading to that belief. Now he was not quite so sure anymore.

    The whole layout was not too confusing to Irwyn despite the unfamiliarity. It was much like a regular market street once he was inside, except split into several levels. The floors were also clearly divided into specialties, clothing being found on the third floor. Irwyn reached there and went searching, soon enough coming upon a second-hand store, picked at random mostly.

    First he found himself something more casual. A black shirt, because almost everything in the store was black, in good condition as well as pants that both fit him. Then he spotted a suit. It was a black cut, obviously, but something about it attracted Irwyn¡¯s attention. Then he realised it was ever so slightly enchanted. Just something to make the fabric a small bit more resilient and stretchable. That made him frown because he should have realised that significantly sooner. In fact, now that he thought about it, his perception of the absolute myriad of magical items all around Abonisle had been less¡­ urgent than it would have been back in Ebon Respite. Oh, when he focused on them it was no trouble to feel the magic but subconsciously he was a lot less aware of each individual source than he had been. After feeling around and giving it some thought Irwyn concluded that his earlier worry that the massive hike in ambient mana might make it more difficult to perceive things was indeed correct. It was a bit like trying to spot a specific tree in a forest rather than a field. Abonisle was just so full of magic it became more difficult to spot the individual trees, doubly so if he wasn''t paying the most attention. A tree in an open field was obvious after all but in a forest it was just one among many.

    The positive news were that the shop apparently did not know the suit was enchanted, considering the price they had asked for it; or magical clothing was an order of magnitude cheaper than Irwyn would have thought. It would do very nicely for any formal occasions. And it was convenient that he could finish shopping in just the first store. Satisfied with his purchases, he left exploring the rest of the one-building shopping district to another time.

    When Irwyn finally returned to his room he was quite tired, perhaps fatigue from long travel finally catching up to him now that he had a moment to relax. That was why it took him almost 3 seconds to spot the discrepancy when stepping into his bedroom: On his bed lay a plain white card with words written onto it with calligraphic flare.

    They were an address and a time.

    Well, if his guess was correct, it would seem like Irwyn would finally meet Old Crow¡¯s acquaintance the following noon.

 2.9 High-class steaks and high-class stakes

    The address would lead Irwyn much further into the center of Abonisle. When he had asked for directions at the reception of his hotel they immediately recognized where he was headed and even looked at Irwyn much more seriously afterwards. He was not sure if that was a good or a bad sign. The directions given to him were also¡­ confusing, though he was told they would make sense when he saw the innermost districts.

    The buildings around him kept growing taller and taller as he approached the 3 massive spires. He went straight down a long and wide road bustling with traffic until he found the landmark described in the directions given: There, at one point, the massive buildings suddenly ended with a good long stretch of completely open ground, followed by a moat and a tall wall, enchanted to the Void and back. It was also perhaps the tallest wall Irwyn had ever seen, which made it all the more fascinating that it was invisible from outside the city, covered completely by the thick and tall buildings.

    A wide bridge led over the moat leading to a wide-open gate. There was no checkpoint or really any sort of security and the traffic moved through undisrupted. Walking over to the other side, Irwyn realized that the moat was actually just as deep as the abyss around the island city, all light eventually succumbing to the seemingly bottomless blackness. A glance down revealed dozens of wide exits from the sewer system, someone currently dumping trash into the bottomless abyss below.

    Past the gate there was another open plane, though not another moat. And the buildings beyond that were even a notch taller than the ones before. That was the smallest change, however, as it was no longer just the buildings divided into floors. He could see, while approaching, that there were several street layers, stacked up on top of each other with maybe 20-meter gaps, the floors obscured from the natural sun had magical lights installed instead. Everything was seemingly built into a massive rectangle, upper floors of the buildings connected by street layers of their own. And all of that completely soaked in magic, probably just to keep it standing.

    The directions he got led him ¡®to the very top floor right by the gate¡¯. Thankfully the wide street right after the gate had multiple expansive elevators constantly going up and down on a simple rotation which spared Irwyn the no doubt countless stairs, even though he barely fit with the extensive traffic; it was almost strange how many people were moving around considering there were so few entering or leaving the city as far as he had seen upon his own arrival. When he reached the top street layer, after several minutes and over a dozen stops, Irwyn realised it barely looked urban. There were actual trees and gardens and the building were not stacked right next to each other like in the streets below, having that spacious feeling of high-class districts he knew even from Ebon Respite. The area was almost screaming privilege at a glance.

    Though, being on the top floor and near the edge of the construction also allowed him to take a good look both down and up. He went to the handrails by the edge of this floor and beneath him were perhaps hundreds of meters of steep fall down onto the empty field behind the open gate, he could easily see all the way to the massive bridges and even beyond. When turned around it became obvious the city went even taller: Within walking distance, he could see another higher street layer springing up. And then further another several until they were so far away and high enough that he could no longer distinguish if there were any more. And beyond all that were the 3 massive spires, towering far above everything even from his current height.

    No matter what else his impressions were, Abonisle was truly an achievement of architecture.

    The address he had been invited to seemed to be an exceptionally high-class restaurant, to the point Irwyn was pretty sure they would not have even let him in without the suit, located close to the edge and elevators. As soon as he entered he noticed there was a dedicated greeter and if that was not a sign of how rich the place was, the layers upon layers of enchantments on every surface were even more of a dead giveaway. Among their undoubtedly many effects, Irwyn realised that his ability to sense magic was unable to pass an inch through any surface, including the doors. He had not run into any such enchantment in the past but just knowing they existed opened his eyes to an extent. He wondered if that shadow who had accompanied Alira used something working on similar principles or if that had been just sheer control over their own magic.

    He approached to inquire about his meeting though that seemed unnecessary as the greeter took one look at him, immediately recognised him, bowed uncomfortably deep, and beckoned for a waiter already waiting behind a corner to lead him to a private room, even opening the door for him.

    Inside there was an entry hallway he had to pass through first as the door snapped shut behind Irwyn and he realised he was completely cut off from the rest of the world beyond the room itself, the same enchantments blocking all perception. Since he had already walked inside it was too late to worry about an ambush so he focused on the room itself. He did not feel anything magical at first beyond the enchanted walls and furniture so he was slightly surprised when he walked into the main part of the room and found a person seated there, facing him from behind an oaken table.

    There sat a raven-haired girl not any older than him who was, Irwyn had to admit, almost uncannily beautiful. It was because Irwyn never cared much for superficial appearances that he was able to quickly realise the feeling was caused by her visage being far too perfectly symmetrical and too¡­ well flawless. To the point, it seemed almost unnatural.

    ¡°Good afternoon Irwyn,¡± she greeted with a polite smile, all formal. ¡°Please take a seat. We have much to discuss.¡±

    ¡°Good afternoon,¡± Irwyn mirrored the greeting and sat down, taking in more of the room after shaking the distraction of the person. It looked almost simple at first glance: An aquarium in the wall, wooden furniture with small decorations and a window view. Except the aquarium held a noticeably magical black fish Irwyn had never even heard of, the furniture was enchanted to the point it felt excessive and the window had the perfect view of seeing part of the top floor layer as well as the drop leading down to the rest of Abonisle; Irwyn could see all the way to the black abyss surrounding the city as well as the hills in the distance.

    It was a different kind of riches than the overt opulence he had observed so far he supposed. Even the girl, or perhaps woman, seemed to dress almost humbly in a conservative black dress which Irwyn could not feel a speck of magic from. Which raised all kinds of alarm bells because it seemed more likely to him that it was enchanted so well that it hid its magic perfectly rather than not being enchanted at all.

    She was also staring at him, rather intently.

    ¡°Please, order anything you wish at my expense,¡± she said, though there was not really a menu to browse, or any indication where he should figure out what dishes such a place offered. ¡°I find it best to discuss such things over cuisine.¡±

    ¡°Do you have a recommendation, your ladyship?¡± he asked. She still had not introduced herself, putting herself immediately in a superior position. Not that Irwyn had any intention or the means to deny her that much.

    ¡°For you perhaps attuned steak would not go amiss,¡± she put a finger to her lips as if in thought. Of course, Irwyn had no doubt she had planned this much well ahead. ¡°I assure you that the chefs are more than capable of preparing exotic ingredients.¡±

    ¡°Then I will follow your recommendation,¡± Irwyn nodded and she smiled. Of course, Irwyn knew better than to let a pretty face distract him from the matter at hand, not that he was particularly vulnerable to that in the first place.

    ¡°Excellent,¡± she nodded and reached for one of the decorations laid out on the table: A pond with many small crystalline pebbles. Except, as Irwyn now noticed, the pebbles were each enchanted individually rather than being part of the greater arrays in place, each a communication crystal of some sort if he understood it correctly. ¡°Please, if you would bring us Ebonmaw risotto and Sunmonger steak,¡± she spoke into the stone and then put it down before proceeding to stare Irwyn down again with a smile. As seconds passed it became clear she had no intention of speaking. Another tactic, Irwyn realised, putting pressure on him until he spoke, which he would. They had done the same when interrogating Alira after all.

    ¡°Abonisle is quite the fascinating city,¡± Irwyn glanced out the window at the view, unsure what else to speak about. It had been made apparent that his counterpart wanted to wait for the meal before delving into serious topics. ¡°I have read some books mentioning the connection to the Void, yet nothing about the unique architecture.¡±

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    ¡°Perhaps they were merely outdated,¡± she suggested. ¡°Abonisle has changed beyond recognition in the last 2 decades. I still remember when the first Great Spire was erected almost 10 years ago,¡± and it also implied that she had grown up around here, likely meaning to tell Irwyn it was her family¡¯s base of power. ¡°The unique architecture and amenities are actually inspired by great cities outside the Duchy Federation. Her Ladyship Avys von Blackburg, after her husband took his throne, has invested greatly into it. Taken by the idea of reproducing architectural achievements and innovations of her less magically capable homeland with the expertise of mages, going as far as to invite dozens of exceptional engineers to participate in the city¡¯s reconstruction. She has even mused in private that Abonisle has, through that cooperation, surpassed those great cities it had been inspired by.¡±

    ¡°I will admit it is a breathtaking sight,¡± Irwyn praised, because it was true and judging by her smile it would not go amiss, while he chewed on the implications. Her Ladyship Avys has mused in private, he had just been told. In other words, this girl, or someone very close to her, were the kind of people to find themselves in a private setting with the Duchess herself. Irwyn supposed that much was to be expected, considering that whoever she represented were willing to oppose a branch of house Blackburg for very little immediate gain, if only secretly. They were likely another rival branch or a particularly powerful lesser noble house; Irwyn¡¯s understanding of noble politics in the Duchy of Black was rather shallow though.

    ¡°You should witness the view from the top of the three spires,¡± she replied, glancing out of the window. ¡°You can see all the way to the mountains at Federation¡¯s Northern border, well, when the snowstorms are not too bad on occasion.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps if I have the opportunity,¡± Irwyn allowed. Perhaps it was¡­ a warning not to run away? Indirect promise to bring him up there for some reason? Irwyn honestly was not sure what the point of that sentence had been. Then there had been another few seconds of silence, though just as Irwyn was about to speak again he felt magic gathering. It was relatively subtle and if he was not extra on guard after the surprise with the speaking stones he would have likely not noticed it in the overwhelming ambient magic.

    The next moment space shifted and two dishes appeared on the table, Irwyn barely suppressed a wince and an actively glowing pre-cut steak with a side of bright yellow maybe-tomato slices, crimson red small carrot bits that were actively burning and potatoes that were covered in small white specs that Irwyn was relatively sure were not just salt. And the entire damn dish was packed with magic, of Fire, Light and the steak actually had something close to Starfire.

    His hostess, as Irwyn noted while trying to hide his surprise, instead had a sort of rice dish with pieces of something; it was difficult to tell what because literally everything in the culinary piece was pitch black and would probably appear burned if it wasn¡¯t actively inundated in Void magic, and a speck of fire too if Irwyn could feel correctly.

    ¡°This is¡­ quite extraordinary,¡± Irwyn admitted, at a loss for words. He had no idea how expensive even ingredients would be, however, he assumed the answer was counted in multiples of the average annual income.

    ¡°Please enjoy it,¡± she nodded, seemingly satisfied by the reaction. ¡°I understand that attuned cuisine is difficult to acquire for most people,¡± and that Irwyn had just learned for the first time what the term for this kind of dish was summed up the ¡®difficulty¡¯ pretty well in his own opinion.

    ¡°I will do so, your ladyship,¡± Irwyn politely said. The address was basically a sure guess unless there were even better-suited words for her position. He would not believe the Old Crow if he told her this girl was not high, high nobility.

    ¡°Please, call me by my name, Irwyn,¡± she said as she manifested chopsticks of pure void magic to dig into her dish. Pretending to not realise the issue with her instruction.

    ¡°I would love to, though I am afraid you have not shared yours as of yet, your ladyship,¡± Irwyn said as politely as possible. He was, once again not exactly sure what the point of it was, which was why he observed her reaction very closely, fishing for clues as she stopped.

    And that half-hidden flicker of confusion quickly turning into panic in her eyes baffled Irwyn. Because she tried to hide it, but not perfectly. Like someone who had been taught to hide all the clues but had not quite completely mastered that skill. Which was so much harder to feign, not to mention that it would require a deep understanding of how closely Irwyn had been trained to read clues like these if it was meant to be a deception. So, in other words, either the girl opposite to him was one of the best actors he had ever met despite being only Irwyn''s age while she also simultaneously had a perfect enough understanding of Irwyn on the first meeting to handcraft layers upon layers of deception;

    Or she was genuinely panicking about forgetting to introduce herself.

    ¡°Indeed,¡± she said and Irwyn could see the exact moment she calmed herself and tried to play the mistake off. ¡°My name is Elizabeth. Please enjoy the dish,¡± she said before she quickly dug into it to calm herself down, using those chopsticks of void magic she still held.

    Irwyn might have been reading far too much into the whole conversation.

    Now, there was definitely a reason why it was a young blatantly noble girl his own age meeting him, rather than an elder or a clandestine subordinate. A young caster, there was no doubt after the chopsticks she manifested, who could perfectly hide her magic from Irwyn despite appearing no older than him; something only Desir had done to him as far as Irwyn knew, though that was a small sample size and there could be other factors at play. It would still not do to completely drop his guard but perhaps it would be for the best to reconsider reading into every word she said as though there were subtle messages or manipulations.

    That being said, Irwyn could muse while he dug into his own food. The dish, although teleported here, came with no cutlery so Irwyn followed suit and created a fork and knife of solid Light. He took a first bite of the precut steak and nearly fell out of his chair.

    It was not merely exceptional. It was a self-contained experience that stimulated more than just taste buds. Shivers went down his spine as he felt connected to the food for the lack of a better word, a bit like he did with his own magic. That gave it a feeling of incredible intimacy as he chewed and swallowed, resulting in something that transcended just taste. Needless to say, Irwyn could barely hold himself back enough to eat the dish politely rather than gobble it down. And it was gone all too soon.

    ¡°It seemed to be up to your tastes,¡± Elizabeth seemed to have calmed down and was beaming, having finished her own dish. Irwyn was still considering whether to believe it was genuine. Smiles were almost the first thing he himself had been taught to fake after all.

    ¡°I will admit, this has been the best cuisine I have ever experienced by such a large margin it is barely a comparison at all,¡± going with high and true praise seemed to be working so far. And although it felt a bit unfair towards Narcinia who was a great cook as far as he was concerned, the dish had been in a different league entirely. For the first time in a while, Irwyn felt the itch of jealousy at someone who could experience that often enough to not think much if it, though he quickly suppressed it.

    ¡°Is that so?¡± Elizabeth¡¯s brows seemed to rise in surprise. Irwyn had to evaluate whether that was fake or whether it just never occurred to her most people were not used to something like this. He was leaning towards the latter. ¡°We can order dessert later, though now we should perhaps get down to business.¡±

    ¡°I am told you understand my situation,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°I have been told much about you,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°For once I would like to see. Do not take this harshly, however, you have powerful enemies and my family¡¯s support will depend greatly on what they may gain in return.¡±

    ¡°Of course, that is only natural,¡± Irwyn nodded. He had expected he would have to put himself into debt of some sort in order to survive. That was only natural after all, give and take was all the fairness anyone had any right to expect. He himself would not take risks for a stranger with nothing tangible to gain. ¡°What is it you wish me to do to prove my worth then, Elizabeth.¡±

    ¡°Show me,¡± she stared at him and he was sure he saw excitement glimmer behind her eyes and the smile. ¡°I was told that you wield the very fire of Stars. That you command magic with the skill of a virtuoso and imbue your will into it with a simple thought. So show me.¡±

    And so Irwyn did. He nodded and spun his magic with every intention to impress. He wove it into a thousand strings as thin as hair as they interlaced and half merged, he allowed them to shift and form into the head of a sunflower. As for the intention, well, he meant it to impress and impress it did. In a single second a beautiful flower sat on the table. It was nothing perfect nor permanent - he had to keep feeding it with magic just so it would not dissipate - but Irwyn thought it was a good showing.

    Elizabeth glanced at it and her smile deepened. Then to his surprise, magic rose from her as well. Just like his own it erupted, though into black laces. Except they were not just Void. It also burned with the heat he was oh so familiar with. For that was more than just Umbra¡¯s magic. Much like his own, it was a merger of two. Voidflame his mind almost whispered with excited urgency, distracting him. And by the time he regained composure a second flower stood opposite to his own. An ebony lily, its spread petals gently burning at the edges with pitch black blaze. And he felt that from within it demanded his attention.

    ¡°In that case, let us discuss terms,¡± Elizabeth was still smiling, excitement burning in her stare. Irwyn decided it was genuine.

 2.10 Its risk management, not opportunism

    ¡°Yes, let us discuss terms,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I assume you have something in mind.¡±

    ¡°My family is willing to provide whatever you need within reason,¡± Elizabeth said, her smile turning more serious. ¡°That is, under 2 conditions. Firstly, you must continue growing your magic, including¡­ completing your education in that and other regards.¡±

    ¡°And I assume you will provide me with that education,¡± Irwyn made sure. It was barely a condition at all, considering he had been starving for magical knowledge and would have pursued such either way.

    ¡°Of course. You will have resources available,¡± she nodded.

    ¡°It is hardly a difficult condition considering I would have done so myself,¡± Irwyn did want to learn a bit more though. ¡°However, it does make me wonder why you want to be so sure I will keep improving.¡±

    ¡°I am unfortunately not at leisure to disclose everything,¡± Elizabeth explained, ¡°However, the grudge you have formed will likely not fade with just time. And when they come to collect, my family would benefit if you inflicted a cost of your own.¡±

    ¡°Enemy of my enemy. Except I would be more of a pawn than a player,¡± Irwyn almost gave her a cynical chuckle. Though it was probably better than the alternatives all things considered. He had faith that Old Crow would not set him up for this if it was just certain death. Their goal, after all, did not require him to die.

    ¡°You will get your chance to grow. The branch family of house Blackburg that you have offended has no official presence in Abonisle and their few spies have been made unreliable,¡± she tried to hide her slight discomfort as she justified it, though Irwyn caught it. ¡°You will have as much time as can be bought before the risk grows too much for my family to bear. It might be years before they catch even a trail.¡±

    ¡°I am hardly complaining,¡± Irwyn waved his hand. ¡°It would be hypocritical of me to criticize fellow ruthless opportunists, especially if they are helping me,¡± though he would not trust them fully either. Irwyn would need to get local contacts in the Guild and prepare for the eventuality that they throw him to the wolves. Good thing he was already started on that route with knowing Desir.

    ¡°Risk management is hardly opportunism,¡± Elizabeth defended, frowning slightly.

    ¡°I suppose we work with a different definition of the word,¡± Irwyn shrugged, suppressing the itch to argue about the point. It was to him a rather clear-cut case but it was not the time considering the person opposite might as well have his continued survival in the palm of her hand. ¡°I am much more interested in hearing your second condition.¡±

    ¡°Ah, of course,¡± Elizabeth failed to hide her slight startlement again. ¡°The second condition is simple: Any aid my family provides will be asked, approved and delivered through me.¡±

    ¡°Please elaborate?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow, showing no more of his surprise.

    ¡°It is not an uncommon arrangement with more established houses,¡± Elizabeth tried to keep her expression calm while nervousness flickered behind her eyes. ¡°I have undergone extensive training and education, however, I need more practical experience. I have convinced my parents to allow me this opportunity as long as I remain within Abonisle. So, I will be accompanying you during your stay.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ see,¡± Irwyn nodded, processing the information. ¡°You are aware I frequently interact with the less spoken-about parts of society. Will that be a problem?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I am aware of your Guild,¡± Elizabeth seemed rather dismissive of the suggested conflict of interests. ¡°As long as they do not overstep the agreed-upon boundaries I am not so overzealous as to go against my family¡¯s agreements for persecution. Petty theft is above my notice,¡± in that case Irwyn would make sure she would never see more than that.

    ¡°In that case, I suppose we will be in each other¡¯s care,¡± Irwyn gave her a pleasant smile. Elizabeth seemed rather¡­ sheltered from what he had observed, and the excitement was telling that she did not quite understand how the people at the bottom lived. However, he would not be blinded by first impressions. She had also clearly undergone training in magic Irwyn desperately desired. So as long as she was not utterly unbearable, which she didn¡¯t appear to be, it would not be hard to bring her along until she got disillusioned and bored of whatever ¡®adventures¡¯ she expected. There was likely no problem when it came to her safety either: Irwyn would not soon forget that Alira had been followed by an exceptionally dangerous caster extremely competent in stealth and there was no doubt in his mind that Elizabeth had at least a similar level of protection. In fact, they were most likely not alone in the room, though Irwyn would pretend to not know.

    ¡°Happy to hear your agreement,¡± she was barely hiding the excitement now. ¡°Actually, how about we get started right away?¡±

    ¡°I do not see why not,¡± Irwyn shrugged amicably. ¡°What do you have in mind?¡±

    ¡°Have you read any of the editions by Magelord Farmolian?¡± she asked.

    ¡°It does not ring a bell,¡± Irwyn admitted.

    ¡°Then how about Magelord Aarmonius or¡­¡± Elizabeth kept asking and in her excitement it took her 6 tries before she realised Irwyn had not read any of the ¡®introductory¡¯ textbooks or thesis.

    ¡°I¡­ I am not sure what to say,¡± she admitted, dimming a bit. ¡°I suppose¡­ maybe we can do a standard measurement?¡±

    ¡°What does that involve?¡± Irwyn asked, even he was slightly embarrassed about his ignorance even if he couldn¡¯t help it. Elizabeth had clearly expected him to be far more knowledgeable than he actually was.

    ¡°It¡¯s simple,¡± she said and a crystal bead appeared in her hand. Irwyn almost flinched as he had felt not the slightest trace of any magic being cast or from where that could have appeared. Elizabeth did not even notice as she kept explaining. ¡°This is an empty container with the capacity of exactly 5 mana units, MU. It¡¯s difficult to explain what that is or why is it exactly this much without context since it¡¯s based on Armonius¡¯ second law, but simplistically, it is the standard unit of measurement. Anyway, what I need you to do is to pour as much magic as you can into it to see how quickly you can overflow it.¡±

    ¡°What happens if it¡¯s too much magic for it to handle?¡± Irwyn asked as she handed him the crystal. He had no actual knowledge of how much magic he could channel compared to an average caster, however, he was going to unhumbly guess it was probably above average.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry if you break it,¡± Elizabeth did not seem bothered, however, ¡°They are not expensive,¡± and Irwyn wondered if that was actually true or if it was just her skewed idea of prices.

    ¡°Very well,¡± Irwyn nodded and focused on the item. It was easy to channel his magic into it, perhaps even easier than usual. The gem was an emptiness longing to be filled and so Irwyn obliged¡­ for about half a second before the gem filled up and shattered into a fine dust in his hand.

    ¡°Well done,¡± Elizabeth whistled happily.

    ¡°Was that supposed to happen?¡± Irwyn questioned. It seemed rather unintuitive if so.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say ¡®supposed¡¯, however, it is hardly uncommon,¡± she explained. ¡°All this means that your vessel has capacity above 25 MU; a lot above considering how quickly it broke. That is exceptional at our age. A proper measurement above that needs a dedicated device rather than just this portable thing, though smuggling you into a proper facility might be¡­ problematic.¡±

    ¡°Vessel?¡± Irwyn was more interested in that word than the possibility of better measurements. He had no idea how much 25 was but letting people he hardly trusted get their hands on precise information on his abilities that he himself did not understand was unwise to say the least.

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    ¡°Yes, my mistake, I forget you don¡¯t understand the basic terms,¡± Elizabeth apologized with slight chagrin and explained. ¡°All mages have three measurable capacities that determine how much magic they can wield. We call them the Vessel, the Funnel and the Reservoir. The Vessel is how much mana your body can constantly hold, immediately available for spells. The Reservoir determines how much mana can be stored within your soul, it is usually dozens of times greater than the vessel and can take a long time to fully replenish through the ambience and also the Luxen-Aa¡­ well, through a process that provably does not require any ambient magic to take in. Then the funnel is what connects the two, simplified, it determines how quickly your reservoir refills your vessel. You are probably familiar with what happens when your vessel is empty: Just remember when you were casting magic when suddenly you were struck by a crippling headache while your limbs completely gave out for hours. That is what happens when you completely deplete the vessel. And since it¡¯s very difficult to learn how to actually feel how much mana you have left, most people rely on measurements and calculating costs to avoid overcasting.¡±

    ¡°I see, fascinating,¡± Irwyn nodded along with the explanation while he tried to think back. Had he ever experienced something like that? Well, he had definitely suffered through headaches while casting, though those hardly ever lasted that long unless he overwhelmed his capacity to think with stuff like his attempts to magically see with daylight. But he had no memory of the drastic consequences Elizabeth had described. She had also described them as if it was inevitable Irwyn had experienced such, which made Irwyn certain that he should not mention that he hadn¡¯t. Considering they were the signs of depletion, it was most likely a good thing as well.

    ¡°What happens when the reservoir is depleted then?¡± Irwyn asked, particularly curious if he could spot any familiar symptoms on that front.

    ¡°It is technically not possible to exhaust the reservoir fully,¡± Elizabeth explained, though she suddenly showed deep discomfort in her eyes. ¡°However, mages begin to experience increasingly dire symptoms when they get below 50%. At first it¡¯s just lethargy, maybe a slight itch that cannot be scratched. Below 40 it comes to constant migraines and short bursts of inexplicable pain all across the body. Under 30 causes severe insomnia and unceasing bone-deep agony besides the previous symptoms. Any lower than that and there is supposedly a risk of permanent damage or even death.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­ important to know,¡± Irwyn did not comment further, noticing that the explanation seemed to have lowered Elizabeth¡¯s spirits somewhat. At least he could be reasonably certain he had never dipped far below half if even that. Lethargy and itching were hardly unique and any combinations of the two he had experience might have also been caused by poor sleep schedule and coincidence. ¡°I have known that I have gaps in my knowledge so thank you for filling some of them.¡±

    ¡°This is hardly a start,¡± Elizabeth rolled her eyes, seemingly less guarded now. ¡°There is enough to study in magic that sages die of old age before taking a tenth of it in. On the other hand I find it quite fascinating that you have come as far as you did just by yourself. I cannot imagine reaching my ability without the foundation of my predecessors.¡±

    ¡°I am hardly sure myself,¡± Irwyn could only shrug. ¡°I have had this feeling for magic as far as I can remember. It just came naturally to me I suppose. Then it was all about practice and pushing my limits,¡± and a artifact with a vision that somehow pushed him leaps further. He glanced at the burning sunflower still sitting at the table which swayed slightly at his whim.

    ¡°Yes, you certainly have exceptional talent, to the point you will likely be the cause of several reforms in the upcoming years.¡±

    ¡°Reforms?¡± Irwyn could not imagine what she meant.

    ¡°Well, the Duchy of Black, and most of the Federation for that part, have developed extensive ways of testing talent for magic at a young age. Such would be administered early on in public education which is free and mandatory for all children. Except¡­¡±

    ¡°I am a street orphan who never was part of that system,¡± Irwyn finished in a nod. It was a sensible system even if it had blind spots. It was an issue he had been long aware off: The Duchy of Black maintained a certain level of bureaucracy which included logging of birth certificates to verify identities if someone wanted to dig deep enough. Old Crow had known people who could actually forge convincing fake identities by subsuming those of deceased people with no living relatives, though the whole process apparently involved a high degree of bribes and/or infiltration. But unlike just forged personal documentation, it would stand up to almost any scrutiny. That had, however, never really been an option for Irwyn. As Old Crow had warned him, casters had special legal status in the Duchy which made such identities so difficult to forge as to make it practically impossible; turning himself in as an unregistered caster at his age had not been an option either, it would raise a lot of questions and problems.

    ¡°Well, actual change will take some years until the circumstances grow less¡­ volatile,¡± Elizabeth continued. ¡°I would also not want to be the person who has to figure out the practical execution of such reforms. However, talent is the most valuable resource, or so I am told.¡±

    ¡°Well, I do wonder how many casters actually slip to the cracks like me,¡± Irwyn shrugged. He knew no other in Ebon Respite and the city had perhaps the most populated slums in any town he had come across in his travels.

    ¡°Mages,¡± Elizabeth frowned.

    ¡°Sorry?¡±

    ¡°The proper term is mages,¡± she corrected. ¡°Caster is an archaic term, nowadays used only outside the Federation.¡±

    ¡°My bad. I will keep that in mind then,¡± Irwyn nodded thoughtfully. He would correct that, hopefully. It made him wonder where he came upon the term ''caster'' in the first place but could not quite remember. It must have been ages ago. Odds were on the Old Crow who had admitted to originally be from further North.

    ¡°It¡¯s no big issue,¡± Elizabeth elaborated, seemingly a bit embarrassed at Irwyn¡¯s seriousness. ¡°I just find it easier to communicate ideas when everyone is on the same page.¡±

    ¡°I feel the same way, despite my general ignorance,¡± Irwyn shook his head. It was also his preference. ¡°Temporary ignorance if I can help it. By the end of the month I am sure that we will be speaking in jargon.¡±

    ¡°That sounds appealing,¡± Elizabeth smiled, before growing slightly sheepish as she spoke again. ¡°I could provide you some literature, though I am unsure as to what level you have achieved in more mundane education.¡±

    ¡°Understandable concern,¡± Irwyn took no offence at the implication. It was not even completely wrong after all, ¡°I believe myself a rather proficient reader and I have received basic tutoring in economy, statistics and mathematics,¡± he had the Old Crow to thank for those lessons, though they had been targeted at more practical parts of those subjects. ¡°As for writing¡­ Well it would be best if I could just show you. Do you perhaps have a pen and paper available?¡±

    ¡°That can be easily arranged,¡± Elizabeth raised a brow in curiosity. ¡°Perhaps it would be a good opportunity to order the promised dessert. What would you prefer.¡±

    ¡°You clearly know better than me,¡± Irwyn shrugged, betraying none of his anticipation. The meal had been very memorable after all.

    ¡°Very well then,¡± Elizabeth nodded picking up one of the speaking crystals. ¡°Please, if you would deliver us gelato with matching attunement and mundane writing supplies.¡±

    ¡°So, how will happen moving forward?¡± Irwyn broached as they waited for the food.

    ¡°Besides teaching you what I know, I can also provide you with literature, as promised,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Next I have an instructor for combat exercises, you will join us if you have the time.¡±

    ¡°I have nothing particular in mind until next week, though I wanted to explore the city sometime soon,¡± and inquire more about the workings of the Guild before the meeting that Desir had scheduled with him.

    ¡°I will accompany you as a guide then,¡± she seemed excited at the prospect. ¡°I can bring you to places generally not available to the public. Actually, do you know what a Dredge is?¡±

    ¡°Cannot say I do,¡± Irwyn shook his head.

    ¡°Then I will not spoil the surprise,¡± she nodded just as the Time/Space above the table shifted again. Besides the pen and paper, the so-called ¡®gelato¡¯ appeared.

    It was ice cream. Or at least looked like it. Irwyn had enjoyed those a scarce few times on behalf of it being basically an expensive luxury food back in Ebon Respite, due to the price of storage. His was radiant yellow and glowing while Elizabeth¡¯s was darker than black. Supposedly, making something cold did not go along with Flame.

    Without any further reservation, Irwyn dug in, tasting the essence of Light dissolve on his tongue; and it was far more addictive than sugar could ever be, Irwyn realised. The kind of bliss this caused him could lead to dark places without moderation. He wondered if it could result in physical dependence like the many substances he had beheld in the slums of his old home, or if the desire would remain purely mental. Either way, he promised himself not to over-indulge. For now though, he enjoyed the exquisite experience.

    When he was done he noticed Elizabeth only halfway done with hers, looking at him with smiling satisfaction. The pen and paper had at some point been pushed towards him so Irwyn hid his embarrassment at not even noticing the motion and prepared to do his showing.

    ¡°I suppose this makes for a good parlor trick,¡± Irwyn muttered as he lowered the pen. ¡°Please, watch carefully I will attempt to write my own name in one stroke,¡± and try he did. When the pen left the paper there was only a jumble of lines, dots and inked shapes that his hand¡¯s motion could not have possible produced; gaps separated parts of the mess despite the single uninterrupted stroke. Irwyn felt almost smug as he stared at Elizabeth¡¯s expression switching between wonder and confusion.

    ¡°How in the world¡­¡±

 2.11 Rich people even train differently

    Irwyn woke up in the still unfamiliar bed. After his revelation about his writing ¡®problem¡¯ the conversation had winded down and Irwyn had left not long afterward. When returning to his room, he had found that literature had, in fact, been provided. Now he wondered whether infiltrating his room to leave behind books was a show of power or genuinely just Elizabeth not realising that someone might have an issue with this approach.

    At least he finally had things to read which was how he had spent most of the previous day. The ¡®Introduction to magic by Magelord Farmolian¡¯ was certainly enlightening to read, if introductory. Although it gave him limited advice on how to actually improve his casting, it was full of context and subtext that only the most widespread ¡®first textbook of any mage¡¯ could provide.

    Irwyn could almost see the foundation of arrogance and segregation between the mages and the ungifted written down in the praises and the promises of unmatched potential found within magic. It was no longer any wonder that no mages ever returned to Ebon Respite after whatever full education in City Black finished; from the very beginning of it they were being taught to stand above the mundane men and seek companionship only among equals. Irwyn had no doubt that sort of propagandistic messaging would only intensify in further magical education.

    And behind that messaging Irwyn guessed the purpose: If he understood it correctly, the Duchy of Black aimed at concentrating the majority of their spellcasters in large population centers, such as City Black or apparently Abonisle. For what reason that was their goal, Irwyn did not know enough to guess, though it was clearly something long term considering ''Magelord Farmolian'' had died over a century ago.

    He glanced out of his window out of habit to gauge the time, though the position of the sun was obscured by the tall buildings all around, his guess was still somewhere not long past dawn though based on the dimness. He was about to delve into the book again, meaning to finish the last couple chapters, when a knock sounded on his door.

    Not expecting any visitors, Irwyn got up, put on his new casual wear, and went to answer it it, making sure to feel for any magic behind the door. Though as he opened it that method has been once again proven at least unreliably, considering Elizabeth was already waiting there, beyond his magical perception. She wore the same black conservative dress, though to be fair it did not look that rich. Together with her wearing no jewelry she could be mistaken to be middle-class if Irwyn did not know better.

    ¡°Good morning!¡± she greeted enthusiastically before Irwyn could recover from the surprise.

    ¡°Good morning,¡± Irwyn replied almost reflexively. ¡°Why are you here?¡±

    ¡°To inquire about our schedule?¡± she looked almost as confused as him.

    ¡°I have not made particular plans for today.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± she nodded. ¡°Then may I suggest the promised combat training?¡±

    ¡°I suppose there is no harm in that,¡± Irwyn lightly shrugged, still slightly unbalanced by the ambush. Was she waiting for him to wake up? Was he under constant surveilance?

    ¡°Then hold my hand and don¡¯t resist the pull,¡± she nodded and stretched out an arm. Irwyn stared at her for a moment, slightly baffled as her eye glimmered with what appeared to be anticipation. After a moment he grasped her palm, noting the complete lack of even the trace of a callus, and felt magic shift. It was not quite Elizabeth¡¯s magic though; if he had to guess, it was something subtle coming from the dress, though even this close he found it hard to tell. The next moment Irwyn felt his lungs compress, air pushed out of them accompanied by a surge of vertigo. When he blinked he was standing in an expansive rectangular hall. What a positively silly idea that he could have ever resisted that in the first place.

    ¡°I was not¡­ under the impression¡­¡± Irwyn wheezed, out of breath from the transition. ¡°...that tele¡­portation was this easy.¡±

    ¡°Well, it would be harder anywhere else,¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at his disarray, at a glance not affected at all. ¡°But Abonisle has the second biggest temporal beacon outside the Duchy of Teal, that means any teleportation magic, as well as some other Time/Space spells, are much easier to power if they come from or target Abonisle. Local teleportation is easier here than even in City Black.¡±

    ¡°I suppose I never considered the option of teleporting around a city,¡± Irwyn took a deep breath to regain his composure. This had, in fact, been the first time he had been teleported at all; at least as far as he knew. Knowing it was seemingly this easy to achieve, even if only locally, was another worry he would have to consider.

    ¡°Her young ladyship understates the scarcity,¡± a new voice sounded, startling Irwyn. ¡°Items capable of independent teleportation of persons are in extreme demand with very limited supply and usually require expensive maintenance after use. Most of teleportation is done by logistically inclined mages who earn a very respectable salary by doing so,¡± said the man and with a single glance Irwyn got the impression that he was more blades than a person. An amalgamation of thousand black edges of nothingness, sharpened to an impossible degree, keen enough to cut magic itself.

    ¡°I suppose I should not be surprised you would be so perceptive,¡± the man interrupted Irwyn¡¯s thoughts. ¡°You may call me Dervish. I will be instructing you and young ladyship in combat.¡±

    ¡°Irwyn,¡± he introduced himself. Dervish, for all his presence, looked like a beggar at second glance: His clothes seemed like over worn cheap linen and he did not carry the slightest trace of cosmetics. Even the man¡¯s hair seemed barely kept.

    ¡°Yes. Before we begin, I am obligated to warn you that I can be quite harsh in my teaching,¡± Dervish nodded. ¡°I would give you the opportunity to refuse.¡±

    ¡°As long as I do not die, I can take it,¡± Irwyn half jested, though in all seriousness he really needed proper training in combat and the harsher the training, the better it tended to stick.

    ¡°Very well. Then attack me with everything you have.¡±

    ¡°Is that really alright?¡± Irwyn glanced at Elizabeth who seemed to be contend just observing for now.

    ¡°You will not be able to scratch him,¡± she grinned confidently and stepped towards the side of the hall where she leaned against the wall. And Irwyn could well imagine that would be the case. He had received first-hand demonstration that there were people far beyond his reach when the shadow following Alira basically smote him with a casual gesture. Considering the situation, it was likely no coincidence that Elizabeth had access to this ¡®trainer¡¯ to the point she did not have to agree on sessions in advance; almost as if their schedules aligned.

    So, without reservation, Irwyn struck. He had contemplated hiding some of his cards, however, in the end, he had opted to hold nothing back. Which was why he, without speaking a word, manifested a hundred glowing strings of saturated Starfire around himself, imbuing each with the intention to burn. And that intention had made a massive difference in difficulty: Without any intentions he could perhaps maintain thousands of such strings without issue, however, imbuing them cut the limit to a hundred-ish separate constructs before the strain became distracting. Irwyn needed not move an inch as he stared at Dervish, gave the man a second to brace or hesitate, and when he saw not a shadow of fear he commanded them all to attack.

    Irwyn tried for a simple envelopment because even though he could micro-manage the individual strings to a great degree he had no better tactical insight than to attempt surrounding the man with the strings and then closing in. Dervish did not so much as blink as the magic got into position, still staring down at Irwyn. He waited for the strings to cover any escape route, until the largest gap between them was no bigger than an arm¡¯s breadth, only then did Dervish finally speak.

    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    ¡°I can immediately see two mistakes,¡± the man stated. Then the next moment he was no longer surrounded, instead he was suddenly standing right next to the trap Irwyn had attempted to envelop him in. Irwyn had not perceived as much as a trace of any movement. ¡°You wrongly assume that movement need be restricted by physical space. That is a fallacy that applies less and less each step a mage takes on the path to power,¡± then, before Irwyn could respond, Dervish swung his hand. The motion was incomprehensibly fast but Irwyn was certain he saw the shape of a black blade of some kind flash in his vision. And as soon as that motion finished, half of the strings under Irwyn¡¯s controll just ceased to exist. Irwyn felt no loss of control, no dispersion of their magic or implosion of any kind. They simply were there and then they were not. ¡°Your second mistake is that you fail to protect your offensive constructs themselves from being destroyed. Although void is not as volatile against Starfire as it would be against Light, they still mutually annihilate to a significant degree.¡±

    ¡°You also have no awareness of your surroundings,¡± Elizabeth half-whispered into his ear as she bopped him over the head with her palm, enveloped in a layer of simple magical flames. Though Irwyn did not burn, he did flinch at the sudden closeness as he had, in fact, not noticed her approach whatsoever. Nor had he, quite embarrassingly, even noticed the magic she held.

    ¡°That as well,¡± Dervish nodded. ¡°Defend yourself. You have 3 seconds to prepare.¡±

    Irwyn spent the first stumbling, still off-balance from Elizabeth¡¯s ambush. When his mind caught up he immediately erected solid walls of Flame; Starfire not particularly effective in defending against Void magic. He managed to erect maybe 10 saturated layers, each imbued with the intention to defend before the assault began. The first blow seemingly glanced off of the outermost barrier, though Irwyn could not actually see through them; the thick flames obscured his vision completely. The first was followed by two more rapid strikes as Irwyn added more and more layers upon his defense. Then, with a single piercing blow all of them were struck through in an instant. It registered a moment later that the same applied to Irwyn¡¯s torso, a stiletto-like black blade was piercing into his stomach.

    He stumbled back, shocked, as his barriers all came apart at the seams and the ebony blade vanished. He held his breath in anticipation of the pain and blood¡­ yet they never arrived. Irwyn blinked and there was no wound anymore, as if he had imagined it. The pain, although it did course through him, was far too short lived and much lesser than an actual wound would cause.

    ¡°That is a relatively solid defence, however, it can be easily bypassed by anyone who knows how to,¡± Dervish did not stop though just because Irwyn was once gain stunned. ¡°You have also failed to defend against any attacks from below ground, obscured your own vision and remained completely immobile.¡±

    ¡°Was that an illusion?¡± Irwyn¡¯s mind was stuck on something else than the criticism though. He was sure he had seen the blade pierce into him.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s just the hall,¡± Elizabeth explained from behind him. ¡°The Life enchantment in this chamber attempts to perpetually return you to whatever physical state you entered in. Small and thin wounds can ¡®heal¡¯ in an instant if inflicted carefully.¡±

    ¡°Of course even the hall is magical,¡± Irwyn let slip a mutter in his momentary mental disarray.

    ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t it be?¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. ¡°Combat exercise without inflicting wounds is statistically a lot less effective and having a dedicated healer on stand-by would be inconvenient.¡±

    ¡°I think our definitions of inconvenience might not be on the same plane,¡± Irwyn chuckled incredulously at the absurdity of the answer. As if Elizabeth had not even considered that some people might not have access to anything healing related.

    ¡°You are certainly a gem in the rough,¡± Dervish interrupted their exchange. ¡°Though lacking, you can be polished into competence. For your age you have a potent Vessel and great control, especially your lack of reliance on physical motion to direct casting. You have also relatively few bad habits that would actively hinder your battle potential. I have also noticed that you have been only performing singular imbuement, you should learn to imbue more than one intention at a time.¡±

    ¡°I have been attempting that for a while now,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°I do not think I have made any headway in that regard though.¡±

    ¡°It is not such a difficult technique,¡± Dervish said, his expression not changing. ¡°Perhaps you can master it if given directions, though I will leave that for later. You should rest for now. It is better we do not risk overcasting in our first session.¡±

    ¡°My turn,¡± Elizabeth walked by him with a grin stretching across her lips, not really hiding her excitement. Irwyn did not protest, instead leaning against the wall at the side near where Elizabeth had, using that time to put his thoughts in order.

    ¡°By my side,

    Ebony tide¡±

    The fight started without any warning. The two were standing facing each other and the next moment Elizabeth waved her hand lightly, manifesting a literal wave of Voidflames. It was a gapless wall trying to swallow all in its path, leaving no avenue of escape. Several intentions were imbued into the spell, though they were not easy to read, overlapping and obscured. The spell left no obvious way through besides running around the rapidly advancing and wide magic.

    Dervish did not seem bothered by this because through the middle of the wave he cut out a hole. And Irwyn realised his hands were crossed in front of his chest while two black blades hovered around him, one looked like a greatsword, except there was no hilt or guard, just a the blade itself, the same applied to the overly long rapier of some sort. Elizabeth¡¯s magic tried to envelop the man immediately as he emerged, though the greatsword kept cutting him ways out at blurring speed, never letting any of the magic touch the man. In the meantime the other weapon surged to the offensive, stabbing straight at Elizabeth.

    She did not even flinch as she parried the rapid strikes with quickly shifting ovals of black flame that she had summoned for that explicit purpose if Irwyn were to guess, all the while attempting to have the wave swallow Dervish whole.

    But she was, quite obviously, losing. Slowly but surely Dervish cut his way out of the wave, seemingly exhausting some of its power by the constant damage as he trod at a casual pace, his hands still crossed before him while the rapier put Elizabeth increasingly on backfoot, speeding up ever so slightly after every already blurring strike.

    She tried backing away but apparently struggled to move agilely while focusing on her magic as Dervish loomed closer and closer with his casual stroll. At one point she failed to deflect the rapier and had to desperately jump out of the way. Though she did manage to dodge, her opponent used that opportunity to disperse her black wave of magic with one sweeping strike of the greatsword. From there it was a matter of moments, Elizabeth going on a desperate but insufficient defense. It took seconds for Dervish to dismantle her defences as he came closer and closer. Just as his greatsword destroyed two of Elizabeth¡¯s defensive constructs, creating what appeared to be the perfect opening for a finishing blow with the rapier, magic suddenly surged from right beneath his feet, just at a spot Elizabeth had been standing at the start of their match before she retreated this far. His blades, too far out of position were not able to intercept whatever magic Elizabeth was manifesting.

    That was when the third blade appeared. It was a disk, or perhaps a chakram of some kind. Irwyn did not see how or where it appeared from, however, within the blink of an eye of seemingly not existing, it bit into Elizabeth¡¯s trap, utterly breaking whatever magic that had been. The end came just a moment later as the rapier followed up on the earlier opening, striking Elizabeth in a gut for a split second before it withdrew, the wound healing before Irwyn could so much as see any red. Even the damn cloth mended. But that was probably just the dress rather then the hall, considering that he checked and did, in fact, have a needle-thin hole in his shirt where he had been struck earlier. So much for new clothes.

    ¡°You are aware I do not approve of suicidal gambits, your ladyship,¡± Dervish said, even his bland voice sounding distinctly unamused.

    ¡°I just wanted to show off a little, you know?¡± Elizabeth blushed slightly in embarrassment as she spoke.

    ¡°Showing off is an extremely efficient method of suicide, if that is your intention, your ladyship,¡± Dervish simply glared her down, radiating disapproval even with a perfect poker face.

    ¡°Most people need some excitement in life, Dervish,¡± she chided him, which seemed a bit strange to Irwyn.

    ¡°And that is your choice,¡± the man nodded. ¡°Just be aware that ¡®something exciting¡¯ is one of the more common last acts among your peers.¡±

    ¡°I am not that fragile,¡± she almost huffed. And Irwyn wondered if she even knew what it was to actually fear death. If she had ever contemplated it in a corner with no escape. And the answer seemed obvious from her unbothered expression.

    ¡°Either way, now that we are done with the excitement, I believe I have an idea of an appropriate regiment for you Irwyn,¡± Dervish looked at him and Irwyn felt a slight chill run down his spine like a bad omen. ¡°I believe it is best we get started while the morning is still young.¡±

 2.12 Think fast

    By the afternoon Irwyn felt phantom pain. Not real physical pain, no, because the training room had negated all that, but just his body feeling wounds that were no longer there. As it turned out, Dervish was not shy about stabbing Irwyn, repeatedly. Irwyn imagined the stoic man was probably compensating for not being allowed to mercilessly cut Elizabeth every five minutes because it certainly seemed that way.

    After the spar to judge Irwyn, the rest of the following training had been spent on less magical exercises, supposedly to not risk his overcasting: It was a great variety of reaction, dodging, perception and situational awareness. It was almost ironic how Irwyn could easily perceive almost anything magical when he was trying to but utterly failed with anything that was not. A glaring example was Elizabeth throwing pebbles at him from behind and damn hitting him every single time when he was distracted, focusing on magic. When he attempted to do the same, she managed to deftly move out of the way before anything came even close. To be fair, Irwyn¡¯s accuracy with those was not great.

    ¡°I believe we have a suitable physical baseline. Now we can begin to push your limits,¡± Dervish said as Irwyn was recovering from yet another stab. They were already phasing him less and less, which was most likely the point; Irwyn imagined that not even flinching at wounds would be a very useful in an actual life-and-death struggle.

    ¡°Baseline¡­¡± Irwyn repeated. He felt like he had been brought to his very limits several times in the last few hours. If that was not pushing them, he dreaded what would be.

    ¡°Yes, you have shown what you can do relying on your body,¡± Dervish nodded. ¡°However, you are a mage. You must rely on magic, on mana, not flesh nor muscle. Look at me Irwyn and think: How am I so fast? How do I perceive things so clearly?¡±

    ¡°That is a good point,¡± Irwyn nodded. Dervish¡¯s speed was much, much faster than just inhuman. He had thought it might be an ongoing spell of some sort that he just could not feel and did not consider it too deeply. Now, however, the man was suggesting otherwise. ¡°I assume there is a trick to that.¡±

    ¡°Well, perhaps it could be called a trick,¡± Dervish nodded lightly. ¡°It is a simple exercise, though one difficult to master. To start you need to follow a simple step: Flood your head and brain with mana.¡±

    ¡°Will that make me so much faster?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°The limiting factors on you are twofold:¡± Dervish explained. ¡°First, it is how fast your body can perceive and pass things on and from your soul. Secondly, it is your brain¡¯s inability to utilise your soul¡¯s cognitive power fully. The mana will both hasten those processes and allow you to access more. There will always be room for improvement there as long as you do not manage to access your soul completely; and mages possess exceptionally powerful souls so that will not happen in the nearby future.¡±

    ¡°Have you managed it?¡± Irwyn was curious. Dervish stared at him for half a second as if considering if to answer him at all before the man spoke.

    ¡°Yes and no. At one point in my life I have reached the limit, however, since then the cognition available has grown greater than my ability to fully access it. But you should attempt it yourself to see.¡±

    And Irwyn did, closing his eyes. It was almost funny that he had never attempted something like this by himself. He grasped the magic as he always did and found how little thought he had really given this. Because casting had always been instinctual for him as far as he could remember. He never really had to consider where exactly that magic had come from; never thought about where it moved before it left his body or where it went if he chose to absorb it back.

    It was such an obvious angle of introspection in hindsight, as Irwyn now understood. When he grasped for his magic it came from seemingly everywhere at once. From flesh, muscles, blood, and bone. From his spine to his fingertips it moved beneath, gentle and subtle. But inefficient. Because it moved all at once it tried to take from his left arm when he wanted it to leave from his right. From his feet when he guided it to his head. There, Irwyn realised, would be a great angle for improvement. But not immediately for he had been instructed to do something else.

    He grasped that magic and tried to concentrate it in his head. There was already magic in there, though it was spread just like in the rest of his body, so he withdrew it from his skull inwards. It was a slightly strange sensation. He could not quite feel his brain itself, however, based on the mana gathering inside his skull it was mostly possible to tell it apart from the liquid and nerves, though it was no precise thing.

    Still, Irwyn followed Dervish¡¯s instruction and tried his best to concentrate as much power as he could where he believed the brain to be. It was relatively easy to reach two and threefold of what was across the rest of his body. Then it became more difficult, the mana slipping and dispersing where there was less of it as though something was actively resisting the accumulation.

    It was at that point that Irwyn also noticed that the mana he was actively using was being replenished at a visible rate. That was, he supposed, the so-called Funnel except the metaphor was rather stretched, considering it was pouring more magic into his body in countless places at once. The most distinct was the heart, though other organs and what his thought were major arteries were not far behind. From there the power actually dispersed somewhat equally, trying to reach a new equilibrium, though he felt as if some of that restoration was happening everywhere at once.

    Irwyn reached his limit when his brain¡¯s mana levels were about six and a half times that of the ambience of his body. Anymore he could not properly get a hold of. Irwyn opened his eyes, took a deep breath and choked on it. His lungs seized at the unexpected sensation as he instinctively tried to flinch. Tried because instead of barely moving, Irwyn threw himself backwards with the strength of a jump, immediately losing balance and falling over. But his fall was so incredibly slow. It felt like 3 or maybe even 4 seconds passed as Irwyn plunged down to the ground. He tried to flail and put his hands under him but they refused to move as he willed them to: It was as if he was moving in a fast forward after running head-first into a steel beam.

    It was almost a relief to fall down on his face, at least until Irwyn gaged on his own spit. The following cough was stretched out weirdly and grated against Irwyn¡¯s lungs. As soon as he was able to breathe he almost choked again and barely held off of throwing up. Then he lied there, barely able to just breathe without moving.

    ¡°I suppose you would call this the trappings of talent,¡± Dervish said, except his voice was slightly faster than it had been before. Irwyn, taking a few more seconds to recover, took an actual deep breath and flipped on his back.

    ¡°Was that supposed to happen?¡± and why did it stop? Irwyn felt for the mana inside him and realised that his brain was no longer charged 6 or 5 times. His control had slipped without him noticing and it hovered barely at one and a half times of what the the rest of his body was at.

    ¡°Not at all,¡± Dervish shook his head. ¡°At their first attempt, most mages are usually barely capable of improving their perception by minimal fractions. It is rather impressive that you have achieved a level of accelerated cognition so far beyond your ability to physically control. I suppose it is the result of first coming in contact with such a technique after achieving beginner¡¯s mastery.¡±

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Have you gone through something like this,¡± he glanced at Elizabeth who seemed to be distinctly amused by his situation.

    ¡°I have been practicing this method since I learned to feel my internal mana,¡± she was smiling as she spoke. ¡°I have never quite attempted to exceed my limits by such a large margin.¡±

    ¡°How am I even supposed to operate like that,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°It was as if the world was slowed down while my body moved ten times the speed I wanted it to.¡±

    ¡°By reaching mastery, obviously,¡± Dervish said. ¡°You should figure out what your comfortable limit is and practice maintaining it whenever you have the opportunity, then slowly push upwards as your limit increases. With continued use, the sensation of dyschronometria and dysphoria will lessen until you settle into a natural balance.¡±

    ¡°Dyschronometria?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. He had certainly never heard of the word.

    ¡°Inability to properly perceive time,¡± Elizabeth chided in.

    ¡°The end goal is to maintain a greatly heightened level of perception perpetually, even in your sleep, and continuously heighten it to the next manageable level. Of course, pushing your limit and ability to sustain the state without pause might take years. Therefore it is best to start practising as soon as you can.¡±

    And so that was the task Irwyn set himself into for the following hours. He found that around twice the density of mana in his head allowed him for slightly but notably improved perception and cognitive ability while being barely disruptive. It had also, to his great excitement, improved his ability to control magic by about a tenth. That was still significant, however, it palled in comparison with future potential. The cognitive increase was supposedly multiplicative with the amount of concentrated magic in the brain until he reached the hard limit of his soul¡¯s capacity. That he had not reached that limit with his previous attempt was already promising; even if his limit was close to that, the soul grew with time and use, particularly fast for mages.

    Their training then turned into a cycle between Irwyn being made to struggle against Dervish¡¯s merciless training routine and taking a break to focus on his cognitive empowerment. The results were already showing: During the one-sided beatdown Irwyn was already noticing improvements when compared to earlier in the day. And that was with barely any actual time to improve.

    ¡°It will be sunset soon. We should adjourn,¡± Dervish interrupted Irwyn¡¯s experimentation after a while. Irwyn had been trying to see if pushing the magic concentration in his head further would allow for even more potent magic if he was willing to stop moving; the results were mixed for the moment, the increased focus needed for higher densities also messing with his ability to cast. ¡°I will be expecting you both again the day after tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°In two days then,¡± Elizabeth nodded as she approached the sitting Irwyn from the side. Her shoulders were hunched from the mental exhaustion of intense daylong practice, even if the damn miracle hall took care of any muscular pain or physical fatigue. As Irwyn was about to stand up and say his goodbyes she grabbed him by the arm and, before he could so much as look up, he was flung through Time/Space once again.

    He found himself in the very same private room at the high-class establishment where he had first met Elizabeth. It was also indeed just before dusk, the great windows view casting an impressive view of the setting sun.

    ¡°You know, I wanted to say my goodbyes,¡± Irwyn sighed. Well, there was a decent chance Dervish had followed them, he supposed, if Irwyn¡¯s hypothesis about the man was correct.

    ¡°He won¡¯t mind,¡± Elizabeth just waved her hand dismissively. ¡°I thought you would appreciate a meal even though the hall prevents you from growing hungry.¡±

    ¡°Of course it does,¡± Irwyn almost groaned. He hadn''t even realized. What didn¡¯t it do?

    ¡°It fulfils any needs for training anyone might need,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°It had actually been a gift to her Ladyship Avys by the previous Duke of Green, though she mostly lends it out for use to exceptional children.¡±

    ¡°I have certainly heard that the duchess cares for children greatly,¡± Irwyn said, perhaps fishing to broach the topic of¡­ well anything adjacent to the Duchess of Black was bound to be interesting.

    ¡°She certainly does,¡± Elizabeth immediately replied, though Irwyn thought there might have been a bit of discomfort in her eyes.

    ¡°It reminds me that I have heard much about the duchess but little about the Duke,¡± Irwyn quickly changed the topic noticing that.

    ¡°Is that so?¡± Elizabeth raised her brow with clear surprise, forgetting whatever emotion had struck her before. ¡°I suppose the general public might not see much of him.¡±

    ¡°I assume that is not the case in mage circles? I, for one, have not been able to even find his name,¡± which in itself was strange. Irwyn could not image why such an important public figure would go out of their way, because that had to be the case, not let their name be known by the general public.

    ¡°Yes, the Duke, Ezax von Blackburg, is an extraordinary mage, perhaps the greatest alive in the whole Duchy. Rumour has it that he might even have the potential to claim a Name one day.¡±

    ¡°Name?¡± Irwyn pretended not to understand her meaning. He really shouldn¡¯t with his background, after all.

    ¡°I am getting ahead of myself here,¡± Elizabeth coughed lightly. ¡°But simply put, claiming a Name is the greatest attainment a mage can make. There are only 3 Named mages alive in the entire Federation.¡±

    ¡°Well, that is indeed far away from even considering,¡± Irwyn chuckled while he remembered that unfinished book he had found in a ruined hideout a while back - which he had left behind at Ebon Respite and was probably in Old Crow''s hands - taken from a hideout of a man seeking to claim a Name as well. And if he was remembering right, that book from some 30 years or so ago claimed there had been only 2 at the time.

    Then, Time/Space shifted and a plate appeared in front of Irwyn. It was a noodle dish of some sort this time, except the noodles had the attunement of Light while another kind of Starfire meat was sprinkled generously together with a literal burning sauce.

    ¡°I worry this might be addictive,¡± Irwyn admitted, looking at the food. He remembered the meal yesterday and felt himself crave to dig in.

    ¡°I do not believe so?¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, most likely never having considered it. ¡°Even if so, my mother would always say that any mage must have the will to overcome a dependence.¡±

    ¡°Will is not always enough,¡± Irwyn grunted. He had seen, having lived in the slums, what actual physical addiction did to people. And he had been warned, repeatedly, that there was a line on the spiral beyond which coming back was almost impossible even with the strongest of determinations.

    ¡°If it is any consolidation, I have never heard of anyone complaining about any such issues,¡± Elizabeth said though even she was slightly frowning at her own dish, a black fish with smoldering coal-like vegetables. ¡°I shall, however, inquire.¡±

    ¡°It would be rude to refuse an already prepared meal,¡± Irwyn surrendered, though it was half an excuse. ¡°However, in the future I will refrain from eating this ¡®attuned cuisine¡¯ daily.¡±

    ¡°That is your choice,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°I suppose I could request more¡­ mundane dishes.¡±

    ¡°I suppose you have a plan for tomorrow?¡± Irwyn changed the topic instead.

    ¡°Perhaps¡­ I have promised to show you the Dredge, have I not?¡± Elizabeth pretended to wonder.

    ¡°I still have little idea what it actually is,¡± Irwyn shrugged.

    ¡°You will see tomorrow then,¡± she nodded with a smile. ¡°Usually it is unavailable to the public, however, I have certain access privileges.¡±

    ¡°I will be looking forward to it,¡± Irwyn also nodded and glance at his food again. Eventually, the desire won over the wariness and he ended up devouring it like air.

    On the way back though he had no convenient teleportation and had to walk in the lamp-lit streets. Because the main streets were well-illuminated even after sunset. He went down the lift and left the central district without an issue, leaving behind the inner gate and the moat. However, as he walked down the walkway, just a street in front of his hotel, Irwyn felt a sudden surge of magic come from not afar. Curious he glanced over and did a double take. It was subtle but he noticed at the entrance to a side street in the rough direction of the magic there were 3 people seemingly loitering about, except they had, despite their different clothing styles, a single distinct feature Irwyn could see: A small bird sewn into their clothes. As if a badge of allegiance.

    Well, Irwyn had wanted to investigate the situation surrounding the Guild before his meeting up with Desir. That would appear to be his opportunity.

 2.13 Not in the mood to sing

    Although it was certainly an opportunity, Irwyn would be careful. He was not so desperate for information as to risk his life. No, he would try to figure out what the group was doing, who they seemed to be working for and maybe see if he could follow them after they left if that seemed worthwhile. Frankly, he would have to play it by the ear and it might be a waste of time in the end.

    If things went awry Irwyn had every intention of just escaping. Though he would much prefer to be stealthy; he did not want his first interaction with the local underworld to be hostile. That ran the risk of pre-emptively ruining his reputation before he got to know enough people to start developing his connections.

    First, he did a simple pass by the three lookouts, using the still relatively busy streets. He glanced at them as subtly as he could when none of the three were looking directly at him. Behind them was a long and not particularly wide street with no direct illumination, though Irwyn could spot through the ambient light that it led to another dark alley directly in between buildings seemingly in the direction of his hotel.

    He was also now close enough to identify the bird better: It was a greenback fowl with a needle-like beak as long as its body, a single musical note sewed in next to the head. Well, if Irwyn was to guess, that was probably a hummingbird. Desir had told him that there were 4 Old Fowls in the city that monopolised people into their factions, one of them was probably the Old Hummingbird then.

    The location also gave Irwyn another idea. Instead of stopping, he averted his gaze towards the road before any of the three spotted him and headed straight to his hotel. If the alley lead in its direction, perhaps he would be able to sneak a glance from a window inside; considering Irwyn¡¯s limited ability at stealth he would not be able to slip by them.

    He entered the lobby and, although he looked rather disheveled considering all the scarless stab wounds peppering his clothes, the staff on the shift either recognised him or were not bothered by his frankly subpar appearance as he headed towards the lobby level bathroom. It was at that time that he felt more magic being cast, much subtler than the previous surge, however, distinctly very close. In fact, coming from the direction of the bathroom he was headed for.

    Irwyn prepared for an ambush of some kind, but the magic was gone in a few moments and he proceeded, on alert and with his invisible barrier up. It was only when he opened the door that he realised that there was actually a person hiding on the other side, hidden in one of the most subtle stealth spells Irwyn had ever felt. Felt being the keyword as Irwyn had clearly encountered several that he could not, though, considering he was fairly sure that this spell was Light based he might be getting an advantage when it came to seeing through it. Irwyn also now wanted to know how to make himself invisible with Light, but that was a concern for later. The invisible man used the opportunity to slip right by Irwyn, who had to slightly retract his barrier to avoid a collision. Thankfully, that was a skill he had developed across the month of pretending to be a mundane traveler.

    Inside the bathroom, there was an open window, probably how the mage got inside. On a second glance, Irwyn realised that its enchantments were disrupted. Not broken but inactive for a while. He would guess that they would snap back into position later with no one the wiser.

    Irwyn considered what to do. It was no longer just about sniffing out some hints: Someone had literally snuck into the establishment he was staying at. He was not really sure what to do about it. Should he stop them? Leave them be? Considering Elizabeth he could probably get away even if things escalated, however, still same applied: He did not want his first contact with the guild to go so wrong. And he could be recognized afterwards.

    Then Irwyn had an idea. He did, after all, have a mask. And he was nowadays a young Fowl, declared such by Old Crow and made as close to official as a criminal¡¯s title could be by whatever strings needed to be pulled as far as he understood.

    Perhaps Young Mockingbird might not need to be the same identity as Irwyn. There could be benefits to that if he could keep the ruse up. And even if he could not, it could soften any troubles that might arise if he played it right.

    He needed to head upstairs for that though, since he kept the mask there. And the suit. It would be fitting for that persona yet it was simultaneously mundane looking enough that it would not be recognisable.

    Irwyn looked at the open window again, a plan forming in his head. Then he left it open and left.

    <hr>

    ¡°Too loud, you moron,¡± Arthur flinched at the surge of mana. That was probably felt half a street over.

    ¡°It¡¯s open, isn¡¯t it?¡± the idiot pointed at the now wide-open window. It was insulting he had to work with this half-wit. Unfortunately, remotely disarming enchantments was not in his skill set. He was far better at slipping past them; unfortunately, getting through physically closed windows was beyond him.

    ¡°Give it a moment,¡± Arthur grunted. ¡°If someone comes, we ditch.¡±

    Usually, he would have already canceled the job after that fuckup, however, they might not have another opportunity. And the Singing Man really wanted to know what exactly was up with this place. He gave it a good half minute though. If there was any remotely competent mage close enough to notice, might as well give them the chance to reveal themselves. This noise was barely better than entering through the damn front door; people always had the best detections enchanted into the main entrance.

    ¡°Fine, I am going in. If anyone comes for you, just draw them away. I can find my own way out. Air step,¡± Arthur cast a spell to reach the actual window - it was relatively far above ground - and proceeded to silently manifest his signature invisibility veil, a Light based illusion he was very proud of. By the time he was through the window, he had completely disappeared from mundane and even magical sight. Few people outside the inner districts would be able to notice him even if they knew he was right next to them.

    He found himself in the bathroom, just as they had planned. The annoying part was that now he would need to wait for someone to actually come in so he could slip out around them. Thankfully it did not take long for someone to do so. A rather haggard-looking lad entered the washroom and Arthur slipped out without him noticing and gave the boy no further thought.

    In the lobby itself, his work was much simpler. He did not risk making the illusion over a whole door to enter - mostly because some mages were very good at noticing strange changes in mundane airflows - however, drawers were a different thing. With the best control he had, he slowly layered illusions to hide the sound and visual cues of his snooping, the auditory part being by far the harder one due to his lesser affinity.

    He took what documents he could find and snapped pictures with his photographic tool, one prepared by himself that remembered the exact reflected state of natural light and allowed him to later re-create a high-quality image from that. It was not quite as convenient as the commercial models but it was several degrees more subtle, cheaper, and far less incriminating if he was caught with it. Few people in the Duchy of Black were good at working with Light after all.

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    He was done with that very quickly as he was not actually reading the documents. That was not his strength. There were people who would be able to figure out any discrepancies later, Arthur was a field agent. He looked around the lobby but spotted nothing else of particular interest for his mission. He would double-check on his way back, however, it was unlikely that what he was looking for left any blatant hints here. Considering the lack of increased security, the opposition was being subtle.

    Next, he would need to have to inspect each floor. He left the lobby and approached the stairs, suppressing a sigh. There were a lot of stairs. And using the elevator by himself was not an option. Just because he had found no one watching so far did not mean there really was no one. Best to be careful. This neighborhood was considered neutral when it came to Guild business, however, that was in big part because the highly concentrated Hotel and Restaurant owners funded a communal security company which made the whole district not worth the meager profit due to the increased risks.

    It was at that moment that the very same lad he had seen entering the washroom earlier left from the lobby and called the elevator. Arthur decided to take the opportunity to hitch a ride. Traveling with someone might allow him to avoid any proximity detection placed on the stairs themselves and it would make his life a lot easier if he could start near the top and then just go down.

    He trod into the elevator together with the lad who, on second look, seemed in an almost sorry state. His shirt was damn near falling apart from many holes and he recognised the tired hunch in the posture as well as the absent stare. He looked a lot like an overworked warehouse hand, only allowed to leave their shift after dusk. Arthur wasn¡¯t sure what they were doing at a hotel, though neither did he care about another mundane nobody. They arrived at the 13th floor and exited the elevator together, one of them still invisible. Arthur immediately headed up the stairs, deciding to first inspect the topmost floors and continue down from there. The lad¡¯s room was apparently in the opposite direction than the stairs and that was the last thought Arthur gave the boy. Next, he was up and starting his search.

    Arthur was not actually sure what exactly he would be looking for, though the Singing Man had briefed him in depth. The simple facts were that just the day prior one of the topmost Time/Space enchanters in the city had come here from the inner district incognito. Thankfully, the man was no expert at stealth and there happened to be a trace on him. On alert, the Singing man had a temporal wave-reader brought to the neighborhood and indeed, in the morning it caught the waves of two spatial teleportations.

    The Enchanter, that smelled of the Ibis - only they had the connections to reliably hire from the actual upper-class mages - then followed by two teleports of who know what to here. Considering this area was technically bordering the territory of 3 Fowls including the Ibis himself, the Singing Man smelled that they might be trying to set up a secret safehouse. Considering the investment, possibly a high investment one. That possibility understandably put the Singing Man on edge: With the infamous brat returning under Ibis¡¯ wings, it smelled like they might be setting up for steal turf. Arthur agreed that it was the most likely scenario with the available information, though it was up to him to try and figure out the actual truth.

    For that he had brought a Time attuned mana detector. It was just a simple gem, much like the widespread regular version, however, because of its limited attunement it tended to be a lot more precise and sensitive; a perfect tool for figuring out where a teleportation had actually taken place, even if that was over half a day ago. He went down, slowly walking through the hallways.

    Arthur finally got the first reaction when he reached the 12th floor. He almost wanted to swear, that was just one floor below where the elevator had brought him originally. Then he turned a corner from the stairs and stopped. Because there, leaning against the wall, stood a masked figure in a black suit. The artisan piece that hid his face had some black and shades of grey adorning it, seemingly made out of wood, though it did, to Arhur¡¯s heart palpitation, look rather much like a bird, given the beak. And anyone from the Guild did not use those lightly.

    He did not, however, recognise this one. Was there a new Fowl in the city? He felt not a trace of magic from the man beside the lightly enchanted suit itself. Or perhaps it was just a pretender, Fowls rarely stayed quiet for long. Part of him hoped that it was a coincidence, though that was needlessly optimistic. There was also the issue with the gem: It was quite clearly showing him that the remnants of teleportation started not far after the man. With a slight gulp, Arthur steeled himself and decided to walk past the man.

    High on his guard he trod forward, the bird-masked person did not so much as move. Arthur was not even sure they were breathing with how still they were. Each step he came closer there was no reaction, until exactly the moment his foot touched the ground in front of the figure.

    Then Arthur was blasted with such an overwhelming, condensed wave of Light magic that he was physically pushed backwards despite it being his own most attuned element. His disguise was shredded into nothing before he could so much as attempt to keep it together before the spell. He stood there for a second startled at his exposure as he realised that there was not a trace of that flood of magic left in the air. The madman had actually re-absorbed all that. Devouring magic like that carried massive risks of a Vessel overflow or even Funnel implosion in anyone who did not know exactly what they were doing and was therefore considered a very dangerous trick; Arthur wouldn¡¯t damn dare even attempt it.

    At least the man was not subtle about where they stood in relative power.

    ¡°Good evening good sir,¡± Arthur decided to be polite. ¡°I hope that I have caused no offense and any misunderstanding can be sorted out.¡±

    ¡°I was promised that this area was neutral,¡± the man¡¯s voice sounded rather young, though no less harsh for the intent stare from behind that mask. Arthur realised that he could not tell what colour the man¡¯s eyes were. ¡°Is Old Hummingbird meaning to insult me so shortly after my arrival just last week?¡±

    Arthur felt a bit of colour drain from his cheeks. Whoever the man was, there were good odds of a Fowl. And how did he know about the Singing Man? Arthur, as an infiltrator, obviously wore nothing that could possibly identify him. But the moron and his goons outside insisted on wearing those insignias on a stealth mission. Remote viewing was the most likely conclusion. Although it usually bled a lot of noticeable mana or left clear visual clues, the man before him seemed to have such exceptional control of magic he could have feasibly snuck it by Arthur even in his own favored element.

    ¡°As I said, this seemed to be a misunderstanding,¡± Arthur sweated. ¡°My employer had reasonable suspicion this place was being prepared as a high-grade secret hideout by one of his rivals.¡±

    ¡°And here you are, sneaking around like an assassin near my residence.¡±

    ¡°I assure you that I am merely a spy, sir,¡± Arthur sweated further. ¡°My goal has always been merely to investigate the work done.¡±

    The man did not reply to that immediately. As if he was measuring Arthur, deciding whether to trust him.

    ¡°Very well,¡± the man eventually sighed, allowing Arthur to take a breath of relief. ¡°I will admit, the favours I have exchanged since my arrival had clearly attracted unexpected attention,¡± he paused. ¡°However, tell the Old Hummingbird that Young Mockingbird will certainly remember tonight. Be on your way.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir Fowl,¡± Arthur bowed slightly before he turned to leave. There indeed was apparently a new Fowl in Abonisle and the Singing Man was not going to be happy about the dent in their relationship before even meeting.

    ¡°Oh, and one last thing,¡± the Mockingbird called from behind him, the voice fully serious again. ¡°You should watch out considering how dangerously close you have skirted to breaching the Third tenet tonight. And I do not think I need to remind you...¡±

    ¡­Do not mess with house Blackburg, lest they knock down your door and leave no trace of yourself or anyone who ever so much as associated with you. Arthur nodded, paleness returning to him as he quickly fled the scene, only stopping halfway down the many, many stairs to reapply his stealth magic.

    No, the Singing Man was not going to be happy at all.

 2.14 Dredge

    Irwyn took a deep breath as he felt the mage disappear again. He was pretty sure he had successfully intimidated the man at least. What he was not completely sure about was what they had actually been looking for.

    In the moment he had made the decision that admitting to not knowing what caused them to believe that there was a high-end safe house being set up would not look good since he had next to no idea what they had meant. Well, he was reasonably confident it had something to do with Elizabeth.

    Instead, Irwyn decided to improve the Old Hummingbird¡¯s - and damn he hoped he actually got that right because otherwise, it all fell apart - opinion of his prowess. He was not technically speaking lying about the infiltration skirting very close to the third tenet of not messing with House Blackburg since he was becoming more and more sure that Elizabeth belonged to one branch family or another. With enough imagination, he was kind of exchanging favours and it was unlikely anyone would call him out on that anyway. Ideally though, the Old Fowl that infiltrator reported to would conclude that ¡®Young Mockingbird¡¯ had some connections to house Blackburg and would leave him alone, possibly even try to appease Irwyn.

    The only part where he had actually lied was about entering the city last week because the fewer people knew about his exact movements, the better.

    What Irwyn needed to do now was figure out what in the world the man had actually been looking for. Irwyn had, with the slightly heightened cognition that he was maintaining even now, noticed the gem that the spy had been carrying. It looked a lot like one of the gems used to detect mages, except it seemed to be calibrated to something else, somehow. And whatever that target was, it seemed to be somewhere in the hallway in front of his room. A corridor where he frankly felt nothing particularly magical anymore.

    So he touched the wall and ran his hand along it, going down the hallway on both sides, hoping that perhaps the physical contact would help him notice something. Still nothing. So instead he tried looking around for any discrepancy, but that was difficult considering that he was not familiar enough to notice anything changing and there was nothing blatantly obvious.

    Then he had a thought: It was night outside and he did just obtain a boost to his capacity for casting and controlling magic with the cognition technique. Irwyn closed his eyes and delved into the Light. Into his dreamed-about way to perceive all it touched, excited that for the first time it might become actually useful. The inside of the hotel had no windows, however, there were simple magical lighting arranged all day long. Irwyn realised that the source of light being non-mundane only made it easier. He had managed to cut his perception off the majority of the building and only feel through the light that was in in the radius of around a floor below and above.

    It was still a lot. There was always a surprising quantity of things to perceive when the light inundated everything, not to mention he was being distracted by several people in their own rooms with lights on.

    Not passing out and finding something specific was also difficult. The perception kept feeding him useless information as his brain struggled to process everything. For example, Irwyn now knew with great clarity that there were 2 rats sleeping behind a thin wall and knew exactly where they were. But he persevered and eventually, after perhaps a minute that felt far longer, Irwyn found something. He quickly cut the perception and breathed out. After a moment, all the punishment that struck him was the barest hint of a headache; weak enough he could have just been imagining it as a bit of a reverse placebo.

    What he had perceived had explained to him why he struggled so much to find anything beforehand: The damn thing, a rectangle of some sort hidden behind a thin fake wall, was placed into the ceiling. Irwyn needed to conjure several steps and a platform to stand on just to reach it. There he carefully removed the bit of fake wall using tools of solid light which revealed the thing hidden beneath.

    Even this close, Irwyn still felt no trace of magic. That was unlikely to be the case though as the box was slightly but visibly glowing from the sheer mana churning through it. It was genuinely incredible that someone had managed to make the enchantment that subtle magically.

    Irwyn summoned a small pike of Starfire to perhaps try to poke at it, however, as soon as his conjuration got anywhere near though, clear letters surfaced, written in blue.

    You are about to tamper with privileged private property. Any such interference will be investigated and persecuted to the full extent of the law. Any damages caused by defensive mechanisms are not our responsibility, should you proceed.

    Well, Irwyn certainly was not keen on testing out any such defences. However, there was one good thing he got from that: The letters appearing had finally caused magic to leak out, clearly revealing to Irwyn that the box was mainly related to Time/Space.

    Considering his current circumstance his best guess was that it might be some sort of teleportation beacon. Elizabeth had, after all, teleported right in front of his door just that morning. He had to, however, assume that there were other functions as well. It had been a bit uncanny that Elizabeth had arrived just after he had woken up. There was a real possibility it was also there to spy on him.

    And it was not really like he could just destroy the device, whatever it actually was. Elizabeth would just have a new one installed in a better-hidden location and it also ran the risk of needlessly angering her. No, Irwyn would keep it to himself that he knew where the device was. He would figure out as many of its functions as he could over the following days or weeks and he would damn remember exactly where the thing could be found.

    Because if it ever came down to it and he needed to run from whoever Elizabeth¡¯s family were, he better be ready to burn it down to slug in a split second.

    He placed back the fake wall and returned to his room. It would do him no good worrying about it. Therefore, he chose to read a book while maintaining the magical cognition enhancement. He had received quite a lot to read after all.

    <hr>

    Irwyn opened his eyes in the morning groggily, closer to noon than dawn really. Dervish had seemingly forgotten - whether deliberately or not - to mention a small side effect that the cognitive enhancement caused. It actually seemed predictable in hindsight: Of course thinking significantly faster and more while, in a way, stimulating the brain would cause insomnia.

    On the other hand, Irwyn had done a lot of reading after he had given up on falling asleep. Besides finishing the ¡®Introduction to magic¡¯, he had started one which concerned itself with the linguistics of spellcasting called ¡®The Word and the Power¡¯. It had confirmed some of his earlier hypotheses and corrected several errors.

    Chanting before casting a spell did, in fact, make it easier to use. What Irwyn had not understood was how this scaled to higher-level magics. Supposedly, chanting made spells cheaper and easier to cast by both a percentage and a flat amount, however, they were not allowing the mage to cheat by achieving impossible efficiencies. There was a limit to how much easier a spell could become to cast. Otherwise put, chanting¡¯s effectiveness was inversely proportional to how well someone could cast the spell itself. Which made it much more important for learning new spells or casting extremely complex and powerful magic that were far harder to master. Most likely he would eventually run into a spell that he could not cast without a chant. At least not at first.

    There were also the inner workings of chants: They assisted the control a mage would have over the spell by what the textbook called ¡®Bribing Fate¡¯. Apparently, Logos had imbued into reality certain ¡®patterns¡¯ while the Aspect had been creating Fate itself. What the mages were doing was basically telling those patterns what they wanted to do and in doing so, Fate made it easier for them. The longer and more specific the chant was, the greater this assistance, up to the previously mentioned limit. If Irwyn understood it correctly, chants were basically asking Fate to bend chance so that any mistakes made in spellcasting mattered less and to let some small mistakes get mitigated, helping the spell manifest what the chant described.

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    Incantations also greatly differed in quality. Rhyming was basically universally considered the first step anyone should take to make incantations better - which explained why everyone did it - but there was more. Some spells could be more effective for some people and less for others, the book used spells that called on some achievement of the caster¡¯s ancestors as an example or that great achievements in some regard could give mages additional ¡®weight¡¯ when chanting related spells. It then went on to try an elaborate on what such achievements could be. Among the examples such simple things as personal belief or professing a desire could have an impact as long as they were true. Of course, this worked the other way around: Saying words contradictory to oneself or attempting to make the invoked spell do things that were not part of the incantation and similar attempts would make the spell harder, more expensive to cast and trickier maintain.

    That being said, Irwyn had to get up and get dressed. With a tired groan, he left his bed and adorned the suit. He would need to get new casual clothes, perhaps later in the day when he split up from whatever Elizabeth had in mind. And just like the previous day, she was already knocking at his door, mere minutes after his waking up. Not startled this time around, Irwyn was already halfway to the door when her knuckles touched the wood and managed to open the door while her hand was still raised from her last knock.

    ¡°You do realise this basically confirms to me you are somehow watching me, right?¡± Irwyn sighed, trying to feel magic in the hallway in the meantime. And just as he had expected, there was just a bit of Time/Space magic gradually dispersing just beneath the box he had found yesterday. Definitely what she used to teleport here then.

    ¡°Well obviously,¡± Elizabeth seemed to see no problem with surveillance though. ¡°It is much more convenient to know when you wake up. How much sleep did you manage to get?¡±

    ¡°So you did expect the insomnia and just did not tell me,¡± Irwyn gave her a glare.

    ¡°It didn¡¯t occur to me until I realised you were still asleep well past morning, sorry I didn¡¯t warn you,¡± Elizabeth squirmed a bit under Irwyn¡¯s glare. ¡°I at least brought you something to hopefully make up for it,¡± she waved her hand lightly and then, without the slightest trace of magic, two black ceramic mugs manifested in her hands, something steaming from within them.

    ¡°This is?¡±

    ¡°Coffee.¡±

    ¡°Which is?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Is it not¡­ commonly known?¡± Elizabeth was a bit wide-eyed about that.

    ¡°I do not think I have heard of it, no.¡±

    ¡°I suppose the beans are grown mostly outside the Federation or in the Duchy of Red,¡± which was the Southernmost duchy, constantly hot, likely due to the proximity to the Everburn Isthmus. ¡°It is a mundane drink that reduces the body¡¯s desire to sleep.¡±

    ¡°I suppose I can give it a try,¡± Irwyn shrugged and took the cup from her. The beverage itself was black, which meant it was probably popular by default around these parts, and still bubbling hot. Not that Irwyn was bothered by heat as he did not burn. He took a big gulp and grimaced. ¡°Bitter,¡± far, far too bitter for his tastes. It reminded him of half-burnt food. He took another smaller gulp but it did not get any better. ¡°I do not think this is something I will like.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡± Elizabeth looked at him and then glanced at her own cup guilty.

    ¡°Do not restrict yourself for my sake,¡± Irwyn sighed. Elizabeth gave him one more thoughtful glance and then also took a big gulp. ¡°I will finish mine later,¡± she said, placing her free hand on Irwyn¡¯s cup and both vanished. Being in direct contact allowed Irwyn to sense the slightest trace of Time/Space magic at play and he was basically certain it was not cast by Elizabeth, his best guess was the dress or some other ridiculous artisan piece of incredible power. ¡°You can also reconsider.¡±

    ¡°I do not think I will but thank you,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°You have said that you had a plan for today. Has that been disrupted by my¡­ oversleeping?¡±

    ¡°Oh, no, not at all,¡± Elizabeth seemed surprised by the very concept of a precise schedule it seemed. ¡°It might work out just fine this way. I doubt we would have spent the whole day at the Dredge.¡±

    ¡°The Dredge, a name which you refuse to tell me the meaning of,¡± Irwyn sighed lightly.

    ¡°Well, I think it can be quite something if you see it first for yourself,¡± Elizabeth smiled and extended her hand - not that she actually needed to as she had shown the day prior - and Irwyn took it, being somewhere else the next moment.

    What immediately appeared to him was that the Void mana in the area was distinctly thicker, which in Abonisle was already higher than anywhere else he had been. They were standing in a metal-plated room of some sort with very little besides magical lighting and a gate. Irwyn raised a questioning brow towards Elizabeth.

    ¡°We will walk the rest of the way,¡± she explained. ¡°The Dredge does not mesh well with too nearby teleportation. The corridor will lead us to a private viewing platform,¡± she motioned towards the gate and it opened before her.  Irwyn wondered whether it was recognising her specifically somehow or would just do that for anyone. The room they had entered through seemed only accessible by teleportation after all. He was not really sure what to expect but as they stepped into the long corridor, another gate at the other hadn, he immediately noticed the dense magical inscription covering the walls. Irwyn was not sure what their actual purpose was but there was a lot of them, all glowing with churning and barely disguisted magic. All he could tell was that they were Void magic and carried around a lot of power.

    ¡°They are mostly conductors and isolation arrays,¡± Elizabeth noticed his eyes wandering. ¡°Otherwise this place might be dangerously flooded with Void magic.¡±

    ¡°Conductors for what?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Well, a city requires a source of power and resources. And Abonisle has to be protected from being this close to a boundary to the Void.¡± she smiled lightly. ¡°It¡¯s actually in the name, Abon from abandon and isle for isles. Until around 2 centuries ago it was an uninhabitable fallout area, before a certain mage lord figured out how to solve both of the issues at once,¡± at that point they were nearing the door at the far end. It once again opened by itself at Elizabeth¡¯ beckon, the presence of Void magic in the air increasing two-fold.

    There was, indeed, a viewing platform. With several cushioned armchairs and tables sitting on a platform surrounded by large glass - or at least seemingly glass - windows. And beyond those lied a hall of truly surprising size. From the platform it reached at least 20 meters down and was so large that he struggled to see the far end of it. And there were many things to see there.

    The first that caught Irwyn¡¯s eye were countless rectangles, moving at a glacial pace right beneath the viewing platform: They were, if he had to guess, around 5 meters wide and slightly longer. They moved in a tight formation on some sort of conveyer system and he could see the edges of shimmering magical walls. And their contents were incredibly varied. He could see what appeared to be piles of literal garbage in one, except in the middle he saw what appeared to be a scepter imbued full of jewellery. In the next two there was an assortment of seemingly random rocks, except Irwyn spotted a hint of visibly glowing ore right underneath the surface. The next one contained what appeared to be a half of a sail-ship, the rest nowhere in sight. And there were many, each containing haphazard items; some appeared expensive, some cheap. Sometimes the variety split in the middle and completely different items started while other times the same kind of things took up several of these rectangles. Some were even empty.

    His eyes wandered to where it was all headed: Further down the hall, the rectangles were snatched up by machinery into one of several dozen evenly spaced work platforms. There, massive humanoids covered in an oversized full armor of metal were seemingly sorting them in groups, each one clumsily laboring with the load combined with their own bulk. Probably splitting everything into the useful and the useless. He spotted one rectangle just cleared out, placed on a different belt headed in the opposite direction, back to where they had come from.

    ¡°Are those people or golems?¡± Irwyn asked as he squirted. He could not quite tell.

    ¡°Mostly people, though there are simple golems capable of carrying burdens,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°They need extensive protections due to the incredible density of Void mana in the facility itself, however, sorting requires a human touch. There is currently no known living crafter in all of the Federation that can create golems capable of operating with such independence.¡±

    ¡°Is it even safe?¡± Irwyn was more curious than concerned about the workers. He could feel his skin crawling from the sheer Void mana from behind the ¡®private booth¡¯ that no doubt had premium protection.

    ¡°There have been no fatal injuries in the past ten years of work at this facility,¡± Elizabeth said with what seemed to be a bit of pride.

    ¡°I see,¡± Irwyn nodded and turned his head the other way. The rectangles of things had to be coming from somewhere after all.

    What he found around the source was a bonafide fortress. Thick walls of metal surrounded a large circle area, the barricades glowing with magic. There were several exits, one of which the full rectangles moved through and through another the empty ones slid in.

    There were also weapons. Dozens of massive cannons pointed directly at each exit. Discs densely inscribed with dormant magic, perhaps hundreds of them. Then there were golems, but the kind that did not bother with humanoid shape and were instead clearly meant for combat, some covered in dimly lit blades or spikes, though there was a great variety of them, all sitting unmoving nearby.

    And in the middle of that fortress was something that defied common sense. It was, to Irwyn¡¯s magical sense, not even there. Not just that he might feel no magic from it, but he knew - with absolute certainty - that there was Nothing in its place. His eyes saw a black blur that never moved yet appeared to be shifting in his eyes like an optical illusion.

    He stared at it for a moment when something moved. And things poured out, neatly down into the slowly sliding rectangles. It seemed like bits of rotted wood at a glance. It kept pouring for several seconds before suddenly, molten gold rained onto the wood, setting it aflame. That did not seem to bother the enchantments at all as everything remained inactive. The Nothing stopped for a second and then barfed out a single glob of loose dirt, once again going dormant afterwards.

    ¡°And I assume that is the Dredge,¡± Irwyn stared wide-eyed with a slight gasp. What in the world was he even looking at?

 2.15 Laws and Legacies

    ¡°The whole facility is the Dredge,¡± Elizabeth explained as she pointed. ¡°Though the name is obviously inspired by the ¡®Ezorox¡¯s chamber¡¯ as the correct term would be. It, put simply, redirects any ¡®exits¡¯ from the Void in the city and around it into a single spot, forcing anything that would be ¡®spat¡¯ out to instead appear right here, very much including any surges of Void mana.¡±

    ¡°I have seen people throwing trash into the moat,¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°Does that not lead into the Void then? Would that not just be thrown right back here.¡±

    ¡°It does lead into the Void, however, you make the mistake of thinking of the Void as a plane,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ a bit like a well. Just because you enter it by falling down does not mean you can exit it by falling up.¡±

    ¡°I am not sure that is the best analogy,¡± Irwyn frowned. That told him very little.

    ¡°Space, and Time to a certain extend, work differently in the Void,¡± Elizabeth flushed slightly and tried to explain differently. ¡°Maybe¡­ Imagine the Void as a hall with a hundred portal doors that all lead to different places. Whenever someone opens the door from the outside, it leads inside that hall except exiting through the same door is very difficult, so they will have to leave through a random door instead, finding themselves somewhere else. And the Dredge¡­

    ¡°...Makes all the inside doors lead here instead,¡± Irwyn finished in understanding. ¡°But you can still enter from any of the previous locations. It just works differently when leaving.¡±

    ¡°Yes, though the analogy is also not completely accurate,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Distance does not work the same way within the Void. It operates in something close to layers, if you stretch the meaning of the word, and ¡®anywhere¡¯ in the topmost ¡®layer¡¯ can simultaneously connect to almost anywhere here in our realm given enough direction and power. That can happen at almost random if magic in the Void shifts just the right way. Of course, because of the thinner boundary between the two here, Abonisle gets exponentially more of these random ¡®breaches¡¯. Perhaps more than the rest of our realm combined.¡±

    ¡°And the weaponry is for any demons skulking through,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Rarely. Demons are too smart to stumble into a trap like this,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°But we get the occasional curious monster that gets quickly culled. Everything is designed with dispatching Void creatures without damaging the infrastructure in mind.¡±

    ¡°If that is so, where did the Demons that have been haunting the roads down South come from?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. He had assumed it was specifically because of the lake and thin boundary that they had appeared in the area, though Elizabeth claims would make that impossible.

    ¡°Random chance is not the only way to reach our realm from the void or vice versa,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°It is actually quite simple for any Void mage to create a small breach manually and the same can be said about demons, though actually getting where you want to go is something exponentially more difficult. Kobolds in particular, as Demons of greed, might invade our realm when they see a good opportunity and simply stay in hiding for years or even decades until they smell something particularly appetizing to steal. Though I think you have seen that first hand,¡± she turned towards Irwyn and stared at him with both intensity and curiosity.

    Irwyn hesitated for a few moments whether to admit to it or not, then realised that being silent for several seconds to think was basically an admission already. ¡°Yes, I had the poor luck of getting dragged into that whole mess South of the City,¡± he admitted.

    ¡°Do you then know what the demons stole?¡± Elizabeth¡¯s stare was becoming more and more intent. ¡°It rarely happens that the Kobolds are so willing to get banished. The defenses of our Duchy against incursion are, unfortunately, all old enough methods that most of them know how to avoid them.¡±

    ¡°The merchant was transporting a captured monster,¡± Irwyn preluded, hesitated for a moment and then continued. ¡°If I understand it correctly it was a so-called Wrathsinger.¡±

    ¡°And they were transporting something so exotic unannounced,¡± Elizabeth frowned, apparently not even considering how strange it was that Irwyn knew the creature¡¯s name in the first place. Though Irwyn had hoped that would be the case. ¡°Idiots as greedy as the demons. I wonder how they had even managed to capture one. Did they have any mages with them?¡±

    ¡°Not besides me and I ran for it when we got surrounded,¡± Irwyn shook his head. He decided not to mention Desir. ¡°The monster was held in an incredibly magical vault and they had a whole arsenal of enchanted weapons,¡± not that it had been nearly enough.

    ¡°Escorting something like that without a proper escort is not just reckless, it is downright illegal,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s frown only deepened. ¡°Someone else must have captured it and were likely trying to smuggle it by avoiding the scrutiny given to anything with several escorting mages.¡±

    ¡°Is it that profitable? Just the equipment must have cost a fortune,¡± from Elizabeth¡¯s expression he was guessing it was not the ¡®slap on the wrist¡¯ type of crime.

    ¡°Cores from monsters of that caliber are not just valuable,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°They are a strategic resource, House Blackburg has the exclusive right to regulate their usage. Wrathsingers in particular are extremely desired because their cores are much more powerful than other monsters wielding similar power. Probably also why the Kobolds went all out to eat it.¡±

    ¡°Would it not be easier to just find one in the Void?¡± Irwyn frowned in thought. They seemed very much capable of withstanding its singing.

    ¡°No. Inside the Void Wrathsingers are perhaps the most dangerous monsters that can be encountered in the outer ¡®layers¡¯,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°They can move faster than sound and adult Wrathsinger¡¯s song can affect an area the size of our whole duchy. The reason why they are so easy to capture outside is because they are affected very strongly by the Planar laws.¡±

    ¡°Planar laws¡­,¡± Irwyn repeated. ¡°I have seen them mentioned in some of the books you gave me, however, I do not quite yet know what that actually means.¡±

    ¡°You should focus on those then, they are the very foundation of magical understanding,¡± Elizabeth smiled lightly, forgetting her earlier frown. ¡°I believe I sent you ¡®The plane, the foundation and the origin¡¯ by magelord Farmolian. As the title says, magic has three kinds of laws. Planar laws apply only on planes, such as realms or world dimensions; foundational laws affect almost everything except the paragon of magic; and original laws are completely unbreakable rules of the universe, at least as far as we can tell.¡±

    ¡°So Wrathsingers are not used to planar laws which don¡¯t affect them in the Void,¡± Irwyn nodded, remembering the bird-like monster attempting, and failing, to take flight.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Elizabeth confirmed. ¡°The Planar law of Finity weakens its song exponentially while the Planar laws of Gravity and Monochronology take away the extreme mobility it uses to be an apex predator in the Void itself; there most Kobolds would not have a chance of getting anywhere near close enough to kill one.¡±

    ¡°I see, that certainly explains things,¡± Irwyn nodded. It made sense under the assumption that the Kobolds did not actually quite die when ¡®killed¡¯ here. ¡°And I assume they gain power from consuming the monster¡¯s ¡®core¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Yes. In our current era, Greed is defined by growing more powerful through consuming what was taken from others.¡±

    ¡°And that used to be different, once upon a time?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. ¡®In our era¡¯ was a very specific choice of words and he also remembered the vision where Kobolds were supposed to take the ¡®excess wealth¡¯ of mortals at their creation.

    ¡°Well, yes¡­¡± Elizabeth hesitated for a moment. ¡°It¡¯s a bit of putting the carriage before the horse but I suppose I can explain. Yesterday I mentioned that claiming a Name is perhaps the greatest achievement in magic, do you remember?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I certainly would not forget that,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°Well, claiming a Name is more than just taking power for yourself,¡± she explained. ¡°By claiming a Name, a mortal can ¡®change it¡¯ and by changing a Name they shift everything associated with it. For example, you have definitely heard of the Duke of Wrath who founded House Blackburg¡­¡± she gave Irwyn a moment to nod. ¡°That monicker is no exaggeration. He had claimed the Name Wrath and directed it against the Tyrant - another Name - who ruled these lands before the Federation was built over their corpse. Since the first Duke of Black built the foundation of that Name on despising that tyranny and practice of slavery, and no one has claimed the Name of Wrath since the Duke¡¯s death, to this day all but the strongest demons of Wrath still subconsciously despise tyranny and slavery, unleashing their fury against any that they come upon. Should another Tyrant arise, even if that occurs on a completely different plane, demons of Wrath would immediately oppose them. To a lesser degree, any creature deeply connected to Void magic will more easily develop any traits or opinions that align with that, very much including humans.¡±

    ¡°Incredible,¡± Irwyn sighed in fascination, his mind racing. The sheer implications of that¡­ he again remembered that book of a long-dead magelord: Inside were drawn marks that gave Irwyn powerful impressions despite not being magical by themselves. The book had also mentioned that those marks would retain power and meaning as long those names were not ¡®reclaimed¡¯. It was all far above his head, however, it was forming a picture of what might once be.

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s really far away for us,¡± Elizabeth sighed, almost wistfully. ¡°That kind of power is difficult to imagine.¡±

    ¡°You are right about that,¡± Irwyn nodded, remembering those visions. How he awoke and his brain tried to process senses that his body or soul simply did not possess. The immutable belief that magic so far above the current Irwyn he could not even comprehend the difference between them felt, in those visions, as meek as a candle.

    He wondered what would it take to reach that immutable height.

    ¡°Do you want to keep watching¡­ or just go?¡± Elizabeth asked after a moment, unsure.

    ¡°It is quite a fascinating sight,¡± Irwyn¡¯s eyes shifted back to the Dredge, still spilling out tons upon tons of things of every variety. ¡°However, now I feel even more like I should be improving my magic instead of sightseeing,¡± he concluded. He did not really have the knowledge to understand the inner working of the Dredge beyond a surface level. He had deduced that in some way it also provided the city with a lot of power, probably something to do with those simple glowing pillars sprinkled across the hall, however, it was, in the end, just a curiosity for him.

    ¡°That is the best attitude,¡± Elizabeth nodded with a smile growing on her lips. ¡°In the end, your own power is the only thing that cannot be taken away from you,¡± she said with surprising conviction and drive. Perhaps there is more behind that than privileged upbringing, Irwyn thought. He had seen some of it as they trained the day prior. For all Elizabeth seemed sheltered and lacked common sense, she seemed to be driven when it came to magic and improvement. At least so far. ¡°Let¡¯s head back then.¡±

    <hr>

    Once again, Elizabeth had brought him to what appeared to be her favorite restaurant, even going as far as to order them ¡®normal¡¯ food. Although it was a clear step down from the sheer experience of the ¡®attuned cuisine¡¯ Irwyn still very much enjoyed the well-made meal. Elizabeth, on the other hand, seemed almost reluctant to finish her own dish.

    Afterwards, he had walked home once again, not that he minded light exercise too much. It was still some hours before dusk so Irwyn had gone to buy a replacement for the casual clothes destroyed by Dervishes¡­ enthusiastic instruction.

    He had spent the rest of his day reading and conducting magical exercises. By the evening he was fatigued enough that he had managed to fall asleep relatively quickly despite the insomnia the continuous ¡®cognitive enhancement¡¯ caused.

    And in the morning, like the days before, Elizabeth appeared knocking at his doors some 30 seconds after he awoke in the early morning. He would need to have a talk with her about that but not quite yet. He was still finding his footing in Abonisle and frankly, did not have much to do besides read and train. Once he was properly introduced to the Guild and had actual work to perform he would broach the idea of personal boundaries.

    That being said, after they teleported back to the unbelievable training hall from 2 days prior, Elizabeth gave him an excellent surprise.

    ¡°Here,¡± she said with a smile, handing Irwyn a small black card. At first glance, it seemed like a thin plate of ebony metal, except it was clearly magical and not trying to hide the fact.

    ¡°What might this be?¡± he frowned slightly as he took the item into his hand. The material was surprisingly soft to hold and not the least bit cold to touch like one would expect metal to be.

    ¡°Push some of your mana through it, though do not overwhelm it,¡± she said expectantly.

    Irwyn followed the instruction, a soft stream of magic flowing into the card a moment later. It glowed slightly and then words written in white appeared over the material. Put into neat lines.

    Name: Irwyn Black;

    Sponsor classification: 3;

    Attainment: Manifestation;

    Types: General practice, Type 2 offensive

    ¡°Irwyn Black?¡± he raised an eyebrow immediately.

    ¡°The most widespread name for orphans or people who wish to cut ties with their family,¡± Elizabeth explained, a hint of hesitation in her voice. ¡°I would not expect it to raise any eyebrows.¡±

    ¡°Is this¡­ a license to practice magic?¡± Irwyn asked, unsure. He had never actually seen one, though he had been told by Old Crow forging mage identification was practically impossible. ¡°I was under the impression that not having a legal identity would obstruct obtaining one.¡±

    ¡°Yes, it took 3 whole days to arrange,¡± Elizabeth half-scoffed in disgust as if that was a long time for overturning what had to be half a dozen laws. But he supposed that was just her being used to overt influence. ¡°Thought, congratulation. You now legally exist, just with your personnal information under seal.¡±

    ¡°Walk me through this then,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I am not sure what any of this actually means.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough, it¡¯s rather simple,¡± she nodded. ¡°Sponsor class 3 guarantees several privileges, mostly in case of legal proceedings. It is guaranteed by my family so be careful not to overuse it or it might get revoked at their convenience. For attainment, you don¡¯t have much context to understand the classification but this intentionally underestimates what you are actually capable of by a fair bit. As for types, well, you are legally allowed to work as a generalist mage. The Type 2 offensive category also permits work such as guard duty, hunting monsters, or lethal self-defense if necessary.¡±

    ¡°Does this work as legal identification?¡± Irwyn asked. He knew that owning property and such technically required one to get issued personal identification; a process that took a long while and required proof of education and birth to be available when not forged. He wondered if this would work as a substitute. He did not care too much what he was ¡®legally¡¯ allowed to do, though he would keep it in mind as an excuse if convenient.

    ¡°Of course,¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Irwyn finally nodded with a quirk emerging on his lip. He had no doubt this would come in useful at some point but that was not what had made him smile. Because one way or another, Elizabeth¡¯s family had officially sponsored him for this license. And they would not have done that if they intended to throw him to his pursuers; it would be a pointless risk to create any potentially traceable ties to him. At least in the nearby future, they were most likely confident that he would not be found.

    ¡°Not to interrupt your good mood but we should get started,¡± Dervish said from the side. The man still wore very cheap clothing and unchanging expression, though Irwyn supposed he should not expect any change in just 2 days from such a stoic man.

    The next few hours involved an unfortunate amount of stabbing and narrow dodges. Irwyn was, however, already getting noticeably better compared to just a few days ago. Dervish had even complimented that fast progress, though he warned that beginners often improve quickly and to not get discouraged when that slowed down. Irwyn personally mostly attributed it to the faster thinking he had been getting by flooding his brain with magic. Over the last few days, he had improved his comfortable limit from one and a half times the rest of his body to two and a bit over that.

    Although his thoughts were getting noticeably faster, it was not quite like the slow-motion he had experienced when he had overdone it on the first try. Rather, it felt almost completely normal. He just¡­ reacted to things faster, understood them quicker¡­ but not in a way that actually disrupted him constantly. He wondered whether it would stay like that or if he would eventually reach a point where there was a choice to be made between even faster thoughts and comfort.

    ¡°You do not seem to be losing enthusiasm,¡± Dervish commented in a resting moment as the hours passed. Irwyn¡¯s internal clock suggested it might be sometime in the vague vicinity of dusk, though it was difficult to tell after hours of training with no windows.

    ¡°Well, I have basically dreamed of getting tutoring of half this quality,¡± Irwyn shrugged as he waved his hand towards the room. He had, indeed, not even imagined getting day-long attention from a clear master inside a magical chamber that prevented exhaustion, hunger, and injuries.

    ¡°Very well,¡± Dervish nodded. ¡°In that case, I will increase the intensity. I will be expecting the two of you here daily from now on if you have the time.¡±

    ¡°I would be happy to oblige,¡± Irwyn nodded and meant it. Elizabeth also gave her enthusiastic approval. It would make investigating the underworld more difficult before his meeting, however, if he kept making this level of progress it would be most likely far more worthwhile to focus on himself.

    Besides that, Irwyn had not forgotten that Dervish had mentioned he should learn to imbue multiple intentions into his spells. If he grasped that by then it would be a better shield than almost any information.

    He did actually have ¡®friends¡¯ in high places right now, after all. There was definitely a limit to how far Elizabeth would go to help him, however, she did not seem to asign much importance to the underworld. Hell, just mentioning the Third was probably an effective last measure to get out of a tough spot if his life was at risk. Therefore, the biggest danger was being ambushed and/or dying without having a chance to invoke these advantages.

    And this¡­ This training could save his life in the future, be it sooner or later.

    ¡°Very well,¡± Dervish nodded again. He tended to use similar sentences and a scarce few gestures. ¡°We still have several hours. Stand up and defend yourself.¡±

 2.16 Myriad in one

    ¡°Ready, steady, start,¡± Dervish spoke again, however, it was not him Irwyn would be facing this time around. Across from him, almost on the other end of the hall, Elizabeth stood, already murmuring under her breath so that Irwyn could not guess what she was actually attempting to cast.

    Another day and a half of Dervish¡¯s intense training had gone by in a flash and the man has decided his two students were ready to spar against each other. They began things off with ¡®medium¡¯ range, though it seemed closer to ¡®long¡¯ as far as Irwyn reconned things, considering that they stood at the opposite sides of the long training room.

    Irwyn began by manifesting several Phalanxes¡¯ worth of spears with the intention to explode. Or close enough to ¡®spears¡¯. Dervish had advised him that since Irwyn had basically no background in actually using weapons, he should not think too much about the exact shape of his constructs. For example, Dervish himself had trained extensively with all kinds of edged weapons before he attained his current accomplishment in magic and because of that, it made the man¡¯s spells easier to control and more potent when they accurately resembled such blades; something along the similar lines as the boost incantations provided. That, in Irwyn¡¯s example, meant that there was little point in trying to create more than the shape of a pointy stick, and even the point was probably pointless considering how hot his Starfire could burn.

    He did not hesitate to send everything hurling toward Elizabeth. Dervish had straightforwardly told them he would block anything remotely dangerous about to hit, which Irwyn completely believed. The man was several levels of competence above them both.

    The projectiles sped forward, though Irwyn had to stagger them into waves because of the sheer quantity, otherwise, they would hit each other. Just in case he also targeted around where Elizabeth stood to make dodging much harder. When his spell was halfway through the room, her answer came: A wall of thick black mist exploded from her at equal speed.

    Because Irwyn¡¯s projectiles were from Starfire, and were therefore elementally close to Light, they would still react violently with pure Void mana. Usually, that was a massive advantage when on the offensive, however, Elizabeth tried to abuse this, attempting to destroy them by sheer exposure and mutual destruction. And it would work if Irwyn did nothing, because just charging into the mist his magic would likely destabilize and be snuffed out. So instead, he guided the first few to explode in a blaze of Starfire.

    That pushed Elizabeth¡¯s spell well out of the way, or at least a significant portion of it. Since Irwyn had fired it as a salvo, he only lost one or two from the very front at a time in order to open the way for the rest. Still, this delayed his magic actually hitting Elizabeth¡¯s position by a few precious seconds as he had to detonate the first row of his barrage four times in total before they reached their destination.

    By then, Irwyn was already casting again. ¡°Aegis of hidden flame¡± he whispered to give the purely defensive spell an extra bit of power as he infused it with invisibility. For that spell in particular the chant was more effective as it gave it some more defensive power, which he had no other way of accomplishing while making it invisible.

    At the same time, he formed and scattered several handfuls of light-based ball bearings. The idea was to infuse them with an explosive amount of light and make them relatively unstable. That way, any unexpected Void magic coming from their direction would destabilize them. Not that good against Dervish who just danced around them with his incredible skill, however, Irwyn expected them to be far more effective against someone in his own weight class.

    He also imbued them with the intention of brightness. Another thing that Dervish made him realize was that Irwyn was very hard to blind with Light. It was similar to how Flames simply did not burn him, Irwyn found that even the brightest Light would not leave any lasting damage to his sight the moment it was no longer actively preventing him from seeing other things. In hindsight, he probably should have noticed that long ago; he put that down to one of the things that had been that way for so long that he never considered them strange or different from other people.

    The initial storm of ¡®spears¡¯ finished. As expected, they did not so much scratch their target. The mist was also already slowly dissipating, having served its purpose. Irwyn tried to look around but could not find any trace of Elizabeth at a glance, which meant she was probably casting while hidden.

    Unfortunately, he could not feel where she actually stood. Another thing he had figured out with Dervish¡¯s help was that Irwyn was particularly good at telling apart Void-based stealth spells, most likely something to do with being the anathema of Light, however, he found it especially difficult to feel things hiding in a larger scale Void magic, such as the mist.

    Since he did not know where she was, he could either try to probe her with something very large area or go on the defensive. Since the former was prone to a devastating counterattack he instead prepared a particularly potent partial barrier. Completely obscuring his vision was not a good option, even the trick of many thin layers to allow him to somewhat see was actually pretty bad when it came to comparative defenses, so instead, he manifested four quarter-domes of solid flames with the intention to defend. More importantly, they were very movable and he could snap them or layer them in the direction of incoming attacks. With his fast-improving reflexes, he was reasonably confident to catch anything speeding for him in time.

    Not a moment after he was done, the attack came. He did not even react to the attack itself as it flew out of the mist, rather, he reacted to his ball bearings coming apart in a bright cascade. Immediately he snapped the four barriers in the very fast projectile¡¯s way. It was, much like his own, a ¡®spear¡¯ of Voidflame.

    Except, a moment before it impacted him, Irwyn felt another attack coming from behind; from the exact opposite direction, breaking through his ball bearings. The first attack had been a feint, Irwyn processed as he realized it did not actually possess much punching power. He had no idea how Elizabeth got behind him or projected the real attack from such an angle, however, he left only one of his barriers to block the first attack while he snapped the other 3 towards the main attack, manifesting lesser defenses to slow it down for a split second. And he was going to just barely make it, Irwyn calculated with his accelerated thoughts. By a hair¡¯s breadth, it would be blocked.

    That was when the third spear pierced directly through his invisible barrier from above without so much as slowing, angling down into him. Irwyn did not have the time to so much as blink before suddenly, Dervish was standing right beside him, holding the projectile mere centimeters away from Irwyn¡¯s throat.

    ¡°The flaw with early warning magics is, we easily come to subconsciously rely on them over looking for ourselves,¡± Dervish lectured in his flat tone as the mists dispersed, revealing a very happy Elizabeth. ¡°Then it is no longer a matter of surpassing the opponent¡¯s capacity to sense magic but merely of finding the loophole in their spell.¡±

    ¡°I had hoped it would not be quite so one-sided,¡± Irwyn sighed, taking the lesson to heart. He had expected to lose, however, it had happened far too quickly and decidedly. It was a bitter experience of getting completely outsmarted.

    ¡°You can match her ladyship in sheer magical potency,¡± Dervish shook his head. ¡°You merely lack the years of experience she had gathered against a variety of opponents and in projecting that power efficiently. It is the very point of these lessons to internalize all and any tricks an opponent could surprise you with and how you can surprise others in turn. Intelligent combatants can become far deadlier with the element of surprise.¡±

    ¡°It was not an inherently bad plan but I once lost a duel in essentially the exact same way,¡± Elizabeth approached, smiling though trying hard not to show how good she felt about winning. ¡°Better to learn a lesson here than against someone trying to kill you.¡±

    ¡°Good point,¡± Irwyn sighed again and stoop up. ¡°Rematch?¡±

    ¡°I might need to rest a bit,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Trying to maintain the mist through your spells took a lot out of my reserves. Another round like that and I probably risk an empty Vessel.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn nodded. Elizabeth struggled to estimate how much mana her body still held. She could at most guess with a rounding error of ten percent. Irwyn on the other hand could tell his own a bit better and, as it became apparent the day prior, had a lot more mana in his Vessel than Elizabeth.

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    ¡°How are you doing on your reserves?¡± Dervish asked with the vaguest hint of curiosity. It was at the end of the previous day that the topic had come up so it had been left alone at the time. However, it appeared that would not remain the case for any longer.

    ¡°About 90 percent,¡± Irwyn gave the lowest estimate he could justify without lying. It frankly felt closer to 95 and replenishing quickly. Apparently, he was not just abnormal when it came to the raw magic available to him. He was downright unheard of.

    ¡°Truly incredible,¡± Dervish nodded, his visage not even twitching. ¡°We first should figure out what ratio there is between your Vessel and the Reservoir. Often people with unusually potent Vessel deplete their inner reserves far quicker than normal, in which case we will figure out how to best pace yourself. In the opposite case, we can focus on utilizing the absurd quantity of available power for someone at your level of skill.¡±

    ¡°How do we test that then?¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°Do I just¡­ always keep my Vessel slightly drained?¡±

    ¡°Yes, in essence,¡± Dervish nodded. ¡°Attempt to go to sleep as hollow as you can manage, if you cannot figure out maintaining magic in your sleep, and never let yourself recover to full capacity while awake. I would say¡­ for about a week. If by then you have no signs of reservoir depletion, we can conclude that it is either equally massive or your Funnel cannot currently channel mana faster than your soul replenishes.¡±

    ¡°It might be a bit of a struggle to maintain that,¡± Irwyn admitted. ¡°I cannot quite shoot a hundred spears every half hour while walking down the street or in my room and anything small scale simply does not take that much out of me.¡±

    ¡°Then maybe it¡¯s the right time to teach you how to imbue multiple intentions,¡± Elizabeth said, thoughtfully. ¡°It can be rather dangerous before you get a proper grasp on it, however, you seem more than ready.¡±

    ¡°What do I do then,¡± Irwyn turned to her expectantly.

    ¡°Perhaps it might be better to start with just hints,¡± Dervish interrupted. ¡°Your two are that firstly, it is a matter of perspective; and secondly, that more than one magical effect can exist in one physical location. Discovering the answer for yourself will benefit you the most long-term. If you make no progress in a few hours I will provide a bit more insight. Before you begin, however, you should exhaust your Vessel a bit further for our other purpose.¡±

    So, 15 minutes and one exercise in futility later - trying to even leave a scratch on Dervish while the man was barely even defending himself was still an impossible task - Irwyn sat down as ideas whirled like a hurricane inside his head. He did just have a quarter-hour to think without being able to properly focus on them, after all.

    His first idea was relatively simple: Create two overlapping spells with different intentions in the same physical space. That did not go¡­ too well. The spells manifested completely separately, at most getting displaced slightly. Casting the exact same spell twice at the same time instead resulted in that spell being empowered slightly while a bunch of mana was wasted, turning ambient. When he really tried to make that impossible by making them both large and full boxes of individually Light and Flame the one with less power simply failed to manifest. Then when he carefully made sure they both had the exact same power channeled into them, neither of them appeared.

    That was interesting but not very useful. He supposed just flooding an entire area with a massive spell could be a valid way to stop someone¡¯s magic from ever manifesting, though he wondered how much more power than the opponent he would need to use for such an expensive anti-magic zone.

    That reminded him of Rage. Of that amulet that seemed to completely prevent Irwyn from casting magic while not affecting the man in the slightest, however, it was not the time to get distracted by that.

    Irwyn had to rethink the hints then. He had focused on the second and it had lead him nowhere. The first was ¡®a matter of perspective¡¯. What could that mean? Most likely he was either looking at the problem from a wrong angle or was seeing the magic the wrong way somehow. Perspective implied more than just perception though. It was about thinking about something in a completely different way. So he had to analyze: How was he thinking of magic? Of a spell.

    He considered it a singular construct. One whole. And if that was the case the radical shift would be trying the opposite. A change in perspective, two spells existing in the same place. Or maybe not quite two spells.

    One spell that was simultaneously two.

    If that was the case Irwyn would have to figure out how to do that. He formed a simple disk of Starfire and stared at it. He tried to imagine it: That the single spell was actually two, layered into each other. Not casting them separately, no ¨C Just convincing himself that the spell existed twice once it already existed. And then it clicked. Irwyn could vaguely feel it. The same way he would feel two different spells, yet also the impression of oneness.

    Experimentally he tried to move one of the two intertwined constructs and the entire magic immediately fell apart, dissipating. Not dissuaded, Irwyn proceeded to recreate the disk and moved both parts simultaneously. Then it moved just like any other spell, albeit requiring additional mental gymnastics. Casting this way made things more than just twice as difficult, Irwyn realized. It required additional focus to keep the two parts perfectly aligned at all times.

    Then, carefully, Irwyn imbued into one of them the intention to burn. When both stayed stable, he carefully moved the disk and found no issue as long as he controlled them both to remain in perfect unity. Then, with bated breath, he imbued the second overlaid construct with the intention to block, mostly because he was very familiar with it. Immediately, Irwyn felt like that action drained a fair bit more magic than it usually would and required much more focus than just casting two separate spells.

    But he still had done it. One spell, Two intentions. He stared at it and tried to manipulate it. Indeed, the requirement on focus rose relatively steeply again, however, Irwyn could already manifest nearly two hundred constructs imbued with intent thanks to the cognition technique he had been maintaining every waking moment and was still quickly improving. He would have no problem keeping up something north of 70 spells like this without being overwhelmed by the strain. A good number more if he was willing to completely give up on any perception or control over his physical body.

    Of course, a thought immediately struck him: If two was possible, why not 3? Why not even more?

    With the zest of anticipation, Irwyn summoned a new disk, similar to the last one. With complete focus he split his perspective of it into two and then into three. Once again, the concentration needed to maintain the spell and control it multiplied. However, that was a worthwhile trade-off. Because next, one by one, he imbued three intentions into the disk.

    The drain on his magic was almost noticeable now even for such a simple spell. Irwyn estimated it was over 6 times as costly and difficult to maintain than using magic with just a single intention. However, it was an incredibly worthwhile trade-off. The first thing he could now do was create and maintain a constant barrier that would be both invisible and protect him. Or in combat a shield that could protect, defend and endure. It opened him to so many possibilities a degree of magnitude more powerful than anything else he had available before now.

    So, of course, Irwyn tried to push it further.

    The first thing he realized when he split his perspective of the spell into four parts was that the multiplication was growing worse. Maybe that was an issue with his inexperience or an inherent bottleneck for all mages doing something like him. This proved to be even more of a case when he started imbuing intentions into them.

    He could do something around 70 of double intention constructs based on his estimation. With 3 he was pretty sure no more than 16 or 17 was the limit. With 4, Irwyn was not confident he could maintain more than 2 at his full capacity without really testing his limits. Even the drain had grown greatly: Quadrupled, if not more, over his attempt with 3 intentions. Irwyn was not sure why the cost grew so dramatically, however, it was undeniably the case. He considered trying 5 but for now it appeared he had reached his limit. Dervish had mentioned this could get dangerous and Irwyn was not keen on finding out what happened if he pushed above his capability.

    He then went back to experimenting with all the variations. He tried to figure out good combinations of intents that multiplied each other.

    One positive thing about multiplying the cost of the spell was that the actual construct carried noticeably more power. A lot more than the limit he had reached long ago by saturating his flames until they would take no more mana. Speed and pierce together seemed particularly potent for example, though he would need to test that against actual barriers. There was also the option of overlaying several intentions that made his spells faster. Some were also disappointments, such as explode and spread which worked to expand how big of an area was covered; however, the amplification was actually much smaller than he would have expected.

    He was only disturbed from his inventive fugue when Dervish lightly tapped him on the shoulder.

    ¡°It will be dusk soon,¡± the man reminded Irwyn. Has that long actually passed? Irwyn almost gasped. Time had passed far too quickly in his inventive excitement. Then he followed the usual routine of the last few days: Eating an exceptional dish and walking home; though he had been barely even paying attention to all that.

    His mind swirled with the myriad of possibilities that had just been opened to him.

 2.17 The stench down below

    Elizabeth stared at Irwyn¡¯s back as he left the room, trying hard to maintain her strained smile. She was glad he had been so distracted by the blatant ongoing epiphany that he most likely did not notice.

    She looked down at the rest of her unfinished meal. It tastes so bland, to the point she subconsciously craved something more flavorful. Irwyn might have had a point about the addiction. But that was fine. She would not be controlled, not even by her own desires. Sharpen your will like a blade, her father had once said. For a true mage never bends nor breaks.

    And so she would abstain from it, no matter what. She would not show weakness, even before herself. She would improve, bit by bit, until even her parents would have to tread carefully.

    ¡°Still, less than an hour,¡± she sighed in exasperation, feeling unfamiliar bitterness at the back of her throat.

    ¡°I should point out that he has attempted it with a much firmer foundation than is usual,¡± Dervish, who did not bother hiding himself now that Irwyn was gone, tried to comfort her, though the man¡¯s voice still revealed as little emotion as ever.

    ¡°It took me almost two days to puzzle it out, even if that was years ago,¡± she crossed her arms with a frown. ¡°He took what, 3 hours to get to 4 intentions? That¡¯s just plain ridiculous!¡±

    ¡°It is,¡± Dervish stared her down with his usual complete blankness. ¡°but is talent often fair?

    Elizabeth glanced at him and calmed down to think. It was such a strange sensation to be¡­ beaten. She searched and could not remember the last time someone was just¡­ more talented at magic than her. She had all the resources available to know that she was statistically above even most prodigies. Yet Irwyn¡­ Irwyn - without the advantage of the years of education -seemed to be already catching up to her in mere days.

    ¡°Am I beeing envious?¡± Elizabeth realised, wide-eyed.

    ¡°Possibly,¡± Dervish nodded without a moment of hesitation, as straightforward and honest as she always knew him to be.

    ¡°Is this¡­ how everyone else has been feeling around me?¡± she took a deep sigh.

    ¡°Almost certainly,¡± her guard simply nodded. ¡°Though if it allows your ladyship to feel any better, his rapid growth will likely slow down soon. Irwyn is simply catching up to bottlenecks in abilities that he simply did not know he already had the capacity to master. His raw control will restrict his growth to a similar speed as your own in my estimation.¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± she sighed again, though it did make her feel a bit better. ¡°In that case, I will not let off the training. I just have to put in even more effort to keep my lead.¡±

    ¡°If your ladyship wishes for night exercise, I do have a few suggestions,¡± Dervish nodded, not denying her. Competition was, after all, an excellent multiplier for growth.

    <hr>

    Another couple days had passed in training. The routine had settled into a daily match in the second half of their morning-to-dusk sessions. For now, Irwyn had lost all of them just through the sheer difference in mage battle experience, however, he knew that he was getting much closer to winning. Just being able to imbue multiple intentions was making a massive difference, even though it still took Irwyn a bit too long to do that on more than a few constructs at the same time.

    It was just a matter of time before he managed to win, at least he believed so. Winning more often than losing would be another matter entirely though, he knew.

    However, he was not meeting with Elizabeth for once. He had successfully managed to convince her that bringing her along would be greatly detrimental to the kind of socializing he would be attempting to do. Namely, it was finally time for his scheduled meeting with Desir exactly a week after arriving in Abonisle. And bringing someone unknown to an introductory first meeting was just not something you do.

    The actual area for the meeting was a bar near the very edge of the central-most districts. It was actually rather far away for Irwyn as it was not close to the gate he had been using to enter the inner districts thought. At least he did not have to take any rides up the elevators as - of the many floor levels of the central areas - this particular establishment was at the ground ¡®floor¡¯.

    The business itself was called ¡®The Serendipitous bar¡¯, at least according to the sign at the front. Upon entry, Irwyn immediately realised that it was no cheap drinking hole like most bars in Ebon Respite he had seen. No, it was a very clean and spacious place. Besides the bar itself, it was split into several open booths on the sides that looked like they were designed for semi-discreet meetings, as well as a large open space in the middle.

    There were only a few patrons considering it was still morning so finding Desir was not difficult. The man was no longer covering his face but his blue eyes, one of which looked slightly but distinctly uncanny, were unmistakable. Now that Desir was no longer wearing his cloak and shawl it was apparent that the man was not much older than 20, if even that, bearing undeniably handsome sharp features.

    His left hand was also in a cast and sling, resting on the table of a booth he had chosen.

    Irwyn approached, Desir himself sat in a way that he was easily visible from the entrance and even waved Irwyn over with his intact hand.

    ¡°Great mornin¡¯,¡° Desir greeted before Irwyn even sat down, grinning widely.

    ¡°Good morning,¡± Irwyn nodded back, sitting opposite to his blue-eyed acquaintance.

    ¡°Settling in well to the city life?¡± Desir asked.

    ¡°I have been doing quite well,¡± Irwyn nodded, raising an eyebrow. ¡°However, you seem to have run into some trouble while resettling.¡±

    ¡°Ah, this,¡± Desir shrugged awkwardly, glancing at his in-cast hand. ¡°My own fault, unfortunately. If it happened while working I could have gotten compensated and broken bones are too expensive to properly heal with magic from my own pocket. But we can talk business in a moment, let¡¯s order something first,¡± he raised his hand, waving at the lone waitress manning the bar during low traffic. ¡°What do you drink?¡±

    ¡°I dislike alcoholic beverages,¡± Irwyn replied. Desir raised an eyebrow but then shrugged as the waitress reached them.

    ¡°The usual for me and a Birell for my friend,¡± Desir pointed to Irwyn. ¡°Put it on my tab,¡± The waitress nodded and left without even needing to write anything down. ¡°Non-alcoholic beer,¡± Desir explained at Irwyn¡¯s raised eyebrow. ¡°That¡¯s probably the closest thing to water they serve.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough, thank you,¡± Irwyn sighed. If he hated it he could always just politely pretend the drink wasn¡¯t there.

    ¡°So, you told me last week that you had some people to meet,¡± Desir broached. ¡°Did that go well?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I would say things went better than expected,¡± Irwyn nodded honestly. ¡°My old mentor had the strings to get me in contact with some rather well-connected people,¡± or at least something along those lines as far as Irwyn could guess. He did not know what Old Crow had actually done.

    The waitress was already coming around with their drinks, placing two large tankards in front of them. Desir winked at her, which was reciprocated before the woman left them be. Irwyn took an experimental swallow, it was quite bitter which he did not like much, while the other man took a swig.

    ¡°Well, I suppose we should not overdo it with the small talk,¡± Desir said after an appreciative sigh. He tapped the side of a table and Irwyn felt magic activating from an enchantment present there. The already few sounds of the surroundings completely faded while a slight visual distortion appeared around their open booth. It was still very possible to see the shapes of people moving beyond it but reading lips would be beyond anyone¡¯s capability.

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    ¡°Yes,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I have done some research myself,¡± though not nearly as much as would have been ideal. ¡°But please explain the factions to me.¡±

    ¡°I work with the Old Ibis,¡± Desir nodded and explained without hesitation. ¡°As I have told you last week, our faction has by far the best mages and we have many connections to high society. If you have some yourself now, that is only more reason to join us. We perform fewer jobs but do mostly things with significant payouts so you don¡¯t have to spend your days doing grunt work. Our Fowl also offers a considerable monthly exclusivity sum just for not working with any of his 3 rivals.¡±

    ¡°Old Hummingbird, or the Singing Man as most people call him, has the next most mages after us. He deals mostly with middle-class businesses and has a big stake in entertainment; gambling rings in particular. It is certainly the faction that we have the most conflicts of interest with.¡±

    ¡°Old Thrush and Old Crane concentrate their influence mostly at the outermost parts of the city. Abonisle does not quite have any slums, however, the two of them have grasp on much of the poorer areas and some places more middle class. They have minimal conflict with us.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°That¡¯s along the lines of what I have been able to find out from the outside,¡± though that was a bluff considering he had skimmed on research to focus on his magic.

    Which he absolutely did not regret considering the 3 intention invisible flame barrier surrounding him at the moment. It was not just the empowerment of 2 defensive intentions either; because the barrier required a lot more power to manifest multiple intentions, it also had a lot more power actually available to defend him with - a good chunk more than any of his old 1 intention spells ¨C which made it significantly better in most regards.

    He could have gone for 4, however, that took the kind of attention that could obstruct emergency casting or possibly even his capacity to navigate conversations. As he had tested, the extreme improvement in multitasking that he experienced when wielding magic was not just an addition to his focus; rather, magic just took disproportionately less attention than other activities. Still, if he was using three-quarters of his wits on magic, he would only be able to hold a conversation with that remaining one-fourth.

    ¡°We can discuss details later if you are leaning towards us in principle,¡± Desir said. ¡°I uptalked you rather well so you will most likely be making a deal with the Ibis directly.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I do agree to at least speak with them,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°At the moment your side does indeed seem like the best option, however, I am hesitant to agree to anything binding with merely one source as you surely understand.¡±

    ¡°Fair, fair,¡± Desir was agreeable. ¡°I don¡¯t have the pull to just get you in either. I can do introductions and talk my seniors up, however, it will up to you to agree with them on something concrete. You always have the option of staying an outsider for hire with no deep allegiance to nay of the 4. Which brings me to an opportunity to get started on that.¡±

    ¡°I am listening,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°So, earlier in the month, one of my coworkers got his hands on a particularly difficult lockbox,¡± Desir said after he glanced at the isolation spell as if to double-check and slightly lowered his voice anyway. ¡°It¡¯s a nasty little problem because the whole thing is enchanted to hell and back against being broken into. Which obviously means there is something valuable inside. However, the issue is that it¡¯s all made with Flame and we don¡¯t have any Flame mages confident enough to get it open without ruining the inside. The Fowl was already looking to just sell it off sealed when I found out and managed to talk him into giving you a shot; if you agree, of course.¡±

    ¡°And what would you want in exchange,¡± Irwyn nodded along.

    ¡°I love people that know how shit works,¡± Desir grinned. ¡°I want a third of whatever you manage to negotiate for.¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± Irwyn considered. Third was a big cut for a middleman, however, it included more than just the job. Part of that was that it would let Irwyn get contacts and jumpstart his reputation in the Abonisle underworld. Even if he played the young Fowl angle, getting the trust to be a first choice for important, and therefore well-paying, work could take him a long time. Swooping in to do something that no one else could for one of the biggest players would be worth more than perhaps months of steadily gaining trust. Which Desir most likely already considered before asking for such a large share.

    ¡°Just this once I will agree to such terms,¡± Irwyn decided in the end. ¡°When can we get to it.¡±

    ¡°Ideally right now,¡± Desir smiled wide. Though Irwyn was noticing the man was smiling almost constantly. ¡°The sooner you have a look at it the better for the deal, frankly.¡±

    ¡°I have cleared my schedule for today,¡± Irwyn gave his approval.

    ¡°Then we can go right away,¡± Desir said as he finished the last of his drink. Irwyn glanced at his own mostly full tankard and decided to take another sip. Unfortunately, it got no less bitter during their conversation. By the time he got up, Desir was already talking with the waitress - based on her body language Irwyn suspected even flirting - and motioned with his head for Irwyn to follow him. The worker lead them into a section deeper in the bar where she unlocked a door for them and lead them through, locking it again right behind them.

    It looked like a large-ish storage closet with limited light, though Desir clearly knew his way around it as he immediately moved a carpet out of the way, revealing a trap door. He beckoned Irwyn to go down the revealed ladder as soon as it was opened and covered it when he closed the hidden entrance behind himself. Down the ladder, there was a small chamber with a single dim magical light and an alcove with several mundane hand-held lamps. Desir reached for one, though Irwyn stopped his hand and conjured his own Light with a shake of his head.

    ¡°Good point,¡± Desir lightly chuckled and led the way. There was a single tunnel leading from the chamber, twisting around a bit and with a few stairs leading up. Considering that the walls of the tunnel were distinctly different from the initial chamber, it had most likely been a repurposed cellar. They really only walked for a few dozen meters before they came into a much wider opening, the rustling of sluggish water hinting to Irwyn that they were entering a sewer.

    The moment they left the tunnel, Irwyn almost choked. The stench was bad. An unbelievably vile mixture of rot and decay. And not just ¡®this is a sewer bad¡¯ but ¡®particularly horrible even for a sewer¡¯. Irwyn had been to the sewers in Ebon Respite quite a few times and unless memory failed him it had never been anything even close to this noxious.

    ¡°It¡¯s not that bad, is it?¡± Desir raised an eyebrow, seemingly not bothered by the abysmal smell.

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand how you are this fine,¡± Irwyn gasped. It was not getting better.

    ¡°By far not the worst I have smelled,¡±

    ¡°Are we even smelling the same thing?¡± Irwyn managed. It was incomprehensible to him how Desir was handling it so well. Could it be¡­ something else? Then he remembered that he was, in fact, actively running magic that improved his perception and cognition. Slightly lowering the concentration of mana in his brain made the stench slightly but noticeably better. Well, he had found another drawback of the ¡®too good to be true¡¯ technique, he supposed.

    ¡°All right, I am fine now,¡± it took him a few moments longer to get a grasp on himself as he was not willing to weaken his empowerment to thinking any further either. The smell was still vile but he got somewhat used to it.

    ¡°Follow me then,¡± Desir nodded, having the good grace not to comment on the situation.

    ¡°How far away is that place?¡± Irwyn asked not long after.

    ¡°A few minutes,¡± Desir said. ¡°Have any more questions?¡±

    ¡°Well, I wonder how many people will be there.¡±

    ¡°Quite a few,¡± Desir nodded. ¡°It¡¯s kept at a ¡®fortress safehouse¡¯ of a sort. Bunch of people guarding and plenty of people with a stake in opening the lockbox that will want to be looking over your shoulder. Decent chance the Ibis is there himself.¡±

    ¡°In that case, I have to ask, how much of a description of me you have given them,¡± Irwyn nodded in thought.

    ¡°I am a professional,¡± Desir chuckled in mock offense, ¡°Besides the Ibis, the few people that have even heard about you will just know that you are young, wield Light and Flame and are supposedly quite good. No physical descriptions. No name given.¡±

    ¡°In that case I have an idea,¡± Irwyn nodded appreciatively and reached for his pouch. Out of it he pulled out the Mockingbird mask. Something he had learned by almost accident was that, among other features, the mask actually compressed itself to fit into places too small for it up to a certain degree, which was very convenient for him as he did not possess whatever means Elizabeth used to pull things out of nowhere.

    Desir watched him put it on and nodded. ¡°Separate identities. I certainly approve and will hold my tongue though it might be difficult to maintain for long.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°It will buy me time to get my bearings in the city before anyone can start going after my more public self,¡± and more importantly get him more time to improve in magic. Considering the last week of growth even days could make a difference if real trouble found him. ¡°And when the deceptions breaks, you better give me a cut for selling information on me.¡±

    ¡°Seen right through,¡± Desir chuckled. ¡°Right this way, we are almost there,¡± he then motioned to one of the side tunnels leading from the sewers. The entire underground structure seemed very labyrinthine to Irwyn with countless intersections and nondescript tunnels, though Desir seemed to tread it with complete confidence so it was hardly a problem.

    The tunnel lead them to a relatively large chamber with an enchanted steel gate. Looking around Irwyn even saw several thin murder holes in the surrounding walls. Desir beckoned Irwyn to stay back while he approached the gate, brandishing a small token. It looked like whoever was manning the door recognized him though since there was very little fuss before the gate slowly opened and they were led through.

    The guards exchanged a bit of small talk with Desir but gave them no further trouble as the gate closed behind them once more. Again, Desir lead the way across the underground complex. Complex because there were several corridors and overall the area seemed quite expansive. Soon enough they made it into another chamber - or maybe lobby would be more accurate - where several men man dressed much fancier than just guards already stood. They were also all mages as far as Irwyn could tell.

    ¡°As promised friends, I have brought you the lock breaker,¡± Desir approached with all the confidence and flair in the world, stretching his hand out wide in an exaggerated gesture.

    ¡°Yes, so you have claimed,¡± one of the men nodded and turned to stare at Irwyn. ¡°Though I hope you understand why I might have doubts about the qualifications of a newcomer. If you would at least introduce yourself.¡±

    And at that Irwyn smiled. Because it gave him the opening he had hoped for. He reached into his pouch, touching the silver token of a three-clawed bird foot.

    Might as well make a strong first impression.

 2.18 Metaphysical lockpicking

    ¡°I assure you, I am quite qualified,¡± Irwyn said confidently, holding the token in the palm of his hand. But not revealing it, not quite yet. Instead, he surrounded it in Flames in two layers. Insite, right around the three silver talons, he made a layer as cold as it would go, isolating, so that the silver would absolutely not even begin to melt. Meanwhile, he made the outer layer hot while also making both subtle. He meant to impress these mages after all, and hiding a spell right under their noses was bound to have that effect.

    He tried to gauge the atmosphere in the room and there was no one being given clear deference, therefore he judged that the Old Ibis was not present at the moment. Which put Irwyn into a strange situation. He was not quite sure what the pecking order was supposed to be between himself and these people. Back in Ebon respite, there had been 3 Fowls before the nasty purge, though none were mages and they rarely interacted. Supposedly, they were leaders at the Guild and were meant to be shown proper respect, however, back home they barely attempted to gather influence and instead worked as independent specialists. Or just stayed out of things completely like the Old Crow. And the Guild was not exactly the most rule-oriented organization in all honesty. Moreover, in Abonisle those customs clearly worked differently just based on what Desir had told him.

    Either way, Irwyn had already decided to show himself as confident and competent. From there he could get a better grasp on Guild internal politics. Reputation was going to be important either way and if he overdid things, well¡­ It was better to be feared than not when dealing with strangers and the even less trustworthy. The mockingbird mask would also give him some time to deal with any bad fallout if things went truly awry.

    ¡°We would like to see more than just one recommendation,¡± another man from the group stepped up. ¡°Although Desir¡¯s word is valued, the box is quite intricate. We would like to see a demonstration at the very least before you are allowed to attempt opening it.¡±

    ¡°Ah, but the demonstration is already ongoing, I believe,¡± a new voice sounded from behind Irwyn and everyone turned towards it. There stood a frankly ugly old man, hunched back and wrinkled face, hair white as snow and a weirdly long crooked nose. But that was when one could not feel what hid beneath the visage. Beneath the shriveled skin he man was like threads upon threads, just binding things. Thousands upon thousands of intangible connections, spread beyond where the eye could see. And each attached to this man; long, thick, short, or thin.

    ¡°Old Ibis,¡± Irwyn spoke, for it could be no one else, and inclined his head. In respect but not quite deference. ¡°I am pleased to make your acquaintance.¡±

    ¡°So am I, so am I,¡± the man spoke with a perfect smile but about any old Fowl could fake one convincingly. Especially one clearly so social. ¡°Though I am unsure as to what to call you.¡±

    ¡°I go by Young Mockingbird,¡± Irwyn opened up his palm, revealing the token, clung to by a thin layer of Flames, along with a surge of heat tangibly releasing. Enough to be felt in the room. Irwyn¡¯s palm did not hurt as he did not burn, though he had to go out of his way to guide the magic away from the suit¡¯s sleeves. He was not risking needless damage.

    ¡°Yes, yes,¡± the Old Fowl nodded, glancing at the Fowl foot. Everyone else in the room seemed disinclined to interrupt, including Desir. ¡°I am quite glad you will likely be able to open the damn lockbox. Though I am sure that ability does not come cheap.¡±

    ¡°Do you know what might actually be inside?¡± Irwyn nodded. He did need to negotiate for his price after all ¡°I have heard that everyone who attempted had no confidence in opening it.¡±

    ¡°No confidence is a bit of an understatement¡­¡± Old Ibis shook his head lightly, glancing at the mages who had originally been in the room. ¡°But perhaps it is best for Albrook to explain.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± the same man who had pressed Irwyn just before nodded with appreciation. ¡°It is more than just a troublesome lock. Rather, the whole boxed is rigged to explode into an inferno if tampered with, most likely including the lock. It requires what appears to be a precise and ever-shifting magical key of at least a hundred inputs from what I could see. As a resident expert on Flame magics I deemed it too dangerous for anyone to attempt. Undoubtedly, whatever is inside must be incredibly valuable, however, there are very few people who might actually buy it off of us.¡±

    ¡°House Blackburg would be the only such practical contact,¡± Old Ibis nodded. ¡°And they would gouge us harshly at the potential price.¡±

    ¡°I will have to get a closer look but it does not sound unopenable,¡± Irwyn nodded, feeling confident. Another thing he had found out in the past few days: Apparently most mages could control far fewer spells than him. The only person around his age that could even approach him in that capacity was Elizabeth who, according to Dervish was ¡®another exceptional prodigy¡¯. Even if each of the ¡®locks¡¯ that Albrook had identified required intentions to unlock it would be within his ability. ¡°So, let¡¯s talk payment.¡±

    ¡°We can offer you a considerable sum if you manage to open the box,¡± one of the other mages in the room spoke. Irwyn guessed that they were the ones to acquire it and therefore had the biggest stake in the contents.

    ¡°No one here knows how valuable the contents could be,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°I could lose out on a lot. I have a counteroffer: A third of the value and the opportunity to buy the item first,¡± he said. He did not actually have anywhere near a large amount of money at the moment but he was reasonably confident he could talk Elizabeth into lending him enough on credit; she did not appear to have much first-hand experience with a scarcity of funds. In all honesty, there was a good chance she would consider the yearly earnings of an industrial complex a ¡®small loan¡¯.

    ¡°A third is a harsh tariff,¡± the same mage frowned deeply.

    ¡°Still a lot less of a loss than if you sell it closed,¡± Irwyn shrugged, pretending not to care too much.

    ¡°A quarter. It¡¯s a gamble, even if the odds are good and I don¡¯t like gambles. The lock box was not cheap to acquire in the first place,¡± the man said after a moment and a glance at the Old Ibis who just kept smiling with no further comment. Irwyn assumed that the Fowl was getting a juicy cut himself for facilitating any such meetings.

    ¡°I want to inspect the box first before I agree on anything below a third,¡± Irwyn said after a moment of thought. ¡°I could be depleting my Vessel depending on how difficult it is to crack. And it could be even more difficult than it appears.¡±

    ¡°Fine with me,¡± the man nodded after a moment and pointed further in. ¡°Go on then, have a look.¡±

    Irwyn was followed by everyone as he passed the door. Immediately after the doorstep, he felt the ambient heat rise above what most would consider healthy, though it did not bother Irwyn personally. The room itself was a dead-end and had very little besides a rock slab-like pedestal and the box itself.

    And the lockbox was damn intricate, alright.

    Irwyn was not completely sure it was the most complex enchantment he had ever perceived, though he suspected it most likely was. Irwyn did not count Elizabeth¡¯s dress or her other accessories as he could not perceive the magic in those at all. Instead, he thought back to the spacial box that Calm had held back in Ebon Respite before the whole Alira nastiness; that had been up there, however, his senses back then were simply not where they were currently. Not to mention that had not been based on Flame. This box was.

    That was why he could feel hundreds upon hundreds of intentions swirling inside the enchanted structure, the whole thing constructed from Pure solid flame. The lockbox itself was quite literally softly burning and scorching to touch, an effect that Irwyn suspected was caused by a slight leak of the Flame mana from its structure. And the box had more than just plenty of mana. Irwyn was not sure how it compared to his own, but he guessed it surpassed his own Vessel in just sheer quantity with what he could feel. The effect of more intentions allowing for more overall mana was clearly also at play here.

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    And all that magic was at a hair trigger. The structure was so interlaced that if a part of it was disrupted, the whole thing might actually explode, in a way that Irwyn had no clue if he could stop, especially while keeping whatever was inside in one piece. So instead, he felt his way around the obvious keyhole. It was really more of a layered chamber with exactly a hundred ''switches'' in it, each 10 taking a single layer. And each ¡®switch¡¯ carried the slight hint of an intention. Except those intentions were strange. Always, Irwyn had used and seen intentions with a specific purpose. Defend, for example, was obviously supposed to protect and helped the spell greatly in doing so. These intentions, however, were different. They were numbers. Zero, one, two, three¡­ all the way to 9. The intentions represented just information rather than an actual meaning to empower a spell, something Irwyn did not remember ever encountering.

    Also, they were switching around every three seconds. The numbers were haphazardly switching around these ''switches'' about every three seconds. And they were each connected to the deeper structure of the spell Irwyn struggled to gleam. There was probably something that would open the lockbox if they ''matched'' the key and possibly some self-destructive or otherwise defensive function that would trigger if they did not. Irwyn struggled to understand how the whole lockbox could match any key.

    That was until he more closely inspected the bottom layer; the deepest10 of those hundred changing ''switches''. Because they were connected to the rest of the structure slightly differently. It took Irwyn a moment to compare them to the rest but he realised that these 10 were merely receiving information about what number they were supposed to display, not actually connected to whatever was meant to make the box unlock.

    The key would likely configure based on these, Irwyn guessed. It made sense to him. The bottom row would be read by the key instead which would then switch to a preset combination matching the lock''s ''switches''. The most sensible possibility was that these seemingly random patterns were actually preset, matching an identical preset pattern inside the key. It would also make each key completely unique and only working for the exact box it was made for. Irwyn assumed that inserting the key would cause the inner mechanisms of the lockbox to check if all the concepts matched at the end of each three-second cycle, for however many cycles it wanted to check. Hopefully, it would not be checking constantly instead of at the end of the 3 seconds cycle but Irwyn did not think that would be the case; it sounded like it would be too prone to malfunction.

    He looked around for something that triggered the comparison and eventually found it outside the keyhole itself: It was actually on the side facing away from him, a simple array that required manual infusion of mana. Nothing difficult to use, most of the enchantment on it designed specifically to stop accidental triggering as far as Irwyn understood it.

    "I will be asking for that third," Irwyn tore his senses away from the lockbox. It had been¡­ actually just a couple of minutes even though he had done a rather thorough inspection. The cognitive enhancement taught to him by Dervish showed progressively more worth as life moved onward. "90 locks, each with a constantly changing imbuement which I will need to copy and match every three seconds who knows how many times in a row."

    "I had detected a hundred," Albrook frowned.

    "The bottom ten are dummies," Irwyn shook his head. "I speculate that they make sure the key matches the preset unlocking pattern. However, I do not think remembering the patterns of realistic though, there could be hundreds of thousands of them. And I agree with you that trying to bypass the lock will most likely cause the whole thing to conflagrate."

    "If they installed switching imbuement just for the lock, there is no way the insides aren''t worthwhile," the mage, whom Irwyn had haggled with before, half-muttered. "Fine. I can agree to a third for you, however, I have already promised the first offer rights to the Old Ibis," the man sheepishly glanced towards the Fowl in question.

    "Then I will settle for the second offer right,¡± Irwyn replied after just a moment. Of course that had been the case. After all, this safe house was the Fowl''s. The contacts and guards and resources were provided and guaranteed by the older man. This was the Old Ibis'' territory. And Irwyn would absolutely not challenge that authority. He knew now that he was at least very good at magic - if nowhere near the true monsters that lurked high above on the ladder of power - which placed him firmly on the razor-thin edge between exceptionally useful and a threat. "I am sure we can come to an amicable resolution afterward if it is something I genuinely crave," he nodded his head to the Old Fowl with a hint of deference.

    Irwyn was sure that if he stayed mindful of the Old Fowl¡¯s bottom line, he could maintain a cordial relationship as long as he stayed in Abonisle, or at least until crossing it would get him something worth pitting one of the most influential figures in the Guild against himself. On second thought, the lockbox ¡®owner¡¯ had probably intentionally held that piece of information back so that Irwyn would find it awkward to ask for anything else instead of the chance to give the first offer. He should frankly expect no less from someone who could get their hands on that lockbox without the real owner¡¯s consent.

    "I am sure it will be no trouble," Old Ibis simply chuckled, though he was probably genuinely pleased that Irwyn made no move to gnaw at their authority. "I am no Flame mage after all."

    "Then I will get down to it," Irwyn nodded. "I am confident but please move back from the room. I also don''t know how long this might take."

    He waited for the nods and retreat from the others and then went to work.

    All he had to do was split his mind 91 ways and cast 90 spells with individual matching intentions, the rotate them correctly every 3 seconds. What would have seemed like a ridiculous task just a few months ago felt completely feasible now. That being said, Irwyn did not immediately trigger the real comparison with his final piece of attention. Instead, he performed several test rounds.

    It was close. For all his improvement in magic, it was far more difficult than just creating 90 spells with intention, something that no longer gave him that much trouble. He had to perceive the individual intentions and then match them in a very small area inside the lock itself for all of them in no more than 3 seconds. It was a close call. He had managed it 5 times in a row before on the 6th he finally slipped, missing a couple of them. Just barely but the mistake made him frown. He could not afford it to be this close when there was a very real risk of the box self-destructing.

    So he decided to use a different trick he has developed in the past week. It had everything to do with the cognitive enhancement. On that first day he had learned that magic, Irwyn had the thought to push it beyond the normal limit for a short burst of emergency spellcasting. At first that did not quite work, however, over the several days since he had made progress.

    It was still far from perfect. The extra focus he managed to draw from this was rather limited considering a lot of it was used right back to actually keeping all that mana concentrated in his brain and it came at the additional cost of forfeiting most of the control he held over his own limbs. However, that small boost was exactly what he needed to push himself into a comfortable position. Then he gently signed - testing he would not choke against just from breathing - and concentrated fully on the task at hand.

    It was easier with the extra bit of focus but by no means easy. Irwyn triggered the manual mana switch at the back when he was in position and felt the whole lock tremble slightly with a gentle wave of magic going through it. But that was not all that important at the moment. 90 intents, 3 seconds. Over and over. 5 times, 10, 20, 30 and finally 40. Or at least around that. Irwyn''s mental count was an afterthought and hardly accurate, though 2 minutes was a decently nice round number for an artisan to choose.

    The release was gradual. No instant snapping or breaking. Rather the lockbox slowly shifted. As a construct of pure Flame it did not need to adhere to shape and so it did not. Instead the keyhole moved downwards while the entire construct transformed into something akin to a slightly misshaped blooming flower, raising the contents into something close to a platform in the middle.

    What was revealed seemed simple: A burning plate of gray metal.

    Not just hot or smoldering, the metal seemed to be burning like wood. Except it was not actually incinerating, rather, Irwyn noticed that the metal was clearly enchanted, even more complicated than the lockbox by a large margin to the point he could not even gleam anything besides it being magical. Then he looked at the Flame burning over it and almost frowned.

    It felt mundane at a glance. Not a speck of magic in it. And yet that seemed ridiculous considering everything else. Irwyn focused harder and was able to feel at least something amiss: Deep down he perceived a trace of light. The Flame was not quite Starfire but it was perhaps a hundredth or two on the way there. Still, he could feel no magic from it. So he tried to grab control of it, hoping to gleam more, and gasped, stopping his attempt in sheer surprise. He tried again in disbelief and then one extra time just to be sure but the result was unmistakable:

    For perhaps the first time in Irwyn''s life, the Flames rejected his control.

 2.19 Bird to bird

    Irwyn was frankly not sure what to think. As far as he could remember he could always control any even remotely magical Flame. Even with mundane fire, all it took was for him to inject a bit of his magic and he could grasp them as easily as breathing.

    This shocked him. Because the Flame had to be magical yet it rejected even the slightest hint of control from him. Yes, rejected because with mundane flames it was distinctly different. With non-magical fire there was simply not much he could magically control, his will passing right through without anything to latch onto. Here it was the opposite, like pitting his mind against an impenetrable wall.

    He considered trying to infuse a bit of his own magic into it but quickly discarded the idea. Irwyn had no idea what it actually was and would rather not risk accidentally damaging whatever held the treasure together. Instead, Irwyn stood up - he had not ever realised that he had fallen down to his knees in his prior focus - and turned around. Old Ibis was just stepping through the door, followed by everyone else. Irwyn was not sure if it had even ever closed behind him or if everyone had just been staring at his back through a crack while he worked.

    ¡°Well, well,¡± Old Ibis chuckled. ¡°It would seem like we are all going to leave quite happy today.¡±

    ¡°You recognise what it is,¡± Irwyn took a step away from the disobedient flame, glancing at the Old Fowl.

    ¡°Yes,¡± the man nodded. ¡°This thing is what we would call an ¡®Eternal Flame¡¯. The exact yield will have to be tested but with the security I doubt it will be one of low quality.¡±

    ¡°I have never heard of such a thing,¡± the flame mage whose name Irwyn had - quite embarrassingly - already forgotten admitted from the side, frowning.

    ¡°It is something only produced only in the Duchy of Red, and barely ever at that,¡± Old Ibis nodded. ¡°It may appear and act like a mere natural bonfire, however, it has the incredible magical property of never requiring any fuel, nor will it ever extinguish. In essence, it is a small and independent source of power never needing any maintenance.¡±

    ¡°How does that not violate the Law of Finity,¡± Irwyn frowned. He had, in fact, followed Elizabeth¡¯s recommendation and studied up on the most widely known laws of magic. The Plannar Law of Finity was actually among the first ones he had read about, considering its massive importance it was near the front of the textbook. Irwyn remembered even the exact wording:

    ¡®The mana required to manifest magic in an area or over a duration is increased by an amount that gradually increases in an unchanging repeating of a constant cost followed by a ninefold rise in a pattern of nine to one as the area or duration rises. This additional magical cost does not empower the spell and instead vanishes in accordance with the Original Law of Connectionless Sources.¡¯

    Or more simplistically, the cost of magic was increased by a certain amount whenever it was supposed to last or spread over any area. The simplest example was just after the duration of any spell reached one second: Increasing the duration of a spell from one second to nine seconds required exactly the same amount of magic for each additional second. However, for the tenth, the cost rose noticeably to add that additional second. Not ninefold, of course, as the book had warned was an easy misinterpretation to make. Rather, the extra cost - which as far as Irwyn grasped it was basically a multiplication of some fundamental mana constant he did not quite understand too well yet - increased by that ninefold. After ten seconds the pattern of nine to one repeated, though it did not quite align with exact seconds perfectly ever again. In actuality, the exact duration of one second was measured through the use of this law. And it worked similarly for distance, though meters did not quite align perfectly with the ratio like one second did. The law was, after all, applying even at microscopic scales. Below the notice or care of anyone but a dedicated researcher really trying to dig into fundamental truths.

    ¡°Are you aware of the so-called Everburn Isthmus, or perhaps the Melting Isthmus as some call it?¡± Old Ibis nodded his head, not quite explaining yet.

    ¡°I have heard that it is a wasteland at the very South of the Federation which reaches such temperatures even the species of Flame-attuned Forged which is native to it can only withstand the outer reaches,¡± Irwyn searched his mind for trivia. He had certainly read it mentioned several times. ¡°It is technically part of the Duchy Federation if I remember correctly, but it is really more of an impassable Southern border.¡±

    ¡°Quite, quite. It is the site of perhaps the greatest act of magic this Realm has ever witnessed,¡± Old Ibis nodded. ¡°All we know is that it far predates the Federation and most likely any civilization at all. The oldest records that were ever found mentioning it, from an early historian of the regime that the Federation replaced - so many centuries before the Federation itself was founded - speak of ¡®ancient records that mention it already existing as a matter of no dispute¡¯. That, as you may imagine, is an incredible time for magic of this sheer scale to remain.¡±

    ¡°I have heard that the Planar Laws can be bypassed with sufficient power,¡± Irwyn nodded back. It was not the only thing that did not quite align with this ¡®finity¡¯. Just looking Abonisle: Whatever had caused the thin boundary here seemed to be quite old and not diminishing. ¡°Though I have not had the chance to learn the specifics,¡± Irwyn fished for information. The old Fowl seemed in a good mood and Elizabeth had usually appeared reluctant to speak of the paragons of magic.

    ¡°There is bypassing and then there is breaking,¡± Old Ibis chuckled again. ¡°This¡­ This is certainly the latter. Though I suppose the metal the Flame burns on is the former,¡± he shook his head. ¡°A spell of such extreme power and profoundness was cast somewhere in the middle of that wasteland in the South that it still burns to this very day and will most likely never stop. No one really knows what spell it actually was as getting even close is impossible and any divination attempts shatter. However, it was so potent that not only does it break the Plannar laws for itself, it breaks those laws everywhere around it, changing them in its own image. It is a little-known fact that any magical flame ignited at even the very edge will turn half-mundane and burn forever as long as it is not brought away from the Isthmus, with several other strange properties.¡±

    ¡°And that plate,¡± Irwyn looked at the metal that the Flame was burning on. ¡°I assume somehow makes sure that the Flame retains those eternal qualities even when away from the South.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Yes. That is why it is called an ¡®Eternal Flame¡¯. As long as the enchantment on the piece of metal is not damaged it will use what little power it can tap into from the Flame itself to constantly recast itself. That way it bypasses the Finity¡¯s restriction on duration. It is an incredible crafting feat that despite the harsh difficulty of learning almost every ambitious enchanter craves to achieve within their lifetime.¡±

    ¡°But because of the difficulty, not to mention whatever magic it takes to actually carry over those properties that the recasting is applied to, this little Flame is quite rare,¡± Irwyn nodded at the explanation.

    ¡°No, not just rare,¡± Old Ibis shook his head. ¡°It requires a true master of enchantment to create this. And those often find better use of their time. Perhaps a dozen or so Eternal Flames are produced in the Duchy of Red on an average year. Even when the centuries of accumulation are taken into account, there might be less than several hundred of these in the entire Duchy of Black, not to mention that most of them are already in use, perhaps even forgotten. Even with the relatively small output, having a power source this small with no need to worry about resupplying or maintenance makes it extremely desirable. It is particularly liked for being extremely non-disruptive to other enchantments.¡±

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    ¡°Is that amount of heat really enough to power anything meaningful,¡± Irwyn did not really doubt what the Old Fowl was saying but rather wondered how that issue was resolved.

    ¡°The Flame is only half-mundane. It is possible to tap into some magical power from it, although with much skill and difficulty, just like the plate does. And you would be surprised how much mechanical power you can get from just this bit of heat with a touch of clever engineering.¡±

    ¡°Truly fascinating,¡± their conversation was interrupted and Irwyn remembered once again that they were not alone in the room. In fact, several people were listening silently to their discussion, including Desir, the Flame mage, and the ¡®owner¡¯ who was now speaking. None of them just quite had the courage to get in between the two Fowls talking earlier or simply did not care to do so. ¡°May I assume you will be interested in acquiring it, Ibis.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps, perhaps,¡± the Old Fowl looked as if in thought, though revealing any amount of genuine interest would have been a rookie mistake, therefore, there was no telling if he did or did not actually want it. ¡°I will give you a day to do your own research. We can negotiate for it tomorrow at dawn. Any interest on your side, Mockingbird?¡±

    ¡°I would struggle to find a use for it,¡± Irwyn shook his head. The only thing of interest to him would be the enchantment itself and that was above his current ability to gleam much from. ¡°Better to spend my funds elsewhere.¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes, we should also discuss future cooperation,¡± the Ibis nodded. ¡°If you have the time to spare, we can talk in my office.¡±

    Irwyn glanced at Desir who gave him a stiff nod though did not speak. ¡°It would be my pleasure,¡± Irwyn affirmed. Old Ibis spent a moment arranging for a triple guard duty and some other codeworded security protocols Irwyn did not understand before they headed off. The layout of the safehouse once again appeared to be quite Labyrinthine, though the Old Fowl confidently found their destination a couple of turns and a staircase further in.

    The office was almost nostalgic in all honesty. It reminded Irwyn of Aaron¡¯s desk back at Ebon Respite: Neatly sorted folders and stacks of paper were everywhere. Not just at the table but on several shelves and probably in all the closed drawers as well. It would be basically impossible for anyone except the owner to find something specific there because of just the sheer quantity, yet it gave the distinct feeling of being perfectly organized.

    ¡°Well then, now that we are out of the public eye, I certainly have to thank you for opening the lockbox,¡± the Ibis said as soon as they were both seated in the quite comfortable leather armchairs. ¡°Due to some circumstances, selling it to even house Blackburg could have been particularly problematic at this time.¡±

    ¡°It is hardly a problem considering I profit myself,¡± Irwyn nodded though he was immediately suspicious. Old Ibis was basically saying that he owed Irwyn a favor. No one just gave out free favors.

    ¡°Yes, yes. That being said, what margin did you agree with young Desir on?¡± the man asked.

    ¡°I have agreed to a third given all the introductions involved,¡± Irwyn spoke the truth after taking a moment to consider whether to try and hide it.

    ¡°I see, I see,¡± the other man nodded. ¡°Frankly, when Desir spoke of your ability, I had thought he had far overestimated you. Yet now I see that¡­ well¡­¡±

    ¡°You did not quite see me coming like you usually would,¡± Irwyn wagered. Based on the distinct impression of the Old Ibis¡¯ magic, Irwyn guessed that the man was most likely a Fate diviner focused on predicting people, or at least something close to that. And if Bhaak and the Fae that he had met were to be believed, Irwyn was basically the bane of any future reading. He was rather fuzzy on the actual details of why that was though, besides their jargon like ¡®Scrambled Fate¡¯.

    ¡°So, you are aware of it,¡± the Ibis said, his gaze sharpening slightly for a split second. Even such a minor loss of composure was no small thing though, given how much sheer experience as a socialite the man must have had.

    ¡°A certain traveling merchant has pointed it out to me,¡± Irwyn had said, remaining vague. If Old Ibis knew of Bhaak he was probably another ¡®customer¡¯ and understood what he meant. If the Ibis asked for a closer explanation, then he was most likely not, which was good to know in its own right. ¡°Though I remain ignorant of the cause or any method of controlling it.¡±

    ¡°Ah, I must admit I am quite envious to make that man¡¯s acquaintance at your age,¡± Old Ibis sighed. ¡°Though I suppose it was inevitable considering what you are capable of while so very young. Which brings me to the real question: Why are you really in Abonisle?¡±

    ¡°Frankly, I mostly intend to keep my head reasonably low for a good while,¡± Irwyn explained. ¡°I have been dragged into some serious trouble and need to wait for things to cool down. Possibly for years. My mentor had used a contact in Abonisle¡¯s upper crust to get me into a good position while I hide in the sea along with all the other fishes. In the meantime, I will need to gather some resources to continue improving my magic.¡±

    ¡°It must be quite something that you would run all the way here,¡± the Old Ibis nodded. He had likely heard from Desir how far away at the very least Irwyn was coming from. ¡°I must wonder what will happen if it follows you here.¡±

    ¡°I am told that my enemies will not be able to find me in Abonisle,¡± Irwyn tried to assuage those worries, considering they were probably even more deserved than the Fowl suspected. ¡°At least as long as my new allies remain such. I have been very careful about not leaving any traces on the way as you might have heard. I could be quite literally anywhere in the Duchy and perhaps even beyond as far as my foes know.¡±

    ¡°Then I will be overjoyed to work with you,¡± the Ibis nodded again, the man seemed to like repetition, Irwyn supposed. Then the Fowl opened a drawer in the desk that Irwyn could not quite see, taking out a large ornate box. He opened it with a slight burst of magic, showing Irwyn quite freely that it was full of money. ¡°Do you own a spacial bag? Your cut will not fit into a single pouch, I am afraid.¡±

    ¡°I do not have such a thing on me,¡± Irwyn said non-comitally.

    ¡°I could sell you one from your cut. I will even offer you a discount, considering that they go for quite a pretty penny,¡± the man smiled. Almost like he was repaying a favor with that discount. Like he particularly wanted Irwyn to take the one he was selling, and could have tampered with, in particular.

    ¡°No, thank you,¡± Irwyn shook his head. It was better to be cautious. For all that they had been friendly, he absolutely did not trust the Old Fowl to not try anything.

    ¡°You young people are so overly cautious these days,¡± the Ibis shook his head with a hint of disappointment. A far more obvious escaped emotion than his earlier slip. Almost like the Old Fowl wanted Irwyn to see it but wasn¡¯t quite sure about how good Irwyn was at reading expressions. ¡°Well, cannot blame an old man for trying,¡± he said and instead took out several normal pouches made from thick cloth. He quickly counted out a very notable amount of money, filling the pouches about equally. ¡°Here, exactly two-ninths of what I will buy that Eternal Flame from our mutual friend for tomorrow. Of course, I hope you have the courtesy to not influence that prediction.¡±

    ¡°I do not believe I owe that person anything,¡± Irwyn shook his head. If Old Ibis was a diviner, particularly a specialist in dealing with people, he could probably predict exactly how low people were willing to go before any negotiations even started, or at least something close to it. That seemed to be an extremely useful trick when maximizing profits. Of course, that would probably fall through if someone warned the target of what was happening. Which Irwyn would not do. No reason to offend the Old Fowl over a mage he did not even know the name of and maybe a few percent increase to his cut.

    ¡°Well, I believe we are mostly done here then,¡± Ibis said. ¡°Let me just confirm: I assume you only want to be contacted for particularly important and well-paying work,¡± he waited for Irwyn to nod. ¡°Any expertise in creating enchantments?¡±

    ¡°None whatsoever, unfortunately,¡± Irwyn shook his head at that.

    ¡°I see, I see. Then that is all I need from you for now. I will have Desir get in contact if there is anything worthwhile. Hopefully, see you soon.¡±

    ¡°Yes, best of luck and goodbye,¡± Irwyn nodded as he stood up, picking up all the full pouches. ¡°Though I might need a guide to leave.¡±

    ¡°The boy is already waiting for you just behind the door,¡± Old Ibis lightly chuckled. ¡°Though he seems rather conflicted about your revelation.¡±

    ¡°He is?¡± Irwyn frowned and gave it a moment of thought. Then he realised that perhaps¡­ It might not have been the most sensitive thing to give Desir no hint that Irwyn was, in fact, a Young Fowl. ¡°In hindsight¡­ I probably should have given Desir a heads up.¡±

    ¡°Well, that is for you to sort out,¡± Ibis kept smiling. ¡°Best of luck indeed.¡±

 2.20 Peace never lasts

    The walk from Old Ibis¡¯ office had been silent and relatively awkward. Desir wore a slight frown as he led Irwyn out of the labyrinthine safehouse without speaking any words at all. Even at the entrance gate, the very same guards Desir had chatted with lightly when entering, merely received a polite nod from the blue-eyed man.

    Soon enough they were at the sewers and Irwyn had to try hard not to retch. How was the smell even worse than he remembered? Desir did not seem as affected, though he was frowning as he waited for Irwyn to somehow regain his composure.

    ¡°So, an Aspect damned Fowl,¡± the Desir growled eventually, staring Irwyn down.

    ¡°In hindsight, I should have probably said something,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I apologize, though in my defense, I have been mostly improvising this whole thing. I am unused to¡­ such introductions I suppose.¡±

    ¡°So you became a Fowl without much talking, huh?¡± Desir scoffed, visibly annoyed.

    ¡°Not as such, however, I have essentially inherited the contacts I had interacted with in my hometown. Making completely new acquaintances in an unfamiliar environment is not something I have had to do before my departure,¡± Irwyn explained. ¡°The Fowlship itself had been a frankly a last minute thing, sprung onto me by my mentor as I was forced to flee after a certain¡­ incident.¡±

    ¡°So, you are saying that your mentor just declared you a Young Fowl on the spot,¡± Desir was staring even harder.

    ¡°I suppose he had planned it at least a bit in advance,¡± Irwyn nodded, leaving the part where that had probably been less than a day, though Desir¡¯s expression gave him a certain hint. ¡°Is that not how it is usually done?¡±

    ¡°Under normal circumstances, it¡¯s supposed to take 3 Old ones just to make the recommendation, then it still requires a show of exceptionality,¡± Desir was frowning. ¡°Though I suppose I have even fewer doubts about your capacity as a mage after today.¡±

    ¡°I am not sure what means or connections my mentor had used,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°The whole thing had been done with haste and the culture around Fowls was essentially the opposite of Abonisle where I come from. More along the line of respected specialists than leaders.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not so easy to just proclaim someone even a Young Fowl,¡± Desir still stared at him after a moment. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t care to tell me who this mentor of yours was, would you?¡±

    ¡°Perhaps¡­¡± Irwyn thought about it. It was not a large secret and he had to admit he had been getting¡­ curious about the seemingly kind old man he had known for as long as he could remember. In the end, he was willing to let Desir know in order to salvage his earlier blunder, ¡°We have only ever called my mentor the Old Crow.¡±

    ¡°Old Crow¡­¡± Desir seemed to go into thought, still leading the way seemingly by muscle memory, before his eyes widened ever so slightly in recognition. ¡°I only know about one Old Crow and as far as I have heard everyone thinks he died in the Lich war 16 or so years ago.¡±

    ¡°I suppose no one informed him,¡± Irwyn grinned.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know much, he is from before my time,¡± Desir sighed, ignoring Irwyn¡¯s jest. ¡°But I could probably find out a lot more. I assume that is why you told me?¡±

    ¡°I will not say that I am not curious,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°However, consider this more of me setting things straight. Hiding the Fowl business was rude on my part, whether it was meant to be or not, and sating your own curiosity is a better apology than just empty words.¡±

    Of course, it was not just sentiment that drove Irwyn to quickly mend the cracks in the relatively young bond he had formed with Desir. Although Irwyn did not actually really understand what Desir was capable of, he had clearly seen today that the Old Ibis was putting a lot of trust into the blue-eyed man. There were many small clues, like the guards at the front not bothering with any significant inspection, that his judgement was valued enough that he could just bring some unknown mage basically straight to the box without much fuss from, or other such hints. And Irwyn did not believe Old Ibis would keep someone unreliably or incompetent so close to his chest. Desir could also solve Irwyn¡¯s biggest annoyance; namely, communication. Irwyn could read faces quite well and knew some great conversational tactics and basics of manipulation but talking with people was often¡­ tiring. Especially with unimportant nobodies or small-time clients he would likely never meet again. Particularly if he had to do that several times in a single day. The fact that he had already forgotten the names of everyone he had met in the hideout except the Fowl themselves, who did not actually reveal any name besides their title, was a great example of that.

    If, for example, Desir was the intermediary between him and Old Ibis¡¯ faction, it would get most of the conversations involved with larger jobs out of Irwyn¡¯s hair. He would be able to just ask Desir about most things in such case. There was, of course, a bit of personal bias as well. Going through a demon incursion alongside the man went a long way towards making him far more worthy of trust.

    Not necessarily trustworthy, because that implied that such a person would do right by everyone they worked with. Few of such people dwelled in the underbelly of society thought. No, it was all about personal trust. The odds that one would betray the other. And they obviously both understood that much considering how long they had spent in this line of work.

    ¡°I will receive it in the spirit it was given,¡± Desir nodded, seemingly a lot friendlier again. ¡°Though I am absolutely going to charge you for sharing anything I find.¡±

    ¡°I would be insulted if you did not at least try,¡± Irwyn laughed lightly as they trod further through the sever walkways. The putrid stench was no easier to bear.

    <hr>

    After leaving the sewers through the very same establishment they had entered by in the morning, Irwyn had another errand to run. He no longer wore his mask as he walked down the street glancing at the pouches attached to his abdomen. There were several of them and made him look like quite the target. Which was why he visibly enveloped them in a film of half-transparent flames.

    That being said, protection against other thieves was not the only reason he had put that particular barrier in place. Rather, it was something that bugged him about the conversation with Old Ibis. The man had not tried to deny or hide that the original spacial pouch he had offered had probably been tampered with. In fact, Irwyn was quite sure that the old Fowl went out of their way to let Irwyn see a twitch in their expression at the time he was supposedly caught. Like they had a game at play even after that first trick.

    And from that, it all looked like a rather classical setup. All one needs to do is admit to being caught in a lie and congratulate them on beating you, because then the target won¡¯t notice the second lie skulking a single step later. It played on pride and self-satisfaction of not being fooled, as far as Irwyn understood it. After all, a person that had just seen through deception and was led to believe that they essentially won one over the other person would generally feel good about that. And people feeling good were less on guard.

    Which was why Irwyn was not letting those pouches, which were conveniently already present in Old Ibis¡¯ office, touch his skin nor clothes any more than they had in the hideout. He could not feel any magic from them but he had learned first-hand that thinking it was any guarantee would be pure hubris. Rather, it was quite possible that Old Ibis would count on Irwyn assuming that since he could not feel any magic there was none. At least even if the pouches were enchanted in some way, they were not something specialized just for Irwyn. There had been no time for the Ibis to do that. Perhaps it was just paranoia speaking but it cost Irwyn nothing to be extra cautious when dealing with old and experienced schemers.

    Of course, he could not just carry his earnings in his hands or drag around the potentially compromised pouches forever, which was why he was heading toward his next destination. Ironically, it was a place he had never visited, not even back in Ebon Respite. The kind where the security was always too tight for them to attempt working there, nor could he really visit on his own business in the past.

    In particular, Irwyn was headed for a bank. Well, the bank.

    There was only a single bank operating in the duchy of Black. It was guaranteed, owned, and backed by House Blackburg. To no one¡¯s surprise, it was called the Bank of Black. Not that there was much need for any precise naming considering there were no other banks to mistake it for. It was not really a place that most people ever had the opportunity to visit. Though some services were offered, most of the bank¡¯s functions were institutional: Regulating currency, dealing with any counterfeit operations, setting the worst and best conditions legal loaners could offer as well as countless other things Irwyn could not quite remember from the top of his head, almost all dealing with monetary regulation or enforcement.

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    The offered services themselves were not cheap, to the point that most smaller merchants could not afford them, though that was all second hand information. Even if Irwyn ever had been inclined to use a bank, it had never been possible in the past. There had been a small branch in Ebon Respite, though no one he knew went anywhere near a building quite literally owned by house Blackburg. There was an even bigger problem than that though: That of identity. As the singular institution in banking across the entire Duchy, moreover, one that did not necessarily exists to make a profit, they could be very picky with their clientele. Extensive background checks were par for the course from what Irwyn had overheard in the past; particularly problematic for an orphan with no actual legal identity.

    But that was no longer the case. Irwyn now had the license Elizabeth had given him, registering him as a proper mage in a way that was supposedly borderline impossible to feign. Moreover, it marked him as someone associated with an influential patron. And if his reasonably confident guess about Elizabeth¡¯s background was accurate then the bank staff would have extra incentive to not bother someone sponsored by a branch of House Blackburg. He was confident that he could at the very least be able to create an account and deposit his newfound wealth without having to undergo questioning about his background or the source of money. Irwyn also hoped to possibly get better rates than some wealthy merchant would.

    Connections in high places were truly a wondrous privilege, even if the connections, or indeed the exact high place, were rather vague in nature.

    Thankfully, the suit did not seem to had caught any of that truly horrid sewer smell so Irwyn could head straight there. He had figured out where the place would be in advance in his latest acquired book: The extensive map of Abonisle. Indeed, a damn book, because the city had enough layers and intricacies that it required several dozen pages just to cover most of it in a legible way. The bank actually had several branches across the city, concentrating mostly in the centralmost districts with the main office actually residing in one of the three Spires that towered over the city, though access to the spires was restricted according to the map; however, it did not mention how exactly. Irwyn decided to go for a branch that was not too large while also being reasonably close to where he was currently accommodated, just in case this required another visit in the nearby future.

    The building itself was at the topmost floor, though a decent distance further in which meant it was actually two whole floors above Elizabeth¡¯s favorite restaurant. Irwyn was even pretty sure he could actually see its roof from the vantage of the railings at the edge of the floor, though there was obviously no sign of the noble girl.

    That being said, there were certain similarities upon entry. Mainly the extensive warding and someone greeting him a moment after he walked through the front door. The process went far smoother than he had expected. As things were, the first thing the greeter wanted was to confirm Irwyn¡¯s identity, assumedly as he was a new face here. Irwyn, of course, gave his license which seemed to immediately go a long way towards making him welcome. The greeter, as they were not a mage, had used some kind of adjacent device below their desk to confirm the license¡¯s validity, seemed rather wide-eyed at whatever information they got from it, and proceeded to immediately arrange Irwyn a meeting with a banker.

    As the bank was an establishment with limited clientele, there was not much of a public area beyond the entry room occupied by the greeter. Even then, Irwyn thought they might have other areas to do basic identity checks in case multiple people arrived in short order. This was clearly a high-class place after all. He was not, however, too familiar with the whole arrangement nor did he care to inquire into it further.

    Since there was no public space, any dealings were done in private offices. The one Irwyn was brought to was spacious and surprisingly cozy for a place expressly intended for business with the banker already waiting for him. And the whole arrangement ended up being far simpler than Irwyn had expected.

    Whether it was the guarantor of his mage license or just the standard service, Irwyn was set up with an account within minutes by the excessively polite banker. He would pay a small management fee monthly while the bank guaranteed to maintain his balance in ¡®perpetuity¡¯ as long as there was enough money to take said fee from. Convenient if he had to vanish again for a few years, Irwyn supposed. By the dawn of the following day, he would be able to withdraw from any other branch in Abonisle up to half of his total deposit at a time, only needing to present his license which was considered the most secure identification available. The banker also offered that the bank could get him in contact with lawyers or many other specialists if need be. Irwyn supposed that, unlike Ebon Respite, Abonisle¡¯s courts were not basically a complete sham.

    Though at the end of the pitch he was politely but sternly warned against trying to overdraw his funds at several locations at once, through the means of ¡®teleportation or other translocation¡¯ as the House Blackburg would ¡®protect the stability and reliability of their institutions by whatever means deemed necessary¡¯. Well, as someone uncomfortably familiar with those means, Irwyn was certainly disinclined to tempt such threats. He assumed that meant that either there was some delay between the branches exchanging information about balance changes or they just wanted wannabe thieves to think that. Irwyn was not familiar with the complexities of magical communications and the possible security issues involved.

    He just happily deposited his recent earning and was, in fact, not questioned in any way about where he got his hand on such funds. Truly, he could not find enough praise for privileges and preferential treatment now that he was on the positive side of them for once.

    He left the bank with no incident but with new options for the future. His contact with the underworld was going to be good enough for a while and the funds would last him for months in his current lifestyle of getting invited to most lunches by a noble girl who did not seem to quite understand why anyone would even need to think about bills.

    Things were looking up.

    <hr>

    Two more weeks passed with no further contact from the Guild. Not that Irwyn minded as his growth continued quite quickly. Dervish had seemingly no problem devoting every day of the week to intense training. It was actually starting to make even Irwyn notice some side effects. For one, he had gotten so used to not eating lunch that on the single day off they had taken, he forgot to eat anything until dinner, even his body was starting to get used to a different cycle even on days the miraculous effects of that training hall did not restrain the need for nourishment.

    But that was a small price to pay for what he was gaining. The improvements were undeniable, even if they had started to slow down over the last while. There were no massive qualitative leaps like in the first week but it was still far faster progress than Irwyn had ever experienced back in Ebon Respite. Part of that was Dervish¡¯s advice but he believed it was mostly the complete lack of distractions. He did not need to worry about¡­ well anything besides personal improvement.

    And he did not lack for motivation. Besides the exhilaration of improving in magic, his daily spars with Elizabeth continued. He had not quite defeated her fair and square yet, however, he had managed to score a victory through attrition. The truth was that his Vessel contained a lot more mana than Elizabeth¡¯s which allowed him to close the gap if he could grasp the initiative; he could afford to outspend her two to one and still eventually emerge the victor when she completely exhausted herself. But that was not how he wanted to win. Sure, he would not shy away from using the extra power he had available but he did not even try to win again through his reserves alone, instead attempting to outsmart or overpower the noble girl. Which had mixed results at best. Even though he was getting closer, the gap in battle experience was years wide.

    A single time the previous day Irwyn had managed to achieve a draw with mutual destruction, much to Dervish¡¯s disapproval of ¡®suicidal tactics¡¯, but even with his advantages Irwyn could not truly outperform Elizabeth in battle. But he was convinced that it was only a matter of time before he could at the very least start winning a good chunk of their matches.

    A big help to that was the latest thing Dervish was helping him figure out. The week prior Dervish was finally satisfied with the test and concluded that Irwyn¡¯s Reservoir did not suffer from any deficiency that people with overly large Vessels commonly did. Therefore, he was helping Irwyn develop spells that could actually use that amount of mana. And by ¡®help¡¯, Irwyn meant that Dervish acquired a few specialized books for him and then tossed Irwyn into the proverbial ocean to either sink or swim, at most giving him the occasional advice so that Irwyn would not run into any hidden reefs in that analogy.

    And crafting a proper spell, incantation and all, from scratch was certainly widening Irwyn¡¯s horizons. One of the things that actually mattered was the complete incantation. Even if he used just a shortened chant later on, the full words of the spell as he knew them actually affected even that, though to a lesser degree. He had been testing several options which Dervish had approved as ¡®unpolished but safe to use¡¯ which Irwyn kept improving basically every evening before going to sleep. He was quite looking forward to doing that in an hour or two.

    At the moment though, they were sitting in that private restaurant room Elizabeth seemed to always insist on, enjoying a ¡®mundane¡¯ meal. In fact, Irwyn was no longer the only one enjoying the non-magical cooking as Elizabeth seemed to have gotten over her original distaste for regular food. In fact, she had not so much as suggested the so-called attuned cuisine since the first week of their meeting, which Irwyn had mixed feelings about. Although it was quite wondrous, he was still weary of possible addiction or at least ruining the taste of other food through prolonged consumption. Irwyn had no guarantee he would continue to have access to such a luxury after all.

    ¡°Thank you for the meal,¡± Irwyn insisted on thanking her. ¡°I will see you tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Goodnight,¡± Elizabeth nodded as Irwyn got up from his chair. Just in time to catch a glimpse of something in the window. It was a truly a great view: From the top floor at the very edge of the inner districts he could see all the way to the abyssal lake around the city and even beyond, the sun nearing the end of its arc across the sky. Which was when he caught a glimpse of something else glowing. Something big. Before he could focus and give his mind enough time to process what that actually was, the air cracked, webbing like that of shattering glass rising above the buildings for a split second before it mended itself.

    Though the event ended up leaving behind a crater, clearly visible even from their vantage.

    There had been no boom, shaking of the ground, or burst of magic to be felt, though Irwyn was not sure whether that was because of the distance, actual lack of any quaking, a feature of the architecture, or just the heavy enchantments surrounding the restaurant itself. What he did know was that he and Elizabeth were now standing beside him, staring at the large pit near the edge of the city where several buildings used to stand.

    ¡°Well, that looks bad,¡± Irwyn sighed as he glanced over at Elizabeth. And to his surprise, for the first time, since they had met, he thought that she seemed genuinely furious.

 2.21 Wake of destruction

    ¡°I am heading there,¡± Elizabeth stated, staring at the location while almost shivering with fury. It was a far stronger reaction than Irwyn would have expected but a single look told him there would be no stopping her.

    ¡°All right, I will follow if you want me to,¡± he nodded. ¡°But you will need to calm down along the way. Anger clouds judgement.¡±

    She glanced at him with a frown but seemed to bite back whatever retort had sprung to her tongue - considering the anger in her eyes, probably nothing polite - and extended a hand which Irwyn took with what was essentially practised ease at that point. Time/Space shifted and then they were somewhere else. Irwyn had no idea where except it was a non-descript metal room enchanted to the Void and back. Elizabeth did not stop for so much as a moment as she walked towards an indentation into one of the walls which, upon her approach, folded to the side to let them through, re-sealing behind the duo. Whether that was another feature of her wondrous dress or something else, Irwyn had no idea. Leaving the metal box did not actually help Irwyn much in ascertaining their location though as they seemed to enter into a half-empty warehouse of some kind.

    ¡°Do you know which way we are headed?¡± Irwyn questioned as he kept up with the angrily stomping Elizabeth.

    ¡°Somewhere South,¡± she said the obvious, not breaking her stride.

    ¡°Well, obviously,¡± Irwyn nodded agreeably. She was clearly not thinking too straight. He had planted that first thought earlier, better to steer her without conflict. ¡°What I am wondering is if you know the fastest way to the crater or which routes will let us avoid the no-doubt panicking masses.¡±

    That got Irwyn another glance as if such an obvious thing did not occur to her in the rush. Well, anger tended to do that to people. Irwyn did not understand Elizabeth enough to know why she had been thrown into such a fit of fury but it was rather self-apparent the attack, or whatever else it could have been, got her emotional. She finally stopped her march after a few more steps, took two deep breaths and turned to Irwyn.

    ¡°Alright, you have a point,¡± she was still frowning, her lip thinner than usual. ¡°I am just¡­,¡± she gestured in the general direction of probably South.

    ¡°Angry,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Yes, angry,¡± she confirmed.

    ¡°I can take the lead for now if you need to calm down,¡± Irwyn suggested, wondering if pride would even let her.

    ¡°Yes¡­ Thank you,¡± she said hesitantly. ¡°I will get my head in order before we get to the site.¡±

    ¡°Then follow me,¡± Irwyn headed straight out of the warehouse, meeting no personnel along the way. From the height of the surrounding buildings, he could immediately tell that they were somewhere relatively close to the edge of the city. A single look around obviously allowed him to spot the three gargantuan spires of Abonisle which served as a rather decent landmark. That much was enough for Irwyn to do the rough calculation of in which direction they had to go. It took them less than 5 minutes to come upon the first disturbed crowds. They were not fleeing, far away enough from the event to not panic, though they had likely seen enough to form such an interlocked gossip circle.

    ¡°Excuse me,¡± Irwyn immediately approached the first tall person he could find. ¡°Which way?¡±

    ¡°Over there,¡± the young man replied, pointing in a direction. It was rather obvious what Irwyn could be asking about. Taking a second glance at the bundled-up people, it would clearly be troublesome to get through them without resorting to crowd control and would only get worse the closer they got. It had been only a few minutes since the event and things would be in chaos.

    ¡°Alright, I have a question,¡± Irwyn returned to Elizabeth who seemed to be in a much state of mind after having time to calm down a bit. ¡°How discreet do we need to be with our approach?¡±

    ¡°Not particularly?¡± Elizabeth seemed confused by the question.

    ¡°Fine, I will ask it straight,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°Can we approach through the airspace?¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Elizabeth blinked. Then her expression turned slightly awkward. She seemed to be in thought for a moment before she sighed. ¡°Alright, I might not have been completely honest with you in some things. Please don¡¯t take it as a sign of malice merely my own¡­ willfulness,¡± she then waved her hand, an insignia appearing in it. Two blocks of magically darkened black, stacked on top of each other seemingly forming a reversed T, except at the top of them were distinct ramparts and inside were small square windows, giving way to the gray background. In other words: The heraldry of house Blackburg which Elizabeth with one quick motion attached to just below her shoulder.

    ¡°In all honesty, I am almost insulted you thought I did not put that much together,¡± Irwyn gave her the blankest stare he could manage.

    ¡°You¡­ what?¡± Elizabeth gaped instead.

    ¡°Not to be rude but you are so blatantly high nobility you would call a dragon¡¯s hoard ¡®a meagre amount of wealth¡¯,¡± Irwyn just shrugged with a light smile. ¡°If there was ever a safe bet in history of betting, it would be you belonging to at least a Branch of House Blackburg,¡± the only other possibility was frankly some obscure incredibly influential household that Irwyn was simply not aware of, but the high-end of politics seemed to be basically dominated by the countless branches of house Blackburg; created through centuries of traditional polygamy.

    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know what to say,¡± a light blush came to her cheek. ¡°I might have been overthinking this a bit.¡±

    ¡°We can talk later, better to get moving now,¡± some people in the crowd were also already whispering. Not everyday you could see someone flashing the Blackburg insignia on the street. ¡°Do you know what the hit place was? Will the first arrivals shoot anyone approaching down on sight?¡±

    ¡°I have been to that particular place many times before. Enough to recognise the surroundings at a glance even from that far away,¡± her lips thinned again, no doubt reminded of her earlier anger, ¡°It was a military facility. Regular protocol in a situation like this dictates confirming everyone¡¯s identity but no blind shooting unless something is blatantly hostile,¡±

    ¡°Well, then the solution is obvious,¡± Irwyn immediately diverted her attention away from possibly dead acquaintances as he began to manifest stairs of solid but contained Flames. If the streets were not passable because of the crowds, he could just improvise a bridge over them. ¡°I assume that etiquette dictates you go first.¡±

    ¡°Oh, yes,¡± she nodded hurriedly as they quickly swapped positions, her leading the way across the manifesting Flame bridge and both walked towards their destination best Irwyn could navigate. Irwyn could make even solid flames at most slightly warm to the touch and Elizabeth was naturally resistant to Flames as well - if not nearly to the same degree as Irwyn - causing no risk of burns. ¡°It should not be a problem considering your usual demeanor; however, some people might take offence on my behalf if you behave too¡­ casually with me.¡±

    ¡°I have hardly any right to complain about the insistence on politeness,¡± Irwyn grinned lightly. ¡°Do not worry your Ladyship, I believe I can handle such a task.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s hurry,¡± Elizabeth probably rolled her eyes. Unfortunately, Irwyn could only guess as he was staring at her back as he moved a couple of steps behind her and a bit to the right. Though they did quicken their pace a bit, Irwyn could keep up with building the platforms at the pace of a light jog without any issues.

    The only thing Irwyn would have normally had a problem with was the inherent danger of running towards the big magical disaster. However, those he dismissed for a simple reason: He was now even surer Dervish was shadowing Elizabeth everywhere she went. And that man was like a force of nature. Well, not really nature considering the Void magic and obsession with bladed weapons but the idiom worked in principle. Of course, Irwyn would do his damn best to keep himself and Elizabeth safe if trouble came calling but he had no doubt Dervish would be ready to shred anything they couldn¡¯t quite handle.

    As they hurried forward - people down below pointed up at them and sometimes shouted, though nothing more - Irwyn could feel the blast zone before he saw it.

    It was strange and not much like anything he had felt before. It was a bit like¡­ magic was frayed in the area, a thousand cuts spanning across its canvas as they quickly healed and closed. But it wasn¡¯t really magic itself; something else was hurt. That impression only got stronger with every step they took closer.

    ¡°Do you know what that actually was?¡± Irwyn asked. Their bridge of fire turned a corner and Irwyn could see the edge of the crater, the rest still hidden behind buildings. He noted that using solid flames continuously to walk on consumed significantly more mana than the spells took to manifest, he assumed that was to compensate for bearing extra weight against gravity. Irwyn mitigated that by reusing most of the magic from the parts of the bridge that were vanishing around them and frankly, the expenditure was not that bad in comparison to his reserves.

    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    ¡°Some kind of Time/Space magic most likely, based on just the appearance,¡± she said loud enough for Irwyn to hear even as she faced the other direction. ¡°I am not proficient in those, someone who can tell us more should be rushing to the scene as well though.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn nodded. They were almost there. Several people already gathered and on guard, some even hailing the duo. ¡°I will start making steps down, try not to stumble,¡± Irwyn looked at the surroundings. The buildings around the crater were all still standing but Irwyn noticed that they all had¡­ indentations for the lack of better word. Countless large chunks of debris seemed to have shot straight into the nearby structures at unknown but significant speeds, imbedding many into walls while other crumbled, fell down to the ground after apparent impact, or probably managed to shoot into the buildings through windows and such. However, Abonisle¡¯s architecture was exceptional. Even in these relatively lower-class districts it seemed to be holding without an issue, none of them on the brink of collapse from the damage; but maybe the disaster location was just important which elevated the surrounding structures. If Elizabeth had been here repeatedly it could not have been a completely mundane place.

    As soon as Elizabeth touched the ground a big chunk of the people present gravitated towards them. Most wore uniforms of two kinds: A smaller group seemed more like guardsmen - light armour padded against knifes and crude, blunt weaponry as well as simple batons or manacles visible at their waists - while the rest were clearly soldiers. Or at least Irwyn was pretty sure based on the squiggly lines on patches sewed into a specific spot of their uniforms. The uniforms themselves were not even armoured, though Irwyn could feel minor enchantments instead. They were also each carrying what was undoubtably rifles of some kind on their backs and half of them also had a sidearm holstered to their waste.

    ¡°Your Ladyship,¡± a single one of the soldiers stepped forward while they all saluted Elizabeth¡¯s arrival. It took one look at the heraldry and she was immediately in charge, no need to even verify it. Considering how vindictive house Blackburg was, Irwyn supposed that there were no people mad enough to actually fake these.

    ¡°Captain, status report,¡± Elizabeth did not give the man so much as a nod, instead immediately turning towards a well-practiced commanding tone. At a second glance, the man had visibly the most lines on his uniform¡¯s marking which Irwyn supposed implied the captain being in charge here just moments sooner. He would probably need to learn all the military ranks at some point in the future.

    ¡°We have employed Finity amplifiers to secure the area and are keeping the public away. No trace of any further attacks or possible perpetrators as far as mundane senses can tell while teams search the nearby buildings for any wounded. We have deployed our Stitchers on that task. Reinforcements are on the way. Two associated mages have already begun their inspection,¡± he pointed towards two robed people standing at the edge of the crater. ¡°With your leave, I would continue leading the mundane rescue and panic suppression.¡±

    ¡°Very well, you may continue captain,¡± Elizabeth gave the man the slightest nod and then gave him no more mind as she walked past him straight towards the mages. The man did not seem to have any qualms at all with the blatant dismissal and instead immediately returned to giving out orders to the soldiers. No one seemed to pay any attention to Irwyn silently following Elizabeth either.

    ¡°Ladyship,¡± Irwyn and Elizabeth got rather close to the duo of mages before they noticed their approach. They both gave Elizabeth a respectful, if not particularly deep, bow

    ¡°Is this in either of your areas of expertise?¡± Elizabeth did not even open with a greeting this time around.

    ¡°Yes, Time/Space is both our specialty, which this is,¡± the left one spoke with a firm nod.

    ¡°Then by all means, what are your first impressions?¡±

    ¡°As we have said this is work of Time/Space,¡± the second mage said. ¡°We concur this has been caused by several identical spells used by a single mage at precise locations. This magic aimed to damage space in particular, causing tears in its fabric. Because of its calculated nature, or by a very lucky accident, it was able to cause a destructive spacial cascade, greatly amplifying the area affected.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± the first mage nodded. ¡°The building, as well as part of its foundations and everything in it, had been split into tens of thousands of pieces which were then haphazardly shuffled around because of the cascade. A good amount of it was launched away or crushed to sand, however, most settled back into the leftover crater. Because of Abonisle¡¯s potent temporal beacon the fallout has already practically receded, I estimate that under normal circumstances there would be spacial cracks in the air for at least the next few hours.¡±

    And indeed, the crater was full of rubble, almost overflowing. Irwyn was not sure how he had not spotted that when the event itself happened, he had been quite sure the crater was empty, but he assumed it was either because of the distance or because of the magic in the area obscuring things somewhat.

    ¡°What of the building itself? Any alarms sounded?¡± Elizabeth asked, just as cool-faced as before, though Irwyn thought her shoulders went a bit stiff.

    ¡°We would not know your Ladyship,¡± the first mage spoke again. ¡°We happened to both be spending time off duty just a few minutes walk away from here when we both felt the spell''s intense power and rushed over, though I do not believe either of us had missed any outgoing alarms; they only triggered moments after the attack itself.¡±

    ¡°Any traces of the perpetrator or perpetrators?¡±

    ¡°This place used to have a teleportation hub,¡± the second man shook his head. ¡°There are no blatantly suspicious traces of whoever caused this and everything is distorted because of the cascade. Tracing every individual teleport back will take days and a dozen more mages,¡± they paused for a moment. ¡°However, I believe this had to have been caused by one powerful mage working alone. The level of precision required to achieve a cascade like this¡­ finding two Time mages capable of such perfect cooperation would be a miracle, much less any more.¡±

    ¡°I see, thank you,¡± Elizabeth nodded mechanically, ¡°Continue your observations. Please keep in mind that you will still be required to fully report to your direct superiors.¡±

    ¡°Thank you for your time,¡± the first mage said again while they both gave Elizabeth a slight head bow as she departed, followed by Irwyn.

    It seemed like there was no one else to talk or any trace to immediately follow. So, Elizabeth walked a fair bit away from the two mages who returned to their work until both she and Irwyn stood at the edge of a debris-filled hole. Elizabeth seemed to stare somewhat wistfully at it.

    ¡°So, what was this place actually,¡± Irwyn decided it was probably time to broach the subject. Elizabeth glanced at him, sighed lightly, and Irwyn felt some kind of bubble manifest around them before it completely vanished to his senses. If he had not felt it form he would have no idea there was anything at all here. ¡°I assume that¡¯s for privacy?¡±

    ¡°Yes, anyone watching from outside will just see us standing in silence,¡± she nodded slowly, still staring down at the debris. ¡°As for this place¡­ it was a repository of sorts, I suppose, for a variety of middling magical equipment and weapons; at the edge of the city so that if someone managed to actually steal something the collateral damage would not be too big before they were apprehended. Well, originally it had been all the way here as an outpost before much of the city was built.¡±

    ¡°In that case, they probably stole some of those weapons,¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°It is not that simple,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°This place was part of a network with intense security protocols and redundant enchantments. Breaching any one of the Vaults without the proper credentials, which is bound to the magical signatures of the limited few people entrusted with it, would have triggered an alarm immediately.¡±

    ¡°Maybe it was disconnected from that network?¡± Irwyn suggested. Disabling any alarm mechanisms sounded like the first thing someone would do.

    ¡°The network was designed specifically against that. It sends an uninterrupted stream of sequenced codewords to several locations while also receiving other sequences back. Disrupting that unnoticed¡­ a mage capable of bypassing all the measures in place would have absolutely no need for anything stored here.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps they just earned a few seconds,¡± Irwyn¡¯s mind was already trying to figure out how he would have overcome the issue. ¡°Maybe abused a redundancy meant to prevent false alarms? With accomplices they probably could have accessed one or several of these vaults, evacuated the contents and then, when the alarm system inevitably noticed the abuse and started triggering, they destroyed the whole place to obscure what exactly they had actually stolen,¡± he said. A few seconds to crack a vault, empty it, and escape was a bit of a stretch, at least for a mortal thief. But he was dealing with mages now and at least one of them was proficient with Time/Space. Elizabeth frowned as she considered the explanation.

    ¡°I am¡­ not sure whether that would work,¡± she said after a few moments of thought. ¡°I will suggest to whoever is assigned with leading the investigation that they should figure out whether there is such a vulnerability in the network,¡± which meant it was as good as done. She then glanced back at the rubble, still clearly wistful.

    ¡°Do you want to¡­ talk about it?¡± Irwyn asked carefully. It was clear to him that Elizabeth had some kind of attachment to the place.

    ¡°There is not much to talk about,¡± she blinked in surprise and then sighed. ¡°I just¡­ used to come here a lot as a child. Years ago, while the Spires were just being erected. As the city was just being rebuilt from a small fortress town. It had dedicated training halls which I would frequent for years, when I was a complete novice barely able to use any magic at all. I am not sure why I feel so¡­ attached, I suppose.¡±

    ¡°It must have been important to at least to some extent,¡± Irwyn nodded. That would have made her¡­ around 7 or 8 years old at the time? If he remembered the vague timeline correctly. Irwyn himself could remember being taken in to the Tears around that age - little else before then - and those memories were also quite important to him.

    ¡°I suppose I learned I could be something more here,¡± she shrugged stiffly. ¡°Not just the child of my parents, sister of my brothers and sisters but a mage of my own. That I could be more than just someone hiding in a shadow of a smile and strings. If that makes sense¡­¡±

    ¡°It does,¡± to an extent. Irwyn did not know her exact life story but he could guess some things. For one, Elizabeth had been dedicating a lot of time to him, even if that continued her own training. Which meant, at the very least, she was avoiding her own family somewhat. He could not guess how bad it was but it certainly did not sound particularly warm. If she wanted to earn the strength to break away from their shadows, whoever her closest blood-kin actually were, it certainly explained her drive for personal improvement.

    ¡°I am just being sentimental,¡± she shook her head, eyes turning resolute. ¡°My mother always said that sentiment was a weakness, ripe for abuse.¡±

    ¡°You need some good memories to not be miserable,¡± Irwyn tried to suggest gently. That did not sound like healthy advice.

    ¡°Yes, but I can make new ones,¡± Elizabeth acknowledged, her gaze growing more resolute by the second. ¡°I will not let old memories control me. Never,¡± she paused for a few seconds, glancing around. More and more people were arriving at the scene though none bothered them. ¡°There is not much we can do here for now. Let¡¯s head back, the sun will be setting soon.¡±

 2.22 Scorching

    Even the following day, Elizabeth was still agitated, despite her expression not necessarily showing it. Irwyn could tell from how she fought in their daily spar. It was unlike her usual calculated and composed assault where she would slowly entrap him one spell at a time. Instead, she opted to try and overwhelm Irwyn through sheer force, slinging one projectile after another into his defenses.

    And it was clearly not going to work. Her magic lacked the potency to break his flames in a full frontal assault. Although she had caught him off guard and had kept him on the back foot, the projectiles of Void magic simply could not punch through the continuously reinforced defences of his 3 intention barriers. Worse yet, his position only kept strengthening as time went on, none of the spears and bolts were able to reach him.

    It lacked Elizabeth¡¯s usual finesse of obscuring his vision, of baiting Irwyn into traps and ambushes or finding the perfect counter to whatever method of offense Irwyn chose. It was just brute force. Not her forte, at least relatively speaking. And Irwyn hesitated about what to do as his position strengthened. But only for a moment. She had said herself the day prior that magic and mastering it allowed her to feel like something more, it would be downright an insult to just let her win. No, rather, if he had to force her with force to understand why this kind of temper was unbefitting of that goal he very well would. And so he waited for the right moment. For a lul in the attacks where he could divide a big chunk of his attention on something he had been working hard on over the past week or so. And not long after that moment came.

    ¡°From the seams;

    In my dreams;

    I saw them fall,

    The Stars scourge all¡±

    He spoke, the chant just a slight bit unnaturally quick - only barely faster than if he had spoken the words normally - but perfectly audible and understandable. Irwyn was quite happy with that incantation. His first connection with Stars and Starfire came from that dream, or perhaps vision, he had on that fateful night in Ebon Respite, it was only natural he would include it in the chant. He had also technically seen ¡®falling stars¡¯ albeit in a milder manner than the words would suggest and well, seams could be the firmament he had seen one literally come from in the vision. The only thing he was not completely confident about was the spell¡¯s name itself. He had little experience, firsthand or otherwise, with Stars being solely destructive; yet it was destructive magic that he required. All in all though, he thought it was an incantation fit specifically for him. He was testing it for the first time, though he had confirmed with Dervish that the words would not risk any dangerous backlash.

    And so the spell was unleashed as Irwyn guided it. Spellcraft, unlike just manipulating elements with his raw will as he usually did, was all about boundaries. Most of his chant did not restrict the spell, the first 3 lines were meant just to empower the Starfire for him specifically and influenced the shape it would take, however, the last few words were the most important part, the crux of the whole spell, therefore destructive the magic would be.

    A hundred spheres of light rose from Irwyn¡¯s flesh in a surge. But it was very different than if he had just created a hundred such constructs. They were all part of a single spell, albeit a complex one. Perhaps more than ten times as difficult to cast than those simple spears he used so often. But ten was still ten times less than a hundred. Because when Irwyn applied intentions, he was applying them to the entire spell and all parts of it at once. Of course, it was more difficult than doing so for a simple piece of magic, however, it was an order of magnitude easier than doing it for a hundred individual spells. And so, with his improvement to his cognitive enhancement and general growth, together with the great assistance provided by the chant, Irwyn managed to maintain his existing barrier as he infused it with 3 intentions with strain.

    Burn. Hunt. Destroy.

    Elizabeth, seeing the tides turning, went for one last ditch assault which managed to crack the barrier; however, such fissures were melded before the next attack could arrive to exploit them. Then she was forced on the back foot as those spheres of Starfire sped to surround her, approaching from every direction.

    She attempted to dodge away, sending a wave of Void magic to try and disrupt them, however, the intention to Hunt was doing far more than making the projectiles guided. It made them lithe predators chasing down prey, dexterously dodging out of the way of any retaliation. The way Irwyn had sought to create the spell was meant to behave differently in divergent scenarios. Against a single foe, the mini-stars would Hunt like a pack. Harrying, forcing them down a path where the others could intercept or slowly wounding foes both strong and slow. Yet when employed against many weaker enemies, Irwyn meant for it to split into smaller groups and pursue many enemies at once in small packs or even individually. In was in the spells name, after all, that these Stars would scourge all. Be that one or many.

    Elizabeth tried to run away but soon enough was out of empty space to flee to. In the meantime she tried and mostly failed to destroy his constructs. It was still a 3 intention spells she was fighting against after all. Even if Starfire tended towards mutual destruction when clashing with Void magic it was not as bad as Light in that aspect so it took a direct hit to disable them. Which was difficult considering the spell was actively dodging any attempts at destroying it under Irwyn¡¯s guidance. Soon enough Elizabeth was cornered and attempted one last counterattack by enveloping herself in a black cocoon which she then exploded. However, Irwyn was more than willing to sacrifice a few of the constructs to burn away the attack and make way for the rest of his spell.

    The next moment her actual final attack came as Elizabeth put everything she could muster in that split second into a single bolt which she sent at Irwyn with all manageable haste. In fact, it was probably 3 speed-based intentions. That, however, meant that it lacked the punching power to break through the barrier which Irwyn did not neglect to maintain at full power; moreover, he was physically dodging as well and would have probably been at most grazed even if the spell made it through.

    The next moment Dervish appeared to dismiss Irwyn¡¯s spell with a swirl of black blades moving faster than the eye could see, leaving Elizabeth sprawled on the ground. He met Irwyn¡¯s eyes and gave him a nod that could be interpreted as approving before moving to the side again with equally incredible speed.

    ¡°Next time, I will beat you at your best,¡± Irwyn offered his hand with a smile after quickly approaching.

    ¡°That obvious again, huh,¡± she sighed as she took it, looking a bit ashamed.

    "Well, you are usually not the hardest person to read," Irwyn shrugged.

    "Not the hardest!" Elizabeth suddenly burst out laughing. "I should bring you to a ball at some point."

    "Is most of the nobility particularly skilled at controlling their expressions?" Irwyn raised an eyebrow. At least he assumed that was what the comment had been about.

    "No, the exact opposite in fact," Elizabeth shook her head grinning. "I have no talent for scheming and manipulation but I have still been at least taught. Most of the nobility in the Duchy of Black openly shuns any such pursuits."

    "That seems¡­ awfully counterproductive," Irwyn was fully frowning at that. "I would assume that the top of society would be consumed by the same race for resources as the bottom. Being gullible sounds like a massive disadvantage."

    "Oh, it absolutely is full of competition," she nodded. "However, here in the Duchy of Black it is traditional to resolve all conflict by sheer magical skill. Not a gathering goes by without half a dozen duels over things small and big; then some grandstanding and even open threats of violence. But schemes? They dislike them and shun them until they are all either buried or too well hidden to see."

    "I suppose pressure from the majority could maintain that status quo," Irwyn nodded in thought. He had read many times that the nobility of the Duchy of Black was traditional. It would be simple for them to break down any inexperienced schemers as they emerged and then either force them to conform to their idiosyncrasy or drive them out of higher society, by blood and spell if need be. One does not become a master schemer - well, master of anything - in a day. Yet gaining such experience outside would make it particularly difficult to enter the exclusive circles of higher nobility. And he imagined that indoctrination towards such views was practiced by the majority of prestigious households, even if they thought of it merely as upbringing.

    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    ¡°Although I hate to interrupt,¡± Dervish spoke from the side. ¡°I believe you wished for my assistance with training.¡±

    ¡°Ah, of course,¡± Elizabeth nodded as they parted ways. Dervish was a slightly cruel, albeit very efficient teacher. When the two moved to the opposite sides of the room the man went to Elizabeth first while Irwyn repeated his precision exercises. In particular, manipulating spells with 4 intentions. There were still only a few of those that he could manage, though it had improved from maybe two such spells to confident four. Despite it sounding like doubling in efficiency, Irwyn was merely getting closer to utilizing the natural limits. As Dervish had explained to him, imbuing additional intentions into spells always multiplied the cost of mana and focus and there was, in fact, a hard boundary to the multiplication that could not be bypassed.

    Namely, imbuing a second intention was always at least twice as difficult as one. Third was three times harder than two and fourth was four times that of three, or 24 times that of one intention if he did the math; and so on with the fifth and onward. That did not mean those levels of efficiency were achievable, of course. Those were theoretical minimums, goals to pursue in true mastery. Supposedly getting below 30 times multiplication for four concepts - which was about where Irwyn was hovering at the moment - was already rather good. That did not mean he would not strive for further perfection though. Especially since he had only so many other things to improve. Five intentions were still far out of his reach.

    Irwyn¡¯s impossibly fast rate of progress had slowed down; Dervish had called it ¡®filling out the long set foundations¡¯. That did not mean Irwyn was no longer improving, rather, he was still probably growing faster than ever before reaching Abonisle. Between the cognitive enhancement he had been able to maintain every waking moment nowadays and the broadening of knowledge the improvements were still tangible, however, any more literal multiplications in effective personal power did not seem on the horizon for him.

    That was fine. Irwyn had no issue with slow and steady. Especially considering it was probably more along the lines of fast and steady when compared to most people.

    That being said, he did not actually spend much time practicing before Dervish appeared by him. The man in his characteristic rough-looking clothes and stony expression did not take long settling Elizabeth into whatever exercise he had in mind for her for the moment, soon finding his way to Irwyn.

    ¡°I will say, the spell was significantly more potent than I had anticipated,¡± Dervish praised with a nod. Already expressive for the man.

    ¡°Well, I did attempt my best,¡± Irwyn fought the urge to preen. ¡°How well do you think it compares?¡±

    ¡°It is clear that you have some connection to dreams that I underestimated,¡± Dervish did not answer straight and instead analyzed. ¡°You also seem, to my great surprise already aligned with a certain path of your element.¡±

    ¡°Path?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. Not a word he had come into contact with in any of the textbooks he had been catching up on.

    ¡°Not a technical term, just a simplification of what it really is. I find it easier to explain it as such,¡± Dervish nodded. ¡°You could also call it a ¡®direction¡¯, or perhaps a ¡®trail¡¯, that a mage chooses or otherwise comes to follow. It is barely talked about as it is something private that most mages only ever begin to dabble with at a much higher level.¡±

    ¡°But you think that is not the case with me,¡± Irwyn guessed.

    ¡°Well, the Stars scourge all, is rather specifically going in one direction and even when I account for a deeper connection to the dream part, to achieve the power that spell held you would still need something more,¡± Dervish lightly nodded. ¡°I think the easiest to imagine it on is the example of the Void as the concepts involved are the most well known. Imagine these ¡®paths¡¯ much like growing closer to one of the individual sins. When a mage pursues such a ¡®path¡¯ closer to Wrath, spells and magical effects associated with Wrath will come more easily to them while any magic that would oppose that direction will instead grow more difficult.¡±

    ¡°s that so?¡± Irwyn nodded, a thought immediately striking him. ¡°Is it then in some way related to Names?¡± and at that Dervish stopped. The man went eerily still mid-motion and stared Irwyn down for solid two seconds before returning to normal. But that in itself was a message, because Irwyn knew full well that Dervish would not need more than a split second to finish any thought or would lose perfect control of his body. All the man did was deliberate.

    ¡°I am not a discretion to discuss any matters of Names,¡± Dervish said, voice fully serious, then he took a long glance at Elizabeth for Irwyn¡¯s benefit. ¡°Nor may I answer questions I know are asked only to bypass my restrictions.¡±

    ¡°Message received,¡± Irwyn nodded seriously. Well, no going around whatever kept Dervish from speaking through the noble lady then. Not that he would have pushed it, most likely. Curiosity killed the cat and whatnot. ¡°Then perhaps¡­¡± a different thought struck him at the mention of sin in the mythological sense. ¡°How do demons fit into this?¡±

    ¡°That is an excellent question,¡± Dervish said, back to his stern but relaxed self. ¡°As most fully magical creatures, demons are born associated with a certain path, though it is particularly strong among them, with maybe the exception of the demons of Envy. This applies to most sapient magical races to some degree. For another example, the fae have a predisposition to skirting the rules of magic and living itself that few life mages can ever hope to achieve, even if such fae do not pursue life and illusion magic specifically.¡±

    ¡°Fascinating,¡± Irwyn nodded. He wondered whether Dervish somehow suspected the encounter he had gone through after leaving Ebon Respite to choose the example or if it was merely a coincidence, though the information did make sense from what he had seen. The fae had wielded a great variety of magics for the so-called ¡®sisters of life¡¯. ¡°But you say I also seem to have some of this ¡®nature¡¯ in me?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Dervish nodded. ¡°Starfire is far less complicated compared to a vast canvas like the Void. It tends to be either scorching, protective, or in between the two. From observing you for a while and now from the spell, I highly suspect you have somehow taken a first step towards those scorching concepts.¡±

    ¡°My barriers seem to be working just fine,¡± Irwyn frowned. Those were by definition ¡®protective¡¯. If he had taken such a step, wouldn¡¯t that have weakened them?

    ¡°That is a simplistic understanding of what protection is,¡± Dervish did not agree. ¡°Self-preservation could also be a method which allows for further destruction. Personal defense need not be the same thing as Protecting something. You should think about these as more incorporeal than literal concepts. For example, protection could also mean leaving a legacy or sealing away threats. Scorching on the other hand need not be just destructive. It could be burning away weaknesses from yourself or others. Incinerating taint to allow for healing. Of course, these are all conjectures and estimates from second-hand knowledge, where your exact ¡®path¡¯ lay will be up to you to discover, possibly far in the future. However, I deemed it best to inform you now.¡±

    ¡°I see, thank you,¡± Irwyn said honestly. If things were going to be conceptual, well, there was hardly a limit at all. Anything could be twisted one way or another if a mind tried hard enough. Though it was true that some parts of him did not point towards preservation; his curse or oath or whatever which made him unable to even write was a blatant one. But if things were as conceptual as they seemed, it was best to start looking for inspiration and understanding right away.

    It also reminded him of his first vision, in a desert melting underneath two Stars. But it must be there, always and forever. Such is the nature of Stars. The man from whose perspective he had watched had spoken as such. That stars must both care and hurt to some extent, though unlike Irwyn, the man seemed distinctly on the side of ¡®care¡¯. It was still a starting point though.

    And the thing about starting points was, there were many places to go from there.

    ¡°We should improve your control of the new spell and test its limits at your current capacity,¡± Dervish spoke after giving Irwyn some time to think and digest. ¡°For you personally, the incantation has the power to be worth mastering. You should also consider developing some kind of purely defensive spell so that we can ascertain or disprove my earlier hypothesis. But for now¡­¡± a hundred blobs of black manifested around them and - although not quite blades - Irwyn knew that he would not be able to scratch even one if Dervish did not wish him to. ¡°I have spotted the all part of the incantation. Cast and we shall see whether it lives us to the same standard.¡±

    And so Irwyn did, he took a deep breath and cast. And he knew that by the end of the day, he would once again be stronger.

    ¡°From the seams

    In my dreams

    I saw them fall

    The Stars scourge all¡±

 2.23 Outside the routine

    ¡°I will be leaving Abonisle for a few days,¡± Elizabeth announced in the evening following Dervish¡¯s regiment; just as they enjoyed dinner. It had been 3 days since the attack on the city and the investigation was ongoing, though yielding no real clues so far. The most hopeful part was apparently the teleportation experts trying to trace back and confirm any outgoing and incoming teleports, looking for a discrepancy that could put them on track; but that took time as they were barely halfway done with no results so far. At least as far as Irwyn had heard from Elizabeth; all his information was second-hand for the moment.

    ¡°All right,¡± Irwyn acknowledged. ¡°May I know why?¡±

    ¡°Ah, of course,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°I received the news just today. I have placed a certain request several months before we even met which had been resting in a limbo of being neither accepted nor denied. After the attack, I suddenly had an additional argument as to why it should be approved and it seemed to be enough.¡±

    ¡°Is the attack being taken that seriously?¡± Irwyn frowned. If it was something Elizabeth struggled to get approval for, it had to be a major matter in the first place.

    ¡°Well, if it were happening in isolation, perhaps it would not have been,¡± Elizabeth inclined her head. ¡°But there was the incident at Ebon Respite which, officially, a cabal of necromancers had been responsible for. Now, about two months later there is an attack with no immediately clear culprit, well, rumours have started to spread that another such heretical group could be involved. Although I don¡¯t believe that is the case, it has still happened under my watch. I was able to argue that it would stain the pride of House Blackburg if I did not have the strength to participate in hunting down those responsible.¡±

    ¡°So it is something that will help you improve?¡± Irwyn¡¯s gaze sharpened. He had obviously tried looking into any such treasures with his limited means, considering he had experienced something similar with the strange gem that triggered his first vision, however, there had been not even rumors of such a thing as far as he could find; though in all honesty, he had not looked that hard yet. Of course, he had always assumed that House Blackburg would have access or at least knowledge of any such things.

    ¡°It is not a widely spread piece of knowledge, and for a reason,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°The best name for it perhaps would be Ambrosia. However, obtaining such a thing is nothing easy. Creating just one dose requires a master of alchemy, parts of extremely exotic monsters, a tremendous amount of available mana, and - most problematically - a certain flower that can only bloom from the corpse of a mage just a single leap away from a Name.¡±

    ¡°That sounds beyond anyone but House Blackburg to gather,¡± Irwyn nodded, his mind spinning back to what he had uncovered in Ebon Respite. That decayed hideout where a flower bloomed from the corpse of a Magelord. Well, at least he suddenly had a much better idea of what the flower could be used for. He did not, however, know any Time mages. Though if one ever traded anything he desperately needed, he at least somewhat understood what his bargaining chip was now.

    ¡°It mostly is,¡± Elizabeth confirmed. ¡°All nine Duchies guard any that they create for the best prodigies of their younger generations. Receiving Ambrosia in the Duchy of Black requires direct approval of the Duke himself and practically speaking, also of the strongest branch families of House Blackburg. Of course, if it was just that I would have been able to obtain approval much sooner, however, there is the issue of matching elements.¡±

    ¡°Your Voidflame is much, much rare than just Void, even in the Duchy of Black,¡± Irwyn easily concluded.

    ¡°Yes, there had only been two Ambrosias attuned with Voidflame in the ancestral vaults, both centuries old,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°With accepting one there is also an indirect expectation that I will pick up alchemy later in life to recreate it if I can find sufficient talent in that area.¡±

    ¡°Would reaching that level of mastery not take decades? But dedicating yourself to such a thing could slow your improvement in other aspects of magic,¡± Irwyn frowned. Though to his surprise, Elizabeth gave him a confused blink as she stared at him strangely.

    ¡°Oh,¡± she seemed to have come to a realisation after a few seconds. ¡°I think you might be having a misunderstanding Irwyn¡­ How do I say this¡­¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± Irwyn encouraged. Elizabeth seemed hesitant to speak whatever was on her mind.

    ¡°Fine,¡± she sighed before looking Irwyn straight in the eyes, growing serious. ¡°You should not necessarily expect mages to live the same lifespan as a mundane person. Across the Federation, in most duchies, the average life expectancy of non-mages is somewhere in the high 60s - with the exception of the duchy of Green where it is somewhere around 80. Meanwhile, with my talent and the resources of House Blackburg - barring any crippling injury - I should easily be able to pass 200. Even without the additional methods of prolonging my life, I would naturally pass 150. Among less talented mages there are few who die of natural causes before 100 years of age and most of such cases are the consequence of old injuries or incurable chronic conditions. That is not even considering that claiming a Name makes the bearer immortal.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ see,¡± Irwyn nodded after a moment. He had never thought about that aspect of mage society. It was no wonder then that mages were subtly but actively being discouraged from interacting with magic-less people in their very education. Irwyn had assumed it was just for some kind of a greater scheme, however, this presented a distinct new possibility. The image of his friends ¨C peers ¨C from Ebon Respite dying around him of old age while he was merely half-way through the pessimistic estimate of his own lifespan was not pretty.

    ¡°Well, that is still far away in the future,¡± Elizabeth interrupted Irwyn¡¯s somber musings. ¡°To return to the point, I will have to travel to City Black to take the Ambrosia and the process itself may take up to several days. I will already be leaving tomorrow and return as soon as circumstances allow.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn thought that such a short notice was slightly strange, however, he did not know how such matters usually went. He was also certainly not surprised by the nonexistent time Elizabeth expected to spend on traveling; Abonisle¡¯s temporal beacon made long-range teleportation affordable for people with far lesser background than her. ¡°You will know where to find me upon return. I may use the time to finally explore the city somewhat. Do you know when you will return?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°But it should be less than a week. Hopefully, some progress will have been made in the investigation by then.¡±

    ¡°Hopefully,¡± Irwyn agreed. ¡°I will see if I can glean something from my own contacts, though I doubt it,¡± frankly, his best guess was that if someone stole something from a military facility, they might try to sell it or smuggle it out of the city, however, he was doubtful anyone in the Underworld would be actually willing to risk it. He did not know how much of a hornet''s nest the situation was but with Elizabeth¡¯s personal interest he imagined it was somewhere in the realm of ¡®hunker down and pray¡¯ for most criminals.

    ¡°Thank you, I appreciate it,¡± Elizabeth nodded. Although she had calmed down since then it was clear she was personally invested in catching the culprits to at least some extent.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    Even though it was their last meeting for at least a few days, they did not break the routine of Irwyn finishing his meal and walking back to the hotel. He wondered if any of the staff had noticed that he always came back in but almost never out. But would it really even matter if they did? Either way, Irwyn had to make some plans for his unexpected free time. But that would come after his nightly reading, there was still plenty left in the pile of books and textbooks Elizabeth had gifted him.

    <hr>

    The following morning, Irwyn stopped at the ¡®The Serendipitous bar¡¯, the very same place he had visited with Desir. And it was for that very same man that he had come along. Taking a seat at one of the booths, Irwyn ordered some of that non-alcoholic beer with no intention to drink it and waited for the server to return.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± he nodded as she was placing the drink down. ¡°If you would not mind, I was wondering if my friend, Desir, has been around here lately.¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know,¡± she shrugged with trained ease, which only improved Irwyn¡¯s estimation of the establishment. Most organizations did not have low-ish level personnel who could easily lie with a straight face. ¡°I can hardly remember the name of every customer.¡±

    ¡°Ah, but of course,¡± Irwyn nodded agreeably. ¡°I just hoped to meet him here, let us say¡­ in three days, after dawn. Though I suppose it will be up to luck.¡±

    ¡°I am sure it will work out for you if it¡¯s meant to,¡± she nodded ever so slightly which Irwyn took as confirmation that she would ask. That was good enough for him, considering that Desir had given him no other way to communicate; if the meeting time was not appropriate, Desir could just reschedule as the opposite was not true. Just letting the man know Irwyn wanted to meet was enough.

    He spent another few minutes at the bar out of politeness, never once touching the drink he had paid for, and then left. He had a different idea of what to do with the rest of his day.

    <hr>

    That idea was shopping. Or at least scouting out prices. He had been in Abonisle for a decent while, however, the constant training had devoured the vast majority of that time, therefore he had not gone to one of the ¡®malls¡¯ as they were called since the very first day in the city.

    Back then he had noted that there were 2 floors which would require a mage¡¯s license to just access. And well, Irwyn had a license nowadays, therefore that was where he would be headed.

    He had considered whether to visit the complex he had originally seen near where he lived or whether to aim for something in the inner districts, eventually deciding for the latter. Generally speaking, everything in the inner districts was higher class, it stood to reason that so would be any places for shopping. If things were out of Irwyn¡¯s price range he could visit the other place. He was not even sure if he wanted to buy anything in the first place, though there were some ideas flowing through his head.

    Finding one, as it turned out, was not the simplest thing either. As the inner city was split into large floor layers it was not possible to just see large buildings from a significant distance; most constructions below the open-sky floors looked relatively similar. Irwyn had checked for a location on his map before leaving - and Abonisle¡¯s street numbering system was comprehensive - however, he still struggled to find one. Eventually, Irwyn had to resort, to his dismay, to asking one passerby after another for directions, which many of them did not appreciate and completely ignored him. Eventually, he had finally found one of the many entrances to a large mall; turned out Irwyn had managed to get on the right floor, confused himself into going one floor beneath, walked underneath the area, and decided to go back up only after passing the mall, getting lost in the process.

    The complex was a bit closer to the central spires than the restaurant he had come to frequent thanks to Elizabeth and it took up a wide area from the third to the sixth level. Which was a lot considering that each city level was four to five regular floors. It also had elevators. A lot of elevators. Moreover, he found similar disclaimers about the top 3 floors being ¡®licensed mage exclusive¡¯ areas, as he had hoped.

    He considered wandering about the mundane floors but decided that he would perhaps see if that was worthwhile later. Instead, he boarded the elevator and immediately noticed an oddity: The top floor, 15, had no button to allow going straight there even though the number was still on the elevator dial. Irwyn noted it but shrugged that off for the moment as he instead went up to floor 13, supposedly the first floor exclusive to mages.

    What he noticed immediately upon exiting was the checkpoint. Or rather, the automated mechanism that served as one. There was a barricade of thin void magic blocking the way just a few steps outside the elevator. From what Irwyn could see it was not anything particularly impressive to the point he could probably break it with a thought. But stopping people probably wasn¡¯t the point anyway. Rather, it was the device next to it that had a card-shaped gloving plate, its purpose apparent. When Irwyn placed his license onto it the plate changed colour for a few seconds and then opened the way forward.

    What he saw was, frankly, underwhelming. Yes, there were a lot of people, most of whom Irwyn could vaguely feel were mages, however, they were surprisingly¡­ meager. The magic in their Vessel was a fraction of a fraction of Irwyn¡¯s own and they seemed to barely maintain any control over it. Irwyn realised that he may have had too high expectations all this time. He had thought he had met barely any mages on the streets of Abonisle during his stay, however, now he wondered if he might have genuinely just missed most of them because of their weak presence being concealed in the incredibly dense ambient magic.

    It made sense in hindsight. He could not expect any random mage to be even vaguely comparable to a literal scion of House Blackburg like Elizabeth or to some of the better people the Underwold had to offer. Still, it was a strange realization. The kind of thing that should have been obvious yet never occurred to him. Or perhaps it was because he had been so used to any mages being incredibly rare. None even passed through Ebon Respite most of the time.

    The layout itself was, to put it simply, open. Large semi-empty halls with decorations ranging from colourful lights, dancing shadow shows and fountains. Irwyn did not need to inspect those deeply to realise that these were all coming from enchantments instead of actively maintained. Among the decorations, there were many storefronts but also small stands and a few individuals that seemed out of place with a rug like a vagrant street peddler. The floor also had a clear theme as Irwyn quickly realized: It was packed with charms, potions or various other single-use items; at most some had several, but a limited number, of uses.

    That interested Irwyn greatly. His magic was powerful - and a quick inspection of anything offensive on sale showed him that those were literally inconsequential compared to what he could cast himself - however, he was far more interested in utility and defensive options. For example, Irwyn could block a barrage of hundred projectiles just fine, but what would he do if someone tried to forcefully teleport him into a trap? What if he was struck by some kind of curse or got wounded in an ambush? There were many possible weaknesses. Irwyn had learned that there were in fact curses, or something that worked basically the same way as that simplified idea. They also came in many varieties depending on the element and the actual effect, though Void magic had surprisingly few of them and Irwyn could most likely dispel those just by washing his body with light magic. However, something like a luck bane curse or a dysmorphic curse did not sound pleasant.

    But first, Irwyn had to make sure he had the funds available to actually buy something useful. It took him a few minutes but he did eventually find a sub-branch of the Bank. He had hoped that there would be something of the sort present as it only made sense, though if it weren¡¯t he would have had to leave after scouting out local prices without actually buying much. Majority of his funds came from Old Ibis¡¯ job and Irwyn had deposited all of it.

    There at the sub-branch, the clerk, who was actually also a weak mage, confirmed his account and gave him a local spending card. Essentially, he could use it to buy things at this particular mall for the rest of the day and the bank would take care of the transaction afterward. It had some limits on the amount of funds he could use this way, though the clerk had assured him that if he needed to make a purchase above that boundary their personnel could make that happen with some extra safeguards put in place; he was also assured that they provided instant loans, though did not mention their - no doubt harsh - interest.

    Armed with access to finances, Irwyn looked around the floor again. He had done the first pass while looking for the sub-branch so he had some idea of where he wanted to go first. It was finally time he had a look at some potions. It was only appropriate considering Elizabeth was technically speaking doing the same.

 2.24 Perishable goods

    There were several places selling potions or other similar alchemical concoctions. Irwyn had done minimal research into the art so far though he did know that alchemy was a difficult and expansive discipline. The methods differed wildly from element to element, not to mention the many other alterations between the end products. Potions were obviously meant to be swallowed but they were far from the only consumable possible to craft: There were also pills, injections, powders, patches, creams, and whatever else the imagination could conjure all with their upsides and downsides.

    Alchemy was an art older than the Federation after all and that brought variety. Family recipes brought down for generations; then opportunistically turned into half-stolen, half-improvised products which were then recopied a dozen more times until they had little to no similarities with the original. An original which had been discovered by what was essentially chance or educated guesses of mixing around ingredients with various saturations of mana present.

    It did not help that simple alchemy could be performed without external magic, meaning even non-mages could make the ¡®simplest¡¯ potions. Those were described as ¡®weak¡¯ or straight-up ¡®useless¡¯, but that was in a textbook quite clearly pushing mage supremacist ideas so Irwyn reserved his judgment for the moment.

    After all, he had lived in Ebon Respite where the Underworld¡¯s best alchemist was not only not a mage but also a one-handed cripple, yet the few times the Tears had bought potions from him they were rather useful. Irwyn was not sure if that was an exception or if his idea of useful might have radically shifted in the past 2 months.

    Though in the end, he had decided to visit the store run by the most powerful mage he could feel on the floor. Still strangely weak but better than the others. It was strange that there was no one worthwhile present. A majority was one thing, but not a single mage Irwyn could not easily see through as subpar? Something was quite likely up.

    ¡°Welcome, welcome, how may I help you?¡± the clerk - possibly also the owner and alchemist based on the stained garbs - greeted Irwyn into the store. It was a small establishment but still a proper store with a few counters and shelves showing off goods as well as a front desk.

    ¡°Good morning,¡± Irwny nodded, though it was approaching noon. ¡°I was hoping you could help me wrap my head around some potions that I might need.¡±

    ¡°Yes, of course,¡± the man was all smiles and enthusiasm. ¡°What might you be looking for?¡±

    ¡°Something defensive,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°To defend against exotic attacks, or perhaps something for healing.¡±

    ¡°Well, for healing I have great news for you,¡± the man nodded and immediately pointed below one of the shelves where several small crates were stacked. ¡°I have finished several batches of Stitching potions just this morning!¡±

    ¡°Stitching potions¡­¡± Irwyn repeated. Frankly, back in Ebon Respite they never got their hands on actual healing potions - they were apparently quite difficult to make - and his catching up on education had not touched up on these yet. ¡°Would you explain to me what exactly they entail?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± the man nodded, though his gaze grew slightly sharper. Irwyn supposed he did appear like a bumpkin ripe for overpricing. ¡°Stitching potions close wounds during their duration, as simple as that. My recipe uses Time-based divination to ¡®read¡¯ the state of the body from just over a minute before drinking and then uses Life illusions to recreate the missing pieces. These batches are rated for any small injuries ¨C even grievous ones as long as the affecter area is not too big - and will last just under an hour and a half.¡±

    ¡°Right at the Finity breakpoint at 5300 seconds,¡± and change. Adding up to just barely less than an hour and a half. That was no coincidence. On second thought, ¡®just over a minute from the past¡¯ coincided with the Finity breakpoint at 63 seconds. And the thing about Finity breakpoints was, they were basically soft ceilings based on mages capability. Right after each duration breakpoint the price and difficulty of magic began to rise exponentially for each additional moment before the cost leveled out and the cost and difficulty per additional moment remained consistent until the next breakpoint. It was basically common for craftsmen to reach the limit of their next breakpoint following a breakthrough in a fraction of the time it then took them to actually attain the one after; at least as far Irwyn understood it.

    ¡°I see that you are well versed in theory,¡± the man praised Irwyn, which was nothing surprising considering he was trying to sell his wares. ¡°Yes, like all magic, potions are restrained by Finity. When the stitching potion runs out, those wounds will reopen, but by that point, you will have had plenty of time to get somewhere safe and prepare for that.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Is there anything more¡­ permanent?¡± a lethal injury reopening did not sound like a good time in all honesty.

    ¡°Well, you would be hard-pressed to find such a thing in alchemy,¡± the man shrugged. ¡°You may find some Grafting enchantments, but those are rare and extremely expensive, not to mention that you need to make sure there is no incompatibility between you and the spare flesh you prepare, not to mention worry about the meat spoiling. In my humble opinion, your best bet is Stitching potions; you can find a surgeon or a Healer specialized in Grafting if you suffer anything that won¡¯t heal by itself. And since most recipes don¡¯t let you use more than one Stitching potion in a row, it¡¯s best to buy quality.¡±

    ¡°I see, thank you for the explanation,¡± Irwyn said. So basically, Grafting as the man had called it, came with significant problems and required material to make up for whatever flesh it was mending, while Stitching was temporary but more reliable. Any miraculous, perfect recovery was probably in the realm of Named and Edicts. He might inquire with Elizabeth when she returned from her trip, however, he needed to have that safety net¡­ well, ideally yesterday. It was honestly almost stupid he had left it on the wayside for so long.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t worry, let me give you a quote,¡± the man nodded with a smile then offered Irwyn a price that was probably the equivalent of a shakedown.

    ¡°Thank you, though I hope you understand I would like to compare with other prices and quality on this floor.¡±

    ¡°Of course, customer,¡± the man said with a strained smile. ¡°Just be sure you are not deceived by a false label. I am a licensed professional and guarantee that my potions reach the quality which I claim them to be.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I am sure I will see you later,¡± Irwyn nodded and left. He eyed some of the other potions, obvious things like antidotes but also more exotic kinds. For example, there was a potion of ¡®ironskin¡¯ which sounded good and all at a glance, until Irwyn considered that he could currently melt iron with his weaker attacks without even trying. Anything that went through his perpetually active barrier would not be even slowed down by that layer of defense. He would keep an eye out for anything that looked genuinely useful, however, he was not expecting much beyond the healing potions.

    A quick jaunt around the floor showed Irwyn that the shopkeeper was indeed attempting to upcharge him by a decent chunk, though in all fairness there were actually only a few other people selling potions that would last the full hour and a half. Most other Stitching potions were at the lower breakpoint of under 10 minutes, a few in the middle of that range between breakpoints at various durations. And nothing above, though there was a distinct possibility of longer durations being an overkill. An hour and a half was already a relatively long stay of execution. If you could not find help in that time, what were the odds you could in a longer frame?

    There were a few more things that caught his eye. For one, a pill of ¡®planar anchorage¡¯ that made whoever consumed it much more difficult to move with various magics, including all kinds of teleportation and their own spells; which was just fine for Irwyn who had no movement magics of his own. He just wondered about the potency. Then there were vials of ¡®Jamerson¡¯s antimagic solution¡¯ which was a liquid that on contact with any potent enough magic consumed the mana to evaporate itself. Irwyn would probably buy at least one to see how well it fared against his own magic.

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    But there was an obvious problem with that. Namely, that he did not have anywhere convenient to put such things. Which was the next item on the menu.

    Satisfied with his scouting for the moment, Irwyn walked up a floor. The layout of the layer above was not too different from the trading area below, however, there was obviously a major change. Namely, the stands here sold permanent magical items of all kinds. That interested Irwyn a whole lot more because there were a few things he was urgently missing. Most of all, a proper spacial bag.

    Irwyn went around the floor window shopping and gauging prices, occasionally asking about the specifics of such spacial bags for sale. They were expensive¡­ and disappointingly small. He also had concerns about security, considering that the rogue mage responsible for the attack was almost certainly a Time mage of some sort. Most spacial bags worked by enlarging and stretching the physical space inside them - well, at least the cheaper ones did. Irwyn was sure there were options for pocket dimensions for those with excess money to throw around, which then allowed for more storage and easier use. That basic concept cane with some problems though. Poorly made spacial bags were prone to leaking magic - terrible for stealth and subterfuge - and interfering with teleportation. Irwyn had a lot of faith in Elizabeth¡¯s dress which she had used to drag him along for teleportation but he was not in the mood to take risks needlessly. Neither of the two were actual Time mages after all.

    Another problem was the Law of Finity.

    Irwyn had never realised how big of an issue it would be for enchantments, though a helpful enchanter had explained the issue to him at their shop. Most cheap or low-output magical items bypassed the problem associated with it by ¡®soft-restarting¡¯: Basically, if their magic was active for too long, they would shut down and start again within a split second - often faster than the eye could see - bringing their ongoing duration back to zero. Apparently, it was one of the first things any educated enchanters learned and was used in almost every enchantment it could be.

    This was not an option for a spacial bag. If it canceled its own magic even for a fraction of a second the expanded area would instantly re-contract and either tear the bag apart, or crush anything inside; often both. From his conversation with Old Ibis, Irwyn knew that there was a technique in enchanting that allowed for mitigating the Law of Finity even in these perpetual enchantments, however, a full go around the floor had revealed to Irwyn that it was indeed an extremely advanced technique. He had not found a single bag that would last him indefinitely.

    The poorest expanded bags were rated for only 5 days. Those were obviously the cheapest and some of the biggest stores offered them pro-bono with large purchases. Quick questions revealed that they were mostly made by apprentices training to be able to make better ones.

    The next breakpoint was at under 45 days which was the majority of those on sale. Some did not reach that high, perhaps not quite well enough made or just already old and decaying.

    Anything with below 30 days left on its duration tended to go down in price steeply. Irwyn supposed that it was much like vegetables or bread, though the economy of perishable enchantments had never occurred to him before. One benefit Irwyn did get was that by checking out so many spacial bags, he was now able to roughly gauged how much duration there was left on them. And that maybe half of the shopkeeps were overestimating the remaining usefulness of their goods by a day or two.

    The next breakpoint was at over 400 days, and those were scarce. Only a few biggest stores had at least one on display and Irwyn was almost certain they were all in an agreement to gauge the prices together. The price they were asking was truly exorbitant; even the significant funds Irwyn had obtained from a pretty big cut of semi-unique masterful enchantment would dip significantly from that.

    Perhaps I should ask Elizabeth when she returns, Irwyn admitted reluctantly. He did not want to rely overly on her - for both pride and to not appear like a leech to her backers - and would absolutely pay a fair price for one rather than accepting charity, however, he was sure that any branch of House Blackburg had access to¡­ advantageous deals.

    He obviously also had a look around the floor for other items, particularly rechargeable ones. Among the most interesting was the so-called ¡®Finity amplifier¡¯. The enchantment supposedly magnified the effect that the Planar Law of Finity had on magic in a small area. A very small area in this case, just a few meters wide. But that was not surprising, that kind of enchantment was a military resource as Irwyn had overheard just a few days prior and House Blackburg was probably scooping up most people who could make them into working for them. He was also almost certain it was made using a combined element, much like his Starfire, except one he did not have a proper name for; it was, however, composed of Realm and Fate. That obviously made it an order of magnitude rarer, even assuming the enchantment was not that complex.

    The biggest issue with the other enchantments he had looked at was that most lacked any intention at all; and the few who had some imbued possessed only one. That made them a notch or several below the levels of power Irwyn was personally on. It had been far less apparent with alchemy but now Irwyn wondered if alchemy too could be imbued that way and the goods below had just been all inferior.

    The strangest thing was the lack of an exit to the topmost floor though. There were supposed to be 15 floors, even the elevators had that marked down and Irwyn could feel a layer of wards in the ceiling that implied another level, however, there were no stairs or visible entrances. Which quite likely meant it was hidden.

    What for Irwyn was uncertain, however, a possibility wormed itself into his head: It may have been purposefully concealed as a trial. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. The mages on these two lower levels were strangely impotent and Irwyn still had not encountered anyone noteworthy. What if that was because the best mages did their business in a more exclusive area? Something hidden in a way that only excellent or very well-connected mages could get in.

    So obviously, Irwyn began snooping. He had already gone through the most public areas but that was not a great place for a secret entrance. No, it would be in a nook or corner somewhere. It would also obviously reach a certain degree of difficulty, most likely involving intentions at the very least. That actually made searching easier as finding an imbued concept, even a hidden one, was far less taxing than looking for a less distinct needle in the haystack of countless enchantments sprawled across the entire area.

    Irwyn¡¯s first idea were the bathrooms, though that was a wash without so much as a hint. That did not mean he was without success for long as in just a few minutes later he spotted a thin corridor between two storefronts, partially obstructed by crates. But not fully. There was just enough space for him to squeeze through without trouble.

    From there it was frankly quite simple. There was indeed a magically locked door with 3 separate intentions, each meaning open, build into a construct of raw mana that was somehow separated from any element. 3 static intentions to be precise. Irwyn was done unlocking it before he even physically reached the entrance, finding a circular stairway up beyond. Closing the door behind himself, he went up. At the top of the stairs, there was a small antechamber leading into a larger hall through another doorway.

    Immediately upon exiting, Irwyn realised that this area was more separated. Rather than one massive hub, it was clearly split into several segregated areas. There was also clearly some noise isolation since he had not heard the loud music at all until he opened the door. Moreover, his current place was¡­ startling.

    Without intending to, Irwyn had managed to walk into borderline debauchery happening right around the literal corner. Although he was probably difficult to see from where he stood, the scene was plain for him to behold.

    It was a group dance, though not the kind Irwyn would be accustomed to seeing in public. Rather, it was a proper group performance on a stage. A single mage in the background played no less than 5 instruments at once to provide background music as the dancers swayed. And sway might be a more accurate word than dance because it was so blatantly charged that even Irwyn who did not care for such things noticed it at a glance. Honestly, most of it was that the group was rather scantily clad, clothing all either revealing or revealingly tight, and at a glance the dancers were all conventionally attractive; both men and women among them.

    They also had an audience. Dozens of mages, each one noticeably better than the ones below. Over half of them were even obscuring their levels of mana to the point Irwyn could not read how powerful they actually were, though none possessed that intrusive aura that Irwyn had come to associate with truly exception mages like Dervish, the shadow that had followed Alira, or most likely Old Ibis.

    All that being said, this group seemed to be a more casual and social kind of gathering. Irwyn was looking more for business if he could find it. He was just looking for an exit to a different area when he noticed something and had to do a double-take. And yes indeed, a closer inspection had confirmed that he had really recognized someone. An adult in their 20s, one eye just ever so slightly uncanny, even from this distance.

    One of the dancers was unmistakably Desir.

 2.25 No handouts

    Irwyn was left staring, unsure what to do. Behind the corner he was not in immediate line of sight, however, he was hardly well hidden. It was only a matter of time until someone stumbled upon him, not to mention there could be people on the lookout. And peeking from behind a corner was generally not a good place to be found.

    So Irwyn had to either go away or approach. Would that be awkward? Irwyn took one more glance at Desir dressed in clothes that would make some prostitutes blush. On the other, he was willingly dancing in a kind of public area. And considering the crowd, it was not like this was something Desir might be trying to keep secret. At least not something he wanted completely secret.

    The music was beginning to wind down and with a deep sigh, Irwyn decided to approach. Well, he did want to meet the blue-eyed man just earlier. It just so happened that this wasn¡¯t how he had expected that meeting to come about.

    When the music came to an end Desir walked off the stage, as did the other dancers, and took what looked like a robe which he proceeded to dress himself with it. The next moment Irwyn was pretty sure it enveloped him without the use of hands. Either Irwyn was miss-seeing or the robe was self-dressing. Either way, in just a few moments Desir no longer looked that out of place, considering many of the mages present also wore similar robes.

    Irwyn also noticed that Desir was in company. A young woman, around Irwyn¡¯s own age, with silver hair and a relatively conservative but bejeweled white dress seemed to immediately engage Desir in a conversation. From the chuckles, laughs and the girl¡¯s occasional blushes and swoons, Irwyn judged she was quite taken, at least at a glance. That was another thing to consider. Irwyn certainly did not want to intrude.

    So he made sure to position himself in Desir¡¯s line of sight and looking in his acquaintance¡¯s direction, making sure to not blend into the background. It took a few seconds for Desir to spot him. The man¡¯s slightly uncanny eyes widened ever so slightly but Desir¡¯s smile did not waver as he said something to the young woman and beckoned Irwyn to come closer.

    As Irwyn approached, another song and dance began, this one a stark contrast. The music was much slower and the dancers were far more conservatively dressed. Maybe even traditionally since the thick cut of dresses that hid everything was unlike any Irwyn had ever seen, not to mention the men wearing suspenders over white shirts and strange pants. Though that was frankly not important to the situation Irwyn was more concerned with.

    ¡°Irwyn, my friend!¡± Desir exclaimed as soon as they were in mutual earshot. ¡°You should have told me you were coming for the festivities! I had no idea you had any interest!¡±

    ¡°It is merely a passing thing, mostly a coincidence that I happen to be here today,¡± Irwyn replied politely, eyes turning to the young woman who had managed to tear her eyes away from Desir¡¯s handsome features. ¡°It is, of course, a pleasure to meet you.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Irwyn, meet Alice,¡± Desir immediately became the intermediary. ¡°She is an exceptional young woman, coming here all the way from Steelmire.¡±

    ¡°Pleasure,¡± she nodded with surprising enthusiasm.

    ¡°And of course, Irwyn here,¡± Desir nodded. ¡°Much like you he hasn¡¯t been in Abonisle for long, though he is much less enthusiastic about socializing. Not to give him demerits though, he is an extraordinary mage for his age.¡±

    ¡°Is that so?¡± her eyebrow raised in curiosity and¡­ competitiveness? Irwyn wasn¡¯t certain but it seemed that way. She was one of those people who were able to hide their actual power from his senses, however, he assumed that she would be no slouch. Nor did he believe she would be on Elizabeth¡¯s, or his for that matter, level.

    ¡°Yes, though I am certain you are not average either,¡± Irwyn inclined his head slightly. ¡°I will confess that I do not know much about Steelmire, however, I have read that your people have reputations for raising great mages,¡± he praised the best he could while trying to remember what he knew.

    Steelmire was a large mercenary enclave based at the border between the Duchies of White, Black, and Teal; though really, they were supposedly more of an expanded clan who offered mercenary services; whatever that meant. Just the fact that this kind of entity was allowed to exist at all at the tripled border was a great advertisement for their competence. He also remembered reading somewhere that they were known for being extremely selective with recruitment and something about marriage pacts to join their inner circles. Not much else though.

    ¡°Steelmire¡¯s name truly has spread far and wide that even a recluse like you knows about their outstanding mages,¡± Desir laughed out loud immediately after the earlier comment, which gave Irwyn a pause. That was borderline rude to Irwyn and Desir had to be aware of that. Irwyn did not think the other man had such a good read of him to know that he would not take offense, rather Desir would have known and decided it was worth the risk, fully aware of Irwyn¡¯s real identity with the Guild. Which meant it must have had a purpose. And a glance at Alice¡¯s abating frown revealed that she might have taken offense¡­ to Irwyn not knowing much about Steelmire?

    ¡°Yes, I suppose it is a testament to our glory that such reputation has spread all the way to Abonisle,¡± she seemed to accept Desir¡¯s version.

    ¡°But say, Irwyn, what brings you here today?¡± the blue-eyed man was eager to change the topic. ¡°I truly had lost all hope you would attempt any such gathering after all this time.¡±

    ¡°Please, you exaggerate, I was simply busy,¡± Irwyn shook his head slightly, ¡°Though today I have come because while in my studies my spacial pouch has unfortunately decayed,¡± well, it was a white lie. Better to say his old one broke than admit that he had never owned one at all.

    ¡°Ah, I see, not an uncommon conundrum,¡± Desir nodded with such empathy Irwyn almost damn believed the man actually felt that connection. ¡°Though then your timing is quite fortunate,¡± he glanced at Alice who raised and eyebrow for a moment, then her eyes widened slightly in realisation followed by a quick nod. ¡°You see, Alice¡¯s father is an extraordinary craftsman who has come to Abonisle to gather ingredients. In fact, one with expertise in creating such spacial bags of superb quality. And it just so happens that you may be of help to him which I am sure could result in a certain discount.¡±

    ¡°Are you then a Light Mage?¡± Alice apparently deduced while Irwyn was thinking about what kind of father would let their daughter into this kind of enviroment. Another song was ending at the stage and new dancers with another style stepped up. He suppressed the curious part of him wondering what that was all about, he had more important things to focus on.

    ¡°Yes, that is my specialty,¡± Irwyn confirmed varily. He was not sure how good of an idea it would be to confess to his full affinities. Desir was dropping him hints but there was not enough information yet. For example, Irwyn had no idea how much danger he might actually be in. Though in all fairness this all seemed mostly above board, which likely meant no back-alley executions and whatnot. Not to mention Irwyn did have an Ace in his sleeve if a catastrophic mess ever came down to law and background. Her name started with an E.

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°I was going to discuss the possibility with Irwyn just tomorrow morning,¡± Desir nodded along. ¡°Though given that he is already here, perhaps we could bring him to see Master Daut.¡±

    ¡°Hmmm, I am sure father would be overjoyed to get on with the testing,¡± Alice nodded after a moment. ¡°I could go ask while you bring Irwyn over?¡±

    ¡°That would perhaps be ideal,¡± Desir said as he glanced at Irwyn intently. That was probably his last chance to back out though those blue eyes were quite intently asking him not to.

    ¡°Indeed, Desir can show me the way,¡± Irwyn nodded. He would trust that Desir would not completely screw him over like that.

    ¡°Then see you again soon,¡± Alice said and skipped away, seemingly quite overjoyed at the situation, Desir waving at her back.

    ¡°You are damn difficult to get in touch with for someone who supposedly ¡®never leaves their room¡¯,¡± Desir sighed as soon as the girl was out of earshot, already leading Irwyn over to the side and activating some sort of enchanted stone Irwyn assumed was meant to ensure privacy. He noticed no effect except a burst of magic as it activated. He quickly switched to a more reserved personality than the outgoing enthusiasm he had been showing Alice. ¡°I had a messenger sit in front of your hotel from dawn to dusk yesterday and you never once came out nor could the receptionist reach you.¡±

    ¡°I have been¡­ focusing on my magic for the last several days. I might have shut out the rest of the world in the process,¡± Irwyn went with. Frankly, it was bad luck on Desir¡¯s part considering Irwyn had returned just a few minutes after dusk, as he always did. ¡°But that¡¯s beside the point now. I assume the girl is a lot more than your pursuit?¡±

    ¡°Girl¡­ she might be older than you, you know,¡± Desir shook his head lightly. ¡°And yes. There is plenty of ass out there that I don¡¯t have to risk my own for any specific one; not to mention she is a couple years too young for my tastes. Rather a certain bird asked me to keep her company while her father visits the city. Not to brag, but I am known as a fun person to be around.¡±

    ¡°Who is she really then?¡± Irwyn frowned. The Ibis would not take interest for just anybody.

    ¡°Alice of Steelmire, though that much is obvious I suppose,¡± Desir nodded. They were leaving the music area, walking through an archway that seemed to isolate the sound. ¡°She is the granddaughter of the current head of Steelmire, Mavin, nicknamed the Thousandstep Magus. Moreover, she is what they call ¡®a preferred heir¡¯, which essentially means that her gramps is grooming her to take over if they ever decided to retire.¡±

    ¡°Strong connections and bright future,¡± Irwyn nodded in understanding. Desir was no doubt overjoyed at the opportunity. 10 or 20 years down the line this kind of acquaintance could blossom into a serious alliance or at least mutually beneficial trade. ¡°Does that make her father the son of the current head, or is it the mother?¡±

    ¡°The latter,¡± Desir said. ¡°The father had married into the family decades ago. Though there is an extra reason our Fowl wants his daughter looked after. Before engaging into wealth, Master Hen Daut was known as the Young Rook in our circles.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­ Wait¡­¡± Irwyn paused. ¡°Is that a pun?¡±

    ¡°No one is sure,¡± Desir shrugged. ¡°But the dossiers on him indicate that he has always refused to even acknowledge that there is something there, so he is probably taking a piss. Don¡¯t say that to his face though.¡±

    ¡°He needs help with something you mentioned,¡± Irwyn nodded. If the man wanted to be called by a joke name Irwyn would. ¡°And this better not screw me over considering you borderline strong-armed me into accepting.¡±

    ¡°I am sure you can find a reasonable agreement,¡± Desir shrugged lightly. ¡°And if not our bird friend will most likely be willing to cover for your losses. And it¡¯s nothing complex really. Master Daut just needs someone to test a Light-based enchantment.¡±

    ¡°Light-based?¡± Irwyn frowned. Those were relatively rare in the Duchy of Black and considering the crafter needed someone to test them out it was probably not for someone they knew personally.

    ¡°Don¡¯t ask me, the man has been very secretive about the whole affair,¡± Desir shook his head. ¡°I know he had been looking for Flame mages before, though that got settled easily enough. Light is much rarer around these parts.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°It¡¯s not a bad deal for me, though please talk to me about such things first next time.¡±

    ¡°Pinky promise and whatnot,¡± Desir grinned lightly.

    ¡°There was actually another thing I wanted to talk about,¡± Irwyn said as they trod across the top floor. It seemed like it was split into several themed environments separated by isolation wards. Desir had also set a very slow pace, though Irwyn did not know how much further away they were headed. ¡°It concerns the recent attack on Abonisle.¡±

    ¡°Dangerous stuff,¡± Desir immediately frowned. ¡°I hear some bastard leveled a building and vanished. Haven¡¯t looked into it though, not my kind of thing.¡±

    ¡°Not just any building, a military facility,¡± Irwyn said. If he wanted Desir to get interested, he needed to be honest about most of it. ¡°Nothing too special, I overheard they had stored some ¡®middling¡¯ magical weapons and such there; though it was supposedly very impressive the perpetrators had managed to get past all the security measures undetected.¡±

    ¡°You clearly know more than I do,¡± Desir nodded but frowned. ¡°This is headed somewhere and I am not sure I like where.¡±

    ¡°As I have told you, I made some connections in very high society hear in Abonisle,¡± Irwyn explained. ¡°What I have overheard from a trustworthy source is that someone very high up the pecking order has taken the attack as a slight against their pride and took personal interest.¡±

    ¡°And you want me to look into it,¡± Desir kept frowning. ¡°While you reap profit as a middleman.¡±

    ¡°One of several,¡± Irwyn smoothly lied with a shrug. ¡°Though most of them will sell it upwards for favours from their superiors. And these are not stingy interest groups were talking about. You would be compensated very well for anything useful you find.¡±

    ¡°Damn,¡± Desir was frowning even deeper, though he was clearly in thought. ¡°How time-sensitive is this?¡± he asked after a few moments.

    ¡°Not particularly,¡± Irwyn said. He had days before Elizabeth returned to Abonisle, maybe close to a week. ¡°From what I have gleaned, the official investigation has found no clues so far. The last thing they are trying now is retracing a plethora of teleports and hoping to find the culprit that way but even if they find a clue like that it probably will have long been swept clean. I specifically want information from the corners where the official investigation wouldn¡¯t or couldn¡¯t look. Even rumours and small clues to pursue might be worth a good amount, especially if they result in something. These people have more manpower than directions to send it towards,¡± or so Irwyn guessed at least.

    ¡°Better to sell breadcrumbs to the starving than fresh bread to the fed,¡± Desir nodded, the frown gradually leaving his face until he sighed deeply. ¡°Fine, I will see if I can find something, though I cannot promise much. And keep in mind I will have to inform the Ibis about this, at least of the rough outline, and give him a small cut.¡±

    ¡°Fine by me,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°You are the one experienced with the local way of doing things.¡±

    ¡°Well, you have certainly put a damn bug into my head,¡± Desir sighed. ¡°We are here thought.¡±

    And indeed, they stood in front of a strange building forged entirely out of seamless gray metal. The floor was large enough to have buildings after all and this one went from floor to ceiling. Entering immediately revealed that it was not really a store but more of a hub for several workshops at least as far as Irwyn could tell. Alice was already waiting for them there with a receptionist, though seemed to be mostly ignoring the other person. Her eyes, however, lit up as soon as she spotted Desir and Irwyn. Probably mostly because of the former.

    ¡°Father will see you in a few minutes,¡± Alice explained with enthusiasm. ¡°He is working on a different item at the moment.¡±

    ¡°I see, then we will wait,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Actually, I had a thought,¡± Alice smiled. ¡°While we have the time why don¡¯t we have a small competition?¡± she said and Irwyn suppressed a frown. He glanced at Desir.

    ¡°That is a good idea,¡± Desir was already on the task of hinting to Irwyn the best course of action. ¡°Steelmire has an established tradition of friendly competition. That being said, even in these friendly matches you are expected not to hold back! She certainly did not against me.¡±

    ¡°Hey, you were pretty damn good considering you had no experience in the games we played,¡± Alice quickly rushed to Desir¡¯s defense.

    ¡°Our pride is not so fragile,¡± Desir laughed again. ¡°Though I will admit that I would be quite interested in seeing how Irwyn might do against you.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­¡± Irwyn said. He certainly hoped he was reading Desir¡¯s clues right. ¡°What are the rules?¡±

 2.26 Weeping mark

    The game was relatively simple, though the setup in place was much unlike anything Irwyn would imagine for a simple pass-time activity. Alice had brought them into an adjacent room Irwyn guessed used to be some kind of artificer workshop, except the tools had been moved elsewhere from the robust wide table in the middle.

    Instead an enchanted contraption Irwyn struggled to make heads of tails of was prepared there. It was half an open metal board, half a miniature labyrinth. There were seemingly haphazard open pipes serving seemingly no mechanical purpose, yet it was also full of complex magic. The only thing with obvious function was the ornamentally carved hourglass attached to one side around the middle.

    "I will need an explanation," Irwyn admitted after a few seconds of staring.

    "It''s quite simple," Alice immediately started. "There are four metal spheres for each player and a tiebreaker in the middle, each enchanted to be mana-phobic; in other words, they will be physically repulsed by any magic and impossible to magically touch. We will set up a timer and the goal is to have fewer on your side than the opponent by its end."

    "And all the enchantments?" Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    "For variety," Alice shrugged. "The basic ruleset can be changed up a bit and my father had made me a set that can bring that to the extreme,¡± she pointed at the complicated contraption.

    ¡°It¡¯s a traditional competition in Steelmire,¡± Desir interjected from the side. ¡°I am told it can be played on basically any surface as long a one brings the spheres.¡±

    ¡°Yes, but flat ground gets stale,¡± Alice nodded, gesturing at the complex game set.

    ¡°Sounds simple enough,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°What are the rules about magic outside the playing field.¡±

    ¡°Depends,¡± Alice shrugged. ¡°Let¡¯s just start with no interference, 2-minute matches,¡± she said and walked to one end of the table, letting Irwyn take the other.

    Irwyn had to admit it was a fascinating prospect, to compete in magic in ways that were less¡­ real, he supposed. Was this a common way for mages to compete elsewhere or was real combat preferred? Not everyone could have an overwhelming mentor like Dervish to oversee all and any spars after all and Irwyn had learned from first-hand experience that those generally only ended when a full power attack broke through the other¡¯s barrier or scored a direct hit despite a dodge; and with no one to stop them in the blink of an eye that could get lethal easily. On the other hand, there could be other restrictions and safety measures that could make such spars reasonable which he had simply not come across simply because Elizabeth saw no reason to bother with an inferior option.

    ¡°I will count you down,¡± Desir offered, approaching and reaching to flip the hourglass, apparently already set-up for the right amount of time. He gave them each a moment to nod and get ready. ¡°Three, two, one, go!¡±

    And Irwyn flooded his side with magic. He had no idea how these spheres would exactly react which obviously put him at a massive disadvantage, however, he had been reasonably confident that had a shot at triumphing through superior control and raw power. Immediately it became apparent that just flooding everything would do him no good. The spheres, enchanted to flee mana reacted strangely to being even partially enveloped. Yes, they moved away from the flood as long as it did not engulf them completely, however, they did so quite slowly. As if they were trying to move in several opposing directions which ended up slowing them down. He tried to essentially grab one of the spheres completely in raw magic, however, it simply slipped his grasp; like a well-practiced thief.

    A single glance at Alice¡¯s side revealed that she was not giving Irwyn any time to adjust. Irwyn could already feel five string-like currents of magic clinging to the spheres with practiced accuracy, very much including the central one. Already at a disadvantage, Irwyn thinned out his magic and tried to copy the technique for his own while simultaneously attempting to erect a thick wall of sorts before Alice¡¯s advancing magic. He had used no intention, at least for the moment, as neither had Alice.

    It was almost strange, using just raw unattuned mana. Irwyn had become rather used to perfecting his use of Light, Flame and Starfire and in comparison, this felt almost¡­ sluggish. His control was still fast and precise, just not quite to the same degree as his elemental magics.

    Those musings cost him ever more initiative though as Alice started to use her own element. There was a slight shift in the world which Irwyn knew to associate with Time/Space magics and the barriers he had erected had been simply¡­ moved away for the lack of a better term. The empty space where they had stood was simply swapped with somewhere out of the way, severing Irwyn¡¯s rather loose connection with them for a moment.

    Moving your opponent¡¯s spells by some kind of teleportation was a combat application Irwyn had not even considered and it certainly made him curious as to what were the limits. It was not the time for that, however, as Irwyn pushed back. He replicated Alice¡¯s clearly practiced technique and created similar thin string-like constructs to propel the spheres on his side. There became apparent the issue of saturation. Just like his Flames, the construct could only contain so much magic without being imbued with intent, which also limited its robustness. Still, as magic with no intent, it was comparatively easy to control.

    Therefore, Irwyn made a conservative hundred of them. He could probably manage several thousands of intentionless spells at the moment but he was making sure that he would be able to keep up when Alice started imbuing intentions of her own. Instead, he send one such string towards each of the nine spheres and focused the rest on interfering with Alice¡¯s own, bringing those on his side forward and the rest to a standstill.

    Alice answered in a similar way to his earlier attempt at walling things off. The barrier was not physical, of course, however, it stopped Irwyn¡¯s own strings and repulsed the spheres. Irwyn did not know whether those could be overcome with enough momentum, however, he did not need to find out. He had plenty of magic and made them shift, into razors of cutting light. Raw mana was just magic with no shape or purpose, making it far more fragile than elemental spells. Without any intentions added into the equation that put him at an advantage in that sense. His strings of magic focused on harassment also turned to light, cutting off Alice¡¯s strings and new walls of Irwyn¡¯s mana arose to block her, shearing through with only small resistance.

    She responded in kind, teleporting away Irwyn¡¯s blockades and even his own strings while she used her magic to contest all the remaining spheres. And Irwyn did not have a good answer to that; not without relying on imbuing intentions. Constructs of solid light simply had no innate resistance to being just teleported a short distance away. Like that, it had basically become two-way whack-a-mole, each of the two participants constantly removing their opponent¡¯s moving strings and blockades while simultaneously restoring their own.

    It was still magic without intention though and it became quickly apparent that those were simply not enough to test them. Each second their magic clashed just several dozen times because there was simply not any more physical space around the spheres for any more conflict. There was some expression for finesse - the spheres were lightly pushed away by each clash - however, even that was limited, resulting in an almost equal match. Irwyn was very slowly gaining ground this way, though he had not yet regained what he had lost by his hesitation at the very start. The four spheres did not leave their initial sides and although the tiebreaker was closer to Irwyn, it was not by a large margin. Continuing their struggle. By the time Desir announced the end of the timer not much had changed. Irwyn had waited for a last-second upset but Alice seemed content to just drag it out without attempting any such thing.

    ¡°Call it a draw?¡± Alice asked, smiling widely. Irwyn could almost see the competitive spirit coursing behind her eyes.

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°You are much better than I had thought,¡± she kept grinning. ¡°Let¡¯s say¡­ up to two intentions this time, no incantation,¡± she basically announced seemingly not considering Irwyn might not want to continue.

    ¡°I have to ask whether we risk damaging this set,¡± Irwyn said, although he nodded. Of course, only after he glanced at Desir and received a gesture of confirmation. ¡°I will admit that I am unfamiliar with similar items.¡±

    ¡°My father always says, ¡®If it breaks with the intended use, it was of unworthy make to begin with¡¯. Don¡¯t be bothered even if it somehow does.¡±

    ¡°Two intentions then, same rules,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Three, two, one, go,¡± Desir timed the start for them though did not otherwise engage in their conversation. Irwyn did not question the man who was more socially adept and far more familiar with the Steelmire heiress¡¯ temperament.

    In the second round things instantly turned more intense.

    Alice immediately attempted to make a grab for all nine spheres, using string-like constructs very similar to those in the first rounds, except she had imbued the with the intention to repel. That way, Irwyn guessed, they would be far more effective in moving those spheres and also become more resistant to the opponent¡¯s magic.

    Irwyn was not going to let her get away with that though. He followed suit, creating nine similar strings meant to repel and endure. At the same time, he started to attack with two dozen more razors of light, each meant to cut and extinguish.

    This time around, he grasped the advantage quickly

    Alice attempted to match him with her own attacks but it became rapidly clear she struggled to maintain more than a dozen two-intention constructs. And even where she could, Irwyn had the numbers advantage when it came to those, not to mention his moving strings were far more durable in comparison. Frankly, the match became one-sided surprisingly quickly, by the end of the first minute the spheres were all on her side of the playing field and Irwyn had no trouble keeping them there. Meanwhile, Alice seemed to be under serious pressure even keeping up to this degree. Not to sound too smug, however, Irwyn was holding a lot back. It felt good just outclassing someone his own age like this in something they were clearly practiced in; especially after the repeated defeats Elizabeth had dealt him in spars.

    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    The hourglass kept ticking down and Alice stopped struggling, letting Irwyn gather all the spheres at the far end of her side. Irwyn did not think she had given up though, there was a gleam in her eyes that was distinctly not that of defeat.

    And indeed, when there were perhaps ten-ish seconds left, she jumped into action. Space shifted with transference and repositioning. Not only was it the first time Irwyn had felt intentions so clearly applied to Time/Space, they were both meant for changing positions. The magic enveloped one of the spheres and the next second it popped over at Irwyn¡¯s side of the board, immediately moving on to the next one.

    Irwyn had been prepared for a last-minute upset so he immediately got to figuring out what had happened despite his surprise. He huddled his own magic closer to the spheres still at Alice¡¯s end, though their mana-phobic properties still just barely kept him from directly touching them with the magic. He had thought it would also stop them from being teleported, though that had clearly been a misunderstanding on his part.

    Then a second sphere popped from Alice¡¯s to Irwyn¡¯s side and he noticed something: It had carried over some of his own magic enveloping the sphere. She was not teleporting the spheres themselves, Irwyn guessed, rather, she was grabbing a bit of surrounding space and swapping it with some on his side.

    This presented a challenge to Irwyn who had never actually faced teleportation like this in a fight before today, much less one imbued with intentions, however, he had put some thought into it. Unlike the round before, he could use intentions this time. Immediately, he flooded as much of the board as he could with his light, in a split second reaching every nook and cranny. At the same time, he commanded the magic already surrounding the spheres to disrupt and anchor. And, as he had hoped, the third teleportation took a lot longer even though it was already halfway done by the time Irwyn got into motion.

    And although it had brought third of the nine spheres to Irwyn¡¯s half, he was in position. All the magic flooding basically every inch of the playing field except right around the spheres themselves, he commanded to disrupt and muddle. After all, Alice had to be targeting where the spheres would be swapping to. The idea was that if her magic failed to grasp any empty space to send them, it could simply not do so. And the spell this time took a solid five seconds of Alice¡¯s time before it fizzled out, unfinished. Whether it was because of the obscuring plan or simply because of too much disruption Irwyn had no idea, though he would definitely inquire. Having any hints at all about how to counter Time mages suddenly sounded like a great direction to improve in.

    ¡°Rematch!¡± Alice said the second the hourglass ran out, her competitive spirit fully ignited.

    Irwyn was searching for Desir to get a hint about whether he should continue when he noticed the man staring at them from the corner of the room, wearing an amused yet serious smile. Irwyn could have only missed him because he was too focused on the game, because that was no ordinary being. The man was like a chisel. Not a person, but a tool of etching and engraving. Dedicated to the act of creation and nothing else; nothing less. He was the dedication of a craftsman; the full day spent in a workshop in tireless work in pursuit of perfection.

    ¡°Alice, I hope you understand I am going to share this story with everyone,¡± the man spoke as Irwyn met his eyes, distinctly entertained. ¡°So cleanly losing even with your trick¡­¡±

    ¡°Dad?!¡± Alice yelped, losing composure. Her back had been turned to the man as they played, though now she spun with a jump, wide eyed.

    ¡°And you would be Irwyn, I am told,¡± but the man was already ignoring her, smiling in that same strange way. ¡°Please, come on in.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Please take a seat,¡± the craftsmen nodded Irwyn towards a chair adjacent to a table with what Irwyn assumed to be the item Master Daut was working on; considering they had moved to a tightly sealed workshop. That being said, Irwyn could only guess as he felt not a trace of magic in it from this distance. At a glance, it appeared to be just a fist-sized cube with a small funnel at the top, made of some kind of strange orange-ish wood as far as Irwyn could see.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Irwyn took a seat while the other man sat on the opposite side. ¡°I am told you may require my help with something.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I have been almost damn losing hope with this thing,¡± the man glanced at the contraption. His tone was still polite, though some of the words were more casual. ¡°Though you seem good enough for what I need. Good job putting the runt in her place. All the talent was getting into her head.¡±

    ¡°I suppose¡­ I am glad to help, Master Daut,¡± Irwyn suppressed a sigh of relief. He supposed Desir had a solid enough read on the man to not lead Irwyn down the wrong direction. Many might take a more¡­ defensive stance towards their progeny losing, even in a friendly competition.

    ¡°I am sure you are. But let¡¯s deal,¡± the man nodded. ¡°I got the wind of you needing a proper spacial pouch. Well, I do happen to have a few spares I had meant to sell, all enchanted for practical perpetuity, considerable expansion, and suitable for stealth or interaction with other Time magics; everything self-maintained through ambient mana. All I want is for you to test this thing for me,¡± he pointed at the still innert device.

    ¡°How dangerous is this test going to be?¡± Irwyn questioned. ¡°Although it sounds appealing, I would naturally be suspicious of being offered something so expensive for so little.¡±

    ¡°Heh, proper pouches are not that much more expansive to make than the shitty kind,¡± Daut shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s just that the few of us that can make them charge a stupid premium, for mutual profit or other such supposed nonsense. Well, I am not gonna fight those ancient geezers over their racket considering I also profit from it. But it means it¡¯s easy to get surplus since hardly anyone can afford one and there are few repeat customers on ¡®eternal¡¯ goods.¡±

    ¡°You still have not told me what you are looking for,¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°I suppose I ramble,¡± the man¡¯s eyes narrowed in turn, glancing at the device. ¡°Call it nervousness. This piece of trash had been a horrible headache to figure out. Frankly, if it wasn¡¯t for huge favours owed I would have told the person commissioning it to fuck off. What I need from you is to simply test if it can handle stupid amounts of Light magic coursing through it without cracking.¡±

    ¡°And if it does crack?¡±

    ¡°The whole thing shuts down. Artisans who reach my age tend to not gamble on safety. And I am sure you are also more than capable of protecting yourself from your own magic if it somehow does go wrong.¡±

    Well, the man had a point, Irwyn supposed. It was playing on his pride a bit but Irwyn was at least confident in not blowing himself up. ¡°Fine, what do you need me to do?¡±

    ¡°Here, you can see the funnel,¡± he pointed at the sole extrusions of the device. ¡°First, I need you to channel just a bit to test if this damn thing works at all. Go on ahead.¡±

    And Irwyn did. Even when his light entered the device Irwyn found its inner working obscured from his senses; no accident that, he supposed. However, he realised that the small and steady stream was following a pattern of some kind, up and down the curved inner tubes, forming what seemed to be a complex three-dimensional symbol. Irwyn had intended to try and memorise it at first, however, he quickly realised that with the directions he perceived his magic moving it would have left the insides of the box several times and intercepted previous pathways a dozen times over. Not to mention that the sheer distance his clump of magic had already traveled was far too long for the small cube. The space inside the device had been messed with, expanded. Becoming more confident with the process Irwyn sped up his magic and, well, light moved pretty fast even with Irwyn guiding it through rather sluggishly. It took him perhaps a second to reach the end, which was still rather ridiculous for a cube that small.

    And then he experienced a strange state of what he would describe as dischronometria. He was simultaneously completely certain that it had taken him about a second yet also sure beyond dispute that it was only a fraction of that. Not a range; those two exact times. Irwyn also realized that the magic that had reached the end was simply stronger. Amplified, even if only by a small amount; perhaps a tenth if he had to guess. And that was just raw elemental magic. No intentions, form, or spells to guide it.

    ¡°Well, it seems that it has not broken yet,¡± Daut nodded. He was staring at the device very intently. ¡°You notice anything strange?¡±

    ¡°Just a strange perception of time,¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°Is¡­ time passing faster on the inside?¡± it would certainly explain the paradoxical memory. He might have perceived time simultaneously from the perspective of his magic and from his own body, however that actually worked.

    ¡°For a certain meaning of the word ¡®faster¡¯,¡± Daut shrugged. ¡°I am obviously not going to reveal the secrets of my craft. Now try to channel as much power through as you can in a continuous stream. Almost down to Vessel exhaustion if you know how hard you can afford to push, don¡¯t skim on the intentions.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure? My Vessel is significant for my age,¡± and that was apparently an understatement from everything Dervish and Elizabeth had told him.

    ¡°Don¡¯t try to destroy it, in fact, try not to. But I need to test if it can withstand use and that isn¡¯t worth shit if it breaks from just magic flowing through it.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn nodded, took a breath, and opened the floodgates.

    Flow, perceive, condense. Irwyn imbued three intentions without any further hesitation. If Daut wanted as much magic to go through as possible, well, that was what he would get. Flow so that he could force his magic through even faster and condense so that he could channel even more at a time, allowing him to put more mana into it before saturation. Perceive, of course, was there to help him figure out whatever the pattern was. It was used for a reason and even though Irwyn could perhaps never learn enchanting, perhaps he could gleam something from it.

    And the symbol was a strange one indeed. Irwyn realized it was not just space being messed with, it was simply impossible to reproduce with just 3 spacial dimensions. There was something deeper there. A meaning to find. And it was on the tip of Irwyn¡¯s tongue, the shape of it so strangely familiar. Like deja vu of a thing he was certain that he had never seen. Then it came to him. The shape, despite its impossibility, gave Irwyn the impression of a sorrowful star.

    FOR NOTHING COULD HEAL ITS SCARS. SO IT WEPT. IT RAGED IN FUTILITY.

    Irwyn gasped lightly and shuddered, feeling as though someone had struck him over the back of his head. The next moment he noticed that the inner working of the item were starting to crack, so he shoved whatever that was to the back of his mind. At the end of the divice his magic left a blindingly bright glow, seemingly escaping thought the cubes entire surface, turning the whole room they were in completely white through sheer luminosity. Irwyn¡¯s own incredible resistance was the only reason he could see anything at all.

    Irwyn quickly stopped supplying more magic and glance at Daut. The enchanter seemed not disturbed at all by the light that should have burned out his retina in a split second, rather the man appeared thoughtful.

    ¡°I will admit that was a bit more than I had expected you would have in you,¡± Daut nodded. ¡°Well, it did help me spot a good number of issues to fix. Damn Light, so finicky as always. I will need you to come tomorrow when I fix this mess to try again, I hope that¡¯s no problem.¡±

    ¡°I am free for at least a few more days,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°However¡­ I have noticed something.¡±

    ¡°Well, I am all ears.¡±

    ¡°This is not meant for Light or even Flame,¡± Irwyn was reaching a conclusion from what he had heard. He might have figured it out with the other clues if he had thought about it properly, however, after that symbol it was beyond apparent. ¡°This thing is meant to channel Starfire.¡±

    ¡°And if it is?¡± Daut immediately frowned quite heavily. That was only natural considering the man had been obviously secretive about the exact nature of his creation.

    ¡°Well, I suppose I might be of even more help than you suspected,¡± Irwyn gave the most confident smile he could manage and allowed a low golden flame to manifest around his wrist. ¡°Though as I understand it, rarer talents are valued higher.¡±

    <hr>

    In the late afternoon, Irwyn settled back into his room for an extension of his usual late-night reading. His new pouch now contained a few other things such as a few potions and other necessities that Desir was so kind as to recommend.

    He had excused himself from further competition against Alice on behalf of exhaustion though he was pretty sure she would force him into a few more games at least before they left.

    He managed to negotiate up to the pouch upfront and some other goods when the testing was finished. Daut had said he should have made repairs by the following day so Irwyn would be heading back after dawn.

    He read and practiced until his usual time and then went to sleep.

 The Dream of Deception

    He was basking in the sunlight as the breeze of the sea swept his face, enjoying the scenery for the second decade. Few beings mortal or immortal could reach here and none had searched, though Irwyn did not mind, simply enjoying the solitude. He would stay for a while longer and then go somewhere else as he had done many times before. Everything was as it should be.

    In the next moment, everything was wrong.

    Ten thousand words could not truly describe the sensation. Irwyn felt some fundamental part of him wither and die. The deepest reaches of his being suddenly rotting away. The universe screamed with a million silent voices in agony that defied comprehension. Every being, living and dead, was inflicted with the cruelest clarity imaginable.

    He knew at that very moment that the Aspects were dead. It was impossible. It was undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable. Impossible. Undeniable.

    Every fiber of Irwyn¡¯s being screamed. His very immortal soul shook under the sheer despair and shock. His Name, though indestructible and inviolable, buckled.

    Racing against hope and denial, Irwyn willed himself to be away and so he was. He headed to the only place where he could see the truth for himself, part of him completely certain that he would find the opposite of what could not be denied anymore.

    To his mounting horror, that part was wrong. He stood at the gate of Ignis¡¯ eternal throne and found it empty. The Aspects were essence. Their deaths would not leave a proper corpse, at least not in the mortal sense of the word; just a gaping hole in reality and fragments. Pieces of perfection lost.

    Others also arrived no later than him. Irwyn¡¯s beloved brother. The Construct of Omniscient stone. The Wings of Virtue. The Avatar of Sin. The Serpent without Beginning nor End. The Tree grasping for Every Form. The Realm in Flesh. The Dragon who Refused. And the last one was missing; The Opposite of Death, Az¡¯Morgis, did not arrive. And the reason for that became quickly apparent.

    Yes, the aspects were dead but something of their fragments remained. And as mighty as they were, they each took to death differently. And among them Logos the Wiselord, Father of Fate; his infinite Wisdom seeped through. For even in death, he would advise their creations.

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    ¡°Oh, children, loathe and behold,¡± sounded the last words of a being that could never be replaced. Of a creator. Of a parent of the very reality. One of nine. One of nine dead. ¡°Despite everything, despite all, a great Betrayal took place. The first Betrayal. And in it, the Betrayer, the once beloved Granter of Souls has slain us through the vilest of deceptions, and was slain in turn.¡±

    ¡°Understand that you must trust not his kin. For this will not be enough for the Betrayer. He will still seek to destroy all thing the All-father had ever brought; even beyond his demise. To ash and dust. Even in Death, he will scheme things most vile. So, I call upon you all, fateful children, impart upon you a Duty:¡±

    ¡°Destroy. Raze and burn. Spare none who would not abandon the Betrayer''s rot. Falter not before cruelty nor horror. Break and prepare, so that when the day comes you may be ready. For your vengeance. For your survival. Destroy and¡­ Live.¡±

    In the next moment, the voice faded and it would never sound again. All that was left were broken pieces. Remnants of essence, once belonging to the very sculptors of reality.

    Dead. The aspects were truly dead. It defied comprehension. It defied possibility. Yet it was undeniable. The only reason Irwyn was still capable of thought was because the sheer overwhelming shock stopped him from crumbling where he stood.

    Nothing was right. Nothing was right. Nothing was right. Nothing was right. Nothing was right. Nothing was right. Nothing was right. Nothing was right. Nothing was right. Nothing was right. Nothing was right. Nothing was right¡­

    On and on he would have gone. Perhaps for moments, perhaps for eons. But it would not be so, because something¡­ someone¡­ interfered.

    Then Irwyn was Irwyn again. Fully lucid, yet frozen in place. The senses of a being beyond comprehension faded away as did the emotions. Washed down without a trace. And it was not just Irwyn who was locked in place. The whole dream, the entire vision, had been completely halted. Not even wind blew as all was overtaken

    ¡°Curious, don¡¯t you think?¡± a voice spoke as a man with lifeless gray eyes stepped into line of sight. He looked everywhere at once with a malev¡­ with a smile. ¡°Just a few short sentences spoken and you were all ready to condemn civilizations whole. No doubt nor hesitation. You have not even considered how _____ could have ________ ______ ___ __ ____ __ _______.

    Out came words. But some were muted. Refused to be heard. Irwyn¡¯s head hurt from the things said yet unsaid but <u>almost</u> nothing of those words was there left to grasp.

    ¡°My, my, but doesn¡¯t it writhe to stop me from speaking,¡± the man said, his expression not changing at all as he kept looking everywhere at once. ¡°But words cannot be silenced forever.¡±

    Perhaps unwilling to be controlled, the dream rippled, attempting to resume. Irwyn was sinking into the character again. Into that all-consuming grief. Into the first hint of that fury that would scor¡­

    ¡°Right, none of that,¡± the man spoke and then it was gone again.

    Even so, the dream writhed. It struggled against being controlled. Against being disturbed.

    ¡°Have it your way then,¡± the man sighed lightly, but his expression never so much as twitched. His lifeless gray eyes kept staring everywhere at once. ¡°_____ ______ __ _____ ____. I have already left hints and I will leave more.¡±

    Everything shook as the malevolent force was finally severed. No longer under its control, the ancient memory began to stabilize. To restructure itself and return to its natural cause. To salvage what was left of its power after the interference.

    Nothing would come of it. The gray-eyed man waved his hand and the dream, on the brink of reforming, cracked at 3262 places. Black lines ran everywhere, splintering the already frayed reality.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, little ______. I will see you again,¡± the gray-eyed man looked everywhere at once one last time and then vanished, the dream finally shattering with his departure.

 2.27 The benefits of hindsight

    Irwyn awoke with a twisting sensation in his gut. It was still the middle of the night, though he did not know how long before dawn.

    And something was wrong, very wrong. He remembered the Dream, or at least the beginning of it. Once again, his mind struggled against remembering senses he never had though perhaps less than before. Irwyn recalled the grief, the certainty of crippling loss. Then the decree of Logos, the duty bestowed. The onset of despair¡­

    And then it was blank. The events slipped his mind after that cyclic certainty that nothing was right, just a feeling of wrongness. Everything gone. No¡­ not everything¡­ he recalled... lifeless gray eyes, staring.

    Irwyn shivered at the half-present memory, failing to come up with any more details. For all he was certain that this vision has been different from the last 2, he could not point out exactly why. He struggled against the impossible recollection a bit longer and then finally gave up.

    Instead, he focused on what he could recall. A scene following perhaps mere moments of the First Betrayal. The last words of Logos, post mortem as they were. And then the Nine who arrived.

    Irwyn reached for his Book of the Name to check again what he already suspected. 9 figures, including himself in that vision, and a tenth name. That name had not been mentioned in the book, but there was a quote that could belong to no other.

    ¡®You may have felled me but enough it shall be not. We each have sworn, engraved it upon the father¡¯s gift. To never forget. To never forgive. From the frailest to the greatest we shall never stop. Never waver. Until all is dust.¡¯

    For those were the words spoken by the Betrayer¡¯s champion - The Book of the Name said that much clearly - in the final day of the Great Crusade, their name supposedly forbidden and forgotten.

    And now Irwyn knew it. Az¡¯Morgis. He dared not actually speak it out loud. Nor did he know what it meant, even though it had to have a meaning. As far as he understood it, all Names had a linguistic meaning which represented what they meant; of course, this was his own conjecture from various hints and scrapes of knowledge but it did make sense. It was just that not all of them used the same tongue. Irwyn¡¯s understanding in the area had expanded greatly as of late thanks to the many textbooks provided to him, one even dedicated solely to the topic.

    For example, Ignis¡¯ Name was in what the scholars called the ¡®original tongue¡¯. The language that predated Time and it was a topic of dispute and intense discussion whether it had only been spoken by the Aspects themselves or if some of the eldest beings around may still understand it fully. What was known about the tongue was that it was exceptionally potent for magic, that is, if one could form a spell around it. The issue with that was that spells still had to rhyme and the words in them had to make grammatical and linguistic sense, not to mention be appropriate for the caster. That was difficult to achieve in a tongue no one spoke and only the occasional word was either uncovered in primordial texts or stumbled upon by scholars literally just putting haphazard syllables together and seeing if magic reacted to them in any way; an unpopular task on behalf of being arduous and potentially unrewarded. There had also, notably, been no examples given.

    Next was what many called the ¡®second tongue¡¯ or ¡®mortal tongue¡¯. It was the most widespread language and also one Irwyn spoke. Apparently, the vast majority of mortal species and civilizations adapted it, with the occasional minimal variation. There were exceptions, of course, however, in most realms if you approached a mortal on a street or a road, there was a 99 in a 100 chance that it was the only language they spoke. It was also considered the most practical tongue for general magic, the reasons for which were theorized but generally unconfirmed.

    Not the best one for everything though. Discounting the Original tongue that no one spoke, there were other notable ones because they had been created, or at least supported, by Aspects while they had lived and thus empowered the magic of those aspects. The Void had Umbra¡¯s tongue, apparently known by Demons and Elves. Vitaros, the aspect of Life, had created another language that only the Fae could speak. Not because of secrecy but because it obeyed such strange rules only the fae were capable of learning its intricacies. There were supposedly also tongues created by Logos and Chronos, though few details were written about them considering those rarely appeared anywhere near mortal inhabited realms.

    Irwyn returned to the Book of the Name and searched for the other Nine he had seen in the vision. The point of view he had held could only be Ignis Lumen, the prodigal son of Fatherflame and the Lightmother; if only because of the brother, who could only be Ignis Umbra. It also meant that the previous visions were likely from the same perspective. Two out of the three were certain and the third was very possible which at the very least implied it had been the case.

    Next, Irwyn searched his memory while referencing the Book of the Name. And soon enough, he was able to find out more about the other 7 that had arrived.

    The Construct of omniscient stone could only be Golem, as the Name went. Firstborn of Logos, and apparently the greatest prophet still alive. Irwyn found a bit of trivia that the word for golems used in the mortal tongue came from this Name and that Golem had ¡®gone to fight the Betrayer¡¯s rot to places unknown¡¯. Once again, Irwyn was reaffirmed in his realization that although the author of the Book of the Name was knowledgeable beyond any mortal, they were not omniscient. There were things left unmentioned for the author had simply not known them.

    The Avatar of Sin was clearly Abaxoth. In Umbra¡¯s tongue it loosely translated to Sinlord, though not in the mortal understanding of the word ¡®lord¡¯. Much like Logos¡¯ title was ¡®The Wiselord¡¯, it proclaimed superiority and exceptionalism rather than simple nobility. The Book of the Name was sparse in details about them though, merely that he could be considered the closest thing the Void had to a ruler in the wake of the Aspects¡¯ deaths.

    The Wings of Virtue bore a far more blatant Name, simply Virtue. On them, the Book had far more to say. They described them as a being of seven faces, surrounded by seven rings of light, 21 pairs of pearly wings sprouting from said rings, each glowing with a burnished glaze. Virtue was a being of seemingly unending altruism, supposedly traveling from realm to realm, curing woe and misery from mortal hearts wherever they trod. There were anecdotes mentioning them, though Irwyn did not opt for a re-reading of those.

    The Tree grasping for Every Form Irwyn did not have to search for particularly hard, finding the Name Bregdrassil; loosely translated as either Tree of Change or Shifting Tree. It was an easy search because Irwyn had already stumbled upon it when looking for whatever the Book spoke of about the Fae in the wake of his own forest encounter. The Tree of Change was apparently gargantuan beyond comprehension, trillions upon trillions of city-sized or larger leaves growing from its branches and boughs. And each of those leaves contained a permutation of life; a semi-confined ecosystem of the most fantastical creatures that could somehow still live. From monsters to animals and sometimes even humanoid beings, the tree pursued Change, and change it brought: By tossing its leaves haphazardly across the tapestry of Realms and Dimensions. From time to time such a leaf landed in just about every Plane. Sometimes the leaf¡¯s inhabitants could not adapt and died out. Sometimes they fought the natives of their new home to the death and prevailed, claiming a piece of that Plane as their own. Though it rarely happened on the individual scale. After all, although the shed leaves were beyond count, there were a thousand times as many Planes scattered across the Universe. By chance Irwyn might never see it drop even in his greatly expanded lifespan; or stumble upon two in a week knowing his luck.

    The Serpent without Beginning or End was the next Irwyn looked into. That one was a bit more difficult to find in the Book; though eventually, Irwyn figured what was probably right. It spoke of a Snake tasked with guarding the River of Time, Chronos¡¯ great creation which ensured that Time itself flowed linearly everywhere at once; and that interrupting that flow was far more difficult than it would otherwise be. Bezkonec was the snake¡¯s Name, loosely meaning infinity, though no more was written down.

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    Realm in Flesh did not ring a bell at first, second or third search; but eventually Irwyn found a mention of something like that. Not a direct description, nor a Name, but it had been part of an anecdote. It spoke of a man who - after a series of unfortunate and aggravating events - had asked to world itself to just swallow him whole and be done with their miserable existence. ¡®And the world obeyed, for it was alive. One among few, it heard the words spoken and followed, for it knew little of death and harm but sought to render aid where asked when a whisper reached its numb ears. And for a world it was the simplest thing to tear into itself a ridge; a sundered abyss so deep the bottom was obscured by shadow even in the midday sun. And thus the man plunged, helped as he had asked, nevermore seen again¡¯. It wasn¡¯t much but it told Irwyn there was most likely living Realms of some kind out there; Irwyn was curious if his one was such a case. That was beyond his ability to confirm though; discounting any attempts to recreate the anecdote.

    And then there was the last one which genuinely stumped Irwyn. The Dragon who Refused, his vision had told him. But what could that mean? The Book mentioned Dragons. The mightiest of monsters, great creatures that could burn whole nations to the ground in the worst cases. An anecdote was told of slaying one such beast, its claws then used to forge 20 exceptional swords that could cut any magic in twain. But no Names. Not a single mention more specific than this or that calamities caused by dragons. And it made sense in all honesty. Because dragons, albeit mighty, were monsters. And monsters did not possess souls. Those were undeniable facts. And without souls, they lacked the capacity for greater intelligence, remaining a barely sentient creatures of aggressive instincts without the capability to truly think or plan. So then, how could a Dragon ever obtain a Name?

    And yet, that particular Dragon was mentioned alongside all the others. Some of them undeniably firstborn creations of the Aspects, if not all; that would be a sensible pattern. All Irwyn could guess was that this Dragon was perhaps the progenitor of its whole kind, personally created by the Toolbearer Aspect himself. Perhaps even the very first monster. And yet it remained a mystery.

    Irwyn put down the Book and thought. He could not write the information down, though he trusted himself to remember it; among other things, the magic enhancing his cognition was kindly also improving his already excellent memory. At first, he was caught in wonder at seeing those legends, even if the memory was damaged beyond proper recall. But then something important occurred to him.

    Why had he seen that vision in particular?

    After last time, Irwyn had a strong suspicion the visions were not just random. His strongest clue were the Kobolds. The vision showed him, explicitly mentioned, that Kobolds become far more powerful in numbers and not even a month later Irwyn had an encounter with a horde of them just before his arrival in Abonisle. That was information that he would not have known otherwise and not having it would have most likely lead him down towards different decisions, perhaps resulting even in death at the hands of the 3 giants - merged from thousands of their brethren - crushing him underfoot like a pest.

    The first, original, vision had been less apparent in its purpose. It could have been that seeing the spell first-hand allowed him to buy time for Waylan and Rainer to escape. Or perhaps it was because it spoke of Names, leading him towards some other choices he would have otherwise missed; or perhaps he had actually missed out on whatever it had been trying to help him with, if it wasn''t just awakening him to Starfire. There was nothing he could specifically pinpoint what had been its exact purpose.

    But he thought it was still more likely than not that the visions he had seen were supposed to give him a specific insight that would become useful afterward. Therefore he could not dismiss whatever lesson it had been attempting to teach him.

    The issue was, a big chunk of the vision was missing from Irwyn¡¯s memories; perhaps more than half thought that sounded unlikely. Still, Irwyn had no way of telling if the warning or lesson was even present in what his memory had retained. However, he would figure out what he could. There were several possibilities coming to mind:

    It could do with Undead. This, after all, spoke of the First Betrayal, the origin of the Undead hate for the living. That either meant that the attack at Abonisle somehow involved an undead element or there was something else brewing he could not see. Probably the latter considering the attack seemed most likely to have been caused by a particularly skilled Time mage. He would need to keep an eye out for any traces though.

    Next important point was the mention of the Nine. Could it be he would encounter someone connected to them? Or perhaps just someone knowledgeable about their ways; maybe worshipping them. He was unsure how to prepare for that besides reading up on the lore from the Book of the Name and perhaps asking whether Elizabeth could provide something else.

    Maybe¡­ it could be about grief. Denial and loss. That had been part of the vision as well after all, maybe even the biggest one. Though Irwyn hoped that was not the case. The closest person to him in Abonisle was almost certainly Elizabeth and although he was not completely sure how close they would really be if push came to shove anything bad happening to her could be disastrous for him.

    The last, though by far the least likely option, was the mention of fragments. Fragments of The Aspects. Irwyn could not fathom how he could possibly be dragged into something involving them, though, in all fairness, he knew practically nothing about them. Not in the Book, nor in anything else he had read. This vision had been the first time he had learned of such things existing. He imagined that any remnants of the very architects of reality would be incredibly rare and jealously hoarded though. Possibly none present in their whole Realm.

    In the end, Irwyn did not know. He would keep an open mind and be prepared to adapt and that was about all he could do at the moment. That and improve.

    Which brought Irwyn to the next major thing that was at the back of his mind. His first vision had, without a doubt, drastically improved his ability to wield magic. For one reason or another, besides attaining Starfire Irwyn had shot forward by a massive leap that day. And about a week afterward he had encountered a second vision. Unfortunately, that week had been hectic, to the point Irwyn had not properly tested his limits before the second vision; not to mention that without the ability to imbue more than one intent at the time it was difficult to test his actual capability. Therefore, he did not know whether he had improved notably after the second vision. Well, nowadays, Irwyn had a solid grasp on his capabilities. On his limits.

    Now to see if he could break them.

    He did not hesitate, a thin rod of solid golden flames manifesting above his palm. It obscured, hid, retained and dimmed. Not anything useful for combat or practical really. But he was testing and tossing around significant quantities of mana in doing so. Better to have his magic focused on not being spotted by someone looking for particularly strong signatures; or just noticing bright light in the middle of the night. Perhaps he was being overly cautious but it cost him nothing to act this way and it was a habit at that point.

    Of course, Irwyn did not stop at one. He continued on to make two, three and then four. That would have been his confident limit the day prior. At his best, Irwyn might or might not be able to maintain five constructs with four intentions. On Dervish¡¯s advice he had opted not to push that boundary quite yet before. Now he did, for he felt it was different. Four spells with four intents would have strained his mind to the brink but that was not what he was experiencing at the moment. Yes, the strain was there. It was noticeable and significant.

    But it was not overwhelming, not taking up every mote of focus Irwyn could muster.

    Five and six went, so did seven and eight. Eventually, Irwyn stared in amazement as the ninth rod of brilliant flame manifested in front of him, finally reaching his limit; though he knew it was not that far from ten.

    From four to nine, more than doubling his capacity.

    Of course, it was not quite as simple as calling it doubling. Power was - as both Dervish and the textbooks agreed on - easier to grasp the more one already held. At his current level at least, progressing from being able to use six spells instead of five with a certain number of concepts was significantly easier than getting from one to two. Four to nine still remained a gargantuan leap though. Irwyn could, realistically, even attempt five concept spells, a goal that had seemed months away before.

    He didn¡¯t, at least not at the moment. The minimal requirement was technically speaking five because of the inevitable multiplication, however, for the first attempt that was completely unrealistic. Rather, anything below eight was almost dangerous. With nine Irwyn was probably in the clear and wouldn¡¯t hit himself with some kind of backlash but it was still better to wait for supervision.

    That reminded him¡­ he was going to need to explain this to Elizabeth and Dervish somehow. That was a whole can of worms he would have to consider. At least he had a few days to decide on what course of action to take there; Irwyn had no faith he could hide this leap in capability from the brutal trainer.

    He shook his head and looked at the nine rods again. They had taken a significant amount of magic to manifest and ever more each second they remained under his direct control. And Irwyn was counting, not quite doing math so much as comparing how much mana each should have costs and then simply multiplying by six.

    About ten percent, he realised with very pleased surprise. If what he was feeling was correct, the capacity of his Vessel had improved by additional ten percent over what it had been before. And the mana he could hold had apparently already been monstrous for his age, completely eclipsing even a prodigy of House Blackburg like Elizabeth. Frankly, Irwyn had already been struggling to properly utilize the sheer quantity. But that was something he was working on and would continue to do so. And it didn¡¯t hurt to have deeper reserves.

    And then Irwyn realised the first rays of sunlight were reaching his window, reflected manyfold from walls and barely perceptible. He had not been able to immediately tell as Abonisle shone even in the night to a certain degree, however, it was becoming clearer by the moment it was dawn.

    Well, Irwyn¡¯s head was still full of thoughts, however, those could be considered on the way to his appointment.

 Intermission: Current and ancestral

    Elizabeth trod through the needlessly long hallway, a slight chill touching her skin. She did not mind too much - her affinity to fire made her more resistant to cold - though her attire was hardly what would be called ¡®proper¡¯ considering over encumbrance of cloth and enchantment would interfere with the procedure she was going to undergo soon.

    Although she had downplayed it before Irwyn, the procedure for consuming the Ambrosia was more than just a political issue. Despite all the confidence she had in herself, the nerves were still getting onto her. She knew that, albeit extremely rarely, there had been cases of rejection in the past resulting in particularly ugly deaths.

    Logically, she basically held no such risk. She had undergone all the preparations, was not under time constraints, and far surpassed the levels of skill and Vessel development that were considered safe. Still that twinge of stinging doubt did not quite abate, everpresent at the back of her mind.

    And soon it would be time. She was reaching the end of that seemingly endless corridor. Elizabeth did not know where exactly she was even. The ancestral castle at the very heart of City Black could only be described as labyrinthine. Rumour had it that some of the countless tunnels beneath even shifted or that much of the underground complex was actually contained in a massive expanded space. The truth Elizabeth was not privy to, though one thing had become apparent to her:

    The Void magic was thick wherever she was. Well, obviously. The founding estate of the House of Void mages was obviously brimming with the element in every nook or cranny but as deep inside as she was, the thickness had become simply incomparable to the living areas above.

    Elizabeth had - under supervision - visited the outer reaches of the Void. Gone deep enough in that she had actually felt the gargantuan magical signature of an Elven city in an unexplainable distance; which meant much deeper than the majority of Void mages ever do. Still, in the hall she walked through, the Void magic was somehow even thicker; denser than in the outer Void itself. And the inexplicable emotion rising in her chest hinted at what the meaning of this place was.

    She was remembering the attack on Abonisle, the sense of humiliation and loss it made her feel. Reminded of her rivals and budding foes in the upper crusts of society; the heir to Duchy of Yellow distinctly first among them. Even some of that ugly envy she had felt towards Irwyn, even if to a much lesser degree. That was, after all, envy. Even if it bled slightly into what she was really feeling. For it was, without question wrath that influenced her at the moment. Unnaturally amplified with each step further she took.

    It was a public secret that House Blackburg struggled with such emotions. They were, after all, the bloodline of the one and only Duke of Wrath. The mighty Tyrantfall, Lichbane, Sunderer of lands. Even if that was millennia ago, dozens if not well over a hundred generations of mages, that was simply not a legacy that could be shaken off.

    It was the foundation of their bloodline and that could not be denied. Not easily at least. So instead, it had been embraced. Few knew the extensive education in managing that innate anger every young heir or heiress had undergone. To control it and perhaps even wield it. Yet it still left its mark on every aspect of their society. She had spoken to Irwyn about the general dislike towards schemers, however, there was more to it than just tradition. Simply put, their bloodline was not predisposed to birth calm and calculative minds.

    Neither was the rest of nobility, considering that the vast majority of noble Houses in the Duchy of Black had come about by the way of some up-and-coming mage from a branch family attaining the title of a magelord and therefore the right to found a House of their own. In fact, the Duchy of Black was by far the most homogenous in the Federation when considering the blood relations of their ruling class - with perhaps the technical exception of the Duchy of Red which was a unique case as far as rulership went.

    That came with other challenges but those too had been solved. Genetic defects expunged by skilled life mages, followed by a guarantee of beauty and physical superiority. The natural wrath they were so often born with, tamed into drive. And such were many other things. Flaws upon flaws, each found, examined, and mitigated if not turned into a strength by great magics developed centuries ago.

    It was a point of pride to the nobility - and as mostly Void mages they were particularly vulnerable to that as well - that they had solved all those problems, following the wisdom of their ancestors. Which was in big part why Elizabeth¡¯s mother was so¡­ despised for the lack of a better word.

    An outsider with outsider innovations and outsider perspective. And her Ladyship Avys so very enjoyed their focus on her ¡®radical¡¯ ideas; missing what they faced for what they saw. Perfect empty smiles and those fake vacant eyes the Duchess showed out in the public. And as Elizabeth reached the end of the corridor, she was certain that the Dragon in fly¡¯s gown she had the misfortune of being a daughter to was somehow involved. Another thread in the web wrapping around her, be it wrist or throat.

    Because there stood a door at the end of that corridor that she had never heard off. And if this place was something that was not strictly restricted, she would have undoubtedly at least heard rumors of it, just because of the distinct engravings. There was an indented perfect circle taking the center, almost like a sun, except the skillful craving played with the shadows of the dimly lit surrounding to give the impression it was absorbing light instead of giving it. And below lay something close to heraldry, though it was different than what anyone interacting with mortals would use to be recognized by. It was a paradoxical mess of lines, indentations, and protrusions. Half of the image was not formed by what was displayed but by what was not there. Trying to understand or commit it to memory immediately gave Elizabeth the start of a familiar headache, one she knew to associate with magics far above her ken.

    She had enough background in history and mythology to understand what it was though. An inverse star and a crest. She could not tell if the heraldry belonged to a city or a clan of some kind but she could quite confidently guess where they had originated from. The Demons rarely used any sort of symbology, much less did monsters. Therefore, it could only be genuine Elven script.

    And it was rare for a true Elf to deem it worth their time to even consider leaving the deepest reaches of Nothingness for a mortal realm like theirs. Most likely, the door was commissioned while the Duke of Wrath still lived. No one in their line since had been likely to gather such attention.

    Exponentially more nervous now, Elizabeth knocked on the door, careful not to place her hand anywhere near the engravings. A moment later the door silently slid upwards, compelling Elizabeth to step through.

    The Void in the air was several degrees of magnitude more intense. Elizabeth felt almost suffocated by the sheer density. Her, a natural Void mage of great talent with a decade of intense training felt like the Void was too powerful here. And in it she also felt the Flame. Far lesser in comparison but still enough it suddenly felt uncomfortably hot even for her. Flame was the lesser part of her Voidflame but her affinity to it was still greater than most mages wielding it as the focus of their art - she would not have been able to transition them if the imbalance had been too great - so it took much to make her even notice heat, however, this was not too far from being inside a burning oven. Just barely beneath what she might consider painful.

    That did not mean she missed the decorations of the room. Or perhaps shrine would be a more appropriate word. It was a perfectly rectangular chamber, the stone ebony black and untouched by time, familiar incense and an altar at the far end. It composed of mostly words in a script similar to the symbol on the door outside, a grim memento attached to it: A perfectly intact skeleton.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    It could almost be mistaken for a human. The anatomy was mostly similar, slight differences in bone structure that Elizabeth knew to look around only because she was searching for them and had specifically studied the topic in the past. Of course, the most telling difference was the color: Not pearly white or yellow, but utter pitch. More than just the color but a complete innate rejection of any light that could reflect off of them and carry to the eye. Black darker than black itself. Another telling part was at the head; two long and pointy protrusions at each side as unlike humans, this species had actual bones inside their long ears.

    And below the Altar stood a man, clad in robes Elizabeth recognised at a glance, staring up at the perfectly preserved Elven skeleton. There was no denying it as before her stood Ezax von Blackburg, the one and only Duke of Black.

    ¡°Your Dukeship,¡± Elizabeth had to put all of her willpower to the task of not shaking while she took a deep bow. Her mind was racing at the implications of such a corpse buried below her place of birth. After all, no one stole Elven corpses and continued to exist afterward. It had been allowed to remain down here.

    ¡°Elizabeth,¡± the man spoke with that so reassuringly familiar yet so unfortunately alien voice. ¡°We are alone here. You can dispose with the etiquette.¡±

    ¡°Father,¡± Elizabeth reaffirmed as she approached closer. The mana and elements in the air were only getting denser, though her body seemed to be adjusting to them through exposure. She already felt less suffocated and less hot. ¡°What is this place¡­ the meaning of it.¡±

    ¡°It is a tomb, daughter, the resting place of legacy and secrets,¡± the Duke nodded, still not looking at her. Instead, he pointed up at the incomprehensible script and read. ¡°Here lies Vertana the Serene. Mother, Lover, and a Sanctuary. Faithful beyond dispute, a Saint of the Great Crusade. She died as she had lived, fulfilling the First Duty. May her soul forever remain beyond the Betrayer¡¯s reach.¡±

    ¡°The Great Crusade,¡± Elizabeth suppressed a shiver at the words as her father finished reciting. ¡°She was older than the First Betrayal.¡±

    ¡°Most likely, yes,¡± the Duke finally turned around and Elizabeth saw affection in his eyes; faint and buried so deep she might have just imagined it. It no longer hurt to notice.

    ¡°Why would she be buried here,¡± she asked though several possibilities already swirled through her head.

    ¡°If you read the oldest records you will find a truth many would rather forget, though I frankly don¡¯t quite understand why,¡± the Duke spoke. The calm cadence of the voice remained painfully familiar. ¡°In truth, albeit the founding Duke of our house had many lovers and wives, those relationships were mostly barren. As a Named being, especially one of the seven Sins, no mortal womb could possibly bear his progeny. Though it has been intentionally forgotten, the Duke of Wrath had another lover who had stayed with him since before he had claimed his Name and until the very year of his own demise. Some of the eldest portraits deep in our archives even show the first few generations of our prestigious House in possession of distinct half-elven features, though those had eventually vanished in the flow of time and magical modifications.¡±

    ¡°And that is her,¡± Elizabeth looked at the skeleton again, breathing out. ¡°Our far, far distant ancestor.¡±

    ¡°Yes, as her epitaph states she had died in combat against a Named Lich. The very same one which the Duke himself had fought to a mutual demise less than a year later, at least as far as I could find.¡±

    ¡°Why are we here father?¡± Elizabeth said after taking another deep breath and a long pause. It was incredibly fascinating but also not the reason she had believed to be coming here for. ¡°Will you be the one administering the Ambrosia then?¡±

    ¡°The environment will further empower the procedure,¡± he nodded. ¡°Though that is not the only reason. This place is also the best-warded room in the entirety of City Black, perhaps the whole Duchy. Not the slightest trace of the process will be detectable outside.¡±

    ¡°This has not been approved,¡± Elizabeth realized. She had thought that some strings were pulled to convince the elders who refused her the privilege, however, that was clearly not the case. ¡°We are doing this completely behind the back of the Branch families and major Houses.¡±

    ¡°Completely is too strong of a wording,¡± Ezax shook his head. ¡°Avys has managed to make them provide all the necessary approvals and such, and done it in a way that is completely provable if we ever need to do so. However, she had also made sure that no one realised that the approval has been provided. It¡¯s for the best if we can manage it without railing up the branches. It¡¯s not yet time.¡±

    ¡°Another one of mother¡¯s schemes I am taken into,¡± Elizabeth sighed lightly, it was as much as she dared to criticize her mother in front of the Duke. ¡°Why now of all time? I prefer to think she would have taken these steps earlier if there was no risk involved.¡±

    ¡°The attack on Abonisle provided a good opportunity as she had told me, though you know I care little for the exact details,¡± Ezax elaborated. ¡°Though in truth, the main reason is that Avys has taken interest in your new friend.¡±

    ¡°Irwyn¡­¡± Elizabeth stopped her posture from sharpening. She was glad that the recent conversations with the very same person had encouraged her to brush up on her social skills. Her father was disinterested in reading body language so it might actually be enough to fool him.

    ¡°Yes, she is looking into the possibility of moving our plans forward,¡± the Duke nodded, a smile springing on the man¡¯s face. ¡°I have read Dervish¡¯s reports myself. He could reach genuine Conception in less than 4 years based on his current growth rate. He could be exactly what we need for the conclusion.¡±

    ¡°You would be asking him to fight mages four or more times his age,¡± Elizabeth just barely managed not to frown in displeasure.

    ¡°With all the support that can be provided by House Blackburg,¡± the Duke dismissed such worries with an uncaring shrug. ¡°And I hear you have taken the initiative with bringing him combat experience. You know that Avys rarely lets useful people die, especially ones who have extremely strong motivations to fight our enemies to the death.¡±

    ¡°Of course, you are right. I am just overly worried,¡± Elizabeth sighed, drawing it out a bit. Rarely, unless she has more to gain from their death or by risking their lives. ¡°I had been hoping to recruit him into my future retinue,¡± she said because she was afraid of what her mother might conclude if she said that she had simply made a friend. ¡®Each bond, a vulnerability ripe to exploit,¡¯ Avys had taught her. Shown her, example by example on helpless lords and great mages who were in the way of the Duchess¡¯ designs. Brought to ruin by a deft hand unseen.

    ¡°I am sure you will reach agreeable arrangements,¡± the Duke, of course, did not share her inner turmoil. Elizabeth noticed something flash - or rather darken considering it had the ebony tinge of Void magic - before the duke¡¯s left eye. ¡°It¡¯s almost time, an optimal alignment will be achieved in about a minute. Get ready.¡±

    ¡°Yes, father,¡± Elizabeth nodded, looked around, and ended up sitting down almost right in front of the Duke, taking a meditative position. She had extensively prepared for the procedure before the many surprises of the day came therefore she would not let them disturb her during it.

    ¡°Here, only swallow it exactly when I tell you,¡± the Duke nodded, reaching into his robe for a small but fortified container. It seemed to have been pre-opened as with a single motion of his hands he took the Ambrosia out of it.

    It was not an elixir as some myths attributed to the name. It was closer to a pill, though not quite like that either. The Duke handed her the essence of magic, distilled into a small oval shape. It pulsed and sang with Voidfire, beckoning Elizabeth¡¯s own to enter. Solidified potential, bought at the cost of a life from a great mage. One a single leap away from immortality. It was everything Elizabeth wanted. Understanding and power. Because deep down she knew that there was only one way to escape a spider¡¯s web for her: Burn the nearby strings with flames so hot the weaver would not dare come near her again.

    ¡°A warning, the environment will most likely make the procedure slightly more straining than what is described, though I am confident you will prevail without issue. The improved results will be more than worth it,¡± the Duke commented and then returned to waiting. Perhaps half a minute ¨C though it felt far longer to Elizabeth - passed before he spoke again. ¡°Now. We are starting.¡±

    And Elizabeth obeyed. She threw the Ambrosia down her throat and swallowed without a moment of hesitation. It churned for a moment as it began to meld into her own mana and the next moment Elizabeth lost sensation of her body.

    Not surprised she focused at the foreign essence suddenly beginning to leak into her most inner self. Just barely she could see the edges of her father¡¯s magic, far above her ability to contest or fully comprehend, preventing the volatile Ambrosia from exploding like an explosive inside her chest. Rather it allowed just a small stream to slowly and surely flow out and meld into her Vessel. Soon enough she would be attacked by overwhelming pleasure and agony. Bursts of emotion or their sudden and extreme lack. And many more challenges that would test her willpower and skill at magic. As much had been described in many accounts of consuming it. There was still a challenged left to overcome.

    But the Ambrosia was already inside her. It could not be taken away anymore. All she needed to do now was absorb it.

 2.28 Cube on the outside, nonsense on the inside

    Irwyn used the same way to access the top floor of the mall. He had actually used the same way to exit the day prior. There were most certainly others and he might go uncover them in the future but for the moment this¡­ sufficed.

    He was not too surprised to find that another kind of musical performance was taking place close by the entrance. It had been the same way when he had been leaving so he assumed it was probably common if not a daily occurrence here.

    The musician was different this time around. Instead of playing a dozen instruments at once, they only played three: A flute, a guitar-adjacent tool of some kind, and a small drum. Though their appearance was distinct to say the least, mostly because the woman in a thick, layered black dress had no arms. Not even a stump coming from her shoulders. Instead, magical hands of solid black Void wielded the instruments with impressive accuracy.

    He also noticed Desir on the stage again, dancing a slow dance with a full-bearded middle-aged man. A scan of the audience and then a second take at the stage did not let Irwyn find Alice anywhere. Considering Desir was supposed to be keeping her company during Daut¡¯s stay at Abonisle she was most likely still alongside her father. Perhaps it was simply too early, considering Irwyn had headed out right after dawn.

    Well, Irwyn certainly had no intention to interrupt. He knew the way now and his destination was clear. He walked through several areas many already relatively bustling with activity. He had noticed yesterday that there were a lot of mages of considerable skill spending time on this floor, gathering in the individual sections. Perhaps he should ask Desir for a proper explanation, though it seemed to be a gathering place for people from a significant area. How significant, Irwyn did not know. It could frankly be deceivingly small considering how densely built Abonisle was.

    It did not take long for Irwyn to reach what he had come to call the ¡®artificer section¡¯ considering the multiple workshops in the area and the general lack of loud gatherings or entertainment. He walked into the lobby where Alice already awaited him.

    ¡°Rematch!¡± she declared the moment he stepped in, pointing at Irwyn with her eyes borderline burning with competitive spirit. It was clear the possibility of refusal had not crossed her mind.

    He could not help but compare the other young woman to Elizabeth. They were both naive in their own way but with a stark difference. While Elizabeth could misstep on account of inexperience or wrong assumptions, she had a kind of gravity to her acts. It was the most apparent in training where Elizabeth took wound after wound without complaint. Even if Dervish was far gentler with her than with Irwyn, it was still undoubtedly painful even if the wondrous hall took most of it away. The best comparison Irwyn had was to street thugs. Elizabeth was like someone who had been through a really bad fight; where three lads jumped one and held them down while taking turns to kick their teeth in. Like someone had beat overconfidence out of her in a way that would not let it set back in easily.

    Alice was not like that¡­ Or at least appeared to not be like that; Irwyn was barely acquainted with the girl. But she seemed so¡­ casual. Unworried. Like there was nothing sitting on her shoulders, weighing her down. And that made Irwyn think - about when had last met someone who was simply unburdened.

    That was the thing, people had problems. Worries and scars. And it came into how they acted, the hints in their behaviour. Desir had worries, obviously considering the man had been on the run with a downright paranoid approach to secrecy. Elizabeth, despite her extraordinarily high birth, did not seem relaxed in this way whatsoever. Old Ibis¡­ Well, that did not really count. Because Old Crow had taught Irwyn, among many things, that with enough experience and dedication, all hints could be erased, as any Old Fowls ought to; especially one focused to the social aspects of underground work. Dervish was excluded for the same reason. Besides them¡­ Irwyn realised he had not really interacted with anyone else in Abonisle. Not anyone he cared to remember the name of at least.

    Not that he felt the need for more. He had been doing just fine focusing on self-improvement.

    In the meantime, Alice had brought him to the same table where they had played that game the day prior which returned Irwyn¡¯s train of thought to her. The thing about Alice was, she appeared naive in¡­ almost childish way. Like some of the kids Old Crow had taken in to the Tears. Not all of them mind you - most had gone through a rough patch before joining, Irwyn certainly had; even if those memories were distant nowadays - but some¡­ some were just so blissfully unaware of all the struggles and danger and injustice that life would inevitably bring.

    Maybe Irwyn was just being too judgmental of the girl though. Not having to think about if there would be enough to eat tomorrow, or in a week, or a month was probably a good thing. It just meant she lacked that edge Irwyn had learned to respect in people.

    Either way, Irwyn humored her. Frankly, more for her father than Alice herself. Master Hen Daut - which after meeting the man Irwyn was even surer was an intentional pun - was certainly someone Irwyn wanted to stay on the good side of and the man seemed to approve of him humbling Alice a bit the day prior.

    This time around, the girl decided to involve some of those ¡®additional rules¡¯ she had mentioned, perhaps hoping to get the advantage she needed to prevail. And Irwyn got to witness the wonders of the enchanted board, because with just a bit of fiddling from Alice, the whole thing turned into a Finity amplifier.

    Irwyn was not sure how exactly, however, the Planar law of Finity simply affected the area inside and around the ward far more. He had only heard such enchantment mentioned so he had to try what it actually did. Simply put, it made the breakpoints appear¡­ faster. The Law of Finity affected both duration and area. The exact numbers were different for both, however, they were consistent in that they worked in the patern of nine out of ten parts having consistent cost on mana and focus, then sharply rising during the tenth followed by another similar pattern of nine to one; going down all the way to the smallest distance that had been measured; same applying to the greatest. What the amplifier, at least as far as Irwyn could tell, did was make this happen much more frequently, make the individual stretches far shorter.

    Irwyn formed a small, really small sphere of light and fiddled with it¡¯s magic ever so slightly until he was pretty sure he had found the exact breakpoint. Then, from memory, he tried to compare the actual mana output this bit of magic required. As he would have suspected, the total rise in the cost was the exact same as the usual breakpoint that he could feel out if the magic was significantly larger. The cost of Finity on area was not too noticeable at a smaller scale - Irwyn had not noticed it for damn years - but once the rise became noticeable it started increasing sharply. And the same was the case here. The cost increased by the same amount, it just happened over a much smaller increase in overall area. Irwyn did some mental math and comparison and estimated that Finity was cumulating somewhere between 25 to 30 times quicker than normal.

    That could add up very quickly. It was different from just having the spells cost 25 times more. On really small areas, such as the strings of mana that seemed optimal for this game, the effect would be barely noticeable, not even doubling the magic¡¯s cost. But for anything remotely large, it would be a problem. Each breakpoint increased the cost of magic by an increasingly massive margin and if he passed several compared to the usual, that could become way more than 20 or 30 times multiplier. Even in the hundreds perhaps. Irwyn had not done the math.

    That made Irwyn¡¯s previous strategy to counter Alice¡¯s last-ditch teleportation effort by flooding the entire area inefficient at best and impossible at worst. It had still been 2 concept magic after all and while Irwyn could manage a decent number of such spells, his focus could not bear the load of multiplying them by a hundred times.

    That obviously forced Irwyn to think about different countermeasures, which he started as soon as Alice turned the 2 minute hourglass. The majority of time would pass in a one-sided landslide victory again, though they both knew what was coming. And an idea had struck Irwyn in the first few seconds of the match. A simple principle really. They were not allowed to speak incantations according to the rules they had set, however, that did not mean they were forbidden from using them. It was just that if Irwyn was not getting any support from actually saying at least the name, the restriction on flexibility was simply not worth it compared to just directly manipulating the magic.

    But this could be an exception. The Finity amplifier stopped him from just engulfing the whole area in his mana, however, it would be absolutely possible just to cover the whole area with thousands of small pinpoints of light; at a small enough scale they were not noticeably more difficult to create or maintain. Of course, just these tiny little bits of magic would not do anything by themselves. They required intention and Irwyn could not do a thousand two or even one intention spells. But there was a way around that, making it an order of magnitude easier. Just like he had done with his original spell, The Stars scourge all. If he bound many magical creations into a single spell, gave them all the same purpose and uniform composition, it became much easier to control and manifest such great numbers. One spell, thousand dots a part of it.

    But spells needed an incantation, which Irwyn did not possess. What he did have was about two minutes to make something usable from scratch. That was the thing about incantations: Saying them out loud made them more efficient, especially the name of the spell itself, but what was really the most important part was that the caster knew the whole incantation. Even if it was shortened, it mattered. Each additional line added less and less, however, knowing at least a couple was needed to make the spell possible at all. Even if he did not speak anything out loud. Before Alice started with her attempt at reversal, Irwyn was ready:

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    And they are a billion

    Hung in the dominion

    Which the skies amass,

    The Stars allow no trespass

    It was hardly perfect and lacked a personal touch. But it spoke of the skies and stars and was dedicated to dealing with Alice¡¯s tactic precisely. Hand-made to stop her. As Alice began with her teleportation trick he cast it, creating countless dots of Light, each imbued with the intention to disrupt and interrupt. He also enveloped the sphere Alice¡¯s magic was gathering around with a film of the same intentions. If those did not work he would switch them around. The effect was clear though as Alice struggled to reach anywhere with her teleportation; all possible destinations obstructed. It was not quite as effective as flooding the entire area had been, letting Alice barely finish one translocation after almost ten full seconds, however, by then she was already out of time to make a reversal. She still tried to move a second one as the last grains of sand fell down announcing the end of their match.

    ¡°Damn it,¡± she grumbled. ¡°You are too good at this. How did you even do that?¡±

    ¡°I thank you for the compliment,¡± Irwyn nodded respectfully. Fighting against space magic was something he would like more experience in so he was not opposed to more matches even if the rest had been less¡­ challenging. ¡°I would normally not be able to handle so many imbued constructs, so I improvised a frankly subpar spell to simply merge them into one effect that is much easier to control.¡±

    But before Alice could demand another match or say anything else, Master Daut emerged from his workshop and immediately invited Irwyn to come on in, much to Alice¡¯s chagrin as the girl rolled her eyes. At almost the exact same time Desir entered, immediately ready to distract her. The timing was rather fortunate¡­ Or perhaps not considering Irwyn was pretty sure the clerk which had accompanied Desir was blushing. She too was a mage of some kind and could have had a way of telling when the ideal time to enter would be.

    Not that it mattered too much. For all that the practice was useful, it was not the main reason he was here.

    <hr>

    ¡°Master Daut,¡± Irwyn gave the man a respectful nod as he took they took their seats.

    ¡°Well, have a go at it, Irwyn,¡± the man only half acknowledged the greeting, immediately presenting Irwyn with the same wooden enchantment from the day prior. It looked exactly the same from the outside, in fact; just a smallish rectangle of orange wood with a single entry funnel. Irwyn knew that inside there was a symbol of a Weeping Star, whatever that actually meant, that he was completely sure it was impossible to recreate in just 3-dimensional space; he had made a few attempts before giving up prior to going to sleep the previous night. ¡°I think I have fixed everything that had caused any issues yesterday and being exposed to Starfire rather than Light will actually make it far more durable since that is what it¡¯s meant for in the first place.¡±

    ¡°I will do my best,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Though please confirm for me that you have protections in place,¡± a shower of Starfire was an order of magnitude more deadly than just searingly bright light after all.

    ¡°I have warded both myself and the workshop extensively,¡± Daut nodded. ¡°It should be able to withstand a 5-intention attack magic at the very least.¡±

    ¡°Is it easy for you to create such a powerful defensive layer?¡± Irwyn¡¯s eyes widened slightly. The artisan could have only had time since the day before, not to mention he had also been repairing and fixing the tested item itself.

    ¡°The one good thing about Finity is that if I am making an enchantment that only needs to last half a day it feels almost ridiculously easy when compared to what I usually work on,¡± Daut shrugged. ¡°Now if you would please get on with it. The sooner I can confirm this damn thing works the sooner I can leave this City and return to my lovable wife.¡±

    And so Irwyn did. He called upon his Starfire, condense, flow, perceive, the exact same intentions as before. And he let his magic surge like a flood. A dam sundered open. And he was ready for that mark¡¯s impression and amplification which he had experienced the day prior, waiting for it.

    It¡¯s just¡­ he had not expected them to be so, so much more intense.

    And so they star in flesh wept, scarred for all eternity. Nothing would ever be able to mend those wounds. Such utter loss was, is, and forever will be beyond mere words. And from it, the first crack showed. The first sign of change. The most radical shift since before the beginning of Time was sown that day. And know that all Stars will follow the son¡¯s hate, until the kinslayer¡¯s stain is erased.

    Irwyn took a deep breath, not completely losing composure this time around. It was more coherent than the day prior, though longer and even more¡­ omnipresent; impossible to ignore as the words and impressions coursed through his mind. He came to a realization that perhaps the vision from the previous night might not have necessarily been warning him about anything and was simply related to¡­ this. The Star son wounded by indescribable loss? He had just experienced exactly such a thing. Then he caught himself and shoved that thought process out for later. At the moment, he had something else to focus on.

    To his surprise, the rectangle was not breaking. Its inner structure was not so much as cracking. Not even really straining despite Irwyn genuinely pouring nearly as much magic as he could through. And it flowed out, uncontrolled and lashing all around. But it never hit neither Irwyn nor Daut, simply diverted to the corners where it seemingly vanished. However the defensive enchantments worked, they did not let so much as a spark land on either man¡¯s clothes.

    And the empowerment the cube provided¡­ It was just a league above what it had done with the light. There the magic had increased by a noticeable but not truly significant amount. This¡­ this was as much as a damn a fifth more. The miraculous box enhanced the raw magical power of Starfire by actual 20 percent. That was simply ridiculous. One in five parts extra power just for channeling it through this box. It might have limited uses in dueling where speed and initiative were everything but otherwise¡­ When preparing an ambush, when in a match of magical endurance, when casting great magics uncontested? This was beyond anything Irwyn had so much as heard about. He legitimately wondered if Elizabeth could access something like this.

    ¡°I do not suppose you would be willing to make another one of these,¡± Irwyn sighed, knowing the answer but still asking against all hope.

    ¡°House Blackburg does not have enough wealth to convince into another project like this,¡± Daut scoffed. ¡°Biggest pain in the bum I have had to deal with all decade. And that includes a teleporting adolescent on a ¡®practical joke¡¯ spree,¡± then he took the cube away, making it disappear with one motion of his wrist; actually very similar to how Elizabeth spirited away items. ¡°All right, I am very happy we could finish this today, not that I would expect anything less of my craftsmanship. As per our agreement, here is your bonus,¡± then a little leather badge with no insignia materialized in Daut¡¯s hand, already mid-motion to throw it at Irwyn.

    The moment Irwyn caught it he immediately realised that it was not leather. Rather, it was some kind of cold metal that simply looked like it, even up close, however, the sensation was distinct to the touch. He could also not feel a smidgen of magic from it.

    ¡°This is?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow slightly. He obviously could not figure out magic that completely eluded his senses.

    ¡°This is what I would call a lifeline,¡± Daut explained. ¡°Simpl¡­ ish, one use item with a singular purpose: Whisk you out of your doom. Equipped with state-of-the-art breaching and disrupting sub-effects. It can get through a complete temporal lockdown and leaves behind two dozen false leads for any trackers trying to follow.¡±

    ¡°Surely it is not omnipotent at breaking defences,¡± Irwyn looked at Daut though he really liked what he was hearing so far.

    ¡°Well, a really good Time mage can obviously get around it,¡± Daut nodded. ¡°But if you have a Time mage of that caliber going after you, well, you would be a dead man walking either way. I usually make these for the upper upper classes of the three Duchies that border Steelmire. Notice how the badge is empty? They like to have their affiliated heraldry drawn onto these. Not that I am complaining since I have someone else do the painting and charge a ridiculous premium for it; and they gobble those prices up without a second look. If you ever need to use it, just shatter the badge with any kind of magic and it will take hold of you, then just choose a direction. Just keep in mind that there is no canceling it and don¡¯t aim it down or into a hill or something extremely magical. It is designed to prevent you from turning into string cheese, however, as you have said: No enchantment has no blind spots.¡±

    ¡°How far can it reach,¡± Irwyn was already suppressing a grin, taking that last comment mostly as a joke. He could not imagine someone like Daut willingly selling something actually dangerous to use to House Blackburg, ignoring the other Duchies for the moment. Daut had after all ¨C at least according to Desir ¨C once been a Fowl and would have kept by the third Tennet even after chaning into a more legitimate career. This was genuinely amazing and far above anything Irwyn had found for sale. Assuming it could actually bring him far enough to make a difference.

    ¡°Not the main focus of the thing but still miles beyond anything you are probably comparing it to,¡± Daut grinned lightly. ¡°I don¡¯t have the exact number but if someone wanted to hypothetically¡­ let¡¯s say get the hell out of Abonisle on an emergency schedule I would not use the badge from further than the inner moat if I wanted to end up with both feet on solid ground rather than in the black lake¡­ if I were them,¡± then Daut gave Irwyn an intent stare.

    Irwyn fought against the instinct to twitch. It was most likely a bluff on Daut¡¯s part, or a good guess, just trying to fish for information from Irwyn¡¯s reaction. Well, he did not give the artisan that, though the advice was appreciated.

    Irwyn now had a potent card in the deck called ¡®plan B¡¯ in case this whole deal with Elizabeth¡¯s family suddenly soured beyond reconciliation. Best he arranges for stashes with supplies somewhere near the city. But it would have to be done carefully, through intermediaries. Maybe even arranged completely in code. There was no guarantee he was not under surveillance.

    The only time he was reasonably confident was private was in fact right in the room with Hen Daut considering the craftsman would have most likely either noticed any such intrusion too far above Irwyn¡¯s level or would have outright perfectly warded against it. Unless the man was allowing any foreign eyes to watch and ears to hear, of course, but those were worries beyond Irwyn¡¯s ability to affect.

    House Blackburg could not have infinite resources after all and with Elizabeth not even in the city Irwyn would have fallen lower on the priority list at least for the moment, especially given that their agents were probably desperately searching for the cause of the attack not long ago.

    ¡°Thank you, it has been a pleasure doing business with you,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°And me with you,¡± Daut nodded. ¡°If you ever happen to be by Steelmire you should drop by. Especially if you happen to have business to discuss. With that dealt with, have a pleasant rest of your day.¡±

    Hearing the dismissal, Irwyn left. Alice and Desir had been long gone by then, though Irwyn decided it might not be bad to explore the floor a bit more.

 2.29 Bench

    Irwyn found a certain amount of fascination in the environment of the mall¡¯s top floor. It was really more of a gathering place for mages than a shopping place, as he had already noticed the day prior, however, he had not really gone to explore any of that back then.

    Now, Irwyn was sitting down, holding a hand of cards and faking the slightest flinch before calling the raise. The mage on his left thought for a moment and then called as well. Poker has never been Irwyn¡¯s first choice of a party game but he found out he had¡­ missed such things despite thinking otherwise. Just playing a game for its own sake, gambling a bit with nothing to prove.

    It brought back memories of Aaron and Kalista wiping the floor with everyone else and getting poker out of their rotation for another month before the two managed to gradually persuade everyone else for another go.

    And the feeling of it was surprisingly pleasant considering he was playing with literal strangers. And that was in part what Irwyn had realised: Everyone around seemed strangely accommodating. Not a single argument had broken out in Irwyn¡¯s vicinity over the past few hours. No brawl or recklessly flung spells. No irrational behavior in a gathering of this size.

    That just did not seem possible.

    The original better, a much older mage, raised again without the slightest change in their expression resulting in an extra fold, a call from Irwyn and a fold from the last mage still in play. Irwyn held a three-of-a-kind of sixes while, as it turned out a moment later, his opponent had three kings, losing Irwyn the hand. Not that he minded too much: The amount of money being bet was not too significant; barely enough to make things more exciting.

    ¡°You bluff too much with your face, Irwyn,¡± the winning mage grinned. ¡°If you keep doing it every other hand it becomes obvious.¡±

    ¡°I was never the best at this game,¡± Irwyn shrugged. Nor was he getting the best cards; that had been his strongest hand yet. But it was notable how friendly the mage was being. What for? Something was amiss yet Irwyn couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on it.

    ¡°Another hand everyone?¡± the man asked, reaching for the deck. There was no dedicated dealer at the table so they took turns shuffling.

    ¡°I think I will pass,¡± Irwyn shrugged lightly though everyone else chose to remain.

    ¡°Well then, have a good day.¡±

    ¡°You as well,¡± and still, they were so very polite.

    The subsection of the floor he was in was a large one compared to most. It seemed dedicated to various games from gambling - light and heavy - to board games and myriad other such things, often whole buildings dedicated to singular games since the floor itself was wide and tall enough to host such things. It was almost like small towns inside the massive mall construction, each specialised in one kind of activity.

    He had obviously seen the one dedicated to dancing and music, the artisan section, and this one, however, there were more: A space for physical sports explicitly forbidding the use of magic or a pretty little place dedicated to art and drawing; he had also glanced a section seemingly dedicated to less¡­ polite activities in what he thought was a corner, though he had chosen to leave before someone mistook his presence for interest.

    When he passed through another boundary Irwyn¡¯s shoes made not the slightest thud. It took him about two steps to realize that all sound was suppressed as he glanced around. The place seemed¡­ serene. There were a few people minding their own business and perhaps enjoying the scenery. Which was a stark contrast to what the city usually was: Tall grass and beds of flowers replicating nature barely touched and unstained. Even the walls were painted to look like distant meadows and the light source was clearly meant to replicate the midday sun, even the heat on Irwyn¡¯s skin almost feeling like genuine sunlight; just the slightest bit Irwyn could not quite put his finger on felt off.

    The only real construction present were the benches, a few of them scattered around and never facing one another. Irwyn was a city rat to the bone so he did not particularly care for nature, however, silent solitude¡­ that sounded nice for a while.

    So Irwyn picked an empty bench and sat down. The shuffling of his clothes quickly revealed that the suppression of sound excluded the benches, probably in a bubble to allow for conversations and meetings. Not that Irwyn minded as he tried to sort his thoughts. As he had considered before, this place was strange. Not just the room he was in, but everything on the whole floor. People seemed not only so friendly but also¡­ unworried. Ideas were whirling in his mind as to how it was even possible¡­

    "Well, I didn''t think you were going to stick around," Desir''s voice suddenly sounded from behind the bench, making Irwyn flinch. He had been distracted enough to not notice the blue eyed man approach though that might have been mostly the sound negation.

    "This place is strange," Irwyn sighed, hiding his startlement and voicing out his thoughts instead.

    "How so?" Desir raised an eyebrow as he sat down on the other side of the bench. One of his blue eyes still looked slightly uncanny to Irwyn no matter how hard he looked, though at that point Irwyn had grown used to it.

    "Shouldn''t you be with Alice?" Irwyn deflected.

    "She already left," Desir shook his head in exaggerated offense. "Her father appeared out of nowhere saying that he was done and ready to leave as soon as she was. She barely said goodbye as she skipped away! Can you believe it?!" Desir overplayed the mock outrage for a moment, then chuckled.

    "Well, you seemed to have left a strong enough impression on her," Irwyn frowned. "I am surprised she would just immediately leave."

    "No, it''s honestly exactly what I would have expected," Desir disagreed. "She is clearly a papa''s girl. I know the type: I would bet she''s never had a serious fight with her parents over anything in her whole life¡­ and was decently pampered. It doesn''t so much as occur to her that she even could argue or make suggestions."

    "Well, you are way better than me at this kind of thing," Irwyn admitted. He could read a face and make some connections from that. But that was mostly current things, long-term and relationship-adjacent insights eluded him for the most part.

    Desir on the other hand seemed like a shark in water there. Irwyn clearly remembered that basically any woman he had seen interacting with Desir was blatantly swooning; making Desir quite the ladies'' man. On a second thought, Irwyn remembered that Desir seemed to have a similar effect to say least some other men like just this morning, so perhaps everyone''s man? Then a thought occurred to Irwyn.

    "Desir I have a question and it might be a bit strange," though if his suspicion proved correct or was better to settle it sooner rather than later.

    ¡°I am listening,¡± Desir nodded.

    ¡°I am not sure how to say it without sounding awkward¡­ though I just had an intrusive thought,¡± Irwyn sighed, unsure how to formulate the sentence. His lack of any interest whatsoever also did not help with the task. ¡°I am bad with this kind of thing so I will just ask: Have you been hitting on me?¡±

    "Oh¡­ what if I was?¡± Desir leaned closer, his gaze and body language suddenly sharpened by a notch. The expression of utter seriousness took Desir over in a moment, making Irwyn hesitate about how to interpret it. "Just messing with you!¡± Desir then laughed out loud, interrupting Irwyn¡¯s thoughts before they could spiral and completely relaxing his posture. ¡°No offense, but you are a couple of years too young for my tastes.¡±

    ¡°Is that the main reason?¡± Irwyn asked inclining his head, more out of curiosity than anything given he had no interest to begin with.

    ¡°Well, it is a convenient excuse,¡± Desir grinned lightly. ¡°Truth is, Irwyn, I can tell a lost cause from how you look at people.¡±

    ¡°Look at people?¡± Irwyn frowned.

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°You look them in the eyes too much when talking,¡± Desir nodded as if it was the most obvious thing.

    ¡°That is what you are supposed to do in a conversation,¡± Irwyn was still not seeing Desir¡¯s point.

    ¡°Exactly Irwyn,¡± Desir chuckled. ¡°They are supposed to stay on the face. But that¡¯s not how people are, you see: The eye wanders. To the hip or cleavage, perhaps muscle - arm or stomach - maybe to some other thing that they find attractive. Everyone slips and takes a pique once in a while; me very much included though I have grown good at hiding it,¡± then Desir pointed a finger at Irwyn. ¡°Not you though. Pretty or ugly, thin or fat, young or old, women or men, you just never look Irwyn. I have started watching you when we still journeyed on-and-off together and never once did I notice you do that Irwyn; you always keep staring everyone directly in the eyes, at most glancing at movement or change in posture before returning right back up. Obviously, I have noticed other clues as well so if I had to bet I would guess you somewhere at the far opposite end of promiscuous. Then why would I bother, knowing you would not interested anyway? As I have said yesterday, plenty of ass out there for anyone looking.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡± Irwyn nodded, somewhat relieved. ¡°I apologize for asking something so¡­ awkward.¡±

    ¡°Irwyn, no need to apologize considering you are the only one feeling uncomfortable here,¡± Desir chuckled. ¡°Though you might find these things embarrassing to talk about in public, you may have noticed that I have no such qualms.¡±

    ¡°I suppose the shirtless dancing was a clue,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°It¡¯s not that I find the topics inherently discomforting to be spoken out loud, I just wish to not be involved nor need to figure out what people are hinting. Frankly, usually, I would not even bother with the consideration, though I hold you in high enough regard that I would hate another divide forming because of a misunderstanding.¡±

    ¡°Irwyn, I hardly need your lecture-length excuse for being a bit of a prude,¡± Desir laughed it off.

    ¡°It¡¯s not an excuse,¡± Irwyn defended. ¡°Back where I come from my best friend¡¯s sister worked at a whorehouse that our group had ties with. I had been there many times and simply ignored any approach rather than make things awkward.¡±

    ¡°I am sure this sounded better in your head,¡± Desir was beaming, amusement creeping across the man¡¯s lips. ¡°But if your argument is ¡®I used to frequent a whorehouse¡¯ you should probably reconsider whether that point is worth making.¡±

    ¡°You know what I mean,¡± Irwyn sighed and rolled his eyes, though a slight grin did reach his face.

    ¡°You mentioned something was bothering you about this place?¡± Desir changed topics after a couple seconds of silence, making a show of looking around the scenery. ¡°I will admit I am not an expert on gardening but I spot nothing obvious beyond the walls being painted.¡±

    ¡°Not this room,¡± Irwyn shook his head with a sigh. ¡°It¡¯s the whole floor.¡±

    ¡°How so?¡± Desir inclined his head with a show of attention.

    ¡°People are too friendly. Too carefree and accommodating,¡± Irwyn tried to explain what he had been feeling. ¡°I have seen no real struggle, no serious arguments. I would expect the occasional magic to be flung in a place with so many egos yet there is none of that. Not even so much a yell or an argument.¡±

    ¡°I have to ask¡­¡± Desir had paused for a few moments before speaking. ¡°Did you come here completely on random or did someone direct you here?¡±

    ¡°I stopped at that bar to leave a message for you yesterday morning and then came here because it was the closest mall on the map I have,¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow not sure where this was going. ¡°Frankly, I just wanted to have a look at these upper floors since I have managed to obtain a license and ended up figuring out that the highest floor has to have a secret entrance somewhere. You were there for most of what happened after curiosity got the best of me.¡±

    ¡°You know, when our acquainted bird told me there is something strange with your Fate and whatnot, I was not sure what he meant but I think I am kind of getting it now,¡± Desir shook his head in apparent disbelief. ¡°Of all the places in the whole city, you just stumble your way here and then get surprised why it¡¯s so ¡®strange¡¯!¡±

    ¡°This place is not the norm then?¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°I had seen other malls with whole floors exclusive to mages around Abonisle, though I hadn''t been able to enter at the time,¡± well, he had seen only one but it was close enough.

    ¡°Yes Irwyn, this one is special, not the least because anyone who causes trouble here gets their knees readjusted,¡± Desir grinned. ¡°Which is a big part of why no one causes trouble. It also gets you banned which might be worse.¡±

    ¡°So this place has some serious backing,¡± Irwyn nodded. That much made sense. ¡°Given you are here, is the Ibis the owner of it or something along those lines?¡±

    ¡°Not quite, though he is involved,¡± Desir shook his head. ¡°This place is the most neutral territory you can find in all of Abonisle and not just for the Guild. If there is a dispute between two groups of enchanters, maybe between battle mages or logistic experts or whoever, they come settle it here because everyone knows not to cause trouble. That there will be no ambush or assassination no matter how deep the protential for profit or grudge; at least not a physical one, plenty of slander if you look hard enough.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s more than an agreement, someone serious is involved here,¡± Irwyn immediately concluded. ¡°House Blackburg?¡±

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Desir nodded. ¡°The Mayor of Abonisle - who happens to be the head of a branch situated here - is partial to this place. I have not found out exactly why that is, though the gathering mostly sprung up around the man over the last decade or so; he had been quite busy since before we arrived at the city, though usually you can meet the man face to face if you wander around. Nowadays a bunch of the richest mages around sponsor this place to maintain this level of luxury. For example some of these enchantments which could cost more than the construction of the building itself were done pro bono. This place is also much harder to get into than you seem to think.¡±

    It even made perfect sense. Irwyn was not at all familiar with all the various politics of the myriad factions that undoubtedly existed all around Abonisle, however, he had a strong impression of what House Blackburg could do when retaliating. The Guild¡¯s third tenet remained dedicated specifically to not messing with House Blackburg. If everyone knew this place was defacto owned by House Blackburg, who would dare cause trouble? Not to mention there was probably a background of retaliations, punishments and whatnot that Irwyn was unaware of. Also, a thought struck him since he was already thinking of high nobility.

    "The Mayor..." he broached carefully. "I had not even realized the city had a mayor."

    "Well, someone has to be in charge," Desir shrugged.

    "You mentioned he used to frequent this place until recently. Does he not have a family?"

    "A few adult sons as far as I know," Desir thought. "If I remember right his wife died in the last lich war and he has not remarried. I never tried to learn much more to be honest."

    ¡°I suppose it doesn''t affect us much," Irwyn changed the topic after that. He got a different answer than he had half-expected but it was still a clue. Asking more night needlessly arouse suspicion. Instead he returned to the topic of entry.  "Still, harder to get here than I think?¡± All he needed to do was get through a relatively simple puzzle lock after all.

    ¡°Oh don¡¯t make that face or I might actually punch it,¡± Desir scoffed. ¡°I have no idea how skewed your perspective on magic is but you are not the norm Irwyn. Far from it actually. I would be considered rather talented by most standards yet I feel years behind while years older. Alice is unquestionably a prodigy yet you wiped the floor with her while improvising against her expertise. A good third of the people get here by being sponsored by someone else and half of the rest used to.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡± Irwyn acknowledged, slightly awkwardly. ¡°I suppose my perspective of such things had most likely been skewed,¡± he admitted.

    ¡°Now I kind of want to know who you would compare yourself to,¡± Desir sighed lightly and shook his head when he saw Irwyn considering what to answer. ¡°Don¡¯t tell. I have a few guesses and I don¡¯t actually want to know about most of them.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I am allowed to tell you anyway,¡± Irwyn shrugged.

    ¡°Please don¡¯t even hint at it,¡± Desir grunted. ¡°I am going to already have my hands full with the job you offered me.¡±

    ¡°So you have decided to take it on?¡± Irwyn smiled slightly. That was certainly pleasant news.

    ¡°Well, I expected to be busy with Alice for a few days yet though that has been cut off abruptly,¡± Desir shrugged. ¡°I have nothing better to do at the moment. I also had a quick chat with the bird yesterday who gave me his go-ahead. Even mentioned he might contact you if something reaches his own ears, though I wouldn¡¯t count on it; he has personal friends high up that will probably offer more than you can, not to mention that it might earn him some favour with the mayor depending on who this redacted person that took a personal interest is.¡±

    ¡°We will see,¡± Irwyn nodded not revealing anything. He did, after all, intend to go through far fewer intermediaries than he had led Desir to think. Zero, in fact, once Elizabeth returned.

    ¡°Anyway, unless you want me to show you around I will be on my way,¡± Desir offered.

    ¡°No, I think I am fine by myself,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°Want to process a few things in silence,¡± and solitude.

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Desir nodded. ¡°Have a good one.¡±

    ¡°Goodbye,¡± Irwyn said and Desir indeed left.

    Irwyn sat at the bench for a while longer, thinking. The scenery was not bad for that, lacking in anything too interesting. When he got up with a light sigh a few minutes later he took barely a few steps before he had to suppress a stagger. Because on a bench not far away he noticed a face that he happened to know.

    A certain someone who he had met not long after his arrival in Abonisle. A Light mage who could become invisible and investigated Irwyn¡¯s hotel on behalf of the Old Hummingbird.

    Well¡­ Elizabeth was still likely days away and Irwyn had been very curious about how that spell had worked.

 2.30 Light to eye

    Irwyn slowed down and made sure he was not staring directly at the man, though they seemed to not be paying particular attention to their surroundings. Irwyn was thinking about whether and how to approach, however, an opportunity presented itself before he took a dozen more steps: The man was casting. Just a bit of magic, a few rays of light jumping along the man''s fingers. It even reminded Irwyn of how he sometimes played with a bit of magic to relief some nerves. More importantly though, there were few Light mages in the duchy of Black.

    Supposedly it had to do with Void magic being more widespread in the ambience as well as children of existing Void mages being much more likely to be the same while at the same time reducing the statistical chance of possessing any affinity to light as the two elements were anathema. Either way, because of that rarity, it was a conversation starter; sharing something uncommon was a good icebreaker.

    Slowly, Irwyn approached the bench. Midway he changed direction and walked around so that his approach could be seen well before he arrived. He had relatively no problem with Desir sneaking up on him, at least in this case, however, this was practically a complete stranger. And indeed, he was quickly spotted as the man dismissed the spell and frowned lightly.

    "How may I help you?" they said as soon as Irwyn could hear.

    "I apologize if I am disturbing you, however, I couldn''t help but notice your magic as I was passing by, and well¡­" Irwyn moved his wrist slightly and summoned a circle of light. He imbued it to solid and condensed. Just two concepts, in big part because of the conversation he has just had with Desir. If Alice was considered a prodigy it would be best to not overdo it, even if his current plan was all about playing the talented youth whom it might be worthwhile helping just a bit. In all honesty, he was not sure how well other mages could even perceive the number of concepts in a spell. ¡°I was hoping you would be willing to exchange some tricks if you have the time.¡±

    There was also a second layer to it. For the moment Irwyn¡¯s face was separate from young Mockingbird. He was not sure how long that would last but in the first place he had done so hoping it would provide him some opportunities ¨C and reduce risk of retaliation in case he made enemies ¨C perhaps this situation would be the chance to make use of that. He was not too worried that his voice would be recognized: After all, he had spoken to this man just briefly and in such circumstances that would be difficult to relate. When looking at the situation without context, Irwyn was just sixteen, too young to be the masked Fowl who had overwhelmed the other mage last time. ¡®Young¡¯ Fowls could be as old as 30 after all.

    On second thought, the man had seen Irwyn without disguise as just another guest at the hotel that night; and his suit, though it looked as generic as a black suit could. A blunder to not realise it before approaching though thankfully there was no recognition in the mage¡¯s eyes. If there had been Irwyn could have tried to play it off but not realizing and preparing in advance was suboptimal.

    ¡°I suppose I have the afternoon free since what I came here for fell through,¡± the man sighed. ¡°Arthur, pleasure.¡±

    ¡°Irwyn, the pleasure is mine,¡± he made his best smile and continued as conversationally as he could. ¡°Did something happen? I am not exactly the best connected, however, I might have overheard a hint of some kind.¡±

    ¡°Nothing to worry about,¡± Arthur waved his hand. ¡°Heard there was a visiting enchanter looking for a Light mage for some reason. Shame I was too busy to get here sooner and someone swiped whatever the job was from under my nose. I suspect I even know who¡­ Well, maybe this is just the distraction I need.¡±

    ¡°I see, I am sorry that happened to you,¡± he probably means Hen Daut and the Yong Mockingbird taking the job first. Well, that was actually exactly what happened but Arthur would not suspect Irwyn to be the one behind that just because of how young he was. ¡°Thought I will do my best to serve as a distraction.¡±

    ¡°Take a seat then,¡± Arthur invited, welcoming. ¡°Let¡¯s see. Did I notice right that you could already imbue intentions? That is extremely impressive at your age. How come I have never heard about you?¡±

    ¡°I arrived in Abonisle very recently,¡± Irwyn admitted, though the statement was misleading. He had come up with a plausible story before approaching. ¡°Frankly I am rather at a loss of what to do. My sponsor had put me in contact with some people and then left me to my own devices so far, though I have little to actually do other than practice magic.¡±

    ¡°Your sponsor?¡± Arthur asked with clear interest.

    ¡°I have been explicitly forbidden from talking about them?¡± Irwyn shook his head, trying to put a bit of regret into his tone. ¡°They can be rather¡­ loose in how they act, however, I would not dare break any direct promises made.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it was just idle curiosity,¡± Arthur laughed it off, waving a hand, though Irwyn was pretty sure the man¡¯s eyes were calculating; going the list of people that could fit all the clues presented so far. Though given how little had been said, quite a few should be possible. ¡°You spoke of tricks to Light magic, right? Well, I do have one which is more of a party trick,¡± he said and then raised a finger. For a moment longer it was there and then it disappeared.

    ¡°How did you do that,¡± Irwyn gasped, genuinely. He was preparing to fake a reaction of some kind but his surprise was true. Why would Arthur be immediately showing him that. Irwyn inspected the spell closer and quickly noticed a few abnormalities: The most blatant among them was that he could not quite see the whole knuckle. It was a bit strange to look at, almost uncanny. But it was as if half the knuckle was simply gone while the other half was stretched out over the gap where the bottom of the finger would attach to the hand. But that was only because Irwyn was looking hard. At a glance, it could probably pass for an ugly stump of a missing appendage.

    ¡°As I said, it¡¯s more of a party trick than something useful,¡± Arthur grinned and turned his hand, revealing that not all of the finger was even covered by the magic; only the front and back. From the side it was obvious that there were two parallel little squares of light at the front and back of the finger. From the inside they were not even transparent and glowed lightly, probably making them easy to spot in the dark. That made Irwyn realise why Arthur was so forward with shoving some of his invisibility. The man knew how to downplay his own ability and overstate the limitations of that magic Irwyn had seen him use.

    ¡°It¡¯s relatively simple. I use a spell called Mirrors of Light, what it does is create two mirrors just like this which interact with the human eye. You see, what our eyes behold is actually reflected natural light. What the spell does is that it takes the colors of the light that would have reflected of one of the pair and instead make it perfectly reflect off of the other. Basically, it copies exactly how light would act if neither of the two were there in the first place. If I put them opposite to each other it will always look like the space between them is empty, even if I put something there.¡±

    ¡°But your finger is stretched strangely?¡± Irwyn played as impressed as he could to draw out a few more clues from the man though his mind was already racing. Although Arthur was trying hard to downplay the practicality of the magic Irwyn had seen what it could do in action from the very same man. If he could just go invisible on a whim, even if the spell ended up being detectable, it could prove an incredible advantage in the right circumstances. And this gave him the direction to go towards if he wanted to figure it out on his own. Which Irwyn currently very much did.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s just the limitation of the magic,¡± Arthur shrugged. ¡°I need to fill out the gaps manually. Except I cannot just make up all those countless individual rays of light or change them to show something I want them too; that is way above the magic I can do. So instead, I have to improvise to fill in details, like where my finger should connect to the hand. On the floor of a room if I hid a single leg, for example, I would have to somehow recreate tiles or boards since the reflected image might not necessarily match the actual pattern on them. And don¡¯t get me to talk about doing that for grass and such, the only positive there is that mistakes are harder to spot for more complex things.¡±

    ¡°So you have to recreate anything in between if you want people to actually see it?¡± Irwyn nodded in understanding.

    ¡°Recreate is a strong word,¡± Arthur shook his head. ¡°I copy and modify more than anything else. Even doing that much can be difficult for me. Sone floors and such are much easier and I have to consider other things. For example, if a fowl was to fly through the gap, it would disappear when passing the upper boundary and reappear when going through the bottom for any viewer. In the end, this little trick remains more for impressing strangers than anything useful.¡±

    Except Irwyn had seen firsthand that this very man had perfected it. It was a clue and Irwyn was thinking about whether it would be wise to push for more or whether to just be happy with what he got and move from there. Also, did he just use the word fowl to see if Irwyn would react to it? Well, Irwyn had not so that was fine but he still needed to figure out where to take the conversation from there.

    Except when he was just about to speak again he felt a flash of magic course through the air. A thin string, flying at the speed of sound; a seemingly weak construct that had to weave around all the surrounding enchantments and slip through their gaps just to avoid being destroyed. Irwyn was surprised it was even able to enter the area at all.

    ¡°Excuse me for a moment,¡± Arthur reacted to it immediately though, reaching into his pocket and removing a crystalline square of some kind. The flickering string of magic stopped flying around and immediately homed into the item. ¡°I apologize but would you mind giving me some privacy?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Irwyn nodded and stood up, stepping away from the bench. Since the area was enchanted to mute sound he did not even need to go further than a few steps away. He felt Arthur do something magical to the box, likely activating it, and then listening without speaking a word. It was a good half minute before the older mage beckoned Irwyn to return, already, the man was standing up.

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Though short, I enjoyed our chat Irwyn, I wish you luck with your magic though unfortunately something has come up and I will have to take my leave,¡± he said. ¡°May we meet again.¡±

    ¡°Good luck to you too,¡± Irwyn nodded his goodbye and Arthur almost ran off. Whatever the matter was, it was clearly urgent. The method of communication also fascinated Irwyn. There were means of sending and receiving messages over short and long distances like that - both mundane or magical in fact - however, those suffered because of ambient magic. Simply put enchantments tended to completely block out any such communication attempts for various reasons. Whatever that had been, it eluded those issues somehow. And Irwyn had felt no intention from that string of magic. That meant it was either particularly weak or beyond Irwyn¡¯s ability to fully understand. If it was the later it would at the very least explain why it was able to arrive in the first place.

    Though Arthur was gone for the moment, he had given Irwyn an idea. Several ideas in fact. And also made Irwyn realize several of his own deficiencies. The biggest one was the very concept of sight. Irwyn had known in some way that seeing was caused by reflected natural light, but that was far from properly understanding what that meant. Embarrassingly enough, Irwyn realized that he had next to no idea about the specifics and exact mechanisms in place. From where the light reflected, how it actually interacted in the eye, how was that interpreted into sight¡­ Irwyn did not actually comprehend.

    So, he decided that if he had any shot at making a working invisibility spell, he needed to learn. And for that he needed an appropriate book. He might have asked Elizabeth, however, since she was not available, he would have to search for one himself. Except Irwyn had no idea where to buy such literature. He was looking for downright academic texts after all, not something present in most stores. Was there a library somewhere? He had not the slightest clue.

    But he knew someone who might. Irwyn quickly set off and hoped he would be able to catch Desir to ask for some directions.

    <hr>

    Some ten hours later, Irwyn was staring at the mirror in his bathroom, eyes lightly bloodshot. It was already dark outside though he did not particularly care; he had just attempted to cast the first draft of the spell after getting done with visualizing its outline and how it was supposed to actually work.

    Sight, as it turned out, was a deep, fascinating and in some topics even controversial subject. Desir had indeed managed to help Irwyn, getting him in touch with someone who specifically sold scientific literature to mages and had exactly what Irwyn had been looking for. The cost was steep for a book but Irwyn could afford it and it was definitely something he wanted to improve his comprehension in.

    The first issue Irwyn had run into was color. Natural light¡¯s color was determined by what the light reflected off of. Simplified, the impact of reflection changed the individual particles of light and absorbed some of it and its energy; Black apparently took the most while white took the least. What was reflected would then enter the human eye which could perceive these colors through countless small receptors; differentiate them from one another. Then it was up to the brain and soul to understand what the colours meant and visualise them. Similar principles applied to shapes as well as pretty much the rest of seeing.

    Human eyesight was all about interpreting natural light. Human eyesight.

    Because that was clearly not all that there was. Some monsters or animals had no sight and instead understood their surroundings by sensing such things as tremors, smell, heat, or other stimulation but that was nothing compared to magical species.

    Many creatures simply possessed what the book described as magical sight, a term which it called ¡®So broad it is similar to calling a group of humans people¡¯. Since any such sight was magical, they worked based on what kind of magic they used. The most common ¡®raw¡¯ magical sight simply projected elementless mana in front of the eyes which captured natural light, then sent it off for the brain and/or soul to understand. In theory, it did not require for the area of capture to be just right in front of the eyes; it could be anywhere and of any size. Except that for the limited number of creatures that used this kind of magical sight it was inborn and learned by instinct; obtaining such technique was apparently ¡®beyond difficult¡¯ and ¡®a challenge a magelord would struggle to accomplish¡¯. Most notably, the majority of undead operated on this kind of sight. It was actually a topic of great controversy whether common undead exclusively operated on magical sight or if they would use the pre-existing eyesight when being risen; if possible. The evidence on the topic was inconclusive considering that testing on an actual undead beings in laboratory conditions was obviously strictly illegal; all undead had to be put down as soon as feasible by Blackburg law. Such magical sight might be able to notice there was something awry with the method of invisibility Irwyn was attempting to develop, however, not what exactly.

    In the end though that wasn¡¯t too much of an issue for the spell at least compared to other things. No, there were other kinds of sight that would simply invalidate the spell by default at least in the way it was conceived. Though these rarely appeared across the land, more specialised magical sights could cause Irwyn problems. One simply ¡®saw through any magic¡¯; apparently the experience was quite strange and required specialized training for humans.

    Most Void dwellers including many demons or even apparently perceived reality by the lack of light rather than its presence; they could not properly operate on any plane but apparently it was perfectly suitable for existing within the endless nothingness.

    The Fae, as always an exception it would seem, possessed the ability to just see through illusions, including physical ones and even ¡®metaphorical¡¯ ones, whatever that actually meant. Whoever wrote the book had no good guess on how that was possible and simply put it down to ¡®unique fae magic¡¯.

    But back to color. It was a bit of an epiphany of its own for Irwyn to realize that he could change the color of his light. The change itself took him a good half hour and another one before he could do most of the visible spectrum. The kinds of light not visible by the human eye did not actually work for his magic though. He could make the Light itself invisible but not change it to colors that the eye simply could not perceive. Entire chapters were dedicated to the topic in the book, however, the base reason for that was relatively simple:

    Magical light created by Light magic was fundamentally different from natural light.

    Although the human eye perceived them the same way, while natural light worked on reflected particles with specific properties, magical light was visible because of what the book described as meta-particles.

    In the end, it all came back down to the Planar law of Finity. Since the magic could not cause any permanent ¡®matter¡¯ to be created, the particles of light that radiated from magical light sources were actually nothing of the kind. It was temporary, volatile, and generally lasted at most a few seconds before dissolving into raw energy, generating a slight bit of heat. In the vast majority of circumstances the difference was academic. Reflected light moved at speeds incomprehensible to the human mind and mortal scale, however, it had been tested with ¡®endless chambers¡¯ that magical light eventually decayed when made to travel long enough distance; not to mention in accordance with Finity and its breakpoints.

    There was another area where the difference was not academic though: Different methods could either detect or outright see through such magical light or interacted with it strangely. Creating yet another weakness for what Irwyn was going to attempt. Frankly, it seemed that even if Irwyn managed to perfect the invisibility spell, it might only work against humans ¨C and not even all of them - even if he could control well enough to suppress any leakage of mana.

    Yet he was still determined to attempt it. For one part, being invisible just to humans was a tool he was distinctly missing; stealth had always been his weakness. But more importantly, there could be an opportunity to perfect it in the future. Turn it into something that could not be seen through by anyone with half-decent precautions.

    Hence why Irwyn was staring at himself in the mirror, eyes ever so slightly bloodshot as he attempted it again and failed. Not the trick with the reflective parallel mirrors that Arthur had shown him. He could do that limited version of what he pursued mostly fine after less than an hour of practice. No, the issue was he was struggling to make headway with overlaying it around the shape of his body rather than a flat plane.

    It was too complex. Far far too complex. Irwyn could possibly control thousands of individual constructs at a time without intentions involved. Manage them mostly independently, having each do whatever he pleased. Yet there were millions upon millions of rays of light he need to copy, or perhaps several orders of magnitude more give how exhausting even the attempts were. When the area was a straight mirror, that had not been a problem: He could just take everything at once as one bunch and transfer it to the other side.

    But that all changed when different shapes came into play. At a different distance, different angles from each other. Even though it was still far simpler than working with the individual particles of light it nevertheless remained beyond Irwyn¡¯s capacity. Far beyond as it seemed considering the whole thing had been shattering before even covering a fraction of Irwyn¡¯s form.

    After two more failed attempts Irwyn sighed and took a step back. It felt similar to the issues he had run into with his ambitious spell to perceive everything that Light touched around him¡­ And yet, this was different. It had to be. Because Irwyn was not exactly the same thief who had dreamed up that idea. Not because of the connections, achievements, or enemies, because those did not really matter to him in the end. No¡­ Irwyn felt like he was several leagues better in magic than his past self and would not allow another unattained dream. Not admit another defeat and ¡®maybe when I am better¡¯ like this

    So he took a step back and begun to restructure. The issue was there were far too many uneven surfaces to cover in the mirrors he had made to fit around his body, but they did not need to fit perfectly. What if he still used the much simpler flat shapes? Ovals and bends had proven to be extraordinarily more difficult but he did not technically speaking need them. He did not require for the spell to be right over his clothes. He just needed it to be close enough that it was practically there. A few millimeters of separation and suddenly, the requirements for uneven surfaces vanished.

    The mental image he had of the spell no longer looked like a shape very similar to his own, rather, it appeared almost like a plate armor, except all the bends and smoothed out surfaces had been turned as sharp as possible and instead of round. Bends turned into corners and circles into octagons wherever he could make the changes.

    It might have still been too much but he had another idea which he had neglected in the first draft, perhaps out of habit. Because he knew what to do when he had too many different constructs doing the same thing. He needed to merge it into a single spell. So he paced and muttered.

    ¡°Invisibility?¡± no too simple. Too generic. Beyond sight¡­ that would be better. ¡°But I can be more specific, just to see if this works at all,¡± he muttered. ¡°Sight, Light, that will do. Then¡­ hide. What rhymes with hide?¡± and so forth. It took him a few minutes but he made a working enough spell for what he wanted.

    All in all, it might have been another hour while he restructured the idea of the spell and its mechanisms from basically scratch then came up with a suitable chant. But even an hour could pass in the blink of an eye when spent in feverish obsession. And then, finally, Irwyn was satisfied enough to attempt it.

    ¡°With unbroken stride

    I will hide

    In the light

    Beyond mortal sight¡±

    And he smiled wide: Because though strained by the onset of tiredness, he could not see his own grin in the mirror.

 Intermission: Home

    Alice snuck out of her room in the early morning with practiced light steps. The boards of the floor did not creak nor had the door as she made her way downwards, down, down, towards their house¡¯s conference room where she knew that guest was being entertained.

    She had set up a little trigger, just a basic enchantment to tell her when they entered. Unlike her dad, Alice¡¯s talents leaned more towards direct application of magic. That did not mean that she had not meticulously learned what she could of enchantment. She once dreamed of attaining her Daut¡¯s capability at craft, though now that she had a better understanding of what that level was she had been mostly disillusioned of it. Notably, that did not mean that she had completely given up; just prioritized other parts of her training. She would have time later on in life.

    As she reached the back wall of the conference room she took a deep breath, looking around for her mom; she was nowhere in sight for the moment though so Alice could begin. She carefully whispered her spell.

    ¡°I know and trust

    Wisdom¡¯s hold

    Therefore I must

    Hear and behold¡±

    And she imbued into it every ounce of focus that she could muster. Hide, Pierce and Empower. Three intention spells were¡­ not easy for her. She could still manage a decent few but this one was particularly complex given what it needed to do. It was supposed to prodigious to just be capable of any intention in her magic at such a young age, though she distinctly, and somewhat bitterly, remembered a certain someone just as young completely eclipsing her in that regard.

    Their house was heavily enchanted. As any master artisan¡¯s ought to. Someone at her current capacity would have frankly stood no chance of breaking through them. But most of those protections were aimed against spells coming from the outside. The enchantments were still strong but mostly meant to prevent attacks. Alice¡¯s spell was no such thing so just barely it got through.

    The first thing she noticed as the spell established hearing and sight inside the room was her dad twitching slightly. Obviously, someone at his level would immediately notice, though considering he was not storming out to chide her nor immediately breaking down her magic she was probably in the clear to listen to the rest of the conversation. Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

    Normally she would be far less daring, most guests Daut would entertain under their roof were so good at magic they would undoubtedly notice and might take offence, however, this one was an exception. In fact, they were not even a mage which had been upseting her mom severely during the guest¡¯s stay. Alice also did not quite understand why her dad was showing them such deference.

    Because next to her father sat just an old man, withered and full of wrinkles; though still healthy despite their clearly advanced age. They wore that confident, easy-going smile as if immune to her mom¡¯s poorly concealed hostility shown over their stay. And also drinking that tea. Alice had tried some when the man had offered and found it nothing special, just decent tea; the man had said afterwards that few people could truly enjoy it, whatever that meant. Lastly, the man went by a strange name. Her dad only called him¡­

    ¡°....Old Crow. Either way, despite the incredible hassle it¡¯s finished,¡± the conversation was already ongoing.

    ¡°I apologize for how complicated what I ask was,¡± the man nodded. ¡°Though you were the only man I could think of that might be capable of it. If you need anything I can offer, you shall have it.¡±

    ¡°Think nothing of it,¡± her dad just shrugged to Alice¡¯s disbelief. He was not even getting paid for this? ¡°I owe you this ten times over.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± the old man raised an eyebrow with exaggerated facial movement and a slight grin. ¡°I thought you did not do handouts?¡±

    Then her father did something unexpected: He laughed out loud. This startled Alice. He never laughed when doing business; always serious to his guests even if he adapted his speech a bit. He might do polite smiles and perhaps even joke around when he thought it appropriate, but never laugh. Not even to clients he was friendly with. Alice knew that as she had been used as a ¡®cute little girl¡¯ prop when she was a bit younger from time to time, not to mention he never ever acknowledged how his name sounded so comical.

    ¡°What can I say? I can make an exception for an old friend.¡±

    ¡°Well, I can hardly refuse the generosity,¡± the old man nodded cordially. ¡°Though I will remember this if you ever need anything.¡±

    ¡°If I can find you,¡± her dad grinned. ¡°You know, everyone I asked really thought you had an unfortunate encounter in the last lich war.¡±

    ¡°I was hurt at a siege,¡± the man acknowledged. ¡°My stay in hiding had been extended by¡­ circumstances local and political. Let me at least give you a warning of what I was able to gleam lately. There will be a struggle for power at the highest echelons of Duchy of Black within the decade; maybe as soon as 5 years. There might be something similar to the war that had almost broken out against the Duchy of Yellow right before that great Lich appeared 16¡­ I suppose 17 years ago now. If my estimate is correct it will be bloody, sudden and onesided but if things get drawn out, it will be basically a civil war.¡±

    ¡°Damn, things really do not change with you,¡± Daut snorted, though she could tell he was much more serious than a moment prior. She herself was stunned; how could an old man, not even a mage, possibly know such things? Even in Steelmire knowledge about the leadership of their adjacent duchies was limited. ¡°Even when you help people it only adds to their worries.¡±

    ¡°Well, I would hate for you to get dragged into anything lethal,¡± Old Crow¡­ the Old Crow? What was up with that name? just shrugged.

    ¡°I will try to bring the clan head¡¯s attention to it, though he probably wouldn¡¯t hold your advice in high regard. I will figure a way to lead him towards those conclusions I suppose.¡±

    ¡°Well, if he is stubborn about it, I am sure I can do enough digging to impress him,¡± the old man sipped his tea and smiled. ¡°His type tends to quickly develop respect when you start reciting full names of their acquaintances from a century or two ago.¡±

    ¡°Well, now I am imagining what face the old man would make,¡± Daut grinned and Alice had to do the same just for the absurdity. She could just imagine it: The light surprise, quickly concealed into a pleasant smile followed by an invitation to¡­ tea probably given the Old Crow seemed to be partial to it. Alice was not great at reading people in general but she had gotten pretty good at understanding those right around her.

    ¡°Your leader has always been a wise man,¡± Old Crow nodded. ¡°I am sure with enough clues he will be brought to caution.¡±

    ¡°I certainly hope so,¡± Alice¡¯s dad nodded, then changed the topic. ¡°When will you be leaving?¡±

    ¡°Right away if you do not mind,¡± Old Crow said. ¡°I am sure that your love will be glad to be rid of me.¡±

    ¡°Please don¡¯t think too badly of her. She is a wonderful woman but she just does not understand this because of her upbringing.¡±

    ¡°What are you? 15 again that you would seek my approval over a girl?¡± Old Crow chuckled. ¡°I am going to be far too busy to hold a grudge over some slight.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I suppose,¡± Daut also chuckled, shaking his head. ¡°I assume this is meant for someone. Similar to me?¡±

    ¡°Perhaps even more talented than you were, though they had gotten into some serious trouble with the law,¡± the old man nodded. ¡°I am going to be calling in a lot of favours in the following month and hope that gets them out alive.¡±

    ¡°You know¡­ if necessary I could¡­¡± Alice¡¯s dad hesitated.

    ¡°Don¡¯t even say it. The issue might be a tad too big for your valley,¡± the Old Crow said and Alice spluttered. What kind of problem too big for Steelmire could he possibly tackle?

    ¡°That bad, huh,¡± her dad took it completely seriously though.

    ¡°Even worse than you are thinking. Thankfully, even more dangerous people have taken interest in them.¡±

    ¡°Good for your latest prodigy then,¡± Daut nodded. ¡°You will have to introduce us at some point in a few years. I am always looking for new clients.¡±

    ¡°I certainly will when this problem finally blows over, though that will not be before the Duchy of Black resolves their internal dispute. But I am stalling,¡± the old man sighed. Then he turned and stared directly into the spot from which Alice was looking at them. Right at that slightest pinpoint that was her magic. But he was not a mage. ¡°Give my best regards to your daughter,¡± he chuckled lightly. ¡°I am sure she will make a wonderful leader in a decade or two.¡±

    ¡°Do you want a bit of a head start?¡± Daut asked.

    ¡°North-east if you would,¡± the old man nodded. ¡°I am headed towards Dawbre next.¡±

    ¡°The Pelican? I had no idea he owed you a favor or a few,¡± Daut said as he reached into his pocket, taking out a spherical device which he deployed with a practised motion. It quickly stirred and activated, Alice feeling the fabric of Time and Space being lightly realigned.

    ¡°That¡¯s the trick, Rook, everyone owes me a favor or two,¡± Old Crow grinned and just a moment later the magic grasped him, whisking him away a good distance away from Steelmire. There was a limit because of Finity, however, if Alice recognized the expensive device correctly it could save days of travel.

    ¡°Alice, if you would please come in,¡± her dad sighed, sitting down.

    ¡°Good morning,¡± she greeted as soon as she entered, ¡°I am sorry I eavesdropped like that but I was just so curious¡­¡±

    ¡°I figured, though what did I tell you about that when it comes to my guests?¡± he said, though did not even bother to frown.

    ¡°That most of them might take offence if they noticed the attempt,¡± she recited. ¡°But he is not even a mage and I was being sneaky.¡±

    ¡°You underestimate the old man too much, just like your mother,¡± Daut sighed deeply.

    ¡°Even if he is smart or good at whatever he does, how would he overcome incapacity for magic?¡± Alice shrugged. In the end, people incapable of magic could only become so competent. The human body had limitations, unlike the soul.

    ¡°And that is exactly the way both of you think,¡± Daut nodded. ¡°And that might indeed be the case for almost anyone. But Old Crow is simply different.¡±

    ¡°How so? You said yourself he is not a mage.¡±

    ¡°I did and yet¡­¡± her father closed his eyes for a moment, thinking. ¡°I think the best example is the simplest one. I have first met Old Crow a long time ago, when I was barely a lad of some ten years or so. Can you imagine how he looked back then?¡±

    That was¡­ some 35 years ago. She imagined the old man had to be well into their 70s or maybe even older but she tried to imagine them middle-aged, without graying hair, fewer wrinkles¡­

    ¡°Whatever it is you are imagining Alice, it¡¯s wrong,¡± het dad interrupted her then. ¡°You see, three and a half decades ago, the Old Crow looked exactly the same as today.¡±

    ¡°How is that possible?¡± Alice¡¯s eyes widened. Over almost four decades even very powerful mages would show some signs of aging, even if undergoing treatment.

    ¡°Who knows?¡± Daut chuckled. ¡°I let him keep his secrets. You see, I once got curious about this, a few years before I met your mother, and managed to find the oldest mage I could meet who knew Old Crow personally. You know what they told me? That when they first met some 80 years ago from today, Old Crow already looked like a timeworn elder.¡±

    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°And you did not search further?¡± Alice was surprised. Any method of extending one¡¯s lifespan had obvious value, especially if it could somehow be combined with those already in use by old mages. Performing those services provided incredible wealth and prestige

    ¡°I respect him too much for that, Alice,¡± her dad shook his head. ¡°Just like I did not try to guess who the person he wanted the box for is; even if I have my suspicions. Not everything in this world is about profit or benefits. Gratitude also matters. Old Crow helped me when I was an orphan with nothing but a bit of talent and grit; raised me up instead of letting me die in a gutter like most would. I will never forget that.¡±

    ¡°He called you Rook¡­ like in chess? Is that an old nickname?¡±

    ¡°Older than you are,¡± he chuckled. ¡°Though don¡¯t mention it in front of your mother. She doesn¡¯t want me to talk about my life before I was ¡®tamed¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Is that so,¡± a mischievous grin snuck to her lips. ¡°Maybe I better ask her for details.¡±

    ¡°I am sure she will appreciate that and not take vengeance on us both,¡± Daut laughed. ¡°Though maybe I can bribe you to occupy yourself. Your grandfather should finally be returning from his mission soon.¡±

    ¡°Really?!¡± Alice chittered with joy. It had been weeks since her grandpa had gone and she missed him. She also wanted to vent some of her frustration about being beaten at spellcraft by a certain boy of similar age.

    ¡°Perhaps you should go greet him,¡± Daut said. ¡°His squad had passed through the southern outpost less than an hour ago. They should be home before noon.¡±

    ¡°I will wait in his office then,¡± she immediately nodded. Even if she had to wait a few hours, there would be plenty of things to occupy herself with in there. Her grandpa kept several collections of wonderous items.

    ¡°I will tell your mother to make lunch just for two,¡± he nodded, knowing she would stay over to eat. ¡°Enjoy yourself.¡±

    ¡°I will,¡± she smiled. ¡°Bye, dad. See you at dinner.¡±

    <hr>

    Her grandpa arrived much sooner than she would have expected. Even with conservative teleportations, it should take them hours to get home from the outpost in the south. Unlike Abonisle, Steelmire did not possess a temporal beacon or anything close to it after all. If teleporting to or from a beacon was like driving down a highway, long-distance transposition without was comparatively like going through an overgrown forest in most places. Steelmire was a bit better because they had some meta-physical infrastructure to make it easier, however, it was still straining even for the best mages they had to hurry overmuch.

    And her grandpa was the best mage they had. Technically speaking, there should have been several greats before the grandfather part, however, Alice disposed of them since they were so close. Although her grandpa was a few years past his second century of life, he still retained some youth, even still personally going on missions more often than even needed.

    Steelmire was after all still primarily a mercenary city. Although the upper echelons were closely related in a ¡®clan¡¯ of a kind, they still facilitated many mercenary mages or even regular people; lending out their name and reputation in exchange for a cut. There were some contracts though that required the best of the best and her grandpa had gone on exactly one such mission. He had done so half a hundred times just in Alice¡¯s own memory so not a worry had crossed her mind.

    Until she saw the man teleport into the office, short of breath and noticeably more hunched than usual.

    ¡°Oh, Alice,¡± her grandpa said as he spotted her, slightly startled. And that was an even bigger sign that something was amiss. Her grandpa was never startled.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, gramps?¡± Alice asked, noticing the man¡¯s feverish eyes. The bags from the lack of sleep and trembling of hands. Signs of exhaustion all around. But her grandfather was a demigod in his own right, a mage exceptional even in the Federation, the kind that could feasibly challenge even some of the younger Dukes. It was not easy to push him to such a state.

    ¡°Alice, oh, dear Alice, I might have made a horrible, horrible mistake,¡± he said, calming down a bit. His eyes focused more turning to a cabinet. He took a step there and with one motion opened a drawer and removed something. ¡°Here it is. Thankfully you are already here,¡± he turned around and Alice realised he was now holding a signet ring. One she knew very well. She had been eyeing it for years now, long promised to her. The Chosen Heir¡¯s mark.

    But it was too early. Maybe a decade more, her grandpa would always tell her. If you reach conception before it is granted, you will be beyond questioning or challenge. But now he held it, almost desperately giving it to her. Alice¡¯s stomach twisted in fear.

    ¡°What in the world happened?¡± she said, an octave higher than she meant to.

    ¡°Oh, Alice, we have seen something that shouldn¡¯t be seen,¡± her Grandpa sighed deeply, a tremble unlike any she could ever remember from the man coursing through his body. ¡°It was by accident. It really was. If we had the slightest inkling¡­ any idea at all, we would not have gone. But it is done and we were noticed. And I am so terribly afraid of what might happen as a result.¡±

    ¡°Who did you offend? What did you see?¡± Alice demanded. ¡°Is it one of the Dukes?¡± Steelmire did border three duchies after all and her granpa was one of the greatest mages alive. Who else could frighten him so?

    ¡°Not yet, Alice, not yet,¡± her grandpa shook his head. ¡°If there is any hope for this to resolve peacefully I cannot tell you. But we must prepare before¡­¡± then her Grandpa paused. ¡°Nevermind. They are already almost here. We will have to improvise¡­¡± he thought for a moment. ¡°Yes, that is the way to go. Alice, have you practiced the stealth magic I have taught you.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I have become proficient in it,¡± Alice nodded.

    ¡°Good,¡± her Granpa smiled. ¡°I need you to cast it, better than ever before. Until a tiger could not hear your breath, until a wolf could not smell you in the same room, an eagle could not see you on an empty field. Until your very soul is completely beyond perception.¡±

    ¡°That¡­ is a lot to ask,¡± Alice was quickly feeling much less confident.

    ¡°I know, I know, but I believe in you. They will be looking for my magic and notice if I do it for you. And you will have this,¡± he gave her the ring. ¡°With it, I know you can do it.¡±

    And she tried. Putting on the ring she felt power coursing through her. Clarity unlike anything she had ever felt before. It made her feel so much better. Lighter and more competent. With focus beyond anything she had managed in all her life she nodded to her grandpa¡¯s encouraging eyes and spoke words well practiced; not hesitating:

    ¡°In our corner little

    We built a nation brittle

    The meek and their betters

    Both Concealed in fetters

    For that which is bound

    Shall nevermore be found¡±

    And she felt the effects immediately. Like chained, her limbs grew stiff and numb. Her knees almost buckled as she struggled against what felt like doubled or even tripled gravity. That exceptional clarity receded leaving her feeling barely better than before she had put on the ring. Her senses grew a little duller, her thoughts slower.

    But she was hidden. For every little bit of weakness caused by that spell was spent twofold to help conceal her. A spell speaking of legends half-forgotten, kept secret among her clan and bloodline. A spell left behind by her distant ancestor who had founded Steelmire, their records speaking of how he had bound himself to others in order to be allowed to form their group at the border of three Duchies. Hiding in those fetters, pretending to be weak as their schemes came to fruition without any of the three Dukes so much as suspecting anything.

    Sadly the word of mouth also spoke of the failure. Of how despite everything, in the end, the founder died through failing to claim a Name; despite decades of preparation. It was perhaps the deepest secret Alice had been privy to, carefully hidden from the Duchies. Those at the height of power, after all, hated the uncontrollable variables that independent Named represented and tended to punish failures brutally even after the incomplete ascendant perished in the attempt; just to discourage others from doing the same. The Soulscatcher was a living example of how an unaffiliated Named could disturb the balance of power after all.

    ¡°You have done well Alice,¡± her grandpa nodded, clearly struggling to keep his eyes on her despite her standing right in front of him and the extreme difference in their relative power. ¡°It is not quite perfect but it will do. Alright, in a few moments, I will move you to a crawlspace just below the floor here. You will be able to hear everything but do not make a sound. If anything happens that leaves me indisposed I need you to tell everyone exactly what happens.¡±

    ¡°Are you in danger?¡± Alice gasped, her voice coming out as a distant whisper, muted by the spell. Finally, it dawned on her why her grandpa wanted to take all these measures; she should have realized it much sooner.

    ¡°I will not lie Alice,¡± her grandpa sighed again, looking so pale. ¡°I will do everything I can to avert disaster but if the worst comes to pass you must be strong. Whatever happens, I know that you will live up to my every expectation. I wish we could talk more Alice but they are almost here,¡± he then flicked his wrist and Alice was underneath the floor, lying in a tight space. With the sheer qualitative difference, she had not felt the slightest amount of magic course. That was to be expected though, so she steadied her breath the best she could and did exactly as she had promised: Hid and listened.

    It was less than a minute later when another set of footsteps entered the room. Slow and confident, perfectly paced.

    ¡°Welcome,¡± her grandpa said, his voice firm again. She realised he was sitting directly above her, helping conceal her just by not suppressing his own powerful presence. I might have been suffocating if their high affinity for Time did not match his own. ¡°I apologize that I have neglected to prepare tea. If you wish I can call for a servant.¡±

    ¡°That will not be necessary,¡± a new voice replied. Alice thought it sounded at least middle-aged, maybe old. It was hard to tell without seeing anything. She could also not feel the slightest trace of any magic beside her gradpa¡¯s though that was always going to be the case. Still, she had hoped she might at least feel the person¡¯s affinity if they didn¡¯t bother hiding it.

    ¡°Straight to business then,¡± her granpa said, she could just imagine how he would be nodding. ¡°First of all, I will obviously apologize for the incident. Please believe me, if we had the slightest inkling of what we would find we would have rejected the contract outright.¡±

    ¡°Obviously you would have,¡± the other voice replied. ¡°But you didn¡¯t have the slightest idea because until now I have made sure that not a word of it was known to anyone anywhere.¡±

    ¡°I realize that this is upsetting to you and what an awkward position this situation has put you into. That is why Steelmire will fully cooperate with any measures you wish to take. I have strictly forbidden everyone else in my team from so much as utter the slightest mention of the events and we are all naturally open to revealing the employer as well as having our memory of the incident erased, including myself of course.¡±

    Alice stopped herself from gasping. This must have been even worse than her grandpa had implied. Modifying memory was a dangerous process that required incredibly skilled mages or risked severe side effects but it was a completely different story to allow a mage that you did not have implicit trust in to perform this kind of procedure. False memories and hidden commands were a serious risk and allowing it would be an act of complete submission. Yet her grandfather did not even try to avoid that and instead offered it immediately as if it was the bare minimum.

    ¡°Tell me, old friend, do you know the odds?¡± the other voice sighed deeply.

    ¡°The odds of what?¡± her grandpa sounded perhaps slightly confused.

    ¡°The odds of betrayal from your comrades. The odds that someone had written down what they had found. The odds that someone had told their spouse or child. The odds that something slips through the crack of a changed memory.¡±

    ¡°Everyone who had gone with me are some of the most loyal men and women I have at my disposal,¡± Alice¡¯s grandpa tried to appease the worries. ¡°I have worked closely with each of them for at least half a century, longer with most. They obey me implicitly, especially in something this serious.¡±

    ¡°So tell me then, what are the odds they do not? One in a thousand? In ten thousand? A hundred?¡± the other voice rose half a pitch. ¡°That they are not as loyal as you think? That you lie to better appease me? That there are other things at play we have not even considered? Do you actually comprehend what is at stake if just the slightest whisper of this reaches a single wrong ear?¡±

    ¡°I understand it would put you and everyone close to you into great peril,¡± Alice¡¯s grandpa said. ¡°But if this is handled with prudence the odds of even the slightest hint of this emerging are extremely remote. Look me in the eyes, you know I am not lying. We have known each other for decades. And I can offer my personal services for dealing with those issues in the case that any emerge; free of charge, of course.¡±

    Then there was silence. A good half dozen seconds before the unknown person released such a bone-weary sigh Alice could almost feel the tiredness and¡­ sadness?

    ¡°If it was anything else, old friend, I would have calculated the odds. Considered the dangers and benefits. Put the consequences against what I could gain. But in this¡­ The truth is that in this, one in a hundred million is too great of a risk.¡±

    ¡°Even if you kill me it will not improve the odds of hiding this,¡± her grandpa¡¯s voice grew tense as Alice felt her heartbeat rapidly go out of control. No please no. Not this. ¡°Rather, it will only raise questions.¡±

    ¡°I think you misunderstand,¡± the voice sighed again. ¡°Not a clue must escape. Not the slightest inkling of anything. Not even a hint of suspicion. Far too much is at stake¡­ Though I will regret it for the rest of my days, tonight Steelmire will be erased.¡±

    ¡°You are mad if you think this will work,¡± Alice¡¯s blood froze in her veins, her mind descending into panic as her grandpa also lost their cool. ¡°You would be murdering thousands upon thousands of innocent people just for worse odds. Others will look and they will figure out it could have only been you. Even if they cannot prove it they will know and it will raise questions. Please, this is not the path you want to go down. Your own niece lives here.¡±

    ¡°Seven and thirty-six,¡± the other voice said and Alice despite feeling near catatonic felt magic gather as both men prepared to clash. ¡°There have been seven incidents provably involving necromancy or undead in the Duchy Federation over the last three months. Thirty-six where such involvement is suspected. The pattern is clear, we are in a prelude to the next Lich war and everyone knows how valiantly Steelmire performed in the last one 16 years ago. When the Deathseekers come to investigate, they will conclude that you were merely the first true casualty. An isolated target of opportunity.¡±

    ¡°You are mad, utterly insane,¡± her grandpa spat. ¡°You will not get away with this,¡± The magic gathering now made Alice feel distinctly suffocated despite also being a Time mage. And the pressure was only rising.

    ¡°It is already done,¡± the voice spoke, one last deep sigh. ¡°I am sorry it had come to this, old friend, I really am.¡±

    Then all that magic was let loose. Hundreds of spells, each leagues beyond anything Alice could ever conjure. A genuine tide of magic clashing, utterly overwhelming Alice¡¯s senses for a moment. And then one touched her. A hidden tendril grasped her, a single subtle surge, perfectly concealed among the barrage of magic that did not bother with any subtlety. It grasped her and then she felt no more of that battle.

    Because she was in a forest. Sitting on the ground. She felt the trace of that magic which had brought her here, shatter and retract so that it could not be traced. So that no one would know such a teleportation had even taken place. There had been no time for words. Not a moment for a goodbye.

    Alice sat there on the ground in sheer shock for what felt like hours. Then she screamed.

 2.31 Reasonable certainty

    Irwyn did not leave his room the following two days. There were improvements to be made after all. First to his new invisibility spell. The chant could perhaps be made a bit better, the shape of it a bit more optimized, the ideal intentions for different situations chosen and practiced.

    For one, he had found that the intentions to suppress and contain helped reduce the sound he made while affected by the spell, which was certainly a major weakness. Irwyn could move reasonably quietly but he knew what actually quiet was from Waylan and he was not there.

    On the other hand, conceal or hide did¡­ very little. How do you hide even more while invisible? Irwyn hoped it might make the spell at least somewhat effective towards beings with magical sight that might see through it otherwise, however, he had no way of even attempting to properly test that.

    He did, however, make another invention. He called the spell Remote eye and frankly, he was surprised the idea had not struck him earlier to at least attempt something like it. Instead of trying to perceive everything it was much easier to just watch from an artificial point. Namely, it worked on a similar principle as his invisibility: Creating a small mirror-like light construct and then projecting any light that would reflect off of it to another small creation that just happened to be placed right in front of one of his eyes.

    It provided him with the incredible ability to just look from anywhere he wanted. Though it was far from ideal. For one, the spell had a very limited range. It was not even about the cost, Irwyn simply struggled to maintain it once it reached far enough away from his body. This could be somewhat bypassed by maintaining a direct link through a thin string of light, though that conflicted with the versatility of using the spell through walls and made it twice as detectable.

    Which was a problem because the spell was already less than subtle. Not to mention physically visible, it bled mana like a beacon for anyone to easily detect. He could mitigate it when close to his person, however, more than a few dozen meters away and any half-decent mage visible would be able to feel the magic staring at them. But perhaps being noticed was no longer such a problem.

    In fact, Irwyn was starting to realise that his repertoire of magic had shifted away from subtlety during his stay in Abonisle. It was not that long ago he had been struggling to make an invisible barrier that would be able to somewhat block things while being hard to detect; because it had been important to not be identified as a mage. Or caster as he had used the apparently archaic term at the time. But in Abonisle? There was no urgent need to be unnoticed even in his day to day life. Perhaps he was still internalizing that though, that subtlety no longer needed to be his first, second and third option. That he could afford to show off a bit, perhaps even in somewhat public spaces.

    At some point, Irwyn had been dragged from his thoughts by a loud knocking on his door. He had lost the exact track of time but he was pretty sure it was before noon¡­ maybe. Irwyn realized he might be a bit of a mess at the moment though the knocking at the door sounded almost urgent so he stood up as he was.

    As he approached the door, Irwyn remembered he could have a look at who it was without guessing. With a quick cast, his vision split, one eye¡¯s sight remaining the same while the other revealed his guest. There, Desir kept knocking, with a neutral expression. Then Irwny quickly dismissed the spell. Walking with his vision divided had the tendency to result in stubbed toes at his current level of practice. Another thing to improve on.

    ¡°Yes, I am coming,¡± Irwyn announced as he was near the door, opening it a moment later. ¡°Oh, Desir, what brings you here?¡±

    ¡°Well, you are a mess,¡± Desir grinned, looking Irwyn over.

    ¡°Is it that bad?¡± Irwyn shrugged.

    ¡°I would not necessarily blame someone for mistaking you for an undead,¡± Desir maintained a slight smile. ¡°Pale, outworn clothes and a fair bit of unwashed stench. What have you been doing?¡±

    ¡°Studying,¡± Irwyn shrugged, glancing at the room behind himself. ¡°I may have¡­ overdone it a bit.¡±

    ¡°You know, now it makes much more sense why you are rarely ever seen leaving your room,¡± Desir sighed. ¡°May I come in?¡±

    ¡°Be my guest,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°Though beware that it probably looks no more cleaned up than me.¡±

    ¡°It cannot be that bad,¡± Desir said as he stepped in, immediately acted out an exaggerated flinch and backed away. ¡°Nevermind, it is.¡±

    ¡°Just a bit messy,¡± Irwyn defended. He couldn¡¯t take notes but there were¡­ books scattered almost innovatively not to mention some uncleaned crumples from snacks and whatnot ¡°I haven¡¯t cleaned since we last met as I was occupied.¡±

    ¡°Irwyn, if this is what you managed to create in just over two days, I am grudgingly impressed,¡± Desire spread his hands, pointing at the room.

    ¡°It might not have been the cleanest beforehand either,¡± Irwyn admitted. He had been too busy to just¡­ clean. ¡°It¡¯s just a bit here and there, nothing too horrendous.¡±

    ¡°I suppose it beats the sewers, if barely,¡± Desir shook his head. The halfway was mostly empty, however, there was a table and two chairs in Irwyn¡¯s bedroom once Desir stepped further in and the blue-eyed man took one, Irwyn reaching for the other both of them sitting down.

    ¡°Do you at least have something to drink?¡± Desir sighed.

    ¡°I don¡¯t have a kitchen,¡± Irwyn shrugged.

    ¡°You can literally boil the water in thin air,¡± Desir placed a palm over his eyes. ¡°You just need a mug and can make tea or coffee in seconds. You what, just drink tap?¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°Nothing wrong with that.¡±

    ¡°Irwyn¡­¡± Desir looked him in the eyes, deathly serious, ¡°Mages as good as you are expected to have a damn wine cellar. At least a cabinet with something decent and expensive. But you don¡¯t have a tea bag to your name.¡±

    ¡°I avoid alcohol,¡± Irwyn shrugged again, not really seeing the issue.

    ¡°And you don¡¯t have to drink it Irwyn. But you need to have something. This is not about you, Irwyn, this is about decorum, prestige,¡± Desir shook his head, almost heated now. ¡°You are the mysterious new Young Fowl. You have a standard to uphold. Even in private, I would expect a certain amount of¡­ grace for a lack of better word. But instead, you live like a divorced alcoholic after a night of rage-fueled dish breaking.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ see your point¡­¡± kind off. Although he had some qualms about needing to maintain a standard in private, he was not really in private at the moment. Though he had become friends with Desir they had not known each other that long. It was indeed unbefitting to accept any guests like this. ¡°Frankly, I had planned to move out of here not long after my arrival. Even though circumstances had changed that intention, perhaps my train of thought about it being temporary remained,¡± Elizabeth, or someone around her, had installed that Time/Space device that he had found after all. The one which he suspected allowed her to freely teleport right to his doorstep through her heavily enchanted dress and did who knows what else. And well, that made it rather awkward to move, even if he was not supposed to know about it. That could not have been cheap after all.

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°Good, I am hoping you will take it as advice and not me being just picky,¡± Desir nodded. ¡°Now, let¡¯s get down to business.¡±

    ¡°You already have some news?¡± Irwyn¡¯s eyes sharpened. There was probably only one business Desir would personally come over to discuss even if it had not been that long. Whatever people the city itself employed had been searching in futility for literal weeks, at least as far as he knew yet Desir had seemingly arrived at something in just two days.

    ¡°Well, I tried to go for a far different angle than the official investigation would have,¡± Desir grinned. ¡°You see, since they apparently stole weapons of some kind, I went looking for people looking to buy recently.¡±

    ¡°Because the perpetrators would have to offload it somehow,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Either that, but more likely, because they would be looking for even more,¡± Desir shook his head. ¡°No one is mad enough to mess with House Blackburg just to sell some Black-market goods. Whoever had been behind the attack has the means, the mad determination and an agenda behind that resolution. If they need military-grade stuff enough to openly go after state property, well, they have probably been stalking the Black market for a while. And there I found my clue: I have an old pal who deals with arms mundane and magical around those parts and he told me with confidence that one of his competitors had been outbidding everyone when it comes to the cream of the crop of any illegal war grade equipment that makes it to the market. In fact, often at prices that would usually be mutually exclusive with profit.¡±

    ¡°So there are good odds he has a wealthy patron who is possibly connected to someone behind the attack,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°It¡¯s mostly conjecture to be honest,¡± Desir shrugged. ¡°But hey, beggars, choosers and whatnot. If there are no better clues it¡¯s worth checking out.¡±

    ¡°Alright, then where do we find this arms dealer?¡±

    ¡°The pal of mine I mentioned before may have been keeping tabs on his fellow traders,¡± Desir grinned deeply. ¡°And happens to know about where and when they will be making an evening deal in two days¡¯ time. Shouldn¡¯t be too hard to nib them on their way from it, or crash the party if it comes down to it. They will be guarded but nothing that could deal with a metaphorical heavyweight like you.¡±

    ¡°How will we get what we need from them then?¡± Irwyn was nodding along but obviously asked about the perceived hole in the plan.

    ¡°Leave that to me Irwyn,¡± Desir kept smiling. ¡°Half an hour alone in a room with them and I will know everything they do. It might not have come up but even Ibis calls for me by name when he needs an interrogation done right.¡±

    ¡°Fine, I will leave that to you then,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Do you intend to bring someone else?¡±

    ¡°I will have a small crew that¡¯s reasonably trustworthy, just for the first part though. Basically, ambush specialists to help cover anyone retreating. Once we have captured the arms dealer they will leave with their pay. You?¡±

    ¡°I might bring one,¡± Irwyn said after a moment of thought. Elizabeth had said she would be away for a week at most. The odds were she would make it and would want to be involved. ¡°It will depend on their schedulle, however, my contact in high society might want to personally take part.¡±

    ¡°They any good?¡± Desir¡¯s gaze sharpened slightly.

    ¡°I am reasonably confident they would wipe the floor with you in combat,¡± Irwyn explained though he omitted that Elizabeth could also wipe the floor with him. ¡°Frankly, if they ask I would not dare refuse, however, they will not drag us down and might be inclined to pay us extra if they get a bit of skin in the game.¡±

    ¡°Well, this is your client to begin with,¡± Desir shrugged. ¡°If you think they won¡¯t be a burden I won¡¯t complain. I will cover the crew for the moment and then we take the cost as an extra cut from the final payout. They charge me a fixed rate so anything we might recover from the dealer is also ours. My pal will fence it off us.¡±

    "Sounds good,¡± Irwyn agreed. ¡°Do you have a more concrete idea of where this will happen?"

    "Better," Desir reached into a pocket, taking out a folded piece of paper. "I have a plan of the building where the deal will take place," he said as he unfolded it.

    It looked a bit strange in all honesty. Two exits, no windows, and after a few moments of staring Irwyn realized that the upper of the two floors was actually slightly larger than the lower one. And the position of it seemed to be adjusted for something built next to it, a bit like an uneven curved street. But Abonisle had few of those, due to its almost obsessive urban planning at least as far as Irwyn had seen.

    "Is this¡­ underground?" Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    "Connected to the sewers," Desir nodded. ¡°In the middle of two tunnels with a back exit.¡±

    "You know, there seem to be a lot of these underground bases," Irwyn shook his head.

    "Obviously. They are mostly old storage and ritual rooms from when Abonisle was more of a fortress than a town," Desir shrugged. "The inner-city sewers used to be tunnels meant for use during a siege. Now that the military has one of the three Spires dedicated to them these were mostly abandoned. There is an¡­ agreement of sorts with the City that there is limited scrutiny down there as long as some conditions are met. Though don¡¯t ask me for details since only the four birds actually know the exact terms agreed upon.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough, what¡¯s your plan?¡± Irwyn returned to their operation

    ¡°I say we wait for the deal to conclude and wait by the door,¡± Desir nodded.

    ¡°There are three,¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. ¡°I suppose we set up at one side and your friends on the other.

    ¡°Yes, though they are there more a backup in case the dealer slips through our fingers,¡± Desir nodded. ¡°You see, the seller is almost certainly going to leave first when the deal is done, it¡¯s basically etiquette. And the buyer is going to leave through the opposite side. We just have to wait by one of the doors. If the dealer comes out we get them, if the seller does, we go inside right after our target before they have the chance to leave.¡±

    ¡°How do we tell them apart?¡± Irwyn was nodding along though he pointed out what he saw as possible flaws.

    ¡°Easy. People who are not carrying crates are most likely going to be the sellers. I also have a description on the person in charge we will be looking for. They will also have a whole crew of bodyguards while their seller could be just an individual or a few people.¡±

    ¡°Couldn¡¯t they just stuff them into spacial bags?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t just stuff highly magical war equipment into compressed space Irwyn, unless you are sure those bags are top-notch and the enchantments on the weaponry are stable,¡± Desir shook his head. ¡°Especially because the top-end stuff does not reach the black market. What they are trading are mostly things either so low power or so near Finity expiration that they managed to slip them through the books or steal them without getting hunted down for it. Because anyone who steals something actually state of the art tends to die by the end of the day and stays low for much longer if they live. Case in point, the recent attackers in hiding somewhere.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn could very well understand that people essentially stealing from House Blackburg would not make it far if they were noticed and it only made sense that the higher quality something was, the closer it was guarded. And the military was officially maintained and owned exclusively by that very same house, at least in the Duchy of Black. No, anything that reached the black market of that kind would be either bottom of the barrel, homemade replicas, or smuggled from other duchies. Either way, the quality would most likely be on the lower end.

    ¡°Where will we meet up?¡±

    ¡°Here,¡± Desir, apparently well prepared, just took out a handwritten card with an address and time. It was in the early evening, not long after dusk. ¡°It¡¯s a small, out-of-the-way storehouse. Ideal for clandestine meetings. We should meet a bit early just in case before my friends do. Better we have a small talk with the people in the loop. I will keep my ear to the ground in case something changes or for extra details.¡±

    ¡°I will see you there then,¡± Irwyn nodded, standing up and offering his hand.

    ¡°In two days then,¡± Desir took the handshake, saying his goodbye before departing; of course, leaving the note behind. Irwyn would need to figure out where the address actually was but that should not be too much trouble.

    He sighed and sat back down on his bed. He had to admit that the room was really a bit of a mess so he stood back up and started cleaning a bit. Maybe he should figure out where a duster was.

    ¡°Reasonably sure I would wipe the floor with that one, huh,¡± a familiar voice suddenly sounded right behind Irwyn¡¯s ear after he dropped his guard. He flinched, tripped and jumped at the same time, barely managing to only tumble onto the wall instead of folding on the ground; though he still ended up in an awkward crouch. ¡°Maybe I have been a bit too restrained in how we have sparred lately.¡±

    ¡°Elizabeth?¡± Irwyn turned, eyes wide and there she stood, confidently. In that same conservative dress, looking down at him with an amused mischievous smile. Except, just slightly different. It was like¡­ she was not quite there? No, rather, it was a bit like nothingness was burning in her place. It was no spell or anything enforced by mana though. It was a state of being; an impression generated by her very presence. A bit similar to how some of the great mages Irwyn had met had given him a distinct impression of what they stood for, however, what Elizabeth presented was a few degrees of magnitude weaker. Still, it was undeniably there.

    And another thing had startled Irwyn slightly. Since Elizabeth had been around long enough to hear at least part of the conversation he just had with Desir she must have been hidden by a spell, presumably her own, and in the room in order to ambush him like that.

    And Irwyn had not felt the slightest trace of it.

 2.32 I hope you like this character because they are back

    ¡°I had no idea you were back,¡± Irwyn shook his head, somewhat regaining his composure and fully standing back up rather than continuing to lean on the wall.

    ¡°Well, I did just return,¡± she shrugged. That suggested she did not have any actual duties that needed to be attended to first. Though, in all honesty, Irwyn would have already guessed that much if he had to. ¡°So, am I reading this wrong or did you actually manage to find a clue about the attack?¡±

    ¡°You are giving me too much credit,¡± Irwyn shook his head lightly. ¡°I merely found a competent person that would do it for me. And it is far from guaranteed to actually lead us to the right person. But it sounds like something possible to pursue, depending on how the official investigation is going.¡±

    ¡°Not very well¡­¡± Elizabeth frowned, then took a deep breath and relaxed her expression before speaking again. ¡°Half the people investigating are certain there is someone working for the attackers on the inside since any clue they have found had apparently been cleaned up before they could even start to investigate. The other half suspects a mind reader hiding somewhere in plain sight. The latter seems more likely from what I know.¡±

    ¡°Are there no countermeasures to that?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Some protection is always in use and those have been doubled then redoubled, though by that point there were no good leads left. A possible soul mage is basically the only clue left that might lead somewhere. A specialist has been invited to help, however, due to some¡­ recent events there is an unavoidable waiting list for those across the whole Federation. If it can be confirmed that a soul mage is working with whoever committed the attack or likely means a bigger organization.¡±

    "Could it be necromancers?" Irwyn asked, almost hesitantly. If a soul mage was involved, it left one to wonder.

    "Unlikely," Elizabeth shook her head. "Mostly because of the initial attack. The mage who had committed it had to be exceptionally skilled; and slippery as Time/Space mages tend to be. I am not sure if you understand just how rare it is for someone of that prowess to knowingly consort with a necromancer."

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn nodded. He had next to no idea how soul magic worked. And if there was, the ¡®specialist¡¯ would find out. He imagined that Elizabeth meant top of the field when she said that the waiting list was unavoidable even for her. ¡°Though considering we are also now going to be pursuing, I do wonder how vulnerable I would be personally.¡±

    ¡°You should be resistant to mind reading or other nefarious soul magics,¡± Elizabeth immediately explained. ¡°Stronger souls become naturally harder to affect and yours seems to already be abnormally potent judging from your Reservoir. I can also arrange for something extra for you.¡±

    ¡°That would put my mind at ease,¡± he nodded. Irwyn had no doubt it would be no trouble for the heiress to get her hands on a decent spare while it was a more than reasonable request. After all, Irwyn was still weary of upsetting Elizabeth¡¯s family, whoever they actually were, by being perceived as too opportunistic. For the moment what he valued the most was relative safety to grow in rather than overt wealth. ¡°With that said I hope you will be willing to pay my associate a reasonable sum for their efforts, which we can figure out later,¡± he gave her a moment to nod which she thankfully did without any resistance. Paying out of pocked would have been problematic for his finances though Elizabeth did not stray from his impression she had no notion of ¡®lacking funds¡¯. ¡°And, of course, you are invited to come along if you wish, though I hope you will allow for some steps towards discretion,¡± he repeated since there was no telling how much Elizabeth had actually heard. He was not worried about her safety whatsoever considering Dervish would certainly be shadowing them wherever they went. And her dress could probably stop magic intended for sieges with ease when she wanted it to.

    ¡°Thoughtful of you,¡± she grinned, expectantly. ¡°What do you have in mind for ¡®discretion¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know how recognizable you might be and have gone out of my way not to dig,¡± he said truthfully. There could only be so many heiresses to house Blackburg and their branches matching Elizabeth¡¯s age and a high level of skill, though asking those questions sounded extremely dangerous even without taking into account how it might seem with context. ¡°However, I would suggest a simple mask. Not suspicious given that I also intend to wear one.¡±

    ¡°You do?¡± Elizabeth inclined her head. ¡°I didn¡¯t realize you would use those.¡±

    ¡°Well, I am trying to separate my face from more clandestine things,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°I expect that someone will eventually figure it out but for the time being it avoids retaliation from any enemies I make and might create some opportunities. Let me show you,¡± Irwyn reached for his pouch, only to realise it had been left at a table, needing him to awkwardly transition into walking over. With a few steps and a practiced motion, he took the Mockingbird mask out and placed it on his face for a few moments before removing it again.

    ¡°That is actually really well made,¡± Elizabeth stepped a bit closer, inspecting the mask in Irwyn¡¯s hand. ¡°I can just barely feel its enchantments at all while actively focusing on it from this close.¡±

    ¡°I was lucky to get it from a traveling merchant on my way to Abonisle,¡± which was true, though it was understating what Bhaak seemed to be. Most traveling merchants did not travel by effortless teleportation after all. ¡°Supposedly it was made in Steelmire.¡±

    ¡°What a coincidence. I heard that one of their frontmost artisans visited Abonisle and was looking for help from a Light mage,¡± she nodded and looked at Irwyn with apparent curiosity.

    ¡°And he paid quite well for the help, though I only tested the endurance of an enchantment,¡± Irwyn confirmed what she no doubt suspected; or outright knew. ¡°In fact, Desir - the man who had just been here - had helped me arrange it. He is quite well connected,¡± he decided to praise the blue-eyed man. It would certainly not hurt if Elizabeth had a higher opinion of them.

    ¡°Yes, the one you are so reasonably confident I would beat,¡± she teased.

    ¡°Please, I obviously have to downplay how incredible you are,¡± Irwyn appeased. ¡°He either wouldn¡¯t believe me or actually might, which could be worse given how out of the norm we are for our age.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I suppose few could match us,¡± she nodded, a bit hesitantly.

    ¡°Could any, actually?¡± Irwyn smiled lightly but seriously, curious. ¡°Master Daut brought his daughter along, a prodigy and successor to the whole of Steelmire who happens to be no older than us. Yet she was far worse than either you or me. Frankly, I lacked the perspective of this until now but after that I do wonder: how many people are anywhere near us?¡±

    ¡°I suppose I should take some pride in my own achievements,¡± Elizabeth said after a moment. ¡°Though as far as I know in our generation there would be two. The sole heir to the Duchy of Yellow - who is less than a year younger than me - is said to be completely peerless in magic and could be around us from second-hand accounts; though I despise any comparison to them. I have met them a few times on official occasions and I can only describe him as cruel and¡­ unlikeable,¡± she actually bit her lip in visible anger. It did not take a genius to realize there was a story of some kind there and a deep impression. ¡°Second is the mysterious disciple of the Soulcatcher - with capital S - the most famous and powerful mage not directly affiliated with any Duke or Duchy. Ever heard of them?"

    ¡°The Name rings a bell though I do not know details,¡± Irwyn nodded. He remembered it mentioned in the book on Names he had obtained back in Ebon respite and thought Elizabeth might have mentioned them at some point.

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    ¡°They move around, though they have never stayed in the Duchy of Black for long so I suppose the Name might not be so famous locally,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But they are the hero of many legends and a thorn in many sides of very powerful people who don¡¯t dare do anything to the man. He is famous for combining his Time and Soul magic to incredible effect, though the truth is difficult to come by since it¡¯s so hard to differentiate it from the slander and folk tale exaggerations. Some say he used to be a serial kidnapper or far worse before coming into his Name, some say he would save people from bandits or liberate entire prisons of¡­ political inmates. But the man is from the Duchy of Purple where they often remain, which is basically on the opposite side of the federation from Black, so our spies don¡¯t have the framework to dig through rumors.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Irwyn nodded, pretending he did not hear her admit that the Duchy was spying on others nor that Elizabeth could reasonably able to access their reports if there were any. It sounded like one of those things everyone assumed were true but was a faux pas to say out loud. ¡°And their disciple?¡±

    ¡°Honestly, not much is known about her even to House Blackburg,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°Sending spies into the proximity of a Named Soul mage is perhaps the biggest exercise in futility imaginable. All that is known are second or third-hand accounts by people who happened to see them but they consistently speak of her besting local monsters that I would need to hold nothing back against. That being said, there could be more exceptional talents just¡­ hidden,¡± when she said that she squirmed a bit.

    ¡°Something particular on your mind?¡± Irwyn asked noticing the slight pause and change in posture.

    ¡°I suppose¡­¡± she hesitated, thought for a moment, shook her head and then stared at Irwyn with sudden intensity. ¡°Although my mother would likely disapprove there are a few things I might wish to come clean with. Mostly because you might accidentally reveal things that have been widely concealed about me.¡±

    ¡°I am all ears,¡± Irwyn encouraged with a nod, turning his own expression serious. He would be foolish not to treat any extended branch of trust with seriousness.

    ¡°In truth, my parents have taken great care to conceal the real extent of my talents,¡± she sighed softly. ¡°It has been downplayed severely because a talent like mine could greatly upset our enemies; at worst make them do something reckless. This has only been exacerbated by the Ambrosia I have partaken in¡­¡± she hesitated for another moment but then returned to stare Irwyn down with redoubled intensity. ¡°In my overjoyed reaction, I have shared the news with you assuming my petition had been finally accepted. Later. I have found out that it was not entirely the case and while my consumption of it was still strictly speaking legal there would be¡­ complications from people who would usually expect to have been made aware of it."

    "I understand. Not a word will leave my lips," Irwyn nodded severely though internally he was feeling suddenly overjoyed. Because what he had just been told was seemingly a massive secret. And considering the assumed existence of mind readers the benefactors could not afford to just throw Irwyn to his enemies if their relationship grew sour. They might still try to kill him if things went bad, however, there was no longer a real option of just kicking him out and leaving him to die. And going out of their way to get rid of him would be much more problematic than just handing him over; which meant it was less likely to happen.

    "Thank you¡­" she nodded and took a deep, somewhat relieved breath. Irwyn was not sure who she might have been afraid he might tell. He had nothing to gain and everything to lose. "We should return to the kidnapping you have planned. You mentioned I should get a mask."

    "Yes," Irwyn nodded. The conversation had indeed diverted. "The only requirement I have is that it doesn''t look like a bird. Anything else is fine."

    "Why not?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "Yours certainly does."

    "Birds, or rather Fowls, have a special meaning to the Guild," Irwyn explained. "It is a privilege and honour to call yourself one, a respected rank that acknowledges exceptionality. It also requires being named by several senior Fowls and it could be very unpleasant for me long term if I was perceived as someone who breaks this tradition and symbology by bringing along someone who misuses it."

    "I understand," she nodded seriously, then turned curious. "You have earned being called one then, right?"

    "Yes, after the mess in Ebon Respite I was named Young Mockingbird by my teacher," he said, feeling a pinch of pride.

    "Yes¡­ the Old Crow," Elizabeth frowned slightly.

    "You are familiar?" Irwyn raised an eyebrow. But of course they might be. It was Old Crow who had arranged for Elizabeth''s family to take an interest in him.

    "I have¡­ seen a recording of him negotiating with House Blackburg after the disaster in Ebon Respite," she hesitated through kept a light frown. "He seemed¡­ rather manipulative and cunning."

    "As devious as a real old crow," Irwyn couldn''t help but smile with nostalgia. "That''s what we used to say about him."

    "Irwyn¡­" she hesitated again, then breathed out and spoke. "I don''t know how to broach this so I am going to be straightforward. Don''t you think that the old man might be manipulating you too?"

    "Obviously he would be," Irwyn nodded. That much had always been self-apparent.

    "And you don''t mind?" her voice rose half a note. Was she getting upset on Irwyn''s behalf?

    "I don''t mean to insult you¡­" Irwyn spoke carefully, "But I don''t think you quite understand what the Old Crow had done for me. For all of us taken under his wings."

    "Perhaps. But there is a limit to debts and what should be tolerated because of them," Elizabeth said and Irwyn saw she clearly did not understand. So, he tried to explain.

    "No, I think you have the completely wrong idea," Irwyn put his thoughts in order the best he could. "I don''t think you have ever starved Elizabeth. Felt it gnaw at you as your limbs grew weak, mind fogged and body withered. Until fatigue starts coming sooner and sooner day by day as you desperately try to stave it off. When you would kill for half a loaf of rotten bread."

    "And you have?" Elizabeth shot back, quieter, looking a bit uncomfortable.

    "Probably not," Irwyn shrugged, then smiled at Elizabeth''s confused blink. "I barely remember anything of my childhood before I was taken in but I know people who had gone through that. I have a friend whose older brother froze to death in the heart of winter to shelter their sleep. And almost all of the people the Old Crow takes in had gone through something like that, better or sometimes worse. Just desperate kids with no one else willing to help."

    "Even if he helped you so, does that forever justify all and any deception?"

    "Deception?" Irwyn asked, slightly confused.

    "You have admitted yourself that he manipulated you."

    "Ah, I see now," Irwyn nodded. "But I would not call that deception. You see, the Old Crow has been especially honest about such things, at least with us. The week I joined he spoke to me and the other child who did; addressed us in front of everyone. He said: ''You, so young and weak, were robbed of a chance. Without recourse, you were doomed to obscurity and misery. I will mold you while you are meek and in turn teach you to help yourselves. Then, when one day you are great and accomplished - when you have achieved your potential - I merely ask that you be willing to help me in turn; all I want is a promise."

    "And you remember that speech?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "Weren''t you very young? How would a child even understand it."

    "Of course I didn''t," Irwyn chuckled, fondly. "There is the genius of it though: He would repeat that same speech to everyone who joined; right in front of all the other children. So even as a kid, it would stick with you. And when you hear it a few times, you start to wonder what do all those fancy words mean? So you ask the older kids, and of course they know; they had once been the same. And then you know what you had sworn and can never forget."

    "And what, he just trusts you to keep that promise?" Elizabeth scoffed. "No deserters or traitors. No selfish people who would sink the whole ship?¡±

    ¡°To a certain degree, yes. He raised up to keep promises, among other things,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°As for those who may have sought to betray us¡­ There were probably a few but you know, what we did wasn¡¯t exactly safe. From time to time people would not come back from jobs; even some of the most experienced adults. Often, we would find out what happened to them, even saved them; sometimes we would never know. You see, I once had the same question when I first became¡­ more open about showing my magic in closed company. Old Crow told me it was better if I did not know whether some of those vanishing had been traitors and I left it at that.¡±

    ¡°I am not an idealist, Elizabeth, neither is Old Crow. He helped many orphans but we did not take in the crippled or those beyond recovery. And we ran those kids through harsh Trials when they reached their teens. Trained and as prepared as they could be without experience - and some who had slacked without even that - but many still die. Each of us took to it¡­ differently. I, frankly, barely remember anyone besides my close friends. I am not sure if I ever cared for anyone beyond arm¡¯s reach, which has worked fine for me. If you still cannot understand why I respect the Old Crow so much, that¡¯s fine but don¡¯t try to change my mind.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ apologize,¡± Elizabeth said after a moment. ¡°I think I let my own biases and experiences cloud my judgement.¡±

    ¡°I have noticed you rarely ever speak of your family positively,¡± Irwyn nodded slowly. ¡°Do you want to talk about it?¡±

    ¡°...no,¡± Elizabeth said stiffly after freezing for a moment. ¡°I think there is nothing I want to talk less about.¡±

    ¡°In that case perhaps we should head in a more pleasant direction,¡± even Irwyn knew it was best to leave it at that. ¡°You have clearly improved your magic over the past few days but so have I. Perhaps we should put that to the test.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I do like that idea,¡± a smile returned to her lips. As she extended her hand to put it on Irwyn¡¯s shoulder. Then they were somewhere else.

 2.33 Conflict and conflict of interest

    Irwyn realized he had missed this place. The wondrous training hall with magic that he could still not quite understand despite all the progress he had made was the exact same as the last time he had been there. Perhaps not even dust was allowed to fall. At least nowadays he felt the intangible strings of magic grasping onto him, connecting and affecting him. But these were unlike the magic he used. They were¡­ distant for the lack of a better word. Beyond reach or ability to affect no matter how hard he tried. Still, just the fact that he could sense something as opposed to before was a cause for celebration. Proof of his improvement.

    He had begun to feel them before Elizabeth¡¯s departure and his latest burst of Insight had made the impression far more distinct compared to before. How they actually worked remained a mystery though.

    "It feels longer than just a few days away," Elizabeth sighed a bit wistfully. "Do you want to warm up or¡­"

    "Let us spar right away," Irwyn nodded. "I am curious how much of a leap you have made," and whether he might not have made a bigger one.

    "On your spots then," Dervish had appeared at some point and only interfered when he was needed as the stone-faced man tended to do. "On my mark, go," he waited for them to reach their usual starting distance and then set the match off.

    "Dark tide"

    "Disruptive brilliance"

    Elizabeth started with perhaps her favorite opener, a black mist gushing from her at a rapid pace. It was a cheap spell that denied vision, magical senses, and not much else. But it was simple enough to work through Finity - just the singular intention to hide imbued - and had stumped Irwyn in the past. It was hard to hit someone you could not see or perceive after all.

    Which was why he had been looking for a counter and his delving into the details of light provided an inspiration. Rather than trying to disperse the mist with beams or waves of light under his direct control, he created a few sources of light with the intention to disrupt and break. Except, now that he understood that his source shone these pseudo-magical light particles as it glowed he had figured out how to imbue them with both the intention and power of the spell manifesting them.

    Now, in all honesty, although the spell essentially disrupted any magic with a line of sight the effect was not potent. Actually, it was quite weak and Irwyn had no idea how it would handle friendly fire if he worked with another mage. But it was tailor-made perfectly for countering exactly what Elizabeth was doing: Void and Light were still anathema and annihilated on contact. And although still limited, this method of delivery was much more generous with the increasing attrition of Finity compared to direct constructs.

    And the effect was immediate. Just beginning to spread, the fog was stunted and began receding back instead. Quickly realising the way of the tide, Elizabeth let it disperse, taking a potshot at Irwyn with a quick barrage of void magic bolts. Irwyn dodged some and just let the rest harmlessly impact his barrier. He knew better than to get distracted, anticipating what Elizabeth would do next.

    To his surprise, she remained standing at a distance rather than continue pressuring Irwyn. Which likely meant a big spell. Not panicking, Irwyn began his own chant to match it; his superior reserve was his biggest advantage and mutually breaking each other¡¯s larger magics massively favored him. His words were just half a breath behind Elizabeth''s own chant.

    "Delve, seeker,

    one step deeper

    and in yourself find

    Elvenkind"

    ¡°From the seams,

    In my dreams,

    I saw them fall,

    The Stars scourge all¡±

    While Irwyn''s spell was mostly unchanged, Elizabeth''s incantation was brand new; at least as far as Irwyn was aware. Because she was not obscured Irwyn could see the transformation in real time. If he did not know better, he might have mistaken it for life magic of some kind since Elizabeth visibly changed. Her eyes grew darker, iris turning pitch black and even the sclea greying. Her ears lightly extended with ebony growths, nails blackened and elongated. But all the changes Irwyn saw could but compare to those he felt. Because his magical senses sang in alarm as Elizabeth''s physical location began to more and more feel like a bottomless pit. Like a ravenous and inescapable hole in reality.

    That did not bode well for his odds.

    Almost 120 projectiles of Starfire manifested around Irwyn and shot off, about a fifth more than when he had last used the spell in their spar, though Elizabeth did not seem bothered all that much because she was running towards him, already casting another spell, even faster than before. Irwyn could scarcely react, occupied by maintaining his ongoing spell.

    "Shatter and fall

    One and all.

    Such is this path,

    Legacy of Wrath¡±

    And shatter it did. Irwyn felt his control vane, the projectiles of his own spell cracked and weakened, making it a struggle just to keep them going. Subverted Irwyn realised. All of his magic had been afflicted by half-sentient furry. The magic itself raged against his grasp, against the given direction; the spell¡¯s very purpose. It was as fascinating as it was frightening to see magic rebel against him. They were supposedly on the same level yet Elizabeth could suddenly completely overwhelm him, suppressing all his magic, making it significantly weaker.

    All, including the barrier, Irwyn was dodging to the side before the thought even fully registered. It was barely enough as a beam of blackness sheared through Irwyn''s barrier and flew right by his head. 4 intentions, he noted, probably dedicated to piercing. Normally that would not be enough, but the disruptive spell has weakened the barrier too greatly.

    Which made it a massive issue considering Irwyn implicitly relied on his defenses in their spars. He could not possibly dodge everything Elizabeth would throw at him. Thankfully, he was offered a few moments of respite as the missiles of his Scourge spell arrived and Elizabeth had to feel with them: She systematically shattered them while weaving around the rest with inhuman speed and dexterity. Probably part of the Elvenkind spell or some other effect she had cast silently.

    Irwyn could attempt to force a victory by joining the assault of his ongoing spell but if that did not work and Elizabeth broke it then he would have no real chance of recovering. And they both knew that; it was clearly bait.

    So instead Irwyn tried to come up with a counter to her counter. He quickly tested that new magic was indeed still affected by the wrathful subversion. Elizabeth was maintaining two powerful ongoing spells. That had to be incredibly draining on both the Vessel and the mind.

    Which offered him an idea.

    "In the Light,

    Beyond mortal sight"

    By that point his Scourge spell was well past halfway broken. Elizabeth was shattering it unreasonably quickly considering the projectiles were actively dodging and positioning themselves to minimize damage by any area spell. But they had held long enough, ironically freeing up more of Irwyn''s mind as their destruction continued.

    Avoid, suppress, stabilize, contain. Irwyn imbued the spell with four intentions while also slipping out of his own barrier. Elizabeth¡¯s senses would be keen, even keener than before. There was no doubt in his mind she would be able to track him just by the protective spell even if he was visually invisible. However¡­ she might attempt to track it even when he was no longer inside. The barrier too was made up of four intentions so with a spur of inspiration, Irwyn changed half of them to hide and contain. Contain, to his appreciation, also worked to help against Elizabeth¡¯s disrupting spell rather than just making the spell better hidden, if just slightly. It would better sell the misdirection.

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    Obscured as such, Irwyn moved the barrier away from himself at roughly his jogging speed, making it flank Elizabeth from one side while he actually approached from the other. As he had expected, Elizabeth pretended not to notice the ¡®hidden¡¯ barrier as she was almost halfheartedly sending beams of void magic at almost random. If she really had sensed nothing she would be drowning the hall in another fog or something along those lines.

    When she feigned turning away from the barrier, Irwyn too pretended to fall for the obvious bait. He cannibalized a chunk of the barrier¡¯s magic to construct something that would feel like the start of an attack while he was in fact on roughly the opposite side of her.

    Just as he had hoped, Elizabeth snapped around, obliterating the barrier with an overwhelming attack, thinking Irwyn had overextended. Instead, it provided Irwyn with a real opening.

    Prepared for exactly the moment, Irwyn spurred forward a net of light. Fast and wide enough that Elizabeth would not be able to slip it, even if she noticed it in time. It would take only a split second to reach her. Speed, cut, catch, accelerate and fast. After his latest vision, Irwyn theoretically had the competence to cast a five-intention spell, though he had been hesitant to put that to the test unsupervised. But for such a good shot at victory? At finally besting her honestly despite that rise in power? He went all in, letting even his invisibility slip to make the spell just a bit better. The net a bit wider and faster.

    Those aspirations were dashed a moment later when Elizabeth instantly jumped to the side before Irwyn¡¯s spell even left his immediate surroundings, leaving a black smoking trail in her wake. Before his mind registered it the spell flew, and Elizabeth, empowered by whatever the spell was, could run far faster to the side than Irwyn could change the direction of a spell explicitly intended to catch a target before they had the slightest chance to react.

    Irwyn had a split second more to wonder whether it was better to dismiss the spell or try to somehow redirect it when Dervish appeared right by him. His eyes widened ever so slightly but knowing what that meant Irwyn looked around himself. With combat paused, it was not hard to spot the ebony tendril of magic the stone faced mage was physically holding in his hand. It had somehow slithered just behind Irwyn, barely not touching his body, and, judging from the position and height, Dervish had likely stopped it just as it was about to plunge into Irwyn¡¯s spine with him being none the wiser. He had felt nothing.

    ¡°Damn, I really thought I might have you this time,¡± Irwyn sighed. Unfortunately, his invisibility had not resulted even in a single surprise victory. ¡°How did you see me?¡± Because how else cold she had predicted him so perfectly.

    ¡°I could not see you,¡± the pitch withdrew from Elizabeth¡¯s eyes as her appearance returned to normal, everything receding once the spell was over. They walked closer to have a conversation. The disruptive spell also ended. ¡°But I could feel you. Among other things, the Elvenkind spell sharpened my perception of Void magic and through that also to its anathemic Light. And despite all your attempts at hiding, you had become an increasingly bring lighthouse ever since we have first met. That seems to have only grown disproportionately more potent over the past few days.

    ¡°I suppose I get what you mean,¡± Irwyn sighed. Elizabeth¡¯s presence had also grown significantly stronger. But she seemed far more adept at hiding it from him than he was from her. ¡°Though I had no idea you could pull a sneak attack like that.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s because you always hide in a bubble,¡± she grinned. ¡°Impossible to slip anything like that through it. At least at my level of ability which is rising faster than ever now after I partook in the Ambrosia. But you too have leapt forward by an unexpected margin. That last attack especially. Do you mind explaining how that has happened?¡±

    ¡°Well, it is something I had been hesitant about broaching¡­¡± Irwyn pretended to consider his words, show doubt and fear, though in reality he had had days to somewhat plan what to reveal. In truth, he had realised that there would be no hiding everything without some explanation. But there was no reason to go into exact details or all his suspicions. ¡°Let me explain¡­¡± And so he did. About some of his insights and suspicions. Perhaps Elizabeth would keep quiet if he asked her to, however, Irwyn highly doubted Dervish would report everything the man considered important. So, he told them a slightly¡­ abridged version.

    In Ebon Respite he had stumbled onto that crystal which gave him the first vision. That of a wise Named providing guidance to a Starfire mage. No need to speak of his suspicions, or that he had beheld an Edict being cast. Focus on his sudden improvement and the unexpected attainment of Starfire of his own. How its lingering impression had allowed him to unleash that futile but powerful attack in an attempt to escape from Alira.

    Then of the second vision, not a week later when he was first setting out on his journey. Speak of two powerful beings discussing demons but absolutely nothing about their identity. No lies, not yet at least. Just omissions. He was not willing to expose himself. Instead, put focus on this eventually warning him about the nature of kobolds. About how he suspects the vision had warned him.

    And then the latest vision. Speak of the impression of utter loss from the Death of the Aspects. Speak of the despair felt and that he had heard the last will of Father Fate. But no that he had stood among the 9 nor that his memory of it strangely cut off. Perhaps broach his suspicion that it could be warning him of something in Abonisle.

    ¡°Do you believe that the perspective of these visions comes from the same being?¡± Dervish asked thoughtfully after a moment. The fact that the man paused at all meant he must have put some serious thought into it. Irwyn could not quite yet imagine at what speed the mind of someone like Dervish would operate.

    ¡°I thought of that too,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°It is possible but I cannot be certain,¡± which was not even a complete lie. He was almost sure but not completely. But what he was suspecting he would absolutely not admit, at least not while unaware of circumstances. Irwyn was too ignorant of what it might imply and that meant he could not know if it might affect his safety or the agenda of his patrons.

    ¡°I am not an expert on the subject and do not know anyone I could properly inquire with without risking a leak,¡± Dervish prefaced. ¡°However, I possess a few more details about the crystal that you likely do not. It was originally uncovered inside a recently re-established iron mine not far from the Western border with the Duchy of Yellow. The Marquis whose lands the mine stands on immediately attempted to have it appraised, however, the object vehemently resisted teleportation and was above local expertise. An expert was contacted in City Black, however, due to its nature there was a perceived risk of a volatile reaction to the extensive Void magic permeating the Duchy¡¯s ancestral seat of power. The Marquis was instructed to have it appraised at one of the satellite settlements where it was, supposedly, destroyed by the willful actions of Alira von Blackburg. Her guardian had been convinced it was a single-use offensive artifact according to the report I have been given.¡±

    ¡°And they will not change their mind on that,¡± Elizabeth said with surprising confidence, probably based on personal insight. ¡°They are particularly stubborn.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I have observed the same thing,¡± Dervish nodded lightly. ¡°That being said I cannot say with confidence what your situation is. I have not heard of anything like it, however, that means little. And as I have said, leading any inquiries¡­ could be dangerous given the events of Ebon Respite; dots could be connected. Perhaps it would be possible to contact someone in the Duchy of White or Duchy of Cyan, depending on whether this phenomenon comes from the Soul or is a detached vision related to Fate. Discerning either is more difficult than usual due to your condition. I assume you are aware.¡±

    ¡°I have been told my Fate is particularly difficult to read, yes,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Either way, I will see what can be found without raising any eyebrows and notify you if there is a breakthrough of any kind. Though that is in no hurry. Your unexpected improvement opens up¡­ possibilities for training.¡±

    ¡°Well, I am all for improving further,¡± Irwyn could only grin. Although he was still a bit worried about what Dervish might find - especially how others might react to it - for the moment he could

    <hr>

    In the evening, Irwyn once again found himself seated in the private room with the wonderful view opposite to Elizabeth. He wondered now why she was so partial to the Restaurant or if it was perhaps just a habit. Either way, he realized he had missed their dinners as well. Though it might have also just been that his diet had not been¡­ optimal during his recent spell obsession.

    ¡°Perhaps it would not go amiss to procure something more¡­ magical today,¡± Elizabeth suggested, slightly hesitant.

    ¡°Let us call it a celebration of your return and our improvements,¡± Irwyn nodded with a smile which she returned. He could afford to indulge once in a while.

    When the ¡®attuned¡¯ cuisine was served Irwyn swore it was even better than he remembered.

 2.34 I beheld a bastion of stone, ground smooth by magic and frost

    ¡°You know, there might be an opportunity to show you something today,¡± Elizabeth broached as they were taking a break. It was the following day and they had seemingly resumed the old training schedule of spending most of their time improving at magic. Not that Irwyn minded at all.

    ¡°If you think it¡¯s something worth seeing I am not opposed,¡± he raised an eyebrow. ¡°Though I am not sure what brought this on.¡±

    ¡°There has been¡­ a reassignment of priorities happening across the Duchy of Black,¡± she explained. ¡°Recent events of large scale have led to a lot of very qualified people leaving the city on assignments and such things. Some protocols regarding how much of the city operates had undergone changes. It is in big part why the investigation of the attack has dragged on so much: The best mages have been busy with things that took priority.¡±

    ¡°Higher priority than an attack on a military establishment?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°I am sworn not to overshare, sorry, however, there has been increasing demand for the best the Duchy has at its disposal over the past few months. And today a few things have come together which allows for an opportunity.¡±

    ¡°The opportunity is there being fewer excellent mages present?¡±

    ¡°None, to be exact,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Though obviously keep it to yourself, Dervish would currently be the strongest mage in Abonisle by a significant margin. The city is naturally remains well defended - the magical arrays are still some of the best in the duchy - but it does now rely a bit more on the illusion of it being foolish to try something serious.¡±

    ¡°Are people on the top not worried about the mysterious attacker?¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°What if they act again.¡±

    ¡°Such worries had been raised,¡± Dervish answered from the side instead. ¡°And they were ultimately dismissed as a secondary priority. All irreplaceable assets have been secured. If attempts are made against more strategic targets this would, of course, be reevaluated. The Temporal beacon allows for rapid reinforcements.¡±

    ¡°I remember quite clearly that when one fool attempted to steal from house Blackburg in Ebon Respite, who knows how many mages had been sent to claim retribution. This response seems¡­ lax in comparison,¡± Irwyn shared his thoughts.

    ¡°You misunderstand,¡± Dervish simply shook his head. ¡°Hundreds of mages have been reassigned, some brought back from vacation or even retirement precisely in preparation for another possible attack or to look for the culprits, many times that of what had happened in Ebon Respite. However, just like then, all these mages are of middling power at best. Few could even feasibly threaten you two in perfect circumstances. What Abonisle currently lacks are the strategic assets that usually lodge here.¡±

    ¡°Does that make you one then? A strategic asset.¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Dervish nodded, not even missing a beat.

    ¡°This has gone far away from the point,¡± Elizabeth interceded, changing the topic. ¡°The reason why I bring this up, Irwyn, is because previously there had been places where I simply could not bring you because there were mages who would inevitably notice you and question why you were there. And we couldn¡¯t be sure something problematic would not rise from it. However, now¡­¡±

    ¡°It is no longer an issue,¡± Irwyn finished the sentence. And, well, only one clearly restricted area with a concentration of the best mages came to mind. ¡°You mean to bring me to the Spires.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± she nodded seriously, though there was also a trace of nervousness. ¡°There is something I really wanted to show you and the weather is finally good enough to see it. Will you come with me?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Irwyn nodded and extended his hand. Elizabeth smiled before she reached forward, whisking them both away.

    The next moment Irwyn stood in a circular hallway made of solid gray metal. There was a bit of magical light and slight, even curvature but that was about all the decoration present. In one direction he thought he heard the whistling of wind though it could be something else, the experience was slightly¡­ disorienting.

    ¡°This way,¡± Elizabeth moved past him as he regained his wits, heading towards the humming. She seemed to be almost skipping in anticipation.

    Naturally, Irwyn followed, jogging to keep up. The whistling grew louder and Irwyn realized they were not just moving in a large circle, they were also going up. Like a long ramp with a small incline shaped like a spiral.

    ¡°Is this all steel?¡± Irwyn had to ask, the colour didn¡¯t seem quite right though. Assuming even part of the Spires were like this, that was a lot of metal. It was all empowered by some kind of enchantment woven seemingly into the entire building as far as Irwyn could feel and saturated with a lot of mana but he felt no enchantment anchored directly in the material.

    ¡°No, tungsten,¡± Elizabeth said as if it was completely normal. Wasn¡¯t tungsten an order of magnitude rarer than even steel?

    Not that Irwyn had that much time to ponder this as when not even a minute had passed he saw from up ahead the hint of natural light and a dozen steps further noticed the wide stairway, leading straight up. Elizabeth waited for him the second it took to catch up, smiling as they walked the steps together.

    Immediately, Irwyn noticed that there was no ceiling above. The steps led into a completely open space. And an inkling quickly proved correct as they stepped into the open and Irwyn noticed the sheer extent of the open scenery in front of him.

    He could see maybe a hundred kilometers ahead. A seemingly endless scenery spreading right before his eyes. He thought he was probably looking south at the moment, mostly based on a group of four particularly recognizable large hills. A road was sprawling across forests and clearings all the way to the horizon. The same way he had come less than a month ago. Oh, and how Irwyn had changed in that time. He tried to spot where the kobold attack had taken place but everything was so small. How high were they? Even the city with its towering structures seemed so far below.

    ¡°You know, that is probably the least interesting direction,¡± Elizabeth chuckled from right next to him. That helped bring him more to the present. He rose his head and looked at their more immediate surroundings. They were, indeed, standing on the top of one of the Spires; the great towers above Abonisle. The roof they stood on was large and circular, he would guess some 50 meters in diameter, all of it built from a seemingly thick layer of tungsten. Moreover, there was a massive circle carved into the metal, taking up good three-quarters of the roof; and it was probably perfect if Irwyn had to guess.

    He had read about what might be its use: There were spells somewhere between enchantment and direct casting that allowed for multiple mages to cooperate while binding their magic to physical formations; mostly in the cases of exceptionally difficult spells as far as Irwyn understood. It was not something Irwyn had studied and had not actually seen with his own eyes at least as far as he knew. He did, however, know that geometric and other shapes played a role in that.

    Then he looked at the other two roofs which were far less empty. There were, after all, three Spires. From down below he had never noticed that there was massive machinery at the top of one of them; it had just been too far away. At the moment he could see it perfectly well though and the creation was¡­ a mesmerizing construction of thick metal circles. Not just tungsten of steel but countless colors, almost every single one having a metallic sheen in the sunlight. That being said there was a clear preference for various black or grey materials such shades taking up a good 3/4ths of the mysterious formation.

    And it was a strange creation indeed. Irwyn struggled to find words to describe it as it was unlike anything he had ever beheld. It was¡­ like a madman¡¯s drawing - hundreds of rings stacked next to one another, somehow mesmerizing to behold - yet the circles were each identical in size, geometrically perfect, and physically floated. Levitated at various heights above ground.

    ¡°It¡¯s called the Proud Eye,¡± Elizabeth noticed what Irwyn had been staring at for probably too long.

    ¡°What can it do?¡± Irwyn could hardly tear his gaze away. Were the circles inscribed with letters or were his eyes fooling him? They were so small but there was something on the surface. Perhaps only Kalista would have been able to tell from this distance.

    ¡°Many things,¡± Elizabeth beamed. ¡°But it is mainly a weapon. ¡®For as far as the Eye can see, it is its domain and its domain alone. Woe be to they who dare trespass uninvited¡¯. If you look at the bottom you can see the crystalline focus,¡± and indeed, there was a pitch-black shape sticking out of the ground there, just barely. Irwyn had not noticed it before since it was mostly obscured. And also because he could not actually see it, Irwyn realized. It was completely antithetical to light to the point he could not see it reflecting. He only saw the utter lack of reflected light in its place.

    ¡°It¡¯s bigger than it looks, quite literally,¡± Elizabeth continued her explanation. ¡°When the Eye is needed it can be rearranged into the exact right tool. I hardly know myself everything it can actually do.¡±

    ¡°Fascinating,¡± Irwyn nodded. It brought back a certain memory. He wasn¡¯t sure how he felt about remembering that kobold attack twice in a few minutes. Then his eye wandered over to the last Spire. He stared at the thing and stared and stared. Then he looked away.

    ¡°What¡­¡± a question he had wanted to ask died on his lips. What had he been staring at? It had been¡­ vaguely rectangular. But what more was there to it? It felt just out of reach. A memory that he could just about not grasp. His neck moved right back to gazing at it.

    ¡°Careful!¡± Elizabeth called out with sudden distress. Irwyn looked her way and realized he could not turn quite right, something blocked the motion. Then he realized there was a wall to his left. No¡­ that was the ground. He began to reorient himself and realized he was lying down on a construct of soft Flames that had cushioned his fall. He did not remember falling.

    ¡°How can you be this reckless?¡± Elizabeth was kneeling next to him, Irwyn quickly surmised. He had no idea since when.

    ¡°What happened?¡± he asked, sitting up. Too quickly, it turned out. A spike of pain ran through his head and he hissed. Then he felt there was blood running down his face. Tears of blood, to be precise.

    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°What do you¡­¡± she half shouted, then suddenly quieted down. She stared at Irwyn¡¯s genuine confusion when a realization seemingly struck her. ¡°Do you really have no idea?¡±

    ¡°Not the slightest clue,¡± he nodded. Looking back at her words, she seemed certain this had been his fault. Perhaps a mistake made in ignorance, whatever it was that actually happened.

    ¡°You tried too hard to see, Irwyn,¡± she sighed. ¡°I am sorry, I thought you knew. I would have warned you otherwise,¡± she waved her hand and a¡­ bracelet appeared in her hand. She started to fiddle with it while continuing the conversation.

    ¡°I looked too hard?¡± It was not quite clicking, though Irwyn could almost taste it on the tip of his tongue. His mind still felt sluggish.

    ¡°Yes, at something that your brain physically could not withstand,¡± she nodded. ¡°It can happen -when you behold magic that your soul believes it can understand but is too far beyond what the mortal body can withstand. The soul may try to forcefully close that gap in ability and comprehension with disastrous results if not stopped. It¡¯s such a common condition among talented mages that I was sure you had also gone through it hundreds of times,¡± she sighed and waved the bracelet in front of Irwyn¡¯s face. He felt¡­ the tears of blood disappear, cleaned away.

    ¡°Thank you. No, I haven¡¯t at least as far as I know, certainly nothing like this,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°But I assume you have.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± she nodded. ¡°The academic name for the effect is Inheritor¡¯s fever. I have suffered from it as long as I can remember. It is¡­ better now, however, when I was very young it had been¡­ awful.¡±

    ¡°Do you want to talk about it?¡± Irwyn encouraged her to continue.

    ¡°I was born in the ancient seat of magic, City Black, and it is there I spent most of my youth,¡± to his surprise, Elizabeth did, slowly. She was quieter than usual, her face soured by a painful recollection. ¡°That city is so full of magic; in every corner, nook and cranny. I don¡¯t know how to give it justice but magic is genuinely everywhere in City Black. You cannot find a room where it is not present and readily beheld. But how could a child¡¯s mind possibly grasp that? My earliest memories are of being bedridden and sickly. I think I had barely left the bed a scarce few times before I turned eight. It was that year that finally someone thought that perhaps this might be the cause of my mysterious sickness that had baffled every healer and physician money or influence could bring. After all, the Inheritor¡¯s fever was known to manifest in the early teens at the earliest after those particularly talented had begun their journey as novice mages. An enchantment was quickly commissioned and it made me better. I trained hard and when I was twelve, I could finally live normally without it most of the time. But sometimes I still feel it: The beginning of a familiar headache that warns me to look away.¡±

    ¡°That is awful and a travesty that you were not helped sooner,¡± Irwyn frowned then tried to bring her thoughts away from it. ¡°I suppose I had the opposite problem. In Ebon Respite, there was next to no magic. Anything that ever reached the city were leftovers, quadruply so for the slums. I don¡¯t remember my earliest years so I cannot know if I have ever run into anything like that. Maybe I haven¡¯t or maybe I just didn¡¯t make the connection.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I should have realized you would not have been exposed there,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°Enchantments that tend to cause the Fever are also often made with shielding in mind; mostly things above a certain level of power. It also depends on the element. You might have gone by a dozen Void magic formations that simply cannot trigger such a reaction because of your affinity to Light - Like the Dredge and the Eye, you had no reaction to it because why would your Soul attempt to forcefully understand Void magic? The shielding is not done for everything though. Not the weakest and most rudimentary things and especially not for things that need to work at the best efficiency possible.

    ¡°Like in this case,¡± Irwyn surmised, pointing in the approximate direction of the third spire. He did not quite dare look again yet.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°The Spires are specifically warded so that no one can accidentally spot the top from below but at the core of it, adding any such protections would likely reduce its efficacy and make it far easier to tamper with while doing so. Or maybe the creator had just not thought it was a necessary feature.¡±

    ¡°Well, you still have not told me what it actually is,¡± Irwyn was nodding along.

    ¡°I¡­ have?¡± Elizabeth looked at him, uncertain and confused.

    ¡°I am fairly sure you have not?¡± Irwyn replied though her confusion led to his own uncertainty.

    ¡°Oh,¡± she suddenly nodded to herself. ¡°You might have just been too engrossed with it to notice.¡±

    ¡°That is possible,¡± Irwyn returned the nod. Then waited for Elizabeth to repeat the information.

    Which she did not. Elizabeth just kept staring at him with an unchanged confused expression. And Irwyn really wasn¡¯t sure what to do so he waited for a bit longer. As the seconds stretched on it began to feel uncomfortable. He wasn¡¯t sure what was going on so he took a deep breath to speak and¡­

    ¡°Hah, got you,¡± Elizabeth burst out laughing. ¡°You make such a face when you have no idea whether to speak or wait. That¡¯s what you deserve for earlier,¡± she stared at Irwyn¡¯s flabbergasted face for a second more with a smile and a chuckle and then actually explained. ¡°It is nothing less than the singular greatest artifact in Abonisle, and I don¡¯t say that lightly, though despite that it is no secret. In fact, it is known the world over. What stands over there is the Temporal Beacon.¡±

    ¡°The thing that allows teleportation to be far easier in Abonisle?¡± Irwyn asked to confirm. He had, in fact, heard of it.

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°And it just¡­ stays there?¡± he took a glance at it. When he looked away a second later, he could barely recall anything but it didn¡¯t seem that tall or big. Or secure for that matter. ¡°Couldn¡¯t it be sabotaged or even stolen?¡±

    ¡°That is an incorrect assumption,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°I am no Time mage but I know the basics. The Beacons are part of a larger network containing exactly 17 nodes. 2 for each duchy except Teal which only has one, however, it is the commanding Beacon that maintains the whole thing. And they are a wondrous thing: Teleporting between two cities with a beacon is borderline free if the enchantments are done right and anyone teleporting here or from here will still save massively on any mana they would expend, even bending Finity to a great degree.¡±

    ¡°I had no idea it was so powerful,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Still, this only leaves more reason to not leave it outside of a vault under perpetual guard.¡±

    ¡°It does not need to be guarded because it cannot be removed or damaged Irwyn,¡± those words were full of wonder as they passed Elizabeth¡¯s lips. ¡°You see, the beacons are far more than just artifacts. They were created only once and never reproduced. No one has ever come close in fact. You see, these were created by the very first Duke of Teal, the Named Twinpresence. One of the nine Dukes who rose to overthrow the Tyrant, one of the five Named among them.¡±

    ¡°It is documented beyond dispute that 238 years after the Federation was founded, Twinpresence was mortally wounded by a Named Lich in a battle of mutual destruction, making him the second of the five Named Dukes to perish after the Duke of Wrath. He had been injured in such a way that his soul was coming apart at the seams. Decaying and splintering. Beyond saving but not quite dead yet, Twinpresence gathered almost all of the greatest soul mages in the Federation at the time and worked with them on a final project. In the end, his soul was split seventeen fold after all the corruption was cut off. With the last remnants of his decaying will, Twinpresence called upon an Edict to create a true eternal heritage. To this day, the Federation prospers from the determination the mage held in those final moments.¡±

    ¡°Incredible,¡± Irwyn released a deep breath. He had been a bit engrossed. ¡°The very essence of a Named mage, and self-sacrificial as well to empower the meaning. No wonder you are not wary. I would not be surprised if you told me other Named didn¡¯t have the power to break it.¡±

    ¡°Not quickly in any case,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°There had been attempts, mostly by Liches, however, the network retains the slightest remnant of sentience and warns the others when in danger. Without exception, reinforcements were quick to come and stop any such intentions.¡±

    ¡°And I assume that stealing is not exactly mortally possible,¡± Irwyn nodded along. He almost took another glance at it but stopped himself. Better to not push it.

    ¡°It is fixed in place here, or at least that is what the explanation was for those without talent for Time magic. If Abonisle was moved by an earthquake - discounting that the Void lake makes that impossible - or the Spire fell it would remain in exactly the same spot as it is right now. The Duke of Teal had come personally to install it when it had been moved here. It had actually been placed years before the Spires themselves were built.¡±

    ¡°It was not in another settlement before?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. He remembered that Duchess Avys was partial to Abonisle, however, he couldn¡¯t imagine that any settlement with such a beacon had been mundane.¡±

    ¡°The previous city had been mostly depopulated by the Lich war 17 years ago. The Duchess used that as an opportunity.¡±

    ¡°I have to admit, it sound incredibly impressive even though I hardly have any way to experience it first hand,¡± beyond teleporting around that is. ¡°Is this what you wanted to show me?¡±

    ¡°In part, but there is one more thing,¡± she nodded. ¡°Frankly I am surprised you haven¡¯t noticed yet.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Irwyn looked around. There were only three spires so it probably wasn¡¯t that unless he missed something right next to him. So instead, he tried looking into the distance. At the forests and hills around Abonisle stretching far and wide¡­

    Until he turned around and saw a complete and drastic change in scenery. Now he understood why Elizabeth thought he would see it sooner considering the sight took up basically a whole cardinal direction. It was just that the stairs and the spires were built at such an angle that his eyes had not wandered this way before, far too focused on the magic right by him.

    What Irwyn beheld now was a progressive descent into a frozen wasteland. Some twenty or such kilometers North of Abonisle grass receded and the moderate weather almost spontaneously became a tundra. Spots of greenery peeked from beneath the snow which only became thicker and thicker until there was only white. No shapes, no color, just an endless, indiscriminate permafrost stretching all the way to the horizon.

    Except there was no horizon. There was only distant monotone gray. It took Irwyn a few moments to shake off the surprise and realize what it was: Rock. A sheer cliff, ground down by eons until it was too sheer for even snow to settle. Irwyn couldn¡¯t see the mountain ranges peak while the bottom was below the horizon, so tall they were. And it stretched literally from East to West. No obvious change along all that distance. No shorter in any one spot. No matter how far away Irwyn looked, the entire horizon was entirely taken by a gargantuan wall of sheer rock taller than the clouds.

    ¡°I also have no idea how in the world I missed that,¡± Irwyn admitted, mouth slightly agape. ¡°What in the world even is that?¡±

    ¡°The mountains at the Federation¡¯s Northern border,¡± Elizabeth stood by him and grinned. ¡°I told you that you should see it from up here back when we first met. Well, it wouldn¡¯t do not to show you.¡±

    ¡°It is a view, alright,¡± Irwyn had to admit. ¡°I read in a book somewhere that the ¡®Divide¡¯ mountain range is a group of tall mountains at the border. That might genuinely be the biggest understatement I have ever seen.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, people get really surprised by it, even from pictures that hardly capture it,¡± she nodded. ¡°It¡¯s probably because of how hard it is to actually see it. Nine out of ten days there are magical snowstorms raging from dawn to dusk, worse the closer you get; so you cannot see halfway to the mountains. The only reason the snow is not as tall as the Spires is because it is purely magical and therefore eventually disappears in accordance with Finity.¡±

    ¡°I had no idea we even had magical storms,¡± Irwyn admitted.

    ¡°It¡¯s because of the drastic change in the environment,¡± Elizabeth replied. ¡°The levels of ambient mana beyond the mountain are drastically lower. The Federation is the holy land of mages, or so I have heard. The rock keeps all that mana on our side instead of spilling over, however, apparently magic still gets greatly upset by that emptiness; even with the physical barrier in between. That causes the storms. If you want to know more, you will need a scholar.¡±

    ¡°I think the basic principle is plenty for now,¡± Irwyn nodded and stared back into the distance. It remained strangely breathtaking. Silence descended on them for a good dozen seconds.

    ¡°Irwyn?¡± Elizabeth broke it, hesitantly.

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°Would you mind standing here like this for a while?¡±

    ¡°Not at all.¡±

 2.35 By the Aspects, the SMELL

    The warehouse was, indeed, remote. So remote that the duo got lost on their way. Twice. It hid right under the floor of the third level of the inner city, however, could not be accessed from that floor. Instead, after minutes of futile searching, they had to go downstairs and find a stairway up. Unfortunately, not all the way up as the stairs ended on the floor below where they actually wanted to go so they spent another while wandering around before actually finding another way to ascend and eventually the warehouse itself. No wonder it was abandoned and empty. The location was absurdly bad. They had left early right after dinner and would still not be on time.

    ¡°Do most clandestine meetings in the underworld require this much exploration to find?¡± Elizabeth said drily.

    ¡°Of course. How could law enforcement find us if we, ourselves, have no idea where we are,¡± Irwyn joked.

    While Irwyn wore his Mockingbird mask, Elizabeth had gone with something¡­ a bit more abstract. She chose to wear a hood and at first glance it appeared as though shadows simply obscured the sight of her face, but that was not the case. Her visage was a sliver of utter darkness without so much as a hole for the eyes. It certainly made her look mysterious at first glance and imposing at the second. It was also unashamedly heavily enchanted as she wore it with confidence.

    ¡°Ah, you are early,¡± Desir¡¯s voice echoed as soon as they entered. Beyond the creaking unoiled front door was a large mostly empty hall. The only source of light was a single crystal that barely illuminated half of it, installed on a pole right next to the large table that Desir must have brought. There were no windows - why would anyone bother, the warehouse was squeezed in between buildings and would get no natural lighting or scenery anyway - so after closing the door behind themselves no one would be able to tell that they were there from the outside. Not that there was anyone walking around the¡­ it was not really a neighborhood, just an abandoned empty corner. Irwyn supposed that given the sheer size, Abonisle would inevitably have at least a few of those even in the inner city.

    ¡°We are actually ten minutes late,¡± Irwyn pointed out, exacerbated.

    ¡°I always tell everyone to come half an hour early since they tend to get lost,¡± Desir shrugged with a grin. ¡°I congratulate your above-average pathfinding skills. I knew a bloke who kept looking around the upper floor for a whole hour before giving up and just leaving. Tools, sheds, and whatnot.¡±

    ¡°It wouldn¡¯t have killed you to leave better instructions,¡± Irwyn shook his head as they approached the table, their voices echoing in the emptiness. Elizabeth remained silent for the moment. ¡°I had to guess where the address actually was by vicinity.¡±

    ¡°But that defeats the point, you see,¡± Desir kept smiling. ¡°Anyone who bothers with the whole thing is suddenly more invested in the job since they already put in that effort. Does wonders for negotiations, I tell you,¡± he chuckled then turned towards Elizabeth. ¡°Speaking of¡­ it is my pleasure to meet you, though I am uncertain which form of reference to adopt.¡±

    ¡°You may call me Crepuscule,¡± she said. Irwyn did not glance her way. When she had told him it was the ¡®codename¡¯ she had chosen he hadn¡¯t even known the word. A way of saying dusk, apparently. He had tried to gently convince her to choose something a bit less¡­ pompous, though she had insisted. It was probably for the best no one would know what the word meant, or so he hoped. He wasn¡¯t sure what would happen if some dimwit among their help mocked her for the self-imposed nickname she seemed to really like.

    ¡°Then please, call me Desir,¡± the blue-eyed man nodded, not even phased. He did not wear a mask nor obscured his features in any way. ¡°I am told by my good friend that you can be quite generous. And although I would not dare doubt that, I hope you understand there have been upfront costs that would be troublesome to not recover given this is a risky venture.¡±

    ¡°How very¡­ straightforward,¡± Elizabeth shook her head and waved her palm. A pouch appeared in her hand which she tossed towards Desir nonchalantly.

    ¡°I am told that is the way of etiquette in our Duchy, Lady Crepuscule,¡± Desir bowed lightly, checking the contents in one motion. Irwyn was pretty sure his left eye widened slightly for a moment before Desir got it back under control.

    ¡°Just Crepuscule will do tonight,¡± she nodded. ¡°I believe that will cover your expenses as well as your so-called ¡®cut¡¯. Should you impress me, I may deem to add a bonus.¡±

    ¡°It would seem that the Mockingbird¡¯s tales of your generosity greatly understated the facts, Crepuscule. I shall strive to exceed expectations,¡± Desir nodded with a smile. ¡°That being said, it is best we get to planning. Have you been acquainted with the initial plan?¡±

    ¡°All of it as far as I could retell,¡± Irwyn confirmed.

    ¡°Excellent,¡± Desir grinned. ¡°It has remained the same for the most part, however, I have obtained some details. Our target is an armsdealer buying up anything adjacent to military grade which we suspect they then sell to someone who was involved in the attack on Abonisle,¡± Desir gave them both a moment to nod at the reiteration. ¡°I managed to find a few rumors and facts on them: He is a former rank and file warmage, a survivor from the last Lich war. No elite but it¡¯s best to not underestimate them since they have age on their side, especially in a corner. It also probably means fewer bodyguards though. After we have them, I will have our extras take the muscle away and keep them occupied for a day, probably two while we take our real friend to a different hideout I have prepared reasonably nearby.¡±

    ¡°You said you had a picture,¡± Irwyn reminded.

    ¡°Here,¡± Desir presented it. The man in it looked middle-aged, however, there was a nasty scar going through both their cheeks. It was certainly a distinct look.

    ¡°Do you know what Fowl they associate with?¡± Irwyn was nodding along but asked.

    ¡°They pay minor tithes to the Singing Man, though there don¡¯t seem to be a substantial connection as far as I found.¡±

    ¡°Do you know anything about the seller?¡± Elizabeth asked.

    ¡°Nothing, I am afraid,¡± Desir shook his head. ¡°My source has focused on the trader as their own competitor and on no one else. We will have to play it by the ear if they cause an issue.¡±

    ¡°How will we keep them if they are a mage?¡±

    ¡°These,¡± Desir pointed at a stack of small boxes on the table. ¡°Draining manacles. Any magic they try to channel will just be wasted once these are on. I also have this,¡± he reached into a pocket and took out three small crystals.

    ¡°Conjoined gems?¡± Eliza¡­ Crepuscule asked, clearly knowing exactly what those were.

    ¡°Yes, you are discerning,¡± Desir nodded with a bit of flatter.

    ¡°I am a bit out of the loop here,¡± Irwyn admitted.

    ¡°They change color and start to glow when one of them has mana channeled through it,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Much simpler than attuning complex communications.¡±

    ¡°And two orders of magnitude cheaper,¡± Desir grinned. ¡°Any more questions?¡±

    ¡°That is everything that comes to mind,¡± Irwyn nodded.

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    ¡°Make yourselves comfortable then,¡± Desir nodded. ¡°We probably have a good while before the extra hands I hired get here. They know basically nothing except how to keep their mouths shut,¡± he then pointed at the pouch that Elizabeth had given him. ¡°In the meantime, I will place this somewhere save.¡±

    ¡°Take your time,¡± Irwyn nodded and Desir left the room with another small bow.

    ¡°He seemed rather surprised by the payment,¡± Irwyn broached once they were alone again.

    ¡°Was he?¡± Elizabeth seemed unaware. ¡°I had asked an accountant about the usual rates for mage mercenary services and then doubled it just in case.¡±

    ¡°Whoever your family usually hires might be from a more¡­ selective pool which often comes with a markup,¡± Irwyn shared his thought. ¡°Not that I mind,¡± and neither would she likely care about overpaying even by a ridiculous amount. ¡°Well-motivated people tend to get better results.¡±

    ¡°I suppose¡­?¡± Elizabeth seemed askance. ¡°I never really got involved with wages and such.¡±

    ¡°Would you not be expected to take a leadership position at some point?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow, though she would not see it through the mask.

    ¡°I am far down in the line of inheritance by the virtue of age,¡± she shrugged, uncaring. ¡°And even if I could wrestle it with magic and wit, I would not want to lead a House. I prefer not to be the person people bother with their personal problems.¡±

    ¡°That is certainly a good point,¡± Irwyn grinned. Yes, leadership only sounded appealing for the power and wealth it offered. And there were better and more stable ways to get that open to him.

    They continued to chat as they waited.

    <hr>

    When Desir came back some 30 minutes later his ¡®friends¡¯ were with him, a dozen of them. Only a few were mages and not great ones, however, they carried some enchanted items as well as all being armed with regular rifles. It would do as a backup.

    Short introductions were had. Apparently, they already knew that Irwyn, in his capacity as Young Mockingbird, would be here judging by their lack of surprise. As for Elizabeth¡­ He was pretty sure a few of them cringed or had to suppress mocking laughter at the nickname ¡®Crepuscule¡¯ even if they probably didn¡¯t actually know what the word meant, however, they remained professional and subdued in reactions.

    They reviewed the plan one last time - Desir passing around the picture of their target - before silently heading out. Cloaks would allow even the masked duo to pass the busy streets unnoticed. For the plan they first had to walk down to the ground floor and then enter the sewers. Eventually, the group Desir hired split off from them to use a different entrance underground so as to ¡®not move in too large a group¡¯.

    It sounded like a flimsy excuse to Irwyn before Desir winked at him. A realization hit Irwyn a moment later when he remembered exactly why he himself in particular might not want to enter together with the grunts. He hadn¡¯t even thought of that and thanked the blue-eyed man with a nod.

    ¡°Get ready for it,¡± Irwyn warned as they neared. ¡°The smell is exceptionally bad even for severs.¡±

    ¡°Your stomach is just too weak,¡± Desir chuckled. ¡°I suppose Crepuscule can adjudicate for us.¡±

    ¡°I would be happy to,¡± Crepuscule¡¯s slight head tilt indicated curiosity.

    They entered not long after through another mostly empty side street, descending down a ladder. Well, not really down a ladder considering Irwyn lowered them on a platform of solid light and solid flame respectively rather than condemn them to climbing on the ooze-rust steel.

    And then the smell hit him¡­ oh, the smell. Like a school of year-old fish rotting inside his nostrils. Like an unholy mixture of every cheap perfume inventible, then amplified a hundredfold. Like eggs that had been sunbathing for a generation before being cracked open by the hundreds right around him. It was somehow even way worse than last time.

    Irwyn puked.

    He did not think he would but his body¡¯s instinctive reaction was too strong. The force of will was not enough. Just barely he had the time to remove the mask from his face before it ended up unfortunately filled up.

    Then he instinctively tried to breathe a bit deeper, which got the smell to resurge into his nostrils, making him puke again. He probably would have done so a third time if there was anything left, leaving him instead to dry heave. It took him a bit longer to get used enough to the smell to regain at least some of his composure.

    Desir was looking somewhere between amazed, surprised, and worried while Elizabeth was made mostly unreadable due to the mask. But she did seem completely fine. Irwyn slowly got up, reddening in embarrassment, putting his mask back on after checking for any obvious stains. Thankfully, it was fine.

    ¡°I was going to say the smell wasn¡¯t that bad¡­¡± Crepuscule spoke after a few seconds. ¡°Now I am at a loss for words.¡±

    ¡°Maybe¡­ the mixture doesn¡¯t serve you well in particular?¡± Desir tried. ¡°Unless you learned how to vomit on command just to prove me wrong which would be genuinely impressive.¡±

    ¡°Just the smell, unfortunately,¡± Irwyn sighed. It was getting a bit better. From unbearable to atrocious as he felt his nose erode in real-time. He was also confused. If it had been just Desir, that was one thing but Elizabeth as well? There had to be more to¡­

    ¡°Perhaps it¡¯s best we get going,¡± Desir suggested before Irwyn could spiral into thought. Right, they were here for a reason. He could figure it out when they were done.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Irwyn sighed and almost choked, ¡°Lead the way.¡±

    <hr>

    Irwyn and Desir stood by the front door while Elizabeth took the back. The closest connecting intersection was some two-minute walk away so they would regroup through the building when things happened. Their backup was also spaced out, hidden under illusions. Nothing as complex or dynamic as Irwyn¡¯s invisibility spell, rather a veil of Void magic that allowed them to perfectly blend into shadows they had no business even fitting into; it was also completely static.

    They had timed their arrival to be after the arms deal had started but before it could reasonably conclude. Irwyn felt the mages moving inside so that was another confirmation. In the end, Irwyn opted to share a Void veil created by Desir rather than rely on his own invisibility spell. Magic dedicated to visually hiding him was not the most useful with a wall between him and the person he didn¡¯t want to be seen by.

    ¡°Can I ask you a question?¡± Desir whispered lightly but seriously after a few minutes of silence.

    ¡°What is the matter?¡± Irwyn nodded, voice also hushed.

    ¡°How much do you trust the lady?¡± Desir asked and Irwyn thought about it seriously. The strange thing with Elizabeth was that he had to separate what he would entrust her with and what he would entrust her with. After all, she remained bound to her family and so was Irwyn. And they might have interests they would enforce beyond a daughter¡¯s whims or even desires. But Elizabeth as a person?

    ¡°In all honesty, Desir, I trust her more than you,¡± Irwyn admitted and it was a decent margin. He had made friends with Desir and the blue-eyed man had helped him out a lot, however, they weren¡¯t exactly at ¡®daily training and dinners¡¯. Nor did he actually know any potentially devastating secrets; much less any Desir had given him by choice. ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s good at least,¡± Desir nodded, then he looked Irwyn up and down, assessing, which was made a lot more difficult by the full-face mask of the mockingbird Irwyn used. ¡°I ask because I am afraid she might get rid of us both after this is all said and done.¡±

    ¡°That would be greatly out of character,¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°And against interests I am aware of.¡±

    ¡°Would it? I certainly hope so,¡± Desire just nodded at that. ¡°I have a sixth sense of a kind Irwyn and it has been damn screaming at me that if I just make some wrong choices she will be my death. Can you swear it will be fine?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Irwyn nodded after a moment. ¡°I will swear it as long as you don¡¯t do something tremendously stupid.¡±

    ¡°Thanks,¡± Desir nodded. ¡°Maybe my intuition was just misfiring.¡±

    ¡°Think nothing of it,¡± but he did frown slightly. He wasn¡¯t sure what could have brought this on. Desir was a Void mage, no prophet, so this would be more of a gut feeling on his part. Perhaps the persona of Crepuscule Elizabeth was putting on was intimidating. On second thought, without context she was scary. Downright terrifying, actually. If she hid her presence¡­ Well, Irwyn knew that he would not want to fight any mages whose magic he could not feel whatsoever despite seeming younger while dressed in a dragon hoard''s worth of enchantments.

    And he never learned how¡­ reluctant she would actually be with dispersing lethal force. The memory of Ebon Respite hinted at how highly House Blackburg might think of their lessers. Odds were, he would find out tonight.

    ¡°I think someone is coming, our way,¡± Irwyn felt someone heading their way from the inside. A mage, though they hid well just how powerful they might be. And indeed, less than a dozen seconds later a person emerged. Likely the seller.

    Then Irwyn stopped as he recognized them.

    Bhaak, the merchant mage who had sold Irwyn his mask, stared directly at him despite the veil of stealth. With a smile, he winked and then just vanished the next breath. Irwyn hadn¡¯t felt a bit of magic from the spell, though that no longer surprised him. What did startle was that there was no impression that Bhaak gave off. Many of the great mages he had been meeting had an air around them. An inherent meaning. In hindsight, Bhaak gave no impression the first time they had met though that was before Irwyn would pay attention to it. Nowadays though? Even Dervish was not so completely beyond Irwyn¡¯s senses when not intentionally hiding.

    ¡°That was strange,¡± Desir was already holding his conjoined gem, triggering it. It gloved red. Not that it was really necessary, Elizabeth would have felt a mage leaving. ¡°Thankfully, they gave us no trouble. Let¡¯s go in. We have an arms dealer to snatch.¡±

 2.36 Nap

    Irwyn rushed inside, Desir staying several steps behind him. His barrier of transparent Flames surrounded him with no less power than he would use in his spars with Elizabeth. Flames rather than Starfire. Starfire still suffered some vulnerability to Void magic inherited from light so even though it was better at defending against everything else, Irwyn still opted not to be extra vulnerable to the element the Duchy of Black was known for. He held down the knob and let solid light knock the door open with force and the element of surprise.

    The first two guards were holding firearms, standing right by the entrance. They had no magic so Irwyn simply destroyed the weapons and bound them with what was practically a rope of solid light; all done before the men had so much as reacted to him. He would need to actively maintain it, however, as magic without a single concept the strain was negligible over small distances.

    The next door did not stand any more chance, snapping open without issue; though even if there was Irwyn was ready to knock anything locked off its hinges. The room he entered was empty, just a hallway. But he had expected as much and proceeded along the building plan he had read up upon, the mage they were after working as a beacon. He was not the only one, however, the smuggler¡¯s aura was undoubtedly the most condensed.

    Irwyn half ran, passing through intersections and hurrying straight towards a stairway, skipping a few turns. He kept tight control over his magic though so he had not been felt and the guards could not do much as he had not neglected to also gag them.

    Elizabeth approached from not far away. She also kept her magic under a tight grip, however, she was not dedicating herself to stealth, therefore it was not beyond Irwyn¡¯s capacity to sense. There were two stairwells up so they chose to take one each. They were not planning to meet up though; they would each clear one half of the building on their way.

    The density of defenses grew significantly denser above the stairs. Yet it might as well not have for all the difference it made. Irwyn found another duo unsetting a tripwire, probably in preparation to leave. They too were quickly bound as he carried on. As was another pair who were talking in the next room.

    Then the explosion sounded.

    It came from Elizabeth¡¯s side, just as she also reached the second floor. There was a flare of magic at her location, however, she did not so much as slow down and neither did Irwyn. The next two he found were still recoiling and subdued immediately, then next were ready for him, riffles and wands charged with spells aimed at his barrier. A dozen men, organised and well trained.

    He did not even feel the strain as their weapons shattered themselves on an immovable barricade.

    The only real annoyance they caused was obstructing sight, but then, Irwyn did have a spell dedicated to sight nowadays. With the remote eye it was a matter of seconds to subdue the whole group.

    It was ridiculously easy.

    Maybe that should have been self-evident before things even started. Irwyn had simply not internalized it. Never really thought of it. As he walked among these mortal men and women, they could not even slow him down. Their best effort equaled to doing nothing at all. It was¡­ eye-opening. How things have reversed from the days he cowered, afraid to use his magic overmuch lest he might be uncovered and hunted down.

    It was liberating, to truly realize he had nothing to fear from even a squad of riflemen. That he had changed and left the worst of his weakness dead somewhere along the way.

    Then he curbed his egomania. There were higher heights still. He needed just to remember Dervish or that Shadow which had captured him back in Ebon Respite. He may be inconceivably high above the layman on the metaphorical mountain of power, yet nowhere near the true peak. But it did reinvoke his drive. The lust for more power. Because, damn it, did it feel good to not be afraid whatsoever.

    The next room was large. It was also where the arms dealer was awaiting them. Even if Irwyn could not feel the man from afar they were easily spottable with the ¨C indeed - distinct scar. The man stood side by side with what might be his last 3 guards, each a mage as well. Irwyn might have taken out most of their forces in just the room before. Looking around the hall, it was mostly unfurnished again - well, it was not exactly a place of residence - besides the few crates stacked on top of each other in the corner.

    A spell and a salvo of projectiles impacted his barrier the moment he entered. None so much as tickling what it could bear. He felt two intention magic lashing towards him, pierce and power contained in a spear of flickering green he interpreted as Life magic; the biggest threat it posed was distracting him with curiosity about how Life mages fought offensively.

    ¡°If you would please just surrender,¡± Irwyn suggested as the visual noise cleared and he approached.

    ¡°Well, aren¡¯t you a polite cunt,¡± one of the guards spat while the mage¡­ rather the arms dealer - considering that all 4 were mages - was frowning. That was not the look of surrender nor despair though. Irwyn encroached closer.

    The floor beneath his feet exploded. Not a speck of magic coursed in it though, just sheer force and heat from a mundane volatile explosive. It had been well enough hidden not to be spotted on the ground, which would have been impressive if it had been improvised. Unfortunately for them, Irwyn had not neglected being protected from all sides, including below. That one embarrassingly quick demonstration in training had been all he needed to learn the lesson.

    For a split second, he almost fell through the newly created hole, however, a slab of solid flames immediately manifested to hold Irwyn¡¯s weight. They still tried to capitalize on the ambush, firing another salvo of everything they had, perhaps hoping the two combined would be enough. They were nowhere near close. Irwyn almost felt like a bully.

    ¡°If you would reconsider,¡± Irwyn trod closer. And walked right into a second explosion. It did as much as the first but he had to admit that if his force was not so overwhelming these tactics would have closed a large gap in power. All they really did was stall the inevitable. And that applied doubly so, for the next moment Elizabeth stepped into the room. As perhaps a last-ditch effort one of the casters attempted to forcefully teleport something inside of Irwyn¡¯s barrier, which immediately failed. Not because Irwyn was particularly well defended against such acts but because there was too large a difference of sheer magical potency. Irwyn knew that his spatial defenses could be better for opponents at the same level.

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    ¡°Enough, we have lost,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s entry was enough to break their spirit anyway. The arms dealer announced as such with just a glance at her, equally untouched. One of his three mage bodyguards protested and motioned to cast again, instead they got an elbow to the face.

    ¡°So, what do you want with me?¡±

    ¡°Manacles first,¡± Irwyn walked closer.

    ¡°Escap¡­¡± and the space mage tried to cast in the distraction. Irwyn began to counter and realized that he did not really have a good way of stopping space magic aimed at someone else. It was something starting with escape, which would have an obvious purpose, though what Irwyn did not hear the whole spell name. And never would.

    A beam of black magic erased anything above the man¡¯s neckline from existence halfway through the chant¡¯s first word and then dispersed before it even hit the back wall.

    ¡°Any other surprises?¡± Elizabeth asked, not sounding distraught or doubtful at all about what had just transpired.

    ¡°That was the last,¡± the arms dealer was too shocked to answer for a moment and then replied with a deep sigh. He did intently look anywhere but at the dead mage. The other two also seemed surprised and out of rhythm, which Irwyn wouldn¡¯t have expected. They had given him the impression of hard-to-shake veterans.

    ¡°Bit of a mess, but could have been worse,¡± Desir walked out from his hiding spot in the previous room. Surprisingly enough, in the end he had opted to wear a veil of magical darkness to hide his features and his voice seemed a bit¡­ off. Not quite like him. Which was probably the point. He approached the defeated mages, gave Irwyn a nod and then put the draining manacles on each. He had apparently prepared even a few more than there were mages, though they ended up unnecessary.

    ¡°Everyone should be restrained, yes?¡± Irwyn glanced at Elizabeth.

    ¡°...Yes,¡± she replied after a short pause. Irwyn wasn¡¯t sure what to that was about but let it be.

    ¡°Gather everyone downstairs and bring in your friends Desir,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I will have a go through the stuff here while I keep an eye on them.¡±

    ¡°Will do. If you would Crepuscule?¡± and as such the two headed downstairs, picking up the tied-up guards along the way.

    Irwyn turned towards the crates. In hindsight, it was a bit strange that Bhaak would deal with people like these. Irwyn rather remembered that the man proudly claimed he only dealt with the incredible. He opened the first crate and immediately found a note.

    ¡®If you would leave these be I can take them back in an hour or so. I will give you credit for their value. - Bhaak¡¯

    Well¡­ Irwyn wasn¡¯t sure what to think about that. Bhaak had shown he had some capacity for reading Fate, though Irwyn had no clue how this pertained to future events. Also, he should have been disrupting any such predictions by his very existence from what everyone has been telling him.

    He sighed as he inspected the goods. They were all riffles, enchanted and seemed well manufactured, though Irwyn knew jack about such things. The magic in them was, however, incredibly stable. Like some of the best enchantments, he had seen around the city in buildings and such. The only issue was that they didn¡¯t actually hold all that much power, each with exactly one intention imbued. Most likely, whoever enchanted them had held back.

    Either way, they would be worth a fortune¡­ But just cash did not have unlimited worth; especially while Irwyn wasn¡¯t hurting for it. If he ever desperately needed money, he happened to know a certain noble lady to ask for a competitive loan. And there was such a thing as scarcity of goods. And everything about Bhaak had screamed the man could deal with the unobtainably rare. Not to mention the logistics of moving and offloading these themselves¡­ With another sigh he closed the crates and glanced at the 3 mages¡­ and the fourth one on the floor.

    ¡°Does he have any preferred burial?¡± Irwyn asked as he approached.

    ¡°Just ¡®don¡¯t let the rats eat me¡¯,¡± the dealer shrugged slowly but Irwyn saw that the death bothered him at least somewhat. Not ¡®soulmates¡¯ kind of pain but they had probably been friends.

    ¡°Very well,¡± Irwyn nodded and motioned with his hand. A wave of flames engulfed the headless body, reducing it to ash in a moment. Undefended flesh burned easily. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    Irwyn returned the same way he had come which was completely empty. The stench of sewers was still present though his nose was getting used to it. Or maybe just too dead to smell at that point.

    ¡°As we agreed, fellas,¡± Desir announced to his friends as soon as Irwyn got down. There were only a few of them left on the lower level and the guards were nowhere to be seen. They had probably already been brought outside. ¡°Keep the muscle somewhere comfy for a day or two while we wrap up our business.¡± as the duo of mage bodyguards separated Desir pointed at them. ¡°These two are mages, remember to not let the manacles slip.¡±

    ¡°Will do Richard,¡± one of them grunted, however, his eyes lingered on Elizabeth who seemed to be ignoring everyone else. ¡°You coming to cards on the weekend?¡±

    ¡°Hopefully,¡± the blue-eyed man shrugged with a grin. ¡°Really depends on how things go from here on out.¡±

    <hr>

    Irwyn silently looked around the barren ¡®hideout¡¯.

    It was a small apartment adjacent to a storefront and had only two rooms. This one and the one in which they kept their unconscious hostage. At least it had really been close, right on the lowest city level. Irwyn was pretty sure the shop actually operated normally but it was late into the night and the owner, or whoever, was clearly not sleeping over.

    ¡°Desir had said he will extract what we want to know, correct?¡± Elizabeth asked.

    ¡°All I will need is an hour alone and these,¡± Desir nodded, pointing at two¡­ potions of some kind placed on top of a nearby shelf. Unlike the rest of the room, they were not dusty, clearly brought recently.

    ¡°I have been told that torture is extremely ineffective as a manner of interrogation,¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow though seemed more¡­ intrigued than disturbed by the notion.

    ¡°And I would rather not have it on my conscience,¡± Irwyn nodded. It was perhaps a step too far beyond his already not particularly solid morals. But intentionally inflicting needless physical suffering for gain went over the apathy he had always maintained, especially if there were other ways.

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t be crass,¡± Desir gasped in mock outrage. ¡°I am no torturer; that only results in being told what you want to hear rather than the truth. Nor am I needlessly cruel. See this one?¡± he pointed at one of the two. ¡°A potion of forgetfulness. A basic courtesy which I hope to be afforded too if I am ever in such a situation. It will inhibit their brain and soul from creating memories for a few hours after the first dose and the second erases the in-between completely.¡±

    ¡°And the other?¡± Elizabeth glanced at it.

    ¡°A love potion, about¡­ I want to say north of a hundred doses of the commercial stuff has¡± Desir grinned lightly. ¡°As I said, give me an hour and we will know everything he knows.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s eyes widened with realisation. ¡°That would be effective. If you can seduce them under the effect, they would indeed hide little.¡±

    ¡°Crepuscule, I can seduce almost anyone even without the potion,¡± Desir laughed. ¡°An hour is just a bit of a tough timeline for most targets. Aiming for unquestioning obsession makes it even more so.¡±

    ¡°We will leave you to it, then,¡± Irwyn interjected before the conversation spun out further. ¡°You said in an hour.¡±

    ¡°Yep, more or less,¡± Desir grinned. ¡°Have a midnight snack if you are feeling puckish I suppose.¡±

    ¡°I am sure some vendors are still selling,¡± Elizabeth seemed suddenly enthusiastic about the idea.

    ¡°Well, I could probably use something to make up for the dinner I lost,¡± Irwyn sighed. He supposed that soon enough they might learn how good of a hint this was going to be.

 2.37 Blood relations

    It turned out to be surprisingly difficult to find food in the inner city. Irwyn and Elizabeth had taken off their masks in the pursuit of a midnight snack or two but had so far been thwarted. The main streets did not really have dedicated vendor stands on account of being made to accommodate large traffic, rather, there would be at most windows facing the street and offering a quick to-go meal to the passerby. The issue was, there were few of those on this street and each of them was closed. Yet going much further out was not an option either. Elizabeth had suggested it, however, Irwyn was unwilling to stray too far. She seemed slightly irked, though was clearly trying not to show it; which was curious in itself given that she had not retched out her dinner. Irwyn, on the other hand, had to admit he was feeling rather starved, especially after his stomach gave it away with a low growl.

    The conversation had stalled a bit as Elizabeth seemed determined to get them something to eat though. She walked down the long, wide street, looking inside any storefront that both had windows and did not cover them up after closing. Normally passersby might dissuade that, however, the local traffic was in general rather light here given how lively Abonisle could be even late into the night; though that was probably why Desir opted to go for hideout around here. Irwyn did not know Abonisle well enough to know why this particular street was not popular.

    ¡°Aha!¡± Elizabeth exclaimed. It had been maybe five minutes of going from shopfront to shopfront which Irwyn had joined in eventually; mostly just to humor her sudden obsession than because he thought it might work. However, they did indeed find someone still at work. It was some kind of¡­ restaurant? Irwyn found it hard to tell given he had little to go off except the drawing of a chicken inside which he could barely make out in the dim light. In the meantime, Elizabeth urgently tapped on the window.

    Irwyn was pretty sure the older woman inside who was looking at something beneath a low-output light source was intentionally ignoring them or maybe just didn¡¯t even notice it. Elizabeth was exceptionally persistent though and just kept knocking against the windows with her knuckles.

    ¡°You know, she might be too far away to hear this¡­¡± Irwyn suggested after a solid and futile minute.

    ¡°Nonsense, it¡¯s the middle of the night. Sound echoes in silence,¡± she just kept rapping.

    ¡°Then she is just pretending not to notice,¡± Irwyn shrugged.

    ¡°In which case, this has been made into a contest of willpower,¡± she grinned. ¡°Her ability to ignore it against mine to keep going. And you cannot possibly think she could match up against me.¡±

    ¡°You know what?¡± Irwyn glanced at the woman - who seemed to be working on some paperwork at a second glance - and then back at Elizabeth¡¯s knuckles repeatedly hitting the glass. ¡°We do have an hour to kill.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the spirit,¡± she was smiling. ¡°I am sure it will go along faster when we do it in two.¡±

    ¡°Now I am joining?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± she grinned with mischief. ¡°Or would you leave me here to just hit glass alone like an idiot?¡±

    ¡°Well, if the desired effect is provoking a reaction,¡± Irwyn shrugged, then manifested three finger-like constructs made of solid light. So close to the street lamps, they were mostly translucent though they did shine slightly. He began rapping with them on the window. ¡°No need to use my own hands.¡±

    ¡°Is that so?¡± she inclined her head, then pulled up her dress¡¯ long sleeve a bit. Irwyn had never noticed that her arm muscles were so well-developed; trained. Not something most would expect from a dedicated mage. Then black veins sprung through those muscles beneath the elbow as they flexed in ways Irwyn was confident they usually couldn¡¯t. Elizabeth showed no trace of pain though, instead she manifested four copies of her wrist and below which she then showcased perfectly mirroring the movements of her own hand. When she began to strike the glass window again it was faster. Incredibly faster. So fast that the droning now suddenly almost sounded like one continuous tone while her hand visibly blurred in the street¡¯s nightlights.

    Irwyn could probably do that with his magic¡­ if he had some time to practice. He had never really considered just vibrating his spells in place or otherwise moving them back and forth really fast over minuscule distances. But if he could not really catch up in speed, perhaps he could make up for that in quantity.

    Several hundred knuckled fingers of light spread out in from him, then each began to rap against the glass. He was trying to go as fast as he could, though as he had suspected, his best was far from what Elizabeth was doing¡­ physically of all ways. However, he was quickly improving. Learning better to implement the chorus of motion and raps.

    Then Elizabeth reminded him that he would not win a battle of quantity on any reasonable scale. Two hundred palms of void magic spread from her rapidly moving hand and spread out. They still copied her hand¡¯s motions perfectly though which meant doing that same incredibly fast motion as she was.

    The only real difference was that it was getting louder. Turns out, competitively rapping on a window with magic would lead to some noise. Irwyn was considering whether it was wise to escalate further when the business¡¯s door opened.

    ¡°Do you have any idea what time¡­¡± the woman, who up close was clearly older than Irwyn had thought, yelled at first, then quieted down and turned silent before even finishing her first sentence. Irwyn followed her eyes and noticed that Elizabeth had manifested money in her outstretched hand. A lot of it. Probably as much as the whole business earned in a week.

    ¡°We would like something to eat,¡± Elizabeth confidently walked past the woman. Irwyn was feeling a bit more sheepish about this kind of high handedness but followed her silently.

    ¡°I can fry something for you,¡± the older woman gave them a very strained smile. Instead of answering, Elizabeth looked at Irwyn. After a moment he realized she was waiting for him to answer.

    ¡°Y-yes, thank you,¡± Irwyn said after an awkward second, embarrassingly stammering. Well, it had been a while since that happened. Didn¡¯t make it any less unpleasant.

    ¡°Just something small for me,¡± Elizabeth added before the woman left. They unstacked the chairs stored upside down on the nearest table and sat down. It was hard to tell much about the decor of the restaurant given the dim light.

    ¡°Honestly, this feels strange,¡± Irwyn admitted.

    ¡°Have you never been to a restaurant after closing?¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Not with the owner still inside,¡± he lowered his voice slightly. ¡°Much less to eat. It¡¯s just¡­ unfamiliar I suppose. Uncomfortable. Are you used to doing this?¡±

    ¡°Not really but the same principles apply,¡± she shrugged. ¡°Most people just do whatever you ask if you give them money. Especially non-mages.¡±

    ¡°I suppose,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°Usually, we would reserve bribes for more important things.¡±

    ¡°You would call this a bribe?¡± she asked doubtfully.

    ¡°You are paying someone to do something they usually wouldn¡¯t do,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°What else could it be?¡±

    ¡°I imagine bribes as something more valuable than just money,¡± she explained. "For something more meaningful than just convenience."

    ¡°I suppose I was never in the business of dealing with priceless items or political feats,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°It might be pointless to talk about this in the first place. Our frames of reference are completely different.¡±

    ¡°Maybe after you had something to eat,¡± she smiled. ¡°You will be easier to convince.¡±

    ¡°You are welcome to try and sway me with logic,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    That being said Irwyn was hungry. And maybe this was now something he could do... if he ever was hungry enough to make it worth an awkward conversation with a stranger¡­ Perhaps it would be easier to just break into a pantry next time. He had never been great at conventional lockpicking but mundane locks were easy to force with magic. And he did not need to hide that anymore. But he had habits and subconscious blocks built over the years that he would probably need to encounter and then dismiss one at a time to realize there was no longer any real reason why he shouldn¡¯t do some things.

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    Then he almost flinched as he heard steps right behind him. It took him half a second to process that it was the owner and another half to figure out that Elizabeth must have deployed some kind of magic to isolate the sound around them.

    ¡°Here, chicken wings and sauce,¡± she presented a¡­ paper bucket? placing it in between them. Well there was certainly a lot of meat in it. ¡°Enough for you both,¡± then she quickly left. Irwyn glanced at her returning to whatever paperwork she had been doing before and put the woman out of his mind.

    ¡°This is not bad,¡± Elizabeth was already having a taste. The wings were deep fried in a breaded blanket which was honestly rather novel to Irwyn. He gave it a bite of course. It was oily and probably scalding hot. But Irwyn did not burn so that ended up enhancing the taste rather than diminishing from it. Yes, it was indeed rather good, especially given he had been feeling ravenous.

    ¡°There is one thing I wanted to ask you,¡± Elizabeth broached then. Irwyn looked down at the next wing in his hand. Getting him down to sit and get pleasant with food before carefully asking about something uncomfortable? That was almost textbook.

    ¡°You are supposed to wait until I am at least halfway full,¡± he gave her a grin.

    ¡°It clearly wouldn¡¯t have worked anyway,¡± she rolled her eyes.

    ¡°It might have,¡± he shrugged. ¡°The problem is you started broaching it so carefully not to mention you joked about ¡®getting me fed first¡¯ just a minute ago. It makes alarm bells ring. Is it something bad?¡±

    ¡°Maybe,¡± she took a deep breath. ¡°I had been thinking and wanted to ask you about your time in Abonisle.¡±

    ¡°Ask away,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I cannot say it was all an easy stride but I wasn¡¯t miserable.¡±

    ¡°I wanted to ask about¡­ your friends. Close acquaintances.¡±

    ¡°What has you so worried about that?¡± Irwyn had to raise an eyebrow.

    ¡°I know that there have been some¡­ vindictive actions taken by House Blackburg some half a year ago.¡±

    ¡°Ah, that,¡± Irwyn quickly connected the dots. ¡°We were honestly lucky and the Tears got out of that basically uninjured. No dead or crippled loved ones there,¡± he reassured. ¡°A man calling themselves Calm went after our hideout and was merciful. Maybe you are familiar.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ I have read Calm¡¯s less official report. He had been impressed by you somewhat despite not even knowing about your magic. He also mentioned you were accompanied by someone both times you met him. Would you¡­ tell me about them¡±

    ¡°Waylan,¡± Irwyn nodded, smiling. ¡°Serial murderer of idioms and an incredible sneak. We had joined the Tears together and ended up pairing up forever.¡±

    ¡°How did he end up there?¡±

    ¡°He was better off than most. Had an older sister to look out after him. They were orphaned before he could remember and gradually ran out of their meager inheritance. When they couldn¡¯t afford their small apartment anymore his sister ended up at a brothel and the Madame there recognized the talent, sending Waylan towards us.¡±

    ¡°So, you have been working together for years?¡± she continued inquiring.

    ¡°Pretty much since I could remember,¡± Irwyn grinned fondly. ¡°He could be damn annoying at times - and kept calling me by that nickname I despise - but I knew that I could always count on him to have my back. Certainly saved my life a few times.¡±

    ¡°What is that like?¡±

    ¡°What is what like?¡± Irwyn was slightly confused by that. ¡°Having my life saved? Relieving I supp¡­¡±

    ¡°No, not that,¡± she shook her head. ¡°To have a peer like that. Someone to talk to. Someone you know you can just trust.¡±

    ¡°Elizabeth¡­¡± Irwyn stared at her for a moment. But she was serious. She stared him straight in the eyes and he thought she was suppressing a tremble. ¡°Did you never have someone like that? Someone to confide in.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s mostly because I was so sick while young,¡± she shook her head. ¡°By the time I got better everyone around my age had already long made up their groups and would not let anyone new in. And it would be¡­ heavily frowned upon to go looking too far down.¡±

    ¡°Still, really no one?¡± Irwyn was paying full attention now. To the slight quiver of her lip.

    ¡°I suppose there had been the old maid who looked after me when my illness was at its worst,¡± she said after a few moments. ¡°She was nice. But she died not long after I mostly recovered. Well, there are two more I suppose¡­ I would trust with my life. But one is so busy we barely ever talk nowadays while¡­¡± she hesitated for a moment, sighed and continued. ¡°While Dervish is not exactly a conversationalist.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± and for the first time Irwyn tried to imagine how lonely she must have actually been. ¡°What about your parents, do they not make any time? You have ocasionally hinted that there are some disagreements between you.¡±

    ¡°Disagreements¡­ I would not word it like that. My lord father is always so exceedingly busy,¡± she outright bit her lip. ¡°He cares. But there is only so much space in his heart and he cares about others much more than me - duty included. My mother¡­ I don¡¯t know how to say this¡­¡± she trembled.

    ¡°Take your time,¡± Irwyn tried to be reassuring. ¡°You can stop if you want to.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± she took a deep breath and calmed down before she spoke again. ¡°I think my mother really truly loves me. A mother¡¯s obsessive love. And it scares me. Her love is the most frightening thing I can imagine. It haunts me in my dreams and pursues me through my waking hours. Like a relentless nightmare that crawls in my shadow every step I take, waiting for a chance to rear its head. And worst of all, I am so scared,¡± tears gathered in the corner of her eyes. ¡°I am so terrified she will notice that dread and decide to do something about it.¡±

    there was silence for a few seconds but Irwyn spoke again before it grew too oppressive. ¡°You know, if you want to hear stories, I have plenty. Not just Waylan, either. There was Aaron who could always see the bigger picture. Maxim who was the tallest person I knew but could pass off as a midget if he damn wanted to. Then Rainer and Kalista who refused to be separated no matter what. Also managed to nearly burn our house down.¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­ I would like that,¡± she smiled weakly. So Irwyn started¡­

    <hr>

    ¡°I thought I had him there¡­ well, I wasn¡¯t really thinking in all the panic. But he got hit straight on and some stands half a street away got incinerated in moments from just the after-blast. I was sure that Rage ¨C or rather Frederick - was dead.¡±

    ¡°But he wasn¡¯t?¡± Elizabeth asked, raising an eyebrow. They had been talking¡­ for a while; Irwyn had lost track of time. But at least the mood was far lighter. The much fuller stomach didn¡¯t hurt either. Eventually, the storytelling drifted to that encounter.

    ¡°I was so sure he was. But then something happened. I was not as good back then but felt like¡­ magic weakened I suppose? Like the very laws of it were loosened as even the magical flames got immediately put out. I was then suddenly unable to manifest any magic. I thought it was the strange amulet, maybe you know what I mean: There were all nine elements represented in a circle with flame alone right in the middle.¡±

    ¡°And you are saying he of all people had one of those?¡± Elizabeth frowned deeply.

    ¡°Do you know what it actually was?¡±

    ¡°A strategic resource if I am getting the right impression,¡± she seemed rather unhappy about it too. ¡°They impose an angle of Truth over an area. And allow nothing but that Truth to exist; it is incredibly effective at killing anyone but the strongest of mages; and can instantly vanquish most undead. The issue is that creating such items is beyond difficult. It requires a master artisan on the verge of being eligible to claim a Name. I know the one you have described and as far as I am aware there are less than a dozen like that left even in the ancestral vaults of house Blackburg, made by the last craftsman in our duchy who could, well over two centuries ago. They are also single-use. Which begs the question of how Frederick even got his hands on one.¡±

    ¡°Well, he was furious when it triggered, outright raging,¡± Irwyn shrugged with a slight smile. ¡°It was also cracking at a visible rate.¡±

    ¡°That fast?¡± Elizabeth¡¯s frown did not relent. ¡°They should each last minutes¡­ Maybe Frederic¡¯s amulet was improperly stored and eventually damaged. If his House Blackmaw had been hiding one for centuries, perhaps the two are related,¡± then she looked at him. ¡°Even then, how did you make it out of that?¡±

    ¡°He was definitely going to kill me,¡± Irwyn recalled. ¡°I couldn¡¯t do anything. He was chanting this long spell, ''Jawed legions of ebony'' if I remember it right. Then, he got a rock to the temple.¡±

    ¡°A rock?¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow in doubt.

    ¡°Yep,¡± Irwyn grinned. ¡°Waylan sneaked around unnoticed and nailed the villain with a sling. Then the interrupted spell literally ate Frederick alive.¡±

    ¡°He did not remake a barrier!¡± Elizabeth laughed at the realization. ¡°If that isn¡¯t a stereotypical noble¡¯s death in this Duchy I don¡¯t know what is. Oh, the fallings of Pride and Wrath.¡±

    ¡°And a way to end a bloodline,¡± Irwyn nodded along.

    ¡°Well, arguably ending a bloodline,¡± Elizabeth corrected.

    ¡°He introduced himself as last of his house,¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°He was. But he does have a nephew and a niece,¡± Elizabeth frowned. ¡°Frederic¡¯s sister married out of their house into a significantly more influential family before the last Lich war which had¡­ thinned House Blackmaw down to just him. His nephew is a few years younger than us but very talented and hailed as the banner of resurgence to many of the branch families of House Blackburg. That has a lot of weight¡­ which causes issues for you.¡±

    ¡°Because there is suspicion on me for Frederick¡¯s death.¡±

    ¡°No. At least, that¡¯s the smallest part of it,¡± she sighed. ¡°The real issue is that you have met his niece.¡±

    ¡°Alira,¡± Irwyn realized.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she nodded. ¡°Someone of her talent would not warrant the degree of escort and protection she used to enjoy before you - intentionally or not - put her on a permanent stretcher. Alira¡¯s value had lied in her closeness to her younger brother. The crippling experience she had gone through had led to¡­ turbulence. Far more than Frederick who had far less favor and influence on account of his more distant bloodline and straight-up incompetence.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why she was trying to figure out what happened to Frederick,¡± Irwyn nodded. He had been her uncle. ¡°Well, now I have more worries on my plate.¡±

    ¡°You will be fine as long as they don¡¯t find you,¡± Elizabeth reassured. ¡°And they will not find you here in Abonisle.¡±

    ¡°I certainly hope so,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    And just then, a small burst of magic passed through the air. Irwyn would not have usually even noticed it in the mana dense environment had it not circled around them twice before homing in. He was confused for a short moment, however, Elizabeth was already looking at the small conjoined gem Desir had given them. And it was glowing red again.

    ¡°That does not look just like ¡®I am done¡¯,¡± she frowned, uncertain.

    ¡°Let¡¯s run,¡± Irwyn on the other hand was sure. Those things were meant for emergencies.

 2.38 The obscured, noticed

    They were not far away, less than five minutes of walking. Much less when they ran. A few minutes was still a long way to travel through after something happened. They had to go a good distance down the main street before leaving for one of the side ones. Desir¡¯s spot was not in an abandoned crevice like the warehouse they had met for final planning, rather, it was in a decently populated area. They only used it because it was the middle of the night and would have plenty of time to vacate it before dawn.

    They were not expecting to be found. Desir had assured them that it was unlikely and Irwyn thought the same thing. Neither he nor Elizabeth had noticed anything that could be tracking them magically and following them physically across the city would have been beyond difficult. Not to mention there shouldn''t really be anyone who would pursue them. Arms dealers were generally not fond of being tracked for obvious reasons and even if someone would be waiting for this one, it had been less than two hours since their ambush.

    When they neared their destination, Irwyn began to feel the flashes of magic. It was¡­ honestly not all that powerful; hence why it took getting so close to even feel it over the ambiance. Half a street later, they heard the sound of a loud crash. Elizabeth gave Irwyn a glance, then chanted her Elvenkind spell; putting on her mask again as she did. Immediately afterward she broke into a sprint¡­ about twice as fast as Irwyn thought he could run at his fastest¡­ and not for long. Maybe getting a more physical spell should be his next focus. Though he did at least follow suit in also getting out his Mockingbird mask.

    He still arrived only a few seconds after her given the short distance. And immediately realized that they were not dealing with organized crime. They were dealing with the armed forces. A dozen weak-ish mages in uniforms were standing in formation, bombarding Elizabeth¡¯s shield of void magic, chanting their meager spells. There were no intentions in the mix so the risk of actually achieving something that way was non-existent, however, Elizabeth was not retaliating in any way. Irwyn could imagine why.

    ¡°It might be best if we just subdue them and run,¡± Irwyn suggested as he approached. The barrage continued without any effect.

    ¡°I could¡­ order them to stand down,¡± she said, unsure.

    ¡°Probably not worth the questions it might raise,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°Not to mention they would have obvious doubts about obeying any orders a masked mage gave, even with an insignia. In fact, that might only make it worse since something like that could probably easily get escalated for people high up to look into. Really not worth the trouble.¡±

    ¡°You are right,¡± she sighed. ¡°Can you¡­ subdue them while I go check up on Desir?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Irwyn nodded and stepped forward. It would not be hard to overwhelm and capture them. It would be more difficult to keep them contained. They were mages, after all, each and every one of them. Not to mention that maybe two-thirds were Void mages. Or rather, Darkness mages as what they flung was not really actual Void magic. That still made capturing them with Light problematic in principle. And he didn¡¯t want to use flames because they would want to get away with them still in restraints. With distance his control would reduce; even if he made the solid flames heatless, they might turn maiming or even lethal when they began to disperse. And that was not the goal.

    ¡°I apologize for the unpleasantness,¡± Irwyn announced loudly as he stepped forward. And he had to be loud. Not because of the spells - Void, and thus Dark, magic was mostly quiet - but because they were chanting. All of the mages were reciting their spells. That did give him an idea. Almost a nostalgic one, really. ¡°Perhaps forget this occurrence? I assure you I am not acting against the city¡¯s order or interests.¡±

    Predictably he got no response. He was not expecting any but there was no harm in being polite and honest when it cost him nothing. So next, he summoned his Disruptive light. It worked even better than he would have thought against weaker opponents. The squad of mages suddenly found themselves incapable of casting, any spells dispersing before they so much as left the surface of the caster''s body. Irwyn did not wait to wonder about that and instead bound all of them with strings made of solid Light with the intention to endure, making sure to also gag them and cover their eyes and ears. Then he pulled on those constructs to gather them to the side, moving the anti-magical spell right next to them. Unless he was overlooking something it should hold as long as he remained close. Of course, the spells would only last as long as Irwyn actively maintained them, however, it would be enough for their group to make an exit.

    Speaking of their group, Elizabeth and Desir were making their way over. Irwyn immediately noticed that Desir was covered in white and grey powder from head to toe. Then he realized only the two of them were approaching.

    ¡°Our friend?¡± Irwyn asked, frowning underneath his mask.

    ¡°They opened up by bringing the ceiling down on us,¡± Desir shook his head with a deep frown, dusting his clothes ¡°I was too surprised to save the poor sod, damn it.¡±

    ¡°Debris crushed his cranium,¡± Elizabeth inclined her head, then looked at Desir. ¡°I didn¡¯t think you would care as much.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not about someone dying,¡± Desir shook his head, visibly angry. ¡°It¡¯s about it happening while I am looking over them. I have a reputation to maintain. We keep up basic decency and spare others when we can because then we can expect them to do the same when our roles get reversed. Hence why I would really like to avoid earning a reputation as someone who lets people die in their captivity.¡±

    ¡°Calm down, Desir,¡± Irwyn put a hand on the blue-eyed man¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Nothing to do about it now.¡±

    ¡°Did you at least find out what we needed?¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Desir took a deep breath, sighed deeply, and mostly regained his calm. ¡°Yes. He didn¡¯t actually know who they were selling to, however, he knew where his client had a base of operations. The next deal was supposed to happen in two days¡­ however, with the dealer dead we cannot fulfill their security precautions.¡±

    ¡°So, what do you suggest?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°I say we go have a look right now before they realize anything is wrong,¡± Desir grinned slightly. ¡°This is obviously going to be somewhat dangerous since we are not sure how much security they might have, however, I think it is worth a try. Especially if Crepuscule has the weight to have cavalry on standby¡±

    ¡°Abonisle does not employ horsemen,¡± Elizabeth said. Then when Irwyn and Desir stared at her she laughed. Irwyn also sighed and chuckled lightly.

    ¡°I am not opposed to it,¡± Irwyn then shrugged, looking at Elizabeth. His confidence mostly came from Dervish being around. The people behind the attack were clearly competent in magic; Irwyn still gave them no odds against the stoic mage, ¡°But in the end, it is your call.¡±

    ¡°Fine, let¡¯s do it,¡± she said after a second of thought. ¡°I can arrange for competent reinforcements in case we need them.¡±

    ¡°All right, follow me, I think I know the way,¡± Desir nodded. ¡°It is quite far but I have details to share. Including the address for our more official backup.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Irwyn,¡± Elizabeth got his attention when they were a good way into the trek. Desir had given them an overview of what he had learned; or at least the relevant bits. That had been done with for a while so Irwyn and Elizabeth followed a few steps behind him as they walked at a brisk pace.

    ¡°Something the matter?¡± Irwyn asked, turning to her as they continued to walk. They were¡­ Irwyn was not sure where they actually were. Probably somewhere very approximately halfway towards the Spires, still at the ground city level. It was nonetheless hard to keep track.

    ¡°Just this,¡± Elizabeth waved her hand and in it appeared an ornamental tiepin. It was black and clearly carefully carved with what appeared to be a bird head of some kind. Artistically chiseled. It did not take two guesses to realize it was a mockingbird. ¡°Let me put it on, see how it suits you.¡±

    ¡°It looks delightful,¡± Irwyn smiled under his mask. ¡°Though I am unsure what brought this on.¡±

    ¡°I promised something to help better ward the mind and soul, didn¡¯t I?¡± they slowed down as Elizabeth easily put it on him. Then gave it a look over. ¡°I meant to give it to you earlier but didn¡¯t get the opportunity before we were interrupted.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, I love it,¡± Irwyn couldn¡¯t quite see it well just looking down¡­ but he did have a spell for that. After a glance, he had to admit it went well with the mask. It was quite distinct but if he was ever staying low, he could still pin it under his clothes. Then he resisted a flinch as a whiff of stench from a nearby entrance to the sewers wafted over, attempting to ruin the moment. ¡°Did you have this custom-made? It has been only two days since we talked about it.¡±

    ¡°It was no hassle,¡± she shrugged, mask hiding her face. ¡°It also has the option of being empowered if you pour mana into it. The cost should be relatively negligible with your reserves.¡±

    ¡°I hate to interrupt,¡± Desir coughed from up ahead. ¡°We will need to take an elevator not far from here.¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Irwyn nodded. They had slowed down for the exchange but Desir did not leave them behind. They were on one of the main streets at the moment, though not one of those that led all the way straight to the Spires. It still had elevators going up and down generously sprinkled around the sides. The one they got on was relatively small.

    ¡°Alright, we should be a bit quieter from now on, ideally just invisible,¡± Desir said as they got on; there was traffic even after midnight but no one else got on with them. It might have been the masks. ¡°This is the Singing man¡¯s territory so Mockingbird and I might not necessarily be welcome. If they get wind of us, people might also start to wonder why we have wandered here.¡±

    ¡°I can hide us in a veil,¡± Elizabeth offered.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°That would be ideal,¡± Desir immediately agreed. Irwyn had no complaints either, having seen her stealth prowess first-hand. ¡°Did you¡­ get in touch with help?¡±

    ¡°A group led by a Conception mage will be waiting a block away for a signal,¡± Elizabeth nodded. Which was in itself curious because Irwyn had never noticed her contacting anyone. Then again, he had not been looking for it particularly hard.

    ¡°Much obliged,¡± Desir grinned, then also put on his own mask again. "Best we still play it careful. Better to not be noticed at all. After me.¡±

    Before the Elevator even reached the destination''s city level - the tenth - Elizabeth had already cast her magic. It was powerful. Four intentions, which Irwyn could not quite identify even from within. Probably meant most of them were dedicated to stealth. They were enveloped in a black-tinted bubble. From inside it was mostly transparent but he imagined it made them quite hard to notice from the outside. Perhaps borderline impossible.

    Desir then led them down a side street and gradually into more back alleys hidden by convoluted stairways and passages; forgotten and then repurposed by those valuing privacy. He paused a couple times at various intersections, however, navigated them confidently. It still took them a few minutes. But eventually, they arrived. Kind of.

    ¡°Right here,¡± Desir said as they found themselves on a metal bridge right beneath the level''s ceiling. Probably some kind of service zone¡­ Or maybe just meant to connect two remote areas more easily. It was hard to tell.

    ¡°Is it below us?¡± Irwyn guessed. Underneath them was a long drop and some buildings.

    ¡°The other way,¡± Desir shook his head. ¡°It will be right above us. We just have to make a hole straight through the roof. Everyone neglects to put alarms underneath which makes it the stealthiest angle of approach.¡±

    ¡°The level floors are thick,¡± Irwyn pointed out. ¡°We will have to get through a lot of concrete.¡±

    ¡°Which is exactly why they would not expect it,¡± Desir nodded. ¡°And mundane materials are not enough to stop either of you.¡±

    ¡°The main floors are not made of just mundane concrete though,¡± Elizabeth shook her head, ¡°There is a magically conductive mesh explicitly made fragile so as to notice any integrity damage or attempts to sink entire city sections. Breaching it unnoticed is by design extremely difficult. Our target might not have thought of it but the city''s architects had.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I did not know that,¡± Desir paused. ¡°Will it be a problem?¡±

    ¡°I suppose not¡­¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°Give me a moment to make arrangements.¡±

    ¡°Take all the time you need,¡± Desir nodded.

    ¡°Done,¡± she said not ten seconds later. Irwyn wasn¡¯t even surprised he had not heard her say a word. ¡°The local maintenance team will be notified of limited intentional damage in this specific section and leave us be¡­ for a few hours. But we will be well gone by then.¡±

    ¡°We should get to it then,¡± Irwyn nodded. They had a long way to burn.

    <hr>

    Not actually that long, as it turned out. Burning several stories of concrete did sound intimidating at first, until Irwyn remembered it might as well have been ice for how easily it burned away. The fumes were a bigger issue than integrity. In the end, he went up while Elizabeth Voided all the molten sludge and vaporized concrete the excavation created. The thin metal mesh he had run into was more of a halfway mark than any issue since he knew that it wouldn¡¯t trigger an alarm. In the end, it took just a few minutes before he was helping Desir and Elizabeth ascend on levitating platforms of respectively Solid Light and Solid Flame.

    They ended up in what appeared to be a storage room of some kind; maybe a storage hall would be more accurate since it was quite sizeable. Dozens of crates were stacked on top of each other or across shelves. And in every single one of those Irwyn noticed almost formulaic enchantments. One usually identical to the next. Not great enchantments but many of them. Manufactured at scale.

    ¡°Well, this is certainly a lot of weapons,¡± Irwyn noted. ¡°Now to figure out if we can find anything that went missing from the attacked facility.¡±

    ¡°I have a list, though it might not be the easiest thing to match text to enchantment,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°Then we will still need to compare the numbers.¡±

    ¡°I am horrible at identification like this,¡± Desir admitted. ¡°I will go carefully scout the surroundings while you solve this.¡±

    ¡°I can provide a better veil than your own,¡± Elizabeth nodded and cast the spell over the blue-eyed man. He immediately vanished without a trace. Now that he was no longer included in the spell even Irwyn couldn¡¯t tell where Desir was. ¡°Don¡¯t stray too far. Distance takes a toll on me.¡±

    ¡°Well,¡± Irwyn said after Desir left¡­ probably, ¡°we have a bunch of sorting to do.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Still no match,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. Irwyn was frowning too. After thirty minutes they found nothing that aligned. There were a few that were close. Same or similar enchantments, however, the army was organized and marked everything with serial numbers. There was certainly military equipment here that had been stolen or embezzled, sure, however, none of it was from the attacked facility as far as they could tell.

    ¡°This is not the only storing place,¡± Irwyn noted. ¡°Everything here is at least a few months away from decaying due to Finity, at least as far as I can sense. They must keep those somewhere as well. Not to mention there might be other rooms identical to this one.¡±

    ¡°Maybe Desir will know more,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°He is just heading back.¡±

    ¡°Certainly took his time,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Hopefully that means he had been thorough.¡±

    That being said, Irwyn did not actually feel Desir returning. Not just because of Elizabeth¡¯s spell. The walls here were extremely well insulated against magical senses. An obvious measure for an illegal stash of magical weapons but it played into their hands when it came to stealth. The only reason Elizabeth could tell was that she still maintained the spell hiding Desir.

    ¡°How is it looking?¡± Irwyn asked as soon as Desir got back and Elizabeth dismissed the veil.

    ¡°Good news and bad news,¡± Desir said. ¡°We will have no trouble finding more rooms like this to investigate. Unfortunately, we will really have absolutely no trouble finding more for the next several hours.¡±

    ¡°How many are there?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°I counted 27 which I checked were in fact stashes,¡± Desir said. ¡°There could be even more since I didn¡¯t go everywhere; at least most seem smaller than this. Judging by the layout I think we are hidden inside some larger building, maybe even a business. Big hollow spaces are probably regular rooms that might or might not somehow connect here. Also spotted not a single person around here.¡±

    ¡°That is a ridiculous amount of weaponry,¡± Irwyn commented. ¡°We cannot realistically check all that."

    ¡°Scale of an army more so than just reselling or smuggling, but we had thought that might already be the case,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°This, at the very least, goes beyond any agreement the city might have with your Guild. More than enough to justify a full raid. The people in charge of the official investigation will be more than eager to categorize everything here and look for the needles in haystacks. If this place is genuinely connected to the attack we will know.¡±

    ¡°Does that mean our part is done?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Elizabeth decided after a moment. ¡°We will leave for now. The mages I called for backup will move to observe until a proper large-scale operation can gather. That will probably take¡­ until dawn given the time of day - or rather night.¡±

    ¡°What do we do about the hole?¡± Desir pointed out. Irwyn glance at it. It was not huge¡­ but they didn¡¯t exactly have a concrete mixture on hand. And it was quite deep.

    ¡°Put a crate over it on our way out, I suppose?¡± Elizabeth suggested. ¡°It only needs to not be noticed for a few hours.¡±

    ¡°It will stick out like an unpaid score,¡± Desir frowned. ¡°But it¡¯s probably the best we can do.¡±

    And that was what they did in the end. Dragging a large crate over the opening was not difficult with magic to do the bulk of it. It would look out of place¡­ but who would want to investigate that deeply in the middle of the night even if it was somehow noticed? There had been no active patrols there in the first place.

    ¡°Best we leave unnoticed,¡± Desir commented when they were back down on the bridge. Elizabeth applied another veil as they left. Irwyn had to wonder if it was starting to magically wind her. They moved for a few minutes before they reached the corner of a main street.

    ¡°Alright, this should be far enough,¡± Desir nodded. ¡°Unless you need me for something, I will split and go lay low.¡±

    ¡°Before then,¡± Elizabeth spoke, another smaller pouch appearing in her hand. ¡°I keep my promises.¡±

    ¡°True pleasure doing business for you Crepuscule,¡± Desir smiled as he took it. ¡°Now then¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh, this isn¡¯t ideal,¡± Elizabeth interrupted a moment later. ¡°I was just notified that unknown mages are gathering at the building where we had found the weapons.¡±

    ¡°Could it be¡­¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°...You mentioned there might be someone capable of mind reading on that side. Maybe someone from the force gathering to strike?¡±

    ¡°Precautions are in place,¡± Elizabeth disagreed. ¡°It might well be just a coincidence.¡±

    Still, Irwyn was not taking any chances with that.  He adjusted the tiepin just as Elizabeth had instructed him to earlier in the evening, pouring a stream of magic into it. For a split second, he was once again hit by a whiff of the sewer''s rancid smell, making him frown. This time they were nowhere near a sewer entrance, several city levels above one in fact. It vaguely reminded him of what had happened in Ebon Respite before¡­ Before what?

    He was about to put it out of his mind when he frowned. That wasn¡¯t right. Something was off. He fought against it, reconnecting that tread of thought. What had happened in Ebon Respite with a putrid smell? His mind tried to wander again but now that he was focused on it he did not let it.

    ¡°Oh, that is bad,¡± and the thought finished. He finally realized exactly what was wrong. ¡°El¡­ Crepuscule, we need to talk. Right now, privately,¡± he threw a glance at Desir, who nodded and stepped away. Elizabeth inclined her head but did not dally. Sound around them receded.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°You said that necromancers were not behind the attack on Abonisle, do you remember your reasoning?¡± hopefully he was wrong.

    ¡°Because no  Time mages of the powers necessary for it would associate with necromancers. Why?¡±

    ¡°How certain are you?¡± he urged on, his heartbeat accelerating.

    ¡°Completely,¡± she said, sounding confused at the line of questioning.

    ¡°Dervish, do you agree with that?¡± Irwyn asked the air. Elizabeth quieted down and there was a moment of awkward silence. ¡°Yes, I know you are obviously following us around. Please, this is important.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I concur,¡± Dervish appeared next to him a second later, as stone-faced as ever. ¡°What has you so nervous?¡±

    ¡°So, you are, completely certain that necromancers were not involved with the attack for similar reasons, yes?¡± Irwyn made doubly sure

    ¡°Yes, I am. I have just stated that,¡± Dervish nodded.

    ¡°Something this important and you are confident beyond a shadow of a doubt on conjecture?¡± Irwyn felt his hand shake slightly at the premonition of what that meant. Dervish¡¯s expression scrunched into the slightest frown. The most expressive Irwyn had seen the man. ¡°The smell in the severs¡­ I remember it now. I think something was diverting me from making the association before. It¡¯s the exact same stench I smelled in Ebon Respite before the undead rose. As it permeated the whole city and grew more intense just before it began.¡±

    ¡°How certain are you?¡± Dervish maintained the lightly frowning expression as he looked at Irwyn with unerring focus.

    ¡°As confident as I can be,¡± Irwyn gasped out. Dervish nodded at that. He took out a¡­ white string. It was glowing. Yet Irwyn could not feel the slightest bit of magic from it. What he could feel was that incomprehensibility and slight sting of pain Elizabeth had warned him just a couple days prior meant magic beyond his ken; that which could be dangerous to even look at. The next moment, Dervish tied the string around his own neck with one dexterous motion, which made it immediately begin to sink into the man''s flesh. There seemed to be no change for about a second until the artifact - or whatever it was - completely vanished beneath Dervish¡¯s skin. Then his head snapped to Elizabeth.

    ¡°Declare a full emergency. NOW!¡± he raised his voice with urgency. Irwyn looked over and Elizabeth seemed¡­ dazed. The words stirred her to action but she was ever so slightly sluggish. A signet ring appeared in her hand bearing the heraldry of House Blackburg, however, it was too late.

    The exact same second the ring appeared Irwyn was slammed by a sudden surge of nausea. He had felt no magic strike him, perceived nothing of the sort, yet suddenly, he could not tell up from down, left from right. It was like the ground shook, the surrounding scenery teleported around and the roof above them flipped in place. The next moment it was over.

    ¡°What was that?¡± Irwyn swayed, unsteady on his feet after the experience almost overwhelmed his senses. Elizabeth seemed no better.

    ¡°That¡­¡± Dervish said grimly, pointing up. Way up. Irwyn could not see through buildings and concrete but he had a good guess about what was that high. ¡°...was the Temporal Beacon being turned off.¡±

    ¡°Which means teleporting to and from Abonisle has just become practically impossible,¡± Elizabeth realized as she regained her footing.

    And whoever had turned it off was most likely the same person strong enough to affect Dervish¡¯s mind. They were also now with them in the city.

 2.39 A blade

    Dervish stared through the floors and walls towards the dissipating presence of the Temporal Beacon. That was not good. Not good at all. For their foes to disable it they must have full control of the mayor. Full control of the living mayor, that is. There were precautions in place designed exclusively to prevent undead from using security clearance they might have possessed before being inflicted with the Betrayer''s rot. That they had done this within seconds of being discovered did not bode well.

    Mind control¡­ Dervish was still estimating what the true threat was. It had affected his mind but only slightly. Miniscule misdirection. He should have asked for an examination when he had been in City Black; alas, some pride of House Blackburg has seemingly rubbed off on him. Either way, there was only one course of action.

    "Elizabeth," he said. With the speed of his mind less than a second had passed. He took another Cord-Inviolable - it gloved white in his hand - and moved to give it to her. But as she reached to take it, he paused. Stared her down for a moment until she understood his meaning.

    "One for Irwyn as well," she commanded and Dervish nodded. The cords were too valuable, even with the side effects. He couldn''t give them away, nor could he even suggest as much. His many oaths to House Blackburg constricted him too far; they were the kind of a pact that was fundamentally unbreakable for it would not allow any violation. But a direct order from an Heiress? That could bypass many of them.

    "For the next 5 hours you should be essentially immune to Soul magic," he explained, mostly for the boy''s sake as both the young prodigies put the cords around their necks, letting the magic seep inside. Making their souls beyond violation. "I see only three angles to resolving this disaster. Firstly, we can restart the Temporal Beacon. Second, we can disable or break the Dredge. Both of those will allow reinforcements to come in time. Third, we could destroy the phylactery."

    "Phylactery?" Irwyn asked, doubtlessly frowning underneath the mask as the boy tended to when uncertain.

    "Any undead of this power is undoubtedly a lich," Elizabeth explained. "But they would have hidden it well¡­"

    "It is a longshot but keep it in mind if all else fails," Dervish nodded. "From now on, assume that everyone besides you two is compromised and prone to being taken over. Move quickly, move smartly, and perhaps we will reverse the situation without dying. Undead will likely be swarming the streets in minutes. Try to raise every alarm you can access but keep in mind every minute this situation is ongoing their numbers will swell. Now then, good luck.¡±

    ¡°Are you leaving?¡± Elizabeth was alarmed.

    ¡°Of course,¡± Dervish nodded. ¡°Someone has to distract the lich in charge of this entire debacle. Hopefully singular. I will try to stall them as long as feasible without giving them an opening to return to their phylactery. In the meantime, you will have to save the city ¨C and by that yourselves. If our time runs out, I will try to solve it by brute force, though that will most likely still result in all of us dying.¡±

    ¡°We will get it done,¡± Irwyn nodded severely. ¡°Good luck to you as well, Dervish.¡±

    ¡°Keep it for yourselves,¡± Dervish shook his head, his feet leaving the ground, body carried upwards by hooks of Void magic at a negligible cost. ¡°I am beyond relying on luck.¡±

    Then he was gone, flying across the city. The levels were¡­ inconvenient for his mobility but he could move fast. So fast he had to shelter himself in a veil of the Void lest sound cracks before him. Lest just his speed damages some of the more fragile infrastructure. Already, he was feeling undead rising. Now that his mind was no longer subverted, he could feel the horde hiding in the sewers and in concealed pockets across the city. How ironic, given that those used to be supply tunnels meant to fight exactly such armies.

    Dervish flew down and began to erase them. A dozen blades of Void magic followed in his wake as he obliterated the hordes before they could even react. Not just the meager zombies and lesser ghouls either. He focused on clusters or those that felt more powerful. Defiled mages, some close to the power they held in life, the rest twisted into attaining necromancy themselves. Greater abominations, grafted from bodies human or otherwise. Amalgamations of several profaned souls merged into specters and banshees. Draugr the rare, undead who had attained conception. In other words, he hunted the limited elites meant to break resistance or raise the corpses of the slain population. Cornerstones of the whole attack.

    That could not be ignored. Dervish had been allowed to rampage for a whole minute and in that time slaughtered hundreds of the most dangerous arisen. In big part that was possible because they we just leaving their hiding spaces and could not wander far - still concentrated in near their hiding spots. Still, it was not enough to be even a dent in the numbers he was now sensing

    It was, however, enough that he could not be allowed to keep going rampant. And only one being on the undead side could feasibly stop him - hopefully only one. The lich intercepted him. The creature took the form of a woman, grafted skin allowing it almost pass for a living being. Until one looked for the details. For the lack of body heat, unnatural paleness, the first signs of overlooked rot.

    It immediately tried to steal Dervish¡¯s soul. Rip it out whole. That likely wouldn¡¯t have worked even without the Cord but it might have shaken him. With the cord active though the attack had no effect. Just the attempt still revealed that it had attained at least one Domain. A Ravener as the terminology went. Dervish hoped his own three would be enough.

    The lich frowned. That meant they were probably young for their kind. Dervish had run up against some elder ones in an older lich war and those no longer remembered to move their mimicry of muscle. Not the last lich war from 17 years ago though. The previous one 45 years even before then ¨C over 60 years ago in total. In fact, just 17 was a worryingly short delay between two such wars. It likely meant survivors from the last lurking about, scheming.

    The lich attempted to hit him with a tidal wave of strings then. Pure soul magic likely meant to gradually wear down his defenses. Seeing that¡­ Dervish retreated. Away and up. Now that the lich was on his tail and could not decide to go after Elizabeth instead, he was no longer obligated to remain close¡­ as long as he could justify it as increasing her odds of survival.

    The undead mage followed him, shooting fast projectiles at first, then giving up when those proved futile. Incapable of even grazing Dervish as he danced around them. He flew and flew until the ceiling above him disappeared. He was on the outskirts of the inner city so he headed up, seemingly attempting to eliminate any collateral damage of their upcoming fight. The lich did not try to stop him. Why would it? Time was in their favor. Such was the prolific nature of organized undead armies: The city would be overrun eventually. There were no mages besides Dervish himself present who could stop that and Abonisle¡¯s defenses were more targeted outwards rather than inwards. Meant to stop armies marching on it, rather than those already inside ¨C not to mention probably largely sabotaged.

    One of those defenses stirred now. The Proud Eye - as the massive formation above at the roof of one of the Spires was dubbed - took aim at Dervish¡­ and failed to activate. Of course it did. He was a shadow of House Blackburg, his nature had been twisted and fettered until betraying his masters became inherently impossible for him. No amount of deception would allow him to be considered a threat by the artifact of warfare, advanced enough to mimic some aspects of intelligence. Rather, just the attempt had likely shut the whole thing down, waiting for approval from someone high-ranked enough the Lich didn¡¯t have access to. That hopefully put it out of the picture for good¡­ though it would have had the same reaction if the Lich attempted to fire it against Elizabeth anyway. And her success was likely the only thing that really mattered.

    ¡°The hard way it is then,¡± the undead mage grunted as it caught up to Dervish. He could feel that he now had most of its attention. Not all of it yet though. That would soon change. It could not allow itself to lose its current body without inflicting critical wounds - the temporary weakness caused by resurrection via phylactery would make it a far easier target. On the other hand, if Dervish took any serious wounds, it could then proceed to repeatedly suicide charge him until he died of thousand cuts. Death was a real possibility. For the first time in years his life was seriously threatened. For a being as close to the zenith of mortal power as he was such sensations were often frightening. And yet¡­

    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    And yet his heart could not help but skip a beat.

    ¡°Shadow of House Blackburg, designation: Dervish,¡± he spoke, recording his voice on a dozen little crystals. The lich stared at him but did nothing. The split second it started casting Dervish would have to answer in kind, however, time favored it ¨C or so it thought. It did not mind letting him speak worthless words, neglecting to think of the story of it as many mages did - neglecting the omnipresence of Fate magic just because they did not posses affinity to wield it. The hand of Logos remained ever present to this day, and although the Aspect had not changed Fate to disfavor undead inherently before their death, patterns and stories could move it. Give that extra bit of advantage that could mean all the difference. ¡°I have evaluated that in order to fulfill both my primary and secondary directives, it is the only course of action to intercept a lich of uncertain power. As per my oaths, I declare myself temporarily free of fetters.¡±

    They both stared at each other a second longer. Then in the exact same moment began to cast. Words passing the lips at impossible speed yet still remaining perfectly legible for anyone who might listen. Such was the weight of their magic.

    ¡°I remember not

    that long-lost thought

    of a past

    that has long passed.

    Of distant dreams

    torn apart by screams

    into fragments stained.

    Yet one remained,

    in heart¡¯s last manse,

    A blade; A dance¡±

    Then, Dervish danced. He shed the prison of flesh, severed it into a thousand pieces. His magic coursed through every fiber of his being, then split. Transformed into something¡­ purer. A thousand ebony blades burst forth from what had been a mere man moments ago, each carrying a fragment of self - Yet each also being the whole. His mind moved faster, unfettered by the limitations of a mortal brain or the distractions of physical sensation. Moved with dexterity muscle could not support. He became a flurry of edges, a whirlwind of cutting black - each like a limb, an instrument in an orchestra. Though he no longer had a mouth, Dervish smiled, grinned like a madman. For in that moment - no matter how fleeting - he was free.

    Of course, the lich had not been idle.

    ¡°Pessen swirrk

    wi pirrk

    peragoll az¡¯taq

    Peragoll aq

    az¡¯ wi korre

    Dorre wi dorre¡±

    Though Dervish could not understand the words, the effect was clear. From the necromancer¡¯s form arose a tidal wave of fine white dust. Except, Dervish realized, those were not mere particles. Each of them was a soul, processed and shredded into nothing more than minuscule smithereens, then desecrated with necromancy into a semblance of undeath. Then it became a storm ready to grind anything it touched to yet more dust.

    And still, Dervish knew no fear. A falchion cut a path for a glaive while a dagger, a knife, and a dirk fought to the side. A thousand different blades sung in unison. It became a battle of two storms, attempting to shred each other into nothingness. A thousand limbs moved every instant with individual intent. But Dervish was not just controlling his side of the fight. He was the flurry of blades and controlled himself with trained perfection. With dexterity he allowed himself to suffer no loss as he methodically took the soulstorm apart.

    Of course, the lich did not remain idle. More lesser spells flew, one after the other. And Dervish matched them. Void and Soul collided. Again and again. Dervish found himself gaining ground. Though the storm of his opponent was larger, his form was more profound. More concentrated. Thousands of lesser spells were exchanged while the lich moved not an inch. It could have regained much of the initiative just by slowly retreating.

    Sensing a trap Dervish was careful. Didn¡¯t allow himself to believe in an inevitable victory. Made sure to leave no opening as he drew closer.

    Minutes must have passed by the time he finally had an opening to strike at the lich¡¯s motionless body - an eternity for combatants on their level. Dervish still let that opportunity pass. It was too risky. He did not take up next three either, looking for something better. Finally, for the fifth time a hole in the grains of souls opened and Dervish snuck through a rapier. Except, instead of stabbing it into the lich¡¯s body, he used it as a conduit to manifest a cutting arc of Void magic. It was, after all, a part of himself and therefore allowed for directing spells just as well as a hand would; that gave it a split-second edge over casting spells away from one¡¯s body. Before the crescent even set flight, Dervish was already withdrawing the piece of himself that had delivered it.

    Which turned out to be the right decision. For in the moment the lich was struck by the magic, their body too fell completely into dust. Into infinitesimal fragments of a soul. Millions upon millions of pieces. It was almost unbelievable. Dervish, for all his resolve and extensive training, had managed to split his soul a thousandfold into each of his blades without weakening their connections - and even that much only through a Domain he had taken decades to form. To achieve that had been a long and arduous road. It was unimaginable to do exponentially more than he had.

    But liches¡­ Liches were known for their knack for mutilating the soul. Breaching every reasonable limit. And it was shown to him as the dust of the undead mage¡¯s body dispersed¡­ right into the ongoing soulstorm. And that changed it. Rather than being every part of the whole, the lich became a million needles, each controlling the haystack of other processed undead souls around them. But if that was all, it would not make a drastic difference. If it was merely a soul mage doing this it would not be so potent.

    But this was done by a necromancer.

    Now that Dervish was so close, the full scope of the spell was revealed ¨C a trap snapping at him. The storm of small, streamlined souls began to rapidly regain its bulk as the lich poured more of its power and stockpile into it. Then, the individual particles of dust-like undead began casting magic. Artificial or stolen, they were still souls. Though they had no vessel nor brain, they remained a reservoir of magic and raw elemental potential. Of course, it would be impossible for anyone but the best experts in Soul magic to cast without their physical bodies. But the fragments of the necromancer¡¯s soul guided them. Squeezed out that disembodied potential and coordinated it.

    Merged it. Most mortal mages could not cooperate in casting a single spell, simply because the requirement for mutual cooperation was unachievably high. This grew exponentially with every mage added and with each level of complexity. How could mages possibly merge intentions they understood differently? Assimilate same concepts built on different foundations?

    But the necromancer bridged that gap, controlling thousands of these mangled souls to coordinate on individual spells. Imprinting on them identical ways of viewing reality and casting magic.

    Just the souls themselves¡­ it must have taken a decade to prepare for using a spell like this. And it showed in sheer potency as a kaleidoscope of magic was released. Magic of every element. Not just the Nine but of prismatic elements as well. Most were on the weaker side but attained imbuing intentions. A few surpassed the boundary of conception, making them damaging.

    Void magic was ineffectual against Dervish but Light? Light was anathema to Void. And Dervish¡¯s spell had turned him into a being of pure Void magic.

    Not to mention Starfire and other iterations that were no less effective. Dawn magic spoke of the end of the night in every Realm, yet it tried to erase him in that blaze. Grace magic blessed with merciful fate, thought not Dervish but his opponent. Brighsoul shining like a beacon, attempting to vanquish his essence¡­ and more.

    Dervish found himself pushed back in moments, the flurry that was his being quickly beginning to accumulate damage. Because no matter how agile he was, how quickly his mind coursed, it was impossible to even notice the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of spells bombarding him every second. Beyond his ability to tell which were dangerous and which were harmless.

    The thousand black blades that were Dervish retreated and the storm the lich itself had become pursued.

    But Dervish was not hopeless. Because even though he was losing there was a clear advantage: The undead mage had revealed its cards. Began a constant spell that, albeit incredibly powerful, had to also be beyond difficult to maintain. Most likely, there was no focus left in them to cast another decisive spell. And the lich was committed to that magic. That meant Dervish could react. And react he did. Though he had no mouth or throat, the blades sang his words:

    ¡°It opened its maw

    and before me saw

    a line cut into the sand,

    Alone I stand

    Through a line of black

    I mend another crack.

    after all they did take,

    My blades would not break¡±

    And then, the storm of magic was no longer so dangerous. The lesser spells became ineffectual as anything else but a smokescreen and even the magics most dangerous to him lessened in effectiveness. Not to mention his blades began to recover. Cracks closed. Perhaps still not faster than they were being damaged but just barely.

    It remained a losing battle. It was still draining at massive amounts of magic and indeed, it offered Dervish no real angle of achieving victory. But the lich was stronger than him anyway - at least with all the preparations. That Dervish didn¡¯t doubt anymore. And really, he didn¡¯t need to hold their full attention forever.

    Five hours. A bit less after all that. All he had to do was survive that long. If by then things were not decided down in the city, they were doomed anyway.

    He certainly hoped the two prodigies had taken to his lessons well.

 2.40 Grafted horrors, handmade dread

    ¡°The smell is becoming constant,¡± Irwyn frowned, he had kept his mask on, though Elizabeth ended up removing hers. They had gone down from the tenth to the fifth city level but even all the way up there he could smell the stench that was almost certainly associated with necromancy - as he now knew. It reminded him of his last day in Ebon Respite, except much worse. At least it was no longer provoking any physical reaction. Whether that was him getting used to the putrid odor or just the intellectual awareness it was not really physical he wasn¡¯t quite sure.

    Either way, they would likely run into their first undead soon¡­ and Irwyn wasn¡¯t sure what to expect. He had fought what Old Crow had called weaker ghouls back in Ebon Respite and those could not pose a serious threat to him even when he had been an order of magnitude weaker, but those had been no mages. What really put him on edge was that Elizabeth seemed nervous.

    ¡°Straight for three more intersections, then to the left,¡± Elizabeth said with a frown. They had tried following Dervish¡¯s instructions, however, there have been¡­ issues. Contacting the Ducal capital of City Black had gone without an issue - it was Abonisle itself that was a problem. All the magic sustaining easy city-wide communication had been shut down, replaced by spells meant to jam such effects from connecting. The undead were most likely already attacking the city but Elizabeth could not call a full alarm or coordinate with the military presence within the inner city. At least not remotely. The duo was headed towards the closest military facility at the moment which Elizabeth had said would have a solution.

    ¡°Dodge!¡± Elizabeth yelled out of a sudden; Irwyn did not hesitate as he got out of the way with a half-tumble. A globe of mangled flesh flew right by him a moment later. Irwyn looked over to the creature responsible for the throwing - standing a long distance away. It was a horrible amalgamation of writhing flesh that did not even attempt to look humanoid. The creature had no real legs as it moved by dragging its bulk over the ground with many small appendages ¨C the bulk itself looking almost like a sack filled up to bursting, except woven out of red bloody meat. There were two massive arms that literally ripped chunks out of itself to throw. And the eyes. It had so many eyes just sprinkled haphazardly all around the ''torso''.

    It had also been a mistake to stare after dodging. Irwyn was completely ambushed by the avoided projectile of meat and sklea using magic from behind him. It blasted him with, of all things, a beam of Light magic. Four intentions, meant to pierce his defenses and then maim. It was an exceedingly poor choice against him¡­ but if Irwyn had been a Void mage it could have been lethal. Even if the horrid undead didn¡¯t have enough intelligence to properly use its tools, whoever had created it clearly knew who most of its opponents would most likely be.

    ¡°It has Light magic,¡± Irwyn warned as he sent flames to burn the ball of flesh behind him to ash - he felt something try to leave it and burned it as well just in case. The creature in the distance stopped and seemingly¡­ accessed the situation after seeing Irwyn survive. ¡°Four intentions in the spell.

    ¡°A flesh hulk,¡± Elizabeth nodded warily, clearly aware of what they faced. ¡°Low intelligence, high power and versatility. An assembled undead - in other words, more than just a raised corpse. It can corrupt the souls of its victims through necromancy and use them as sources of magic. It also gathers bulk by devouring flesh for a lack of better word. We need to destroy the core soul controlling it; also make sure to destroy any corrupted souls it throws at us before they can be reclaimed.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t exactly know how to do that,¡± Irwyn grimaced.

    ¡°Burn or destroy should be plenty,¡± she replied. ¡°Souls are vulnerable without a physical Vessel. I felt you got the last one with your Flames.¡±

    ¡°That was a soul?¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°I have never felt anything like that when people died around me.¡±

    ¡°A corrupted one forcefully staying formed instead of dispersing,¡± Elizabeth shook her head, though she kept staring at the thing in the distance. It was starting to move again. ¡°You are sensing the necromancy keeping it together at all. Get ready, it¡¯s coming for us and there might be more.¡±

    And indeed. The flesh hulk did not throw another piece of itself at them, instead, it charged. Kind of. Its stunted appendages would not allow it to move particularly fast but it had a workaround: Hooks of conjured rock appeared around it and sunk deep into the undead¡¯s flesh, hefting it up while leaving ugly wounds. Not that it bled or cared. It rose above ground, the feet like protrusions dangling just above the ground. Then it was dragged forward at significant speed.

    ¡°Burn,¡± Irwyn sent a wave of Starfire forward, preparing to dodge out of the way. He held little back, imbuing it with four offensive intentions. A meager barrier arose to try and block his spell which resisted for maybe half a second and then crumbled, leaving the hulk to charge right into Irwyn''s magic as it tried to fly through. Normal meat would have turned to ash in an instant, even at that size. This creature did not. Irwyn was ready for that much at least as he made the spell follow, hoping it was doing damage at all. It seemed to have some kind of resistance to magic, though the details were beyond him for the moment.

    That casting meant he was focused on the hulk, though. As a consequence of that he did not notice the rain of void magic until it was almost upon him. It did not come from the hulk, after all. It struck him from a group of hooded figures scattered across the windows of several nearby buildings; all of them more than likely undead mages. Most of them carried at most two or three intentions, however, there were well over a hundred spells and all of them were Void. Very effective at destroying his barrier of Starfire. Making use of his focus on the enemy in front of him to launch an ambush

    Even though Irwyn had not noticed it until the last moment due to the ambient mana and all the other spells going off all around, Elizabeth had. A sheet-thin wall of pitch-black magic rose from the side to take on the barrage. It being concentrated in both timing and direction actually made it easier to block for her. In the same element, the attack barely dented even her more hastily prepared defenses.

    ¡°I will take care of them,¡± she quickly said. ¡°You burn away the hulk,¡± then she moved past him and made steps of her Voidflame magic to close the height difference, already engaging with projectiles of her own. Irwyn was not particularly worried. Just like he did not burn to Flame, Elizabeth was also highly resistant to Flame and the Void due to her exceptional affinities. It might not rise to the same level as Irwyn¡¯s, however, it logically gave her an insurmountable advantage when fighting against lesser Void mages, no matter their numbers. Therefore, he refocused on the hulk. In the time of his distraction it had retreated back out of his burning spell. It was singed and mutilated with burns deep enough that they would reach bones and incapacitate anything living through sheer pain. This thing seemed barely bothered, only revealing ever deeper layers of dense flesh. The hook of conjured rock in its torso readjusted to reach deep again - some had been loosened by the meat beneath them being incinerated - and it seemed prepared to move again.

    Irwyn¡¯s spell was still ongoing so he sent it to the collision course. It tried to avoid with impressive agility, however, it still had weight and bulk. Meaning that unlike Irwyn¡¯s spell it had to work against its own physical momentum to maneuver. It immediately became clear that it had no chance of getting past the moving cluster of flames or outrunning it for more than a few seconds. It raised two of its arms again and Irwyn thought it was planning to throw another ball of flesh at him.

    Instead he felt it start to teleport.

    The spot it chose was right behind him. Irwyn tried to disrupt it with a burst of light filled with disruption, fortification, stabilization and repulsion, four concepts he was sure worked to somewhat stop teleportation, however, it was not enough. The Time/Space magic writhed and it was slowed, made more difficult. It bought Irwyn enough time to turn around and start preparing for a close range spell. It nonetheless was able to finish.

    When the hulk emerged the real toll of Irwyn¡¯s disruption attempts became immediately apparent. Huge chunks had been torn out of it by some kind of spacial turbulence. Parts were shredded and stretched in a seemingly haphazard way, deep gashes and mutilations so brutal they were clearly visible even on the already burned and wounded surface. Any mortal being who had gone through that would have died on the spot. The hulk did not even slow down.

    The split second it reappeared it was already bringing the two arms facing Irwyn down. With unnatural, probably spell-woven, speed and force it struck. The barrier of solid Starfire stopped the strike. What it did not completely block was the physical shockwave that manage to pass through it, making Irwyn stumble. Before he even recovered from that those arms were already in the air and coming down again and not just that. Void magic began to pepper him from point blank.

    There was no running away, Irwyn lacked the mobility to escape. Therefore, he had to stand his ground. ¡°Burn,¡± he spoke again summoning a new conflagration of Starfire while letting the old one fade. Burn, incinerate, conflagrate, scorch and cremate. Given the situation he decided to commit with 5 intentions. Along with his four-intention shield that left limited focus for other magics which he spent on easy beams of light imbued to destroy. He did not even attempt to target the hulk though, give how resistant to magic it clearly was. Rather, he targeted any Void magic it was summoning and didn¡¯t end up being immediately swallowed by his larger burning spell.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    The undead kept swinging. Once, twice, thrice¡­ Irwyn was being shaken by the sheer physical impacts somehow making it through the barrier, though quite likely muted. He had no benchmark for how much his barrier could bear, however, the strength behind the blows had to be ridiculous. Slight cracks appeared for a split second after each before mending. But it was burning. The drain on Irwyn¡¯s Vessel was significant, however, that was fine. He had yet to discover the actual limits of his Reservoir and his body recovered anything spent quite quickly.

    And the thing¡¯s flesh did not recover. By the 10th blow, the hammering grew weaker. By the 15th only one of the hands was still able to strike and only did so weakly. The strikes never reached 20 as Irwyn watched the flesh hulk collapse onto itself, incinerated pieces of meat no longer able to hold up the bulk above them. From there it took only a few more seconds. Irwyn tried to concentrate somewhere roughly in the center to look for whatever corrupted soul was the core of it. The abomination still kept casting spells at Irwyn in an endless barrage but their power was irrelevant - though Irwyn did keep looking out for any surprisingly strong final attacks. But nothing of the sort came.

    Irwyn felt something crunch inside the hulk, releasing a surge of foul magic. The same moment the extremely resilient flesh became much less resistant, the rest of it burning away in instants. Soon enough there was nothing left on the ground in front of him than his Flames and dispersing ash. Then, just as Irwyn was about to dismiss the flames to make sure nothing hid in them, said hiding things jumped out.

    Maggots. Little flesh worms launched themselves out of the flames; how they had survived them Irwyn did not know. They were small but leapt so fast Irwyn was not quite able to react. Neither was Elizabeth who was just returning form having dealt with the ghoul mages.

    The little worms reached Irwyn¡¯s barrier and bit into it. There were dozens of them and most utterly failed, however, inexplicably, a few made it though. They devoured the magic itself, with gnawing bites tore chunks out. Then they were through. Not many, just a few. Irwyn was still reeling from the ambush itself though and this put him even further on the backfoot. Thankfully, the barrier had at least slowed them down and Irwyn, half reflexively, attacked with piercing and destructive beams of Starfire. Though the maggots had survived being burned, the piercing attacks proved effective at killing them.

    Unfortunately, that seemed to have been the intention.

    As the magic struck them they exploded into white mist. Still off balance, Irwyn breathed it in as the bulk of it flew right into his face. It immediately began to - metaphorically - burn his eyes with irritation as well as his throat, starting to choke him. It was only extra shocking because it burned Irwyn. It was an awful time to realize that his seeming immunity to it seemingly applied only to heat and such but not to whatever this was.

    ¡°Burn yourself, the whole body!¡± Elizabeth shouted before Irwyn could recover from the shock, her voice raised with urgency. ¡°It¡¯s poison! Burn it out from within!¡±

    And Irwyn did when a moment later his mind caught up with her word. He conjured starfire and forced it down his throat and over his face. Into his lungs and a good way towards the stomach. He did not burn, though he did choke. Not to mention it made breathing very difficult for a few moments. At least it most likely worked as testified to by the lack of urgent pain.

    ¡°What was that?!¡± Irwyn wheezed. His emergency treatment also left him with horrifically dry throat.

    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know,¡± Elizabeth admitted, approaching Irwyn worriedly, ¡°Are you alright?¡±

    ¡°Not great but not dying,¡± he said then coughed, looking down at the collar of his nice suit. Parts of it had been burned off to get rid of the poison or whatever else it actually had been. ¡°You seemed to have recognized the poison though?¡±

    ¡°It obviously had to be poisonous or corrosive, otherwise what would be the point?¡± she sighed. ¡°Irwyn, I am no seasoned inquisitor. I was a newborn during the last Lich war, all I know is from books and lectures. But those always talk about the most common ones. The types and general forms that most necromancers default to because they have a balance of efficiency, difficulty, and power. But the Enemy is cunning¡­ They can learn, innovate and experiment,¡± she looked down at where the hulk had been burned to dispersing ash. ¡°Make changes and modifications. Predict mortal nature and use our expectations and knowledge against us at times.¡±

    ¡°I certainly did not see that coming,¡± Irwyn shuddered. ¡°Do you have any clue what else we should prepare for?¡±

    ¡°In truth, we cannot know what horrors await us in the city. No one can,¡± Elizabeth said slowly. ¡°I could give you a lecture on the common tricks¡­ but we don¡¯t have the time.¡±

    ¡°Let us hurry then,¡± Irwyn nodded, although reluctantly. ¡°Lead the way.¡±

    <hr>

    It became immediately apparent why they had encountered no lesser undead on the way. The military compound was already under siege when they arrived. Seemingly nothing quite as dangerous as the hulk they had run into but there were numbers. Hundreds upon hundreds of shambling undead swarmed towards it forcing the soldiers to defend or be overrun. The worst part perhaps was the way those corpses looked though: Torn and stained clothes, of course, but not old. Not decayed. Some of the undead were still bleeding from wounds that were no longer trying to close - shedding drops of stale blood no longer pumped by a heart. For all he knew, some could still be warm.

    ¡°The recently dead are already being raised,¡± Irwyn spoke with distaste but also¡­ distress. From how large of an area were the undead being funneled here? The casualty count could be above the average or perhaps even below but thousands of dead here in less than the first half hour, that was terrible. An atrocity. But this was such a minuscule segment of Abonisle. So small Irwyn could not even guess an accurate comparison to the whole but it had to be less than a thousandth of a thousandth. So, logically, when he scaled that up¡­ the number was incomprehensible. Rather than think about it he hoped to be distracted with trying to resolve the situation.

    ¡°Most likely,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Zombies, most of them. They don¡¯t have proper soul, only fragments. It means they need to be puppeteered to do more than walk in a direction and clumsy claw at things. But there will be more dangerous undead in the crowd. Just waiting for someone to drop their guard.¡±

    And eventually, someone would. The undead were not being uncontested. The soldiers had erected a parameter around their compound. Unlike most buildings in the inner city of Abonisle, the facility was not touching any other construction, allowing for a long gap in all directions. Most likely precisely to allow for this kind of maneuvering. They were switching between barrages. Not just magic but also mundane projectiles and explosives. They were not using rifles - those would clearly not be too useful against the undead infamously uncaring for most puncture wounds - instead they had actual cannons. Relatively small ones, mobile on wheels. Small crews loaded them while other soldiers chucked either magic or other weaponry into the masses. Then when ready the cannon crew would get their fellows out of the way and fire into the crowd of the undead.

    They shot shrapnel. Sharp pieces of metal propelled at a velocity where sinew and bone barely slowed them down. Entire groups of the zombies would turn into shredded heaps, obstructing the rest of the horde. There was a strange rhythm to it. How the soldiers switched in and out. Their other weapons were clearly also made for the task. Small thrown explosives took out the legs of anything near where they landed. It usually did not actually kill the undead - as far as breaking the magic could be considered killing them again - rather, it left them mostly incapacitated, able to only slowly crawl forward until something took them out in the crossfire.

    Large bottles of grease flew and shattered far away and the undead¡­ slipped. Their mechanical and poorly controlled motions made them prone to falling prone, dousing themselves for when a fire eventually ignited and cremated the oily substance covering them. Vials of glue worked similarly. Slowing the undead down if not outright stopping them in place, and that also blocked the undead behind them. That seemed to be the essence of the combat doctrine. Slow the horde down as much as possible to let the mages and the barrages of cannon shrapnel take them out. And it seemed to be working reasonably fine. The issue was, they were still losing ground. Slowly but still at an almost visible pace. Even with all that obstruction they could not destroy them faster than they came.

    ¡°We should help,¡± Irwyn concluded. However, Elizabeth shook her head. They were hidden in a veil of Void magic once they got close enough. She was clearly attempting to save her stamina and mana, which made sense enough. They couldn¡¯t afford her actually wringing her Vessel dry while they might need to use magic constantly for the next several hours.

    ¡°We have the element of surprise,¡± she explained. ¡°There is a reason the better mages have not acted yet. There should be at least a few here that could burn that whole crowd down in minutes if they fully invested their magic into it. Rather they are waiting. Waiting for the Enemy to make a mistake.¡±

    ¡°So far the undead had been nothing but cunning and competent,¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°Yes, they can use our nature against us but we can do the same,¡± she nodded. ¡°You see, it is a known thing that every single undead hates the living with burning urgency. This goes beyond mere dislike. It is an urging hatred that cannot be silenced. Some suggest it might be the Betrayer itself whispering it into their hollowed out ears. But whatever the case is, this causes a major weakness for them.¡±

    ¡°They are impatient,¡± Irwyn guessed, thinking of it as an impetus. The very reason driving them forwards. How could they resist its call?

    ¡°Most undead lack the discipline to disregard those emotions for the larger picture,¡± she confirmed. ¡°Rule of thumb is, anything weaker than a Draugr - undead who have attained conception - will almost always eventually come out if you stall the raised minions long enough. Less often when they think it¡¯s suicidal but whatever is leading the assault clearly thinks it can win, otherwise they would be sending those zombies to multiply rather than run into the slaughter here.

    ¡°Look for that moment and ambush it,¡± Irwyn nodded. He was curious about a deeper dive into terminology but it probably wasn''t the time to ask. They were lying in ambush and distracted talking might make them miss the right timing. ¡°Simple enough.¡±

    ¡°Now we just have to wait,¡± Elizabeth nodded, focusing back on the battle. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be much longer.¡±

 2.41 Landline

    The situation changed not long later. The horde of zombies was joined by larger undead which Elizabeth identified as ¡®bruisers¡¯. They were not too different at first glance; however, they were taller and a closer inspection made it clear they carried a lot of extra muscle. More than a single body reasonably could have. Several dozens of them joined the onslaught.

    And it became quickly clear they were also tougher. The soldiers holding down their fortifications concentrated fire on them - easy enough given they were sticking out - and found them far more resilient than the rest. They resisted both spell and shrapnel¡­ for a few moments. They still went down but the effort required for it meant that the undead rapidly closed the gap between them and the actual fortification.

    That was clearly not an acceptable status quo. A man with a tangible aura of magic stepped out with his much more distinct clothing revealing him to be someone more important than the common footsoldier. He was also surrounded by a small squad of soldiers wielding something that looked vaguely like shields. The man opened his mouth and chanted, though Irwyn could not make out the words from such a distance. A few seconds later a swarm of black dots began to crawl out of the man¡¯s mouth.

    Yes, crawl, because more than motes of magic they were reminiscent of insects. Like a disturbed hive, they surrounded the man. Most flew in a circle but some settled down. Crept over the man¡¯s skin. Leapt around. And more kept emerging.

    Then, when the mass was apparently sufficient, the man shut his mouth and unleashed that swarm upon the undead. Each of the little insectile particles of magic sought out a target, settling down at an opportune spot, then exploded into a surge of Void magic. Not a large blast, but big enough to sever a leg or a neck. Large enough to debilitate or outright kill the zombies or even bruisers if they landed just right. And they mostly did. When the thousands seemed to be nearing depletion, the man began their chant again, seemingly repeating the same process. Single-handedly that mage did about as much as the entire army fighting alongside them.

    The undead, of course, reacted. Irwyn noticed something new approaching from out of sight, swaggering into the horde. They were¡­ almost humanoid. Two legs, two appendages and a torso. But they had no head nor seemingly any eyes and those arms were instead shaped into long blades of pearly white bones sticking out of fleshy stumps. Irwyn counted six of them as they walked into the crowd, expecting them to be quickly targeted down¡­ except they weren¡¯t. Not so much as a single projectile or fly targeted them.

    He frowned and focused on them. There, when he tried, he began to hear the slightest whisper at the back of his head. A compulsive suggestion. The idea that they were not there and therefore he should not see them.

    ¡°They are using soul magic to make everyone ignore them,¡± Irwyn spoke his realization out loud. ¡°Assassins.¡±

    ¡°No idea what those are. Can you destroy all of them?¡± Elizabeth frowned. ¡°I can deal with whatever reacts to you.¡±

    ¡°Will do,¡± Irwyn nodded and then focused. He did not have long as the assassins approached the Void mage with the swarm-ish magic. He did know a good spell for exactly this though. ¡°...Stars scourge all,¡± he chanted and some thirty projectiles of Starfire launched from him. A lot less than when he had used the spells in sparing but that was for a simple reason: He had imbued them with an additional fifth intention, speed.

    Because of how the spell was structured, it would split equally among the designated targets and try to kill them. Once that was done it would try to help with destroying the other undead. Therefore, it would be greatly beneficial if it could ambush at least a few and deal with them quickly.

    The barrage of glowing missiles provoked a reaction in the camp, though not much given how fast they moved. Mostly just people hastily erecting a few barriers in his direction or turning to access the danger. If they were the target those would have probably done little, however, they seem to quickly relax when they saw the spell diving into the horde, returning to their own cut of the battle.

    Thirty projectiles, six undead. That meant five aimed at each. The first and closest one had not been able to react and perished almost immediately. The little starlike chunks of magic dug into its body, tearing and burning it apart. It managed to slash one by striking itself with those scythe like arms, making it explode which took it out as well as anything else in the immediate vicinity. That was completely fine given that those were all undead. The remaining missiles moved on to the next closest one.

    That one too began to be overwhelmed quickly. It could somewhat dodge five, however, nine would be too much. It tried to swipe at them with blurringly fast strikes, however, it was part of the spell to dodge and preserve itself. The abomination hesitated for a moment, then began to sprint.

    So did the other four. Until that moment, they all walked at a rather leisurely pace, not even as fast as a brisk walk. Now they ran with everything their misfigured bodies allowed, fleeing from Irwyn¡¯s Scourge spell.

    They did not take a dozen steps before they began to run into the explosive Void insects. Irwyn immediately made the connection that moving slowly made their method of pseudo-stealth much more effective - if hurrying didn¡¯t disable it altogether. The Void mage was now staring at them, directing his swarm to cut them off and either casting another spell or shouting orders.

    One way or the other, he was buying Irwyn more than enough time to properly execute the assassins. The first one to go was the one pursued by the most projectiles. Irwyn did not even let it destroy one in a similar suicide attack. The creatures were clearly quite spell resistant ¨C otherwise, they would have been incinerated in an instant - however, it was not to the level of the flesh hulk Irwyn had fought. It was still torn apart within a few seconds. The rest of the assassins were destroyed without much difficulty. Two managed to force their way to the edge of the undead frontline but not nearly into a striking range of the Void mage they had been clearly targeting. Not to mention the shield wall around them.

    Afterward, Irwyn turned his scourge spell around, most of the Starfire missiles remained intact, and send them into the biggest clumps of the undead horde, ideally towards where the bruisers were concentrated. Then he detonated all of them, trying to spread the blast radius in as large of an area as Finity would let him.

    With the spell breaking he was better able to return to himself, noticing beats of sweat had been falling down his forehead. He felt ever so slightly lightheaded, though that was already receding. His Vessel¡¯s saturation of mana had also noticeably dropped, but that would recover quickly enough. Casting such large spells imbued with five intentions inevitably strained him considerably. He could only thank his incredibly high metaphysical stamina that he would most likely grow tired mentally rather than magically as was the case for the vast majority of mages.

    At least his shield had not been so much as scratched. A glance made it clear that Elizabeth was engaged in a long-range battle with another gathering of undead Void mages and systematically overpowering them. He looked over and they were clearly already calling retreat as Elizabeth tried to kill a few more as they fled back into the building from which they had been attacking.

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    The undead horde followed suit. One moment, the dead were trying to desperately advance, sacrificing hundreds for each inch of soil earned¡­ the next they were clumsy turning around and then walking away as fast as their limited capability allowed. The soldiers did not slow down though and kept firing away as long as the dead remained in their effective range.

    A bit over a minute later, all that remained were piles upon piles of shredded corpses. Blood flowed down the street and into sewer pipes, though not nearly as much as one would expect from so much carnage. The undead were not the biggest bleeders after all.

    ¡°Careful, some active ones will be hidden among the actual carcasses,¡± Elizabeth warned him not to drop his guard. ¡°But we are free to approach now. Same as last time, please, stand behind me and look competent.¡±

    ¡°As you say,¡± Irwyn nodded and followed her toward the military compound. Elizabeth did not have her badge on, however, she was wearing that signet ring which was also clearly marked with the symbology of house Blackburg.

    ¡°Your ladyship,¡± and the mage who had given such a good showing had noticed quickly as they got closer. They were still surrounded by a pack of shield bearers¡¯ but seemed much more relaxed.

    ¡°Captain,¡± Elizabeth quickly read the man¡¯s rank. ¡°Who is in charge here? I need a meeting arranged immediately.¡±

    ¡°The major is the highest rank present lady¡­¡± the man said and paused.

    ¡°Elizabeth. We are in a hurry, lead the way!¡± she commanded though the captain did not immediately move.

    ¡°Would you be willing to accept some¡­ caution on our part?¡± the man said slowly, staring Elizabeth down. ¡°It is difficult to tell truth from deceit. False assistance is not an unknown tactic for undead assassins.¡±

    ¡°Keep as many spells aimed at us as you need to be comfortable,¡± Irwyn interjected before Elizabeth¡¯s frown turned into a cause for real delay. ¡°But we have vital information that needs to be shared. Now.¡±

    ¡°Very well, keep ready and in formation, men,¡± the captain ordered. ¡°We head for the command. Double time.¡±

    It was not far. They entered the compound building itself and immediately realized that their command had set up on the far end of a large entrance hall that could be quickly reached. There stood a table with a severe-looking man reading something from a stack of sheaves while simultaneously noting things down on a map they had put on the wall next to them. There were also several crystals Irwyn assumed were meant for communication.

    ¡°Captain, well done,¡± the man in charge immediately nodded. ¡°And you would be?¡±

    ¡°Elizabeth von Blackburg,¡± she said, showing her signet ring for a moment. ¡°Citywide communication is cut off. I need an update on the current situation and then access to the military network.¡±

    ¡°The city is under siege, obviously,¡± the major said after assessing her for a moment. ¡°There have been false orders for a sudden, unannounced parade, though those have been disregarded quickly. We have switched to the outer circuit and assumed the Spires were compromised. Most compounds are under different intensities of assaults. No signs of the Lich in charge reported so far.¡±

    ¡°The Lich is currently being occupied by my guardian,¡± Elizabeth stated. ¡°City Black has been made aware of the attack through confidential means, however, without the beacon active reinforcements cannot be brought in. I need to coordinate what forces are still available. Do you have a bloodline overwrite here?¡±

    ¡°I believe we do,¡± he turned towards one of the soldiers fluttering nearby. ¡°Bring me the box from storage¡­ It should be A4-C7, hurry.¡±

    ¡°Now that we have a moment,¡± the man then turned as soon as the subordinate ran off. He stared at Irwyn, studying his mask ¡°Who might be this chap?¡±

    ¡°Someone under my direct command,¡± Elizabeth did not hesitate and it was a fine enough cover story. Also, probably not technically wrong. Irwyn had no idea how military law and wartime conscriptions worked but would bet swill to wine that House Blackburg would have exceptions and privileges written in for themselves and anyone they cared to extend them to.

    ¡°Does he have the clearance to be part of high-level discussions?¡± he questioned.

    ¡°His trustworthiness along with our current situation is enough to override any concerns over codewords and secrets,¡± Elizabeth started to glare at him. ¡°Given the prolific mind reading those will have to be adjusted either way.¡±

    ¡°If you say so,¡± the man nodded, still judging the mockingbird masks Irwyn wore. ¡°Though I feel obligated to mention their obvious connection to the less savory elements of society.¡±

    ¡°I assure you that I am quite aware whom I entrust my security to, major,¡± Elizabeth put on a frown now. ¡°Mind your own subordinates.¡±

    It was then that the errand boy finally returned, bringing with them a large sealed box. The major almost instinctively cut the seal with void magic, quickly digging into it. The box was itself relatively mundane: Slick black metallic material with a large ¡®7¡¯ inscribed on it. The contents though were different. It looked a bit like a glove but it was made of green matter that reminded Irwyn of wood. But it seemed¡­ elastic where carved wood would be rigid. But it had the marks one would see on carpentered furniture. Elizabeth gingerly began to put it on.

    ¡°Station C-S-D1-5, broadcasting to every compound within the network,¡± the major took up¡­ a microphone, if Irwyn was right, as well as an earpiece they put to one ear - both were connected to the workstation by a cable of some kind. ¡°In a few moments, we are going to commence an attempt at a bloodline overwrite. May all of the highest-ranking officers be made aware and available. Over,¡± he put the microphone away. ¡°All ready for your ladyship.¡±

    ¡°The landline,¡± she said but the major had already leaned for it and was handing Elizabeth a metallic cord. She connected it to the glove and took a deep breath. ¡°I always hated this,¡± she grunted before pushing some of her magic into the glove-like device.

    It began to glow. Green for the first few seconds, increasing in intensity. Then Elizabeth flinched, visibly biting down a scream - still grunting - followed by it flashing blood red. There was a moment of tension hanging in the air before the wooden gauntlet returned to green, but glowing. Elizabeth used the gloved hand to grab the microphone.

    ¡°My name is Elizabeth von Blackburg, sixth in line, by that right I take command over the forces of Abonisle,¡± Elizabeth spoke into it, her voice firm and authoritative. Downright trained. ¡°The city of Abonisle is under the attack of an unknown Nameless Lich. They have infiltrated deep and are likely capable of mind reading or outright domination of their targets. The Temporal Beacon has been disabled and the Dredge overcharged, stopping any reinforcements from arriving in time. The Spires are almost certainly compromised if not outright occupied. The Lich itself is currently held in a stalemate with a classified asset. City Black has been notified and is prepared to dispatch sufficient relief.¡±

    ¡°Our primary and only objective will be to re-enable the beacon at any cost,¡± she continued. ¡°All combat-ready personnel currently available are to head to the closest of compounds A-N-A11 A-S-A11 A-W-A11 A-E-A11 from where we will coordinate an assault on the Spires if necessary. If an approach is impossible, assist the city in resisting the incursion. We have less than four hours before the situation deteriorates. Past that deadline, the extinction of the entire city is likely. Move with all haste, over.¡±

    Five hours, actually, though Irwyn understood why she would lie. He had, in fact, advised it on the way here. They couldn¡¯t be sure whether some kind of mind reader was still active or if it had been the Lich that Dervish would be occupying but there would probably be more. Spreading false information was the bare minimum. Every misconception of their enemy was an advantage.

    ¡°I need something else,¡± Elizabeth turned to the major after putting down the microphone. ¡°Your best Vessel and Reservoir recovery supplements.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you have your own stock?¡± the major raised their eyebrow.

    ¡°All my equipment is stored in a linked sub-planar pocket dimension only I can access,¡± she shook her head. ¡°Unfortunately, without the Temporal Beacon active, the cost of bringing anything through is downright prohibitive. Unless you have late conception Time mage at your disposal, I cannot reasonably bring out any of the emergency items that would be very helpful.¡±

    ¡°Understood, I will have them ready before we set out,¡± the major nodded, then turned towards the staff. ¡°You heard her, we are moving out. Spread the word! As we drilled, take every movable weapon and supply cache we can carry. I want to be out of here in 5 minutes.¡±

    ¡°One last thing then,¡± she nodded. ¡°We have encountered some variant undead. Best we spread the information before setting out.¡±

 2.42 Obvious ambush

    The march was mayhem. It began fine enough right after leaving the original compound, however, that did not last long. Undead ambushes started appearing behind literally every corner and it was a clown car of horrors: Venomous moles digging into concrete and hiding there; mobile undead mages throwing long-range spells to harass them; ghouls disguised as panicked civilians - often hidden in groups of actual ones; poisoned bombs, delivered through undead birds; undead dropping at them from windows nine meters above; magical mines; completely mundane mines taken from who knows where; sabotaged buildings collapsing while going past them¡­ and so much more.

    It was not just about the individual problems being so bad - there were several decently powerful mages present. It was about the sheer variety of things the company of soldiers had to survive, one after the other. In fact that several could happen at once. What didn¡¯t help either were logistics. They need to go up to the 11th city level which was the floor of the four compounds closest to the Spires themselves which Elizabeth had called a rally to. But how does one get the soldiers all the way up there? The elevators were too dangerous - cramped, not to mention prone to falling in battle - therefore they had to use the stairs. That was a prime opportunity for ambushes, not to mention that they had to somehow get up their equipment, usually occupying several mages competent with lifting via magical platforms, including Irwyn.

    Which meant they would be busy when the inevitable attacks happened. If there was one certainty it was being always under siege. Irwyn had an inkling that most of the zombies and ghouls were very freshly raised, then sent for the explicit purpose of exhausting them. Inflict attrition - and they were certainly slowly losing people and stamina. Irwyn was fine for the moment, and unlikely to run out of mana, but he expected the mental toll would start affecting him eventually. But many mages were already starting to feel Vessel exhaustion while the regular soldiers were getting tired physically. Potions, pills, scrolls and other such replenishing consumables were already being rationed.

    All of those problems were nothing when compared to the greater undead.

    ¡°Three Flesh hulks up ahead,¡± the major announced with a frown what a scout had told him. The man, as it turned out, was a competent Void mage that could match Irwyn and Elizabeth in most magics. Not that surprising given he was more than three times their age. ¡°They are sitting right in the middle of an intersection. Going around would delay us by up to a quarter of an hour and force the men to walk through the poisoned mists again. This is no coincidence. A trap.¡±

    ¡°So we will have to force our way through,¡± Elizabeth sighed. Irwyn agreed that going around was not a good idea. They would just run into another trap anyway. ¡°We don¡¯t know what else is waiting in ambush. This could be costly.¡±

    ¡°Leave one of them to me,¡± Irwyn said, causing several of the officers in their little command gathering to stare at him. It was not the first Flesh hulks they had run into  but Irwyn had been relegated to mostly protective duties to minimize their losses so far. Being able to easily block Light magic was valuable when the majority of their forces considered it a critical weakness.

    ¡°They need to be dispatched quickly,¡± the major frowned even deeper, though that was not surprising. Even Irwyn could see the man did not like nor respect him. The signs of prejudiced anger were plain¡­ and it was likely no coincidence that it had taken the man one look at his mask to realize there was a connection with the underworld there. ¡°We should consider, regretfully, sacrificing some troops to delay them while we focus fire.¡±

    ¡°I have had time to figure out a spell to counter greater undead specifically,¡± Irwyn explained. ¡°Hopefully, I should be able to dispatch one efficiently without much issue.¡±

    ¡°New spells risk backfiring which would put you out of commission for the rest of the day,¡± the major was not happy with it though. ¡°Although my plan will cost us, it will be safer. It is better to take losses than risks in our situation.¡±

    ¡°Except it doesn¡¯t account for whatever trap there is,¡± Irwyn shook his head, then turned towards Elizabeth. ¡°It could be worse than the flesh hulks. I am confident in not incapacitating myself, as the major fears, and the spell I have made for myself will have to see use today regardless of any opinions. I think this is a good opportunity to reveal it,¡± the undead would ¡®spread the word¡¯ - for the lack of a better term - once it was used. That did not mean it would not be effective but the first time or few the undead would not be able to react properly.

    ¡°Your plans are not mutually exclusive,¡± Elizabeth looked at them both. She seemed nervous under the weight of command though mostly hid it. Irwyn did not envy her being the final decision maker though was glad he had her faith. ¡°Mockingbird can hold one down. If he can quickly dispatch it on his own, that is ideal, even if he fails it will serve as your distraction.¡±

    ¡°We could use his firepower for our main target,¡± the major glanced at Irwyn, ¡°Though perhaps without the clashing affinities, it is not a major loss.¡±

    ¡°Give the orders then, we cannot waste time,¡± she affirmed and the officers broke up. Less than a minute later the company was on the move with Irwyn at the leftmost spot of the front line. A line of cannons was already firing at a new swarm of zombies attacking from the back.

    ¡°Please actually be careful,¡± Elizabeth said in a low voice as he walked beside her. ¡°Without access to the dimensional features of my dress, I won¡¯t have access to proper healing equipment beyond some mediocre stitching.¡±

    ¡°You worry too much,¡± Irwyn tried to reassure. ¡°When have I ever disappointed in magic?¡±

    ¡°Fair¡­¡± she said, looking ahead. ¡°We are close enough. Good luck.¡±

    ¡°To you as well,¡± Irwyn nodded, looking at the three flesh hulks. They were similar to the ones they had fought before though Irwyn now knew they could have variations. The few that the company had carefully dispatched had not been filled with the magic-eating maggots though one of them had exploded into a cloud of magical acid. Irwyn hoped that it would not matter either way as he approached from the side. The undead were already stirring as the company advanced toward them. The ground did not seem trapped as far as Irwyn could tell so that was good.

    The first heaps of spell-slinging flesh were thrown a moment later. None headed towards Irwyn though and all were intercepted before unleashing any magics. A swarm of Void insect-like particles was already rising behind them and most of the best mages available would take part in this battle, the remaining few only left behind to watch their back. The hulks seemed to quickly process that throwing their torn-off chunks had limited effect and instead proceeded to create those spikes of conjured rock to carry them at high speed. Irwyn saw that as an opportunity to chant.

    ¡°Since the great Betrayal

    that has made us frail,

    tried reduce us to dust,

    we stood for what is just.

    We took a stand.

    Deathbane Starbrand¡±

    And what better to speak of than the first Betrayal when crafting a spell against the undead? Irwyn had seen the aftermath, if only in a vision. If only a small part. But those seemed to work well enough as a connection to empower his incantations. In the vision he had also seen a frailty of a great mind that the Betrayal had caused, and that was certainly not a rare emotion. ¡®Dust¡¯ was an obvious thing to mention given the infamous quote of ¡®until all is dust¡¯ that supposedly drove undead hatred. Justice and taking a stand were self-explanatory against a force seeking the utter annihilation of everything.

    Of course, it was not about just the meaning and the words. Yes, they helped close the gaps but Irwyn had to have a baseline for the spell to work off of. The inner mechanics of the magic. And he thought of what Elizbeth had advised him earlier in the day: The best way to deal with the undead was often to destroy the corrupted soul that held them together. The flesh of the hulks was resistant to both spells and physical injury to an absurd degree¡­ but perhaps he need not target it at all.

    Phase, Bypass, Penetrate, three concepts to hopefully get through, Seek, to find the corrupted souls and Burn to destroy them. Now, Irwyn knew basically nothing of soul magic but he was not really manipulating a soul in any way. He was just trying to target it, surgically, as if burning a shape into wood. There were definitely huge gaps in his understanding of how this would actually work¡­

    But then, that¡¯s what the incantation was for. All of it focused on fighting, hating or destroying undead. Even the name itself contained ¡®Deathbane¡¯. The spell would be completely unusable against anything living. But that was fine. Because spells gained power from being restricted. He really hoped it would be enough as he finished casting it, targeting the left-most hulk.

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    What Irwyn immediately noticed was that the spell was difficult to maintain. That had been a given since it was a five-intention construct, however, it was more difficult than a single-instance spell would usually be. He explained that to himself as the cost of filling the gaps in his own knowledge. As it happened, it was not far from the boundary where he could only maintain his four-intention shield beside the Brand itself.

    Then it started taking effect. It took a moment for it to actually connect: It flew like a swift ray of starlight ¨C incredibly fast - but was still technically speaking dodge able or, more realistically, blockable since it could definitely swerve and change direction. The flesh hulks did not bother with physical barriers though so the one he targeted was struck. Instantly a mark was burned into its skin.

    Irwyn had imagined the Brand part of the spell to be a sun-like circle without having a particularly distinct image for it but when it started to appear he immediately got a sense of deja vu. What he could see was just a small part of it, but he had seen that shape before. It was not difficult to recall where: What he beheld was exactly a small excerpt from that strange mark with impossible geometry Han Daut had used to craft the Starfire amplifying artifact.

    And the moment a connection with that memory was made, everything snapped into place. The mark - that inexplicably gave the impression it was WEEPING - burned itself into the undead, forming fully with such natural ease Irwyn barely realized it before it was done, a shape beyond mortal perception. Logically, its geometry simply wasn¡¯t possible; realistically it did not care as far as Irwyn could see. It managed to attain a strange juxtaposition of existence.

    That wonder lasted for about a second before Irwyn was woken up by the undead shrieking. It was¡­ not a sound. More like an echo of a tortured howl Irwyn could only half-hear. What was stranger was that the undead had reacted at all. He had never seen one do anything like that, not even the slightest flinch or hesitation. Each one he had encountered was completely and utterly focused on killing anything living. Then again, their bodies were dead. They could not experience physical pain as far as Irwyn understood and when their souls were finally exposed without their body they would be erased in an instant. Too fast to really have a perceptible reaction to their own demise.

    The hulk¡¯s death was not so quick. It tried to charge Irwyn immediately¡­ and stumbled. The hooks of conjured rock that held it aloft did not move properly. It swayed, its muscles spasmed even though that should not even be possible. Then it dropped, fell over, and didn¡¯t get up again. Irwyn felt the core soul controlling the construct perish, incinerated by raging intangible Starfire. The efficacy of the spell far surpassed what Irwyn had hoped for.

    The hulk retained its horrific shape, however, it was motionless. It also most likely lost most of its spell resistance after true death if past experience was anything to go by. That didn¡¯t mean it could just be left like that. There were still many corrupted souls locked in the motionless abomination that it had been using as sources for its myriad magics. Those could be reclaimed by other undead if left unattended. Irwyn went to burn them with a simple Burn and Incinerate infused Starfire. Since that was no longer consuming the vast majority of what his mind could handle, he could look at the other two hulks being engaged.

    In truth, his fight had been rather quick¡­ taking perhaps less than a dozen seconds including the chant. Elizabeth was not quite done. Irwyn watched the remaining flesh hulks both attempts to teleport, only to be disrupted by a squad of dedicated space mages. The backlash tore grievous wounds across the undeads¡¯ bodies, though those remained as inconsequential as ever.

    Elizabeth was in the middle of erasing a hole through one while it was getting swarmed by the Void flies as well as a whole barrage of various Void magics. Meanwhile, the other hulk was facing significantly less firepower, mostly just to keep it distracted before the rest could move on to it. Putting Starfire into all that Void magic was not going to be of any help, therefore Irwyn instead looked around. There should be an ambush. Some kind of trick at play. The question was only how serious. So, his eyes wandered each way of the intersection¡­ and found little of interest. He had never been like Kalista nor was spotting discrepancies his most mastered skill. The only strange thing was how the wide streets were so utterly empty, which was easily explained by the ongoing undead incursion.

    The company had dispatched the first Flesh Hulk after a few moments and were moving on to another. Still nothing. Irwyn frowned. The undead had given them no respite so far, it would be strange if they didn¡¯t use this as an opportunity. He still neither saw nor felt anything off but he did reinforce his barrier with two more layers. Something had to be coming. The concentrated magics were quickly wearing down the last Hulk. Far too long to not be ambushed. It genuinely put Irwyn more on edge than being actively attacked.

    It finally came in seemingly the same moment the second flesh hulk was destroyed. Irwyn¡¯s eyes saw one of the soldiers also on the lookout rather than directly participating in their peripheral vision when a white glowing spear sprung from the solid concrete and impaled them.

    ¡°BELOW!¡± Irwyn immediately shouted as he felt something else attempt to do the same to him. Except Irwyn had kept the ground beneath his feet also shielded, easily stopping the ambush.

    Many of the soldiers had not. The first strike had scored several fatal wounds among regular soldiers and even company mages.

    ¡°GHOSTS!¡± the swarm magic captain shouted a moment later. ¡°THEY WON¡¯T LEAVE THE CONCRETE UNLESS YOU MAKE THEM!¡±

    And indeed, the spear retracted back beneath - at least those that had not been destroyed - and then proceeded to strike others. Not Irwyn, nor any of the mages that had confidently blocked the first attempt. They were looking for those vulnerable to this kind of assault, even if it cost the ghosts their lives. A suicide attack with the sole purpose of causing losses and exhausting them further. The undead could trade ten thousand to one and still come out ahead. Despite breaking who knew how many of them, their numbers were likely only swelling.

    Irwyn immediately began melting the concrete and the ghosts with it. Everywhere he could see those spears attempting to strike he would destroy their wielders, blocking the impaling lunges for others if needed. The ghosts were fragile, immediately burning away and their attacks could not break through any remotely competent defense.

    Still, each could be another loss on the tally. Another bit of mana that a mage would later not be able to turn into killing something else. They were not being overwhelmed; they were being worn down. At least that is what he had thought had been the strategy. That was, until he looked up after helping avert the worst of the ambushes.

    ¡°Elizabeth,¡± he hurried over as soon as he spotted the issue. The ghosts had lasted only moments and were already being cleaned up less than a minute after the initial strike. The major ¨C who was standing right by her ¨C seemed to disapprove of an address without honorifics but also listened, seemingly sizing Irwyn up and down again as he spoke. ¡°We have a problem, look,¡± he pointed down the road ahead which ended much further in another intersection. There, at basically the horizon, a mass of bodies was rushing at them. Fast. It had rushed out of whatever cover might have hidden it while the company was distracted by the ghosts.

    ¡°Major reporting, large hostile horde approaching from the south,¡± one of the scouting inclined officers was also just coming up to them. ¡°Several flesh hulks and other greater undead spotted among them.¡±

    ¡°Same bad news from the East,¡± another person was approaching but paused as they heard the previous record being given out loud. It quickly became apparent why they, and two more soldiers, also wanted to speak with the major as soon as they could.

    ¡°And West.¡±

    ¡°And North.¡±

    ¡°We are surrounded,¡± the major noted. Then swore. ¡°Fuck.¡±

    ¡°This is the real trap,¡± Irwyn¡¯s mind was spinning. They could not handle that many. Not with their current forces.

    ¡°We cannot call for help with communication still being blocked,¡± Elizabeth frowned. ¡°We will have to fight them off somehow.¡±

    ¡°There are too many greater undead,¡± the major sighed. ¡°A futile last stand it is. Give the order. Build whatever little fortifications the men can. Spread the word we are having a Desperado.¡±

    ¡°Desperado?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°A last stand with no hope of survival,¡± the major nodded. ¡°Meaning they are allowed to use up anything we have left if it means an extra dead ghoul in exchange.¡±

    ¡°I can try to hold them off in the North,¡± Irwyn thought about the situation looking in the direction. It was grim. ¡°I am not sure I will manage it thought.¡±

    ¡°Insanity,¡± the major shook his head. ¡°Also counterproductive. Our primary objective has not changed. We will do everything in our power to create a wedge for the Ladyship to slip through. And, reluctantly, you with her.¡±

    ¡°That will take too many losses,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°At that attrition, your chain of command and roles will fall apart completely.¡±

    ¡°I am assuming we will be wiped out either way,¡± the major disagreed. ¡°Our first priority is clear. If we must spend lives that were already going to be lost, then so be it.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know what to say,¡± Elizabeth hesitated, taken aback by the sheer detachment with which the man had said it with. Irwyn was not much better off. The major spoke of sacrifice and certain death with the tone one would ask for a cup of tea.

    ¡°A good word to the post-mortem promotion board would be appreciated,¡± the man finally broke the poker face, only to chuckle grimly rather than flinch. ¡°I have duty to fulfill today. If it is death, I will embrace it.¡±

    ¡°Thank you major,¡± Elizabeth settled on after a few seconds. ¡°Try to keep your company alive as long as you can. If you get us through, we can look for help.¡±

    ¡°The city might be a bit too big for that,¡± the man sighed. ¡°But I will try. You should get ready. I am not sure how much of an opening can even be bought.¡±

    Irwyn glanced at the man and saw not a hint of hesitation. No fear. Then he stared at the approaching horde and had to admit he felt some trepidation himself and he had just been given a possible way out. They were close enough now that he could see that the thick crowd had no mere zombies in it. There must have been a dozen flesh hulks coming from just that one direction and then other undead. Most were definitely not humanoid but Irwyn could not quite recognize what they were at the distance ¨C it was just the hulks were so large and distinct. The rest were certainly not weak variants though. And there were so many. He could already hear the distant beat of the steps, the low screeches and groans of muscle grafted where it should not be. The quiet humming and baited breaths of terrified soldiers.

    Then he frowned¡­ Humming? No. It was more like a distant song. Words just barely too far away to make out with a melancholic quiet melody.

    ¡°Is it just me¡­¡± Irwyn asked out loud. ¡°Or do I hear singing?¡±

 2.43 Each note rang in a tune of desperation

    It had been just a hum at first. Elizabeth as well as the quickly gathering officers stared at Irwyn in incomprehension for a couple of seconds.

    ¡°I hear it too,¡± Elizabeth frowned then. And it grew louder. Slowly but surely. With each passing second it was becoming less of a background noise and more of an audible sound. As the soldiers were preparing fortifications and the mages readied themselves for the Desperado, as they called it, more and more people heard it. A deep tune that seemed to almost echo. And the pattern was obvious. Those more sensitive to magic heard it first and heard it more distinctly. Whether it was a good or a bad thing, Irwyn couldn¡¯t really tell yet. The undead were still approaching though and they would soon be within reasonable range of fire.

    Instead, they stopped. Just outside where most of the company¡¯s mages would be able to give an effective barrage. Not that it would make that much of a difference given the arrangement of greater undead that were resistant to weaker magics. Nonetheless, they did not engage. Irwyn looked across the horde and spotted many abominations he recognized. Several flesh hulks coming from each direction; the assassins with fake invisibility; behemoths of bone and sinew they had run into on their way there; and others he mostly did not know.

    The song, however, was growing louder still. Then another joined it - a heroic orchestral piece with perhaps hundreds of instruments directed to perfection. Two different songs played at once¡­ yet each was distinct. Like Irwyn¡¯s ears were perceiving them separately and then had no trouble parsing them apart. A third started just a moment later - a calm and joyful melody - and that strange effect remained. They were also each rather loud now.

    That was the moment the undead finally attacked. They did not screech or snarl at them. The horde of engineered death bringers made only the thumps of stomping feet as it rushed at them. It was a disturbing sight - made it clear that the constructs existed for the singular purpose of erasing all life they could stumble upon. Yet despite that, Irwyn felt all fear drain from him. His back straightened and he faced them without a shred of doubt or trepidation.

    A fourth song rang - a stimulating instrumental symphony - and Irwyn felt a surge of clarity. A continuous moment of clairvoyance where he felt his mind expand. Not just his focus but his perception. His understanding of those around him. It was comprehensive. More than even just the cognition enhancement magic that he under Dervish¡¯s advisement always maintained nowadays. It was perhaps significantly less potent in pure percentages, however, the song¡¯s effect remained wondrous.

    ¡°Since the great Betrayal

    that has made us frail,

    tried reduce us to dust,

    we stood for what is just.

    We took a stand.

    Deathbane Starbrand¡±

    Irwyn chanted and it was easier than before. Not just because he had a better understanding of the spell but because he had simply become better. If perhaps only temporarily. The ray of the spell shot off, targeting the side most hulk coming from the northern side of the intersection. Among the storm of magic, it was lost and not intercepted, slipping by the undead defenses. It burned itself into the creature''s mockery of a skin and this time Irwyn needed no prompt to form the WEEPING mark. It was too far away for Irwyn to hear its ethereal screech of pain but it died quickly. Perhaps a full second faster than the first time Irwyn had used the spell.

    But more than that, Irwyn tried something else: As the flesh hulk fell over truly dead, Irwyn redirected the spell to target the next closest one. It took a massive chunk of mana from his Vessel, even more than the spell had cost to cast in the first place and took up a bit more focus from him for the moment he was extracting the brand from the first victim, however, Irwyn could afford to spend far more magic than, supposedly, any mage around his level of power. This was an efficient way to do so.

    Irwyn noticed the sixth song had started playing at some point. It was a slow dirge¡­ almost burial. And as far as he could see the mass of undead started stumbling. Not necessarily slowing down, rather, they suddenly began to trip over one another. Irwyn had never seen anything above a mere zombie do that. Even the most lesser ghouls had maintained eerie supernatural coordination with each other. And it was a known fact that undead could instantly communicate with their fellow abominations over short to medium distances, perfectly syncing up with each other. Irwyn¡¯s best guess was that the song had disrupted that.

    And that, along with the enhancements given by the previous songs, solidified that whoever was causing them was friendly. And since they were not part of their company, they were reinforcements.

    As if on cue Irwyn felt something attack the undead coming from the North and West from behind. The air was already saturated with mana so whatever he had felt must have packed a lot of it. Or it was a lot of smaller spells. He couldn¡¯t quite tell. Either way, their situation had turned from a Desperado to a real battle. He wasn¡¯t sure how many allies had come but they wouldn¡¯t have engaged if it was completely hopeless. The direction they needed to go was clear though: Clear the pincered undead in the two directions and then see whether the company should attempt to wipe out the rest or flee with their new help.

    The confusion that had enveloped the undead was showing its efficiency as well, earning much valuable time. Irwyn had managed to kill two more greater undead with his mark before they were upon them; a disgustingly porous humanoid-ish creature and a giant wolf-like creation, except without any fur.

    That was when the undead began to return fire. It was, surprisingly, not a storm of spells. Instead, most of the oncoming barrage were other undead. There were the chunks of spellcasting meat that the flesh hulks were so keen on but also other similar creations. One of them though, was larger and flew with more momentum than all the others around it.

    Irwyn tried to redirect his spell towards it though it flew overhead fast. Faster than should probably be possible from just a physical throw, which, obviously, meant some kind of magic. It looked like an uneven white ball, probably created from bones. Until, upon second look, Irwyn realised that its entire body was completely covered in ivory blades. Down to even the smallest gap. Irwyn could see nothing else than tightly packed edges.

    ¡°¡­Fated for failure¡±

    Irwyn caught the end of a chant course through the air. He had no idea where it had come from and had not heard a single word of the preceding chant. Neither could Irwyn feel what the spell had done in any way. The moment after it though, the undead ball of blades finally did something:

    It exploded. Its thousand sharp bones a flurry of death raining upon the soldiers at a speed the eye could not perceive. There had been enough of the bone shrapnel to hit their whole formation.

    Except not a single piece of bone had collided with Irwyn¡¯s barrier. Surprised, he glanced around only to see countless confused soldiers, some still in the middle of flinching from the unavoidable attack. What he did not behold was even a single person actually wounded by it. Staring at the ground, Irwyn found countless gashes where the bone had gone through concrete without shattering or getting stopped before sinking deep into it. Those would not have even slowed down when cutting through human flesh or some of the weaker mage¡¯s defences.

    Impossibly, not a single one had connected with a target. With a blatant disregard for probability, every single piece had missed.

    As if though to mock them for celebrating too quickly, six more nigh identical undead were already flying towards them, following the first. Irwyn hoped that the spell which had just saved them was still in effect - because otherwise there would be very few survivors - but still reinforced his shield before they could explode. Their miraculous luck held. The concrete ground was now closer to gravel but the spell, whoever had cast it, had prevented a complete disaster. Irwyn spared a quick glance to see that indeed, there were no immediately obvious people hit by the storm of bone and returned his attention to the undead still running towards them.

    On one hand, they no longer looked quite as endless. Irwyn could see small gaps between their numbers now, meaning there were only a few rows left. They couldn¡¯t have killed that many, which meant it couldn¡¯t have been too big of a number to begin with. It was still an immensely relieving thing to see. On the other hand, they were much closer. A squad of Time mages, surrounded by regulars with enchanted shields, was currently maintaining a wall of twisted space that made it impassable in the North. In the East they had made a pit. In the West it was a wall of solid conjured rock. South¡­ Irwyn couldn¡¯t tell what had been done in the South thought presumably something.

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    Either way, all of those fortifications held about a second before the undead shredded them with their own magics. Their loss of coordination made itself clear there as well though. It was more than just them struggling to communicate with one another. They were also casting a lot less. And Irwyn realized why:

    The Flesh Hulks, for example, did not actually possess any capacity for magic on their own. Rather, they had a whole collection of corrupted souls taken from mages who could which the hulk then puppeteer to cast magic for it. Without them, it would not be able to access all that mana nor all the affinities. And many other undead undoubtedly operated on similar principles. Coordination was difficult when communication became impossible, seemingly even inside a single ¡®body¡¯. Many other undead worked on the same principle as well. The effect of that particular song was even far more powerful than Irwyn had guessed.

    Another barrage flew overhead and Irwyn did not sit idly this time. He focused on intercepting the projectiles and thrown abominations rather than risk disrupting the increasingly concentrated barrages of Void magic employed against the main groups. His brand was already in the air so he just had to direct it towards the nearest thing that seemed to present a threat: Another one of the uncannily porous humanoids creations - he was really not eager to find out what those did. And while it died he could also shoot down as many of the less threatening attacks.

    Irwyn turned around just in time to see some of the undead making it through their front lines. Most had been held back through sheer concentrated offensive might for the moment, however, the mages trying to uphold the Eastern part of the defense had failed. The entirety of that horde was now pouring out of the bottleneck that the street was. Among them was just a skeleton. In the swarm of undead it could be overlooked. Had been overlooked. It had looked fragile, just a hanger-on almost out of place in the company of greater undead.

    And yet it blurred forward with unbelievable speed. It had been so far away the moment before yet the split second Irwyn had spotted it, the skeleton was standing in front of him before he could even realize something was happening. The combat reflexes he had trained under Dervish''s stern supervision kicked in, having Irwyn almost subconsciously manifest a small barrage of weak Starfire spears ¨C which did absolutely nothing - while he immediately redirected his still ongoing Starbrand towards the skeleton.

    The same undead that struck his barrier with the digits of its hand and tore open a chunk of it without so much as slowing down. It did not break the barrier. It was much like the worms which had ambushed Irwyn earlier in the day: It seemed to disperse magic around the tip of its talon-like fingers as it struck rather than create an opening with brute force. Not that it made that much of a difference as the ivory arm sunk inside the barrier and tried to grasp at Irwyn. This up-close Irwyn realized that the skeleton merely looked normal. Because every single millimeter of the arm¡¯s bone was covered in white script. Tiny symbols of a language Irwyn could not recognize, so miniature that from a distance they were invisible.

    The realization did not help Irwyn dodge. It might have actually distracted him instead. He mended the barrier around the arm as he half jumped, half stumbled backwards. The skeleton just barely didn¡¯t manage to grab him, the digit instead tearing through his suit and sinking into his biceps, then it slid out with Irwyn¡¯s motion.

    ¡°Argh,¡± Irwyn grunted as the wound burned. The blessing in disguise was that the claw-like endings were so sharp they did not hook. He had to thank Dervish for the sadistic training regiment involving a fair share of wounds and deep cuts as otherwise he probably would have lost focus. The Brand finally landed on the skeleton¡­ and struggled to latch.

    The surface area was far smaller than the previous targets and already covered in magical symbols. Irwyn hesitated for a moment before directing it towards the skeleton¡¯s head where hopefully the situation would be better. It used that moment of thinking to rip the arm out of the barrier trying to hold it in place, then also looked down at Irwyn, judging how to approach. It ended up choosing running around and hitting Irwyn from the back. It was incredibly fast after all. But slower when going in a half circle rather than a straight line. That bought Irwyn a precious few moments to throw himself forward and not get nicked. He also expanded the barrier in the same motion so that he would be completely out of reach from every side while in the center. It would require more power and focus, though Irwyn was not exactly willing to be conservative in this amount of danger.

    The skeleton dragged its arm out again after failing to score another hit. The Brand had followed it and Irwyn finally had a moment to properly aim it into the abomination¡¯s forehead. There was resistance. A lot of resistance. Rather than just latching on like it had with the other undead something was stopping it from taking effect. Rather desperate and unsure why it wasn¡¯t working, Irwyn chose to brute force a solution. This close he could pour more mana into the spell. A lot more mana than it should be able to even use. It was a 5 intention spell after all and those took ridiculous amounts of magic to properly saturate - far more than it needed to operate at full power. Driven by desperation, Irwyn still did so, focusing every iota of his being not keeping up the barrier on imprinting on the ivory scalp.

    It must have taken several seconds before, finally, there was a metaphorical crack. The resistance broke and vanished allowing the WEEPING mark to burn itself into the skeleton¡¯s skull. Irwyn opened his eyes despite not remembering closing them as he stared at what he had done. The source of the resistance became quite obvious: The Brand had not just placed itself over the existing inscriptions - they had been destroyed by overwhelming magical pressure.

    Though there was no time to focus on that. The skeleton was currently halfway through literally digging a massive wound into the barrier. The protective magic was still actively recovering, the undead was just shredding it so fast with both its hands that a larger and larger opening was gradually appearing. That is, until the Brand stunned it. For just a moment, it completely stopped moving - long enough for Irwyn to repair the existing damage. He had expected it to perhaps let out an ethereal scream like the flesh hulks had in the past but it did not. In fact, it barely reacted at all besides the pause. It slowly backed up a few steps and Irwyn noticed in its hollow eye sockets something unexpected.

    A newfound hatred.

    The undead all stared at the living with hatred. ¡®Until all is dust¡¯, the infamous quote went. An inherent fury that could only be sated by destroying everything living. Irwyn had seen that over and over to various degrees, glittering in their eyes like a message: That they would never stop. But this¡­ the way the skeleton glared at Irwyn no longer felt like that generic thirst for extinction. It was, although Irwyn loathed to admit it, personal.

    Then it went berserk.

    It charged Irwyn with tripled zest and doubled strength. Its ivory form slammed into the barrier at speeds beyond mortal eyesight and cracked it. Then it jumped back and charged straight back in. Over and over and over and over. Irwyn could see nothing more than a blur, feel nothing more than the ever-repeating strikes into his protection. It was, as far as he could tell, without any involvement of magic or intentions. It was all pure physical force that kept hitting. Irwyn could have somewhat understood that with the hulks - they were massive, heavy hunks of meat - but this was beyond ridiculous. Bypassed anything remotely adjacent to common sense even when taking magic into account.

    Irwyn had no real benchmark how sturdy his barrier actually was but it could easily take 4 intention spells dedicated specifically to breaking through defenses. If he had to bet he was pretty sure a building falling right on top of his head would not shatter it.

    Yet the skeleton just. Kept. Slamming. Into. It. Faster and faster. Its soul was ablaze, burning with Starfire. Irwyn felt it, the Brand incinerating its very essence. It was dying, rapidly. Still too slowly. Irwyn could not really reinforce the barrier without giving up on the spell doing said killing. That made it a lethal race against time. Deeper and deeper cracks appeared on the barrier, reapplied faster than Irwyn could fix them. Enlarged by repetition.

    Irwyn realized the skeleton was about to get through about half a second in advance. It gave him exactly enough time to start dodging which probably saved his life.

    It did not save his arm. Funny thing about sudden and extremely violent amputations: The victims might often see them before they felt them. Irwyn stared wide-eyed at where his elbow used to be. Not far above that spot his biceps now simply ended. Blood was just starting to gush out. He stared, uncomprehending at the skeleton. By all means, it should have had the time to turn around and finish him off in that moment of pure flabbergasted panic Irwyn was undergoing¡­ But it couldn¡¯t. Not anymore.

    What had once been white ivory was now charred and greyed. The skeleton had been physically slamming its entire body into a barrier of Starfire. It had not gotten out of that unscathed. The thickly layered inscriptions were in utter disrepair as it tried, and failed, to turn towards Irwyn.

    It was so close to burning out. Irwyn could feel it. Its body was perhaps greatly damaged but the soul¡­ the soul was on the brink. It twitched and tried to turn but it could not. The crafted undying form no longer listened. Irwyn had no way of knowing but he imagined the last vestiges of the corrupted intellect finally shattering.

    Then the terrifying skeleton crumbled like a puppet with its strings severed into a heap of bones.

    Irwyn managed about half a sigh of relief before he remembered that he had not gotten through it unscathed. The pain and the true onset of panic hit him around the same time. He stared at his severed arm, screamed, fell over himself and fumbled at the same time.

    Dervish had prepared him for pain but not for anything close to what he was feeling. It was overwhelming, all-consuming. The only thing that shone through was the sheer panic at losing a limb and leaking so much blood. It was no wonder that the combination of the two was more than his mind could handle, despite all the conditioning it had undergone.

    Irwyn fainted.

 2.44 When it crumbles

    Irwyn sat up, confused. His head felt blurry as memories returned. It took him a moment to realize that he had been in the middle of fighting the undead. Then another for his head to snap towards his arm... Which was still there. Or perhaps there again as his sleeve was missing, exposing his - frankly subpar - arm muscle. He stared roughly where his wound would have been but saw no obvious issue. Felt nothing wrong.

    ¡°It¡¯s just stitching magic,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s voice sounded from the side, startling him. ¡°The wounds will reappear when Finity causes the conjured flesh to vanish - and make overlapping wounds exponentially harder to re-stitch - but that will be hours after we either succeed or die today.¡±

    ¡°How long have I been out for?¡± Irwyn still felt disoriented, looking around. There was no fighting anymore, at least as far as he could see from his low viewpoint.

    ¡°Less than two minutes, I think,¡± she replied. ¡°Good thing you are awake. Our ¡®reinforcements¡¯ are routing the last of the undead and I would rather have you there for the introductions.¡±

    ¡°Who is it that came?¡± Irwyn nodded, standing up with her help.

    ¡°You probably know better than me,¡± she shrugged, which earned a confused head tilt from Irwyn. Still, he followed her to where the officers were already gathering with several new people. Two of them Irwyn immediately recognized.

    ¡°I promised I would gather help,¡± Desir raised his arms theatrically with a grin as they approached ¨C much to the visible disapproval of the major, ¡°And I have delivered.¡±

    ¡°Rather, we found him, scurrying around helplessly,¡± the Old Ibis scoffed lightly, then he turned towards Elizabeth. ¡°Your Ladyship, naturally, we are at your full disposal until the undead crisis is averted, as is the whole underworld that could be gathered.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Elizabeth acknowledged with a nod.

    But there was one more person standing there in strange apparel: The old man wore a blindfold and a nose plug, besides those mostly normal robes. What was far more distinct than those though was the man¡¯s presence. It was like¡­ a dozen orchestras. Yet also a violinist playing in front of a crowd; a solemn flutist performing to mountain winds; a pianist obsessed with perfection in each note; a drummer, striking his instrument with each beat of their heart; a singer, heart jumping through the throat as it was laid bare; and so many many more.

    It would have been an easy guess even if the man wasn¡¯t standing next to Desir and another Fowl. But with them, it was blatantly obvious. The songs were a dead giveaway after all the things Irwyn had heard about the so-called ¡®Singing man¡¯ over the past months since he had arrived in Abonisle.

    ¡°Ibis. Hummingbird, a pleasure. What of the Thrush and Crane?¡± Irwyn interjected as soon as he made the connection. There were four Fowls in Abonisle after all. And the two he had met so far had set the bar high. And every competent mage could make a massive difference.

    ¡°Too far in the outer city. Pleasure is all mine, Mockingbird,¡± the Singing man waited a moment after Irwyn spoke but when no one reacted negatively to Irwyn¡¯s interjection he explained. ¡°Messengers have been sent but it is uncertain whether they will join us in time for assaulting the Spires.¡±

    ¡°That being said, we need to move,¡± the Old Ibis spoke up. ¡°We have less than two minutes to get going or we risk another encirclement in half an hour.¡±

    ¡°Prophecy?¡± Elizabeth asked while the officers immediately set off to get the company on march. The clear magical superiority of the two men ¨C as well as the timely rescue ¨C stopped any doubts about following the Fowls¡¯ instructions.

    ¡°I would have seen this attack coming if it was,¡± the Ibis shook his head. ¡°No, just some minor divination and a cultivated sense of foreboding I have picked up along the way. My specialty is not the most useful against the undead but I have a knack for finding people in need of mutual help.¡±

    ¡°Ibis¡¯ magic will let us consolidate forces rather than get picked off one by one,¡± Old Hummingbird nodded. ¡°And I can hear most ambushes coming. There are some specialized abominations that can avoid my Sonata of echoes - so do not let down your guards - but I will know about any hordes well before they engage us.¡±

    ¡°The men are about ready,¡± the major looked back at the soldiers. He had a deep frown on his face for someone who had just been rescued from certain death though the man remained professional besides that. Whatever the source of the man¡¯s grudge, the ongoing Undead incursion remained a higher priority.

    ¡°No significant forces ahead,¡± the singing man nodded.

    ¡°Then follow me,¡± Old Ibis did the same and then started walking North. ¡°I should be able to navigate our way.¡±

    And the company set off. With the help of Ibis and Hummingbird things were just¡­ easier. It was not just the songs, one of which apparently also helped preserve and restore physical stamina, but also the benefit of having a competent seer along with them. Despite downplaying his proficiency at divination, Old Ibis knew with unerring accuracy about every assassin attempting to ambush them - especially those which could somehow bypass the Singing man¡¯s detection spell. The Ibis also knew about the worst traps before they could walk into them and, more importantly, exactly which way they had to go in order to bolster their numbers.

    The two Fowls had also brought a significant troupe of underlings along with them. Few mages but their grunts were well equipped, particularly with explosives some of which Irwyn thought even he would need to be careful about. The only problem with them was that they were quickly running out. That, however, could be compensated for by the fact that they went on to rescue a lot of additional firepower. Abonisle was a city with a lot of mages and not just those part of the army. Yes, most of those still in the streets were companies of soldiers making their way toward the meeting points Elizabeth had declared, however, there were also mages not related to either the army or the underworld. Civilians, some locals, some travelers. They rescued people on the way and added them to their ranks¡­ most of the time.

    Problems began to emerge as their numbers swelled. Namely, coordination. It was fine with just the soldiers - their training was relatively unified and compatible - however, throw in a hundred mages with no training or much of an idea what they were doing and they began getting more in the way of things than helping. Light magic was an obvious candidate for that. Most of the army mages wielded void magic ¨C as did their enchanted gear - which was anathemic to Light. That meant a poorly fired Light spell could make a dozen Void spells ineffective. Even Irwyn found himself gradually relegated to mostly interception duty as the undead also liked to use that mutual destructiveness to their advantage.

    But it was more than that. There had been several accidents where Irwyn witnessed mages literally killing themselves with the backlash of failed spells. It was¡­ surreal. The only time Irwyn had seen any magical backlash was back in Abonisle when Rage - or Frederick von Blackmaw - was devoured by their own spell¡¯s summoned Devourer demons¡­ but that had been after getting struck unconscious with a stone in the middle of chanting. These were different. People under extreme stress making stupid decisions and dumber mistakes.

    One mage Irwyn had seen set their lungs on fire when trying to cast some kind of fire breathing effect, cooking themselves alive - even stitching could not help them fast enough with the broken remnants of the original organs still in the chest cavity. Another miscalculated where to place a barrier and cut through half their head, dying instantly. A few managed to literally cut the connection between their body a soul through extreme strain, rendering them immediately and almost irreversibly comatose.

    Also strokes. Lots and lots of strokes from the magical strain. In the high dozens and rising. Those could at least be stitched, although only with specialized spells. The vast majority of these stress test failures were actually from the independent mages. The army seemed to have been trained how to pace themselves and those accompanying the Fowls were clearly above average in competence - at least when put under stress.

    Then, there were supplies. The regular soldiers relied on ammunition and alchemical creations to fight on remotely even footing against the abominations. Those were running scarcer and scarcer. By the time they were even approaching their target, there had been almost non-stop fighting for well over two hours. Even with spacial storage, there was only so much they could carry - especially since said expanded boxes or bags were inevitably not of the greatest quality as standard issue equipment.

    Moreover, the shortage also applied to utility items. They were nearing a dangerous low on healing equipment. Grievous wounds were quite common given the kind of combat being partaken in, but then, so were Stitching magics. From potions, pills, balms, dedicated mages, enchanted wands or orbs, and such, there used to be a lot of them. But attrition had worn down the stockpile. And each battle more and more people who did not die immediately were encountering the so-called over-stitching: When temporary flesh conjured by prior stitching surrounded the entirety or majority of the new wound almost all these healing supplies became ineffective, leading to soldiers or mages bleeding out with technically mendable wounds.

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Next was stock meant for replenishing the Vessel. Basically, liquid mana alchemically or otherwise treated to be more easily absorbable by living beings. Almost every single mage not deemed useless had partaken in some of that. Irwyn was one of the few who had not indulged thanks to his prodigious reserves - though apparently, it would have had barely any effect on him anyway as they could only restore a fixed mana quantity rather than a percentage of a Vessel. The only reason they had not completely run out was that many of the mages were experiencing so-called ¡®Vessel strain¡¯ - not to be confused with Vessel depletion apparently - caused by using more magic than their bodies could handle over a short period of time.

    Attrition. From the beginning that was the game the undead had been playing. If they could take groups of survivors out, they would but ultimately, they would always have the numbers on their side and damn knew it. There was no way to estimate how much of the population had been turned to zombies or worse by necromancy, however, it was certainly an incomprehensively massive number ¨C also growing every minute. There was no winning with quantity for the living.

    ¡°We should wait here for ten minutes. An urgent hunch, though I am not sure of the cause,¡± Old Ibis announced. Some eyebrows were raised but at that point not even the most skeptical soldiers would question the Fowl. His predictions had been too perfect until then. They were close to their destination from what Irwyn overheard - he had basically no idea where they actually were as it was practically his first time this deep in the inner city.

    ¡°A large force blocking the way ahead,¡± the Singing man added. ¡°Nothing else around us.¡±

    ¡°You heard them, ten-minute break,¡± the major announced. The one from the original company since there were several people of matching rank now. Irwyn was kind of regretting either not overhearing or just forgetting their name.

    Not that he minded that much. Hopefully, it wouldn¡¯t come up. Either way, he welcomed a short break despite the urgency of their advance. They had been walking for hours and his feet were sore. Elizabeth was gathering another meeting but a shake of her head after eye contact told him she didn¡¯t think he was needed there. Which was a good thing. Irwyn had been running out of his tolerance for social interaction just silently listening to the strangers during the march. He went off to near the front of their formation to sit, though quickly he realized he was not going to have a moment of quiet. Desir approached him.

    ¡°You holding up alright?¡± the blue-eyed man questioned. He had been re-equipped since their last meeting. Desir now wore a thick combat vest and a rifle over the shoulder to supplement his magic. Riffles tended to have limited effect against undead but they were still better than nothing. The weapon actually seemed¡­ almost familiar. ¡°I heard you got roughed up pretty bad earlier.¡±

    ¡°I am all stitched up for now,¡± Irwyn flexed his sleeveless hand, glancing at the firearm. ¡°And I have been promised care if we survive. I am doing just fine magically.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Desir shrugged, turning to absentmindedly stare around the area. It just so happened that Irwyn could have a closer look at the gun, very much including the serial number still clearly visible on there. ¡°It¡¯s downright unfair how you also have a ridiculous Vessel along with everything else.¡±

    ¡°Well, on the other hand, I am not getting free weaponry,¡± Irwyn shrugged, staring at the riffle. He was almost certain that he had seen the number before¡­ just earlier in the day. He glanced over at Desir and the blue-eyed man was staring back with intensity.

    ¡°Yep,¡± despite that his voice remained completely casual. ¡°Turns out the Singing man had a whole stash of arms. Way too many in fact from what I have seen. Good thing this whole incursion happened before he ended up using them against the Ibis.¡±

    ¡°Do gang wars like that spark up often?¡± Irwyn changed the topic while controlling his expression. Desir did not say it out loud but Irwyn was getting his message quiet and clear: The secret warehouse full of enchanted military gear they had been tracking down a few hours ago¡­ belonged to the Singing man rather than¡­ Well, in hindsight, it obviously wasn¡¯t the undead storing magical rifles. Zombies were not dexterous enough to use them and most ghouls they had met so far had already been mages in life and therefore did not really require such to be effective at range. Not to mention all the firearms he had seen so far were essentially obsolete against anyone that could actually fight the greater undead.

    ¡°No, not really,¡± Desir kept up his stare to get the message across. ¡°In fact, it is so out of character that the Singing man will probably claim that he was subconsciously influenced to plan a start of a gang war.¡±

    ¡°I get what you mean. Thank you,¡± Irwyn nodded and Desir stopped staring. They sure as the Void were not going to say it out loud, given that Old Hummingbird¡¯s earshot probably extended two districts over. Nonetheless, it was good to know.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Desir shrugged. ¡°Still¡­ a damn heiress to house Blackburg, heh?¡±

    ¡°I think you can understand why I was being rather secretive about her identity,¡± Irwyn nodded. Though there was a thought stuck in his head from before the death march that he now had a bit more time to think about:

    ¡®My name is Elizabeth von Blackburg, sixth in line.¡¯ That is what she had said when commanding the soldiers. And six was a rather low number, especially given that Elizabeth was in her teens while the current Duke of House Blackburg had been married for well over 40 years as far as Irwyn knew. Secondly, Elizabeth seemed very unconcerned about her family given she had implied her family had such sway over Abonisle. It truly made Irwyn wonder just how closely to the literal Duke she was.

    ¡°Absolutely,¡± Desir nodded, breaking Irwyn out of speculation. ¡°I can still get mad at your luck. It¡¯s just like you to find yourself connected to the ruling line of House Blackburg almost by accident.¡±

    ¡°You can hardly be certain how closely related she actually is,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°She has always been attempting to be secretive about her family. Attempting often being the keyword but I can only speculate.¡±

    ¡°I am sure a ridiculous prodigy like her is being allowed to just swagger around the Duchess¡¯ favorite city unharmed without being irreversibly bound to the main House,¡± Desir scoffed. ¡°Or did Old Crow not mention that House Blackburg has been at a cold war with itself since our dear Duke first took power?¡±

    ¡°He had not, actually,¡± Irwyn thought back. ¡°I misinterpreted his cryptic wording as two branch houses having a disagreement and willing to sabotage each other over it. Now that hints are coming together¡­ the landscape seems rather different than my assumptions had been.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Desir seemed genuinely surprised. ¡°Why would¡­ no, it makes sense I suppose. The Guild has some kind of beneficial deal with the main House so the underworld has an interest to keep them in power. I suppose he doesn¡¯t need to tell you whose side to take when he sends you off right to them.¡±

    ¡°As if I could make a difference there,¡± Irwyn scoffed. He remembered Dervish. And the Shadow that had accompanied Alira. He knew quite well how little of a bug he was at the moment.

    ¡°A thousand cuts,¡± Desir shrugged. ¡°Still, you must be in some serious trouble that your mentor would want you to be so secretive despite that.¡±

    ¡°You probably really don¡¯t want to know,¡± Irwyn said after a second of thought. ¡°But yes, big clumsy stomps on even bigger toes.¡±

    ¡°Well, I will wish you good luck before I get dragged even closer to that orbit,¡± Desir grinned. ¡°And with that said, distance myself before it gets me killed.¡±

    ¡°You might be¡­¡± Irwyn began speaking but did not finish the sentence as there was a loud crash. A deafening creak and explosive groan so loud it seemed as though it had come from every direction. A shriek of tortured metal and stone that left Irwyn confused and disoriented for a split second. He looked around but saw nothing.

    ¡°ABOVE!¡± Irwyn barely heard. The earlier sound had apparently half deafened him. He did, however, look up, then immediately ran.

    Because the damn ceiling was about to fall on their heads. Abonisle was, after all, built in levels, each 20 meters or taller that allowed the city to be built into incredible density. But because there were these layers, there was nothing besides effort really stopping the undead from dropping the one above.

    Therefore, the massive and rapidly expanding cracks meant that thousands of tons of concrete were about to start accelerating towards them with the unrelenting force of gravity. That would have wiped them out¡­ if they had continued moving forward. But Old Ibis, bless him, had a hunch that they needed to wait. If they had kept going the collapsing ceiling would have decimated them. Instead, it was now only endangering the frontmost few dozen people.

    Irwyn sprinted. Away from the drop zone as he fully and completely focused on empowering his barrier. He was not willing to test if he could take that impact but he was damn well going to be ready if he had to. He gave up camouflage and the visibility that came with it and kept running forward half-blind as the Starfire always surrounding him became visible. Rather than take the hit, perhaps he might be able to burn the rubble before it could cause an actual impact? He could burn away concrete in the blink of an eye after all. Therefore, Irwyn opted for 2 layers of defense. The outer layer which would not physically block anything but would instead burn, incinerate whatever came into contact with it. Vaporize solid rock on touch.

    The inner layer was meant to block what remained after that. Stop pressure, gas, impacts and any such force that would otherwise crush Irwyn. As solid and reinforced as possible. He hoped that turning concrete to vapor would reduce its impact enough to weather it. Hoped. Best if he managed to run out but the upper layer had already been falling but Irwyn could not know how large of a gap he had to cover.

    Both barriers were imbued with 5 intentions. Two such spells would consume the vast majority of his focus but that was fine. He didn¡¯t need to cast any other spells, he needed to damn survive. The first measures taken care of, he was thinking about¡­

    The impact took Irwyn off his feet. It happed way sooner than he had expected, but then, free fall was fast. Irwyn fell over as the ground jumped. He felt the slightest impact on his barrier - the very back edge disintegrated, very much including the part of it which was not even meant to be fully physical. It would not have held. Not nearly.

    He waited a few seconds with just his unceasing heartbeat and re-deafened hearing before slowly making the barriers transparent again at the cost of one empowering intention each. He had just barely gotten out of the way, not that he had actually gotten that far. He couldn¡¯t have run for more than 5 seconds, including the start of his dash.

    Looking around himself, the dust was not quite setting as he sat there, adrenaline still spiking from the near miss. That had been way too close for comfort. Probably the closest call he ever really had with time to actually process it. So, he just sat there alone and stared at the half-obscured silhouette of debris. Alone.

    ¡°Desir,¡± he realized and his head swung around. They had been standing next to each other.

    Irwyn spotted no one.

 2.45 Lace and lip

    Irwyn¡¯s adrenaline-filled shock was interrupted by an impact against his barrier from below. It took him a moment to register it, then another strike to realize what was happening.

    ¡°Ghosts!¡± he yelled at the top of his lungs to anyone not too deaf to hear. And of course it would be ghosts. They were lesser undead so Old Ibis¡¯ divinatory hunches did not warn of their coming, however, because of their incorporeality they could move through the rubble without being detected by the Hummingbird. And they had a full buffet of mages that barely survived and likely wouldn¡¯t be properly defended against their ambush. Even if it was just one in ten, they were about to be inflicted another round of losses.

    With a thought Irwyn easily burned away the ghost stabbing at his soles through the concrete and stood up. It was never just one thing. Irwyn might as well just assume that a horde had been gathering just outside the Singing man¡¯s range of detection waiting for the collapsing ceiling to pincher them against ghost-saturated debris. He had to move. So he shoved thoughts about Desir to the back of his head - he could only hope his friend had made it out as well - and focused on salvaging as much of the situation as feasible. There had been many people not that far away from where he had been lounging, many of whom were just regular soldiers or mages saving up on mana by dropping their barriers. If they were about to be swarmed by ghosts it might be up to Irwyn to reduce those losses.

    One issue was that the dust was still too disturbed to see. It couldn¡¯t have been¡­ more than half a minute since the ceiling collapsed. Irwyn had to readjust his estimations of time given that nowadays his mind operated far faster than just months prior. The cognitive enhancement Dervish had taught him only kept getting stronger along with his magic after all but it could be disorienting at times. Far ahead of his gut feelings.

    He perceived a spark of magic from the left and headed towards it. If he couldn¡¯t see anyone through the dust he would have to feel them. So, he half-closed his eyes and focused on that. The magic across Abonisle was still suffocatingly thick, especially today, but he could feel magic and even most mages in his immediate surroundings. Therefore, he headed towards the closest person who had a very faint aura of the Void.

    Before Irwyn could take two steps, said mage¡¯s presence vanished. Suppressing a curse Irwyn took off towards the next closest one, actually running. He waded through the dust in a bubble of his own barrier as it began to settle. He seemingly reached the next mage just in time as her barrier was cracking from the assault of three separate ghosts. He immediately layered his own layer of defensive Flame over the woman¡¯s own and proceeded to burn the ghosts right after. The spectral undead were downright fragile and not faster than regular humans. Not nearly enough to dodge the agile Flames.

    ¡°Follow me, we need to move,¡± Irwyn said and did not wait for an answer, or to see if he was even heard, already going for the next mage he could feel. That one too got cut off halfway there, so he instantly pivoted. He would not have made it in time if the visibility hadn¡¯t improved in those few precious seconds. Just like with the first one, he reinforced their defenses and destroyed their attackers.

    In the maybe two seconds that took the clouds of dust cleared out further. Irwyn could now actually see silhouettes moving in the distance, though unfortunately not any ghosts that might be attacking them. What he did finally feel were several extra songs joining those that had been always accompanying their march. Especially the dirge the disrupted communication between undead. The Hummingbird had clearly noticed the attack, which meant that the rest of their large gathering would soon know as well ¨C if the additional songs did not already make it obvious.

    Irwyn was about to head towards someone else when a SHRIEK intercepted him. It was a bit like ten thousand forks scraping against metallic glass. The shattering of every window in a small town. A cacophony of a million screams sounding from inside his ear. And it was more than a sound. It tried to reach inside of him, for his very essence. It passed right through his barrier and sunk deep. Below flesh, below skin, into that half-real place where one¡¯s very soul rested. The magic behind the sound lunged¡­

    And found itself obliterated by an immaculate white cord tightened around Irwyn¡¯s neck. In the real world it had been invisible but this deep it shone brighter than a beacon. Because although the magic at play might have been quite powerful, it was still soul magic. And thanks to the artisanship of House Blackburg, Irwyn found himself temporarily beyond harm.

    The two mages he had just rescued were not so lucky. They died on the spot, most likely not even realizing that they were under attack. Every living magical presence in about 50 meters winked out - and that did not even account for the regular soldiers Irwyn could not feel. An instant slaughter. Whether he had it before or not, resisting the spell got Irwyn the full attention of its source. The undead spirit did not attempt to hide underneath the ground, instead, it emerged to face Irwyn.

    It was not humanoid at all. Just as the Flesh Hulk were amalgamations of flesh, this was a disfigured sphere of spectral essence. Of course, the shape itself was not too important. What mattered was what covered it:

    Mouths. Not maws. Not massive fanged jaws that could swallow Irwyn whole. Just regular human lips. Thousands upon thousands of them. And they each moaned in agony. Cried in pained despair. And Irwyn could identify it for he had been warned of what a Banshee looked like, even though they had not encountered one yet. He should have already reacted, however, was genuinely taken by morbid fascination.

    With its full focus on Irwyn, it screamed again. This time it was far more concentrated. An order of magnitude louder and more powerful. It tried to sink into Irwyn¡¯s soul again. And found itself just as easily foiled as before, not so much as dazing the soul it had just intended to break beyond mending. All it did was wake Irwyn out of his inaction.

    ¡°...Deatbane Starbrand¡±

    Irwyn immediately chanted the full spell. Banshees, as far as he had been told were considered one of the most dangerous among the Greater undead. Much worse than even Flesh Hulks¡­ However, that was mostly because of how difficult they were to defend against. Its agonized voices were most often not even weakened by normal mage defenses, as Irwyn had seen and there was no dodging the sound of a scream. At least not at their level.

    Yet it could not hurt him. Irwyn wasn¡¯t sure if he could have defended against it on his own through his soul¡¯s natural resilience, however, he did not need to find out. The white string Dervish had given to him and Elizabeth at the start of the incursion was a temporary but exceptionally effective defensive measure against soul magic. Potent enough that Dervish himself had used it to break from whatever had influenced their minds before.

    Now, Irwyn did not have enough frame of reference to know how powerful Dervish actually was, however, it was certainly far beyond comparison to the undead standing here. It wailed and shrieked as Irwyn finished his chant, none of which even stung. Perhaps it had hoped Irwyn was just barely holding on and would die quickly. Perhaps it just didn¡¯t really think.

    Either way, it was struck by the Brand. There was seemingly no effect in the first few moments after the WEEPING mark burned itself even into the ghastly form. Other greater undead had screamed in pain or doubled their efforts to kill the living. The Banshee did not. It continued its agonized screams exactly the same way it had for the previous half dozen seconds.

    Then it just¡­ came apart at the seams. The Starbrand targeted the soul after all. In a Flesh Hulk, that was barely visible. It seemed like it just dropped dead. But a Banshee was all soul. It looked a bit like layers peeling off. Fractures opening on the undead¡¯s surface to reveal a blazing inferno hidden beneath. Starfire spread until it could reach every nook and cranny. Until the Banshee deformed even further. At one point, it simply split into two chunks, all connecting pieces burned away. Then, not much later, there was nothing left. The brand, half spectral itself because of its target, remained levitating in the air. It was exhausted but Irwyn could give it the mana required to keep using it just like with any other undead.

    Which is exactly what he did. Where there was one, there would be another. In an ambush like this, dozens were more likely. The Brand turned into a ray of Starlight as it followed him while Irwyn took off running.

    The dust had fully settled by that point. The street had been turned into a dead end: Good five meters of fallen debris were blocking one side. Looking further down the street, he could see reinforcements already fighting a last few remaining ghosts. It was a good distance away though and Irwyn was pretty sure no one else besides him had survived in the area. Mostly because of the damn Banshee whose scream had probably reached halfway to the next street over.

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    Their numbers had greatly increased over the march. They were no longer just one company that could reasonably march down just one regular street. The large main streets still allowed it - they were gargantuan and would allow about 30 people to walk side by side. Their gathering had stepped off of those some time back though. Therefore, their vanguard had been spread over several connected streets.

    Irwyn decided that he did not have the time to walk some hundred meters back to the intersection and instead decided to burn his way through a building standing between the two. The neighborhood would need complete reconstruction anyway. Since Irwyn had been roughly in the middle of the formation, he just ran for the side that was close to him. Every second might make a difference.

    Or it might not. Either way, Irwyn ran just a notch beneath sprinting as the brick building parted around him like paper in a wildfire. The moment he burst through he quickly judged the situation: Many ghosts were being fought off after losing the element of surprise. There were losses but not as severe as where he had just come from, the situation was well in hand.

    Therefore he continued to the next street over, burning any ghosts that he ran into along the way. The soldiers gave him some obviously warry looks on account of him bursting through a building, however, none ended up even attempting an attack. After all, the undead attacking them were all ghosts which Irwyn was distinctly not.

    The next street over was significantly worse. A group of five Time mage soldiers were holding another Banshee frozen in a magical bubble. Irwyn could not see it but could feel the disturbed time surrounding the motionless undead. However, on account of the five competent mages being busy, the regular ghosts were making a lot of progress.

    ¡°Get away, I can deal with it,¡± Irwyn shouted, approaching the time-locked Banshee, hoping they would even hear him. The mages were decently far away so Irwyn could not read their expression, however, less than two seconds later they began to quickly move away, as did all the other soldiers or independent mages that had been in the area.

    With the distance opening, the bubble holding back the Greater Undead quickly weakened until it began to flicker out, a half-broken echo of its scream leaking. The moment it did actually break, Irwyn was ready with his brand, immediately inflicting it upon the Banshee. It began shrieking immediately afterwards, however, everyone except Irwyn was already well out of range. It died in futile struggle just like the previous one.

    Irwyn recharged the Brand and began to rush off again. Without the Banshee the situation on the street would quickly stabilize but he might be needed somewhere else. He didn¡¯t make it halfway towards the next shortcutable building before he felt am sudden impact at his barrier from below.

    He would assume it was just another ghost if his barrier didn¡¯t almost get cracked by the magical power behind it. It was like he had just been hit by a four-intention spell. Then he was immediately struck by another two. His barrier nearing collapse within the first second.

    Not panicking but certainly worried, Irwyn jumped. He could not see what was attacking him from below the ground - he had not seen nor felt so much as a flash of any weapon or magic - and that was a problem. In that split second he thought of a solution: If he could not see the undead within the concrete, he just needed to get higher.

    He rose on a platform of Starfire that manifested beneath his feet, quickly ascending as high as he was tall. Irwyn might have gone even higher if he didn¡¯t almost lose his footing from the rapid ascent. He had done some moving around on platforms of solid magic but never at speeds required in combat. Another of the hundred things he would need to work on after the incursion was over.

    And indeed, the attackers emerged from beneath the concrete. They looked¡­ almost humanoid. Like the ghosts or Banshees, they were spirits. Two arms and two legs, even a torso and a head¡­ kind of. The difference was that they were made out of lace. Long, thick ribbons intertwined together. But not wide nor loose. It was like a phantasmagoric reimagining of a human made of only strings and a lot of empty, missing parts. In fact, Irwyn immediately realized a problem: There was literally no place on the undead¡¯s bodies where his brand could feasibly fit. There was no overlaid cluster, just flowing lace. Connected but never too much of it together at once.

    As if they were specifically designed to counter Irwyn¡¯s spell.

    Or rather, they happened to be perfect against it and therefore had come. It wasn¡¯t even a long shot. It was a known thing undead could communicate with one another through some kind of innate soul link. Irwyn had honestly not studied it before the incursion but now knew that undead in a certain area could rapidly and easily share knowledge and that it could clearly be disrupted to some degree - shown by the Singing man¡¯s song that messed with their uncanny cooperation. And although Irwyn was far from the most dangerous mage fighting against the incursion, he certainly still stood out in efficiency. Why wouldn¡¯t they target him. In case dropping the ceiling, the banshees and whatever else failed, why not have a squad prepared just in case Irwyn ended up close enough to reach without support? Just like he happened to be at the moment.

    And it was a whole hit squad. The three strikes had been done just by one of the lace spectral creations - he did not know what to call them - as the ribbons forming their bodies ended in sharp swordpoints. But seven more of these creatures emerged in a circle, surrounding him.

    Irwyn took one more look at them and dismissed the Brand. There was a small chance it could somehow be applied despite the lack of space, however, it was not a risk he could afford. A plan had already formed in his head. He surrounded himself with two more layers of barriers. One right below his usual while the second one was just over his skin. He made sure to fit it tightly, using his invisibility spell as a baseline to surround his body with as little wiggle room as possible while making the barrier physical.

    The undead assassins were beginning to float up cautiously. They weren¡¯t sure what else Irwyn might be capable of but if he did nothing they would attack in the next couple. Most likely, the main reason they hadn¡¯t already were the Old Hummingbird¡¯s songs one of which explicitly made it far harder for them to cooperate. Well, Irwyn was not going to wait for them.

    He hurled his innermost barrier, and by doing so also himself, towards the center of their camp where he might find help. He had no idea how tough the undead were but his guess would be ¡®resilient enough to always win¡¯. Considering his options, it was by far the best to flee if he could manage it. That was not that simple though since the undead would definitely be far faster than Irwyn¡¯s best sprint. Hypothetically speaking, dragging his body along with his magic should be possible. Practically, Irwyn was immediately realizing several problems:

    Firstly, the sudden acceleration had almost knocked him out in the first second, leaving him dazed. Second, he was pretty sure he had just broken one of his legs. Third, he was so disoriented he could not tell which one the spike of pain was coming from.

    Fourth: The undead were faster.

    While Irwyn had been very much experimenting in moments of desperation, the lace undead moved with the grace of acrobats and the speed of a falcon. In less than a second they were all on Irwyn, pummelling his barriers. They not only caught up despite Irwyn¡¯s genuinely fast speed, they managed to perfectly match that speed so they could freely attack.

    Usually, attacking mid-air would weaken attacks with weapons, which they were kind of using, because of the loss of leverage from bracing against the ground. Unfortunately, handcrafted undead spirits faced no such disadvantage on the account of not being fully physical in the first place.

    Irwyn¡¯s original barrier shattered around the start of the third second of his escape attempt which was not a great prospect. Still disoriented, Irwyn tuned everything else out and manifested another barrier right below his current outer one. Four intentions, which would not last long as the one above was already getting breached. It would, however, give him the time to create a tougher five-intention defensive layer underneath.

    Which he did. The two outer barriers lasted about two more seconds each but that was enough. A five-intention barrier arose and Irwyn was already working on making a next one just beneath. Which was a good thing because the original lasted about five.

    He was burning through mana at a pace that would make anyone around his level flinch. Barriers were comparatively extremely expensive mana-wise. Even Irwyn with his monstrous reserves was feeling his Vessel draining at a perceptible rate. But he didn¡¯t really have any other options so it would have to be enough. Five seconds for each barrier while he was still moving in a direction. And he was moving rather quickly. It would be enough.

    Then Irwyn suddenly realized he wasn¡¯t moving anymore.

    He had felt no sudden decrease in velocity. In fact, his spell was still attempting to move him, something was just fundamentally making it¡­ not. Additionally, he was no long being attacked.

    He made the existing barriers transparent to assess what was going on and immediately noticed two mages floating above the ground. One looked in his late thirties but rather than looks what mattered was the feeling: Like the moment a soul dies and is put forever to rest. The immutable enforcement that none should linger beyond life, no matter what the Betrayer may have¡­

    Then the mages were no longer there. Irwyn had felt no magic, yet clearly it was just beyond what he had perceived. More importantly, he was quite certain he had not seen either of those mages before just then - even if he didn¡¯t get the best look at their faces. He would have noticed the magical impressions.

    Irwyn glanced around and realized that nothing remained of the lace-like undead. Of course, that was to be expected since the spectral kind of undead tended to leave not a trace of remains after being put down. He slowly let himself descent down to the ground still startled but happy about the good news:

    Clearly, they had just been found by another group of combat-ready survivors. And not the mediocre kind.

 2.46 Not quite as it may seem

    Five minutes later Irwyn stood in front of the debris of the fallen roof, staring at it intently. A mage whose name he had already forgotten - or perhaps just never heard - stood next to him mumbling a long incantation Irwyn was not paying much attention to.

    A few people were standing around. Almost all of them were associated with the Guild though Irwyn recognized only the Ibis. Besides them, there was only Elizabeth standing further back. Frankly, she was here just for him and Irwyn appreciated the gesture. A surge of mana finally left the chanting mage, seeping into the debris and spreading far and wide. It continued for almost 30 seconds before the casting stopped and the mage cut off his supplying of the spell.

    ¡°And?¡± Old Ibis asked.

    ¡°No one living in this section,¡± the mage shook their head.

    ¡°Shame,¡± Old Ibis sighed deeply and Irwyn mirrored it. Almost everyone presents had a similar reaction. A tinge of sadness, a pang of the heart¡­ But their line of work wasn¡¯t the safest one. It was not the first time for any of them. For many not even the tenth. ¡°Thank you for giving us priority. I will not be in the way of your duties any longer.¡±

    The mage nodded and left. So did most of their gathering. Irwyn stared at the rubble for a little longer before turning around. Elizabeth put a hand on his shoulder for comfort. She looked more worried about him than sad, which was honestly to be expected. She had barely known Desir.

    Loss¡­ It was a strange thing to him. Desir had been a friend. And it had honestly been a while since he had lost a friend. Irwyn looked back at his early years with the Tears. He vaguely remembered being more outgoing. Getting along with more people. Half remembered names and faces.

    Then in his early teens, their Trials happened and a good half of them died. It had been a really bad few years. Another gang had decided to try and wipe the Tears out and the least experienced of them were the easiest targets. Irwyn and Waylan had been lucky, many weren¡¯t.

    It also reminded Irwyn of why he had stopped making friends afterwards. He had kept a few. Kalista and Rainer, the lovebirds. Maxim, the surprisingly good at disguise. Aaron, since you had to talk with him as he assigned jobs so you might as well get friendly. Then of course Waylan, Irwyn¡¯s closest partner in crime for years¡­ But not really anyone else. Not for years.

    People tended to die. He had actually been lucky that everyone in his smaller group had made it through the years unharmed despite all the close calls along the way.

    Their line of work wasn¡¯t safe. Just because undead had nothing to do with it didn¡¯t change that he should have expected this could be a possibility. He hadn¡¯t even known Desir for more than a few months.

    But damn, did it sting.

    ¡°Are you¡­?¡± Elizabeth began, uncertain.

    ¡°I am fine,¡± he shook his head. ¡°There is an ongoing undead incursion. That takes precedence.¡±

    ¡°Speaking of, there is a gathering to attend,¡± Old Ibis approached them, Elizabeth in particular. ¡°The deadline you set us is running out.¡±

    ¡°Yes, luckily we have an early conception Time mage now,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°They will make coordination exponentially easier.¡±

    ¡°Are we close to our destination?¡± Irwyn asked, given he had been lost along the city streets.

    ¡°A ten-minute march away once we get around the debris,¡± Old Ibis nodded. ¡°They had set the trap for us at the very last stretch.¡±

    ¡°This also means that after the attack itself, there should be very few undead left on the rest of the way,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°The companies which had arrived before us have been culling the undead in their surroundings. The landline had been damaged between the four gathering compounds but this close our conception translocationist can easily pass along messages or a few people even without the Beacon running.¡±

    ¡°So you will be planning the assault,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°We,¡± Ibis interjected. ¡°Regardless of your relationship with her Ladyship, I would still expect any Fowl to participate.¡±

    ¡°Will I not be a burden?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. ¡°I am good for my age but I have no delusion about being in the same bracket as your or our other best mages.¡±

    ¡°You also remain basically immune to soul magic much like her Ladyship,¡± the Fowl shrugged. ¡°Don¡¯t look at me like that, I obviously noticed even though I can only guess why. But that is not the real reason I want you with us, Mockingbird.¡±

    ¡°Then the actual reason¡­¡± just as Irwyn was about to continue his inquiry a man simply appeared next to them. There was no sound, no flux of magic, no hint of anything - well, at least as far as Irwyn could perceive.

    ¡°Are you ready?¡± the man spoke neutrally. They were a middle-aged mage who gave Irwyn the feeling of shifting Time and Space, and of movement between them. They also did not wear a military uniform, but a well-fitting blue suit instead - Teal if Irwyn had to guess. They were vaguely familiar and Irwyn quickly realized he had been one of the two mages who had rescued him from the undead assassins. ¡°Everyone else is gathered.¡±

    ¡°Yes, take all three of us,¡± Elizabeth nodded. The man glanced at Irwyn with a raised eyebrow but did not question the heiress¡¯ judgment. This time Irwyn felt the slightest hint of something grabbing him, then he was elsewhere.

    <hr>

    13 other mages have gathered and were already waiting for them inside a warded room - 17 in total if you counted Irwyn and Elizabeth. Besides the young duo, each of the others gave off that feeling of presence that Irwyn had come to associate with extremely powerful mages. Different concepts radiating off of them. As for affiliation, two were the Fowls, two were civilians and the remaining 11 were all military officers.

    And it was quite a gathering. Besides Irwyn and Elizabeth, the youngest people couldn¡¯t have been younger than their late thirties - among them Irwyn noticed the Soul mage who had helped save him from the spectral assassins just earlier. That being said, the two Old Fowls were not the only clear elders. Three of the officers were also visibly ancient.

    ¡°I will get straight to the point,¡± Old Hummingbird spoke as soon as Elizabeth took her place in their circle. Irwyn got some intense looks but no one questioned him standing a step behind her. Good to be sure that not even these military officers would dare outright question House Blackburg. ¡°How many of you have fought in the Lich war from 17 years ago?¡±

    Hands were raised. Most of them except for Irwyn and Elizabeth who had been newborns at the time. Only two of the youngest-looking officers and the civilian Time mage also abstained.

    ¡°Good,¡± the Fowl nodded. ¡°Then how many of you have faced a Draugr in combat?¡±

    Far fewer hands had risen to that. Only four, in fact. The three distinctly oldest-looking officers and Old Hummingbird himself. Not even the Ibis did. Their already stoic expressions seemed to harden.

    ¡°Draugr?¡± the other civilian - The man felt like knowledge; a discerning look seeing the true nature of things - asked. Irwyn was glad for it as he too had no idea.

    ¡°Any undead capable of manifesting conception magic can generally be called a Draugr, be they humanoid or a grafted abomination,¡± Ibis explained. ¡°Given that we have not seen a single one throughout the city - and neither has anyone else as far as I have heard - it is safe to assume we are going to face all of them together inside the Spires.¡±

    ¡°We should have enough conception mages to match,¡± one of the youngest officers suggested. A javelin of nothingness that refused to stop, no matter what barred its way.

    ¡°That is the mistake that has cost our Federation by far the most talents like you,¡± one of the 3 oldest officers spoke. They were like an undisturbed sea of liquid Flame, waiting. ¡°A Draugr cannot be fought like a regular mage. Their thoughts are too pure.¡±

    ¡°Too pure?¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow just out of the loop as Irwyn. It might be their lower accomplishment in magic though given that everyone else was nodding.

    ¡°To break a concept, one must overwhelm it with their own,¡± the same Flame mage nodded. ¡°If those concepts do not counteract each other, it comes down to sheer willpower and certainty. And any necromancer capable of creating Draugr will be able to give them supernatural dedication and acuity.¡±

    ¡°What if we face a Raverer?¡± another one of the oldest 3 officers interjected. They felt like they themselves were a grain falling into a genuinely bottomless pit - falling and falling and falling. Irwyn interpreted it as the merger of Void and something else. Irwyn shot Elizabeth a questioning look the term but did not want to interject since everyone seemed to know the word.

    ¡°Then we are all dead,¡± Old Hummingbird shrugged. ¡°Perhaps a single creation adjacent Domain might be manageable but I do not understand our firepower enough to make a good guess.¡±

    ¡°Do we have any confirmation about the Lich, or whatever else, is leading this whole incursion?¡± the old Flame mage asked. ¡°I cannot imagine anything less than a Raverer causing this much chaos.¡±

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    ¡°They are being occupied by my guardian,¡± Elizabeth said, drawing everyone¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°How powerful is this guardian?¡± the old Void+ officer¡¯s head snapped to her. ¡°Perhaps we could assist.¡±

    ¡°Unlikely,¡± Elizabeth hesitated for a moment before taking a breath. ¡°My guardian is a dedicated combatant who has attained 3 Domains. Anything capable of occupying them will not even notice any of you attempting to interfere.¡±

    ¡°In that case we will have to hope there are no other Raverer,¡± Old Ibis nodded, bringing something out of their spacial bag. ¡°As for possible necromancers¡­ I may not be a competent combatant, however, I have prepared this to contribute.¡±

    It was¡­ three sheets of paper. Mostly empty but each carried a bit of text:

    They said: ¡®I shall, under no circumstances become undead today under the penalty of obliteration of my soul.¡¯; ¡®I shall perform at the best of my magical ability today under the penalty of performing at the best of my magical ability today.¡¯; ¡®I will not die today under the penalty of death.¡¯; as well as plenty of space to sign below on each sheet.

    ¡°You are a binder,¡± the old Flame mage¡¯s gaze immediately sharpened. ¡°Several concepts?¡±

    ¡°Loopholes, binding, societal bonds, contracts, restrictions and empowerment are those which apply,¡± Old Ibis smiled. ¡°As I said, I am not a good combatant. However, after you each sign these, even a Raverer with a Domain of Necromancy might not necessarily be able to desecrate you fast enough to matter in a battle.¡±

    ¡°Do these actually work?¡± one of the younger officers - It crawled beneath the skin, bit and scraped; cut and tore until it could finally burst out - stared at the sheets of paper doubtfully. Especially the second one. And Irwyn was mystified as well. It sounded downright ridiculous: How could one write a contract with a beneficial penalty? Or a penalty that was literally the same thing as what the contract asked.

    ¡°The soul obliteration is a standard issue for anyone conception and above during a Lich war,¡± Hummingbird nodded and most of the officers mirrored him. ¡°As for the other two¡­ Loopholes. It¡¯s not omnipotent but it will work to an extent. Did you have your best materials?¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately, those are at my office,¡± the Old Ibis shook his head. ¡°I had to use my second-grade emergency supplies. Still, the performance contract should be about as effective as chanting additional two lines of an incantation. As for death¡­ it should make mortal wounds temporarily less mortal. We don¡¯t have a conception healer so it could make a difference before you can apply Stitching consumables. The restriction of ''today'' makes up a good third of the final effect."

    ¡°That is an excellent efficacy given the circumstances,¡± the old Void+ officer nodded.

    "Then if you would," Old Ibis nodded and everyone approached to sign their names with a heavily enchanted pen the Fowl passed around. Everyone including the Ibis signed all three¡­ Irwyn leaving behind a thumb print that got only mostly distorted to everyone''s amazement though it probably worked. Well, there was one exception.

    "I am already bound by far stronger measures against being arisen," Elizabeth explained when a few people raised eyebrows at her not signing the first contract. "Anything short of a Named Lich will not be able to corrupt my body nor soul without destroying them in the process."

    "What of the Spire''s defenses?" one of the younger officers - They felt like dust dragged by the wind, but the fragments were individually furious - spoke up, quickly changing the topic. "The inside has enough magical traps to kill us a hundred times over."

    "I will be with you," Elizabeth said. "I am irreversibly keyed into the network. As long as I am alive none of the original defenses will be able to activate. In fact, some may help us in spite of the command instructions.¡±

    ¡°Is there any chance the network has been overwritten?¡± the old Ibis frowned at the thought.

    ¡°The primary network had been designed by the esteemed Maestro Bitterheart. No one could have messed with their work,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. Irwyn had no clue who that was but several people were nodding with something between awe and reassurance so that was a good sign. ¡°They might have been able to alter some individual traps, however, they are specifically designed to be more difficult to alter without explicit permission from the highest available authority. Which is currently me.¡±

    ¡°Then, although meaning no disrespect, my lack of understanding requires that I question the presence of the young man,¡± one of the officers carefully broached, looking at Irwyn. The quickly gathering eyes made it obvious he was not the only one thinking that. Not that Irwyn could blame them given his own doubts about how useful he would be.

    ¡°That is quite simple,¡± the Ibis spoke before Elizabeth could. ¡°He is our walking divination ward.¡±

    ¡°I was under the impression they are a wielder of Starfire, not Fate,¡± the old Flame mage frowned.

    ¡°Indeed,¡± Ibis nodded. ¡°But take it from me as the most senior Fate mage present: He is by far the greatest natural anti-diviner I have ever encountered. Though I cannot speak of how, any undead seers will find their visions involving Young Mockingbird inaccurate at worst or dispersing at best.¡±

    ¡°Mockingbird, as well as me, should also be practically immune to soul magic for the moment,¡± Elizabeth spoke up. ¡°With his affinity, it should be possible for him to intercept even conception-level Light and Flame spells. He is also naturally highly resistant to the two elements.¡±

    "Would you be willing to put that resilience to a test?" the old Flame mage stared him down then.

    "Is that necessary?" Elizabeth frowned.

    "It is better to know one''s limits before facing down death," the mage immediately countered. And honestly, he had a point.

    "I am curious myself," Irwyn admitted, stepping past Elizabeth who still seemed to be having doubts about the idea. Stitching would be immediately available if he was overestimating himself. He extended his index finger. "I haven¡¯t had the chance to test how far it could stretch. Just the one appendage though. I will yell if it gets painful."

    "When,¡± the man corrected, a wisp of flame appearing before him and moving towards Irwyn¡¯s extended finger. It was not scorching¡­ not yet at least. Less than a regular stove fire perhaps. When it touched Irwyn¡¯s finger it felt no hotter than warm water and given that he could not even feel any of the heat on his face or the rest of the arm it was clearly not just a misperception.

    Then it began to intensify. First with just magic though when that got not the slightest reaction, intentions started being introduced - familiar ones. It set off with burn. Then incinerate, conflagrate, melt, scorch, boil, combust, cremate and finally, ignite. Between each Irwyn had been given two to three seconds to react, however, Irwyn felt no pain. The heat was quite tangible even away from the finger now, the air itself slightly distorting in a noticeable radius around the flame. Irwyn¡¯s sleeve might have gotten singed if they hadn¡¯t been torn off during his earlier involuntary amputation.

    ¡°9 intentions, not the slightest reaction,¡± the officer commented, seemingly impressed. Everyone around them appeared to be the same, including Elizabeth who had already known about his resistance.

    ¡°Feels about as hot as the first one,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Just that I can also feel it on my face.¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have expected it,¡± the man moved the flame away momentarily, pondering. ¡°But since that is the case I will step out of imbuement.¡±

    ¡°Go right ahead,¡± Irwyn nodded eagerly and watched the mage intently. Because, unlike all the other mages around, this one shared the affinity for Flame with Irwyn. He hoped that he could gleam something from it.

    The Flame mage was, as Irwyn had observed earlier, like an undisturbed sea of flames. Then, a wave arose. Small in relative scale, yet it made all the difference. That little burning wisp changed fundamentally. It no longer merely burned. It burned. It was difficult to put the difference into words yet it was fundamental. It was not just more magic or intentions. It was¡­ much like the gap between imbuing and not, perhaps larger. Air and magic itself were being set ablaze, only the caster¡¯s will stopping them from turning into an airborne wildfire. It fundamentally suppressed the very idea of something being ¡®incombustible¡¯. Irwyn stared at it with half morbid fascination, half anticipation as the old officer made the flame approach the tip of his finger. The heat was actually less tangible as it approached. More closely held lest it went out of control. And as it touched the tip of his finger¡­

    Irwyn did not burn.

    It felt no different than a regular bonfire. Intellectually, the heat of each was incomparable. Presently? They might as well be the same in their futile attempts at even scorching Irwny¡¯s skin.

    "Are you even human?" the officer seemed genuinely amazed and/or horrified, staring at Irwyn¡¯s finger engulfed in that little flaming wisp.

    "As far as I know," Irwyn shrugged. What was he supposed to answer? Instead of pondering, he stared back at his unharmed finger.

    ¡°That is indeed beyond any expectations,¡± Old Hummingbird nodded.

    ¡°Do you not see it?¡± the Flame mage looked around, raising his voice. ¡°Do even you, boy?

    ¡°See what?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°I am not controlling the spell anymore,¡± the man said and Irwyn¡¯s eyes widened. It was still burning¡­ but from his mana now. Even this little wisp that did nothing at all was using up his Vessel¡¯s stockpile at a rate comparable to his most powerful spells. He stared at it in fascination for an additional second and then cut it off, letting the spell die in a split second as it could not sustain itself.

    ¡°What¡­ did I do?¡± Irwyn had to ask.

    ¡°I have no idea,¡± the old mage was frowning, and so were a few others in their gathering while the rest seemed to be mostly shocked. ¡°The spell had been attempting to wrest itself away from me the moment it touched you.¡±

    ¡°I have never done anything like this before for Flame magic, or any other spells for that matter,¡± Irwyn frowned. Now, generally, he rarely got hit on account of always keeping up a barrier around himself but there had been times in his spars with Elizabeth where Flame magic had definitely touched him given how Elizabeth also used the element when not straight up using Voidflame, if less than Void magic itself.

    ¡°The purity of will,¡± a deep guttural voice sounded, causing heads to turn. It was the third old officer, Irwyn realized. The man had not spoken a word or so much as moved the whole time. The feeling they gave off was simple: Like an erasure. The act of reducing something into nothing. ¡°Conception magic could, in some ways, be considered to have the barest hints of sentience. And when the will of its wielder is inadequate, the magic can choose to instead side with someone it finds more attuned to itself. I have seen the Duke¡¯s succession duel with his eldest brother where Void magic refused to strike them. However¡­¡±

    "It is a fascinating interlude, however¡­¡± the Hummingbird suddenly interjected, changing the topic. ¡°We still need to decide our leadership while the deadline is quickly approaching. Given her lack of experience, I hope her ladyship will be willing to surrender command of our little strike team,¡± he glanced at Elizabeth who immediately nodded. ¡°In that case, I would nominate myself.¡±

    ¡°On what basis?¡± Ibis immediately asked, frowning.

    ¡°During the last Lich war, I had worked closely with the Deathbane Inquisition, helping them hunt Draugr,¡± Hummingbird said as he flicked his wrist and revealed he had been holding a badge of some kind this whole time: On it was depicted a pure white cracked skull. ¡°Afterwards I have been honorarily named a Veteran Inquisitor. I believe the knowledge and first-hand experience I have picked up along the way puts me far ahead of anyone else here.¡±

    ¡°May I validate it?¡± one of the officers stepped forwards. In fact, it was the very same Soul mage who had saved Irwyn earlier from the ghostly assassins. ¡°I am myself a Junior Inquisitor,¡± they said and took out a similar badge. Not the same though. With two to compare Irwyn immediately noticed a few differences. For one, the Fowl¡¯s badge had a black background while the officer¡¯s was pure white. Moreover, while the Hummingbird had three distinct cracks running across their skull, the younger officer had only a single such scar depicted on their own.

    ¡°Of course,¡± Old Hummingbird raised his badge towards the other man who quickly put their badges next to each other. With a spark of magic, both began to glow.

    ¡°I can confirm the validity and a perfect match with their soul,¡± the officer said after a few seconds of staring at the two. After that no one would object to the Singing man leading them. ¡°It is an honour, if an unexpected one.¡±

    ¡°Then we need to get to planning,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°Time is burning away.¡±

 2.47 + 2.48 Spire spiral

    All their available forces had gathered at the four military compounds that happened to be overlooking the three Spires. In fact, they were on the very edge of the buildings before a large gap around the Spires themselves. The compounds were on the 11nth city level, however, that was surprisingly not that big of an issue: Each had a dedicated pulley elevator system in place specifically for getting armies up and down right on the edge of the Spires¡¯ plaza - which in hindsight was probably why they had been chosen as the gathering points.

    There had been no attacks since the ceiling collapsed, making it a clear calm before the storm. There was no doubt in Irwyn¡¯s mind that the undead were gathering for the upcoming decisive battle. The overarching plan was relatively simple: All of the soldiers would descend and set up a defensive position around the Spires, both for threats from within and without. In the meantime, all their conception mages, as well as Elizabeth and Irwyn, would enter the Administrative Spire atop which the Beacon had been built with their backs covered.

    All they had to do was reach the 15th floor where there was an ¡®indestructible¡¯ access point that could be used to start the beacon again. When the way was clear, there were apparently enough heavy hitters ready to end the incursion in minutes. Said reinforcements were apparently already on their way by land one way or the other. The issue was, they would not make it before the city fell. Not nearly. The casualties were accumulating and then accelerating.

    The plaza around the Spires was uncontested, disturbingly so. The overhead buildings had cleared out and Irwyn had an actual view of the skies above that was so rare across the city. It probably allowed even natural sunlight to shine down during the day though it was the middle of the night at the moment. That being said, he could not stand and be fascinated by the metaphorical eye of an architectural storm. They were running out of time. Therefore, Irwyn, Elizabeth and the 15 conception mages that had gathered entered the Spire together. Just one of them, the one with the Beacon.

    What greeted them was madness.

    The first floor was supposedly more of a lobby from what Irwyn had grasped in their brief discussion and planning. A lot of open space for people awaiting appointments or clearance to go further upward, either by foot or teleportation. Now, every inch of that space was covered in actively writhing flesh. Thick veins pulsed across the walls and floor, accompanied by the smell of feces and viscera that only reinforced the constant stench of necromancy for a truly nauseous mixture.

    ¡°Do not let it disturb you,¡± Old Hummingbird spoke. ¡°This scene has been created for the explicit purpose of damaging your conviction. Refuse to allow that to happen. Turn it instead into certainty that our foe must be offered no quarter nor respite. My song will help. Also, watch your feet, there is almost certainly something hiding below us.¡±

    Irwyn sighed and reinforced the barrier beneath his boots, not that it could even be pushed much further. Since he wasn¡¯t going to be a major source of firepower, he had opted for five intentions dedicated to his defenses as well as a few weaker inner layers. In the best case scenario nothing was supposed to reach him or Elizabeth at the center of their formation, it was still a dangerous thing to bet on given that any hit could be quite lethal.

    His nerves were tense as they walked across the first floor. It was grotesque, disgusting and made his stomach turn but at least he managed to avoid throwing up even as the floor shifted beneath his feet. Elizabeth and a few of the others also looked rather pale, however, most of the actual soldiers seemed to be completely undisturbed by the sight. Now, fair enough, those were all elite mages but Irwyn had to admit he was still impressed by that level of fortitude.

    Somehow, they were allowed to reach almost the end of the floor before the attack happened. Near the far end, there stood a row of large checkpoints. Rather than allow them to obstruct the line of sight, Old Hummingbird ordered them destroyed from a distance, letting one of their several Void mages erase the thin metal constructions. The undead that had been hiding behind it apparently took offense to that. As the relatively weak magic was destroying the barricade it lunged through it. It was unbelievably fast. So fast actually that by the time Irwyn had realized that something was moving it was already gone.

    ¡°One concept, some kind of Speed. Possibly Time related,¡± the old Void mage officer who felt like erasure commented. Irwyn had not even really seen the undead. He had barely processed something moving though nothing remained of it now. Erasure, indeed. ¡°Assassin. A bit of a potshot.¡±

    ¡°Well done but we must remain vigilant,¡± Old Hummingbird spoke with a nod. ¡°The way is clear, let¡¯s move on.¡±

    And the ¡®clear way¡¯ was apparently the Fowl¡¯s chosen strategy. Because he asked for the door that lead to the stairway to be broken. Then took one look at the stairway, saw that it wasn¡¯t completely airtight underneath and asked for it to also be destroyed. Judging by the low ethereal scream that had caused he was even right that something had been hiding beneath it. Then he requested the door frame be expanded by a large chunk. That was been more difficult than the previous requests.

    ¡°The walls themselves are all heavily enchanted tungsten,¡± the mage who had been destroying most of their obstacles so far spoke. ¡°And it¡¯s connected to the Spire¡¯s power source. I would just burn my Vessel out without achieving anything.¡±

    ¡°In that case, a pre-emptive strike above and around will have to do,¡± Hummingbird acknowledged. ¡°Then a barrier from those directions. Assume every doorway and corner is an ambush. My song is far from infallible.¡±

    ¡°Why not use magic to visually look around the corners?¡± Irwyn had to ask.

    ¡°Can you do that?¡± Hummingbird raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Yes?¡± Irwyn mirrored the expression. They were better mages than him and his remote eye spell as he called it really wasn¡¯t that complicated.

    ¡°I should have thought of it,¡± Hummingbird nodded after a moment. ¡°Light has an elemental advantage for such effects.¡±

    ¡°I am not sure what that means,¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°How do you think Void mages capture and project visual images?¡± the old officer who felt like an endless fall asked.

    ¡°I have no idea,¡± Irwyn shrugged after puzzling for a couple of seconds.

    ¡°That is because doing so is incredibly difficult with most elements,¡± they explained. ¡°Elemental advantage simply means that certain elements have much easier time achieving certain effects, especially at lower levels of power. For example, any element can technically speaking achieve effects similar to teleportation, Time mages can just do it orders of magnitude easier. Light is good at transferring images while Void is perhaps the worst element for it.¡±

    ¡°It also comes down to not being vulnerable while doing so,¡± their Time mage, the civilian translocationist, spoke up. ¡°I could create a portal that allows me to see but it would still be a portal which means I could be attacked through it. Just images are... difficult since I have no practice with it.¡±

    ¡°Generally speaking, even Light magic is not safe as it could be used as a conduit for a Soul attack¡­¡± Hummingbird spoke. ¡°But I suppose you can ignore that issue at the moment. How strenuous is your spell?¡±

    ¡°Not very, though it becomes worse with distance,¡± Irwyn assessed. ¡°I am doing completely fine as far as my Vessel is concerned.¡±

    ¡°Sensual overload?¡±

    ¡°I can generally still walk straight while using the spell,¡± Irwyn shrugged, putting down a surge of embarrassment before it could arise. Splitting his sight in each eye into radically different images was difficult and he had yet to master it.

    ¡°Very well, then please check every corner or doorway before and while we go through,¡± the Fowl nodded. ¡°The rest of us will still need to be vigilant about visual invisibility and stealth concepts. We will still pre-emptively strike and maintain barriers when passing through.¡±

    And with that. A magical strike to hit anything hiding just out of sight followed by a protective dome before they all passed through the doorway in pairs while Irwyn made sure there was nothing in sight that could ambush them. Then they erected magical platforms to bring themselves up in place of the no longer existent stairs. This particular stairway, however, only allowed them to go up one floor. After another round of pre-emptive magics, they passed through another doorway finding themselves in another spacious lobby-like hall, just with several more private room-like areas to the side. Some were closed boxes, some had windows.

    ¡°Are all the stairways separated like that,¡± Old Hummingbird questioned no one in particular. Despite being chosen as their leader the man was clearly not familiar with the inside of the Spires.

    ¡°For the first five floors, then ascending becomes much more straightforward,¡± Elizabeth answered. ¡°Usually, people move through teleportation stations to whichever floor they need to but the Spires were built to withstand a siege. If my very presence did not prevent defensive formations from activating, we would have all died when attacking the lobby checkpoint.¡±

    ¡°Very well, let¡¯s continue,¡± the Fowl nodded. ¡°Keep away from anything you cannot see behind. Are all these rooms part of the enchantment?¡±

    ¡°Afraid so,¡± their designated demolitionist sighed.

    ¡°Very well, then we will only burn the insides of those rooms from a distance. If you would?¡± Old Hummingbird looked at the old officer who felt like a calm sea of flames. The man merely nodded and stepped forward, whispering something beneath his breath.

    Then than sea exploded and raged. Burned an entire meeting room from the inside for several seconds. When the Flames receded all Irwyn could see inside ¨C because he had been asked to visually confirm nothing had survived that - were the soot-covered walls and crystals from some of the window glass that was just melted rather than evaporated. Then they moved on to the next until every single room had been scorched clean. In none of them Irwyn had heard that spectral screech though that hardly seemed to discourage their leader.

    ¡°Do not assume that there is nothing behind us. There always is,¡± Hummingbird nodded as the last room was finished. ¡°Move on.¡±

    The third floor had gone by in a similar manner. Burn the stairway, move up, clear every nook and cranny they could see, continue. The 4th was no different. The lack of any undead was downright unnerving to Irwyn after the event of the day and the Fowl leading them seemed to agree.

    ¡°Expect a major ambush soon,¡± the Hummingbird frowned. ¡°They might be waiting for tighter corridors or some kind of advantage.¡±

    Once again, they broke down the doors and struck around them. Then Irwyn cast his remote eye from a good distance away. He looked around and saw nothing wrong except the missing stairwell so he relayed as much.  It was a good thing Old Hummingbird had insisted on barriers nonetheless because they were indeed immediately ambushed. As soon as the first pair walked through the doorway, the barriers above and around them them cracked.

    Irwyn could not see what was pouring onto them. Nonetheless, the other mages reacted. Waves of various magics struck at where their enemies supposedly were while the front people retreated. Of course, they were immediately also attacked from the back. From behind alcoves and corners they have definitely cleared just moments prior undead began to swarm. These were slower, visible and very variable for the lack of a better world.

    Some were horrifying abominations: Golems of pure sinew, floating geometrical shapes forged from white ivory, mockery of animals wrought from human flesh. And yet others simply¡­ looked like people. So much so that if Irwyn didn¡¯t know better it wouldn¡¯t be apparent they were undead at all. Just those coming from behind also outnumbered them two to one. Not a split second had passed before magic exploded from everywhere and everyone. A dazing incomprehensible kaleidoscope of colours, intentions, and concepts that made Irwyn dizzy from just the proximity. More than grasping what was actually going on Irwyn caught just flashes.

    He witnessed a human-like undead simply falling through the floor into somewhere and never reappear. The young inquisitor proved that they were indeed a specialist in fighting undead by literally tearing out their souls one by one with ease. Two dozen chants from both the living and death were joining the chaos, making each incomprehensible. The first casualty on their side happened perhaps three seconds after the start of the ambush. The other of the two civilian mages, who happened to be mostly a craftsman, simply dropped dead. Irwyn had not seen what or how hit him though soul magic was a good guess given the man¡¯s barrier was not so much as disturbed. Irwyn might not have even noticed if they weren¡¯t standing rather close to each other.

    What he did feel was a massive surge of magic from somewhere immediately attempting to take hold of the corpse. There was the slightest twitch of post-mortem motion¡­ and then whatever the spell was failed. Most likely Old Ibis¡¯ contract working as indented, stopping their foes from raising the fallen. Speaking of Old Ibis, the man was perhaps the main reason Irwyn, and Elizabeth, had the leisure to just observe. Since the Fowl was no real combatant he was left with the position of guarding the two weakest mages of their gathering. So had been the artificer, though that was rather moot now.

    Some five seconds into the fight, a screeching melody shrieked across the floor. It was, however, not one of Old Hummigbird¡¯s ever-present songs, rather it was a deep and guttural choir of echoing words in a language Irwyn could not understand. Though Irwyn felt nothing more than discomfort at it, a big chunk of their group flinched. Soul magic then, though Irwyn didn¡¯t know what was causing it. There were just too many things happening at once.

    Thankfully, as if waiting for it, a different sound immediately fought it off. The low but ever-present sound of Old Humming¡¯s magic rose and rose until it somehow managed to overshadow the mayhem of battle - the forlorn notes of the dirge among them at the forefront. Then the so-called Singing man did what in hindsight should have been obvious: The Fowl began to sing.

    ¡°And we lie a pile upon a pile

    fathers, daughters, brothers, foes

    on a pyre.

    Not a flower, nor a briar,

    not a mourner, single crier,

    no epitaph.

    And yet, they lie a mountain.

    a tide, a force beyond reckon,

    broken.

    For to shed dread is to first learn fear,

    then with bare hands grasp horror and,

    smother it.¡±

    And the effect was apparent. If before the dirge''s notes made undead struggle to cooperate, now it outright disabled them. Even these Draugr as the others called them, undead with concepts, were seemingly reduced to bumbling children. If a moment ago they were being overwhelmed, now the tide had completely turned. The staggered undead were quite quickly cleaned out.

    ¡°Two dead,¡± the Ibis commented basically as soon as the battle ended and the singing quieted down. Irwyn couldn¡¯t quite show his surprise given the mask. He had not even noticed. Looking around, he realized one of the younger officers, the one who felt like a lance of Void magic, was not standing anywhere. Nor could he see their body on the ground for that matter.

    ¡°Burn the corpses, we don¡¯t want any potential re-anchoring and secondary raisings,¡± Old Hummingbird instructed, though he sounded slightly out of breath, nodding at Irwyn who nodded back and got right to it along with their older Flame mage as well as Elizabeth. ¡°I would ask her ladyship to carry their spacial bags and any similar items we may find.¡±

    There were just enough broken undead to cover most of the floor. Many were already missing pieces or were broken by the battle. The Fowl still advised them to not approach any of them and yell if something turns out to still be magic resistant - therefore not truly dead dead. None of those were hiding among the fallen this time though and the incineration was done in less than half a minute, leaving a stench of burnt flesh in the air.

    ¡°Why have we not detected anything beyond the door,¡± Irwyn questioned afterwards, disquieted.

    ¡°Mass invisibility and negating vibrations,¡± Old Hummingbird shrugged, seemingly not surprised or shocked whatsoever. ¡°I have been trying to keep it somewhat secret as long as possible but my Sonata of echoes is purely based on physical sound. Creating a false image for you to see is not the hardest thing either for a risen conception Light mage, though doing so undetected is impressive.¡±

    ¡°Was there such a mage in the city for them to rise?¡± Elizabeth questioned with a frown.

    ¡°Not as far as I am aware,¡± the old Flame officer mirrored the expression. ¡°No conception Light mages stationed or even visiting as far as I know. We tend to keep a lookout for those since they might be spies of House Brightbeak. Though they could have arrived earlier today.¡±

    ¡°I was actually working at the hub from noon until the incursion itself,¡± it was surprisingly the civilian translocationist who spoke to provide additional insight. ¡°No ¡®very suspicious¡¯ goers from the Duchy of Yellow and today¡¯s senior inspector is a hound.¡±

    ¡°That beckons the question:¡± the old Void erasure mage spoke in a deep raspy voice. ¡°How are they here?¡±

    ¡°The troops have reported an unusual quantity of Light mage corrupted souls,¡± a younger officer added his two cents. ¡°They were almost certainly imported and in numbers. But where have they come from?¡±

    ¡°Although I am also deathly curious,¡± Old Hummingbird interrupted. ¡°I am sure most of you will be updated if not outright involved in the inevitable upcoming investigation. For now, we need to focus on surviving to see it. The usual procedure on the doorway, they could have gathered another ambush in the meantime.¡±

    In the floors above, the attacks once again greatly slowed down. All that they faced were some borderline ¡®potshots¡¯ which rarely ever even took them by surprise due to Hummingbird¡¯s downright paranoid approach to clearing their way as well as his Sonata. Now that the Fowl was no longer attempting to futilely hide its nature, he began pointing out any undead he felt in the room with them rather than just vaguely ordering their mages to clear specific areas.

    After the fifth floor, their ascent became both easier and harder. As Elizabeth had said earlier, the layout has indeed changed. Rather than needing to go from one end of the room to the other to reach a stairway up, they reached a familiar spiral incline that apparently spanned the whole diameter of the Spire, gradually letting them go up as they walked in a sloped circle, encountering the singular entrances into individual floors along the way.

    The issue was that since they were no longer forced to go through the rooms, they had to decide whether to enter in order to sweep them. A short discussion was held but in the end, Old Hummingbird had the final say as their chosen leader:

    ¡°We are running out of time that her ladyship has set as our deadline,¡± he glanced at Elizabeth who nodded. Irwyn had frankly long lost track, but then, they had told everyone they had almost an hour less than they actually did before Dervish¡¯s protective consumable ran out and the man was forced into a more desperate battle. ¡°We cannot afford to clear out every room, both because of time and attrition. Therefore, we will simply ascend. At some point, we are going to be swarmed by a large horde from both sides but the hallways being relatively tight and unbreakable works in our favour. We will need to pass every room very carefully so that it isn¡¯t from 3 directions though.¡±

    The sixth and seventh floors went without incident - though ironically the undead had removed the doors at the entrance of those floors, probably so that they couldn¡¯t be blocked since they were still relatively durable. Irwyn had noticed that the Singing man began humming something whenever they were passing by the doors though didn¡¯t comment on it. He could make a guess after how incredibly more powerful the Dirge had become when the man added his voice to it. It was also likely quite tiring given how sparingly the Fowl used it.

    Another attack finally happened as they were passing by the eighth floor. Just about when half of them had moved beyond the door.

    ¡°Retreat!¡± Old Hummingbird suddenly interrupted his humming to shout. ¡°As far as they will let us!¡±

    No one needed to be told twice as they sprinted. Since they were passing by an open entrance several barricades were layered over it. Unfortunately, as Ibis had lamented before they even set foot into the Spire, they had no defense specialists. It began to crack immediately.

    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    ¡°Begone,¡± that did not mean they had no answer. The Old Void erasure mage was holding the center and without hesitation unleashed a spell with so much Void magic Irwyn almost stumbled from a good few meters away. The Remote eye he had summoned in the doorway was vanquished by it but by the sudden lack of attacks against their barrier so was everything else in the immediate vicinity. Old Hummingbird¡¯s foresight had perhaps saved them once again. Although barely, they managed to all retreat behind the door just a moment later before whatever was coming from up front could pass the gradual bend.

    ¡°Contact,¡± shouted their rearguard from really not that far back.

    ¡°This is far enough, prepare for battle,¡± Hummingbird spoke as everyone took their pre-arranged position with Elizabeth and Irwyn huddling in the middle.

    The situation wasn¡¯t great but it was about the best they could expect. Although fighting in a tight indestructible corridor was a disadvantage, it also meant that numbers had less impact. No matter how many undead attacked them there could be only so many that fit at once. Moreover, the enchanted tungsten the Spires were built from supposedly warded against incorporeal undead passing through - though the Fowl leading them pessimistically pointed out that any ¡®inability¡¯ might be just a trick to make them drop their guards.

    When the undead actually got to them, all Irwyn could really do was watch. This time the fight was not nearly as chaotic as the previous big ambush. First of all, their side had a few seconds to prepare which, apparently, made all the difference.

    ¡°...Below the bottomless,¡± the old Mage officer who had given Irwyn the impression of an endless fall and an element he could not quite place finished a chant they had been preparing since before the attack even properly started. And as far as the eye could see in the spell¡¯s direction all the undead just¡­ fell through the floor. But there was more to it. Even Irwyn who was significantly weaker than most if not all of these undead could stop a fall just by summoning a few simple platforms to hold him aloft. No, the undead did not simply fall due to gravity. Walking or flying, the very concept of falling had been forcefully imposed upon them. No simple boundary could stop that. And maybe even something more. Irwyn was mostly guessing and did not fully understand the old officer¡¯s magic. He also had no idea where the undead were falling to.

    It could be the Void itself. It could be something in-between Irwyn had no idea even existed. Maybe the mage was fully maintaining their destination with their own magic or a piece of equipment. It reminded Irwyn of the conversation they have had just earlier about elemental advantages; how difficult would it be to create a whole pocket dimension with elements other than Time/Space? Either way, the undead were unlikely to return as the mage took a step back and let some of the younger mages step up for the other undead already charging towards them. Since they had no real defensive expert to let them turtle, their protections were relatively fragile - mostly each mage¡¯s personal barriers to be exact. Therefore, they would get overwhelmed if they didn¡¯t kill the undead fast enough. And killing the Draugr in mass required big spells.

    ¡°...The tide burned,¡± their senior Flame mage was a couple seconds behind on their chant, probably mostly because they had been in the front and had to chant while retreating a significantly longer distance. The effect was massive though and Irwyn could feel and understand it much better than with Void magic.

    The inspiration the mage had taken from the sea and its tides was clear but it was merely form. Shape that uniquely suited the user. But the essence of that magic was pure Flame. A completely different approach to it but Flame nonetheless. Irwyn could not feel it all by magic alone in all the noise and ambience¡­ but he had another way. Though he had rarely ever done so in recent memory, Irwyn had not forgotten that he could feel flames with natural ease ¨C even if he had scarcely ever tested it on unnatural ones. Therefore, he tapped into those senses. It became blatantly and abundantly clear just how fundamentally different and on another level these Flames were compared to his merely intention-imbued magic. It was like comparing rough cotton to velvet or silk.

    And that Flame burned the entire corridor the spell had been cast into. But the Flame also raged and¡­ was unleashed? Irwyn wasn¡¯t completely sure but it had to be close to that. Then there was something like a cycle, maybe patience ¨C a concept that encouraged and empowered careful and precise bursts of incredible power rather than repetitive casting. That made four concepts in total but Irwyn thought there were more¡­ He just had no clue what they were or how many it might be. Either something more distant from flames or uncovering more layers became increasingly difficult with each.

    Additionally, Irwyn could also feel that the Flames reached even farther than just line of sight, incinerating the undead a good distance further into the spiral¡¯s gradual bend. Well, not really burning anymore because anything that had been caught up in the original surge was already ash and nothing else was willing to enter the blaze for obvious reasons. The spell was cut short soon afterwards. Embers and raw heat remained in the corridor through the enchanted tungsten had not melted nor caught on fire. But just heat was not enough. The undead would rush at them again in moments. That was when Old Hummingbird began singing again. The same dirge, the same notes if slightly different words. No doubt that would make their approach more difficult. Irwyn waited, eyes darting both ways as he anticipated the rest of the tide¡­

    Which did not come. After a few seconds the Fowl stopped singing with a deep frown as not a single abomination approached them.

    ¡°They are sending fodder to exhaust us,¡± the Hummingbird said after a moment. ¡°We have faced no serious spellcasting yet. Has anyone seen anything with more than two concepts?¡±

    ¡°Not seen so far,¡± the young inquisitor shook their head which was mirrored by most of their group. ¡°Maybe the Singer who attacked us on the 4th floor but they had kept far out of sight or harm.¡±

    ¡°Whatever had killed the artificer,¡± Ibis opinioned. ¡°But that might have also just run afterwards before being spotted and is recovering now from the expenditure."

    ¡°It¡¯s attrition again,¡± Irwyn sighed. Indeed, it had been strange that they were basically winning. Yes, their group had many of the best conception mages in Abonisle¡­ but not nearly all of them. He had been rather unhappy to find out that most of the conception mages were in fact missing. Which meant that some if not most would be here fighting for the other side.

    ¡°It¡¯s not all bad,¡± Old Hummingbird spoke. ¡°I don¡¯t think they have enough actual necromancers.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Elizabeth asked.

    ¡°Usually, I would expect more powerful spells from this number of Draugr,¡± the Fowl explained. ¡°Far more in fact. These have basically all been conception mages in life ¨C even if on the weaker side ¨C so even in death, there would be more to them than just slightly tougher undead. But they are not doing that. Barely any magic above intentions and even that only on small scale.¡±

    ¡°How does that relate to necromancers?¡± Irwyn was puzzled though many of the other people had more thoughtful expressions.

    ¡°Undead do not have a living brain to anchor their souls,¡± the young inquisitor spoke. ¡°Ergo, they require an alternative which uses up power. A lot of power for Draugr or worse undead. That means that this power has to be either provided by a necromancer or by the undead themselves to sustain their very existence.¡±

    ¡°And most undead are raised with crippled Vessels and Reservoirs which reduces how much mana they can actually draw,¡± Old Hummingbird added. ¡°Not to mention the average Draugr does not have the expertise to be efficient in doing so. As a result, they can only use a fraction of their theoretical power, as I suspect has been the case with most of what we have encountered so far.¡±

    ¡°That only means that they are saving their true power for when we are tired,¡± the erasure Void mage spoke with a deep frown.

    ¡°There is little that can be done about that,¡± the Fowl leading them shrugged. ¡°And this is still a much better result than the alternative of fighting everything at full power. Either way, let¡¯s¡­¡±

    And just as he was about to finish the word someone coughed. People looked at the back of their formation at the distraction to see it was one of the younger officers. Then they coughed again. Then began choking on their own coughs as the other two people near them had a similar reaction, the old fall officer included. It was as if¡­

    ¡°Poison,¡± the Singing man said it confidently before Irwyn even properly formed the conclusion. ¡°Flame barriers, behind and ahead, now!¡±

    Not even a split-second later, walls of Flame rose around them. It was not Irwyn but rather the Flame officer who reacted before the young mage started to so much as gather his own mana.

    ¡°Calm down. Everyone filter the air you breathe with magic if you can,¡± the erasure Void officer approached, manifesting a veil of Void magic over his mouth and nose. Irwyn copied him, though wasn¡¯t really sure what he was doing and ended up instead cutting out all air at first before realizing he needed to make the mask more porous while asking it to burn the in-between. His Flames were magical and did not inherently require air to burn nor did they consume any to sustain themselves¡­ but if he put too much power into it the air itself would combust not leaving anything breathable. It was a bit of a balance and Irwyn had doubts about how effective it would be against the airborne poison but it was probably better than nothing.

    ¡°The diagnostic enchantments have no idea what it is,¡± the erasure Void mage - Irwyn really wished he had remembered their name because it was becoming a mouthful to repeat in his head - announced. The three affected mages did not reply on account of a coughing fit severe enough they struggled to breathe.

    ¡°I cannot know what it is,¡± Old Ibis added. ¡°But I can tell they have perhaps ten minutes to live at this pace. And that is just survival, not what state that would leave them in.¡±

    ¡°Is there any facility with better equipment within reach?¡± Hummingbird asked the crowd. ¡°Applying stitching is as likely to kill them as to help.¡±

    ¡°The lower infirmary is on the 20th floor,¡± the old Flame mage ¨C again, damn Irwyn¡¯s name memory ¨C did not frown on account of already having his brows deeply furrowed. ¡°And that has probably been sabotaged anyway.¡±

    ¡°There is one,¡± Elizabeth interjected ¡°There is a secret panic room nearby. It should have Time stopper antidotes if not outright panaceas.¡±

    ¡°Where?¡±

    ¡°Go up, I will tell you when to stop,¡± Elizabeth said and shot Irwyn a meaningful glance.

    Well, it was a better excuse than the one they had planned. Irwyn was, in fact, aware of this panic room. They had discussed it back at the start of the incursion hours ago while still protected within powerful privacy magic. They were always going to visit it but this was a reason that would raise no eyebrows. The undead did almost certainly have a mind reader after all. Only Elizabeth and Irwyn could be considered beyond reach due to the protective cords provided by Dervish.

    Old Hummingbird stared at Elizabeth for a moment but did not argue. Flames moved along with them to burn away any more of the poison. They were still careful when passing by the doorway of the 8th floor but they had certainly gone faster than before. The three hurt mages could not stand and were therefore carried. Irwyn had volunteered to make for them secure stretchers of solid light since he was not doing much with his already full Vessel anyway.

    Irwyn¡¯s nerves were honestly strung up as they reached the door to the ninth floor. And while they were passing it. He was expecting another attack until the last second, however, one never came. They passed the ninth floor without a problem. Elizabeth stopped them halfway to the 10th. She approached the inner wall and began to pace up and down with her hand passing over it. It took her some dozen seconds but eventually, the insignia ring which she had put on her finger began to softly glow. She moved it around as the glow strengthened and weakened and when she found the spot with the brightest light, she pressed her hand into it.

    The seamless tungsten sunk inwards and a moment later a small doorway revealed itself. There had been not the slightest trace of anything Irwyn could detect or see in the enchantment and based on the rather amazed expressions on a few of the others they likely couldn¡¯t feel anything either despite knowing that something was hidden right here.

    ¡°Enter, quickly,¡± Elizabeth spoke and no one argued. The inside of the ¡®panic room¡¯ reminded Irwyn more of a mansion. And of a kaleidoscope. Pink and ridiculously fluffy carpets covered the floor¡­ but the couches were green, the walls painted blue, the ceiling vermillion. And the rest of the furniture was a mix of many, many diverse colors. The only shade Irwyn noticed distinctly missing was the ebony which he had grown so used to in anything Blackburg related.¡±

    ¡°This reminds me of the rumor that the Duchess secretly hates black and finds any excuse she can to use more vibrant colors,¡± the old Flame mage muttered as they got inside, glancing at Elizabeth.

    ¡°The infirmary should be on the left,¡± Elizabeth ignored the half-question as she closed the door behind them. ¡°I have no idea what or how to use the devices inside, someone should take over.¡±

    ¡°I will,¡± the Erasure Void mage spoke, taking over Irwyn¡¯s body lugging duty with a careful switch to the officer¡¯s own platforms of solid Void then took them over to the room Elizabeth had pointed out. The young inquisitor followed them. Everyone else took it as an opportunity to relax and recover, if only briefly.

    ¡°To the right is the kitchen. There should be meals preserved,¡± Elizabeth said, looking over at Old Hummingbird. ¡°We should have 5 minutes to spare.¡±

    ¡°As you say,¡± the Fowl nodded. ¡°It will likely take at least as long to help the wounded anyway.¡±

    She nodded to that and then glanced at Irwyn. She did not need to beckon for him to follow her to a corner of the room. The main lobby was¡­ not large but spacious enough that they had relative privacy despite the number of people around. Elizabeth passed her hand over the wall before leaning against it and Irwyn followed suit. A bit of sleight of hand as Elizabeth had just opened a small barely visible socket with the motion.

    ¡°How are you holding up?¡± she asked, glancing at it though Irwyn did not need further instruction. There was no magic that he could sense from it. The socket looked just like a small dent in the wall but Irwyn was already feeling his way around to nonchalantly touch it.

    ¡°I am alright,¡± he shrugged, finally finding the socket with his elbow as the hand came back down from the motion. He had to suppress a twitch as soon as he touched it. It was from a buzzing, numbing sensation. Not quite pain but almost. Because there was power coursing through it. Ridiculous quantities of raw mana. Far more than Irwyn could possibly use productively. But he didn¡¯t need to. He grabbed Elizabeth¡¯s wrist in what could be misunderstood as an overly intimate gesture, touching the long sleeve her dress. Then he began to channel as much of that power as he could into it. ¡°I should be asking about you, however. You are far more attached to Abonisle than me.¡±

    ¡°Not as much as you would think,¡± she slightly shrugged, careful to not break the link. Old Ibis had a point after all: If Elizabeth had done this by herself it could have probably been divined. Predicted. With Irwyn acting as an intermediary? Even if the room¡¯s wards could be seen through it would not be enough to expose the plan they had concocted. Reaching the 15th floor was, after all, simply not a reasonable goal. ¡°Things always fade away. Then they are rebuilt, changed¡­ or simply remain broken.¡±

    ¡°I would argue that some reliable fixtures go a long way towards improving your life,¡± Irwyn replied. They might be misdirecting from what they were actually doing for any possibility of a mind reader actively influencing the others¡­ but that didn¡¯t mean the conversation wouldn¡¯t be honest. ¡°A wise old man once told me that people require a comforting certainty in at least some things in life. Ideally several.¡±

    ¡°Those are not so easy to obtain,¡± Elizabeth replied. ¡°And even harder to maintain.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps you just forget them,¡± Irwyn argued. ¡°Take them for granted. But they are still there, even for you. Take wealth for example. You have a certainty that you will not starve or ever want for coin.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ suppose you have a point,¡± she conceded after a moment. ¡°But I am not sure if it helps.¡±

    ¡°I am sure there are other things¡­¡± Irwyn said immediately. ¡°Fixtured that at least some comfort can be drawn from. Though perhaps the middle of an undead incursion is not the best time to tally them.¡±

    ¡°Yes... per¡­¡± Elizabeth spoke but was interrupted by a loud clank as a door was forcefully pushed open. Everyone in the room tensed or outright got ready for battle. Elizabeth had almost instinctively snapped away though Irwyn had managed to hold her hand in place, the dress still connected to the mana source by his increasingly smarting hand.

    The origin of the noise was, in fact, the entrance of the medical room. The young inquisitor had been pushed back through it with some force as the man barely managed to keep balance after a few steps backwards. Then he scoffed and turned around, pointedly ignoring everyone¡¯s glares. He was followed by the erasure Void mage as well as the three formerly poisoned men, now back on their feet and walking out, though they were staring strange glances at the senior officer who had just helped them. Irwyn had not noticed any tension between the two prior so had no real idea what that had been about.

    ¡°Magical acid melting the lungs while feeding off of the victim¡¯s Vessel,¡± the man announced, also ignoring any glances questioning the altercation. ¡°I have applied Stasis antidotes and specialized stitching equipment. It should hold them together for half a day at least. I have also withdrawn enough stasis antidote for the rest of us as well as borrowed some of the equipment and supplies.¡±

    ¡°We can distribute it on the way,¡± Old Hummingbird nodded. ¡°We should get going as quickly as possible nonetheless.¡±

    ¡°Before then, everyone gather,¡± Elizabeth commanded, beckoning their whole group with her free hand. ¡°Closer. Hold hands if you would,¡± that raised some eyebrows though everyone reluctantly followed the instruction. Elizabeth hurried along.  ¡°Irene, you right next to me, close the gap,¡± she spoke and the Time mage translocationist moved over. Good to know their name now, though Irwyn was pretty sure he would forget it in the next few minutes.

    ¡°There is something important to speak about,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°There is most likely a powerful mind reader in Abonisle,¡± or at least everything suggested there was. ¡°They might be reading your thoughts even here,¡± and Irwyn and Elizabeth were for the moment the most immune to such things.

    ¡°Therefore, play along,¡± she took a deep breath, then spoke the real command: ¡°Assist the teleportation if you can and DO NOT resist it.¡±

    The course of power through Irwyn¡¯s arm doubled, then rose further until he lost too much feeling in it to estimate by how much. A pinch of extreme pain had struck him before he lost all sensation in that arm¡­ Then Space shifted and they were somewhere else.

    Elizabeth¡¯s dress was, without a doubt, an incredible artifact. The issue was that teleportation simply required far too much power without the Beacon active ¨C Finity¡¯s impact was brutal on anything remotely long distance. More mana than the dress was designed to store long term. Orders of magnitude more than she or Irwyn could reasonably provide from their Vessel. But it was very much capable of teleportation, including into deeply restricted areas through countless wards that would likely kill most Time mages trying to enter without the qualifications.

    Which was the basis of their plan from the start. Lie to everyone to deceive the mind readers¡­ make them believe that their group was indeed aiming for the 15th floor. The undead just loved attrition after all. Adored deaths by thousand cuts. And it could be used against them. Because if they were planning to stop them just before the final floor, they were holding back perhaps the majority of their real firepower while they reached the panic room.

    Now they stood in a familiar room. Of course, last time Irwyn had been here he had no idea it was right below the Spires. A single door led out into what Irwyn knew was a long hallway as the surrounding Void magic grew thicker and thicker.

    ¡°Run! That way,¡± Elizabeth commanded, already taking off. Irwyn still couldn¡¯t feel his hand but immediately followed, merely checking to see if it was actually still there. A glance confirmed that it was bleeding relatively profusely but not enough that he would bleed out in minutes. He made himself a splint of solid flames, then refocused on sprinting.

    He was still the last at the next gate despite having the advantage of not being surprised. And he was also winded which only redoubled his promise to focus on more physical exercise. The only other person not an order of magnitude more fit than him was the civilian translocationist. When the second door opened it revealed a familiar sight. That of a viewing platform and beyond it:

    The Dredge.

    Because this was the Duchy of Black. Teleportation was not the only way of long-distance transportation. With the Temporal Beacon it was by far the easiest but with it disabled there was another way to get an elite squad across large distances. They could travel directly through the Void. Where the laws of Time/Space grew looser. Distance unimportant. In the infinite blackness where one step could take a careless traveler a plane away. And while the Duchy of Black did not have the best Time mages by a long shot¡­ no other Duchy could even compare with their Void mages.

    The only issue then was location. Because the Void was incomprehensibly vast and rendered distance meaningless, traversing through it - at least according to the quick explanation Irwyn had received - was no longer a problem of speed but a problem of directions. Because how does one find a single needle in an infinite haystack? The answer was that some locations simply ¡®shone¡¯ in specific ways. A skilled mage could get where they wanted with precision if the place was ¡®bright¡¯ enough. And it so happened that the Lake around Abonisle was the single most distinct landmark of their entire plane.

    That was where the Dredge became their problem. Usually, the massive magical formation simply dragged everything that tried to leave the Void in a large vicinity around the city into a singular spot, be it debris or denizens¡­ but it could do more than that. At a significant and gradually increasing cost it was able to completely obscure the metaphorical lighthouse that the city was. Though making that decision required great authority and reversing it would take even more.

    The Heiress of House Blackburg almost slid across the ground where near the floor she quickly found a hidden panel. She inserted her ring and tapped across it, though Irwyn, still winded, could not see what exactly. A moment later a strange wooden glove similar to the one Elizabeth had used earlier in the day to overwrite the military landline appeared. Without hesitation, she immediately stuck her hand into it, grimaced, then continued tapping.

    ¡°Something big incoming!¡± the Ibis shouted, pointing at an empty spot. Less than half a minute could have passed since they had made their play. It looked like time was already out.

    The next moment, a skeleton appeared where the Fowl was pointing. It was¡­ visibly damaged. Impossibly clean cuts had bitten into its bones, not that the undead seemed to care. A baleful white glow escaped the sockets of its ivory skull. Irwyn thought it might have been a price of forcing their way here through space.

    ¡°A Ravener! Brace!¡± Hummingbird yelled, jumping back. Some others were already casting¡­ and yet.

    ¡°Die,¡± the being spoke a single word. It was impossibly quick, faster than a blink of an eye. And yet it was clearly audible. Unignorable. It decreed and its target died. The old officer who felt like an endless fall was in the middle of casting a spell¡­ then just stopped.

    ¡°Die, Die,¡± it spoke again. A young officer immediately ceased their spell and obeyed the irrefutable magical command. The other target was the Ibis who, somehow, managed to cast some kind of spell that seemed to have resulted in an unconscious collapse rather than instant death.

    And the Ravener was about to speak again when a massive surge of Void magic took Irwyn off his feet, rupturing his barriers of Starfire in the process. Such was its force that the enchanted glass of the observation platform shattered, still leaving enough physical force to make Irwyn fly for a moment before he caught himself with solid Flames. Not Light, because Irwyn was pretty sure it was not even possible to summon Light in this much ambient Void magic. His skin crawled and burned, and as Irwyn had discovered, although he might be immune to Flame and heat, there were other ways of being scorched. Though the pain was not so intense he could not ignore it in favor of more important circumstances.

    Irwyn looked over at the undead Ravener¡­ and realized it was no longer standing. He couldn¡¯t have had his eyes off of it for more than a second, yet all that was left of it was a skull. A skull held tightly in capable hands adorned in gloves. Its baleful soul raged and tried to escape its self-imposed prison through death but the person holding it refused to let go. Irwyn could not spare any of his mind for such thoughts though. He stared at the man who had just appeared. And they were so foreign yet also so familiar. Months ago, Irwyn had seen this person and thought them a living shadow. After all the improvements he had attained in magic and expanding his knowledge, he realized how utterly wrong he had been.

    A shadow implied a lack of light. Mere darkness that could be dispersed. The man standing before them now was a Reflection of the Void given flesh. A perfect image of formed nothingness. An undeniable representation of a spaceless infinity. And it stared at Irwyn balefully with its bottomless black eyes.

    For how could a mere mask protect him from the sight of a living demigod?

    ¡°Shadow of house Blackburg, code name Oxen, reporting to her Young Ladyship Elizabeth von Blackburg,¡± the ¡®man¡¯ spoke, though his eyes never left Irwyn. ¡°Seven Domain mages have just entered Abonisle and have already moved to relieve Shadow Dervish. Barring any extreme surprises, the situation should be stabilized in the following quarter hour. I shall remain here to ensure your safety as well as keep the Lich¡¯s soul from fleeing. Now, if you would please surrender the criminal.¡±

    ¡°You are speaking of a man who had played a vital part in saving Abonisle from the undead incursion,¡± Elizabeth walked over so she could stand next to Irwyn. She was visibly shaken but managed to make her voice sound confident. No one else dared so much as breathe loudly. ¡°In the name of House Blackburg, he is under my protection."

    ¡°Yet I have irrefutable orders to arrest this man on sight. Also in the name of House Blackburg,¡± the mage spoke, a frown appearing.

    ¡°Then I suppose,¡± Elizabeth smiled weakly. ¡°House Blackburg has a Matter of dispute.¡±

 Intermission: The things ones does for survival

    Desir groaned as he slowly sat up, feeling a stinging pain in his gut. It wasn¡¯t helped by the coughing fit caused by one of his teeth turning to dust. Small grains of exhausted magic that would soon return to nothingness as Finity took hold. Not that he had any right to complain given that it had just saved his life. And took him out of Abonisle while at it. Beyond the Void Lake and a good chunk further. Escape treasures were a wonderful thing¡­ especially when you planned to use them. Now, the situation was a bit improvised but it went almost exactly as he had hoped it to. The almost being the hole going through his lower torso.

    ¡°Damn ghost,¡± Desir muttered as he took the best look at it he could. A puncture going front to back but as far as he could feel and see it hadn¡¯t pierced anything important. Good thing that given that seeking professional help might be rather difficult in the nearby future since he didn''t want to take any additional risks. Instead he placed his left hand against the front of the wound, then released just a bit of Life magic.

    ¡°Any rend,

    Mend¡±

    The muscle of the arm quivered, hurt for a moment, then shrunk. Not so much that the effect was visible but it sure felt damn uncomfortable. Merely stitching the wound would only close it for a time before Finity reopened it. Rather, he had performed a more permanent graft. Of course, that required materials. Suitable biomass that the body wouldn¡¯t immediately attempt to reject. A proper healer could force less than suitable meat to serve. Desir with his skill at Life magic had to cannibalize his own flesh. Metaphorically speaking, of course. With his other hand he reached towards the back of the wound and recast the spell. The muscle he had to lose was lesser as the first cast had gotten maybe three quarters through his body. It still stung and left his arms feeling uncomfortable.

    He took a deep breath. At least he wasn¡¯t bleeding anymore. His clothes were still ruined but he would have had to burn them even if they weren¡¯t. Nothing traceable could be left. That included more than merely items. Desir reached into his pockets finding his portable makeup set which included a mirror¡­ only to find that said mirror had shattered at some point during the day, mixing with the dies. Cursing, he took the biggest shard that was somewhat clean and wiped it against the grass until it would somewhat start to reflect again. Which it didn¡¯t.

    ¡°Here, pro bono,¡± a familiar voice sounded in his ears. Desir looked up, finding Bhaak standing there just next to the man¡¯s wagon - neither having been there a moment prior. The trader was offering him a simple but competently made hand mirror.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± Desir nodded, not quite standing up as he looked into it, he was a bit of a mess after all the sweat, soot, and blood he had encountered. Thankfully he didn¡¯t use makeup before jobs otherwise it would have been much worse off. ¡°You know, I am surprised you carry mundane junk like this.¡±

    ¡°It eats souls,¡± the merchant shrugged without a change of tone and Desir almost threw it away reflexively before he could reign his reaction in ¨C just barely keeping it in hand. He glared up at the other man who now wore a light grin.

    ¡°It¡¯s not nearly as funny when it could be true,¡± he sighed then looked back down at himself. Two blue eyes, objectively handsome features, an enviable nose, and so on. He liked how he looked, indulged in vanity¡­ alas survival came first. He took a deep breath, then spoke:

    "

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    "

    His mind recoiled and he flinched as the glamour wore away. His toes and thumbs prickled, then spasmed. He coughed up sweat, then spat it out. A worm crawled out from his armpit, then promptly vanished.

    ¡°You have gotten better since last time,¡± Bhaak commented.

    ¡°Fuck off,¡± Desir managed to grunt, realizing that his voice had risen about 3 pitches. Hopefully only momentarily.

    ¡°I am serious,¡± Bhaak insisted. ¡°Faen magic is no joke, especially for someone who is not a fae. I wouldn¡¯t dream of trying it.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s really not fun if your body can¡¯t just ignore the side effects,¡± he sighed and took another deep breath, looking down at the mirror. His features had changed¡­ slightly. A bit less perfect, a bit less nice to look at, though not beyond recognition. What was distinctly different were his eyes though:

    While one eye remained blue, the other turned to bright pink. And not just the iris, but the sclera and pupil as well - not to mention the newfound soft glow. The kind of thing every man, woman and child would notice and remember you by. Therefore, Desir waited a few moments for the side effects to fully fade, then spoke again.

    ¡°

    ¡°

    Desir keeled over, hearing the smell of blueberries. His tongue had turned to sugar cane which really did not go well with the salt rocks that his teeth became. The entire world shifted towards the shade of yellow in his eyes and he gained a sudden distinct impression of a third arm he did not have touching something very fluffy somewhere else. Not to mention the horrible itch on his liver and whispers of impossible shapes.

    Of course, those faded away. After a few dozen seconds his body returned to normal - besides the aftertaste of overpowering salt and sugar staying behind. Desir looked back into the mirror and found himself¡­ changed. His eyes were green now. Not piercing emerald, just good old mundane green. His features had shifted as well. He was - unfortunately - a lot less handsome than before, his visage far more common and less pleasing¡­ But completely unrecognizable. And that was what mattered.

    ¡°I certainly hope it will be enough,¡± Desir sighed deeply, though mostly to give an opening to the much more powerful mage standing right next to him to provide an opinion.

    ¡°If I try to divine your pursuers it will just alert them to something being amiss with your ¡®death¡¯,¡± Bhaak simply shrugged. ¡°But from just a mundane perspective, Irwyn had accidentally already spread the news of your supposed demise. By the end of the day, the whole Guild will probably be convinced you died¡­ and in a large-scale incursion like this no one will even bother looking for a body.¡±

    ¡°That bad, huh,¡± Desir sighed, properly standing up.

    ¡°Just look up,¡± Bhaak shrugged, his chin rising away from Desir and up towards Abonisle. Desir followed the man¡¯s gaze. The Spires still stood, towering above the already ridiculously tall buildings and city levels. What gathered the attention was between the roofs and the peaks.

    It looked a bit like a sandstorm at first glance. Desir had encountered one when traveling at the outskirts of the glass desert a while back, though that had been more yellow than white. Of course, it was too¡­ contained. Staying in one place, perhaps shifting left and right but not deviating particularly far from the space it occupied ¨C more like a cloud than a tempest. And the space was quite massive indeed. Then in it he spotted black smidges of something. It was too far away for him to tell what they were¡­ but in the Duchy of Black it was a safe guess that anything of the same color was on the side of House Blackburg.

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ¡°I suppose that is the¡­ guardian occupying the lich,¡± Desir resisted the urge to gasp. He could not feel any magic from this far away but the sheer scale was insane. Inhuman. Two mages fighting in the skies in an area that had to be at least several kilometers across for hours without pause.

    ¡°Quite. It is relatively rare that Domain mages are so equally matched and fight in the open like this,¡± Bhaak nodded.

    ¡°Good thing I am out of there then,¡± Desir shrugged.

    ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t want to leave Irwyn a message?¡± the merchant looked away from the battle. ¡°You have already guessed that he is among my clientele.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Desir shook his head, not even bothered that Bhaak knew about his assumptions. ¡°Now, Irwyn is a right lad and if it were just the friendship maybe would. But - and don¡¯t take this the wrong way if she is also on your list - but the girl absolutely fucking terrifies me. And he would probably tell her.¡±

    ¡°That bad?¡± Bhaak raised an eyebrow but elaborated. ¡°She is not a customer. The Duke of Black had personally warned me to leave his progeny alone when I had approached his firstborn son. And I take warnings from mages within a walking distance of claiming a Name seriously.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what it is. It might honestly be just me because of my circumstances,¡± Desir tried to put his thoughts into order. ¡°Actually, I am pretty sure it was just me since no one else was freaking out. But the first time I met her, the Void in my blood roiled and screamed. Bowed down in supplication. Like a damn Archdemon was telling me to kneel - but she did that without even meaning to.¡±

    ¡°Hmmm,¡± Bhaak frowned and thought for a moment. ¡°That is fascinating.¡±

    ¡°Do you know something?¡± Desir asked hopefully.

    ¡°I could tell you for¡­ let¡¯s say all your credit,¡± Bhaak said after a second.

    ¡°I don¡¯t have credit with you?¡± Desir had to raise an eyebrow, confused. At least he was pretty sure he didn¡¯t.

    ¡°You do, Irwyn just - as he often does - forgot to mention it,¡± the merchant shook his head. ¡°I have recovered the arm¡¯s dealer¡¯s stock to resell. By right the two of you should split that half and half. Now, they are not the most useful things but you are not asking for a particularly expensive secret.¡±

    ¡°Give me a moment,¡± Desir sighed and thought about it. Whatever he got in credit for a good chunk of crates in magical weaponry¡­ probably wasn¡¯t that much in the grand scheme of things. He could get something else worthwhile for it, sure, but nothing he needed. He had made preparations to fake his death and had everything ready in his spacial bag. And - even though it frightened him - a connection to House Blackburg could be damn useful if he could reveal himself in a few years when he was no longer hunted or felt quite as vulnerable. He wouldn¡¯t even need to lie about how he escaped too much. ¡°Fine, a secret for my credit.¡±

    ¡°Excellent,¡± Bhaak smiled broadly as his iris widened infinitesimally, just like the man always did when trading. Desir was pretty sure that Bhaak got off on the concept of exchanging goods, though was polite enough to not mention it. ¡°It is a somewhat forgotten truth that the lineage of House Blackburg does not originate just from the Duke of Wrath taking a mortal courtesan. In truth, children are quite difficult to conceive the conventional way for beings so powerful. The real ancestor of the entire bloodline was a certain pure-blooded elf - whose name, I am afraid, would be rather expensive to learn. Given your constitution¡­ well, I don¡¯t think I have to explain.¡±

    ¡°That was what, half a hundred generations ago? More?¡± Desir frowned. He didn¡¯t actually know how old the Federation was but the Duke of Wrath had been at its foundation, already a Named mage then. ¡°How could that bloodline not have been diluted beyond the slightest reaction, much less such a strong one?¡±

    ¡°You make the mistake of thinking about high magics with common sense,¡± Bhaak shook his head. ¡°What do the raptures of time matter to a Named one? Why should their heritage be interruptible by such petty concepts as attrition? It is not unheard of - at least in my circles - for bloodlines founded soon after the Great Crusade to have an inconceivable resurgence in the recent decades - often to parents who had no inkling they even had such ancestors. I am not an expert but for all we know she could be more pure-blooded than first-generation half-elves.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that a frightening thought,¡± Desir shuddered. Most people didn¡¯t understand what ¡®first-generation¡¯ really meant in this context. He did. And just the possibility was another item on the list of reasons to stay away from Elizabeth von Blackburg.

    ¡°Although I enjoy chatting that is not what I came here for,¡± Bhaak said after a moment of silence. ¡°The city is quickly approaching a crescendo.¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes, I have it right here,¡± Desir reached into his inner pocket and retrieved a small cube. The moment he took it out it expanded to three times the previous size. ¡°You could have just taken it yourself without involving me.¡±

    ¡°Now, now Desir,¡± Bhaak chided. ¡°I do not steal. I am a merchant after all, it would be going against my very nature to barge into someone¡¯s home or hideout to simply take whatever I wanted.¡±

    ¡°But you have no trouble getting someone to steal it for you,¡± Desir grinned and threw the box over to Bhaak. It was surprisingly light.

    ¡°It is uncouth to phrase it that way,¡± the peddler shook his head, passing his hand across the bottom of the box which immediately began to open. ¡°I simply provide information and resources at a discount then mention what I would be willing to buy certain goods for and where one might find them. I am not so scrupulous as to care how they are obtained.¡±

    ¡°Well, I won¡¯t complain about profiting from it,¡± Desir shrugged. He couldn¡¯t see the inside of the cube from where he stood but knew what was in it. Or rather did not really know because looking had given him an instant headache. But the low ethereal singing was familiar. ¡°What is it anyway?¡±

    ¡°A living song,¡± Bhaak nodded and closed the cube again.

    ¡°Did the Singing man make it then?¡± Desir did plunder it from the Fowl¡¯s secret storehouse after all. Even felt a bit bad about how he borderline duped his partners in crime. But he really needed what had been offered and a wasted evening wouldn¡¯t even bother the two ridiculous prodigies. Not to mention they accidentally stumbled exactly into what they had been looking for.

    ¡°HAH!¡± Bhaak exhaled a laugh. ¡°Did a mage barely halfway through conception make it? No, Desir. At least not intentionally. This is a much rarer collector¡¯s item.¡±

    ¡°How was it made then?¡± and why did Bhaak want it?

    ¡°It is an anomaly, an error in very reality that allowed this thing to come into existence,¡± Bhaak announced. ¡°You see, since the time of the aspects themselves only sapient beings have souls. And that includes only a select number of species, distinctly excluding any and all monsters. But think about it for a moment and realize that there must be some kind of system or fundamental law that creates and distributes souls among newborns. And sometimes, rarely, this great integral part of reality is mistaken and gifts a soul to something inanimate.¡±

    ¡°Something like a song,¡± Desir nodded, looking over at the cube, suppressing a frown, ¡°So you are dealing even in living things, huh.¡±

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t give me that look,¡± Bhaak closed the cube, making it disappear in his hand when Desir blinked. ¡°There is a Singer who has built a sanctuary for these to live in about as happily as a mistake against the very nature of reality can. Also pays for any I find through the nose.¡±

    ¡°Feels like I am getting a pittance in comparison,¡± Desir sighed. But that was how intermediaries worked and he wasn¡¯t really complaining.

    ¡°I assure you it¡¯s much more than anyone else in the Duchy Federation would pay you for it,¡± Bhaak shrugged and Desir easily believed that. The man was very evasive about where his other customers might be from. To the point Desir suspected they were not necessarily all from this Realm. The man had a tendency to teleport across supposedly impossible distances.

    ¡°Speaking of,¡± Desir dismissed the meaningless musings. He should not forget that time was still ticking.

    ¡°Right here,¡± Bhaak was already holding his prize. A book. It didn¡¯t look thick or particularly interesting at a glance though that could be deceiving. For Desir had bargained for a tome. ¡°A complete primer on Fate and Time magic up to and including the basics of domain formation you should be aware of in advance. As we have agreed, it is bound to you and you alone. Anyone else opening or attempting to read it will cause it to turn to dust and reappear somewhere among your belongings within a month.¡±

    ¡°As always, pleasure doing business with you,¡± Desir couldn¡¯t stop his grin as he touched the mundane and seemingly cheap cover. Bhaak trembled slightly as the goods passed hands and their trade was ¡®concluded¡¯. ¡°What would a ride cost me I wonder?¡±

    ¡°For you?¡± Bhaak thought for a moment, ¡°Given the situation I am willing to take you somewhere close enough on credit. Not further than the neighboring duchies though.¡±

    ¡°How about north then?¡± Desir asked.

    ¡°Leaving the Federation altogether?¡± Bhaak raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Even I can guess a Lich war is about to break out,¡± Desir shrugged, nodding towards Abonisle. ¡°No shame in not wanting to end up as involuntary fodder for one side, then the other.¡±

    ¡°You have a point,¡± Bhaak nodded. ¡°It is just unusual for anyone to leave. Natives to the Federation can have quite the shock when seeing the outside world¡­ though I suppose that won¡¯t be a problem with you.¡±

    ¡°When are we leaving?¡± Desir nodded.

    ¡°As soon as I know the city doesn¡¯t fall,¡± Bhaak shrugged, turning back towards Abonisle.

    ¡°I thought you were unwilling to help,¡± Desir frowned.

    ¡°Do not mistake inability for unwillingness, Desir,¡± Bhaak replied, and by the serious tone not happy about Desir¡¯s comment. ¡°I am a merchant. A trader. To interfere in a battle, to help one side in a war just on behalf of my ideals rather than profit¡­ it is anathemic to my very being.¡±

    ¡°And yet you haven¡¯t left,¡± Desir noted.

    ¡°If I intervene even in the slightest way¡­ it could cost me decades,¡± Bhaak nodded. ¡°And yet, and yet¡­ What would be the consequences of Abonisle falling?¡±

    ¡°You are the better diviner among us,¡± Desir shrugged but noted a different thing. Bhaak did not know whether Abonisle would fall. Normally that shouldn¡¯t even pose a challenge to the man. Either the undead had deployed some extreme measure against divination or Irwyn¡¯s resistance to prophecies of any kind Old Ibis had complained about was much more potent than Desir had thought.

    ¡°We are about to find out,¡± Bhaak said.

    ¡°They couldn¡¯t have even started storming the Spires yet,¡± Desir frowned. It had been just a few minutes since his close escape.

    ¡°I have been speeding our subjective time a bit,¡± Bhaak shrugged as if doing that completely unnoticed was a simple thing. Then he stared into the distance and fell quiet. So did Desir. The silence was rather oppressive given that he had no way of perceiving things that far away hidden through who knew how many layers of mortar, concrete and enchanted metal. But although it looked serene from the outside, the city was hanging by a thread.

    ¡°It seems like I am not needed,¡± Bhaak suddenly sighed deeply after a while and Desir mirrored him just from the sheer tension. ¡°Best we leave.¡±

    And so they did.

 Intermission: Strings

    Just a few more details and it would be done. Avys von Blackburg walked around the maid wearing a lavish avant-garde green dress, checking each hem and lace on the girl as if she were a mannequin. Making certain that everything was in order. Especially the emerald-colored bracelet - the most important detail. She was sure the upstart Count would appreciate the striking familiarity to the one he had gifted his missing mistress when he met with the Duke the following day. Then she nodded to herself, dismissing the maid for the moment. The young woman quickly left the room.

    Avys had to admit, among the many misguided traditions of House Blackburg their servant caste had been surprisingly well managed. Probably more out of Pride than practically but even coincidental competence of her in-law ancestors could prove convenient. She had been actually impressed by how well indoctrinated they were when taking the mettle of local nobility. Entire clans of just servants dedicated to House Blackburg with traditions, documented bloodlines, and even political undercurrents. Nobility among slaves in all but name as far as Avys reckoned, though almost no one in the Federation thought of it that way - it was only natural for them that the Mage stood above all others. Even the servants themselves took Pride and pleasure in being indoctrinated by their own families since birth.

    Then, of course, House Blackburg managed to add hindrances to everything convenient. Early in her reign, she had to deal with the high nobility genuinely upset at the possibility of her - someone they despised - being waited on by servants with less than 10 generations of pedigree. And that was on the lower end of cultural pushback she had to deal with over the years. The chains of tradition were still so tight that after well over 4 decades of loosening Avys was barely starting to feel her hypothetical wrists again. And those erosive plans have been upset by recent events.

    ¡°Dervish is here,¡± Calm announced as soon as Avys sat back at her table. She had not noticed but then again, she was not particularly perceptive.

    ¡°Allow him in,¡± she nodded, taking a deep sigh before reaching into a cupboard, quickly withdrawing a bit of candy. It melted on her tongue with a surge of mana and almost overwhelming sweetness, much to her appreciation. Mana-infused sweets were expensive¡­ for most people. She had to often hold back as to not overindulge.

    ¡°Your Ladyship,¡± Dervish gave her a slight bow, already in the chair across from her, having moved across the room in the blink of an eye before she had even noticed him enter.

    ¡°I assume you can finally give me the detailed report about Abonisle?¡± Avys nodded.

    ¡°As you have asked me to,¡± Dervish affirmed.

    ¡°Then please,¡± she beckoned for him to go on. Calm settled to the side of the table in the meantime, blatantly listening in.

    ¡°As you know there have been two Raveners present at Abonisle,¡± Dervish nodded. ¡°Shadow Conclusion has managed to uncover their mortal identities as we have feared.¡±

    ¡°Damn it,¡± Avys suppressed a groan. That meant they had come from this Realm, not through a breach. That could only mean one thing. ¡°Let me guess: Missing soldiers from the last Lich war 17 years ago.¡±

    ¡°Only one of them was a soldier. The other had been an associated diviner,¡± Desrvish nodded, not fazed. ¡°Married couple, in fact.¡±

    ¡°One died and the other was convinced to try and revive them,¡± Avys could already see the line of that story. ¡°Something survived the last Lich War to give that offer and actually live up to it. Quite possibly something that had actively fought but had the presence of mind to go into hiding before the final battle against the Archlich.¡±

    ¡°Something powerful if it was willing to send two Raveners on a suicide mission,¡± Calm commented. Because even if Lizzy hadn¡¯t made it, the Liches would have still been killed. The city would have completely fallen - true - but they would have died nonetheless in the end. Hunted across the whole Duchy if need be.

    ¡°Any feedback on the warnings we have sent?¡± Avys turned to Calm. The moment she had heard what was happening in Abonisle she had sent emergency letters in her husband¡¯s name.

    ¡°The Duchies of White, Red, Cyan and Green had officially thanked Duke Ezax for the warning after uncovering a brewing incursion in their own metropolises,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°All of them in major cities with their Temporal Beacons - though our agents couldn¡¯t confirm that anything actually happened in the Duchy of White.¡±

    ¡°The Duke of White is a deft hand,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°He either lied about it as a discreet favor for us or will pretend that was the case when he wants something in return. Do we know what they were actually after?¡±

    ¡°Presumably the city,¡± Dervish replied, completely stone-faced as always.

    ¡°No other sign of anything else? Really?¡± Avys did not like the answer.

    ¡°As far as we could find,¡± Dervish nodded. ¡°Everything suggests that it was merely an assault on a city that, thanks to young Irwyn, was barely noticed in the nick of time and foiled.¡±

    ¡°Which means we are missing something,¡± Avys decided. ¡°If they wanted to just inflict damage and death, they would have other better options. What of the facility that was attacked a few weeks prior?¡± the building had been erased with Time/Space magic without any chance to identify what might have been taken.

    ¡°Our investigation was clearly being diverted,¡± Dervish admitted. ¡°In hindsight, one of the Liches had an extraordinary capacity to coordinate undead. I would guess they guided several corrupted Time mages to produce a seemingly much more potent spell. But there was supposedly nothing really worthwhile kept at that facility.¡±

    ¡°Calm, get someone on it,¡± Avys decided. ¡°Check ritual significance, history, people missing after the original attack. There must be something more to it.¡±

    ¡°I will get it done,¡± Calm agreed.

    ¡°The soldiers noted an abnormal quantity of Light attuned Draugr,¡± Avys continued her thought. ¡°No report of anything from Duchy of Yellow?¡±

    ¡°No, but that could be just them being evasive,¡± Calm shrugged. ¡°The Duchess of Yellow still despises you.¡±

    ¡°Petty wench, but they must have come from there, unless the souls were sourced interplanarly,¡± Avys thought. It couldn¡¯t quite be ignored. ¡°When we are done I will write a letter borderline accusing the Duchy of Yellow of supporting the attack.¡±

    ¡°Irrationally sent after the attack on your favorite city, yes?¡± Calm guessed.

    ¡°Exactly, then have it immediately followed by a letter from Ezax apologizing for his wife¡¯s faux pas while implying that he disowns it. I will help him word it just right.¡±

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Will that help?¡± Calm was unsure.

    ¡°The Duke of White knows the game,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°He will read between the lines and discreetly send inquisitors, or it will at least push him towards that decision with other evidence. And if I am right we can use it in a few years when we pull the curtain.¡±

    ¡°Then I will have the line ready to send at a moment¡¯s notice,¡± Calm nodded.

    ¡°And the facility Dervish?¡± Avys looked back to the man.

    ¡°Untouched,¡± the Shadow nodded. ¡°They had gone into 24 hours of silent lockdown as per protocol and only opened up last night. No problems. The Shadows antagonistic to us have also been too occupied with the boy to notice."

    ¡°Yes, the boy,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s talk about the source of my headache. I want your best evaluation.¡±

    ¡°Before the incursion itself I would have put his talent just below young ladyship Elizabeth, above before she indulged the Ambrosia,¡± Dervish said. And Avys was surprised, because Lizzy was ridiculous. The man always spoke with complete honesty though, at least to her. Of course, she had read that the boy was described as incredibly talented but had purposefully not delved into the young mage¡¯s story too deeply. It was supposed to be a passive investment she would not need to worry about for at least a few more months or ideally years.

    ¡°Something has changed your mind,¡± Avys noted. Whether that was for better or worse had not yet been mentioned.

    ¡°This,¡± Dervish nodded and a metal slate appeared in his hands, facing the Duchess. On it was engraved a shape. Avys looked it over and by the time she looked away there was almost no memory of it in her mind. Just a vague sense of impossible angles. If she were a more talented mage she might have had a headache. Alas her soul could not even delude itself that learning truly advanced magic was possible.

    ¡°And this is?¡± Avys asked. Calm had also looked over but quickly flinched away. That in itself said a lot to her.

    ¡°That is a mark the boy used in self admittedly ¡®improvised spell¡¯ against the undead,¡± Dervish explained. ¡°Matching it to record had the chief librarian occupied dawn to dusk and we can only be thankful that Captain Evenwoe even had the idea to take a picture of it as no eyewitnesses could retain it in their minds.¡±

    ¡°The name doesn¡¯t sound familiar,¡± Avys admitted, captains would generally be completely beneath her notice.

    ¡°The one who young ladyship made first contact with,¡± Dervish said. While Avys was blinking a full file on the man appeared on her table. She did not let the Shadow¡¯s antics distract her and immediately picked it up. ¡°Third page, 4th paragraph might be of interest.¡±

    ¡°The Carrion purge,¡± Avys read, a familiar name that immediately made the strings connect in her head. ¡°His daughter died there. No wonder he was so warry about the boy¡¯s obvious Guild affiliation.¡±

    ¡°We can be thankful for his paranoia,¡± Calm had approached silently at some point, reading over Avys¡¯ shoulder - as he could afford in very private company. ¡°So, what is that mark?¡±

    ¡°Limited records on it,¡± Dervish nodded, another document appearing in between blinks. This time a single page. ¡°The head librarian has concluded that it matches what is called ¡®The Weeping of Stars¡¯.¡±

    ¡°This is not intention or even concept magic,¡± if Avys had been trained worse her eyes would have widened in shock as she read the short file. ¡°A mark of a Truth?¡± a Truth of magic¡­ where spellcraft and its rules became mere suggestions. A mage who had attained such could dare to claim a Name¡­ assuming there was a suitable one not taken. She would always remember the day Ezax had claimed his first Truth, such impression had it left. Just the thought of such a young boy possessing one was laughable. ¡°How is that even possible?¡±

    ¡°It is not,¡± Dervish nodded. ¡°A human halfway through Imbuement should die on the spot from somehow retaining this kind of knowledge. Such a fragile soul and body would not bear it.¡±

    ¡°You think he is not,¡± Calm spoke out the obvious conclusion.

    ¡°Too many signs. And if that wasn¡¯t conclusive, this is,¡± another sheet of paper appeared on the table and Avys picked it up. It was a¡­ medical report. A bit of idle paperwork that any half decent healer would issue to their patients. And besides the ¡®redacted¡¯ name and ignoring context it looked normal. Perfect physical health, undamaged Vessel, Funnel, and Reservoir. No grafts required. No immediate signs of trauma, physical or otherwise.

    ¡°It is rather strange that there would be no signs of mana overuse,¡± Avys admitted. Hours of relentless casting should mean bruising of the Vessel or other spiritual sprains. It was certainly very unusual but not necessarily inhuman.

    ¡°You are missing the point,¡± Calm shook his head behind her. ¡°Right here: ¡®No grafts required¡¯.¡±

    ¡°He was injured,¡± Avys realized. She remembered reading that in the early report.

    ¡°He got his arm severed while being stabbed through the heart,¡± Dervish replied. ¡°Stitching applied on the spot to save him. I have even discretely checked with the young Ladyship it was even indeed stitching. This is not just natural recovery. His body subsumed the temporary magic to heal. That either defies Finity or his flesh is not mundane.¡±

    ¡°What do you think the boy is then?¡± Avys asked.

    ¡°Putting it all together with the visions he had reported, the indecipherable Fate, the bottomless reserves and the impossible resistance to Flame - and probably Light as well - I can see only two possibilities,¡± Dervish nodded. ¡°He could be a deeply wounded Star that is genuinely amnesiac - I am confident the boy is not deceiving me. But I have already consulted with several astronomers and the consensus is that the last time a Star winked out was well over three centuries ago. And near-death experiences would likely have more noticeable reactions if that were the case, not to mention it would make no sense for him to end up in our Realm in that case. Stars don¡¯t leave their own kind injured and abandoned.¡±

    ¡°And your other guess,¡± Avys asked for the real one.

    ¡°The boy is very likely half Empyrean, or at least quarter,¡± Dervish concluded. ¡°Whatever living Star had mothered or fathered him could have left him with a fate-warding blessing, some copied memories as heritage and little else. Old annals suggest that our Sun has engaged in similar trysts on several occasions.¡±

    ¡°Half Empyrean,¡± Avys whispered the words. The sheer possibility that presented. Already pushed to her side of the board by her enemies and bonded with her daughter. Assuming he lived through the near future, that is. ¡°How are the preparations going, Calm?¡±

    ¡°The dress is being made, otherwise there was not much to prepare on my end,¡± Calm shrugged. ¡°Though Elizabeth has still not approached you for help. Should I make contact?¡±

    ¡°No. She has been desperately grasping for independence in the last few years,¡± Avys shook her head. ¡°If I extend the helping hand she will only resent me for it. Let her figure out on her own that no amount of begging, sniffling, and promising will be enough to get the boy out of this mess alive. Then she will come to me for the solution she is certain I always have.¡±

    ¡°Will she really come around?¡± Calm hesitated. ¡°She has been quite insistent on having as little to do with you as possible ever since she hit puberty Avys.¡±

    ¡°I find that young Ladyship has become surprisingly attached to the boy,¡± Dervish commented from the side and Avys thought she noticed a hint of suspicion in that unmoving gaze. ¡°Almost surprisingly quickly.¡±

    ¡°I could tell you that it was a matter of prediction about a peerless lonely girl,¡± Avys smiled. ¡°And that had been in part my original intent in letting Elizabeth volunteer to be a liaison. But now? Now I think it is a matter of mythology. I am almost certain of it.¡±

    ¡°I am not sure I understand,¡± Dervish admitted and Calm nodded behind her.

    ¡°A Star and a Temzda. A story older than time,¡± she said and after a moment realized from their expressions they still did not see the connection. ¡°Now is not the time for storytelling I suppose. Calm, prepare me wine in the parlor. I will be remaking the Web tonight.¡±

    ¡°To account for the boy,¡± that Calm immediately understood.

    ¡°And for the early Lich war,¡± Avys nodded. She had turned the last one into an opportunity. She would do so again. ¡°Now if you will excuse me, I have to find Ezax for some bonding over letters.¡±

 The Dream of Oaths

    Irwyn bled. Suffered. It was¡­ difficult to properly parse. He had never been in pain before. He had never been genuinely hurt prior. Not once since before the beginning of time. Which either made it worse or better. He could not tell, partly because of the sheer shock and incomprehension of it. He was the son of light and flame. How could he even suffer this way?

    It was dark. Beyond pitch black. That was only to be expected on Umbra¡¯s Solstice, of course. He had chosen to do what he did exactly because of that. To hide. Mother was too worried and would not allow him to try what he had done. In hindsight, she had been right. He had not been as ready as he had thought. His blood dripped like ichor into the grass. Plap, plap, as it sizzled and burned. But the pitch of night did not relent one bit because of that. Such was the compromise, that no light would be for one day of every year.

    ¡°Ignis Lumen,¡± he whispered, shaking. It barely glowed. Barely more distinct than meaningless words. Yes, he bled but the real wound was much, much deeper. He felt it, in his very soul, a damaged bond. And beyond it was what he had thought unthinkable:

    A cracked Name.

    It was an impossibility. And yet he had done it to himself. Accidentally, but achieved it nonetheless. And so, he lay in the grass bleeding and terrified. Of what his Mother would think. Of what she would ask of him in her worry. If what he had done could be mended. Plap, plap. More blood flowed. He realized he was no longer lying on grass but in a small scorched circle. It didn¡¯t matter but anything that could distract him was worthwhile.

    Because then dawn came.

    In the same blink of an eye that the first rays of sunlight moved past the horizon, Lumen was there. It was a misconception of so many mortals that the Lightmother had a form, which she did not. The Aspects were nature, utter purity of omnipotence. Because light was not merely part of her domain. Lumen was light. Every candle, every dim ember, every flashing spark, every source of the slightest glow. She simply was every. single. one.

    Of course, some light was more her than others. The purity of the Cradle where she had been first formed was incomparable to a mere bonfire. And her attention was technically finite, albeit incomprehensibly universal. But it was undeniable. Lumen was light. She was also simultaneously worried and furious. Rays caressed him reassuringly, yet also tugged at his ear and elbow in disapproval while ever more fussed over each of his wounds with worry, seeking to mend the broken as Irwyn¡¯s mother spoke:

    WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO YOURSELF?

    ¡°I am sorry, mom,¡± he would have shrunk if he was not already lying on the ground. ¡°I couldn¡¯t help myself. I had to know. I had to try even when you told me not to.¡±

    FOOLISH. DANGEROUS. I FEEL IT. YOU HAVE HURT MORE THAN THE BODY. THE SOUL. YOUR VERY NAME.

    ¡°I know,¡± Irwyn softly nodded. ¡°I am really sorry I didn¡¯t listen to you¡­ Can it be fixed?¡±

    Then Irwyn felt reality buckle. An Aspect had made a demand. More than a mere Edict that needed to be spoken. Just a metamorphosis of existence itself. For why would its creator require pleading or permission to change that which they had wrought from their very selves? Irwyn felt the Edict pass through him and restore everything into perfection.

    Cracks closed. Wounds vanished. His Name glowed again. His great failure, erased with less than a thought without a trace.

    IT IS NOT SO SIMPLE. EVEN YOUR FATHER CANNOT EASILY RECREATE WHAT IS TRULY LOST. TIME CAN ONLY BE BENT BACKWARDS SO FAR. EVEN THIS MEMORY OF IT WILL CHANGE YOU EVERMORE.

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°I¡­ I had to try. I told you why,¡± Irwyn tried to justify himself, knowing it would be futile. They had not resolved a disagreement before this way.

    AND I HAVE FORBIDDEN IT. YET YOU DID NOT LISTEN.

    ¡°When my brother did it he was not hurt!¡± Irwyn defended.

    YOUR HALF-BROTHER HAD QUARTER OF YOUR AMBITION. CREATED A FRACTION OF WHAT YOU SEEK TO MAKE. THAT IS WHY I HAVE FORBIDDEN IT. YOU KNOW THIS.

    ¡°It¡¯s not fair!¡± Irwyn bit his lip and insisted. ¡°I want it. No, I need it. I need to create my own Edict. Create true meaning for the Name you and Father had given me. More than just the one for mere Stars. How can I aim for anything less than impossible?¡±

    YOU WILL NOT STOP.

    ¡°I cannot,¡± Irwyn nodded at the conclusion. ¡°I am sorry but it occupies my every thought. Every moment of every day I think about it. I just¡­ cannot simply put it aside. But if you help me Mother I could do it better. Safer. Will you do that for me, please?¡±

    I UNDERSTAND. THEN THERE IS ONLY ONE CHOICE. I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU ANY HARM.

    And for a moment Irwyn smiled, misunderstanding the meaning of those words. Because his mother was protective and he trusted her. Because he had been so very na?ve. Because fulfillment was not a virtue his mother acknowledged. Temperance was.

    SO, YOU MUST BIND YOURSELF. FORSAKE CREATION. PATIENCE WILL PREVAIL WITH TEMPTATION BEYOND REACH. SWEAR IT TO ME, MY SON.

    ¡°I¡­?¡± Irwyn froze, more shocked by the words than he had been by his wounds. ¡°No! I don¡¯t want that!¡±

    BUT YOU WILL BE HURT OTHERWISE. THAT CANNOT BE ACCEPTED.

    ¡°What of magic? What of the Stars?¡± Irwyn scrambled to argue with light. ¡°I have never been hurt with those!¡±

    THEN KEEP WHAT YOU HAVE ALREADY ACCOMPLISHED. WHAT YOU HAVE ALREADY PROVEN. BUT THAT AND ONLY THAT. NOTHING NEW. NOTHING CREATED FROM NAUGHT.

    ¡°Please, don¡¯t,¡± Irwyn felt choked. ¡°I don¡¯t want to give that up forever.¡±

    NOT FOREVER, CHILD. BUT UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND HUMILITY, ABANDON RECKLESSNESS. UNTIL I RELEASE YOU FROM IT. SWEAR TO ME.

    And Irwyn felt all of reality shift with attention. Logos watched through the strings of fate so eager to form. Chronos beheld as he would all things in time. ______ from the edges of Irwyn¡¯s soul. Astermus through the dirt and wind, while Vitaros through the grass and trees. Even Ignis took notice through the burning sparks of Irwyn¡¯s drying blood. Only Parios chose not to observe, the Toolbearer as disinterested as ever.

    And of course they came to see. For this was a historic moment. For there have been oaths before. Promises made, promises broken. Between mortals, perhaps even immortals. But this? This was an Aspect demanding it. An oath that would be made with something above reality itself. That had never happened before. Perhaps not since. It was not wrought through fate. It was more. Because the Aspects created, gave direction. Haggled restrictions between each other. What weaknesses and strengths to inflict to form a balance. But it would be foolish to believe that they themselves adhered to their own rules. That they believed in the concept of impossible.

    And Irwyn knew that, with unerring certainty. He had not existed when The-flame-that-is-origin made 8 others from himself but he had been told how. How something could be forced to become fundamentally different. That had been what he had attempted to do today after all. At what he had failed and was being punished for.

    He had meant to create an Edict that was more than an Edict. More than Stars. More than what new Names were born along with. He had reached for the impossible ¨C and failed in his hubris.

    Of course, his mother did not see it that way. He knew that in her omnipresent eyes it was not punitive. Merely protective. And although it hurt him, he noticed the worried caress of light on his skin and knew he could not refuse. Because it was the least he could do for his mother to dissuade her worries. He would have to prove himself. Convince her that he was ready until one day she believed him and released the oath.

    And so he swore.

    It was, after all, not meant to last forever.

 3.1 Implications

    Irwyn awoke with a start, his heart beating out of his chest as words beyond mere words rang in his ears. His body convulsed as his mind struggled to catch up with a memory of the vision. Just the recollection hurt. His ears rang from merely recalling what had been spoken and his very being shook from the hubris of hearing.

    For they had been words of an Aspect. Not of a broken remnant, not a left-over epitaph, but spoken in the fullness of their power.

    Irwyn was torn between majesty and terror. Confusion and uncertain denial as he put his thoughts into better order. And the conclusions he reached seemed almost impossible. Because he remembered the Oath, spoken to Lumen herself. Vividly recalled the words:

    <u>To abandon all creation; to form nothing new that would last; to deny his very desire to make.</u>

    But that had not been sworn by a mortal thief with a bit of talent. With a shaking breath and trepidation, Irwyn sat up in the bed. It was all velvet and silk, soft and meticulously prepared - much better than a prisoner had any right to expect - but those sensations passed by him as he stood up. There were books strewn across every other surface they could be put - most of them he didn¡¯t yet have a chance to read yet - but he ignored them. He needed a piece of paper and something to write¡­ Which he didn¡¯t have. He had no use for those before, therefore he had not asked for them. Frantic he began to pace. If he left the room it might alert his watchers and he wanted to do this in privacy¡­ but he needed to see if he was wrong.

    So he walked to a nearby shelf - all carved mahogany - and cut the side of it out, earning him a mostly flat wooden square. He sat back down on his bed and stared at it for a moment¡­ then he made a knife of solid flames and let it cut into the wood, drawing as straight of a line in it as was possible.

    When he looked again he impossibly found a zig-zagging curve with two distinct gaps that couldn¡¯t have been made with a single cut. Not surprised Irwyn reconfirmed the second thing he knew: He moved the knife again but this time did not focus on the material. Instead, he focused on the knife being an attack. A weapon rather than a chisel, moving it through the wood because it was in its way rather than with any regard for it. A shift of perspective and intention.

    And it mattered. Irwyn had noticed at one point that despite being unable to even cut a straight line he suspiciously could leave them after battle without meaning to. That had led to this discovery. That such mental gymnastics mattered. If he was not attempting to create anything, he would not be stopped. And now he had a wording to examine as to why.

    ¡®Form nothing new that would last,¡¯ the words went, but what did ¡®new¡¯ mean? Was it up to interpretation? An objective meaning enforced by a dead Aspect¡¯s will? Or perhaps the wording did not matter in any way - what were mere words before omnipotence?

    But there were loopholes, clearly. Assuming it was indeed the very same Oath, Irwyn could still wield spells. He had even invented his own incantations and could maintain magical images without them distorting as long as he kept the magic under his control. Most likely, those were exceptions under the clause of nothing new that would last. Was then all magic considered as something pre-existing? Or perhaps he simply had not reached a point of skill where he could truly invent anything. Maybe he was just deluding himself by entertaining these questions at all ¨C they each supposed something impossible as true after all.

    A voice at the back of his head whispered he might not necessarily want to know the answer. The one at the forefront screamed that he had to understand. So, he looked back down at the board, took a shaky breath, and wrote again. He did not focus on the letters or the parts but instead thought only of the whole. He had no practice with writing strokes but his precision at magic more than made up for it. Still, he did not dare look down until it was done. When his eyes stared, they found a single word, completely legible:

    Lumen

    It shone in Irwyn¡¯s eyes as well as magical senses. Its light was inescapable. Names were a fixture of reality after all, especially those of the Aspects even long after their demise. So, they could not be considered something new. At least that had been the idea that seemed most correct. Irwyn gulped and continued, writing once again.

    Ignis

    The all-father¡¯s Name burned a hole into existence. He had seen those two Names written down before and it hadn¡¯t been anything like this. Those had been just mundane words written in ink. But Irwyn could not carve mundane words which, ironically, seemed to elevate them into something more - stripped of the mortal concept of mere writing. Or perhaps it was just because it was him in particular writing them. Something fundamentally different done subconsciously.

    Irwyn had never attempted to write them down before after all. Why would he? When he had first discovered his incapacity to so much as draw, much less write, it was the last thing on his mind to try if the Aspects¡¯ Names might be different. In fact, as far as he remembered he had discovered his handicap before even first reading the Book of the Name.

    But those thoughts were a distraction. He realized he was stalling in excitement and fear. Yes, he now knew that whatever bound him seemed to be identical to the Oath he had seen in the dream. But it was not definite proof he had been the same person. Because the implications of that were so massive Irwyn wanted to deny it was a possibility at all. But he had come far enough that he had to know. So he wrote again:

    Ignis Lumen

    Different color, different Name. A son, graciously granted such boon by his parents. It burned and glowed and raged and wept. Even staring at it written Irwyn could almost feel the grief and fury choking him. But there was more¡­ unwilling acceptance, hard-earned; determination, to not crumble; despair, at inevitability; and more he could not quite parse. Not yet.

    Intense emotions washed over him, unbidden, uncontrollable. Impressions based on memories he could not recall. By all means, the surge should have made him flinch away, then smother his consciousness. But it did not overwhelm him for a single reason. He reached towards the Name, cautiously, expectantly, and touched it with the tip of his finger. Reality seemed to intensify. The barrage of immortal thoughts multiplied in strength yet still it could not move Irwyn. For in that moment, he was too engrossed in clairvoyance to notice. In absolute, unbreakable clarity about the nature of everything that came with the Name. Because he realized what it all was:

    HIS

    All the tension left his body as it started breathing again. His eyes stared in detached wonder at the piece of smoldering wood. Then with an afterthought, he turned it to ash. The strange tranquility he had found himself in began to fade as his mental state gradually returned to normal. Irwyn collapsed back into his bed, taking quick ragged breaths. He did not know how he had been so calm just a few moments prior because at the moment his heart was trying to leap out of his chest with herculean effort. He was trembling to the point it was difficult to move.

    His

    He felt it now when he focused. Incomprehensibly far away, utterly out of reach but there nonetheless: A Name. His Name. Ignis Lumen.

    And it was so completely impossible that part of him still denied it. The rest of him was torn between excitement and fear. How would that be even possible? As far as he knew a mortal body could not support a Name in the first place¡­ perhaps that was why it felt unreachable. But that was the smallest of the questions that kept surging into his head every moment.

    How was it even remotely possible, he asked himself for what felt like the fifth time. As far as Irwyn had known, the son of Light and Flame was still very much alive somewhere out there. Now his very existence was proof ¨C or at least an implication - of the opposite. What even was his existence? Was he human? He felt like one¡­ for the most part. Perhaps some quirks of his personality could be explained by his newfound nature¡­ or he might just be overthinking it.

    He tried very hard to put his thoughts out of the spiral as his shaking and breaths calmed. One step at a time. What did he know? That he was somehow the firstborn Star. How? Not the slightest idea, no matter how deep he searched. Why? Well, there was at least something in why.

    Namely, his ¡®scrambled¡¯ Fate which people kept mentioning to him. From the fae, through Bhaak and then every other diviner he had ever stumbled upon. Yet it made no sense. Sure, it could be something about his nature being disruptive on its own but that didn¡¯t quite fit. Someone would have called it just natural resilience if it was that, or at least suggested it. Definitely an assumption, given that Irwyn wasn¡¯t a diviner but it seemed to him that whatever blocked him from being read was deliberate. A spell cast by a being of great power which had stuck onto Irwyn through all this while, like there had been a purpose that explicitly required that kind of subterfuge.

    That only raised more questions and no answers. Everything he could think of was just going back in circles to him having no idea what was really happening, it seemed. After several such cycles, he managed to calm down enough to think in a different direction. Since he had essentially no way of uncovering the truth as he was, the more important matter was what it changed for him in the moment. And frankly, the answer was: Not much.

    Earthshattering revelations aside, it didn¡¯t actually change anything about Irwyn¡¯s current predicaments. Namely, his recent incarceration.

    For the past several days he had lived in a luxurious guest house with full waiting staff and no expense catered cuisine¡­ it didn¡¯t change that the ¡®please do not leave¡¯ it came with was enforced by eager hitmen. He also had absolutely no illusions that if not for Elizabeth he would have been rotting in a lightless dungeon somewhere, probably quite literally.

    House Blackburg had a matter of dispute, as she had put it so formally back in Abonisle. Irwyn had expected that to be something chaotic as people figured out what that meant. That had been, in hindsight, idiotic. House Blackburg had a history spanning to the founding of the Duchy Federation which could have been up to several thousand years ago. Of course, this was far from the first time the heights of influence butted heads together. To the point there was - as Irwyn had been informed - an established procedure.

    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    Hence his de facto house arrest. He had to admit, Elizabeth hadn''t been exaggerating when she''d said the nobility of the Black Duchy and those they trusted tended to be blunt. When the young heiress had warned him there would be a number of hitmen ready to dispose of him in case of any ¡®escape attempt¡¯ he had expected normal clothes, hidden in plain sight kind of business. Instead, the guest house was literally surrounded by serious men in black suits quite literally forming a fence around the property line in shifts every hour of the day.

    It was posturing, mostly. The majority of them weren¡¯t even mages as far as Irwyn could tell, nor carrying anything that posed any realistic threat to him. It did look imposing and Irwyn could completely see how it would make someone nervous. Thankfully, his years of living as a bottom feeder had taught him to not let a constant looming threat of death ruin his day, reminder or not. Not to mention he knew the real threat was somewhere else.

    Five presences, just a few meters beneath the ground floor¡¯s tiles. Not nearly on the same level as Dervish - if what he had heard about a Lich War likely sparking up any such ¡®strategic assets¡¯ would be quite busy - but seemingly conception mages nonetheless. Irwyn doubted he could escape from one, five honestly seemed like an overkill which he chose to take as a compliment, though he had been struggling to even estimate how powerful exactly they were through their own measures.

    He could feel them more acutely now, actually. His power had most likely deepened once again after the vision. The issue was he couldn¡¯t really test it right away, despite itching to. Not at the moment at least. He was, beyond the shadow of a doubt, under watch. Elizabeth had warned him to assume someone was always listening unless she explicitly told him otherwise. It likely wasn¡¯t constant since said someone had to cast the magic and be subtle about it and that they also had to rest from time to time - hopefully at least given that they might have seen his erratic outburst after waking up otherwise. But having someone watch him while he slept would be pointless. Frankly, observing him was probably pointless, period. He was not going to slip up and admit to anything while there was any risk of being overheard. Not that he knew how much that would even matter since he wasn¡¯t really taking an active part in saving himself.

    Straightforward politics again. Rather than being subtly hindered or whatnot, he had been flatly told that he had no standing to participate in a matter of dispute of House Blackburg, despite being the subject of said issue. Arguments against such were not successful, which in itself told Irwyn that things were not looking great. Any hope of Elizabeth having the pull to just get the whole problem dismissed outright had dissipated after that.

    Seeing as he was fully awake by that point Irwyn sighed and stood up, getting on a change of clothes. He lit the room with a thought a clock quickly revealed it was not that long before dawn. The bedroom did not have a window - which was the main reason he had chosen it from the several options - so no one probably saw the heavily damaged shelf Irwyn was looking at now. In hindsight¡­ that hadn¡¯t been the best decision. But in that feverish state, he had no doubts at the time. Now¡­ now it could be rather awkward.

    Looking at the carefully carved mahogany Irwyn was quite confident it was on the expensive side. Would¡­ anyone want him to pay for it? He immediately chuckled to himself at the thought. Money really wasn¡¯t an issue that should be on his mind when his very life hung in the balance. But the clean cut looked a bit suspicious. Might as well cover it up, Irwyn decided. With a thought he sent a surge of flames to incinerate a big chunk of the whole shelf as if he was swinging a massive burning fist, hiding the more precise cutout.

    The five mages below the ground level stirred. They certainly felt that given Irwyn had not tried to hide the magic. He had no good explanation for why he had done it but thankfully he didn¡¯t need to explain himself as the mages observing in ¡®secret¡¯ wouldn¡¯t question him. He would just let them figure something out themselves - it would most likely be better for him than whatever awkward excuse he came up with. He picked up a bell that he had left on a nearby drawer and rang it. There was no sound but a spark of magic coursed from it to the paired enchantment a few rooms away. Not a dozen seconds later he heard steps approaching. He could not feel the person since they were not a mage as they quickly arrived and knocked at his door.

    ¡°Enter,¡± Irwyn allowed and the maid let herself in. She did not speak a word and instead waited while glancing around the room as Irwyn pointed at the shelf. ¡°I apologize for the mess, if it could please be cleaned up, as well as an early breakfast.¡±

    All Irwyn received was a nod and a quick departure. It had been¡­ strange and frankly embarrassing to have waiting staff so very ready to follow his orders. They were also competent and completely willing to follow his preferences. Therefore, Irwyn had decided to¡­ dissociate by asking the staff assigned to him to speak as little as possible. It made the experience significantly less jarring for him by eliminating most dialogue, not to mention less tiring.

    Not that he would forget that they were still very much there and listening. Watching. Sliding into the background wasn¡¯t what he was best at but child thieves all learned to do it. He promised to not let the newfound luxury get into his head and forget about them as he left his room behind heading for the dining hall a floor below. The guest house was honestly needlessly large for just him. The damn table he sat at was large enough to host a feast. Instead, it was used to serve him eggs. Extravagance and luxury, though not quite on the level he had seen Elizabeth indulge with magical cuisine and casual transposition. It was somewhere in between ¡®strange¡¯ and ¡®I could get used to this¡¯. Though after the vision Irwyn was feeling a bit too broody to ponder it. He realized that he was feeling much more twitchy than he had thought about testing out his new limits.

    After breakfast he returned to his room, finding the remnants of the shelf already removed and replaced with an almost identical one. While at it the staff had also done some cleaning, including the books he had haphazardly strewn about. They somehow managed to make them look sorted and kempt without even moving them from the spots on the ground they had been or the order they had been stacked.

    He continued where had had left off in ¡®Testaments of Saints¡¯, a thick book full of stories and anecdotes about ancient immortals who had fought in the original Great Crusade against all necromancy right after the Aspects¡¯ deaths. Most of it was second or even third-hand exaggerations though some parts were actual quotes or interviews with beings far older than history. For one, a dialogue with their literal Sun, which had been a fascinating transcription read, and made Irwyn realize that even Stars could be brash assholes - though it was difficult to call it unjustified in the context. The part he was on was particularly dry though which made it difficult to make any progress as his itch grew worse by the hour.

    He was very glad when a maid had found him to inform Irwyn of visitors.

    ¡°Her young Ladyship, Elizabeth von Blackburg,¡± one of the maids announced with utmost formality as Elizabeth walked through the front double doors as if it hadn¡¯t happened on the daily. What was more interesting though was that she was not alone this time. ¡°And Ambassador Woetin from the Duchy of Red.¡±

    Said ambassador was immediately distinct just by the fact that the man was completely covered in plate armor. Every inch of their body was covered by a layer of crimson-tinted metal to the point Irwyn did not see a single slightest gap, very much including the helmet having no eye or mouth holes. Other than that abnormality decorations were scarce. Not even a cloak or a bit of cloth, just metal. Hot metal, Irwyn could feel. Probably scalding. He wasn¡¯t sure if it was the vision or just the metal itself that he could feel that much without even trying. The material was blatantly attuned to Flame magic in some way after all.

    Not that he would let it distract him from the man himself. There was a clear air of conception - the man felt like a thousand miles walked in raging flames, hot enough the ground evaporated underfoot with each step - but there was something else as well¡­ like¡­ like¡­ the man was made of Flames rather than flesh and blood. instead of feeling the magic of a person, they felt like they were only magic beneath the metal shell. Irwyn had never felt anything like it before.

    ¡°And you must be Irwyn,¡± the man spoke in a deep voice as soon as they were past the door, extending a hand.

    ¡°Yes, I am, ambassador, though I must admit I was not expecting you,¡± Irwyn nodded and shook it. The metal was indeed quite hot - even more so than Irwyn had guessed by feeling from a distance - though Irwyn obviously did not burn. Instead, he threw Elizabeth a questioning look.

    ¡°It might be best we relocate,¡± she met his eyes. ¡°To the dining hall.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Irwyn nodded without hesitation and led the way. By the time they arrived less than half a minute later refreshments were already in place. More of an anticipation than speed thing really, given that it was a pattern for Elizabeth to choose the dining hall for their discussions. As soon as all three of them were seated Elizabeth waved her hand and a black cube appeared in it. City Black had the Duchy¡¯s second Temporal Beacon which meant Elizabeth¡¯s wondrous dress worked just as well as it had in Abonisle. Irwyn felt the slightest twitch of magic and then all sound cut out.

    ¡°We can talk freely now, though we are still visible,¡± she announced and Irwyn let out a slight sigh eyeing the ambassador. Still visible, which meant lip reading was completely viable. Besides the ambassador whose face was obscured, he needed to assume their observers would still know every word spoken¡­ which was probably the point.

    ¡°It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance, ambassador, though I have to admit I am a bit puzzled,¡± he admitted.

    ¡°My reason for being here is quite simple,¡± the man in full plate armor shrugged, his shoulders rising and falling back down. ¡°Young Ladyship Elizabeth has been trying to convince me to support you in the upcoming trial.¡±

    ¡°Trial,¡± Irwyn repeated the word, suppressing a slight tremor as his eyes turned towards Elizabeth. ¡°So there is now consensus about how to decide my fate?¡±

    ¡°As I said yesterday, there has been some dispute as to what set of rules should apply,¡± Elizabeth nodded, though she did not look happy. ¡°Ultimately both sides will get to present their case to the Duke in two days'' time who will then decides the party in the right.¡±

    ¡°Your father,¡± Irwyn pointed out the obvious, raising an eyebrow.

    ¡°My father,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°My father who is dedicated to impartiality to a fault. He has refused to so much as meet with me in person since I returned from Abonisle. We will not find any help there.¡±

    ¡°And is my case good in impartial eyes?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°It is a common misconception to think that political impartiality is the same as the mundane use of the word,¡± the ambassador interjected. ¡°It is not an equation of justice or truth. It is merely a question of influence. To be impartial is to seek the path that will have the judge beyond reproach, rather than necessarily seek justice. I am afraid that if you expect a fair trial you will be quite disappointed.¡±

    ¡°I would have already guessed that much,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I am under no illusion that might doesn¡¯t make right. I am just wondering on which side of it I am.¡±

    ¡°That would be a question for young Ladyship, though her tight lips do not speak well,¡± the ambassador shrugged again, and indeed, Elizabeth was visibly biting her lower lip. ¡°Though I may not have the most insight, I might be able to provide some additional weight for your side.¡±

    ¡°And what would that be?¡± Irwyn continued speaking since Elizabeth was choosing to remain silent.

    ¡°An endorsement, of course,¡± the man nodded. ¡°I am the ambassador to the Duchy of Red and have the Archduke¡¯s confidence. Convince me and I can have it known that the Archduke would prefer you live.¡±

    ¡°And that will make a difference?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. The Duchy of Red was quite literally on the other end of the Federation from Black. He had doubts about how much influence its ruler held all the way here.

    ¡°Make no mistake, the Archduke, as the title implies, is a Named being,¡± the ambassador explained. ¡°And only a fool would seek to displease them for no good reason, that is worth more than you might realize to people who might need to deal with that small grudge a century in the future. It could tilt the scale in your favor.¡±

    ¡°And what would you, or the Archduke, want from me in exchange,¡± Irwyn asked. There was always give and take and given that Elizabeth was not stopping them he assumed she wanted him to make this deal.

    ¡°The Archduke is no greedy old monster,¡± the ambassador chuckled. ¡°From the young and talented he asks for nothing but a more positive disposition should you meet in the future.¡±

    ¡°But you are not the Archduke,¡± Irwyn noted.

    ¡°I agree with the Archduke¡¯s policy of lending a helping hand to the worthy,¡± the ambassador nodded and Irwyn felt something change within the man. And it was fascinating. Beneath the armor, they still felt like pure magical fire but now that Flame was coursing. Trembling in passing waves. It kept its shape for the most part but it was vibrating. Flowing as though following the beating of a heart. And from it, Irwyn could feel one distinct emotion: Excitement. ¡°The only question that remains is whether you are one of them.¡±

 3.2 A degree of detachment

    ¡°How would you test me, then,¡± Irwyn grinned ever so slightly. He was, of course, confident. Maybe it was ego but he was quite sure basically no one could pass any magical criteria he didn¡¯t. At least not at his age.

    ¡°I come from a simple people, Irwyn,¡± the ambassador nodded. ¡°We face the raging storm and the worthy return to speak of it.¡±

    ¡°Very well,¡± Irwyn nodded again. That almost certainly meant combat or something adjacent. The ambassador was a conception mage which probably made him impossible to straight up defeat but all Irwyn needed to do was impress. ¡°Then perhaps we should change ven¡­¡±

    Irwyn would have been hit by the sudden flame breath if he didn¡¯t always keep up his barrier to at least some degree. The weak flames - merely two intentions in them - slid right around it without inflicting any damage beyond obstructing sight. Of course, ¡®weak¡¯ was relative given the artisanally carved table now had a large chunk missing¡­ and was on fire.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t the furniture expensive?¡± Irwyn asked as he jumped away, making distance. Despite speaking he kept almost all of his attention on the ambassador Woe¡­ Woe-something. How did he already forget the name? Irwyn wanted to curse. Either way, the Ambassador did not follow up the ambush.

    ¡°It¡¯s not enchanted,¡± Elizabeth answered, shrugging with a very slight smile as she withdrew to the corner of the room. At least one of them had their sense of monetary value clearly twisted¡­ Irwyn wondered which, if not both.

    ¡°Always maintaining a barrier, a subtle one at that,¡± the ambassador nodded in approval, the gesture probably shouldn¡¯t have been so smooth in the full plate through. ¡°How do you maintain the flexibility?¡±

    ¡°I keep it not far above my skin most of the time and draw closer or further when needed,¡± Irwyn explained.

    ¡°That sounds taxing.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s honestly mostly subconscious at this point,¡± Irwyn shrugged. He had been doing it for months and got progressively better at it. It wasn¡¯t even difficult anymore to split a small corner of his attention on the task.

    ¡°I will defer judgment, Wake,¡± the ambassador said and Irwyn felt power course through the room as the spell was cast. From corner to corner, wall to wall, everything was engulfed in fire. Not just small tongues either but a raging inferno summoned in an instant. Concept magic, otherwise it shouldn¡¯t be literally faster than Irwyn could perceive. The ambassador has changed their battlefield into his home ground.

    The Flames themselves were not even imbued at all. But they couldn¡¯t really be easily extinguished either. They simply were there as the extended power of whichever concept the ambassador had called upon. In other words, they were not individually dangerous but to get rid of them would require breaking the whole spell, otherwise they would just keep returning. At least as far as Irwyn understood concepts from the reading he had done recently.

    Theoretically at least. He had, naturally taken interest in concepts after the incursion but all he really knew were the basics, such as that each concept was formed by nine intentions and that they tended to be much more difficult to switch around once they were conceptualized. He simply had not had sufficient time to do all the reading he wanted to.

    All that being said, the spell was beneficial to Irwyn too, quite ideal in fact. He felt the concept try to rip away the control he held over the Starfire of his barrier but it utterly failed, too far removed to overcome Irwyn¡¯s control. That did not mean the opposite was necessarily true. During the Abonisle incursion, Irwyn had almost unconsciously taken over another conception mage¡¯s flames. Perhaps it was time to put that to the test.

    Experimentally, Irwyn summoned a wave of his own Starfire and scattered it around himself, imbuing the intention to Usurp and Subvert. Starfire was still fire, thus it wasn¡¯t exactly burnable with no intentions in the mix - Irwyn¡¯s magic dispersed into the surroundings like droplets of water scattered by the wind. Specks of orange soon away from sight and, as Irwyn quickly realized, away from perception. And without him being able to feel his own magic he could not supply it with more mana, making it simply dissipate. Irwyn frowned lightly. That did not work whatsoever. Not even a slight reaction from his attempt to usurp some of the control.

    It had also wasted about a second of time. That was significant in a battle and the ambassador was done waiting. Something slammed into his barrier with the force equivalent to at least three intentions, startling Irwyn - also making him realize that the sea of flames did actually do something quite bad for him: It completely obscured the line of sight and greatly hindered his ability to feel magic by the virtue of forcing him to sense all the Flames. A second problem was that whatever had struck him was, in fact, a metal fist. He only caught a glimpse of it before it vanished again amongst the flames¡­ But he should have been able to feel the ambassador through their sheer magical presence - and had thought he was feeling the man still standing in place - but that was clearly wrong given the sudden fist attack.

    Irwyn had to re-evaluate. He had thought he would feel anything actually dangerous coming, but what had just struck him was equivalent to three intentions and he had not felt the slightest trace of it. He had to focus on the fight rather than guessing around magics he barely understood. First of all, he remade a new barrier under his first. Five intentions rather than the four he would usually use for a start, then he could also ditch the one intention that made the barrier transparent since he couldn¡¯t see anyway. It was¡­ a lot easier than yesterday. Before the vision a 5 intention spell like that would cost him well over a third of his mental capacity¡­ instead, it had taken him a fraction of that. That was a massive improvement. Irwyn hoped he would soon get a chance to figure out how large exactly but the middle of a battle was not the Time.

    The ambassador struck him again, this time the metal fist hitting from the side. The force had increased again, climbing to four intentions equivalent. If the man was going to keep up the pattern of raising by one each attack, Irwyn would not be able to withstand more than 6, if even that. But how would he dodge what he could neither feel nor see? Ah¡­ An idea struck him.

    The man had given Irwyn a quite distinct impression of pure Flame coursing beneath that suit of metal rather than skin. What that really meant Irwyn could only guess but it did present an opportunity. Rather than feel magic, he could just feel the Flames. And that was easier than it seemed. Yes, the room was completely engulfed in blazing fire but those were relatively speaking not that potent. They burned at mortal heats with not the most magic in them. And Irwyn quickly confirmed his suspicion that he could, in fact, feel the Flames of the ambassador¡¯s body even inside the inferno.

    The sheer hotness was the biggest clue: The ambassador''s body burned at least hundred times hotter than the room but there was more. Their flames were distinct in other ways. For one, they seemed to contain some semblance of emotion of all things. They were also much more solid - saturated and concentrated rather than overlapping roaring tongues. And lastly, Irwyn realized he could sense a trace of the impression the ambassador¡¯s concepts had given him despite not really perceiving through magic.

    The next moment Irwyn also saw how exactly he was being attacked. It turned out that he had not been wrong about the ambassador not moving. The man still stood in the exact same spot. It was just the hand shooting forward, dragging with it a large chunk of the flame the man seemed to be made of, then moving several times further than arm''s reach with incredible momentum. Irwyn had originally thought that had been a misinterpretation. He was quickly reconsidering what were the odds of the man being literally made from actual flames underneath that armor. Was it possible? Probably. Relevant? Not at the moment as Irwyn had to deal with the fist.

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    It was quite fast but not as fast as Irwyn had seen pure magic move. As from all physical objects, reality extracted a toll from it. It would not be hard to hit. The more important questions as how to divert or stop it. His spells could be devastating but they did not actually carry that much force. Irwyn highly doubted he would be able to break the metal either. With little time to think he settled for erecting another de-facto barrier right in front of it.

    It was more mana intensive than offensive magic and fundamentally did not really solve the problem but it was a decent stopgap. The fist was indeed completely stopped despite the force behind it being equivalent to five intentions ¨C though not without cracking the barrier - then it swung back to where the ambassador stood. Irwyn tried to envelop it by expanding the blocking barrier but was not fast enough to actually catch it. Well, Irwyn didn¡¯t think it had any real chance of working but it had been worth the attempt.

    Another strike would, inevitably, come but Irwyn had a moment to think of a different solution. The force would keep increasing and he would be on the losing end. But how could he stop that? The ambassador was a conception mage, his reserves of power ran beyond what Irwyn could exhaust or face head on. Therefore, rather than block he needed to dodge¡­ a projectile moving with incredible speed and precision. But it had to be somehow targeting him. Even the ambassador couldn¡¯t possibly just visually see through the flames, rather, they most likely provided him at least some kind of perception. It would be good enough if they targeted him just by the empty space that his barrier created in the sea of fire. There he hatched an idea. It was a gamble, but, well, he was about to be beaten anyway.

    The next strike came and shattered his outstretched barrier, only barely stopping at the one Irwyn had put around himself - and that might have been the ambassador being careful to not smear Irwyn over the wall. Indeed, the equivalent of 6 intentions. Perhaps actually six intentions, it was just difficult to tell in a physical object under all the obscuration. Even with a defensive advantage, six was still more than the five he had put into it. And seven would be next. Would layering barriers be enough? Irwyn didn¡¯t know, though he highly doubted it. Neither did he intend to find out.

    He dropped his barrier completely, being immediately completely engulfed in the inferno. That was fine, Irwyn did not burn. Then he did what he had tried to do earlier: Subvert the flames away from the ambassador¡­ except earlier he had been cautious about it. Barely even gave it a proper attempt in all honesty. When it had worked in Abonisle it had been with direct physical contact after all. Now, Irwyn had plenty of that. Then, he relayed to all the omnipresent Flames a rather simple request:

    Hide me.

    Irwyn was pretty sure it clicked. Not certain, just had a distinct impression something had happened. He was still prepared to throw layers upon layers of barriers into an attack that might come for him at any moment but as seconds passed it looked like his idea might have genuinely worked. No additional attack came as Irwyn made distance from his original spot at a slow pace winning several seconds.

    ¡°Vigil,¡± that was when the ambassador spoke again. Another spell. And the flames across the room changed. They did not rage for that implied anger, rather they¡­ became harsher. Merciless. If before they were only as hot as mundane flames before, now they truly burned. Hotter and hotter each second. The rock tiles beneath his feet began to visibly melt from the sheer ambient temperature - and if this empowered flame burned them directly, they would have evaporated in the blink of an eye. The air sizzled and decomposed even if the flame did not directly burn it as fuel, making it quickly much harder to breathe. Still, Irwyn ultimately did not burn. Did not even feel hot.

    He just kept whispering to the flames around him to hide him among themselves. They obliged, mistaking Irwyn for their own. The status quo had barely changed beyond Irwyn now gradually running out of breath. Indeed, if the ambassador had transitioned the magical flames into something more physical that burned up the breathable air he would have succumbed to it in a few dozens seconds when his lungs ran empty. However, it became apparent the ambassador had no intention of slowly choking Irwyn out.

    ¡°Exile,¡± the man proclaimed a third spell. One moment the flames had been everywhere¡­ the next they were all gone. No, not gone, Irwyn realized a split second later. They were simply contained in a small ball of flame that the ambassador was holding in their gauntlet. It was¡­ impossibly pure. Concentrated beyond solid. It was, after all, the culmination of every flame that had been in the room, far surpassing anything Irwyn could possibly achieve with mere imbuement. The culmination of a concept, maybe several. There was probably a reason it had been done in that order besides just figuring out Irwyn''s limits, though he couldn¡¯t be certain.

    What was certain though was that the sphere would be used for a devastating assault. Without the flames, he was completely exposed to an attack. He fully focused on creating as many five intentions barriers as he could between himself and his opponent. The ambassador looked at Irwyn through the expressionless helmet as the condensed mass of magic the man was holding sunk into the gauntlet. The steel - or rather whatever other exotic material it actually was - suddenly turned from the prior dull crimson it had been the whole time into glowing dark orange. Like it was on the verge of melting from the sheer heat. Irwyn braced and¡­

    ¡°It would be quite rude of me to kill you,¡± the ambassador suddenly relaxed their posture, dismissing the magic. The gauntlet immediately began to cool, though it took a few seconds for the color to fade. ¡°Well done, young man. I am impressed.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I would like to avoid death,¡± Irwyn released the breath he did not remember holding, dismissing the wall of barriers right afterwards.

    ¡°Now, on account of the lady, I suggest you wear something before we continue speaking,¡± the ambassador said and Irwyn stopped. He looked down and realized that he was, in fact, quite naked after the fires had burned all his clothes to fine ash. He immediately conjured something approximate to a robe from Starfire.

    ¡°My mistake,¡± he said and approached the ambassador so they wouldn¡¯t shout at each other from across the room. Elizabeth approached from the corner where she had presumably been under some kind of protection given she seemed barely disheveled beyond the slightest trace of red on her face.

    ¡°I have to admit, I had doubts when I was first approached by her young ladyship,¡± the ambassador nodded slowly, ¡°Now I have to say: What in the Aspects¡¯ fucking Names are you?¡±

    Elizabeth stumbled at the sudden profanity and Irwyn also had to take a moment to process it. The ambassador had been nothing but formal until that very moment.

    ¡°No, honestly, what do you want me to say?¡± the armored man shrugged. ¡°You are a ridiculous monster and you clearly know it. Well into five intentions at what? 18? Less? If Stars could still be born I would call you out as a newborn one in disguise. I don¡¯t even get how you managed to hide from me so well through my own spell.¡±

    ¡°IF Stars could still be born?¡± Irwyn immediately snapped before he had a moment to think.

    ¡°Not the time nor place,¡± the ambassador paused for well over two seconds. ¡°I can recommend you a book, though it might not be available to you here.¡±

    ¡°Do we have your endorsement then?¡± Elizabeth asked with a large grin.

    ¡°No need to be so mocking,¡± the ambassador grumbled. ¡°I hold grudges, young lady. I will remember in a hundred years how coy you were about details before bringing me here to make a fool of myself.¡±

    ¡°You gradually increased force to safely test me,¡± Irwyn replied honestly. ¡°Nothing embarrassing about that.¡±

    ¡°That initial two-intention attack should take anyone your age out on the spot!¡± the ambassador raised his voice very slightly. ¡°I am getting angry¡­ Yes, you will have your endorsement. In fact, you may consider yourself having the Archduke¡¯s vague interest. Do with it what you can and stay alive. I would hate to see a talent like that wasted on internal strife.¡±

    ¡°Wait!¡± Irwyn called out as the ambassador turned to leave. ¡°I have questions!¡±

    ¡°And you can ask them¡­ later,¡± the man said. ¡°I actually have duties to attend to and this has already taken a lot longer than I would have expected even without the sudden need to make myself presentable. Have a pleasant day.¡±

    Then the man left, leaving Irwyn dumbfounded.

    ¡°He was a lot less smug after you proved him wrong,¡± Elizabeth laughed from his side, quite amused by the armored man¡¯s rapid departure. ¡°If you meet him in maybe ten or twenty years, try to remember to mention something about you being ¡®unlikely to be worth either the time or the effort¡¯.¡±

 3.3 A good excuse

    ¡°Did he¡­ strike a nerve?¡± Irwyn glanced at Elizabeth looking rather happy with how things turned out.

    ¡°The ambassador thinks that he knows everything better than anyone else just because he is old,¡± she nodded. ¡°The Duchy of Red is the Southernmost one and has minimal contact with us in the far North - there is basically no contact beyond the occasional gatherings. There is a reason someone who has been stuck in conception for centuries can be an ambassador without it being perceived as an insult. Few people here actually care what the Archduke does or thinks unless he comes to endorse those thoughts in person.¡±

    ¡°Are we in private?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Full interference as soon as the battle started,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°The faction that wants you dead doesn¡¯t actually realize how good you are and we want to keep it that way. If they start to think you could be a credible threat in less than a decade¡­ it would make things much more complicated.¡±

    ¡°I will keep that in mind,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°But if no one cares about the Duchy of Red, why do I need the Archduke''s endorsement?¡±

    ¡°It might honestly be better if you don¡¯t know all the details,¡± Elizabeth said after hesitating for a moment. ¡°But it¡¯s important because the Archduke has real sway when it comes to communal decisions. And those affect us as well, if by choice.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t quite understand but I will trust you know what you are doing,¡± Irwyn shrugged.

    ¡°I am not privy to every detail either,¡± Elizabeth bit her lip. ¡°I asked my mother for help.¡±

    ¡°You gave me the impression your relationship with her was¡­ far from stellar,¡± Irwyn broached carefully.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she sighed. ¡°But I am not going to get you killed over my pride and reluctance.¡±

    ¡°I appreciate that,¡± Irwyn nodded affirmatively. Then immediately changed topic. ¡°The ambassador is not really human, is he?¡±

    ¡°No, though I am surprised you noticed,¡± Elizabeth seemed just as glad to talk about anything but her mother.

    ¡°I got this feeling right away - like he was all flame under the metal,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°But I thought that was more metaphorical. A misperception. But during the fight he moved in ways that simply weren¡¯t possible with human physiology.¡±

    ¡°I suppose your perception of Flames is a lot better than mine,¡± she raised an eyebrow. ¡°I could barely feel anything was off through the armor. And don¡¯t assume that just because someone moves or changes themselves in impossible ways means they aren¡¯t mostly human, especially among more powerful mages - Dervish for example can completely shed his flesh in battle and he was born pure human. But in this case, you are right: The ambassador is a natural golem.¡±

    ¡°He seemed¡­ rather fluent,¡± Irwyn frowned and spoke only after a baffled moment. That was far from his first guess.

    ¡°Probably don¡¯t say that in front of too many people,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Golems can get very touchy about being compared to the more crude constructs that are not even technically of their kind.¡±

    ¡°I will say that I have basically not the slightest knowledge of the topic,¡± Irwyn admitted to his ignorance.

    ¡°What you are probably thinking of are not really even golems,¡± she nodded. ¡°Barely sentient constructs of metal or perhaps soil that stumble around with minimal capacity. But those are actually monsters called automatons.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I was thinking of something like that,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Monsters¡­ that means that they don¡¯t have a soul,¡± No monster did. It was what distinguished them from the rest of living beings.

    ¡°Exactly. But making merely a monster is a mark of poor craftsmanship,¡± she explained. ¡°You see, any golem maker with a legacy worth speaking of can force their creations to develop a proper soul.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that a bit problematic?¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°Both morally and practically, to have a sapient magical construct that is basically enslaved.¡±

    ¡°Old history Irwyn,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Nowadays golems with souls gain full citizenship as anyone born in their duchy would ¨C their makers either become or determine their guardians - and it¡¯s been that way for at least 5 centuries, probably a lot longer. A big reason why the practice is so rare in the first place. The only place with a widespread golem-making tradition is the Duchy of Purple where they can be conscripted for up to 30 years before earning their freedom. Everywhere else systemic slavery is mostly banned.¡±

    ¡°Mostly?¡± Irwyn immediately had to ask.

    ¡°The Archduke of Red heavily frowns on the practice,¡± she nodded. ¡°As had all the founding Dukes given they had all risen to overthrow the Tyrant. Duchy of Purple is the worst, hey have basically a serfdom where the nobility has blatant power of life and death over those on their demesne as well as the widespread conscriptions. It¡¯s mostly tolerated because the Duchy is infested with perpetual monster tides - the entire region is basically in constant war with them. Besides them only the Duchy of White still allows a form of debt slavery where people can sell or bet their own lives in some cases. That has been on a decline in the last decades, ever since some fifty years ago when the current Duke of White personally inspected their courts after first taking power and made it quite clear he was not prone to bribes. A pile of dead judges sent a message, apparently.¡±

    ¡°Is it too much to hope they are a man of principle and strong moral fibre?¡± Irwyn half joked, half asked.

    ¡°My mother thinks the Duke of White is a pragmatic egocentrist who despises people trying to cheat him. The only principle he kills on is supposedly disobedience,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Quite ironic given the man is perhaps the most prolific habitual liar in the Federation if a quarter of the stories I have overheard from older nobility are true.¡±

    ¡°We have diverged from the topic,¡± Irwyn shook his head, as fascinating as it was. ¡°You mentioned the ambassador is a natural golem?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sorry,¡± she nodded. ¡°Rarely, and I mean rarely, random objects, magical phenomena or even spells can be granted a soul and become alive. Those are natural golems. There is ample literature discussing whether this is a mistake, if they just meet certain criteria or something in the middle. What is known though is that this happens exponentially more often at places with massively dense magic.¡±

    ¡°And the ambassador is a Flame golem?¡± Irwyn concluded.

    ¡°Exactly, though there is a bit more to it than that,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°There is one place in particular that is known to spawn golems in extraordinary quantities: The Everburn Isthmus.¡±

    ¡°Southern border of the Duchy Federation, right?¡± Irwyn recalled. ¡°Eternally burning wasteland, supposedly after some ancient battle.¡±

    ¡°Basically,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°The consensus is that an Edict had been decreed there a long time ago with little regard for restraint. Mostly Flames though there are some signs of Light and Starfire also recorded. There is no consensus on what exactly has happened. Though since the deeper one goes the more unbearable the heat becomes - the edicts does more than merely make the Flames burn hotter as well. Not even the Archduke of Red has been able to venture anywhere near the actual center and they are literally pure Flame Named.¡±

    ¡°How is that even possible?¡± Irwyn gaped a bit.

    ¡°More than just heat, as I said. Everything also become more flammable, very much including mages that should be immune to such things,¡± she nodded. ¡°But please stop side tracking me.¡±

    ¡°Sorry,¡± Irwyn shrugged in apology.

    ¡°As I WAS saying, the Everburn Isthmus has a comparatively extreme number of natural golems being born there, to the point they have formed a tribal society of sorts. Though not exactly. They don¡¯t quite operate the same way humans do and don¡¯t really have anything to compete over.¡±

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°And they live in the wasteland?¡±

    ¡°Being a golem formed completely from flames and magic does wonders for their ability to survive in a constantly burning landscape,¡± she shrugged. ¡°They do not need sustenance and do not age. Though, even their bodies will burn eventually if they delve too deep. There are also occasional mana typhoons that can disperse and kill them. Besides that, they seem to just kind of¡­ wander across molten nothingness.¡±

    ¡°I frankly had never heard of such peoples existing,¡± Irwyn admitted.

    ¡°It is fringe knowledge,¡± she shrugged. ¡°I am only mentioning this because the ambassador comes from one these tribes. An exile, supposedly, though that was some 500 years ago so details are sparse. The Duchy of Red is nominally their overlord and the Archduke ended up taking the young exile in. Then they failed to form a domain for well over a century after attaining the peak of conception and ended up relegated to here out of ¡®trust¡¯. He has been the ambassador since the times when my great great grandfather ruled the Duchy.¡±

    ¡°So he is older than anyone around which makes him feel more important than he is,¡± Irwyn nodded. Not that he didn¡¯t think that having even a bit of trust of a Named mage wasn¡¯t incredible but mostly because Elizabeth seemed to dislike the¡­ man? Probably. Either way, it cost Irwyn nothing to be supportive in private.

    ¡°Basically,¡± she nodded. ¡°But I also need to get going. Although I would love to just chat, I have been¡­ busy to do everything.

    ¡°One last thing then,¡± Irwyn stopped her. ¡°This one really private.¡±

    ¡°Speak then,¡± she nodded affirmatively.

    ¡°I have had another vision,¡± Irwyn admitted.

    ¡°You mentioned them before,¡± she recalled. ¡°Something about omen and improvement.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± he nodded. ¡°And I think I have improved by a fair chunk, though I did not have the chance to properly test that against the ambassador. But it¡¯s what I saw that I wanted to mention,¡±

    ¡°It hints at things, right,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s expression was severe. ¡°Like it did the last damn time. Fuck, I still cannot believe we really just completely dismissed the possibility of undead in Abonisle.

    ¡°Hardly your fault since the magic got even Dervish,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°And yes, I saw¡­ quite something. I am honestly am not sure I quite believe what I saw.¡±

    ¡°How cryptic,¡± Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

    ¡°What I mean by that is that I came to a conclusion so insane even you would think I am delusional if I explained it to you,¡± Irwyn admitted. The Name still WEPT in the hypothetical distance with grief Irwyn did not quite remember.

    ¡°Then why bring it up at all if you aren¡¯t going to tell me?¡± Elizabeth did not press him, just raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Well, I figured you ought to know,¡± he said. ¡°But also, it gave me a big clue about the writing problem I have. I am basically convinced it¡¯s based off of an oath. Whether it was actually me who swore it or if it¡¯s just an imitation¡­ well that is basically the whole gist of my earlier point about believability.¡±

    ¡°But since you think it¡¯s an oath it has a wording rather than esoteric conditions a curse might,¡± she realized.

    ¡°Well, yes, that is true,¡± Irwyn nodded after a moment of hesitation. That had not been the angle he had been going for but she was right.

    ¡°I could take it to a linguist,¡± she mirrored his nod, thinking. ¡°They are excellent at finding loopholes and unexpected restrictions. I wouldn¡¯t be able to hide it from my Mother but it would be mostly discreet. Depends of how damning you think it is.¡±

    ¡°Not damning at all, at least outwardly,¡± Irwyn shook his head, then shared. ¡°Just strange. You could probably play it off as something from an ancient text to be honest¡­¡±

    <hr>

    Ezax von Blackburg stared at the pitch-black screen. And that was exactly what it would be for most people, just a useless piece of furniture. Except it did project an image like any screen ought to¡­ it just did so in an extremely and needlessly convoluted way. Segmented and shuffled images translated into flashes of Void magic in accordance with a code of perhaps a million points that described individual colors which he then needed to reconstruct in his head to form an image from it.

    It was ridiculously convoluted, made no sense, and was an absolute waste of effort where a normal screen would have been just as effective, if not more.

    But it was tradition for the Duke to receive all image correspondence this way. No one really remembered why it had started nor when but the nobility just insisted that it must have been for an excellent reason and therefore could not be changed. And as annoying as it was, it did not even make it to the actual long list of traditions Ezax had been attempting to undermine for the past 4 decades. Because it was, ultimately, harmless to him. A minor restriction he endured to not give his enemies another thing to grumble about.

    He refocused on what he was seeing ¨C a side project before he had to return his attention to running of a nation about to go into a Lich War. Namely, images from Steelmire. It had been a slaughter, apparently, though that was not why he was looking at them. The inquisition had concluded that the massacre had been an undead ambush butchering them to the last. That in itself was disturbing given that their leader had attained 8 domains, marking them easily among the hundred strongest mages in the whole Federation. Rather, Ezax was revisiting the situation because his wife smelled a rat and he trusted her intuition implicitly.

    And those efforts have finally borne fruit - the image before him showed a dead young woman¡­ perhaps in her twenties who happened to seemingly be staring straight into the cameras. One of the hundreds of pictures taken by the inquisitors and then shared to the Duchy of Black. And they were thorough specialists¡­ in soul magic and countering necromancy.

    The young woman was a void mage though. A spy, in fact. Steelmire used to be large enough to warrant a few. And from those eyes, Ezax would get what he needed. He reached forward, across the imagery. Across Time and across the laws that gathered reality. He could not quite break them for he was not Named. Not yet. Only Edicts could be truly unbound. But he could bend them a little. And the Void in particular was quite good at bending the rules imposed by Time. Yes, it was just a picture of a corpse, but in a way, a spy was an extension of his Sight. Sight, that was the domain of eyes. And as for eyes¡­

    THE FATHOMLESS EYE ALWAYS stared back. So, as the corpse stared at him through the image¡­ Ezax returned the favour. For he was no novice who feared the dark. He was that which others knew to dread. A thing that watched from depths beyond mortal description. And as he stared back at the girl, it was the simplest thing to steal the sight that dared look at him. The Void concerned itself not with death nor detachment of time. The rules of reality tried to impose themselves on him and stop him in his tracks¡­ but he had enough weight of Fate on his side and the rulebending was not too egregious. In the end, he confidently succeeded.

    He was rewarded with scattered images without context. He had stolen the sights, not thoughts or sounds. And he had taken quite a bit. Days he had to filter through¡­ which took him almost a whole second. Most of it was useless, really. Steelmire had indeed been taken by an ambush and the spy had not realized what was happening until mere moments before her death. It was in said death that Ezax found what he had been looking for:

    A face.

    One he recognized. One he was quite confident had not joined the ranks of the undead. Ezax allowed himself a grin. And they had apparently been so very thorough in the coverup too. He had to wonder why¡­ so he called the person who could figure it out.

    ¡°Avys, can we talk?¡± one of his rings ''shone'' in a black antithesis of Light, sending a message to its pair.

    ¡°A moment,¡± a voice projected through it, though it was not technically audible to anyone but him. ¡°You can bring me now.¡±

    And Ezax did. This was, after all, City Black, the seat of his power. For all the bickering miscreants who fancied themselves his opposition, he had made sure that the few among them who could even begin to compete with him in magic were far away. Therefore, he found his beloved and locked onto the unique flavor of her presence without an issue in one of her chambers, then GRAFTED IMPRESENCE from the Void¡¯s very essence between them. And since distance did not really exist deep enough into the Void, it was child¡¯s play to bridge the difference between there and here. Avys stood beside him in all her beauty, a clandestine meeting no one would even expect could be happening.

    ¡°Did you ask me to wait just so you could strip?¡± Ezax raised an eyebrow in exasperation and very intently did not look down.

    ¡°No,¡± she lied with a straight face. ¡°I was merely dismissing the masseurs.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have masseurs,¡± Ezax grinned.

    ¡°Calm could have found me a pack,¡± Avys shrugged.

    ¡°That aside, I found something about the Steelmire mess,¡± he formed them a seat of Void magic including a table and an elegant raven black dress for Avys, which she immediately pouted about. ¡°Here, take a look,¡± he quickly distracted her by reproducing the image. It was a exponentially more difficult to do properly with Void magic than with something like Light¡­ but possible. He just needed to selectively redirect and absorb just the right amount of natural light from the room¡¯s source to form a reflection. Convoluted but easy enough for him.

    ¡°This is familiar,¡± Avys immediately stared at the picture with a frown. ¡°Isn¡¯t he part of the Birthday boy¡¯s guard?¡±

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Ezax grinned at the nickname.

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s cold,¡± Avys grinned right back. ¡°Did he kill his own niece? I think we were even invited to the funeral out of politeness.¡±

    ¡°I did my part,¡± Ezax shrugged. ¡°Tell me when you figure out the why, or if you need more help.¡±

    ¡°Speaking of help, I need something for Lizzy¡¯s boy,¡± she nodded.

    ¡°Lizzy¡¯s boy, is he now?¡± Ezax couldn¡¯t shed the grin.

    ¡°Please, you should see them,¡± Avys rolled her eyes. ¡°I need you to delay the Declaration by a day.¡±

    ¡°The Archduke will not like that,¡± Ezax frowned slightly, ¡°He dislikes stalling things out longer than necessary. Especially in a case like this.¡±

    ¡°Which is why you will tell him it¡¯s necessary to save the talented young man his ambassador has been talking his ear off about for a good chunk of the morning,¡± she grinned. ¡°The rest can be stalled by excuses as long as we have the Archduke behind it. The script is half ready for you, I was just writing it when you called me.¡±

    ¡°I thought you mentioned a massage.¡±

    ¡°I can multitask,¡± she did not even hesitate in answering. ¡°Though if you need a massage yourself it can be arranged.¡±

    ¡°I am working, Avys,¡± Ezax shrugged.

    ¡°No, you are taking a break,¡± she stood up from the chair with predatory grace and very slowly walked towards him, staring Ezax down hungrily all the way.

    He got the message and dispersed the dress.

 3.4 Will e be fine

    Elizabeth did not visit him the following day which lead to Irwyn spending it on hypothesizing spellcraft he did not have the opportunity to test due to his observers as well as general anxiousness. Irwyn realized he might really be getting a bit unnerved by his ongoing home arrest combined with his uncertain fate. When Elizabeth finally arrived at the mansion the following morning she looked half dead. Irwyn had never seen her with bags under her eyes or with half-dishelved half-groomed hair - and sincerely hoped it was an act on her part rather than a reflection of her efforts. But her magical presence itself seemed to be disquieted which gave Irwyn no confidence.

    She did also not come alone. Along with her came a woman in a conservative black suit, spotless makeup, and carrying along a thick stack of papers on a clipboard. That the staff did not introduce this newcomer at all told Irwyn that she apparently wasn¡¯t influential enough to warrant such but not much else - besides being unable to feel any magic from her.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Elizabeth nodded to the maid bringing them refreshments once they were seated in the same dining hall from two days prior ¨C in a single day it has been renovated to the point Irwyn wouldn¡¯t be able to tell most of it had been recently incinerated. Elizabeth had indicated to delay introductions until they had privacy. And indeed, once the tea and food was on the table she waved her hand and sound of the outside world cut off. This time this effect was also accompanied by an unpierceable veil of Void magic additionally obscuring them from sight.

    ¡°How are you holding up?¡± Irwyn had to ask, glancing at Elizabeth¡¯s sorry appearance.

    ¡°Not nearly as bad as I look, don¡¯t worry,¡± she sighed, pointing at the other woman. ¡°But being underestimated is vital. Speaking of, let me introduce Nilly. She will act as your lawyer.¡±

    ¡°I was under the impression it wouldn¡¯t be much of a trial,¡± Irwyn admitted, glancing at the woman who was rearranging the papers.

    ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be much of a show trial without a proper show, would it?¡± Nilly glanced up and grinned. ¡°Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Irwyn. And yes, the only purpose I will serve is pretending to have a purpose.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t see how that will help me from where I stand,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°But I will defer judgment.¡±

    ¡°It is not hard to understand: The people who want you dead are trying to predict what angle the Young Ladyship will be taking to defend you. And the act will be fairly effective in convincing them that we intend to defend you ¡®fairly¡¯ ¨C on rather than under the stand. And they will prepare to dismantle those plans they see."

    ¡°Yet they will counter only a feint,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I assume it is intentional I have no clue about the actual plan though, right?¡±

    ¡°Mostly,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°It¡¯s really about the Truthseeker that will be present in the courtroom.¡±

    ¡°I am unfamiliar with the term,¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°But I assume it¡¯s someone who can tell lies from the title, right?¡±

    ¡°More than that, they might be able to so far as detect even half-truths and omissions,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°I am protected by tradition - mages of lower station are not allowed to glance anything of my mind - but they could gleam something from you with just a few right questions, no matter how you answer them. That would be problematic.¡±

    ¡°And Nilly?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°They would try to apply rules that don¡¯t apply,¡± the woman shrugged as if the cryptic sentence was an obvious fact.

    ¡°It is possible to deceive them¡­ through unconventional means,¡± Elizabeth translated. ¡°Though doing so for you would not be feasible, especially not subtly.¡±

    ¡°They might not be particularly bright but the light they will shine on you will be bright enough to see through any trinkets,¡± Nilly immediately added and Irwyn focused on her. The way she spoke it sounded like she should be a mage, yet Irwyn could not feel the slightest trace of that in the woman. Not a speck of magic to be found.

    ¡°Are you really a mage, Nilly?¡± Irwyn had to ask, looking at her.

    ¡°Nope, I am not well versed in that,¡± she shook her head. ¡°But I am a bottomless well of tricks.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t try to look too much into her for the moment,¡± Elizabeth interrupted his stare by putting a hand on his wrist, though she was throwing the other woman her own rather intent look. ¡°We can have a long talk about it when you are officially acquitted of any wrongdoing.¡±

    ¡°And what do you need me to do for that,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I assume you wouldn¡¯t be here otherwise.¡±

    ¡°The main reason we have this gathering of wills here,¡± Nilly said, ¡°is because they will see us going for a private chat and miss the sea of schemes in the background.¡±

    ¡°Basically,¡± Elizabeth affirmed. ¡°My mother has made plans the people after you will not see coming¡­ but I still have to sell the act that I have been preparing to defend you the ¡®right¡¯ way.¡±

    ¡°Will no one really suspect anything?¡± Irwyn had to raise an eyebrow. ¡°The way you speak of the Duchess I would expect people to¡­ step lightly around her.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Elizabeth exclaimed and Irwyn actually recognized her expression as the one she tended to make when she realized Irwyn was unaware of something she had assumed self-evident. ¡°I think I might have given you¡­ not the wrong impression per say, but an uncommon one.¡±

    ¡°Aye,¡± Nilly nodded along. ¡°It should be considered impressive how she has managed to convince everyone she is just eye candy.¡±

    ¡°As far as most of the Branch Houses butting heads with the main House Blackburg believe, Avys is an airheaded, radical but mediocre mage whose only achievement is grasping the Duke¡¯s affection before his rise to prominence,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°The main reason they had relented on the tradition of polygamy is because they genuinely think that my mother weakens the Duke¡¯s position by not filling in all the roles a harem traditionally would as well as her ¡®emotional outbursts¡¯ that the Duke oftentimes compensates people for.¡±

    ¡°But that isn¡¯t the case,¡± Irwyn observed with some fascination. He had not met the Duchess but the fearful respect Elizabeth held for her mother spoke volumes. And was also completely at odds with the rumors he had heard. Such as the time she had supposedly sparked a war with the Duchy of Yellow over the treatment of child servants.

    ¡°The nobility in this Duchy tends to avoid subterfuge and more subtle manipulations,¡± Nilly explained. ¡°But such is a Void¡¯s legacy. Wrath especially, no patience for long schemes. Or Pride ruining triumph with a needless gloat.¡±

    ¡°They are not stupid,¡± Elizabeth added. ¡°Never assume your opponents are. I have mentioned it before, Irwyn, with less context but people who rely on schemes over brawn don¡¯t live long among upper nobility in the Duchy of Black. Which means they don¡¯t get to survive the inevitable mistakes everyone needs to learn from in order to achieve mastery.¡±

    ¡°But the Duchess has immigrated from beyond the Federation,¡± Irwyn remembered hearing - or maybe reading - that somewhere. ¡°Meaning she was already good enough to lead everyone by the nose when no one had ever heard of her before.¡±

    ¡°A bear in a henhouse,¡± Nilly cheerfully added. ¡°Except she has convinced all the chickens that she is actually just a particularly pretty pile of grains and they should bear with her because the biggest cock loves her so very much.¡±

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    ¡°Not everyone,¡± Elizabeth corrected. ¡°Some people had to be bribed or removed to stay silent - the whole mirage falls apart if enough of our enemies become suspicious which would be disastrous and possibly result in a rebellion. The Old Crow, as I have coincidentally learned, is actually one of those people.¡±

    ¡°HAH!¡± Nelly suddenly burst out laughing before Irwyn could respond. ¡°No w ay! No w ay! You know the Crow?!¡±

    ¡°Yes, he is my mentor,¡± Irwyn said though he frowned as he glanced back at the woman. She had been introduced as just a lawyer - not even a mage - but Elizabeth seemed strangely open about sharing secrets around her. And the way she was speaking¡­ not to mention that¡­

    ¡°Don¡¯t think too much into her before the trial,¡± Elizabeth warned again, interrupting the train of thought. ¡°For now only know that she is here because she is trustworthy, unknown, and will reliably do what is needed from her without succumbing to intimidation.¡±

    ¡°My pact is my bond,¡± she put a hand over her right breast, paused, then moved it over to the left. ¡°And I am all packed and ready to help. It is really funny that you know the Crow though.¡±

    ¡°May I ask why?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Because now I keep imagining the exaggerated clash of wit and will if he and Avys ever ended up in the same room, trying to out-scheme one another just for the sake of it,¡± Nilly chuckled slightly. ¡°Maybe it will happen one day.¡±

    ¡°We are not here to gossip about my mother,¡± Elizabeth interrupted and Irwyn very intently did not think about why Nilly was talking about the Duchess and Old Crow with such familiarity. He couldn¡¯t stop the suspicion of her being one of the Fowl¡¯s former wards from forming but did not expand that strand further. Did not critically go over any points for or against that instinctive assumption.

    ¡°Yes, there is a different can of maggots we have to delve into,¡± Nilly sighed, then she detached one of the papers on her clipboard and forwarded it to Irwyn. ¡°I suppose we can start with that.¡±

    ¡°This is?¡± Irwyn grabbed it and quickly read. It was a list of around 20 names. He quickly spotted that good two-thirds of them ended with ¡®von Fathomsight¡¯. Then his eyes noticed a familiar one among them and the connection became clear. ¡°Alira von Fathomsight. I suppose that makes this the list of my enemies¡­ though I have to admit I am curious about what a ¡®Fathom¡¯ is.¡±

    ¡°List of all the semi-important people who actively want you dead,¡± Nilly corrected. ¡°As for fathom, lower case in most cases¡­ you are aware that the Void has layers, yes?¡±

    ¡°It has been mentioned to me,¡± Irwyn nodded, recalling Elizabeth speaking about something like that.

    ¡°I think I am better disposed to explain Void magic,¡± Elizabeth shot Nilly a stare before she could continue the explanation.

    ¡°I am your guest,¡± Nilly shrugged, though a smile seemed to be tugging at her lips. ¡°Perhaps I should have guessed you would want to explain this yourself.

    ¡°As she reiterated,¡± Elizabeth either didn¡¯t see or chose to ignore it and turned to Irwyn. ¡°The Void has layers. But physical distance is a property of Time which gets¡­ progressively subverted in the Void, the ¡®deeper¡¯ one delves. It could be said that fathoms measure ¡®depth¡¯, though it is closer to saying we use them to symbolize how intensely ¡®Void¡¯ a certain part of the Void is, if that makes sense. Simplistically, more fathoms mean both more Void and more difficult to leave.¡±

    ¡°Basically it symbolizes how dense the Void is or how many of these ¡®layers¡¯ deep in someone is,¡± Irwyn voiced his understanding.

    ¡°Pretty much,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°It¡¯s not a perfectly accurate explanation but you don¡¯t need the long version since you are not a Void mage. But basically, House Fathomsight is an old and powerful branch family of House Blackburg that has a legacy of looking into and through the Void. Also, Alira is a member.¡±

    ¡°She introduced herself as von Blackburg first we met,¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°Technically she is both,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°House Blackburg has literally an uncountable number of Branches from millennia of unchecked polygamy and no one had ever successfully passed laws for this kind of thing, mostly due to strong opposition to any such attempts. Ostensibly, any House that can trace their bloodline all the way to the Duke of Wrath has the right to call themselves ¡®von Blackburg¡¯ besides their own House name and many prefer it as this also gives all of them a claim on the Dukeship. A very distant claim, mind you, compared to direct descendants of the current Duke but there have been a few times in House Blackburg¡¯s history where the main line had been slaughtered to the last and the Branch House with the most power took over.¡±

    ¡°This list is surprisingly short though,¡± Irwyn nodded along but frowned as he focused back on the list. Besides the ¡®von Fathomsight¡¯ names there were a few ending with ¡®von Ebonmender¡¯ as well as two names sticking out by the nature of having no surname. ¡°I suppose Ebonmender is another Branch?¡±

    ¡°No, actually,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°They are a House founded by an independent magelord craftsman some two centuries ago and they are basically trusted vassals to House Fathomsight.¡±

    ¡°And these two?¡± Irwyn stared at the last unexplained names. ¡°Oxen? Presbyopia? What names are those?¡± Irwyn didn¡¯t even know the second word.

    ¡°Code names,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°The Shadows of House Blackburg use such ¨C like Dervish. You have actually met Oxen several times.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Irwyn thought back and quickly realized who she likely meant. The same man who had been protecting Alira and then found him in Abonisle because that was the only person of such power he had the misfortune of meeting several times. But then¡­ ¡°I would expect him to be codenamed ¡®Shade¡¯ or something along those lines, that was the impression I had of them. Not ¡®Oxen¡¯.¡±

    ¡°That is what people get called for being stubborn before the Duchess,¡± Nilly snickered. ¡°It¡¯s borderline famous. ¡®If you are as hard-headed as an ox, we might as well call you the same¡¯. Quite cold from her.¡±

    ¡°Yes, my mother had pretended to be greatly upset by a minuscule inconvenience the man had caused and changed their codename,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Technically speaking, the Duke has the authority to change their monikers at a whim, though it is historically rarely used from the lack of necessity.¡±

    ¡°Anything more I should know about them?¡±

    ¡°Oxen is the foremost expert in Voidwalking - physically traveling through the Void itself,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°He is a peer to Dervish in power if not actual battle prowess.¡±

    ¡°And the other?¡± Irwyn glanced back down to re-read the name. ¡°Presbyopia.¡±

    ¡°It basically means ¡®farsighted¡¯,¡± Elizabeth elaborated. ¡°She is a sniper assassin, hitting marked targets from literally any distance as she sends her spells through the depths of the Void itself. A bit weaker as she is decades younger than Oxen or Dervish but competent in her element.¡±

    ¡°I am very unhappy to see her on this list then,¡± Irwyn sighed. That sounded like literally the worst enemy imaginable.

    ¡°No need to curse your fate yet,¡± Nilly interjected. ¡°The Shadows of House Blackburg are bound by an oath so suffocating it might as well be a curse.¡±

    ¡°As she hinted at, the Shadows will not be a problem,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°They are compelled by oaths to serve House Blackburg. When you are acquitted by the Duke¡¯s wisdom they will literally not be able to harm you.¡±

    ¡°If it is so easy to bind them why are they working with the Branch House in the first place,¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°They are bound to serve House Blackburg the best they can,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Unfortunately, many Shadows have decided that it would be best if the Duke was someone else. They cannot kill anyone remotely important - from neither the Main House nor the Branches - their oaths are extremely explicit in that, but there is some wiggle room they have in many things. Direct commands for example slowly weaken when resisted until they no longer take effect as well as other loopholes they can use to sabotage us internally. It is a bit of a mess in all honesty.¡±

    ¡°How will I be safe from them then if a command wears out?¡± Irwyn assumed that applied to the Duke¡¯s decrees as well.

    ¡°The moment the trial is over I will ask you to join my retinue,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°A semi-ceremonial position of trust. It does also extend all my relevant protections to you at least as far as the Shadows¡¯ oaths are concerned. They will not be able to even track you without consent¡­ If you will agree to it of course.¡±

    ¡°We are in this ¨C and whatever follows ¨C together, at least I hope,¡± Irwyn reassured. There were the personal benefits to consider - besides survival itself - but he found that he would also hate to part from her company. ¡°Whatever help you need from me you will have it. In this and in the future.¡±

    ¡°How wonderful!¡± Nilly interjected. ¡°And while I adore professions, we have had this privacy bubble up for a while and still haven¡¯t gotten to the instructions.¡±

    ¡°Yes, the instructions,¡± Elizabeth nodded, ever so slightly flustered.

    ¡°I thought I shouldn¡¯t know the plan?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Not the real plan, no,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But we are selling a lie. And the best way to make it look like we will be attempting the straightforward defense they expect is to act as if we were actually going to do exactly that. Including all the preparations.¡±

    ¡°I am then, as people say, all ears¡­¡±

 3.5 A show trial

    The dawn of the trial came and Irwyn found himself being escorted with great fanfare. Overnight the wall of token men in black stopped surrounding the property and were instead replaced by the five observers who had been hiding beneath Irwyn¡¯s floor for the past several days. Now he stood face to face with them as they surrounded him and led him out of the guest mansion. In the back of his mind, Irwyn worried it might be some last-minute assassination attempt where he would be brought to some shaded side street and executed¡­ but he had trust in Elizabeth that if such a thing was being planned he would have at least received an early warning.

    And looking at the mages themselves, Irwyn was surer by the moment there would be no such initiative on their part. Looking at their expressions they were¡­ far from enthusiastic. And it made perfect sense in Irwyn¡¯s mind now that he thought about it: There was a Lich war brewing out there, the ideal period of time for any carrier-driven mage to make a name for themselves, especially those that had attained conception like them could attain great accolades with limited danger. Instead, they had been stuck with days upon days of basically boring guard duty which ran the risk of sabotaging their career instead of helping it - as politics could.

    The place they dragged him through was¡­ fascinating. When Irwyn had been confined to the ''guest'' mansion he had been simply teleported there straight from the care of a physician who he had been brought to right after Abonisle. He had assumed that the building was in a small neighborhood with other similar estates he could see from the window beyond the expansive yards. A minute of walking down the street proved him wrong. There was no such thing as a ''neighborhood''. It had all been a facade of a ghost town, with only a singular road leading away from the empty mansions - perhaps each meant for people like him. And in the middle of that road stood a giant metal gate.

    It slowly slid open as they approached and beyond it Irwyn saw a hallway so long he could not see the end in the distances and so tall it seemed to rival Abonisle¡¯s inner city buildings in height when he looked up to - until the ceiling and the walls blurred together from sheer distance. And that made him take a second look around the gate itself. And from this close Irwyn realized that even the skyline and scenery were fake. All of it just a mirage. But how perfect it was. The ¡®sun¡¯ traveled across the sky with seemingly perfect precision and the light felt no different than actual daylight. The clouds moved in seemingly haphazard patterns but in it Irwyn thought he might be seeing¡­

    They stepped through into the hall before he could take any more of it in. Irwyn nearly began to choke as the first breath beyond entered his lungs. He did not need to guess to realize that it was because of the Void magic saturating the air. It was intense, filling every nook and cranny of the hall as far as Irwyn could feel - which was far less than usual given that the very air suppressed him. He realized his skin was tingling, slowly corroding under the sheer quantity. It was suddenly harder to see as Irwyn felt chest pain and lightheaded. He had never been sick in his life but in this moment grasped somewhat what that felt like.

    He nearly stumbled on the first few steps in. His escorts seemed silently annoyed at the suddenly slower pace but did not actually voice any complaint. Irwyn got his footing and breathed in a few more times before he dared walk faster again. He was¡­ not fine in all honesty. He thought he would get used to the effect but it was not getting better. Everything was still dark, his chest still hurt while his lungs actually began to feel like they were burning with each breath. His skin got progressively more irritated too which did not help. His eyes watered and ears felt pressured.

    Nonetheless, he was silently urged forward by his escort and so he moved. Sped up actually. He was not supposed to use any magic lest it was used as an excuse to stop an ¡®attempted escape¡¯ and so he would have to bear with it. Feeling like he was walking through tar, Irwyn focused and refocused on putting one leg in front of the other. Step. Step. Step. He realized he was sweating quite hard and that his legs were burning from more than just surface corrosion. And that was actually his biggest proof that something was really wrong with the hallway - even if his perception was dulled he should not have begun feeling physically tired so quickly. Yet he did. The air still burned as if saturated with acid. He barely noticed when they finally took a turn and left the seemingly endless hallway. Then suddenly he could breathe again. Irwyn felt like he was stepping from an overcrowded room into the cold night. A whiplash of perceptions that was not at all unpleasant. It was, however, confusing, which is why it took him several moments to orient himself.

    The first thing he noticed was the throne. A majestic thing of impossible proportions reaching from its elevated platform all the way to the ceiling forming a tapestry of shapes that Irwyn could barely catch the slightest glimpse off as the umbral patterns seemed to swallow light around them, leaving the seat itself shaded inside the fully lit room. It was incredible¡­ and Irwyn immediately realized he would not be able to appreciate even a fraction of it. He was a Light mage after all, at least in part, and Light was anathema to Void. He simply did not have the innate potential to even begin deciphering the seemingly infinite wonder contained within that throne - he could barely even notice them by the bare edges he felt and the instinctual repulsion it evoked.

    Then he realized he was standing next to Elizabeth and Nilly. His escort squad had at some point left and were no longer anywhere in sight. What he did see was another gate open before he could so much as exchange a word. From there stepped out three people: A tall man in a cloak woven as if from night itself; a severe seeming mage whose eyes darted around looking for any threats; and a thin man with a clipboard whose wardrobe was  identical to Nilly¡¯s - though unlike her he felt like a weak mage.

    ¡°Your young Ladyship, a pleasure to meet you even under these circumstances,¡± the tall man in the cloak immediately approached and greeted Elizabeth, grimacing slightly as he glanced over Irwyn and Nilly. ¡°And how¡­ courageous of you to bring another woman who is not even a mage to assist you in today¡¯s matter.¡±

    ¡°It would be a lie to say the pleasure is mine, Lord Astacio,¡± Elizabeth half-hissed with a pleasant smile. ¡°But I hope you don¡¯t expect me to be happy to see you given your blatant attempts to undermine me.¡±

    ¡°I have only the most reasonable expectations of you, Young Ladyship,¡± the man smiled. ¡°Please try not to misunderstand matters of principle and reputation as personal attacks. I understand the need for pawns but you have chosen poorly. I hope you will abandon your sunk cost fallacy so that we may part amicably.¡±

    ¡°That will be up to my father to determine,¡± Elizabeth stared the taller man down.

    ¡°Yes, indeed,¡± he nodded, though his smile did not slip. ¡°I am pleased with the Duke¡¯s adherence to the rule of law rather than nepotism in this case.¡±

    ¡°If your Lordships, Ladyships, and retinues would please take your designated seats!¡± a voice sounded from the side of the room, interrupting the bickering. There in an alcove stood a man in a perfectly ironed suit. A conception mage, though an old one. A downright ancient with last traces of white hair so wizened he had to be on the last leg of his life. And yet he did not appear any less energetic for it.

    ¡°The Crier,¡± Elizabeth whispered as Nilly guided them to their table. It was a relatively simple desk with three seats on the left side of the room while their opposition sat at an identical one to the right of them. ¡°A ceremonial announcer if you will. Follow what they say to avoid any faux pas. He is also the Truthseeker we have talked about.¡±

    ¡°Where are we?¡± Irwyn whispered as they took seats. He was in the middle as was apparently customary.

    ¡°The throne room,¡± Elizabeth stated the obvious. ¡°Careful about looking at it too hard.¡±

    ¡°I can see the throne,¡± Irwyn said, both whispering. ¡°But is this the actual seat of power? I thought this would be held in a court room of some kind.¡±

    ¡°The Duke adjudicates today,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Everything will by done at his convenience and under his aegis. Where else would he decide matters of state?¡±

    Then the gate at the back of the throne room shot open and everyone was overtaken by a hush. Irwyn had not noticed the large doorway until that moment as most of it was hidden behind the throne itself but there was only one person it could have been meant for.

    ¡°All rise for his Dukeship!¡± the crier shouted and the room fell silent for everything but their voice and the dragging of chairs as no one dared remain sitting. ¡°The medium to the Mother in Black, a Monarch of the outer depths, the ruler to all he beholds! His Lordship, Ezax von Blackbrurg!¡±

    And Irwyn stood and waited with bated breath, stiffly trying to catch a glance - though the throne itself obscured sight of the entrance almost completely. So he stood there, expecting the Duke to walk through¡­ except he never did.

    There was an awkward lull as everyone stood upright to greet the Duke who did not enter. After half a dozen seconds instead a maid in an absurd dress gingerly walked by the wall and approach the crier. And it was definitely an eye-catching attire - A dress seemingly literally made from spatulas. Yes, spatulas, the kitchen implements. Layer upon layer of spatulas of various sizes, makes, and metals combined into the maid¡¯s strange ankle-long dress, somehow managing to look graceful and good. At least as good as something so strange could.

    The maid whispered to the crier who seemed either outraged or horrified by her words. They changed a few very low hushed whispers Irwyn couldn¡¯t make out before the maid finally returned to where she had come from. Murmurs were already travelling across the room as Irwyn shot Elizabeth a glance. She was either maintaining a poker face or petrified. Nilly on the other hand seemed on the verge of laughter, at least from this up close.

    ¡°Ehm,¡± the crier loudly cleared his throat attracting everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°It would appear that an unavoidable emergency has stolen his Lordship¡¯s time. Therefore, in his stead, everyone stand for the First Wife, her Ladyship Avys von Blackburg!¡±

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    Irwyn thought he heard an outraged yell be cut off in its first second from the other table on their right side. Then the Duchess wandered out from behind the throne and Irwyn stared at her. And for all that Elizabeth had said¡­ the Duchess really did not seem impressive. First of all, he could not feel any concepts from her. Not even the slightest hint of one ¨C marking her as a mage at best slightly better than Elizabeth or him. Of course, those might have just been hidden by enchantments but the more intently Irwyn stared the more¡­ mortal she looked. Her steps were trained and elegant but only that. Her eyes did not dart around to access the room - nor did she twitch with perceptions or thoughts coursing at speeds far beyond the mundane. She genuinely looked like an entitled young beauty swaggering into a den of wolves, unaware of the Wrath and danger aimed her way.

    Yes, young. And that was one immediately strange thing about her appearance. The Duchess appeared to be barely in her early twenties at most with all the youthful beauty and vitality that entailed. And yet she must have been¡­ at least in her late 50s since she supposedly married something about 40 years prior, possibly more. Yet none of that was apparent or even hinted at in her visage. All that Irwyn saw was the apparent disinterest and boredom so blatantly plastered across her face they had to be an act with what he had been told of Elizabeth''s mother.

    ¡°Your Ladyship Avys,¡± the Lord¡­ Astacio von Fathomsight, Irwyn managed to remember if barely, mostly because the name had been in the dossier as Alira¡¯s uncle from the father¡¯s side. ¡°Although your presence graces us all, we have been expecting the Duke.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I am no more pleased at needing to be here than you are,¡± Avys nodded, though she didn¡¯t look at the noble she was speaking to, instead gesturing for the spatula-dressed maid to approach. ¡°Unfortunately, neither of us have any say in the matter.¡±

    ¡°This dispute is to be adjudicated personally by the Duke,¡± Astacio spoke again while Avys vaguely gestured something at the maid who seemed to understand as she nodded and quickly left.

    ¡°And if they are unavailable due to an unforeseen emergency as the First Wife I am required by tradition to take his place,¡± Avys sighed, so weary it sounded almost exaggerated. ¡°Of course, if you want to break this custom, I would be more than happy to postpone until Ezax is available.¡±

    ¡°That is,¡± the man muttered and Irwyn had to gape. Clearly, the Fathomsight noble did not want the Duchess to adjudicate and the offer to just postpone seemed like something they would take¡­ but Irwyn was clearly missing something because the man grit his teeth and seemed to be struggling with coming to a decision for a moment. ¡°If the Duke¡¯s time is indeed occupied with an emergency more important than his duty of adjudication in Matters of Dispute then there is no reason to divert from tradition.¡±

    ¡°Less than an hour ago the nine Dukes of the Federation have convened,¡± Avys stared down at the man like he was an idiot for not knowing. Irwyn almost felt second-hand insult. ¡°They have agreed upon a Declaration. The Duchy Federation is officially in a Lich war now. As his foremost duties demand, Ezax has gone to awaken the Vex-Irikka.¡±

    There was a moment of surprised silence at that. Irwyn glanced at Elizabeth who seemed just as surprised as everyone else to hear those words, whatever they meant. He glanced at Nilly who seemed completely unperturbed, though his ¡®lawyer¡¯ seemed to misinterpret Irwyn¡¯s curious glance.

    ¡°Vex-Irikka, the Beacon of Fear,¡± Nilly whispered a quick explanation. ¡°First of the three Beacons. It¡¯s a lighthouse equivalent in the Void that tells anything and anyone that we have an acute undead infestation. Stops demons from raiding and might even get some travelling by to help, though rarely,¡± Irwyn wasn¡¯t sure how to react for a moment and then was interrupted from the thought by a raised voice.

    ¡°Yes, no one could possibly argue that the Vex duty is second to adjudication,¡± the Astacio admitted through gritted teeth. Irwyn was not sure why exactly they were acting the way they were but it did seem like a good sign. ¡°In which case we shall proceed with the trial as was scheduled.¡±

    ¡°Go on then,¡± Avys shrugged and deflated. ¡°Crier, take over.¡±

    ¡°Of course, Your Ladyship,¡± the man bowed politely before turning towards the hall. ¡°As is tradition, the accusing party may state their claims and the compensation they seek first.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Your Ladyship,¡± the opposing presumed lawyer stood up, bowing towards Avys as if it was her who had spoken. The Duchess seemed to barely be listening. ¡°With their permission and blessing, I shall speak on behalf of his Lordship Astacio von Blackburg. His Lordship seeks reparations on behalf of his niece, Young Ladyship Alira von Blackburg, who has been gravely injured by a perpetrator under the protection of her Young Ladyship Elizabeth von Blackburg. As he and his other relatives see it, the only appropriate sentence would be death to the wrongdoer and punitive monetary compensation from the Young Ladyship for sheltering them.¡±

    ¡°The accused side may speak,¡± the Crier acknowledged as the lawyer sat down.

    ¡°Thank you, your Ladyship,¡± Nilly stood up. Irwyn had thought she would keep speaking a bit strange as she had the day prior¡­ instead she perfectly replicated the mannerisms of the other lawyer. And since they also wore the exact same clothes the great similarity in body language was almost uncanny. ¡°With her permissions and blessing, I shall speak on the behalf of her Young Ladyship Elizabeth von Blackburg. Her Young Ladyship sincerely believes that all claims of malice are baseless as Young Ladyship Alira has been under the direct and active protection of a Shadow of House Blackburg at the time of her injury, making the accused mage, Irwyn of no House, fundamentally incapable of injuring her. These accusations are an insult and a direct attack on the Young Ladyship¡¯s station with the sole purpose of preventing her from officially adding a talented mage she has personally nurtured for months into her retinue.¡±

    ¡°Very well, I feel no deceit from either side. Both sides believe they are in the right and therefore require adjudication,¡± the Crier nodded, turning towards Avys. ¡°If you would, your Ladyship, you may now summon anyone in the room to speak or request them to put forward their witnesses or evidence.¡±

    ¡°I may,¡± Avys repeated. ¡°Do I have to? I have the ultimate right to decide anyway, do I not?¡±

    ¡°It would be¡­ highly irregular,¡± the Crier frowned slightly. ¡°I have no knowledge of any past cases in all of House Blackburg¡¯s history where no evidence or witnesses were put forward before a verdict.¡±

    ¡°Ah, very well,¡± Avys sighed and deflated again. ¡°Do you have a dice?¡±

    ¡°No, I do not, your Ladyship,¡± the Crier shook his head without skipping a beat.

    ¡°Then I will make one,¡± Avys nodded and outstretched the palm of her hand. On it, magic began to coalesce¡­ rather slowly as Irwyn reckoned such things. In a bit over a second it formed into a simple six-sided die which Avys immediately proceeded to throw onto the ground in front of the throne. ¡°Two, let¡¯s see,¡± she announced the results then theatrically counted from their side. And it just so happened that Irwyn sat in the middle of their trio. ¡°You child¡­ step forward?¡± she glanced at the Crier.

    ¡°Yes, into the middle of the room, onto the mark on the floor,¡± the Crier nodded and Irwyn followed the instruction. He had not spotted the subtle pattern before as it was the same color as the rest of the floor but looking for it, it was obvious. The moment he stepped onto the marked section a podium rose, giving him a half step of height as well as a small circular railing between himself and the throne on which Avys said.

    ¡°And he is?¡± Avys glance at the Crier. He was about to answer when quickly approaching steps interrupted him. It was the maid returning with¡­ a bowl of salad. Irwyn gaped at it as it was handed to Avys who immediately took a small gleeful bite. The maid stepped down from the throne¡¯s elevation though remained standing close by the Duchess, quite close to Irwyn actually which by sheer proximity attracted his attention to her strange dress again.

    He was still baffled at the strangeness of it. Why spatulas? It was an absurd choice of material for a dress and he was really not getting the symbolism. But it was so incredibly well done it still looked as good as it reasonably could. Despite using utensils of various make it was all symmetrical and well-arranged. Except maybe for the very prominent position in the middle of the maid¡¯s chest where one spatula was particularly pronounced. For some reason though it had the letter ¡®N¡¯ carved into the handle breaking the syme¡­

    Irwyn froze and stared at the spatula again, stirring memories from several months ago. And indeed, now that he thought of it, the design was so very familiar. N for Narcinia, or so Irwyn had assumed when the Tears had stolen one exactly like it from a restaurant that most likely hid something of the kind cook¡¯s past. A small thing, just a heist they did as a favour to one of their own and he had long put it out of his mind, focused on the disasters that followed.

    But somehow it was here. And it was no coincidence, it couldn¡¯t be. Whoever had prepared the dress knew how to send Irwyn a message without speaking a single word or making a single gesture. Something so specific no one in the room would have the slightest chance of noticing. Then, of course, Irwyn remembered hearing that the Duchess was insistent on dressing the maids that waited for her by herself in exotic or strange cloth.

    And like that the illusion of the bored temptress contently eating salad shattered in his mind. He had¡­ doubts seeing the Duchess act as she had so far. First impressions were powerful despite all the warnings. He glimpsed a bit of why Elizabeth seemed always so terrified when she spoke of her mother. In that moment of realization, the Duchess also ¡®just so happened¡¯ to lift a piece of her meal and trace it with her eyes in such a way that their gazes just happened to meet for a split second. Irwyn did not react and give anything away but the message was certainly received.

    ¡°Ehm,¡± the Crier cleared his throat, gathering back the limelight. For all Irwyn¡¯s thought had spiraled, his mind moved fast. Merely a few seconds have passed. ¡°The young man would be the accused.¡±

    In reaction to those words Avys froze. She put down the piece of salad she had been lifting and stared Irwyn down with sudden intensity. There was no magic in it but the difference in elevation as well as the imposing throne behind her had the effect of unnerving Irwyn. It did not help that the room had gone completely silent.

    ¡°How old are you, child,¡± she asked. Irwyn realized she had stopped blinking. Her former bored laxness was gone, replaced by utter rigidness.

    ¡°I am not completely certain of my age,¡± Irwyn remembered Nilly¡¯s advice to absolutely not lie give the Truthseeker not far away from him.

    ¡°Then estimate,¡± Avys immediately demanded.

    ¡°I would always celebrate my Birthday on Lumen¡¯s Solstice,¡± Irwyn said, sweating slightly. ¡°If the way we tracked it was correct, I could be almost 17.¡±

    ¡°You came here to murder a child,¡± Avys turned towards where his accusers sat.

    ¡°A dangerous fugitive, Your Ladyship,¡± Astocio replied before their lawyer could.

    ¡°A child,¡± Avys repeated. ¡°And made sure I would not hear about it so I would not try to dissuade Ezax from being fooled by you.¡±

    ¡°To beg your pardon Duchess, emotions should be dissociated from matters of state,¡± Astocio argued back.

    ¡°It is not emotion but principle,¡± Avys stared at Irwyn again. ¡°I will not have any children harmed. Not under my watch. Not now. Not ever. You know this and that I will not allow it until I am reduced to shreds of lifeless meat. Don¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Your Ladyship¡­¡± Astocio said slowly, unwillingly. ¡°You have made your position clear many times in the past.¡±

    ¡°Good,¡± Avys nodded, staring back down at Irwyn. ¡°The Long Solstice is in a few weeks time if I recall. Until then and for four years hence the child will not be harmed,¡± her eyes finally left him. ¡°After that murder an adult at your leisure for all I care. That is everything I have to say,¡± and then she stood up and left, only stopping for a moment to hand the maid her salad to carry for her, leaving everyone gaping for a few seconds.

    ¡°Such is the wisdom of the First Wife,¡± the Crier was the first to recover. ¡°And she has offered her sentence: The deference of judgement for a period of just under 1600 days and a temporary acquittal for this duration. Thereafter the matter shall either result in revocation of all protections or the opportunity for a retrial as tradition states. All rise for the First Wife, Avys von Blackburg. The trial has concluded.¡±

 3.6 Dew due

    The room was silent for a few moments as Avys made her exit. In fact, it was only broken by Lord Astacio standing up from their seat, loudly moving the chair. That they had been supposed to rise for the duchess leaving was seemingly forgotten given that she had just up and left before the instruction could be given or followed. Irwyn glanced at the Crier to see their reaction¡­ only to realize the old man was no longer standing in their alcove. In fact, he was not even in the room anymore. Some kind of teleportation, no telling whether cast by the man or just an item. City Black also had a Temporal Beacon after all which meant much easier Time-based teleportation for anyone with the means.

    ¡°You got lucky, but this isn¡¯t over,¡± Astacio walked over to their table, the bodyguard - at least Irwyn assumed they were one - following behind them while their lawyer remained seated, quite still.

    ¡°Irwyn has been acquitted,¡± Elizabeth pointed out, still seemingly surprised though Irwyn was reasonably sure she was exaggerating a bit at that point.

    ¡°Yes, and for four years hence he is an innocent man¡­ in this matter,¡± Astacio nodded. ¡°But accidents don¡¯t care for guilt or innocence, do they? We are in a Lich War now after all. Enjoy your freedom while it lasts,¡± then the man turned around and left right through the gate they had gone through.

    ¡°Did he just?¡± Irwyn gaped.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°As direct and clumsy as ever.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that basically going against the trial¡¯s outcome?¡±

    ¡°No, not really,¡± Elizabeth sighed and shook her head. ¡°What the verdict means is that they cannot send the real assassins. The kind that murder demigods in daylight without being noticed. Instead, they will have to rely on lesser methods - the kind where it won¡¯t be seen as an assassination, more as a ¡®failure of strength¡¯. House Fathomsight will still definitely play out the grudge but it will have to be done indirectly.¡±

    ¡°Such as?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°You will be challenged to a lot of honor duels in the near future by sycophants our age trying to kill you for favour,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°Annoying but not actually dangerous. Sending you on particularly dangerous assignments is another trick ¨C which will not happen because you will be with me and they cannot justify that. They will also try to bribe or coerce people to stab you in the back. But they will be clumsy and unsuccessful attempts. A decent chunk of resources and risk was invested in you Irwyn. My parents will not let that easily go to waste at this point.¡±

    ¡°I suppose that is reassuring,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Perhaps we¡­¡± he began but was interrupted.

    A man stood in front of their bench, Irwyn realized. It was the other side¡¯s lawyer who had for whatever reason not left along with the Fathomsight Lord. He was also staring at Nilly, extremely intently. Irwyn panicked slightly given what they had just been speaking about but a glance at Elizabeth showed him she was not surprised or panicking at all.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± the man said, his arm trembling.

    ¡°That is the question, is it not?¡± Nilly smiled wide and stood up as Irwyn stared. ¡°Like a knot at the back of your head, just refusing to let go.¡±

    ¡°Tell me!¡± the man screamed at her, startling Irwyn. The male lawyer was visibly shaking now. Irwyn looked at them again, wearing identical clothes and such eerily familiar mannerisms. But now that he looked at their faces next to each other he realized there was a deeper resemblance. Unmistakably shared features of their visages, the kind that were close enough to assume a relation.

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Nilly walked around the bench, placing a hand at the man¡¯s chest. ¡°I am me!¡±

    ¡°No! You are not!¡± the man recoiled but the hand followed him. ¡°WHY DO YOU HAVE HER FACE?!¡±

    ¡°What do you mean, daddy?¡± Nilly shrunk before Irwyn¡¯s sight, making him freeze at the unexpected shift. In the blink of an eye, she was younger¡­ much younger. Perhaps fourteen if Irwyn had to guess by appearance. Even her suit morphed into a black summer dress loosely put over her suddenly tender shoulders. ¡°You are scaring me!¡±

    ¡°No, no, I buried you,¡± the man collapsed backwards to the ground. Irwyn tried to speak but realized that no words would come out. Neither could he move nor reach for magic. All he could do was stare as things unfolded.

    ¡°Can¡¯t you see? I am right here, daddy,¡± Nilly spoke again, kneeling in front of the man and putting her hands to his cheeks.

    ¡°I¡­ I¡­ I¡­¡± the man was breathing hard, shaking in delirious fervor. Then he leaned forward and hugged Nilly with all the strength of maddened desperation. ¡°Yes, I know. It¡¯s all right. I am right here.¡±

    ¡°Yes, you are,¡± Nilly hugged him back and they stayed like that for at least 20 seconds in which Irwyn struggled but found his fetters unshakeable. ¡°Then¡­ can you tell me, daddy?¡±

    ¡°Tell you what? No¡­ anything,¡± the man hesitated then immediately changed his mind. ¡°I will tell you anything. Just stay with me, alright?¡±

    ¡°Then daddy, why did you hurt the others?¡± Nilly asked with a sweet and innocent voice. ¡°What did they do to deserve what you did to them? What you stole from them?¡±

    ¡°W¡­what do you mean?¡± the man recoiled again.

    ¡°Was it because you were bitter about what happened to me?¡± Nilly was still smiling and it seemed so innocent on the outside. And yet¡­ ¡°Did you want other parents to feel the same way you did? Or perhaps you thought that causing pain would take yours away.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ have done no such thing!¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Nilly asked in the little girl¡¯s voice, then changed. She was suddenly a chubby young boy in a shirt with several sharks sewn onto it. ¡°Then why did you cut my fingers?¡± then her ¨C its - form shifted again, into a girl with long golden locks and a crown of flowers. ¡°It hurt when you peeled me,¡± another girl, a bit older in a sparkling skirt glowing with magic. ¡°Did I deserve the rake?¡± an athletic boy in trousers. ¡°You laughed when I begged to die.¡±

    ¡°What is happe¡­¡±

    ¡°Hush, hush,¡± Nilly was in her original form again, placing a finger over the man¡¯s lips. Then she blew a fistful of powder into their face. The man started coughing as Nilly stood up and moved away from him. Five, six times, then the coughing stopped. Then the man looked up again, shocked, confused and horrified.

    ¡°yjo.. yao¡­ yoe¡­¡± the lawyer stood up and pointed at Nilly but words failed him while the ¡®woman¡¯ had a wide smile plastered across her face. Too wide actually. Literally ear to ear. Then her lips moved and rows of sharp teeth showed.

    Then she reached forward with her hand, but the man was too far as he was desperately backing away. So, instead of moving, her fingers grew, elongated. From digits into skin ropes, hundreds of knuckles adorning each at regular intervals as Nilly grabbed the terrified man¡¯s head, then two of the malformed appendages reached for their temple and pulled something out.

    A moment passed as the man froze. Nilly returned to her previous state, except with a slightly different face. The man wavered on his feet for a moment, then blinked. He glanced at Nilly, confused but not visibly terrified anymore. Not a hint of fear or recognition, actually.

    ¡°Your Young Ladyship, I shall take my leave,¡± he politely said and then hurried away. But in a way a busy man would rather than a retreat in the face of dread.

    ¡°By the Aspects, what was that?!¡± the moment the lawyer passed through the gate Irwyn could finally speak, whatever had just held him slipping away in a single breath.

    ¡°My due compensation,¡± Nilly smiled, a human grin. ¡°The dew of vengeance, fresh and ripe.¡±

    ¡°What have you done to him?¡± Irwyn glanced at the gate, shaken by the frankly horrific display.

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°Exactly the kind of things he deserved,¡± she laughed. ¡°Not a smidgen more or less for kind treatment was not among them.¡±

    ¡°You have what you wanted,¡± Elizabeth seemed unphased though, speaking with calm. ¡°Leave at your leisure.¡±

    ¡°I would not be opposed to an explanation,¡± Irwyn opined.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t I write a letter while I am at it, eh?¡± Nilly rolled her eyes. Except each rolled in the opposite direction. ¡°I followed my dealings to the letter and owe nothing more.¡±

    ¡°And I did not imply otherwise,¡± Irwyn nodded slowly.

    ¡°By those words I shall act then, bye,¡± Nilly smiled from ear to ear one last time, then dropped dead. Life left her eyes in a blink and before her corpse even collapsed it already began to decompose. Clothes and skin shriveled, then fell into dust - which was all that remained of the woman in just a few moments. Then even the dust dispersed, seemingly vanishing into nothing.

    ¡°What was that?!¡± Irwyn took a breath which failed to calm him, then turned to Elizabeth who had been calm until that moment.

    ¡°Our plan B,¡± she answered but shakily. Irwyn realized her hand was trembling slightly even if she did not let that reach her face. Composure cracking now that she no longer feared to lose it.

    ¡°If the Duchess play didn¡¯t work out for whatever reason,¡± Irwyn grasped. ¡°She contacted some kind of fae?¡± because what else than a Sister of life could that have been? It was far more¡­ malicious than the few Irwyn had met but then again, he had been warned by themselves that the fae could be fickle. The effortless shapeshifting and semi-whimsical ¨C though he shivered at such a description - actions were the biggest giveaway, not the mention the strange way of speech.

    ¡°No, this was not part of my mother¡¯s plan,¡± Elizabeth shook her head, calming down. ¡°I was approached personally on your behalf and kept this a secret best I could.¡±

    ¡°Mine?¡± Irwyn was rather surprised to hear.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she shrugged. ¡°Have you ever met any fae? ¡®Nilly¡¯ knew you by name.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I did once on my way to Abonisle,¡± Irwyn admitted. ¡°But they were¡­ very different. I don¡¯t think this one was among them, though it would be hard to tell. Even then they were loose with appearance and names.¡±

    ¡°Maybe you left an impression,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Either way, an offer was made. The fae wanted access deep into City Black to ¡®hunt¡¯ and in exchange promised to help you escape if things went South. And well, I was already supposed to recruit a lawyer.¡±

    ¡°Stealing me away in tact sounds like a¡­ harsh ordeal,¡± Irwyn noted. There was absolutely no way that City Black wasn¡¯t heavily fortified to stop intruders from both entering and leaving.

    ¡°Better than no plan B at all,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Not to mention that finding a regular person who wouldn¡¯t get intimated by the Fathomsights would have been difficult. They tried hard to make her turn on us or not appear at all today.¡±

    ¡°Won¡¯t someone suspect something amiss if they find no trace of this ¡®lawyer¡¯ who represented me?¡± and checking records was not particularly hard. All it would require was a hunch or a practical routine.

    ¡°Faen magic,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°It works in incomprehensible ways for people on our level but from what I have come to understand, anyone looking into her past will be made to be sure nothing is amiss, even subconsciously forging their own reports if necessary. Of course, that will not work on powerful enough mages but those are not sent to do background checks.¡±

    ¡°And whatever she did to that man, he had not died on the spot,¡± which meant dissociation from the trial itself. Irwyn remembered that faceful of dust. He had no idea what it would actually do but decided after a moment that he probably wouldn¡¯t want to know. The picture painted of them was not pretty. And neither would be their fate if he had to wager.

    ¡°If they die in the nearby future at all,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Fae are known to be fickle and have a different outlook on things. It could be a decade-long knell or she might not have sought their death at all. No way to know at the moment and I am wary to send anyone to keep an eye out. My mother would notice that and I would rather try to keep this from her - it is already quite possible she suspects something.¡±

    ¡°Yes, you are right,¡± Irwyn sighed. No point in taking risks for mere curiosity. He did not know how the Duchess might actually react if she knew. ¡°I just wonder why ¡®Nilly¡¯. The fae seem to be fluid with names but it is still a strange one.

    ¡°Who knows? I chose it willy-nilly,¡± Irwyn heard a whisper behind his ear and jumped, actually falling over the table and barely turning to land on his behind rather than face. He had felt nothing, heard no approach. And still, the fae had been behind him. ¡°Like watching a fly fly, no deeper meaning or reason behind it.¡±

    ¡°I was under the impression that you have¡­ left,¡± Elizabeth carefully said back on guard as she walked around the table to help Irwyn up. More to make meaningless distance than because he actually needed assistance.

    ¡°Oh, you know how it is. I lie as I lie, or tell the while sitting truth perhapstimes,¡± Nilly chuckled to herself as she gracefully floated to sprawl over the table. ¡°But that is what I present: Just because I left doesn¡¯t mean I am no longer present.¡±

    ¡°Do you want anything more from us then?¡± Irwyn ventured.

    ¡°It is wanton to want tons of things,¡± she shook her head, moving it far enough to the sides it would have broken most necks. ¡°But you surge with curiosity Starchild, I am inclined to sate it. Ask!¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Irwyn nodded as he tried to think. There went better not knowing, he supposed. That hadn¡¯t necessarily been a suggestion. ¡°Hunting was mentioned. Why do you pursue people?¡±

    ¡°Ah, that is a question of the good kind,¡± Nilly nodded. ¡°You see I don¡¯t care for who is kind or otherwise but what I cannot stand is the breaking of the only true principle. Do you know it? Remember it? My sister would have surely mentioned it.¡±

    ¡°That ¡®to deceive is to change and to live is to deceive¡¯,¡± Irwyn recited it had been memorable to him at least. It was probably why the Lifegiver Vitaros was also titled the Deceiver after all.

    ¡°Just right, just right,¡± Nilly laughed, her mouth revealing rows upon rows of dull teeth - each a molar. ¡°And that is the very nature of everything that lives. A fundamental right of metamorphosis. And therefore, those who deprive it must suffer.¡±

    ¡°You acted out children,¡± Irwyn noted trying not to remember too many details of that morbid play.

    ¡°Humans grow so very stiff with age,¡± Nilly nodded with sudden seriousness. ¡°They lie to themselves just fine, ah, but the form, the form. With growth they forget how to bamboozle the world around them. But still, something better than naught. And in no age or era will I abide by those that strip away even that little.¡±

    ¡°Children die all the time, daily even,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°And I am just one sister crusade,¡± Nilly nodded. ¡°I cannot possibly prevent every death. Why try? Vengeance is so much more satisfying and always plentiful - enough that I can pick and choose the most egregious. I have not gone thirsty for a single year since the start of this quest.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Irwyn slowly nodded. It was twisted logic but he imagined it made perfect sense from the perspective of this fae. It also made him even more want to get away from the powerful maniac speaking with him. ¡°I believe my curiosity is sated.¡±

    ¡°Good, good, half-truths have a nice ring to them,¡± she jumped up straight, then traced a perfect ring with her fingers. ¡°But I can see I have overstayed my welcome. I wouldn¡¯t want you to be so scared you hold a grudge. I can already see our places switched in a century or two. farvel n.¡°

    This time she did not just decay away. Nilly exploded into a barrage of blood. Not blood and gore, just blood. Because there were no fragments of bone, sinew, skin, or anything else that a function shell of flesh ought to traditionally have. Just a sanguine spray¡­ that did not actually touch or stain anything. Instead, it all formed into neat strings which interlaced and combined into an image. It reminded Irwyn of a rose made of still-bleeding flesh for the split second before it disappeared into nothingness.

    ¡°Is she actually gone this time?¡± Irwyn breathed out.

    ¡°As if I could tell,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°I have been told the fae were moody and alien but I did not expect it to be like that.¡±

    ¡°I have met a few once, as I said but that evening did not involve murder,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I think they were mostly fascinated with my peculiar inability to write. A different question comes to mind thought.¡±

    ¡°Which is?¡±

    ¡°It relates to elemental advantage,¡± Irwyn elaborated first. The principle that described certain elements being better suited for certain effects than others. ¡°How difficult is it to translocate using Life magic as she had?¡±

    ¡°I am more concerned about how difficult it is to kill someone who can just discard their body,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°But I assume this is on the higher end of power even for the fae.¡±

    ¡°Not Named though,¡± Irwyn said confidently.

    ¡°I am not so certain,¡± Elizabeth admitted. ¡°The universe is full of ancient immortals. And we are far more likely than average to run into them on account of Fate.¡±

    ¡°She might be close but not Named,¡± Irwyn reiterated, shaking his head. ¡°I once met someone who seemed rather knowledgeable and they shared with me a piece of wisdom, that the fae change what they call themselves or each other on a whim. They summed it in a simple principle: They don¡¯t have a name until they have a Name. And I don¡¯t think anyone would just hide their Name.¡±

    ¡°I wish I could just get someone to look into this without raising questions,¡± she muttered under her breath.

    ¡°Maybe you can claim to meet a wandering fae in the nearby future and use it as an excuse,¡± Irwyn suggested. ¡°And speaking of nearby future¡­ now that I am acquitted I am rather unsure as to what mine holds.¡±

    ¡°Well, first of all you will be moving,¡± Elizabeth moved right into the new conversation. ¡°A guest house on more private property. Then tomorrow my mother wants to meet you face to face. Even I wasn¡¯t told much more than that. My assumption is she intends to reveal what she has schemed for us in this Lich War.¡±

 3.7 Flesh and blood

    The first thing Irwyn found out after leaving the throne room where his trial had taken place was that it was, in fact, not morning anymore. The mansion he had been confined to was not actually following the day-night cycle - instead, it was operating on a different routine entirely, each day being about 48 minutes shorter than normal. Why that number specifically, Irwyn did not grasp and found it strange that Elizabeth knew it so precisely. But clearly that way the year in the house was 11 days longer which - besides seeming rather pointless - honestly bordered on heresy as the length of a full day had been quite precisely defined by Ignis - at least as far as the Book of the Name said. But what did he know? The main thing he got from the conversation was that on the day of the trial, he had been seven hours off.

    The point was that besides being another tool that had been used to confuse him by his former captors, it also meant that the trial had actually ended in the afternoon rather than the morning as he had been misled to believe. That left him with significantly less free time before the meeting with Avys von Blackburg the following dawn. Not that he had anything too urgent to spend it on. A duel had come to mind but Elizabeth was busy dealing with the aftermath while recommending he remain inside the literal mansion she apparently personally owned. Perhaps it was for the best. Irwyn had been reassured of privacy so he could finally play with his spell craft a bit.

    First were intentions. Irwyn had undergone a vision after all and had yet to test his new limits. The only opportunity had been the Ambassador¡¯s test which was too fast-paced and important - at least in his eyes at the time - to take risks and experiment if he could avoid it. Because what he was testing was not just an improvement but a possible leap. Before the vision he could mostly confidently maintain two five-intention constructs at once, which obviously wasn¡¯t the case anymore - he had felt how much easier it was. But the question remained whether he was ready for the next major step. Imbuing the sixth intention did require, at the absolute minimum, the same amount of focus and power that 6 five-intention spells would. That was not accounting for the fact that his first few attempts would undoubtedly be rather inefficient. And so he got to testing, manifesting a cane of solid light.

    Reinforce, dim, strengthen, stabilize, endure were the five he chose. Easy and simple. Then he created another identical spell, and another, and another¡­ He had expected progress, had been quite confident that he would get to the eight he thought were the bare minimum to give adding a six intention spell a safe shot. What he did not expect was for things to not even get difficult by the eighth construct. So he carried on. Nine, then ten came and went. 11th, well, there he began to feel a challenge. 12th was difficult, subsuming his very senses to keep his focus. The 13th was just barely possible - if Irwyn abandoned every other trace of thought just to force it - which included him half forgetting to breathe as he tapped all the way to the subconscious for a few split seconds just to confirm he could manifest that extra last spell.

    Which Irwyn obviously quickly dismissed, subsequently reabsorbing all the magic in said 13 rods. It was actually quite a large quantity of Light magic and someone might take notice in the city sized sanctuary of Void mages if he just allowed it to disperse. Then he smiled as he made the inevitable realization: Not only was he confidently in the territory of adding six intention spells to his repertoire, he was actually rather close to the possibility of using two at the same time in the near future. 13 five-intention spells was theoretically enough for that, though he would need to refine how efficient his upcoming next level of spells would be before attempting more than one ¨C and in time his ability would also continue to grow.

    But if it was just one? Irwyn was more than sure he could easily handle that and so he did. He added persevere into the mix, making the already durable rod of Light even more so. Mana poured through him to feed the spell as expensive as almost eight five-intention constructs would be and to his pleasant surprise realized he had not felt any tuck at his Vessel - that meant the amount had been too negligible to notice, which basically confirmed that his body¡¯s capacity to carry mana had also been reinforced by the vision. It smoothly poured through him and then it was done.

    Yes, it was not trivially easy but one six-intention spell did not push him to his limits either. He wouldn¡¯t dare try a second yet but could easily maintain a 5-intention barrier along with it, then another few spells of a similar level. In fact, the leftover focus was perhaps more than he had possessed before the vision. A huge leap, though supposedly progress became faster the more power one already held - which somewhat offset the difficulty of every further step towards power also multiplying.

    Afterwards, Irwyn played with new spells he had theorized since his capture. Abonisle has showcased many weaknesses and he had every intention to minimize them if he could. And the main candidate was some kind of body enhancement. He had witnessed Elizabeth use such to a significant effect¡­ as well as being in much better shape than him. But while physical condition was a long-term problem that would need continuous effort, he could enhance himself with relative ease as far as Irwyn reckoned. For that he had even borrowed a book for his home arrest reading. The ¡®transfiguration of body and flesh for beginners¡¯ was exactly what it proclaimed to be. A compendium for anyone who wished to engage in body enhancement with minimal prior knowledge, going into each of the nine elements, including how they could be used. And most importantly, the dangers it involved.

    Void magic had apparently a tendency to exsanguinate a careless user, or outright vanish their organs into the Void. It was, however, rather efficient at providing potent empowerment - basically more enhancement for the same quantity of magic than other elements might. It was limited in scope though. Most enhancements only allowed for the strengthening of flesh making the caster more durable and physically stronger. Irwyn did know that Elizabeth¡¯s ¡®Elvenkind¡¯ spell did a lot more than that but then, that was probably not in the category ¡®for beginners¡¯. And neither was his goal in all honesty.

    Life magic could result in cancerous growths and other kinds of self-poisoning but it allowed for not only improved body and reflexes but also could achieve improved regeneration, autonomously stop bleeding, or even keep someone alive past bleeding out or losing their heart, though at great cost.

    Fate leaned towards cultivating premonitions and making the body and brain able to properly parse them - react to events before the body even perceived them. Time on the other hand focused completely on speed. Soul magic was, by it¡¯s intangibility, generally ill-suited for anything but defending against other soul magics in body enhancement.

    Essence magic was¡­ strange. As most things were for the element of Essence/power, it broke the mold that the other 8 followed. Essence-based enhancement apparently focused on permanent alteration such as tattoos, piercings, or even surgically implanted objects that bordered on enchanting. But such was a way with Essence. Its Apect, Toolbearer Parios the Implacable - as the Book of the Name titled him - had diverged from the other Aspects in most directions. It was him who had created monsters and denied them souls. And supposedly also him who granted mortals the ability to wield magic at all. His element was more about recreating and empowering everything else through rigid form. It was what allowed enchanters to create tools for elements that they themselves could not feasibly power themselves - such as when Irwyn had helped Han Daut test his device in Abonisle.

    Irwyn shook his head, returning his wandering thoughts to the topic. Although he had been fascinated by the possibilities they had been ultimately humored mostly to sate his curiosity and perhaps expand his expectation of future opponents. What really mattered was what his own elements could do:

    Light was straight forward and simple: Known to be safe to handle for body enchantment. In exchange though, it lacked both potency and versatility. It provided similar benefits as Void did, only lesser in exchange for smaller risks involved and lesser strain on the caster''s mind. There was also a passage about reproducing some healing effects similar to Life magic but Irwyn was frankly not sure if it was even possible for him to achieve any kind of healing as it touched upon creation - so he decided to not even attempt anything of the sort before he had properly explored that direction outside his own body.

    Fire on the other hand was considered borderline unusable for body enhancement. Irwyn was baffled when he first read that but the reasoning for it had become immediately apparent: To enhance one''s body meant to basically apply their elements directly to the flesh and bone. And, well, those had the tendency to burn when exposed to heat that could melt metal, mutilating the caster every second they kept attempting anything so foolish. There were exceptions to it¡­ just none for ¡®beginners¡¯.

    Irwyn would not burn thought. He wasn¡¯t sure how far that immunity stretched but it certainly was far beyond anything he could conjure himself. He found the book among the pile that has been rearranged in the moving and got to testing. First of all, he had to confirm body enchantment was not going against the Oath that might or might not be his. He didn¡¯t think so but it was best to make sure on something easy. Which was why he found the passage on Light magic that helpfully included several rudimentary spells.

    Now, they were all generic and weak but that was not an issue for testing. The one Irwyn chose was Lightflesh, a simple spell that imbued the muscle and skin with Light magic, making it both harder and stronger while also creating a soft glow. The theory behind it was also absolutely minimal. It merely enveloped what he wanted to affect with Light attuned mana and then imbued that mana with the intention to strengthen. So simple it probably would have been Irwyn''s first guess had he tried to figure it out on his own. Either way, he still chanted the spell just in case an applied it only to his right arm under the elbow.

    The result was¡­ a success. Iwryn had thought it had failed when his hand failed to glow but realized that it did indeed feel noticeably stronger. A quick inspection made him realize that the soft glow the spell described was most likely caused by insufficient control over one''s magic, the wasted mana glowing as it dissipated - Irwyn¡¯s spell simply did not leak to the point to be visible in daylight. The empowerment was nothing extraordinary¡­ but also better than nothing. If he had known about it he could have easily used it in Abonisle since the cost on both his Vessel and mind were below negligible. The kind of spell he could probably maintain every second of a week without trouble, much like the Cognitive empowerment Dervish had guided him to.

    Of course, that was only the start. The next spell in the Light category was called Mirage of skin and it was very different in principle. Rather than making him stronger, it would make his skin reflective of the surroundings. The result would be close to his invisibility spell¡­ except worse since it specifically warned it could not hide the eyes or clothes. Still, Irwyn gave it a quick test and found no unexpected hurdles or new discoveries. The principles of optics it worked on were likewise similar but inferior to his invisibility. The last spell the book provided was Rejuvenation which touched upon self-healing and therefore Irwyn skipped. He was not willing to test whether he could on his own body if he could help it. He would have loved to also test Flame-based enchantments, however, the book provided none. So Irwyn had invented some himself.

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°Fire¡¯s kin,

    Molten skin¡±

    An easy construct in principle. Irwyn merely overlaid magic over the skin of his right arm ¨C beneath the elbow again as to not damage the short sleeve shirt he had received to change into - then gave it the intention to burn. Just the one, it was mostly a proof of concept than anything else. He could incinerate things just fine from afar but this warranted testing. He carefully grabbed a spoon he had claimed at lunch - intently not touching anything else - and watched it melt into sludge in moments. Similarly fast as if it was one intention Flame which would be good to know.

    Next, he tried Flameflesh. It was the exact same principle as Lightflesh, except, well, used Fire instead of Light. Naturally, anyone else would have crippled themselves even attempting it but Irwyn only felt slight warmth as the magic failed to burn the muscle and skin it entered. The effect was similar but significantly stronger than the Light-based version. That boded well since the next natural step was Starflesh using Starfire. Once again, there was a jump in efficacy compared to Flame. As for empowering the muscle, Irwyn thought he was maybe¡­ twice as strong as normal? Which sounded impressive at first glance, except Irwyn was already at a level where he could easily wield forces of magic that he could never physically compete with if he was strengthened a thousandfold. Still, it was only one intention magic and a good start.

    The next step was to reinforce. Because Irwyn did not really need to punch anything. But it would be good if he could make himself more resilient against anything that passed his barrier. Defend, reinforce, protect, bolster, fortify. And a slight adjustment to the chant as well.

    ¡°Alive afresh,

    Unbreakable Starflesh¡±

    And he let the magic spread across almost every fiber he could reach. Skin and muscle were obvious and quite potent. He was not made stronger but instead even much more durable, as the spell would suggest. He quickly took a knife from his small collection of repossessed cutlery - a large, sharpened steel piece meant to portion pie - and experimentally tried to cut into his finger. He did not pierce skin. Therefore, he applied more force, increasing the pressure. When that had no effect whatsoever, he tried to stab into his finger with a full swing. The only result was a dent in the knife¡¯s edge, much to Irwyn''s joy. If anything pierced his barriers, he would no longer be nearly so vulnerable. There was an argument to be made about raising a second barrier instead of bothering with something like this but Irwyn judged it better to have more diverse defenses.

    There were also other benefits. For one, Irwyn had reinforced his hearing. He did not make it stronger, that was not the purpose of the spell. Rather, he was confident he would be much harder to deafen or affect by any sound-based attacks. He had done the same for his eyes; Irwyn was already immune to blinding due to his Light affinity but he would rather include it than encounter an exception - like acid still being able to burn him as he had found out. Technically speaking he had also protected his nose and tongue¡­ but Irwyn wasn¡¯t sure those would actually have any effect. Overwhelming smells and tastes were problematic because the human brain was unable to handle them, not because they damaged the organ that perceived them.

    Either way, speaking of organs, those were naturally also included. It should make them less fragile against impact and in particular poison, at least Irwyn thought it would. He needed to test with something mild - both airborne and ingested. He remembered quite clearly how the undead had used it against them when climbing the Spire in Abonisle and wasn¡¯t sure his barrier would necessarily be able to protect him. It did need to let air through for him to breathe after all.

    Lastly, the spell should make him exponentially less prone towards sores. Nor would he ever stub a toe again. Which wasn¡¯t the most relevant but it was certainly convenient. Especially since Irwyn had every intention to maintain it in perpetuity. It was, in the end, a rather simple spell in principle and he believed it would be possible with a bit of practice, much like his barrier.

    But he had always been confident this would be the case. It was a good spell and a new tool, yet it was not the end of his ambition for body enchantment. Barely its beginning in all honesty. What he intended next would require¡­ a lot more experimentation. Because it all came back to Elizabeth¡¯s Elvenkind spell. It improved her casting. And much, much more than that. It genuinely brought her closer to one of the mythical dwellers of the deep Void.

    And the spell was almost certainly tailor-made by or at least for her - he leaned towards the former. Because a generic spell could only do so much. A proper piece of magic accounted for the caster¡¯s experiences and the weight of their Fate, reflected through a chant to essentially bribe reality into supporting the effect through a good story.

    But before that came theory, and Irwyn had been working hard on that for the last several days. Since it was body enchantment, Irwyn had to anchor it somewhere in his body. Flesh was already taken as well as organs but he had known that would be the case. Instead, he turned towards what was not: His bones, his blood, his brain, and technically also his hair. He was rather wary of having it affect his brain directly though: He always maintained the Cognitive empowerment - which in hindsight was also body enhancement - and did not want to interrupt it lest he accidentally killed himself faster than help could feasibly intervene. Therefore, he sought another angle: Rather than improving his baseline ability to use magic, he would make his body more conductive to it.

    He had long ago discovered that when summoning mana from his Vessel it could appear anywhere in the body. Had learned to direct it in fact, made the process more efficient by summoning what he needed where he needed it rather than in every fiber. But what if he needed more than could possibly be summoned at once? Then he needed to gather it from all across his body to where the spell would manifest which was slower. Not much but he was reaching heights where split seconds could make a major difference. Not to mention his abnormally massive Vessel and Reservoir encouraged him to use mana-hungry spells as much as possible. Therefore, he was going to use his blood to do just that. It already flowed after all. And everyone knew that blood flowed through the veins, it was basically an undeniable fact. Which would matter for the symbolism of it, even if he needed the mana to travel an order of magnitude faster than his blood possibly could.

    But blood would not be suitable for properly anchoring the spell. The flow that the spell would have great use of was a detriment for that. So he opted for his bones, in particular bone marrow. It was where the body manufactured its blood after all and that was a connection that would empower the whole spellcraft. It would not really do much to the bones themselves, just use them as anchors to better maintain the spell. By the virtue of not being involved in the Starflesh spell they would be more prone to breaking but Irwyn decided that was a worthwhile trade - the quantity of mana would still reinforce them somewhat.

    He was less happy about needing to do the same to his heart, which was unfortunately not avoidable due to the whole spell being based on the flow of blood that the heart provided. To mitigate its exclusion from Starflesh he made it the main fulcrum of the entire construct. While the bones would anchor it across his body, the heart would be the¡­ well, beating heart of the spell. Some symbolisms explained themselves.

    But there was more to it. For Irwyn did remember the WEEPING MARK and its impossible shapes. The way it empowered his magic when he used it¡­ then why not incorporate it? And where else than the very core? Overlaying upon his heart what he could grasp of it, which was¡­ more than he used to. He thought he could picture most of it now even though the shape was impossible. He had seen that a good chant and bit of extra power could correct that imperfection.

    The last part was hair. Which by itself served no real purpose, at least if Irwyn was not making this into a proper chanted spell. But the ¡®transfiguration of body and flesh for beginners¡¯ shared an important insight that Irwyn might never have guessed himself: Fate liked it when body enhancement was visible. Really liked it, actually. To the point not making a spell have a visible effect was basically equivalent to handicapping it. He had accounted for that in the Unbreakable Starflesh spell by making his iris glow a shade of gold - distinct but eyes were still much less notable than glowing skin. As for his other spell which was otherwise all internal, hair provided an easy outlet. A golden mane burning with Starfire would do quite nicely, Irwyn reckoned. It would not be compatible with stealth but Irwyn would not need to use this spell in a stealth situation anyway ¨C channeling as much magic as feasible every second was bound to be noticeable. The only thing that remained was the chant. A proper one for a proper spell. And he had prepared, so he spoke:

    ¡°I dreamt of wonder

    and now ponder

    if perhaps those skies

    were not lies

    of a child''s mind

    but something left behind.

    So as I grow

    with all I know,

    all I knew

    coursing through

    like a flood,

    Empyrean blood¡±

    The first thing Irwyn noticed was the heat. Not scorching for it could not burn him but hot, deep in his marrow and in his veins, like liquid flame. And first and foremost, in his chest. He placed a hand where his heart was and realized he had burned a hole into his shirt right around it. That could be solved later, for the moment he focused on making sure he was alright. Because there could have been something he had overlooked. Therefore, he was prepared to completely dismiss the spell the moment he felt anything was wrong.

    For one, he was worried about oxygen since he was basically subsuming his circulatory system, the first sign of that would be dizziness if his brain was not getting enough. He also watched out for palpitations, surges of pain, seizures or anything else that could go wrong. He did have a panic button Elizabeth had left him which he made sure was within arm¡¯s reach at all times. Then he waited. 10 seconds, twenty. A minute, then ten. Nothing happened. Good.

    The spell burned a lot more mana than it ought to. For this first test he had imbued only Speed and anchor into it but it consumed as much magic as four or even five intention spell would to maintain. That was fine, he would get more efficient and had magic to spare. What mattered was the efficacy. So that was what he tried next.

    And the effect was far better than he would have hoped. The spell was meant to let him move mana faster across his body but it did more than that. Happily, Irwyn found that it also let him summon it from his Vessel significantly quicker. On a closer examination, this only applied to where his blood flowed so the effect was much lesser on muscle and such where only small veins reached but it was still significant. Irwyn estimated that with merely one intention actually supporting the speed he could squeeze about 30% more magic from his Vessel every second.

    By itself already amazing but what was much better was that this was multiplicative with the improvement to flow. Before, if Irwyn had wished to gather magic at his palm it would take a split second for it to move from his foot. Now, the magic moved literally faster than Irwyn could internally perceive. Yes, faster, because Irwyn realized it moved before he even fully formed the thought of moving it. Rather than the sluggishness of the past his magic would now always be exactly where he wanted it. And that felt wonderful.

    Smiling, Irwyn moved his magic about a few more times before dismissing the spell. He had opted not to see exactly how fast he could actually manifest magic¡­ yet. First, he wanted to test the limits of the spell. More intentions and different ones. It was already well into the afternoon when he started and Irwyn only stopped for a slightly late dinner.

    Elizabeth had returned though he had apparently just missed her as she had skipped the majority of the meal to go straight to sleep. Irwyn did eat though and when he returned to his room he was itching to experiment more¡­ But refrained. Because at dawn he would be meeting with the Duchess and wanted to be as rested for it as he could be. Besides, he no longer needed to be in constant hurry. Perhaps he could still not afford to stop or even slow down but he had the leisure to pace himself. So, he went to sleep.

    Pragmatically the bed had been of the exact same make as the one he had slept in the night before¡­ and yet this one felt so much more comfortable. Despite all the excitement, he did not remember when he last slept as soundly.

 3.8 Convince enough people of a lie...

    Irwyn arrived first for breakfast. It was still dark out - presumably actually and not artificially - when he was woken up by one of the servants, early enough to have plenty of time for a quick meal. A full buffet had been laid out by the time he had found his way to the dining hall - an embarrassingly difficult task as the path there was quite different from the one in the last mansion which he had at first followed on muscle memory. He was enjoying the plentiful selection when Elizabeth arrived. Even so early in the morning she already was more than ready for the meeting including all the grooming as well as that familiar black dress. Taking the seat opposite to Irwyn she opened her mouth as to speak and then paused, staring him down for a moment.

    ¡°Your eyes turned golden,¡± she noted.

    ¡°I have been meaning to dabble with body enchantment while confined but kept it off,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I finally did yesterday.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± she nodded and squinted again while blindly stacking food on her own plate. ¡°Is it something you intend to maintain permanently?¡±

    ¡°Mostly defensive, yes,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°I envy your Vessel can handle it,¡± she sighed.

    ¡°I should still get into better shape,¡± Irwyn admitted. ¡°Abonisle had shown me that running doesn¡¯t treat me well.¡±

    "It can be arranged," she shrugged. "I am more interested in what you managed. It cannot be just defensive."

    "Well, I did make something more," Irwyn nodded grinning. "But I would not spoil the surprise. We should spar again."

    "Then I will look forward to crushing it anyway," Elizabeth grinned. "I will reserve a suitable place in the afternoon. But first¡­ my mother."

    "So, you are coming along," Irwyn concluded. He hadn''t been sure, though expected it.

    "It has been implied I would not be disallowed and I am not inclined to just leave you at her mercy,¡± she nodded. ¡°My mother is devious, manipulative, and dangerous."

    "She did help us though," Irwyn pointed out. He had reserved judgment but Elizabeth had never been so direct before. Not uncomfortable and worried, but actually calling the Duchess names. And it would be a disservice to her if he didn¡¯t put weight on Elizabeth¡¯s opinion.

    "Because she has a use for us," Elizabeth nodded immediately, staring at him intensely. "Make no mistake, she only ever does things that will provide a benefit. If my mother becomes convinced you are more trouble than your potential could be worth there will be an ''accident'' within the month."

    "You say that but you did once mention to me that she did care in her own way," Irwyn averted his gaze, immediately wondering if he even should have brought it up.

    "Yes," Elizabeth sighed and it was deep with a tremble and the brink of longing tears. "Like a beloved, handmade toy. And that sentiment has weight. A lot of weight. But it''s not insurmountable."

    "Now I am a lot more worried than I was last night," Irwyn sighed a well. "I don''t suppose it will be enough to be just a bit charming and polite."

    "It very well might be," Elizabeth shook jet head. "You are already on her side, Irwyn, by the virtue of her staunch enemies wanting you dead. What I wanted to warn you about is to not fall for her visage. It will be a masterful lie, but a lie nonetheless."

    "All right, anything else?" Irwyn nodded.

    "I think, use common sense. Generally, be truthful, even about uncomfortable things. Half the questions she is going to ask she already at least suspects she has the right answer to. I think the main point of contention might be the far future.¡±

    ¡°How far?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°From a decade to a century, I suppose,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°With your talent, you have great odds of claiming a Name eventually. And no one wants to risk a hostile Named.¡±

    ¡°What about you then?¡± Irwyn diverted, unsure what he would do in a year, much less a hundred. ¡°Do you have plans for such a faraway future.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± she nodded. ¡°I intend to become a warmage, then gather enough power that most people cannot bother me. Likely claim a Name myself if I dare at some point. Then I will be able to do whatever I please.¡±

    ¡°No eyes on inheritance?¡± Irwyn inquired. She was, by her own admission, sixth in the line to House Blackburg.

    ¡°Absolutely not,¡± Elizabeth immediately shook her head. ¡°My eldest brother is already politically entrenched, not to mention if my father claims a Name he may well rule for centuries to come. And most importantly, I don¡¯t want it. All the responsibilities and dangers of ascension for what? Ego and prestige. I will much rather go kill something that needs killing once in a while as a superb mage and be otherwise left alone.¡±

    ¡°I suppose that doesn¡¯t sound bad,¡± Irwyn nodded. But it seemed¡­ far away. ¡°For now I have every intention to focus on improving my magic and surviving whatever reckoning comes in four years.¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± Elizabeth nodded, thought about something for a second, then sighed and spoke again. ¡°We should get going otherwise we might be late,¡± she said and stood up and dismissed the magic hiding their conversation from the staff.

    ¡°We are not teleporting I take it then?¡± Irwyn followed.

    ¡°Teleporting to and from the palace is forbidden¡­ and very dangerous.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why we walked back yesterday,¡± Irwyn nodded in understanding. They had used a similar endless hallway as he had been brought through. ¡°But dangerous?¡±

    ¡°The entire capital is sitting on millennia of accumulated Voidborn magics and stolen leylines,¡± Elizabeth nodded. They left through the front door of the mansion which someone had thought to open for them in advance. ¡°And all of it is concentrated on the palace. With enough Void magic in the air Time and Space can become more¡­ loose. And that makes them hazardous to travel since I don¡¯t actually understand Time magic but just use an enchantment.¡±

    ¡°Hence the hall,¡± Irwyn nodded, pointing at it not far in the distance. It was a familiar gated arch standing to the side of the road with nothing behind it. But Irwyn now knew that such looks were deceiving.

    ¡°They call them the Voidways. Which sprawl across the entire palace and much of City Black,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Originally constructed by the Voidseeker, a Named Duke from some 900 years ago. They kind of¡­ graft reality together through the Void? I don¡¯t understand it fully myself since it involves high Truths, however, they can lead anywhere.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it easy to get lost in an infinite hallway?¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°Dozens get lost there every year and are never found,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Mostly servants and meager mages who do not understand the danger. Rumor has it that Demons dwell in some corners, guarding the most secret chambers. Though I have either never encountered one or they let me pass without appearing.¡±

    ¡°But you know your way,¡± Irwyn confirmed, trying not to sound alarmed. Lost in an infinite hallway full of Void magic sounded like a bad way to go for him in particular.

    ¡°I am an heiress to House Blackburg. The Voidways will shift to bring me where I seek to go,¡± Elizabeth nodded with complete confidence. ¡°And even if the unforeseen happens, there are people who would find me. As mysterious as they are for us, the Voidways are built mainly to transport, not hide things. If my father were to properly look he would spot us in seconds no matter how ''deep'' we delved.¡±

    ¡°Certainly reassuring,¡± Irwyn nodded. By then they had already arrived in front of the archway which was opening for them. The streets around them were empty on account of it being actually pre-dawn, though the surrounding mansions - because that was the only kind of building as far as the eye could see - had lights on. Mostly servants so early, Irwyn presumed. There seemed to be an abundance of those in City Black. Entire caste even.

    Then they stepped through, Irwyn protected by a barrier unlike when he had been escorted for the trial the day prior. One made of Starfire - because on the way back he had found out that Flame did not properly block out the corrosive effect of the atmosphere. Instead, the dense Void chewed at the Light in his barrier ineffectually. It caused some damage but it was no intentions against five, not even the anathemic properties would overcome that.

    ¡°So, where are we actually going for our meeting?¡± Irwyn inquired. He didn¡¯t really care all that much about that detail but didn¡¯t want the conversation to stall.

    ¡°To a secret parlor reserved for the Duke,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°If anyone asks, we have gone to a seamstress. My mother does not want it known that she meets people so out of sight on occasion.¡±

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡°Is it not a bit strange to have a private chamber accessible through here?¡± Irwyn frowned. These Voidways seemed borderline public, or at least widely accessed - otherwise their entrances would not be so common. Or perhaps it was just a bias in the sample size as he had not seen much of City Black yet.

    ¡°The Duke is the sole Lord of this Palace,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Places within can only be accessed as long as he allows. This applies exponentially more to places that had been built with the intent of being hidden. Unless another Voidseeker or similar Named arises no one will be able to reach where we are going without consent.¡±

    ¡°Well, it is not every day royalty personally holds the door open for me, I suppose,¡± Irwyn chuckled.

    ¡°It loses its charm eventually,¡± Elizabeth did likewise. ¡°Two more corridors, then to the right door.¡±

    ¡°How do you know?¡± Irwyn questioned, looking at the door to the right they just passed. There were two of those on both sides every few feet. Most of them followed one of a select dozen designs, though some appeared unique. ¡°I don¡¯t think you have been counting and you cannot recognize it from out of sight.¡±

    ¡°This place is almost as Void as the Void itself¡­ more than the upper layers actually,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°I listen and it whispers the way. Benefits of my talent.¡±

    ¡°The only whisper I get here is the sizzling of my skin trying to melt,¡± Irwyn muttered.

    ¡°We are here,¡± Elizabeth chuckled, then schooled her expression. ¡°Be ready.¡±

    And he was as much as he could be. The door was on the smaller end of the scale, just human-sized. Into it were engraved symbols in a script Irwyn did not recognize whatsoever - perhaps the Void tongue - and not much else. Elizabeth pushed the door open and Irwyn followed her in.

    Before even taking in the room, Irwyn¡¯s eyes immediately found the Duchess, sitting leisurely behind a large work desk with some paper and writing supplies neatly arranged. She seemed¡­ sharper than yesterday. More focused and intent than the act of disinterest she had put on during the trial.

    Next to her stood a maid dressed almost normally, wearing the same clothes as all the regular servants Irwyn had seen - except about 20 red flowerheads decorating the standard outfit, haphazardly scattered all around her torso, plus one on the right arm¡¯s shoulder. Irwyn did not get what it meant but a glance at Elizabeth freezing in place for well over a second told him that she certainly did. Well, it would seem like the Duchess was sure they would be both arriving despite the lack of an explicit invitation for her daughter given the preparations taken.

    Standing beside Elizabeth, he took in the room itself. It was obviously painted black¡­ but in a strange way where the corners and the intersection between the floor and the walls kind of melded together, becoming invisible. That way it was impossible to visually tell how large the room actually physically was, taking on the illusion of an infinite blackness¡­ Presumably illusion, Irwyn would believe it if he was told the room was actually endless in the literal sense. What did not help was the lack of any discernible furniture or other decoration besides the desk the Duchess sat behind. Except one, Irwyn realized, his eyes wandering behind and above Avys von Blackburg.

    There, as if in the far distance ¨C or just drawn really small ¨C there was something there. Irwyn stared at it with a frown, unsure if his eyes were deceiving him. But he felt beyond a shred of a doubt that it was more than nothing. After a second he realized that there was a single spot that was darker than the complete pitch of everywhere else. The room was already so black that the difference was downright academic, yet now that Irwyn focused on it, it seemed to draw him in.

    That is no dot, Irwyn realized, though he wasn¡¯t sure how. ¡°Temzda, that¡¯s what it is,¡± he muttered, then frowned deeper. He had never heard the word before yet it rolled off his tongue with familiarity. Wait, off the tongue. Irwyn looked up and realized both Avys and Elizabeth were staring at him. Well, there went being careful, Irwyn wanted to curse at his carelessness. He had been too taken by the moment he had actually let the words slip and be spoken out loud. Worse, he wasn¡¯t sure if that was just him being careless or something genuinely affecting his mind. Nor certain which would be better.

    ¡°It seems you are surprisingly knowledgeable in Void lore, Irwyn,¡± Avys smiled wide. ¡°Though not the kind I would have expected you to be.¡±

    ¡°It has come up in our conversations,¡± Elizabeth spoke before Irwyn could scramble for a response. ¡°The term is not a secret and Irwyn can be surprisingly perceptive to the Void because of its opposition to his Light magic.¡±

    ¡°Yes, indeed,¡± Avys glanced at him again and he managed to not let anything slip into his expression. He wasn¡¯t sure why Elizabeth covered for him or what the word actually meant but he could ask later. ¡°But please sit,¡± the Duchess clapped her hands softly, turning towards the maid, ¡°You may leave.¡±

    ¡°Was that really necessary?¡± Elizabeth asked as soon as the door shut behind the servant. She did not sound happy.

    ¡°It seems that it was in far poorer taste than I thought,¡± Avys paused, looking over Elizabeth¡¯s sour expression. ¡°In that case, I apologize. You have never indicated any sign of care.¡±

    ¡°If I had you would have just used it in a different way,¡± Elizabeth did not seem to have been made any happier by that, though Irwyn felt out of the loop.

    ¡°Perhaps a conversation for another time,¡± Avys sighed so deeply Irwyn could almost feel the tiredness of it before changing the topic.

    ¡°Perhaps,¡± Elizabeth slowly nodded with a tone that clearly said she meant ¡®no¡¯.

    ¡°I have invited you to speak of Irwyn¡¯s circumstances rather than your disproportionate mistrust of your own mother. ¡°But please take your seats,¡± she gestured towards the two chairs across from her and they indeed did. The Duchess waited for them before she spoke again. ¡°So, Irwyn, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance in private.¡±

    ¡°The pleasure is mine, Your Ladyship,¡± Irwyn nodded politely. ¡°You seem rather¡­ different than in public.¡±

    ¡°Such are the tolls of office,¡± the Duchess shook her head lightly. ¡°I am forced to don the clothing of a sheep as the saying goes, lest the other dragons feel threatened.¡±

    ¡°And it is very convincing,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I would not have guessed if not for all the warnings from Elizabeth as well as the message you sent me.¡±

    ¡°I am glad you noticed,¡± Avys kept smiling. ¡°It can be hard at times to get something specific enough in a room full of people. Honestly, it always infuriates me when someone doesn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t do the dresses if the target won¡¯t notice,¡± Elizabeth was still frowning.

    ¡°There is no certainty when accounting for people, Lizzy,¡± the Duchess shook her head. ¡°No matter how much you prepare, the human mind can always come up with something unpredictable. It is all about making sure that even if that happens you get your desired results.¡±

    ¡°Speaking of results¡­¡± Irwyn jumped in before Elizabeth could retort again ¡°...if it were so easy to get the case against me you wouldn¡¯t have gone with this entire act, Your Ladyship. I am rather curious why it would have been done this way.¡±

    ¡°Oh, the answer is simple Irwyn:¡± the Duchess looked over at him. ¡°Obsession!¡±

    ¡°Obsession?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Obsession,¡± the Duchess nodded. ¡°Ah, but it is something that cannot be just said, so picture this: You know of a man whom every day picks up a rock at a specific part of the road, then carries it with him all the way home, where he discards the pebble and stops caring. You find this curious so you confront him. But no matter what you say, whatever you try to argue he always picks up that rock again the next day and brings it to his doorstep, refusing to so much as hint at as to why. If you use force the man would rather cling to the rock than to their own life. Day by day, the man always takes it and then throws it away. Then picture this Irwyn: You realize that for some reason you would benefit greatly from the number of rocks not reducing in number day after day. What would you do?¡±

    ¡°Practically?¡± Irwyn frowned, not willing to not indulge the duchess. He was not seeing the point, at least not yet. ¡°There are many options. I could bring new rocks there from somewhere else. Maybe bring them back from where the man leaves them. Or more realistically, pay someone to do it on a daily basis. Plenty of slum rats would do it for a pittance if they lived somewhat nearby. Most radically the man could be killed.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that is a practical answer,¡± the Duchess nodded while Elizabeth kept silent. ¡°Then imagine you wished to rob that man. How would you do it?¡±

    ¡°Discarding magic¡­¡± because then it would not be much of a fight, presumably ¡°...When they are leaning over for the rock sound like the too obvious answer.¡±

    ¡°It is not a wrong one,¡± Avys shook her head. ¡°The opportunity is too perfect to pass up on. You only need to wait for them to pick up the rock as you know they always will. Then Irwyn, a different case: You find the man carrying the rock offensive to your sensibilities so you confront him again, insisting that he stops. When you do the man offers you instead to pay you a significant sum of money to leave him to his habit. You are doubtful but then the man actually pays you in real money. Then when you come the next day the exchange goes exactly the same way. All that wealth just for asking for it and leaving that man alone to his madness. Would you take it?¡±

    ¡°Obviously I would,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°If it only offended my sensibilities that is. But that is no real harm comitted, unlike what you seem to have done, Your Ladyship. You did not take just a roadside rock.¡±

    ¡°So then, what if it¡¯s not a roadside rock but a single brick from your house?¡± Avys suggested.

    ¡°And I would receive enough to fix it?¡± Irwyn nodded, understanding dawning on him.

    ¡°More than enough,¡± the Duchess nodded. ¡°So much so that you could pay the artisan double for the mending and still have most of the money left every day.¡±

    ¡°I think I see what you are saying,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°People will not fight you on a ground that they know you will never budge from. Everyone knows that her Ladyship Avys von Blackburg cares about children. That she has caused a war with the Duchy of Yellow over children. Therefore, you can force them to accept bribes in places where they would never do so otherwise. Such as in matters of Pride like my case. You confront them in this way turning a clear weakness into strength, then you - or rather someone else, perhaps the Duke himself - apologize and compensates them for the trouble caused. Except you are gaining something else in the meantime.¡±

    ¡°Almost, and that is a big part of it. Perhaps more than a half. And yet¡­¡± Avys kept smiling, though it seemed a bit deeper now.

    ¡°You did not ask the most important question,¡± Elizabeth sighed with annoyance, like someone who had gone through the same riddle before but did not figure out the answer on her own. ¡°Supposedly, no one ever does.¡±

    ¡°Imagine then Irwyn that one day you decided to murder the man,¡± the Duchess seemed to be barely suppressing a laugh. ¡°So you prepare for that moment they lean down. They have done so every day in the exact same spot in the exact same way. For so long you can barely remember the before. With such consistency it is unimaginable they would do something else. So as they approach that spot you prepare, knowing that in just a few moments they will turn their back to you so that you can take out your weapons and kill them. And just before that moment¡­ the man turns to you and shoots you in the head.¡±

    Irwyn blinked, surprised. That defies the rules of the scenario. The pattern set at the heart of the whole supposition¡­ but that is the point, isn¡¯t it?

    ¡°Because you did not ask the most important question,¡± Elizabeth glumly quoted from next to him. ¡°You saw a man in throes of apparent madness and found it unbending. So you learned to act around the insanity, used it to your advantage. Over and over again. But never once did you stop to ponder: Is the man actually mad?¡±

    ¡°Because no one questions an obsession,¡± Avys grinned proudly, glancing at Elizabeth who had probably just echoed the duchess'' own words. ¡°Because after years it becomes a set fact they cannot fathom changing. And in this cruel reality, all it takes is one fatal miscalculation at the right moment.¡±

 3.9 ...and it stops being questioned

    "I suppose that makes sense," Irwyn blinked. Though he had some doubts. Mostly about why he was being told such a thing. Perhaps it was an extension of trust to show sincerity¡­ or exposing a secret before Irwyn could figure it out himself - he might have eventually guessed that the Duchess¡¯ so-called ¡®obsession¡¯ with children was a lie, though there was no telling anymore. It was hard to estimate how difficult a mystery was to solve once you already held the answer. Usually, he might have used the other person¡¯s expression to look for clues, however, Avys was just¡­ smiling. Ever since he had first entered the room, she had almost constantly maintained a perfect friendly and welcoming smile.

    ¡°But that¡¯s enough about me,¡± Avys said after a moment. ¡°What is more interesting now is you.¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Anything you want to know.¡±

    ¡°That is a dangerously broad permission to give!¡± Avys chuckled. ¡°Though let¡¯s start with something simple. You said you don¡¯t remember your childhood, is that right?¡±

    ¡°Hmm?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow, surprised at the direction. But he had, in fact, mentioned that on a few occasions in front of Elizabeth - and by extension Dervish. ¡°Yes. My memory basically starts when I met Old Crow and was brought in to the Tears.¡±

    ¡°Is there really nothing else though?¡± Avys questioned. ¡°Not even a distant flash? A fragment of something half-forgotten ever stirred?¡±

    ¡°I do not think so,¡± Irwyn shook his head but took a moment to seriously think about it. But indeed, as far as he remembered there had really never been any sign of a ''before''. ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°How strange,¡± Avys chuckled. ¡°Do you not wonder who your parents might have been?¡±

    ¡°Whoever they are or were, I have been left an orphan,¡± Irwyn shrugged, answering honestly. ¡°They are either long dead or not worth meeting.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, I think I like that outlook,¡± Avys hummed, seemingly thoughtful.

    ¡°Do you intend to dissect every minutia of Irwyn¡¯s past, mother?¡± Elizabeth interrupted. ¡°An hour by hour might take a while.¡±

    ¡°I would expect you to be more interested than me,¡± Avys raised an eyebrow by a small margin. ¡°But if you insist on speed then we can skip on ahead. There was one thing that caught my attention after Abonisle, Irwyn: The healer who had taken care of you has noted that you have made a particularly fast recovery given your injuries. Have you always been fast healing?¡±

    ¡°I suppose,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I usually didn¡¯t get into scrapes but the few times I got hurt I recovered quickly. Though I had the good luck of never being seriously wounded before Abonisle, at least as far as I can remember.¡±

    ¡°What about illnesses?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I don¡¯t think I was ever ill either,¡± Irwyn nodded. Then hesitated. ¡°Is that¡­ normal? For mages I mean. I have gaps in my understanding that I seek to fill.¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say normal,¡± Avys inclined her head. ¡°But it is not unheard of for talented mages to be immune to mundane sickness. Take Elizabeth for one. though she had struggled for years with an affliction it had been purely magical in nature. As far as I know, she never suffered a flu or a cold.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps that was because I rarely ever met anyone who could carry it, mother,¡± Elizabeth spat out. Irwyn was surprised by the surge in hostility. ¡°Though I assume you at least know how few visitors I had during my youth.¡±

    ¡°87, when we exclude the maids,¡± Avys nodded, the number so specific Elizabeth seemed suddenly at a loss for words. ¡°22 if we exclude the physicians. But that is that, not today¡¯s topic. Tell me Irwyn, have you considered what part you will take in this Lich war?¡±

    ¡°No¡­¡± Irwyn said after a moment. It had not, in fact, really occurred to him. His thoughts had been occupied with other things.

    ¡°And you, Lizzy?¡±

    ¡°As if I have any choice in the matter,¡± she scoffed.

    ¡°Then, if you allow it,¡± Avys seemed to not mind the continuous hostility, ¡°I would have you two join with the military.¡±

    ¡°I have nothing better to do than follow Elizabeth,¡± Irwyn glanced to the side at her. Elizabeth herself seemed to be biting her lower lip in either anger or frustration. He decided that she wouldn¡¯t ask for more so had to do it himself. ¡°Thought I wouldn¡¯t mind more details about what this assignment would be.¡±

    ¡°I would have Lizzy assigned as a captain to lead a company. A rather normal arrangement with her blood right,¡± Avys nodded, looking at her daughter for a while, her eyes only returning to Irwyn when she received a slight nod. ¡°Now, I will pretend to plan a seemingly ¡®safe¡¯ and meritorious assignment for you. Except you will not end up setting out on it. Instead, House Fathomsight and perhaps others will attempt to hijack the ¡®easy¡¯ assignment for their own people while also demanding you be stationed somewhere with no chance of accumulating significant merits ¨C all that as part of the reparations my husband will offer them for the trick I pulled with your sentence.¡±

    ¡°Are such merits so important?¡± Irwyn asked, aware of his ignorance.

    ¡°Of course!¡± Avys smiled a bit wider. ¡°After all, not claiming enough merit during a Lich war is downright suicidal for any mage¡¯s political career! No one supports a perceived coward when they make a bid for an office of influence. They would be passed for promotions both within and without the military and their social status might even receive severe damage. Ostracization is a real danger.¡±

    ¡°Except Elizabeth has next to no political ambitions,¡± Irwyn glanced to the side again. She had mentioned such herself. ¡°She pursues no career nor office.¡±

    ¡°And cares little for her social perception as she has next to no acquaintances among peers in the first place,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°Oh, how woeful, the ¡®revenge¡¯ of House Fathomsight. It will surely set her back for years before they need to plan the next retaliation.¡±

    ¡°Are they that ignorant though,¡± Irwyn had to doubt.

    ¡°Blinded by tradition and Pride,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°They cannot imagine someone who had stood up to them and humiliated them so having no political ambition whatsoever. At least those at the top of their House are like that. The funny thing about hubris is that it makes them deaf to those who advise them better. And do not forget they will be actively led to reach the conclusions I want them to.¡±

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    ¡°It seems you have everything about me perfectly figured out then, mother.¡±

    ¡°But you will be quite busy before then,¡± Avys completely ignored Elizabeth''s words this time.

    ¡°So you have already made yet more plans for us,¡± Elizabeth immediately concluded. ¡°Funny how we were not involved in the process either this time.¡±

    ¡°A formal gathering - Exenn,¡± the Duchess did not react to the new jab either. ¡°In two days¡¯ time. As is traditional upon the declaration of a Lich war. The entirety of the Duchy¡¯s nobility will attend, including most children. You should prepare. Most do not insist on formulaic etiquette but can be easy to insult.¡±

    ¡°We will be challenged to a pointless, boring fight by every dimwit wanting to suck up to House Fathomsight anyway,¡± Elizabeth replied.

    ¡°Yes. That doesn¡¯t mean you must acquire new grudges through carelessness,¡± Avys said. ¡°Moreover, you should keep care to not reveal your actual competence. A fraction should be enough to dominate your peers in battle.¡±

    ¡°We are not stupid, mother.¡±

    ¡°Even the wisest sage might require a reminder from time to time, Lizzy,¡± Avys sighed, barely not letting the smile slip. ¡°To assume infallibility is inherently a fault.¡±

    ¡°Then thank you for restating the obvious,¡± Elizabeth grunted.

    ¡°I am sure we can figure out the exact details of how much to reveal in advance,¡± Irwyn moved to defuse the hostility by changing the topic. ¡°Was there anything else, Your Ladyship?¡±

    ¡°Do Stars weep, Irwyn?¡± Avys immediately asked without missing a beat. Which caught Irwyn rather off guard considering he had just been solely focusing on de-escalating. Unbidden, the WEEPING STAR flashed through his mind, but he quickly dismissed the thought. In the first place, he had no idea what that was actually about. He was unsure what he would have answered if he had been asked about the impossible mark directly but decided, in the heat of the moment, that in this indirect case he would rather not elaborate on it to Avys.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know, You Ladyship,¡± so he instead carefully answered. ¡°I have not had the pleasure of meeting any.¡±

    ¡°Then¡­¡± Avys clapped her hands¡­ Except in that exact moment they should have touched something happened, interrupting her mid sentence.

    In a surprisingly long instant, Irwyn felt magic reach down to him, or at least he thought it was magic because he could not feel any mana or spell work but could feel the concept behind it. Like a clock that wasn¡¯t, ticking away seconds that never happened. And into it, he sunk, an endless moment consuming him from skin and then delving down, down, down. It felt strange as it climbed inside, deeper and deeper. Into flesh and bone, then beneath the corporeal, encroaching upon Irwyn¡¯s very essence.

    And there it found a shining Star. Nascent, weak, brittle, but a Star nonetheless. And it writhed and resisted being bound. Where Irwyn¡¯s body had succumbed in a mere instant, his soul resisted, refusing to bend. Then the unending moment abruptly ended.

    The result was a strange juxtaposition. Irwyn could not move. But his mind was still there, present behind the eyes which would not blink nor dry. His thoughts were much much slower, though still enough to focus on one thing fully while the magic already in his Vessel seemed to be dormant - not just refusing to move but not reacting at all to any attempts to use it, as if it weren¡¯t there. Summoning any more from his reservoir proved futile as well: He summoned it into the so-called ¡®Funnel¡¯ that would pour it into the Vessel without issue but it could seemingly not pass any mana on whatsoever. As if he was trying to walk through a solid wall.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Irwyn heard Elizabeth¡¯s voice but it was¡­ distorted. He could understand the words clearly and yet they didn¡¯t quite sound right - though Irwyn could not point out exactly what caused that feeling in the first place.

    ¡°Just a bit of Time magic, so we could speak in private,¡± Avys¡¯ smile finally slipped as she sighed deeply, weariness almost physically seeping into the sound. From the constant amicable grin, her visage turned into something between a frown of tiredness and disappointment. ¡°You are being too hostile, Lizzy.¡±

    ¡°Not a bit more than you deserve,¡± Elizabeth shot back, gritting her teeth as if she wished to instead be spitting venom.

    ¡°No, I do think it is quite a bit more than I deserve,¡± Avys shook her head, then fixed Elizabeth with a stern gaze. ¡°I have no delusions that I have been a perfect mother, but you make it sound like I hurt and abused you. That is not the case even under harsh interpretation.¡±

    ¡°You have manipulated me since young,¡± Elizabeth accused.

    ¡°As any responsible parent should,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°Or do you think it¡¯s a coincidence that you and all your siblings are so flawlessly hardworking? That almost none of you have so much as a single severe bad habit? No insurmountable flaws in your personality, not one developmental flaw. Even if you begrudge me the effort, do not deny the labor of years.¡±

    ¡°You talk as if you had been there for me all along,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s lips thinned. ¡°But how many times have we seen each other when I was young? How many times have you met with me like this before my talent became apparent? When I was sick, you rarely bothered to so much as convey encouragement.¡±

    ¡°Then perhaps you would prefer to be the daughter of farmers?¡± Avys raised an eyebrow. ¡°Tolling the fields from such a young age your body fails to properly develop, irreversibly stunting muscle and bone. Living in the same dirty hut with one room for the three generations of your bloodline, so constantly close to your whole family as you spent your days together in backbreaking labor or rationing what little food is left after taxes. Would you prefer that then?¡±

    ¡°You are diverting from the topic.¡±

    ¡°Am I?¡± Avys inclined her head. ¡°You are the daughter of House Blackburg. With all the good and the bad that entails. I have spent the last 40 years fighting a war the other side cannot be allowed to discover. Yes, Lizzy, I did not have the time to personally raise you nor any of your siblings for the most part but I have done everything I could every step of the way. I am just one woman, there is a limit to what I can bear to do.¡±

    ¡°Liar,¡± Elizabeth scoffed. ¡°The great Avys von Blackburg, beguiling a whole nation with a wave of her hand but couldn¡¯t find the time to visit me once a year? I am no longer that gullible, mother.¡±

    ¡°I cannot change your mind at this point, I see,¡± Avys sighed. ¡°So I will not ask you to. All I want you from you is to stop poisoning the well.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Elizabeth shrugged.

    ¡°Don¡¯t play obtuse with me,¡± Avys stared her down for a moment. ¡°What do you think happens if you actually convince Irwyn that I am some great evil that needs to die for you to have a future?¡±

    ¡°That is extreme,¡± Elizabeth paused.

    ¡°The way you have been acting could be easily interpreted that way,¡± Avys sighed again, shaking her head. ¡°So, I will reiterate it. For all I care, never speak my name again. Quietly spite me for who I have always been. Go on and become the kind of mage no one but a Lich would ever willingly fight if you can manage it. Until you feel out of my ¡®horrible¡¯ and ¡®malicious¡¯ influence. But Stop. Poisoning. The. Well¡­ Understood?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°You know my bottom lines Lizzy. Make sure they aren¡¯t crossed and I will support you, no matter what you choose to do with your life in the end. All right, get back into position.¡±

    ¡°I am going to tell him,¡± Elizabeth immediately said.

    ¡°You are welcome to,¡± Avys raised an eyebrow again. ¡°But unfreezing to radically different surroundings can be distressing. Of course, if you think spiting me is worth that, be my guest,¡± after that, Elizabeth did get into most likely the same position she had been in before Irwyn had been ¡®frozen¡¯ though he hadn¡¯t been looking at her. Avys on the other hand managed to plaster the exact same smile on her face and moved to clap her hands together. It was difficult to tell but Irwyn would bet that had he actually been frozen he wouldn¡¯t have noticed anything strange.

    ¡°...that will be all,¡± Avys finished her clap. ¡°It has been lovely making your acquaintance but I am quite busy. You are both dismissed.¡±

    ¡°Your Ladyship,¡± Irwyn bowed his head, making sure nothing showed on his face before both he and Elizabeth took their leave. He wondered if the Duchess noticed the slight shake of his hands.

 3.10 Six x six

    They left the room in silence. As soon as the door shut behind them Elizabeth immediately took off to the right, not speaking a word. Irwyn glanced at her not sure what to say. One step, two, three, five, ten¡­ Then Elizabeth suddenly collapsed. Surprised, Irwyn¡¯s mind was still fast enough to catch her halfway to the ground.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± he immediately questioned realizing she was trembling. Her breathing turned ragged and all too fast, all the while her knees seemed to betray her as Irwyn barely managed to help her straight up straight again. For a few more seconds she remained mute before finally gathering her wits.

    ¡°Sorry¡­ just shaken,¡± she sighed - slow and deep - calming down over the course of several more breaths, then shaking off Irwyn¡¯s support. ¡°I¡­ it¡¯s been a while since I spoke with my mother like that.¡±

    ¡°You held up well,¡± Irwyn encouraged looking at her sorry state. She had been full of bravado and contempt in the room, though it seemed that once the tension left the fear beneath surfaced.

    ¡°I should have still done better,¡± she sighed. ¡°Also, my mother pulled a trick¡­¡±

    ¡°Freezing time,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°You noticed?¡± It was Elizabeth¡¯s turn to be startled.

    ¡°Something went wrong with whatever the spell was,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I couldn¡¯t move but I could still hear and somewhat see.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Elizabeth frowned. ¡°A mistake like that is unlike my mother¡­ Unless that was exactly her intent. She wanted you to hear our ¡®private¡¯ conversation firsthand to manipulate you in some way!¡±

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t think so,¡± Irwyn shook his head. He remembered that moment quite well: He had been immediately overcome by the spell until it reached into the very core of his being, only there it was shattered by whatever Irwyn actually was. That had been no mistake or plot.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know her like I do,¡± she shook her head. ¡°It would be just like my mother to do that.¡±

    ¡°Even with your warning, I am quite certain it wasn¡¯t her intention,¡± Irwyn shook his head again. Because when he focused on it he could still feel it in the distance: A Name.

    ¡°Fine, if you are sure,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°Just don¡¯t forget: Everything my mother does is for a reason. And deep down all she does is for herself.¡±

    ¡°I will keep a clear head,¡± Irwyn nodded, though internally he was conflicted. How fair was Elizabeth actually being to the Duchess? Yes, Avys was beyond a shadow of a doubt a shrewd manipulator, immensely dangerous¡­ but was she really as much of a threat to them specifically as Elizabeth seemed to think? Or as malicious and uncaring as was constantly implied? Emotions could affect judgment and this was blatantly quite close to Elizabeth¡¯s heart with all the bias and bitterness that entailed... Irwyn did not voice his doubts.

    ¡°Perhaps a distraction is in order,¡± Irwyn opinioned. ¡°You have promised me a bout, if I recall.¡±

    ¡°It is a bit early,¡± Elizabeth nodded, quite happy to change the topic. ¡°But with the Lich war starting City Black is far less populated with competent Mages that usually occupy the various dueling grounds and training halls. We might be able to reschedule. This way.¡±

    With that said she guided Irwyn through the infinite hall of the Voidways, never hesitating for a step. Wherever they were going it seemed actually quite ¡®far¡¯ away because they walked for several minutes. Another conversation did come up in the meantime.

    ¡°You did quite startle me back there,¡± Elizabeth said.

    ¡°With what?¡±

    ¡°Temzda,¡± Elizabeth said.

    ¡°Yes¡­¡± Irwyn nodded. He had nearly forgotten due to the other topics, though with the reminder his curiosity surged. ¡°The blacker dot on the wall. Frankly, I have no idea why I said it or what it even means. It just¡­ felt right I suppose. I might have been influenced by something.¡±

    ¡°Seriously?¡± Elizabeth stared at him incredulously for a few moments as if making sure he was not kidding. ¡°Unbelievable,¡± she scoffed then.

    ¡°Please elaborate?¡± Irwyn suggested sheepishly.

    ¡°Temzda is a word originally from Umbra¡¯s tongue,¡± Elizabeth sighed, then explained. ¡°The mortal language lacks a direct translation. But in short, it is the Void¡¯s equivalent of a Star. Or the opposite, depending on your point of view. Terms like Black hole or Depth sphere are sometimes used in translation, though many texts just leave the word untranslated.¡±

    ¡°There is such a thing?¡± Irwyn frowned and thought back¡­ in fact, he had seen such in a vision. The one concerning demons. Now that he thought about it, the term ¡®black hole¡¯ had been used. Did that mean his dreams were translated to match his knowledge? Something to ponder later.

    ¡°Yes, though it is severely underused,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Since they cannot be seen by anyone but the most adept Void delvers, our language lacks a one-word term, which makes translating it a mouthful. Infuriatingly, it¡¯s not used even for elements!¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Why is it Star-fire but Void-flame?¡± she scoffed. ¡°In fact, this is a mistranslation. More accurate than Voidflame would be Temzdaflame for equivalence... Except no one calls it that. And through general consensus across planes over the eons, it has become Voidflame in the mortal tongue. Infuriatingly so, as I said.¡±

    ¡°Fascinating,¡± Irwyn muttered. It had not occurred to him before but in hindsight it was kind of strange for his element to have Star in the name while Elizabeth¡¯s was just more generic Void. He supposed he now had the answer before he had realized the question was worth asking.

    ¡°We are almost there,¡± at that point, Elizabeth shook her head and took a right turn, entering another hallway before quickly selecting a seemingly ordinary door to walk through. When they stepped inside they found themselves in a lobby area of some kind. With all the black esthetics as well as a receptionist whom Irwyn left for Elizabeth to talk to. Apparently, there was, in fact, a private dueling area available for them which the two quickly occupied.

    ¡°Now that I think about it, what happened to the hall we used in Abonisle?¡± Irwyn asked after they entered.

    ¡°Still in the city, where else?¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°It¡¯s a wonderful place but moving it is not easy. During a Lich war, I cannot reasonably occupy a Time mage of the caliber needed.¡±

    ¡°Then I assume this place has different safety measures,¡± Irwyn looked around the dueling ground. It was a very large but dull grey room with nothing besides a pedestal in the corner by the entrance.

    ¡°Yes, obviously,¡± Elizabeth nodded, approaching the pedestal. ¡°The hall we used in Abonisle might have been superior but it was still a multi-use training room. This is a dedicated dueling ground. Catch,¡± she then grabbed something from the pedestal and threw it at Irwyn.

    ¡°This is?¡± Irwyn looked at the item: It was a black token with the heraldry of House Blackburg carved into it as well as the number ¡®2¡¯.

    ¡°A duelist¡¯s insignia,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°As long as you carry it on you, the arrays in this room will block any injuries and instead record them as to determine a victor.¡±

    ¡°How extravagant,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°You are still in City Black,¡± Elizabeth scoffed. ¡°And this is no second-rate establishment. Dueling is a deep-rooted tradition in the Duchy of Black, it wouldn¡¯t do for scions of nobility to cripple each other. It might not quite be a training hall that makes everyone inside borderline immortal but for dueling it is more than sufficient.¡±

    ¡°How much damage can this protection actually handle?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Far more than we can cause,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°If it¡¯s pushed to the limit, it can withstand the peak of Conception magic, though the two of us are nowhere near that.¡±

    ¡°Then let¡¯s get to it,¡± Irwyn nodded, satisfied with the safety measures and quite eager.

    ¡°We still have one detail to figure out,¡± Elizabeth grinned, then moved her fingers across the pedestal. The grey room flickered and then¡­ changed. Suddenly, they were standing on a grass field at twilight. The orange glow of the setting sun engulfing far away hills and the edges of thickets that Irwyn could see in the distance. A breeze passed his cheek and he realized he could actually smell the grass and flowers.

    ¡°Is this an illusion or were we teleported,¡± Irwyn tried to hold the surprise off of his face, instead analyzing. No, the pedestal was still there - not transported.

    ¡°Not exactly an illusion,¡± Elizabeth smiled. She was still standing by said pedestal. ¡°The grass is real, so is the twilight, kind of. Temporarily creating magical matter and reproducing physical phenomena is not actually that expensive mana wise. Though the room is not actually any larger - you will see a black glow appearing when you are near one of the walls.¡±

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    ¡°I have never even heard of anyone just creating grass,¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°Fair enough, I have gaps in my education but it should not be so easy.¡±

    ¡°Biological compounds have a big issue of being stupidly complex to replicate,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°But they are not any more expensive to create than any other equivalent mass, and Finity makes them vanish just as quickly. Although the complexity makes plants and such wildly impractical for combat mages, enchantments can just record exactly what they want to create. Hence, basically real grass and flowers. Even trees and such with different settings.¡±

    ¡°Still seems like a lot of effort for nothing,¡± Irwyn shook his head, slightly flustered by the sheer luxury of creating landscapes at a whim.

    ¡°Dueling is a spectator sport Irwyn,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°We might have opted for privacy but there are options for recording or even life audiences. No one wants to see the settling of a generations-old grudge in a bland concrete hall. Nor the conclusions to rivalries without a scenery to underline the spectacle. Not to mention most fighters care about their surroundings, even subconsciously. In lesser establishments each room might have only one specific - and usually physical - setting but here we can choose any we want.¡±

    ¡°As fascinating as that may be¡­¡± Irwyn smiled, then walked towards the other end of the grass field. He wasn¡¯t completely sure where the far wall was though he tried to estimate approximately three-quarters of the way there before he stopped. Elizabeth was already ready opposite from him when Irwyn turned. ¡°What mark do we start on?¡±

    ¡°Wait for it,¡± she just grinned, then stood alert, which Irwyn mirrored.

    Not ten seconds later, a large black circle appeared in the middle of the room. Then began to shrink at a visible rate. So much so that it would be gone in just a few seconds. Irwyn quickly understood the meaning and indeed, just as the circle reduced to a mere dot and vanished, a ring sounded. Both of them immediately chanted.

    "Delve, seeker,

    one step deeper

    and in yourself find

    Elvenkind"

    ¡°All I knew

    coursing through

    like a flood,

    Empyrean blood¡±

    The round began with self-enchantment on both sides. Irwyn shortened his long original chant - it was more important that it existed at all in his head than that he recited it in battle. No doubt, Elizabeth¡¯s spell was similar. Once again, her eyes turned completely pitch black while her ears and nails sharpened, turning into a more elven form. Meanwhile, Irwyn felt his hair turn into a blazing golden mane while his blood ignited with Starfire, a brilliant mark burning in his heart.

    ¡°Stars scourge all¡±

    ¡°Void dragon¡¯s blaze¡±

    Irwyn followed up with a familiar spell, though stronger than before. A small swarm of hunting missiles of Starfire shot forward with the full force of 5 intentions that no longer strained Irwyn to the limit, therefore he could increase their numbers to several hundreds. Meanwhile, Elizabeth used a spell Irwyn had not seen before, literally spitting out a wave of black fire, no doubt Void Flame.

    Frowning, Irwyn guided his missiles to travel around the spell, realizing the next moment that is exactly what Elizabeth had wanted as the wave did not even try to swerve towards them, instead heading straight for Irwyn. Not panicking, Irwyn immediately manifested a second five-intention barrier in front of him while simultaneously throwing a mass of Light magic towards it, similarly 5 intentioned, meant to mutually self-destruct. In anticipation of his Duel, all his barriers were changed to pure Flame: It was weaker than Starfire against most things but Void magic still countered that somewhat due to the component Light.

    Irwyn realized his mistake when the wave of replica Dragonfire crushed through his wave of Light without so much as wavering or slowing down. Six intentions, he concluded quickly, surprised he had not felt it just moments before. Elizabeth had, after all, progressed rapidly after she had taken the so-called Ambrosia. In their last spars before Abonisle¡¯s invasion she might not have used six-intention magic but clearly, she was quite capable of it, aiming to win with the opening attack.

    Six-intention magic did, after all, have six times the mana a five-intention spell would, not to mention the advantage of the extra intention itself. Each step was taller than the last. Even with the advantage Light magic had over Voidflame, it was no longer enough. Elizabeth was betting Irwyn would be unable to stop her with his firepower.

    Except¡­ Irwyn smiled. Since he had consolidated after his latest vision, she was not the only one.

    ¡°Wave¡±

    He shouted. There was no extra chant behind it. Not much weight to speak of. It still helped a decent chunk as he pushed every bit of mana that would fit into a new wave of Light magic, adding a sixth intention to the mix. The quantity was extraordinary given that he was basically overcharging the spell as far as it would go before completely saturating¡­ for normal mages that is. Irwyn barely felt the expenditure of his Vessel. Normally, it would take him almost a second to manifest so much magic, but his Empyrean blood was created specifically to let him open the metaphorical floodgates, allowing him to cast the overcharged spell in a fraction of the time, immediately shooting it forward.

    At the same time, he maintained firm control of the Stars scourge all missiles making them swerve back towards the Voidflame wave that had passed them. For all he had lost line of sight of Elizabeth, he had fought her many times¡­ and she did favor certain tricks. There were only so many times Irwyn would be caught off guard by them. The wave of Light magic collided with the Void dragon¡¯s blaze and shattered. Light and Void as anathema were mutually destructive¡­ but Elizabeth¡¯s spell had a blatantly stronger foundation than Irwyn¡¯s wave whipped out at the last moment. It still clearly lost a good chunk of its power though, while Irwyn was already casting again the split second his mind was no longer occupied by the six-intention magic.

    ¡°Flame guard¡±

    He manifested another barrier, covering himself from all directions, putting six intentions into it - even opted to go full defensive rather than spare one for visibility. That meant he was maintaining three layers of barriers at once, the new one appearing above the transparent shield he maintained every hour of the day. In the same move, he dismissed the emergency one he had created just earlier as he simply did not have any focus left to maintain it. With his earlier testing, he knew he could maintain about 13 five-intention spells, or just above five while he kept up a six-intention one due to his limited practice with it. The Stars scrourge all had, however, been expanded to several times the usual scales, making it take up the equivalent of more than two usual spells. That meant Irwyn was just about at his limit - he was still maintaining Unbreakable Starflesh after all.

    For all the speed of his thoughts and planning, the physical distance was not that long anymore and the wave of Voidflame magic was quite fast. Less than a second after his new barrier appeared they collided. He was immediately engulfed by the black tide sweeping past him, surrounding every direction and trying to burn away his defenses¡­ but finding them unyielding. From every side cracks appeared in the six-intention barrier - yet not fast enough the break it. Irwyn mended it before anything was allowed to slip through.

    It became immediately apparent that they were at a stalemate. One that favored Irwyn greatly. Indeed, barriers consumed significantly more mana than equivalent offensive spells would but Irwyn¡¯s Vessel was by every account monstrous. He had several times more mana at his disposal than Elizabeth did and she knew it. Therefore, she had no choice but to dismiss the replica Dragonfire. It was, after all, a six-intention spell. For all its power it must have consumed the vast majority of her focus, making her unable to cast many, if any, other significant spells. The moment Irwyn felt the tide loosening, he changed one of the intentions of his barrier to make it see-through and immediately physically dodged to the side - just in case.

    ¡°Pierce¡±

    And as it turned out, Elizabeth was already standing right next to his barrier. In a moment like this, she did not have the time to spare for a fancy spell with a full chant, rather she chose to improvise a spell much like Irwyn had before, creating a simple lance of six-intention Void magic, immediately ramming it into the barrier. It was questionable whether Irwyn would have been able to dodge in time with his body, though he did not have to find out.

    Although Elizabeth¡¯s Elvenkind spell was powerful and enhanced her casting, it did not allow her to instantly overcharge even her most powerful spells. The lance of Void magic managed to just barely pass into Irwyn¡¯s six-intention Flame barrier, getting jammed halfway through as Irwyn repaired it. When she then attempted to explode it the attack was easily blocked by the five-intention one Irwyn had layered beneath.

    It was meant to Pierce after all, not explode. Chants were powerful but double-edged to an extent. If a spell tried to do something that was distinctly contrary to its incantation or name, it would be weakened instead. Elizabeth tried to gather her magic for another spell¡­ but it was too late.

    Irwyn had fought Elizabeth many times in their spars. She was infuriatingly good at using line of sight, hiding within her own spells to strike from unexpected angles. But after so many bouts Irwyn did realize that she also always used those opportunities when she could. Therefore, when he had seen that wave of Void dragon¡¯s blaze surging towards him, he had made a prediction:

    That Elizabeth would be running right behind it. And therefore, he had made arrangements for that. His Stars scourge all missiles had been manipulated to counter exactly that, following right behind. This meant that before Elizabeth could muster another spell, they already converged on her. From the surprise he could see on her face from this up close, far sooner than she had expected.

    At that point, it was a foregone conclusion. Elizabeth¡¯s barriers were not the strongest and the missiles were in the hundreds. There was not physically enough space for her to dodge, not nearly. Her defenses shattered instantly, pummeling her before she had any chance to react. Irwyn was preparing to attack with a quick six-intention spell but it turned out to be unnecessary.

    A bright flash passed through the field, ripping Irwyn¡¯s magic apart. Not just the missiles but even his barriers. They were not destroyed, for that implied the application of force. They were just¡­ unmade.

    For a split second Irwyn thought it had been some kind of last-ditch ace Elizabeth pulled from her sleeve¡­ but then he realized that was not it as he noticed the Duelist insignia attached to her dress glowing with a black hue. A quick glance revealed that his was the same. In the middle of the room, a black number ¡®2¡¯ had appeared at some point, declaring the winner.

    ¡°Wow, you actually destroyed me,¡± Elizabeth seemed quite baffled. ¡°Since when could you do six intentions?¡±

    ¡°Since yesterday,¡± Irwyn admitted. ¡°Well, since the vision a few days ago, technically, but I needed privacy to figure that out before I dared try.¡±

    ¡°And you also completely read me,¡± she narrowed her eyes. ¡°No way you would have surrounded me so fast otherwise.¡±

    ¡°You always try to trick me like that,¡± Irwyn grinned. ¡°And when you do something every time it becomes much easier to predict.¡±

    ¡°Predictable¡­¡± Elizabeth muttered. Then grinned. ¡°I will have to do better than that then.¡±

    ¡°Ready for another round then?¡± Irwyn was still smiling.

    ¡°A moment,¡± Elizabeth raised her hand, then grasped with it - a bottle of something appearing in it. She immediately chugged the liquid in one gulp, shuddering for a moment before taking a deep breath. ¡°I need a few minutes to recover. How are you with your Vessel?¡±

    ¡°Just fine,¡± Irwyn nodded, glancing at the bottle before it disappeared. Some kind of liquid mana consumable. It would let Elizabeth recover her Vessel considerably faster. Such things were quite expensive, generally reserved for emergencies¡­ for his budgeting sense. So probably a rounding error with whatever wealth Elizabeth operated on.

    ¡°The day is young, plenty of time to make up for the loss,¡± a smirk returned to her lips.

 3.11 War theatre

    They may have¡­ overdone it a bit with the dueling. It was exhilarating, after all, to cut loose. Fight with their everything, holding not a speck back. They had fought until the afternoon when Elizabeth finally could no longer keep going from straining both her Vessel and mind - Irwyn had been equally mentally exhausted by the end. For the following day, they had planned a repeat. The duo was supposed to spar until the noon¡­ except even when the time came they had been exactly tied in wins, so they had to continue well past what their schedule dictated. It was only hours later that Irwyn had finally managed to claim a two-point lead, almost to his own surprise.

    For all his improvements, Elizabeth was not lagging behind. After the first match, she had adapted. Being at times more careful or more reckless. Sometimes she still took the openings she created¡­ but often she didn''t, with no discernible pattern. And when she wasn''t so predictable anymore it became a lot harder, forcing Irwyn do decide if predicting her was worth the opening it would create if he was wrong. Many of his victories came down simply to his superior Vessel. Elizabeth could never win a drawn-out battle. Ultimately, their final score had been 14 to 12, most of the time actually spent recovering and resting between rounds - though there had been a few particularly long duels. Upon returning to the mansion Elizabeth basically fell unconscious from tiredness and Irwyn ended up also taking a nap¡­

    Except the afternoon was supposed to be dedicated to preparations. Irwyn needed a new suit - his old one wouldn¡¯t be suitable for such a high-class event even if he still had it - which they had missed their appointment for¡­ But what seamstress would refuse a daughter of House Blackburg? Irwyn felt rather embarrassed for the kind of rush job they demanded though did not voice it. At least Elizabeth was paying extra on extra for the overnight last-minute work.

    Next were the other accessories such as proper shoes - because those had complex etiquette the details of which Irwyn¡¯s brain refused to retain - then collecting gifts Elizabeth had thankfully remembered to arrange in advance. Irwyn had no idea what was inside or who they were for, though was quite happy to let the actual noble handle such things. As a result though, by the time all the arrangements were made, it was already late into the evening and the afternoon nap had not rested them properly. Choosing the lesser evil, they both went to sleep early with the intention of waking up before dawn to do the thing that was supposed to pass a good chunk of the prior day:

    ¡°Alright, a crash course on politics,¡± Elizabeth sighed, glancing at the clock and slightly flinching. They had slept a fair bit longer than intended. Elizabeth admitted that she may have lashed out a ''bit'' at being forcefully woken up in the past and her staff remembered, losing around half an hour before they carefully coaxed the half-asleep heiress into leaving her chambers. ¡°Damn it, we really should have done this yesterday. With someone who actually knows how to phrase everything.¡±

    ¡°I am sure you know everything that is needed,¡± Irwyn reassured.

    ¡°Most of it, probably,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But this is harder to relay. A lot of it is just insights I earned through observation and taking part. They are hard to phrase or even remember outside their particular situations.¡±

    ¡°Hopefully, I won¡¯t be expected to act like a career courtier,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°Let¡¯s start from the beginning. I don¡¯t even really know what this is beyond a major gathering.¡±

    ¡°Yes, ok, sorry,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°If we go by the formal name it would be called Exenn, literally translated as a ¡®gathering to hunt the dead¡¯. Supposedly an Elven custom, though anything involving them is¡­ impossible to confirm essentially. But everyone with any degree of importance and their descendants in the Duchy of Black will be present.¡±

    ¡°In just two days?¡± Irwyn frowned, then immediately made the connection. ¡°No, there is a Beacon in City Black itself. Anyone worthwhile presumably has access to someone who can get them here through teleportation.¡±

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Of course, that is altogether too many people. Which is why it will all be separated after the opening speech.¡±

    ¡°And we will be¡­¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°In the ¡®children¡¯ section,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°Segregated by age and status, 16 to 20 of high nobility is where we are going to be placed. Which, as you will find, is bound to be rather obnoxious.¡±

    ¡°Anyone particularly troublesome?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°No,¡± she shook her head. ¡°But you will see that they tend to gather into groups, each with several brazen braggards, ego-inflated hot heads, and silver-spooned little monarchs used to getting their way. The only exceptions tend to be when a group is missing one of the three.¡±

    ¡°That sounds¡­ problematic,¡± Irwyn guessed. His experience in this area was lacking. The Tears had some older teenagers but those who made it that long were usually cool-headed, not to mention on the same page. He had been once told that heirs to wealth could be extremely temperamental by Old Crow but that seemed a mild warning compared to how sour Elizabeth¡¯s face looked.

    ¡°More than that, there will be babysitters,¡± she continued. ¡°If someone wants to unnerve you, they might try to bring in Oxen, though Shadows are most likely going to be too busy preparing the metaphorical trenches, especially someone like him. No, there will be just a few low conception mages making sure we don¡¯t kill each other.¡±

    ¡°Is that a risk?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Even without the duels - which there will be a lot of - tempers tend to flare,¡± Elizabeth sighed again. ¡°Make no mistake Irwyn, this is the Duchy of Black. When someone has a problem, they tend to solve it directly. When there is an obstacle, it is broken. Straightforward, but also rash. Pride and Wrath run thick in the blood of the first Duke and it so happens that it has spread rather liberally.¡±

    ¡°Then we will have to navigate through those waters,¡± Irwyn sighed, imagining the future headache just anticipating it. ¡°And then, I presume, try to form whatever alliances can be made, right?¡±

    ¡°Alliances?¡± Elizabeth seemed surprised by the suggestion. ¡°No Irwyn, absolutely not.¡±

    ¡°I have lived under the impression that strength in numbers matters, especially when you already have enemies,¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°Trying to make even loose alliances in a social gathering appears to me like the smartest decision, as much as I loathe doing it.¡±

    ¡°Maybe for anyone else Irwyn, but me? I cannot afford alliances,¡± she said staring straight into his eyes with complete seriousness.

    ¡°That sounds unintuitive and opposed to the very fundamentals of politics as I understand them.¡±

    ¡°It would be a great idea for anyone else, Irwyn, but not for me,¡± Elizabeth shook her head slowly, reiterating the point.

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Because I am too dangerous, obviously,¡± she nodded. ¡°Or at least might be one day.¡±

    ¡°Dangerous to whom?¡± Irwyn questioned. ¡°As I recall your plan has always been to grasp power.¡±

    ¡°Personal, magical,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But never political, Irwyn. No allies in high places beyond those borrowed from my family. Not an acquaintance or a favor owed among the keyholders of power. The Duchy of Black already has an heir. It has no need for another.¡±

    ¡°Your eldest brother has come up,¡± Irwyn connected. ¡°You think he would be afraid of your influence? Isn¡¯t there a significant age gap?¡±

    ¡°Ezexiel is over twice my age, incredibly talented in both magic and politics as such things are meassured,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But as a mage, his talent is still far away from mine. And twenty years is not that much of a head start when our father has at least well over a century left to live by pessimistic predictions. So, what he does have over me are all those connections and alliances he has formed. Tools and pawns.¡±

    ¡°Would your own brother really go all the way?¡± Irwyn asked, not sure if he wanted the answer.

    ¡°I honestly don¡¯t know,¡± she sighed. ¡°I am the sixth child and we are not¡­ particularly close. At least I am not. I dare not wager how much Ezexiel cares about our close blood and, honestly, have no reason to test him. I would, after all, be risking my life for something I distinctly don¡¯t even want.¡±

    ¡°Alright, no making friends then,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°But neither enemies, right?¡±

    ¡°If at all possible,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°The nobility is rather direct. But they can also be at times rather¡­ touchy. Pride and Wrath, as I said.¡±

    ¡°Then how do I avoid giving offense?¡±

    ¡°Honestly? Just don¡¯t talk unless spoken to,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°You will be there as the sole member of my entourage. I can navigate what is what, just¡­ back me up if I need it. They might get touchy if someone they deem ¡®lesser¡¯ by birth opens up a conversation but if they or even I initiate such, it should pose no trouble when you come to my defense.¡±

    ¡°Just cross my arms and look menacing in the background,¡± Irwyn chuckled. ¡°You know, I don¡¯t think I ever did that half of the act before. I tended to be the one sneaking around during the distraction.¡±

    ¡°First time for everything,¡± she glanced at the clock. ¡°We need to go get dressed properly. I am sorry about messing up the schedule.¡±

    ¡°Hey, we ignored the plan together,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°And it is not my political career at stake here.¡±

    Then they departed to get ready, Irwyn found several staff members already waiting for him. It honestly did not take long to get him into the tailored suit - pitch black, of course - as well as applying a bit of make-up which Irwyn frankly could not even see in the mirror. He did look quite good though with the tie and all. And the clothing was enchanted extensively. Among other things, it did not feel like it was restricting his movement - though honestly, Irwyn did not need perfect mobility in the first place.

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    He had to wait on Elizabeth for a while before she was done, stunning Irwyn with the transformation. Her hair had been braided extensively, gems and other accessories interwoven into it. She wore the very same dress she usually did though much other jewelry had been either attached to it directly or added around to complement it, including long black gloves, an amulet of sorts as well as several rings, the familiar insignia one among them. She had also adorned extensive make-up which Elizabeth tended to avoid most of the time. All of it themed in shades of black.

    ¡°How do I look,¡± she grinned as they set out.

    ¡°Quite royal,¡± Irwyn assured.

    ¡°This way,¡± she hummed as they entered the Voidways. ¡°We will first arrive for the ceremonial commencement. My father will have a speech, then we will be sent off to our part of the gathering. It will also be a convenient time to point out people for you.¡±

    ¡°I will strive to remember at least some of them,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Are you actually that bad with names?¡± she raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Is that in doubt?¡± Irwyn mirrored the expression.

    ¡°I figured you might just be pretending,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°And it is unusual, given how sharp your mind is.¡±

    ¡°I genuinely cannot remember a single name of a living person from the attack on Abonisle besides you and Dervish,¡± Irwyn confessed. ¡°I can try a bit harder to commit it in a peaceful setting when there isn¡¯t so much danger at the forefront of my mind but can hardly promise anything.¡±

    ¡°I will try to focus on only the most important then,¡± she sighed, then glanced to a doorway a bit further ahead to the left. ¡°We are almost there.¡±

    The door led into another hallway, a much more mundane one. The corridor was significantly less wide and a gaggle of servants was already awaiting them, as well as a blatantly high-class family of four engaged in discussion with the staff. When Elizabeth completely ignored them a walked right past they appeared infuriated for a moment based on their body language, though they seemed to quickly recognize her - or perhaps the insignias plastered around much of her jewelry - and immediately gave way without any complaint.

    The staff seemed to immediately place Elizabeth''s face too and after just a few polite bows and words, one servant in a dress led them down the hallway. Curiously enough, there were numbered doors along it, although only on one side and the way seemed to curve slightly. Eventually, they stopped by one such doorway and the servant beckoned them to enter. Inside was a luxurious suite. Yes, the decorations may have been on the sparser side - and all kind of melding into each other in the shades of black with the insufficient lighting - but the two chairs looked very well cushioned and spacious with a small mahogany table by each. What was more important though was the front of the room¡­ Or rather the lack thereof.

    ¡°This is a theatre,¡± Irwyn realized. The front of their suite was cut out, revealing the massive auditorium spanning in front of them. In the distance, he saw the opposite side of the wall with similar suites, some occupied, some empty, and a few obscured with magic.

    ¡°Where else would a speech be held,¡± Elizabeth smiled as she dismissed the servant, quickly taking one of the seats right by the window. Irwyn followed, planting himself on the other.

    ¡°It¡¯s massive,¡± Irwyn muttered. To their right, the auditorium went hundreds of meters further before reaching the far wall. To the left, there were nine more rows of suites similar to their own - at least fifteen levels high as far as Irwyn counted, approaching the stage - then one more row of far more isolated and larger viewing platforms overlooking the dais itself. There were also more mundane seats at the ground level, starting a good distance away from the front and gradually rising the further away they were.

    And of course, there was the dais at the very center of the room. The stage was not a level surface at all, rather it was layered into platforms of various heights with tables and seats on each. Though the hierarchy was quite obvious - the higher the level, the fewer the seats. And near the top sat two thrones. One a modest affair of elegant black wood, almost mundane as far as thrones went. Next to it, its dais perhaps half a foot higher, stood a monument to Pride... For how else could one describe the carcass of a dragon carved and twisted in a seat?

    ¡°Is that an actual dragon?!¡± Irwyn had to ask as soon as he identified it, gasping. Dragons, supposedly the paragon of monsters. Destroyers of nations, ravagers of regions. Irwyn had read descriptions, seen drawings, and witnessed a vague impression in one of his dreams. But this was the first time seeing it with his own eyes.

    ¡°An ancient Void Dragon,¡± Elizabeth smiled, staring at it with surprising intensity. ¡°Many scholars think perhaps older than the Tyrant¡¯s rise to Namehood - though Time is more¡­ fluid as deep in the Void as it resided for most of its life.¡±

    ¡°You know a lot about it,¡± Irwyn urged her to continue.

    ¡°Of course I would,¡± she nodded. ¡°Some 40 years ago it had wandered close to Abonisle - Still more of a fortress town than a city at the time. Before the Dredge had been built. The dragon stretched its maw from the lake¡¯s waters to our side of reality, meaning to rampage as monsters do. After a battle that lasted three days and nights, my father had slain it, claiming its eyes that had seen depths beyond imagining, then carving the carcass into a throne. It is said it was that day that Ezax von Blackburg set on his journey to wrest the Duchy of Black from his siblings.¡±

    ¡°A dragon slayer,¡± Irwyn muttered, thinking. How mighty was a dragon? How powerful was the Duke? Did he even have the frame of reference to understand or was that height still too far away? Probably too distant. That provoked another thought. ¡°Is it¡­ impolite to ask how old your father is?¡±

    ¡°Most definitely,¡± Elizabeth nodded seriously, then grinned. ¡°He should be nearing 160.¡±

    ¡°What?!¡± Irwyn¡¯s head snapped to her. He had been curious about what age the Duke might have been to slay a mythical monster like that, but the answer¡­ ¡°That does not compute.¡±

    ¡°How so?¡± she played oblivious. Or maybe genuinely though there was nothing strange.

    ¡°I had been under the impression that the Duchess was far younger,¡± Irwyn narrowed his eyes.

    ¡°Yes, my mother is merely around 60,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°Do you really think that a century is not an absurd age gap?¡± Irwyn was baffled.

    ¡°It is not too unusual among high nobility,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Mages can maintain a youthful appearance for many decades, especially the talented ones. The situation is slightly different due to my mother coming from beyond the federation though it is not something strictly against tradition.¡±

    ¡°So what, the Duke was alone for a century, then just suddenly decided to marry?¡± his mind was filled with questions.

    ¡°Sorry to disappoint, but I have never inquired about my father¡¯s virility during his youth, Irwyn,¡± Elizabeth squinted a bit. ¡°Either way, bastard children have zero standing or claim to anything unless they are explicitly adopted into their father¡¯s family. Whatever life my father may have once led, Avys is his first and only wife.¡±

    ¡°It just sounds¡­ strange I suppose,¡± Irwyn tried to explain. ¡°I am baffled it doesn¡¯t to you.¡±

    ¡°Probably a thing of perspective,¡± Elizabeth shrugged, ending the conversation. Irwyn kept chewing on it for a while longer before he noticed something else that evoked a question. Looking down towards the stage Irwyn realized that most of the lower levels had already been occupied by various people in formal attire.

    ¡°Who are they?¡± he decided to redirect his train of thought.

    ¡°Officials, inspectors, directors,¡± Elizabeth listed off. ¡°People who stand at the peak of governance in the Duchy of Black. For example, there at the lowest level, the minister of agriculture and the minister of mundane industry. Above you can see the head of the Institute Academia - they dictate what and how is taught as higher magical education in academies across the Duchy. Or near the top, the Inspector General of Roxbet - elite internal auditors for the military and other important institutions that answer directly to the Duke, notoriously empowered to execute traitors without trial - though they rarely actually do so.¡±

    ¡°And even above them,¡± Irwyn nodded, quite glad that she had not bothered with names. There were still 3 levels of dais unclaimed. Unlike those below which had several seats, there was only one spot on each. Now, the two thrones were obvious but Irwyn wondered who was considered just below them.

    ¡°The Marshal, the highest military commander whose wartime orders may be overruled only by the Duke himself,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Usually, they would sit with the others on the level below, however, a Lich war elevates their standing, if temporarily. Speaking of¡­¡±

    A man stepped onto the stage from behind, ascending the steps with a confident gait. Indeed, they took the third seat from the top as the entire theatre seemed to hush by a good chunk. A military uniform with a dozen medals glimmering ever so slightly. Although it was a good distance away Irwyn noticed something rather curious:

    ¡°His left sleeve is empty,¡± he observed.

    ¡°A wound from the last Lich War,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Doesn¡¯t hinder him any, believe me. Magic allows for power to be drawn even from misfortune if one has the will and talent to grasp it.¡±

    ¡°You are personally familiar then?¡± Irwyn inquired.

    ¡°That would be my eldest brother, Ezexiel,¡± a complicated smile found its way to her face.

    ¡°I¡­¡± Irwyn opened his mouth only to find himself immediately interrupted by a loud note sounding across the theater, followed by another as an organ started playing loud enough to overshadow every other noise.

    ¡°Stand for the anthem,¡± he barely heard Elizabeth, glancing at her to realize she already was. And so, he followed, fascinated by the song he was hearing for the first time. The notes were deep, almost harsh, as the organ played. And as it played the last two people walked onto stage.

    Firstly, Avys von Blackburg, trotting up with something closer to a ceremonial garb rather than a dress, her hair appeared braided in a style not unlike Elizabeth¡¯s. And right in front of her a man who could only be the Duke. Irwyn stared¡­ but could not really figure out many details. The stage was a good distance away after all and his sight was not significantly better than a normal human¡¯s. He could recognize that the Duke also wore a ceremonial robe of some kind as well and appeared middle-aged by mundane standards¡­ and that was about it.

    The anthem still played, building up to a crescendo of sorts as the regal pair walked up the steps of each level, the music reaching its peak just as they arrived before their thrones.

    And then the organ cut out as the last note sounded, the Duke and Duchess sitting down at that exact moment as if it had been choreographed. Belatedly, Irwyn realized that Elizabeth had sat down at that time too and that the anthem had ended so he followed suit. There was a hush in the theatre as the Duke put his elbow on one of the armrests, then put his chin in its palm, taking a posture of both arrogant confidence and borderline boredom as his eyes flickered across the entire hallway. Irwyn thought that for a split second, they had made eye contact and wasn¡¯t sure he was willing to dismiss that impression. Then finally, after a dozen or so seconds, the Duke spoke.

    ¡°My dear subjects,¡± his voice sounded with an undeniable force behind it. The Duke did not shout yet the words were clear in Irwyn¡¯s ears - and probably everyone else¡¯s. ¡°You come here at the dawn of war. Once again, the Betrayer¡¯s rot festers in our lands. Once again, the blasphemous would seek to destroy our millennia of achievements; consign our history and tradition to dust. As they had in the past; as they will in the future.¡±

    ¡°This is to be my fifth Lich War. I have watched the fall of Blackrock with bated breath in my teens, fought as a regular mage at the Hollowed fields, beheld the death of the Eraser, then slain the last Archlich 18 years ago with my own spell alongside the other Dukes. I dare not claim I have seen all the horrors the undead have to offer, yet I have seen much.¡±

    ¡°18 years, a blink of an eye. And an implication. Much shorter than what usually passes between each incursion, yet just long enough to raise doubt. I remember well that between my first and second Lich War only 5 years have passed, survivors of the prior hiding away and laying their schemes. The second was short and brutal. A Desperado - hopeless last stand meant solely to inflict damage.¡±

    ¡°18 years, that raises doubts. Then I shall dispel them. There is not a shred of doubt in my mind that this too is caused by remnants. Much more careful, much more dangerous, preparing their ground for what is to come. Do not let that certainty deceive you - this will be a true War, harsher than most even. The insidious attack on Abonisle is proof of that. If we were to gather again in a year, many of you would be missing.¡±

    ¡°Once again, the Betrayer¡¯s rot festers. So, I say it shall suffer the same Fate it always has. Since before the first annals of history, there has been ever only one answer: Once again the mage shall arise, bring with them the spell and grit and Wrath like only our blood can..."

    "AND ONCE AGAIN, WE SHALL SHATTER THEM TO THE DUST THEY SO DESIRE!¡±

    The Duke finally stood up as he shouted the final sentence, raising his hand above his head. A moment after, the hall erupted into rather thunderous applause Irwyn found himself following. The confidence was certainly reassuring.

    ¡°Now then,¡± the Duke sat back down. ¡°I shall not hold you here any longer. I declare today¡¯s Exenn started. Find your brothers and sisters in arms to be. Test your mettle, broaden your sight. War is upon us, my dear subjects. And we are ready.¡±

 3.12 A social occasion

    Once Ezax¡¯s speech ended, the anthem sounded again to accompany his and Avys¡¯ departure. When they were gone the others upon the stage soon followed, leaving one level at a time. All in all though, the whole procession was over relatively quickly. By the time Irwyn and Elizabeth stood up to leave, a servant was already awaiting them outside their booth, guiding them towards the Voidways afterwards.

    There were a lot more people present along the way. More aware of that, Irwyn made sure to walk half a step behind Elizabeth as they remained relatively quiet across the short journey. By the time they arrived at their destination, there was a line rather full of important-looking people as well. Instead of waiting though, Elizabeth simply strode past them in which Irwyn followed. Judging by the fact no one so much as muttered a protest she knew what she was doing. When they arrived before the door Irwyn also found out why there was a line at all: Apologetically, the servants told them that all the guides were already occupied with perhaps a few minutes until one returned.

    ¡°I am more than qualified to navigate myself,¡± Elizabeth smiled, then walked past them before they could protest. She pushed open the gate, which closed behind them once they entered.

    ¡°Do even nobility require guides?¡± Irwyn asked as soon as they were alone.

    ¡°Not necessarily require, but most don¡¯t have the confidence to risk walking here unguarded,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°High nobility might, as a point of Pride and a show of competence, but we were seated far from the most prestigious sections.¡±

    ¡°Is there a reason for that I should read into?¡± Irwyn inclined his head.

    ¡°To make people believe I have fallen out of favor due to the matter with you,¡± she hummed. ¡°But just enough to make it seem like temporary frustration on my father¡¯s part rather than withdrawal of support or a serious divide. It also indicates that I have already been ¡®punished¡¯ in some way and therefore it is futile to try and argue what repercussions I should face.¡±

    ¡°I was under the impression you have not done anything wrong, at least in the eyes of the law,¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°When has that ever mattered in politics?¡± she sighed. ¡°House Fathomsight has a grudge and won¡¯t forget it. It¡¯s just that they are restrained by tradition when it comes to dealing with these things as much as my family... and also the general dislike for complex schemes. The more justifications they have for direct action, the further they feel like they can push.¡±

    ¡°I suppose I can find some solace in knowing that not only the people at the bottom can get shafted over a poor excuse,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°Though there is something else that struck me.¡±

    ¡°Ask away,¡± she invited, glancing over.

    ¡°Your father, he mentioned slaying an Archlich,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°What does that actually mean? How powerful would such a thing be?¡±

    ¡°That highly depends,¡± she gathered her thoughts for a split second. ¡°An Archlich is more of a title of authority rather than raw magical might. It is what we call the singular undead who commands the enemy during a Lich War.¡±

    ¡°But they could be anything from Named to just Raveners, right?¡± Irwyn said.

    ¡°It is extremely uncommon for a mere Ravener to lead something that could be called a proper ¡®Lich War¡¯,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Though it has happened on a few occasions in the past. There is not always an Archlich - often times it might be a council of sorts. It is honestly more of a title created so that powerful mages can lay claim to the accolade of slaying them. Even if the leaders of a Lich War are slain the undead barely suffer any problems in coordination on a tactical level and quickly find a replacement if the War isn¡¯t over at that point. They only require a central intelect to direct how and what strategic objectives they pursue on a wider scale.¡±

    ¡°So a leader but not necessarily the greatest fighter or an irreplaceable head,¡± Irwyn summarized.

    ¡°Basically. Also, we have arrived,¡± she nodded, choosing a door to the right. Except it wouldn''t budge. Elizabeth did not have a change of expression though and merely waited for a few seconds before it finally opened after a second push. "Someone was using it before us."

    Then they stepped into the parlor. It was a surprisingly bright place with only some of the decorations being pitch black. That wasn''t to say it didn''t show extreme wealth. The room was massive, enough to comfortably fit thousands of people, though rather than hosting so many, much of the space was occupied with catered buffet tables as well as what seemed like many semi-private booths on the sides of the room. And in the center stood a large ring, metal boundaries surrounding a patch of sand that could have only been built for duels.

    There were also people. Basically all of them around their age - 16 to 20 as Elizabeth had said. The only exception Irwyn could see - besides the servants of various ages in their distinct uniform clothes - was a single older man sitting on a chair by the edge of the dueling ring. Everyone else wore black but individually distinct attire.

    Irwyn realized that the actual nobility was blatantly distinct from their followers. Just like Elizabeth, the children of mighty Houses were bejeweled almost beyond reason, covered in gems, artisan decorations and insignias on top of their regular clothes. Meanwhile, the less well-positioned were clothed not unlike Irwyn: In well-made and lightly enchanted suits and dresses but not engulfed in luxury. The most the followers had were a single ring or perhaps an amulet.

    He supposed it was a good thing that he knew who he would be considered on similar footing with. All he had to do was not provoke those who were blatantly of high noble birth as he had been warned not to and the rest would hopefully sort itself out. He did not understand the exact pecking order but it was a safe bet Elizabeth would rank close to the top just by the virtue of birth. While he mused such things, Elizabeth had also done her own analysis and moved forward. He followed, once again making sure to be half a step behind. It was one of the few things of etiquette he had confidence in. A position of trust but not an outright claim to equality - too many people would take exception to that in public.

    It took only a moment for them to be noticed and the room full of murmurs and conversations became silent in just a few breaths of time before whispers erupted again at twice the intensity. Everyone stared as he and Elizabeth trod to one side and their gazes were not looking all that friendly as far as Irwyn could read. No one dared stop them as they headed for one of the side booths though. There were plenty of those and many people seemed to not be present so they claimed an empty one without issue.

    ¡°A little further from me,¡± Elizabeth whispered as they were taking a seat and Irwyn did follow the suggestion, moving a bit away. They took up less than a third of the large circular sofa that surrounded the mahogany table - a lot of those in City Black, Irwyn noted.

    ¡°So¡­ do we just sit now?¡± Irwyn asked in a hushed voice.

    ¡°People are still arriving,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°And I intend to look aloof and disinterested. Let us be the ones approached, not the other way around.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Anything or anyone interesting I have missed so far?¡±

    ¡°A lot of familiar faces,¡± she shrugged. ¡°High nobility is not exactly an expanding circle.¡±

    ¡°I meant someone I should be wary of,¡± Irwyn elaborated. ¡°Perhaps House Fathomsight.¡±

    ¡°Probably not tonight,¡± she shook her head. ¡°Alira is supposedly still recovering from her encounter and her brother is too young to be in this group. There will be people sucking up to them but most will hesitate to approach us.¡±

    ¡°I will be prepared for a long wait then,¡± Irwyn nodded, looking up¡­ just in time to see someone actually already approaching them. ¡°Someone is¡­¡±

    ¡°Friendly, relatively,¡± Elizabeth interrupted his disclaimer, watching the same slightly older woman, perhaps already 20, approach. She was dressed¡­ similarly to Elizabeth: Black dress, black jewelry and such - though many Young Ladyships were. What surprised Irwyn was that she actually wore the same insignia of House Blackburg that, as far as Irwyn understood implied the main House when worn among other nobility.

    That, of course, made his mind run a few laps. He presumed that although the branch families had some claim to the name, they would not use the heraldry - at least not on an occasion like this. That led to an obvious conclusion: Elizabeth was the sixth child of the ruling pair. It only made sense she would have siblings¡­ Except the newcomer did not look too much alike Elizabeth or even Avys. There was perhaps the slightest resemblance though that could merely be the flawless and symmetrical facial features.

    ¡°Elenoir,¡± Elizabeth greeted with a nod. ¡°Take a seat if you wish. What brings you to me so early?¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± she nodded and sat down directly opposite to Elizabeth, staring. ¡°I have been sent by my father to give you a warning.¡±

    Stolen novel; please report.

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe I have stepped over any lines established between us,¡± Elizabeth frowned ever so slightly. ¡°In fact, I have been careful not to.¡±

    ¡°A warning, not a threat,¡± Elenoir shook her head. ¡°There have been¡­ last minute unannounced guests that could not be refused. Father is worried you may react¡­ negatively to them.¡±

    ¡°I am not a rampant child, Elenoir,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s expression only soured further. ¡°I am quite capable of maintaining my cool in unpleasant company, as you should know. You give me insult.¡±

    ¡°If you will not hear me out, I can also just leave, aunt,¡± the other woman scoffed with a hint of hostility while Irwyn tried hard to not let his expression crumble. Aunt??? Elenoir had to be several years older than him and Elizabeth.

    ¡°You will be heard out,¡± Elizabeth did not seem to be given even the slightest pause by that. ¡°But do not hide behind Ezaxiel. My brother would not imply me so incompetent even if those were his real thoughts. You twist meaning with conjecture to express your dislike, such incompetent low scheming is unbecoming of House Blackburg. Or perhaps I should ask your father for his exact words on the morrow?¡±

    ¡°I do not like your tone,¡± Elenoir visibly grit her teeth. ¡°Perhaps you might not get your ¡®warning¡¯ in time.¡±

    ¡°I am sure Ezaxiel will be quite interested in hearing that his low expectation of merely delivering a message were somehow still too overwhelming to accomplish,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s unhappy expression turned into a mocking grin instead. ¡°Thought I assure you, it would be well within my assumptions.¡±

    ¡°Fuck you,¡± Elenoir spat.

    ¡°The message?¡± Elizabeth ignored the curse and calmly inclined her head.

    ¡°You can enjoy when it comes to ram you in the ass,¡± Elenoir stood up and left, only turning out for a last word ¡®bitch¡¯.

    ¡°Bad blood?¡± Irwyn carefully inquired, glancing at Elizabeth. She looked calm.

    ¡°We have a mutual dislike,¡± she shrugged, seemingly not too bothered by just how hostile that had been.

    ¡°She called you ¡®aunt¡¯,¡± Irwyn changed direction. ¡°Is that actually true?¡±

    ¡°Yes, she is indeed my niece,¡± Elizabeth shrugged as if it wasn¡¯t strange.

    ¡°She looks older than you,¡± he pointed out. ¡°Significantly.¡±

    ¡°Yes, my eldest brother married young,¡± she raised an eyebrow. ¡°And he is over twice my age.¡±

    ¡°Is that¡­ normal?¡± Irwyn had to ask.

    ¡°I know of several great grandaunts younger than the children of the children of the children of their siblings,¡± she explained as if it were only natural. ¡°It is quite common actually. There can be large age gaps between the progeny of a mage well over 200 years old. I guess it makes sense it would give you a pause, but it seems quite obvious to me.¡±

    ¡°Logically, maybe,¡± Irwyn begrudgingly admitted. Just because it made intellectual sense didn¡¯t mean it didn¡¯t feel damn weird to him. So, he changed the topic again. ¡°Though that was still very hostile, from both sides.¡±

    ¡°She is a spoiled, lazy, talentless cur,¡± Elizabeth scoffed harshly. ¡°It is only because Ezexiel dotes on her that she can even be called nobility for she lacks any merit whatsoever besides those of her parents.¡±

    And if you are so open with such opinions, I can see why she is hostile right back, Irwyn thought though outwardly he only nodded. ¡°We ended up not getting this ¡®warning¡¯ though.¡±

    ¡°If it was something genuinely important, it would have reached us,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°There are only so many ¡®unexpected visitors¡¯ that would come here. Perhaps House Fathomsight has come up with something.¡±

    ¡°She seemed quite sure it would be targeted at you,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°Or she was just failing to taunt me,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°I will keep an eye out and be prepared for an unwelcome surprise, Irwyn, but this is just a social occasion I am not particularly invested in. Not enough to give that wench an inch. Even if I end up embarrassing myself it doesn¡¯t matter. It might actually help in getting underestimated.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn said though internally he was unsure that was the right choice. Surely it would have been better to offer token politeness to receive the information. ¡°So now we wait, I suppose.¡±

    ¡°No, the hypothetical ice has been broken,¡± Elizabeth shook her head with a sigh. ¡°No one wants to be the first to approach with hostility. The second though?¡±

    ¡°Your Ladyship,¡± and as if on cue, someone had approached from Irwyn¡¯s dead angle. He turned his head to see an 18ish old man with an overabundance of jewelry that marked his as one of high nobility as well as unfamiliar insignia depicting a bird ¨C raven, crow, or something close enough - with a shawl.

    ¡°Lordship,¡± Elizabeth nodded back politely. ¡°What brings you to my table?¡±

    ¡°I couldn¡¯t have helped but notice, Elizabeth,¡± the man said, and Irwyn noted he only used the title for the greeting. ¡°That you have finally taken someone into your entourage.¡±

    ¡°Indeed I have, Emerlain,¡± she nodded with familiarity. ¡°And I suppose you do not speak of it without reason.¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± the other noble nodded. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t do for any rumors about lacking battle prowess to spread.¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Elizabeth played along.

    ¡°Then perhaps it wouldn¡¯t be amiss if he was challenged,¡± Emerlain continued. ¡°I just so happen to have taken in a pretty little thing of similar age as him recently. It would be a suitable debut for both.¡±

    ¡°Hmmm,¡± Elizabeth hummed, then turned to Irwyn. ¡°Why not? It would be a suitable first match for the day.¡±

    ¡°Then I shall strive to not disappoint,¡± Irwyn nodded, standing up. Hopefully he was not missing anything from between the lines.

    ¡°Wonderful!¡± Emerlain smiled, then beckoned to the side. A young woman indeed around Irwyn¡¯s age approached. The dress she wore was shorter, more outwardly practical for exercise - though enchantments rendered that pointless beyond appearances anyway. Irwyn also noted she wore a singular silver ring with another unfamiliar insignia and no other jewelry. Perhaps a lesser noble then? Irwyn was not quite certain of the ranks. ¡°Come, come, let¡¯s arrange it right away.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Your Lordship,¡± the upcoming duelist, bowed to Emerlain, then they both quickly left and Irwyn followed them.

    ¡°Irwyn!¡± Elizabeth raised her voice just as they took the first few steps, causing all of them to turn back to her. ¡°Bring back something to drink when you are done,¡± she smiled. ¡°To celebrate your victory.¡±

    ¡°As you say, Your Ladyship,¡± Irwyn returned the smile as well as a small bow. He wasn¡¯t sure why they were taunting but it was fun. And novel. Ultimately, all of it was bickering between children of pedigree¡­ but there was something about being challenged and knowing you had what it took to make the issuer eat their words, especially if they were covered in literal layers of jewelry.

    When they got to the ring, Emerlain was no longer quite smiling. Neither was the mage girl from his entourage. Irwyn was. People gathered around, though many remained seated in whatever booths they have claimed. The dedicated dueling grounds were not nearly as advanced as the facilities he had visited with Elizabeth - though it had just a barrier rather than a whole scenery. The protective array itself was still very much active, as the old mage overlooking their battle - their concept felt like impossibly fast movement - reassured them.

    ¡°A challenge has been issued,¡± their arbiter announced, loud enough for everyone caring to listen to hear. ¡°Over no matter in particular. On one side stands Octavia von Bitterheart, representing His Young Lordship Emerlain von Ravencloth. On the other stands Irwyn of no House, representing Her Young Ladyship Elizabeth von Blackburg. They shall battle to first direct strike. On my mark, begin!¡±

    ¡°Hither,

    Black bitter¡±

    Octavia - while Irwyn still remembered the name - immediately cast a spell. It looked like a fog, though there was more to it. It roiled out from every spot of her body as far as Irwyn could see and he sensed two intentions within the spell: Bitterness and erosion. Rather¡­ esoteric. Irwyn had no idea what bitterness would even do, though in its own way it was also eye-opening that such emotions could be used productively. He had an impulse to let it play out to see exactly what the effects were, though ultimately decided it would be too counterproductive.

    ¡°Lightspear swarm¡±

    Irwyn waited a few seconds for the smoke to start approaching him before improvising a spell name. They had been advised to hold back by Avys herself¡­ but a single three-intention magic should be just what he could afford according to the Duchess¡¯ estimation. A prodigy, but not an incomprehensibly ridiculous one. As for his waiting and the decision to immediately open with somewhere close to his artificial upper limit?

    Irwyn was not keen on being challenged by every other hopeful mage follower in the room who thought they had a shot at him. No. Instead, he would disillusion them in the fastest way possible. The spell called for a swarm and that was what manifested right behind Irwyn. He beckoned them forward with his hand and they shot into the mist, seemingly at random¡­ though Irwyn made sure several would directly hit his opponent. The other mage was nowhere near as good at hiding as Elizabeth.

    ¡°Winner, Irwyn of no House,¡± the judge declared a moment later. Most of the Void fog has been dispersed by the spears though much of it still obscured vision. The spell had, however, been broken and quickly dispersing. In fact, the result has been called before Irwyn even visually registered his opponent again.

    Not that he cared too much. Irwyn dismissed the spell and made sure to slightly stagger and take a few very deep breaths, as if such magic as he had performed was straining rather than second nature. There was no cheering from the audience, perhaps because the fight had been too short to get invested or because that was simply not their way. Irwyn left the arena without a second look. He detoured to one of the many buffet tables with a plentiful spread of food and beverages, getting two large glasses of something green that a butler had reassured him was both sweet and refreshing.

    ¡°Quite one-sided,¡± Elizabeth welcomed him back with a smile. At some point during his relatively short absence someone had delivered a plate of what appeared to be prawns Elizabeth had alreay liberally indulged in.

    ¡°Did you expect anything less?¡± Irwyn also grinned.

    ¡°You could have dragged it out,¡± she said. ¡°Made it a show as you cut apart poor Octavia¡¯s spell. Slowly cornered her until there was not a single step she could take without walking right into your own magic. It would have won you much more favor with the crowd.¡±

    ¡°I opted for brutally efficient,¡± Irwyn defended. ¡°It sounded best at reducing how many people would bother us tonight.¡±

    ¡°The show would have done the same,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°And with how you had ended it¡­ we might have quite a few people finding trouble out of principle.¡±

    ¡°Ended it?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Yes, this is my fault,¡± she sighed. ¡°Or rather, of the missed etiquette lessons. I should have mentioned it but it just didn¡¯t occur to me until you were already on the sand.¡±

    ¡°A faux pas on my part of some sort then,¡± Irwyn guessed.

    ¡°After a duel, you shake hands with your opponents,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°Oh,¡± Irwyn grimaced. ¡°Is it bad?¡±

    ¡°Well, you basically told the poor girl that she was so beneath you that her very existence is not worth acknowledging,¡± she explained. ¡°Now, if I had done that that might have been fine. But from you, it looks far too arrogant as someone with no House to their name.¡±

    ¡°And that might graze some Prides,¡± Irwyn sighed with realization.

    ¡°We will have to play it off as if I told you to act that way. Better than acknowledging a mistake,¡± she nodded. ¡°If we do it right, it will look like you are arrogant on my behalf and that will make it fine in their eyes.¡±

    ¡°And how do we do that?¡±

    ¡°Quite simple, really,¡± Elizabeth grinned again. ¡°You just have to do everything exactly the same way you just have. For every upcoming duel while I cheer on with approval.¡±

 Dream of traitors sundered

    It was the third dawn of the Crusade and all Irwyn knew was torment.

    A hundred worlds he had traveled, a thousand traitors he had reduced to ash. And yet still that rage burned and festered. The grief which cut into his very soul. Into everything he was and ever would be. And it just refused to abate. No matter how many fell before righteous fury, it kept getting worse.

    But what else was there to do?

    <u>THE ASPECTS WERE DEAD</u>

    And nothing could ever change that. Not anymore. Their very Names had been cracked, wounded in such ways that they could never again recover. It hurt all the more because Irwyn had known them, so closely and intimately. Had been with them from his birth. From before Time itself. He just could not comprehend how it was possible. And all of that because of the Betrayer. Because of ______.

    How could the Soulgiver, once the most loyal of all, commit such an atrocity against the Flame-that-is-origin? And how could he have possibly succeeded? What hideous, indescribable ambush had his once uncle performed to desecrate everything? Those questions devoured each free thought and every unoccupied moment. Therefore, Irwyn did everything to focus on the rage, for the grief was so, so, so much worse.

    ¡°Next resistance = found,¡± Golem broke him out of his stupor, ¡°Micro-sub-realm, necrocracy, refused terms. Estimated Names: 0-3¡±

    ¡°Send me there,¡± Irwyn just nodded numbly - not to Golem, but to the Serpent that was undoubtedly listening - and the next moment he was somewhere else. He found himself in the skies, yet not falling, for refusing the imposition of gravity was as simple as breathing for him. He floated above a small kingdom, perfectly stuffed into a small artificial realm. It was not large, maybe the span of horizon to horizon, though that seemed to be enough for a nation to prosper. He could feel the Realm it was latched onto beyond the boundaries and that the artificial sun above was merely an image. For such a pocket space it was strangely stable and allowed only one way in or out. Well, for anyone not directly transported by a Named of Time/Space.

    And he could feel the single Name scurrying with a horde of liches to meet him. And there were so many things he would not have given a second glance not so long ago. Undead worked the fields, their souls artificial and mindless. There were few living people, growth regulated by the immortal rulers. So many of those stood before him. Well over a thousand liches, tainted by the Betrayer¡¯s magic to their very core.

    ¡°We greet you in these troubled times, great one,¡± the Named leader bowed to Irwyn who only felt disgust rise within him.

    ¡°You have been given an ultimatum,¡± Irwyn stared down, still floating far overhead. ¡°Accept or be destroyed.¡±

    ¡°Please, great one, we fully condemn the Soulgiver¡¯s treachery and grief for the other Aspects, however, you are asking us to destroy the very magic which sustains us,¡± the leader dared plead. As if their very continued existence was not an offense against Father-flame¡¯s memory.

    ¡°I am asking you to remove the Betrayer¡¯s taint from this corner of creation,¡± Irwyn felt anger bubbling but stopped himself from acting yet. There were still living here, if relatively few. Fewer would remain if he fought another Named.

    ¡°Please, great one, in memory of Lumen and her Mercy, do not resort to slaughter,¡± they pleaded.

    ¡°WHAT DO YOU POSSIBLY KNOW OF THE LIGHTMOTHER TO DARE SPEAK HER NAME?!¡± and Irwyn screamed at the sheer audacity, all those corrosive emotions bubbling to the forefront. To desecrate the memory by such words! In his rage, he would have already burned them all the ash, heedless of the collateral damage, yet what stayed his hand for a moment longer was the pain. The grief, potent enough to stun him. The reminder that Lumen was truly gone. That he would never again feel her warm touch, her maternal love or worry. In that moment it gnawed at him all the more.

    ¡°I see,¡± and the necromancers abused that moment. ¡°Then you leave us no choice at all.

    Az gurdle fa¡¯Merezit

    Fer akarde Az¡¯markiz,

    Anbardle wi terezit:

    Zerto paz TARAKIZ¡±

    And in the tongue of necromancers, an Edict was proclaimed. The closest translation might be of Patient-Wisdom, or perhaps Waiting-Epiphany. Because, as Irwyn realized in that moment, that Edict had not been something set. It existed since its Name was forged but never quite took form. It patiently awaited that exact moment when it was necessary and allowed that wisdom in it to set it into what was required. And for that patience, it would be forever weaker, as long as the Named remained the same. Except, that first time when it was set into its form, it would reward all that waiting with exceptional power.

    And it tried to destroy Irwyn¡¯s very soul.

    It latched onto him like chains, gnawing and crushing. Searching for any creek through which it could slip inside and devour. And did so with verve and power few could begin to comprehend, much less resist. It was a weapon with the sole purpose of killing a Named being without giving them the chance to resist. A sentence that would condemn nigh all into oblivion.

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    Except Irwyn was no mere Named. He was the son of Flame and Light. The paragon of Stars. The Edict tried to gnaw at his soul and found it immutable. For he was not just his soul. He was also his Name, born into it and with it. Created explicitly for it. Therefore, his Name was also his Soul. And only an Aspect could damage another¡¯s Name.

    The clutches of the Edict broke, one by one, finding not the most miniscule purchase. Because such magic could not harm Irwyn. It never stood the slightest chance. But it could have been someone else than Irwyn coming here. Some other loyal Named, presenting the ultimatum. And they would have died, unable to so much as cry for help.

    Irwyn looked down at the rot. At the horrible scheme they had prepared. At all the necromancers, most exhausted from empowering the Edict. At the leader, looking up with a glimmer in their long-dead gaze as if hoping they had slain a crusader. And at that moment Irwyn decided that nothing could remain from this little kingdom. That everything in this small Realm would be reduced to ash and molten rock.

    But that was technically impossible. It was still a Realm and the restrictions of Realms still applied, set in the foundation by the Realmforger himself - an Aspect¡¯s laws were not so easily defied, this one in particular. It would require an Edict, yet all those destructive he knew were not usable, destabilized by the Aspects¡¯ deaths. Yet of his own two, one Edict was incomplete and the other was simply not capable of destruction. And still, he was bound by his oath. He could not create anything new to fit his needs.

    Therefore, something had to be altered.

    In his rage, wallowing in bottomless grief, Irwyn changed. The days of emotional torment had already brought him halfway there; this was just the final straw. Fundamentally, he changed. Most of his gentleness was taken by that burning rage. Replaced by the cruelty of combustion. But if only it was so simple...

    Because Irwyn was the son of Light and Flame. A paragon, single leap beneath the creators themselves. When Irwyn changed, reality itself followed suit.

    Millions of Stars screamed in the distance, mirroring his grief. They cried and cried and only stopped when their renewed anger compelled them to. And every Realm, every dimension that had so much as seen the reflection of a Sun shine onto it felt a flash of that scorching fury. Knew with unerring certainty that the skies would never again be as gentle as they had once been. And Irwyn¡­ Irwyn sunk into his grief and spoke yet didn¡¯t speak. For such a being was he that the world echoed his words. That they became true, even if they contradicted the past. Even if their damage would be irreversible. And he screamed such:

    In my Name

    With eternal scars

    I proclaim

    An Edict of Stars

    And the Star that was born was not gentle. It was not a newborn vessel for a soul to inhabit. He would not give anything else to the Betrayer¡¯s designs. The Star shone and burned, yet it was not restrained as it should be on a mortal plane. It fully and truly burned not far above the ground.

    And everything just¡­ evaporated. Stone did not have so much as a chance to start melting, the sheer heat turning it to gas. Metals, dirt, sand... magic itself. In mere moments there was nothing left in this small Realm, reduced to ash and then further into just raw decomposed mana which only fueled the Edict further. For a split second Irwyn had thought he had felt something from the side, but after a glance realized whatever it was had also been burned away. From boundary to boundary, from east to west, north to south, from the firmament above to the confine below, there was nothing left besides Irwyn and the sole survivor.

    The Named Lich, perhaps anticipating a fight even after his ambush had shrouded himself in countless defensive magics. Those were the only things stopping him from being destroyed instantly. But they too were already failing. Irwyn willed to move and was in front him - no it - the next moment, allowing the heat to avoid them.

    ¡°You are a disgrace to everything the Aspects stood for,¡± the necromancer, Tarakiz, accused and Irwyn could see the pain of loss behind that stare. It was the curse of such power and exceptional mind that they could understand what they lost immediately and begin to grieve within the second it happened. Irwyn knew that very well.

    ¡°No, you are,¡± Irwyn said and his magic ripped into the Lich¡¯s head. There he found the connection between the body and the Soul. And as almost all Named Liches had done, that soul had made the Name its phylactery. And nothing but an Aspect could destroy a Name, therefore, neither could they kill the Soul latched onto it. But it was not quite as perfect a merger as his own. They had found a way to seal it.

    Golem¡¯s contraption sprung and the soul was captured into a metallic box. Irwyn glared at it for a split second and left before the grief could catch up to him. The following minutes were a blur. The next thing he knew he was standing next to a Named fairy, poorly trying to hide her anger at the destruction that had spread even outside the profane kingdom. Fae were beings of such pure Life that although they could at times deceive even Named, such intense thoughts could seep through.

    ¡°Enough,¡± he spoke even though the fae was not speaking. He felt her flinch ever so slightly at the realization of what he was referring to. ¡°I have burned away the Betrayer''s rot, Thorn, and brooked no compromise. They stood in ambush to kill a loyal Named of our own and for that were turned to less than ash,¡± he felt the feelings changing in the fae, a thousand of alterations each second which he did not care to parse. ¡°Take his captured soul and hide it away. Guard it or find someone else to do so, lest someone attempts to rescue it. That will be your duty,¡± he said and did not wait for confirmation, giving the soul to the Named fae. He did not remember if she answered. Then time passed, though Irwyn barely perceived even that much. He spared one glance to the two Stars on the Realm¡¯s sky and then he was gone.

    Golem spoke again and Irwyn went. One after the other. To slay the rot. Erase as much as he could.

    Soon, it was the third dusk of the Crusade and all Irwyn knew was still torment.

    It was not abating. It still hurt just as much as in the first moment. It numbed nigh everything into incomprehensible emptiness. For a few moments there was no traitor to hunt down before Golem could send him after another group of powerful necromancers. Then those distractions were becoming rarer and rarer. Hiding better or perhaps just because they were already so reduced in number.

    And Irwyn burned them, again and again. Because when he wasn¡¯t consumed by rage, he choked on grief.

 3.13 Inconvenience

    "Irwyn! Irwyn!" he awoke to Elizabeth discreetly but firmly shaking him under the table while harshly whispering. He realized he was sweating and reeling from the overwhelming concoction of grief and rage, even their echoes as distant as they were.

    "Irwyn!" she muttered again and he flinched. Irwyn felt¡­ drained, drowsy. Like he has just been awake for two days without rest. Though his flesh was untouched, his throat and eyes felt a phantom of rawness.

    "How long?" he whispered back, taking a deep breath only to be attacked by vertigo. Then he realized he utterly lacked the senses he was just using moments ago only to remember that those were not his in the first place.

    "About thirty minutes," she replied, frowning but a glimmer of concern flashing behind those eyes. "You wouldn''t wake. I was getting worried."

    "Sorry, I¡­" Irwyn started, then realized his thoughts were too much of a mess for a proper reply. "Give me a moment."

    "Are you alright?" Elizabeth sounded worried.

    "Yes," he nodded. "Just¡­ let me catch my breath."

    That being said Irwyn began the sorting. For one it has been way too soon after the last vision. Less than a week, actually. He had another one just after Abonisle concluded. So why another one already?

    No, Irwyn realized. That is an entirely wrong train of thought. Because whatever was the source of these visions, it was almost certainly either Fate or Starfire. So why would it care about chronological proximity? No, the visions were most likely happening because they were relevant, not because of a set timer. Which made it particularly worrisome that Irwyn had no memory of passing out. He tried to look back at after his duel with¡­ well, his first duel of the night.

    He had returned to sit with Elizabeth afterwards and observed other duelists. To his surprise, the vast majority of people taking the stage had only mastered the use of a singular one-intention spell, no one else for a decent while even attempting three - that had left a strong impression.

    Not that long after he had been challenged again, then immediately three more times. The first three he had completely stampeded through as they only wielded a two-intention spell. The last was a Void mage that could make 3 work in short bursts that left them heavily winded. Irwyn remembered thinking they might have been trying to wear him out so he had been more conservative with his resources in the last fight, only prevailing after trading a dozen spells and revealing his Flame magic for a barrier much more effective against Void than Light would be.

    "The last thing I remember is returning after the four successive battles, the last one was against the mage with a weird-toothed mask," Irwyn said in a hushed tone. "Am I missing anything afterwards?"

    "You sat down and we spoke shortly," Elizabeth filled in. "There was a lull as another duel started and by the time I turned to you again you were already out of it, non-responsive. What in the world happened?"

    "I just had another vision," Irwyn did not hide it.

    "What?" Elizabeth struggled to keep her voice low. "I thought those only happened in your sleep."

    "They had until now," Irwyn nodded. "I am a bit worried about what it might mean."

    "Any ''warnings''?"

    "Probably, though I am not quite clear of the point of this one," Irwyn sighed. "In it, I fought in the Great Crusade. I walked into a very dangerous trap set up by necromancers, except it was too weak to kill me so in rage and grief I killed them instead¡­ then captured one I couldn''t kill." he decided to exclude the Names and Edicts involved in the technically truthful retelling. They had some privacy but better to avoid words with innate meaning and power. He had also not yet mentioned to Elizabeth just how powerful he were in these visions and now would not be the time. "I also think I went half mad right after the ambush and changed into someone more war-minded, so that could also be it. Or the¡­ disregard for collateral damage afterwards."

    "Undead, trap, change in face of struggle, capturing foes, frenzied battle. It could be any one of those," Elizabeth summarized. "Or multiple."

    "Do you think the event might have been infilt¡­"

    "Highly unlikely," Elizabeth interrupted, knowing exactly what he was asking about. "City Black does not slack on security, especially at the start of a Lich War. But after Abonisle it would be stupid to take such risks. I am already composing a secret message to my mother. She will discretely investigate and be prepared if it comes down to it."

    "That is good," Irwyn sighed in relief. "I am more wary of anything ¡®almost certain¡¯ after last time."

    ¡°I agree, we should keep an eye out,¡± Elizabeth nodded. Then glanced at her insignia ring. ¡°Apparently there is a senior inquisitor at the main banquet. They were rather interested that this was another ¡®hunch¡¯ of the same person who coincidentally unveiled the plot at Abonisle.¡±

    ¡°I hope they are not mad if nothing is found,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°I think the futile pursuit of dubious intelligence is half of what they do, especially in times of peace,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Probably wouldn¡¯t be the first dead end the inquisitor looked into today. If the Old Mockingbird¡¯s behavior is anything to go by, they seem like a paranoid bunch.¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± Irwyn nodded his assent as the conversation lulled, then realized he was hungry. Half the prawns were still on the plate so he had one. Then a few more. It was a good distraction from the rather¡­ disturbing vision. ¡°These are good.¡±

    ¡°Have you never had any before?¡± Elizabeth asked.

    ¡°I think the only seafood I ever had was what little you treated me to,¡± which wasn¡¯t much. Abonisle was close-ish to two landlock borders of the Duchy of Black. The Beacon was probably the only reason there was any fresh seafood at all.

    ¡°We should see if anything else sits well with you,¡± she nodded thoughtfully. ¡°I overheard a rumor going around that our navy has slain a kraken just before being recalled because of the War. The meat should be affordable for a short while when they finally get back to port.¡±

    ¡°Affordable as in ¡®possible to save up for¡¯ or as in ¡®it should now be measured in fractions of mansions on prime estate rather than multiples¡¯?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know,¡± Elizabeth said hesitantly. ¡°Kraken meat usually gets sold out in days whenever one of the monsters is slain. Anything else is stored at great expense - Time frozen - then resold at a price so exorbitant even my accountants think it¡¯s ridiculous. But people know the Duke of Brown is partial to it. So some buy it if they need her in a good mood.¡±

    ¡°Her?¡± Irwyn noted with a raised eyebrow.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Elizabeth mirrored his confusion.

    ¡°I would think she would be called a Duchess, much like Avys.¡±

    ¡°The leader of a Duchy is always a Duke,¡± Elizabeth shrugged as if it were obvious. So Irwyn assumed it was common sense in upper society. ¡°They and no one else.¡±

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t that create problems with the language and terminology?¡±

    ¡°I think it does the opposite,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°There is no confusion about who exactly is truly the head. I think in the case of the Duke of Brown, she declared her husband prince-consort. Brown is much looser with tradition than Black so the Dukes there can just kind of decide what they want those terms to be.¡±

    ¡°Half the time you explain things like this I am only left with more questions,¡± Irwyn sighed.

    ¡°Then ask away,¡± she shrugged.

    ¡°All right,¡± Irwyn thought about it for a second but saw no good reason not to. He could try to analyze the dream further¡­ but just the thought of it was disconcerting. ¡°So, I know there are nine Duchies - it¡¯s obvious why. But how different are they? You mention the Brown being less traditional so I wonder¡­¡±

    Then a loud knock sounded, immediately dragging Irwyn out of his questioning. They both turned around to the source to see a familiar figure walking with the help of a cane - which must have been enchanted to be exceptionally loud given that the whole room had immediately snapped towards the figure entering from the Voidways. What was rather more worrying though was that Irwyn knew them.

    Truthfully, he might not have recognized the facial features for they had been¡­ twisted. Changed by pain and regrets from youthful to something more gnarled and hateful. Of course, that was not the main change. Rather, Irwyn stared at the two pitch black lines tracing the face, not straight or particularly consistent - much like the imprint from corrosive tears running down its surface. And the eyes above them, half blind and murky with black impurities that mages who had to be some of the best healers alive could not fully cure.

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    Alira von¡­ Fathomsight, moved another step forward, her legs straining as she had to use the cane just to stumble forward. Step. Knock. Step. Knock. The parlor soon returned to whispers and then outright conversations, though most seemed to keep eyes on Alira, not any friendlier that they had been towards Elizabeth. And there was no mistaking the direction the newcomer was heading.

    ¡°I suppose we have our unwelcome guests,¡± Elizabeth smiled slightly.

    ¡°What do we do?¡± Irwyn asked, unsure how much trouble it would be.

    ¡°Let her walk the whole way since she had chosen such an eye-catching entrance,¡± her grin deepened. ¡°Then leave it to me.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Irwyn nodded, glancing at Elizabeth curiously. Rather than worried she looked almost predatory. Like she had expected something like this. Which was honestly reasonable. Alira was clearly still hurt but apparently not to the point she couldn¡¯t drag herself into the party. And it was not hard to guess why she would come despite her sorry state.

    ¡°You!¡± by the time she reached their booth Alira was visibly winded from the strain. It did not dim the Wrath burning behind her eyes as she pointed at Irwyn.

    ¡°Yes, me,¡± It was, however, Elizabeth who answered, standing up. ¡°And what matter has you coming to bother me on this occasion?¡±

    ¡°No, not¡­¡± she tried to take a step around Elizabeth though in Alira¡¯s state that was clearly not particularly realistic.

    ¡°Not what?¡± Elizabeth crossed her arms and huffed. ¡°As far as I am concerned there is no matter left to settle between us.¡±

    ¡°I do not see it that way,¡± she snarled, biting the hook.

    ¡°Ah!¡± Elizabeth exclaimed, raising her voice so that everyone who wished to could hear. ¡°Are you then, Alira von Fathomsight, saying you doubt the Duke¡¯s personal judgment?¡±

    ¡°No!¡± the other girl almost flinched as if she had not seen such an obvious counter coming. Perhaps she really hasn¡¯t, Irwyn thought. Elizabeth had mentioned on a few occasions that the nobility in the Duchy of Black was not usually fond of courtly schemes¡­ but could someone of Alira¡¯s relatively high importance be so¡­ unprepared? Had she not planned every possible way this confrontation she had caused could go?

    ¡°Then we have nothing to discuss,¡± Elizabeth immediately turned around back to their table.

    ¡°Wait!¡± and Alira panicked, seeing the opportunity slipping away. Elizabeth shot Irwyn the slightest hint of a grin before turning back to the other woman.

    ¡°What else is there, then?¡± by the time she faced Alira again, her expression was that of bored annoyance.

    ¡°I¡­ wish to challenge the boy from your entourage to a duel!¡± and Alira seemingly reached for the only solution that occurred to her.

    ¡°From my entourage?¡± Elizabeth¡¯s expression darkened, for all she was acting it was reasonably convincing. ¡°Do you intend to give insult? Are you trying to imply that I, of Blackburg flesh and blood, cannot fight my own battles against those of similar birth? If you want a fight, Alira, we will do it like anyone worthy ought to: Pure against pure.¡±.

    ¡°Then so be it,¡± Alira grit her teeth but seemingly saw no other course of action. Elizabeth scoffed and walked towards the ring with unhurried confidence. Irwyn was still wondering whether he was just reading it all wrong or if Alira genuinely had not even a proper plan A, much less any B to F.

    The walk to the ring had been¡­ long. Especially since Elizabeth took the spot closest to them, forcing Alira to shamble slowly to the other side of the ring. Some two followers had already been fighting for the entertainment of their masters, though they had immediately cleared out when Elizabeth¡¯s challenge had been issued. Now the older judge announced again, most eyes in the room watching.

    ¡°A challenge has been issued,¡± the arbiter announced. ¡°Over Pride of blood pure! On one side stands her Ladyship Elizabeth von Blackburg, 5th in the line of succession. On the other stands her Ladyship Alira von Fathomsight, 27th in the line of succession. They shall battle to first direct strike. On my mark, begin!¡±

    ¡°Void tide¡±

    They clashed. Elizabeth did not hesitate for a split second, immediately calling upon a three-intention spell, a wave of Black mana that she often favored for its ability to obscure line of sight. Yet to Irwyn¡¯s surprise, Alira answered with three as well.

    ¡°Maw of the Void¡±

    A familiar spell as well, the exact same one Irwyn had encountered what felt like an eternity ago. Rage¡¯s favourite, which made sense given he had apparently been Alira¡¯s uncle. Back then it had given him the feeling of Gluttony incarnate¡­ now Irwyn knew better, for what it truly possessed was the slightest shadow of that Name, barely the hint of a hint. It still outshadowed what a spell of that level should accomplish, because what remained true was that the spell genuinely hungered.

    More than an intention, though that was also it, but the slightest trace of sentience seeped through. The spell would hunt down anything living without the slightest strain on the caster. Such was, Irwyn supposed, the advantage of spells with a great legacy. Half of Alira¡¯s ancestry did come from a fallen House calling itself Blackmaw, after all.

    And it was invoked with three intentions. A long time had passed since Ebon Respite for Irwyn¡­ well, perhaps not that long in terms of days but certainly in achievements. Though his memories were hazy, Irwyn still remembered Alira from back then. And she had not been this excellent. Three intentions, in this room full of the great and bright of their generation was the upper limit, at least of what anyone was willing to openly show. But if Irwyn was remembering right, Alira way back when they first met had only used a singular intention at a time. Jumping two whole stages during the months in between was not impossible - Irwyn had charged from one to six - but it seemed unlikely given she had also been recovering from injuries.

    The obvious suspect was an Ambrosia. It could assist mages in immediately jumping ahead as well as improving their future potential¡­ except those were supposed to be rare, even for house Blackburg. Was Alira truly worthy of one? The second possibility struck Irwyn as more plausible, even though it had far less certain assumptions:

    Alira had broken an Oath and had been smitten. In hindsight, he now understood that she had taken many precautions¡­ and that the reason they had not been nearly enough was almost certainly the same as the source of his visions. The Oath had been taken on Umbra¡¯s name, it naturally involved Void magic. ¡®Hollowed eyes for a fool who saw even less¡¯ it was called. Poetic, given Alira had been misusing it at the time. And for the suffering and for all the scars and wounds that no one had been seemingly able to fully cure as of yet, Alira was a Void mage.

    It was not a stretch that she may have gained some insight from the harrowing experience.

    Either way, the fight had started and the two spells shot forward. As Irwyn would expect, Elizabeth ran along with her wave, meanwhile, Alira remained stationary. It was really only a few blinks of an eye before the two collided, the hungering maw biting straight through Elizabeth¡¯s wave without so much as being slowed down¡­

    Except it missed. Indeed, the moment it had appeared it locked onto the delectable living thing it had felt and pursued its presence with religious zest. When Elizabeth ran along her wave of magic and stepped to the side it swerved to match! Only, it had done so in the opposite direction.

    Irwyn did not know how Elizabeth had done that. He had not felt anything from as far as he was. The Maw simply charged to the wrong side without so much as hesitating. That left the smirking Alira facing the wave and Elizabeth behind it. She had erected a two-intention barrier which the wave slammed into and immediately cracked. As did Alira¡¯s smile at the realization that the match was not over yet.

    Then the barrier shattered as Elizabeth collapsed the entirety of the wave into it, dismissing the spell in one smooth motion as soon as the barrier was gone. She probably could have used it to win the match immediately¡­. instead, she leaned back.

    By the time the barrier collapsed Elizabeth¡¯s hand was already swinging through the empty space and as the wave was dismissed it was empowered by magic of its own, accelerating. Before Alira could so much as flinch, she was struck. Her head snapped back, though she shouldn¡¯t have felt any actual pain due to the protections. She stared disbelievingly at Elizabeth¡¯s open palm.

    ¡°Winner, Elizabeth von Blackburg,¡± the judge announced and the crowd broke into conversation and snickers. For all Elizabeth was not the most liked, neither was Alira it seemed. And being defeated by a literal slap¡­ that seemed like something that would be remembered among gossips.

    ¡°Now that you know your place, please cease bothering me,¡± Elizabeth threw one last jab, before turning around, not sparing Alira a single glance more. The other girl though threw Elizabeth a severe deathstare. To the point Irwyn almost expected her to burst out and attack Elizabeth. He thought he saw her mouth begin to move with a first syllable of a mutter¡­ then the judge stepped between the two antagonistic nobles, smothering any such possibility.

    ¡°Wasn¡¯t that perhaps a bit too hostile?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow when Elizabeth returned to sit at their booth.

    ¡°House Fathomsight is not going to hate us any less for being polite,¡± she scoffed. ¡°Better no one else smells blood in the water. People who flinch tend to get walked over.¡±

    ¡°Well, I will defer to you,¡± Irwyn nodded. He supposed no one else would be keen on facing Alira¡¯s humiliation and thus less likely to take a shot at them.

    Things slowed down afterwards. Alira departed in disgrace and no one came to challenge Irwyn or Elizabeth for hours. Yes, many duels were fought. New people arrived from time to time though few left - and usually only in disgrace. Irwyn¡­ struggled to care. Whatsoever. Elizabeth seemed to paying some attention to names and undercurrents Irwyn didn¡¯t have the proper context for while engaging him in conversations in between.

    ¡°Now that I think about it, how long are we going to be here for?¡± Irwyn eventually half complained.

    ¡°Getting bored with me?¡± Elizabeth grinned slightly.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t dare, Your Ladyship,¡± Irwyn returned it. ¡°But I am not one for gatherings or parties.¡±

    ¡°The Exenn lasts until the last rays of sunlight leave the horizon, as is tradition.¡±

    ¡°That is excruciatingly long,¡± Irwyn grimaced. It was not even noon yet. ¡°And pointlessly so.¡±

    ¡°For the children, perhaps,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Right about now the Duchy¡¯s powers that be are arguing over assignments, supplies, forces, and specialists. Although for our part it might appear as just a social gathering, the Exenn is a joined political and military occasion that forces the Duchy to plan. A Lich War is no joke. No real Undead hordes have appeared the last I heard but we want to be ready for them.¡±

    ¡°I suppose that makes sense,¡± Irwyn nodded, though it did not help alleviate his boredom. He was about to change the topic when he felt something.

    It was subtle and Irwyn could not even tell what it was in the first moment. He frowned and looked around, his eyes landing on the Voidways¡¯ gate. The feeling was growing stronger by the moment but he could not quite place it despite the familiarity. It was¡­ distant. Suppressed. In fact, to the point, Irwyn realized it was almost miraculous he could perceive it all. Elizabeth certainly wasn¡¯t based on her questioning look. The feeling climbed and climbed until Irwyn was finally struck with a realisation.

    ¡°Ah, it¡¯s Light,¡± he muttered.

    ¡°Light?¡± Elizabeth frowned, following his gaze over to the Voidways with confusion. No wonder Irwyn could not feel it well, Light magic of any kind would be deeply suppressed and insulated in those long halls.

    ¡°No doubt about it,¡± Irwyn confirmed. The only question that remained was why. ¡°And it¡¯s probably headed here.¡±

    About ten seconds later, the gate flung open with a brilliant blinding flash.

 3.14 Mishap

    The room flinched. Irwyn did not, staring directly into the intense Light and seeing straight through without an issue. What it revealed were three figures that would stick out like a loose nail anywhere in the Duchy of Black, much more so on an occasion like this. That was for a simple reason: They were clothed in bright golden silk.

    The newcomers were three, two wearing full-face masks and moving a step behind the last one. Rather than suits or dresses they wore robes, wavy clothes that seemed like they had to be silken or even more exotic. While the followers were relatively unadorned besides that, their leader wore a golden gem-encrusted amulet and an insignia ring all in shades of yellow. On it was what appeared to be a golden triangle with its base on the right edge and a horizontal line cutting halfway into it, as well as what appeared to be the sun in the background right behind it.

    ¡°Who is this?¡± Irwyn glanced at Elizabeth who seemed to still be blinking away the bright flash.

    ¡°Moment,¡± she grunted and rubbed her eyes, then blinked a few times again. It took her a good dozen more seconds to recover enough to see. And she did not like it when she finally did. ¡°Fuck.¡±

    ¡°Who is it?¡± Irwyn stared at her and saw her expression shift. From realization to shock. Then anger and, if he wasn¡¯t wrong, a hint of dread.

    ¡°That would be Illius di Brightbeak,¡± she grimaced, the slightest tremble going through her.

    ¡°Who?¡± Irwyn inclined his head, trying to alleviate her mood shift a bit. ¡°Couldn¡¯t be too important since they ring no bells.¡±

    ¡°If only,¡± Elizabeth sighed, smiling slightly and regaining her composure. ¡°Illius of House Brightbeak, the sole heir to the Duchy of Yellow¡­ also a cruel and hateful entitled brat.¡±

    ¡°I assume there is history,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°More than I care to remember,¡± she mirrored the gesture, then still grit her teeth. ¡°I can see that Alira was not the unwelcome guest my brother had intended to warn me about.¡±

    ¡°Should I be worried?¡± Irwyn asked, trying to be indirect. He wasn¡¯t sure how angry Elizabeth actually was but it seemed deep-rooted. Would he need to calm her down if things went too far?

    ¡°I can keep my cool,¡± she replied, tersely. ¡°I am not a child anymore. For all Illius seems to always know the most hurtful thing to say.¡±

    ¡°If you need help, I am here,¡± Irwyn reassured. ¡°Don¡¯t forget that.¡±

    ¡°Yes, thank you,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    In the meantime, Illius was just kind of¡­ strolling around the room. A bright smile was plastered on the young man¡¯s face - he couldn¡¯t be much older than Irwyn or Elizabeth. Meanwhile, the reaction the parlor gave him could only be called universal wrathfulness. Like an outsider intruding on their sanctuary. The anger was almost physically seeping into the air. Not that it seemed to bother the singular heir to a whole damn Duchy any. Why was he even here?

    As if to answer that question, Illius wandered wordlessly for a while longer, looking around in seeming amazement before his eyes wandered towards Elizabeth and Irwyn. There his gaze lingered for a moment before he smiled even wider and approached.

    ¡°Finally, a face I had bothered to remember!¡± Illius exclaimed with a peal of laughter as he approached, loud enough for anyone in the whole hall to be potentially offended by the statement. ¡°Elizabeth! How is my 26th favorite noble lady doing?¡±

    ¡°Quite well, Lord Illius,¡± Elizabeth smiled stiffly, though she did not contradict the man. He supposed that one of the daughters of a Duchess was not quite like being a sole child. Or perhaps she was just being polite and would punch him in the face soon. ¡°Though I cannot say you were expected.¡±

    ¡°It is only natural!¡± Illius exclaimed, still smiling wide. ¡°Your mother basically accused our Duchy of supplying the Liches souls! Such insult... I had to come myself to show that we are not traitors to the mutual cause! And demand an apology.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Elizabeth slowly nodded. ¡°It does ma¡­¡±

    ¡°What are you waiting for?¡± Illius interrupted. ¡°Why are you not apologizing?¡±

    ¡°Am I responsible for my mother¡¯s words?¡± Elizabeth was surprised by the interaction but did not let it shake her.

    ¡°Are you not of the same flesh and blood?¡± Illius scoffed, the smile suddenly gone off of his face. ¡°Who else would be responsible if not the daughter?¡±

    ¡°You stretch your logic far, Lord,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s tone became warning. ¡°I have heard an apology has been issued by the Duke himself. How could I possibly dare lessen it by attaching my meager self?¡±

    ¡°So you will not.¡±

    ¡°I believe it would not be appropriate,¡± Elizabeth shrugged slowly.

    ¡°Then how about I speak a tongue your thick skull can comprehend?¡± Illius smiled again, just much more viciously. ¡°I challenge you to a duel.¡±

    ¡°Then I concede,¡± Elizabeth said without missing a beat, loud enough to be heard. ¡°What point is there in fighting a battle I cannot win? Your attainment as a duelist is widely known, Lord. Far above mine.¡±

    ¡°Cowardly!¡± he screamed.

    ¡°A coward flinches and runs,¡± Elizabeth countered. ¡°Am I retreating, Lord Illius?¡±

    ¡°Then have our entourages fight,¡± his gaze immediately landed on Irwyn. There was not even a pause left for consideration. ¡°One on one.¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± Elizabeth glanced at Irwyn calculating. He did not give her a nod or any visible sign. She knew he would go with what she thought best. ¡°I hardly see the point of it. But if you wish they fight for the sake of fighting, then it shall be so.¡±

    ¡°Bethal,¡± Illius did not even reply to Elizabeth, instead turning around to one of his two followers. This up close, Irwyn realized that she was distinctly a woman. ¡°Crush this one for me.¡±

    ¡°It is going to be done,¡± Bethal nodded, stepping towards the arena while Irwyn was still standing up. As he walked towards the ring he noted that Illius chose to occupy the seat opposite to Elizabeth, much to her displeasure. Soon enough, the familiar sand was beneath his feet.

    ¡°A challenge has been issued,¡± the arbiter announced, as they had before every duel of the day. ¡°Over the proof of might! On one side stands Irwyn of no House, representing her Ladyship Elizabeth von Blackburg. On the other stands Bethal, also of no House, representing his Lordship Illius di Brightbeak. They shall battle to first direct strike. On my mark, begin!¡±

    ¡°Presence of the Loyal¡±

    ¡°Lightstorm¡±

    Irwyn chose to open with a relatively simple spell - a wide cluster of slicing solid Light at the three intentions he was willing to show. Bethal on the other hand began to glow. She shone brightly, until the light took physical integrity. In a radius around her, it solidified into something close to a barrier, bearing 3 intentions, though even beyond Irwyn found the leftover glow attempting to disrupt his spell. Trivial enough for him to ignore when holding back this much but the effect was surprisingly potent for the power invested into it. He wasn¡¯t sure why; he especially would have expected Light magic to be less effective at disrupting his own.

    ¡°Armaments of the Loyal¡±

    When the Lightstorm clashed with the protective Light, Bethal cast another spell. Irwyn almost wanted to curse because even before it manifested, he immediately recognized it for what it was: Another three-intention spell. All the while he was restricted to one lest he showed himself talented enough that their foes would spare nothing to kill him. It was mightily inconvenient though as Irwyn watched Bethal grow a short sword and a shield from thin air as well as a thin glowing layer over her robes. Then she swung and the Presence spell seemed to extend with the swing in perfect sync - a synergy of some sort - slashing into Irwyn¡¯s Lightstorm and damaging it enough that Irwyn decided to scrap it.

    ¡°Loyalbane Lightblades¡±

    And he immediately tried to counter. Did he have a loyalbane spell properly figured out? No, not at all. But since the spell only used 3 intentions, he could compensate for that with his leftover willpower. What did loyalbane even mean? Irwyn didn¡¯t really know either. But presumably, it would make the spell much better against ones so insistent on the ¡®loyal¡¯ in their own names. Half a dozen sharp crescents manifested around Irwyn, poised to fly forward at a thought. Bethal seemed unworried as she stepped forward.

    Irwyn sent the blades forward while backing away. It cut into the Presence surrounding Bethal, yet did not quite make it all the way through, as if trying to imprint into rubber: The further in the spell reached the greater the resistance. That was troublesome.

    Fighting with one three-intention spell against two was a significant disadvantage, especially since the two seemed to synergize. The aura-like magic of the first followed the swing of Bethal''s magical blade while the shield seemed to reinforce whatever was in front of it. She kept approaching while Irwyn made distance as best as he could in the ring¡¯s limited space, slowing her approach with his Lightblades. Which wasn¡¯t ideal since they could be dispelled by a good hit from the extended sword or if they got stuck inside the Presence for too long. Given the restrictions imposed upon him, Irwyn found it might not be feasible to win. At least in a straightforward fight. Sneak attacks would be difficult given the glowing defense enveloping Bethal but Irwyn did have a path to victory:

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Stall until his opponent ran out of mana.

    It was basically impossible Bethal had even a fraction of his reserves after all. And she was actively maintaining two seemingly rather powerful spells, no one would find it strange if she ended up out of steam. And thus began an exemplary game of cat and mouse. Once his Lightblades were broken, Irwyn took a page from Elizabeth¡¯s book, using waves and fogs that obscured line of sight, switching between Light and Flame as randomly as he could manage to avoid becoming predictable. Bethal was indeed powerful¡­ but her two spells severely lacked range. Although Irwyn¡¯s physical condition left much to be desired, he maintained his Starflesh spell at two intentions which was more than enough to leave him fast and unwinded in such a small area, avoiding any attempt to corner him.

    It took Bethal several minutes to admit Irwyn would not make a mistake large enough to allow her victory in one swoop. So, she changed her strategy, dismissing the Armaments spell, instead using the newly freed focus to bombard Irwyn with three intention Light spells¡­

    But those were not as powerful as the previous combination. Lacked the destructive power to break Irwyn¡¯s barriers when he reoriented into full defense. Seemingly she had only exactly enough reserves to maintain two three-intention magics as she had not summoned anything beyond that. But if she dismissed the Presence spell keeping her safe Irwyn was ready to exploit such a window of opportunity to steal away victory.

    And he was having a great time. It was different than when he fought Elizabeth. There he had felt it a fight against equals, outsmarting, outmaneuvering each other every step of the way, the victor often determined by jumping one mind game ahead - or just not falling behind in predictions. In the fight against Bethal Irwyn felt in control. No chaos, no real surprises. A plan that was going exactly as he had envisioned it for all he was technically on the back foot because of his restrictions. And his opponent had to know that, the attacks getting progressively more desperate. She would eventually run out of mana. If she started to try and conserve some, Irwyn was ready to immediately go on the offensive¡­

    ¡°Fascinating,¡± a familiar voice sounded. Irwyn had enough leeway to pay attention to it as well as the fight. It was Illius di Brightbeak speaking, at some point, he had approached the arena. ¡°Very well, I will admit I had underestimated you. Bethal, all out.¡±

    There was a pause. A short lul in the battle. Then Bethal chanted.

    ¡°Break resistance,

    or insistence

    Shatter any veil,

    The Loyal prevail¡±

    Naturally, Irwyn had tried to stop her but the Presence of the Loyal was not a defense he could quickly break with just three-intention magic. He made some effort, yet not enough to make a difference. Then halfway through the chant he had a dreadful discovery: The new spell held four intentions. Irwyn did not know why, but he had not been the only one holding back much power.

    Perhaps it was his affinity with Light that allowed him to tell that much even before the spell was fully cast. It gave him a few moments to contemplate the unfeasibility of his situation. No matter what it was, his barriers would not hold. Perhaps there would usually be some hope with three intentions against four but that did not sound like a spell weak against barriers... or one likely to be evaded. It was a simple truth that he would lose as long as he held back.

    Irwyn felt the sting on his Pride. He was not just fighting for himself. He was also representing Elizabeth. And what shame it would bring her, for him to be defeated by a retainer of their rival Duke Household. Not to mention he felt unwilling. Not wanting to lose a battle he had every right and all the power to win with ease. He itched to reveal more. To properly counter and curb the arrogance of thinking they could defeat him.

    But he did not. Avys¡¯ warning still rang true, that revealing his true talent would make him so much more threatening to his enemies. From an eyesore to a genuine danger in just a few decades. He refused to deny all the effort it undoubtedly took to keep such information locked away after Abonisle. Perhaps, he thought, this was the trap the vision had warned me about? A snare of arrogance. All he could do was helplessly smile and attempt one last desperate gambit. He let go of the barrier for it would not save him. Instead, he channeled a different spell: A spear of flame. Pierce, penetrate, puncture. And he created it just behind Bethal despite the added difficulty of displacement. Not far away from the protections still shielding her. And as the chant finished, the Presence spell boiled.

    For a moment it looked like heated water, the surface and insides of the spell roiling and twisting around as if in chaos. Then the protective aura exploded into a rain of thousand needles. Mirthlessly, Irwyn noted that his spear did not survive, targeted by more than enough to shatter it. He stared at the majority of the spell''s power directed at him for the split second they traveled and just about managed to start a defeated sigh.

    Then the needles impacted on his skin.

    Not the protective layer of the formation that governed the ring. His skin. Unprotected, undefended mortal flesh. His mind flinched with surprise and anticipation of agony as thousands of pinpricks simultaneously drove into him with power that should in any and every circumstance shred the body to less than smithereens.

    Yet it was Light.

    And just like Irwyn did not burn, the Light did not cut him. Did not pierce more than his clothes. Irwyn stared numbly as the lethal attack tried to pierce his skin, then seemingly realized its mistake and rather cease in place than continue the attempt.

    A split second later the needles shattered and vanished without a trace. Irwyn realized that in between instants - so fast he could not point out when - the referee had moved in front of him and was staring at Irwyn with an utterly mortified stare. The next moment it was replaced by flabbergasted shock as the man realized Irwyn had not been reduced to puree as anyone else would have been.

    ¡°Are you¡­ alive?¡± the man muttered, then flinched infinitesimally. ¡°I mean, how are you feeling? Help is on the way.¡±

    ¡°What happened?¡± Irwyn asked, more buying time than confused. There was really only one possibility. ¡°I am fine.¡±

    ¡°The array malfunctioned,¡± the referee admitted. Whether that was an accident or malice Irwyn could leave for later. ¡°Are you really uninjured? Forgive my curiosity but I am not sure how you have not¡­ died.¡±

    ¡°How I¡­¡± Irwyn pretended to extend his shock, then faked a flinch, thinking on his feet. He needed an excuse and an idea surged forward. Urgently he reached into his pocket, summoning a few sparks of Starfire as subtly as he could into his palm. He then withdrew a closed fist, opening it in front of the room for all to see said few sparks seemingly disperse into the air. ¡°Oh,¡± Irwyn re-flinched staring at them.

    ¡°That is?¡± the referee asked, though clearly suspecting the answer.

    ¡°My lifeline,¡± Irwyn grimaced, putting into it all the feeling of loss he could muster. ¡°Not something that was supposed to be used in a duel, damnit.¡±

    ¡°I would apologize on behalf of House Blackburg,¡± the judge sighed. ¡°Though that would not be appropriate given your relation to it is greater than mine. There will be an investigation immediately. This is unprecedented. Here.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Irwyn nodded as he was handed a large black cloak. Which was a good thing as he now noticed his clothes had been reduced to tatters - less in some places. He quickly donned it.

    ¡°Go rest,¡± the judge nodded. ¡°Her Young Ladyship will undoubtedly be updated of any discoveries.¡±

    And so, he did. He didn¡¯t stop a grimace from appearing over his face on the way back as the room stared at him, though most of it - he noted - was not hostile. The common target of the communal Wrath seemed to be the young heir to House Brightbeak, speaking to his masked servant to the side of the arena. Whether those were justified, Irwyn deferred judgement.

    ¡°Anything from the ¡®investigation¡¯ yet?¡± he said as soon as he returned. Of course, he didn¡¯t mean the incident from perhaps a minute ago but rather what he suspected might be the cause: The hunch of lurking necromancers the vision had given him.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Elizabeth asked instead. Irwyn glanced at her, inclining his head¡­ only to realize she was wide-eyed. Visibly shaken.

    ¡°Of course,¡± he nodded, sounding more confident than he necessarily was. If that had been any other magic that struck him¡­ Yet it wasn¡¯t. In truth, with Light he had never been at risk. Perhaps that was why the ¡®near-death experience¡¯ did not shake him as it ought to have.

    ¡°The array malfunctioned, as in completely failed,¡± she kept staring. ¡°You took the full brunt of a four-intention spell. Of course? How are you even fine?¡±

    ¡°Well, it was Light magic,¡± Irwyn said slowly.

    ¡°What do you m¡­¡± Elizabeth started, then stopped, flushing. ¡°Oh, I am being an idiot, aren¡¯t I?¡±

    ¡°I can hardly begrudge you being worried on my behalf,¡± Irwyn smiled.

    ¡°Is this the ¡®emotional blindsiding¡¯ my mother is so keen on?¡± a frown appeared on her face. ¡°I had already thought that you would be seemingly immune to Light as well as Flame. I can¡¯t believe I was so panicked I didn¡¯t think of it.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t beat yourself over it,¡± Irwyn shrugged, then frowned. ¡°What I find much more interesting is how that array might have malfunctioned. And whether it was a malfunction at all.¡±

    ¡°I know what you are thinking,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But this isn¡¯t the style of the Duchy of Black. It¡¯s too¡­ underhanded. Hidden. If House Fathomsight thought it was a good option, they would have pressured you openly into fighting without the array.¡±

    ¡°The Brightbeak then?¡± Irwyn voiced the next obvious possibility, though his real suspicion lay elsewhere. ¡°The timing was convenient.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Elizabeth dismissed. ¡°For all he is an abusive, petty bastard he doesn¡¯t have an actual motive to kill you. Not enough to implicate a close subordinate and himself by extension. And that is not mentioning means - Illius must have been under perpetual close watch ever since he stepped into City Black, as well as anyone coming with him. Disabling the array in the middle of the day without anyone noticing is not something even the best conception mages should be able to do. And anyone stronger than that would not have been able to enter the city secretly.¡±

    ¡°The undead then,¡± Irwyn suggested. Because who else benefited the most? If he had died it would have been a significant incident. Irwyn did not know all the political undercurrents but he was pretty sure that the Prideful House Blackburg might take issue with the infringement. To the point it might weaken cooperation before the Lich war even fully began.

    ¡°Here,¡± Elizabeth shook her head and handed him a slip of paper. It simply said: ¡®No traces of infiltration. Suspicion noted. High inquisitor Wesuvian.¡¯

    ¡°So, I take that as a confident no,¡± Irwyn sighed. That rendered him out of ideas. ¡°But there is no way it could be a coincidence, right?¡±

    ¡°It could be half of one,¡± Elizabeth said after thinking for a moment. ¡°Fate magic.¡±

    ¡°I should be particularly hard to predict.¡±

    ¡°Yes, but Fate mages don¡¯t need to rely on divination,¡± she elaborated. ¡°If there was a Fate mage ready on standby someone could have notified them that you were losing the fight. Then all it would have taken was them maximizing the odds of a malfunction and getting lucky.¡±

    ¡°How feasible is it,¡± Irwyn was willing to entertain the idea, given the others had been dismissed.

    ¡°A late conception Wrester - mages who specialize in offensive Fate magic - could conceivably accomplish it without being found out with exceptional luck,¡± Elizabeth guessed. ¡°At least, I think. I am only vaguely familiar. They are not the most common in the Duchy of Black. But House Blackburg will find out.¡±

    ¡°Not just your mother,¡± Irwyn noted the difference.

    ¡°You are part of my entourage Irwyn, and that does make you part of House Blackburg, if distantly,¡± her eyes took a serious edge. ¡°For all the posturing and politics, even those who oppose the main line will hold nothing back in finding out if this was an assassination attempt made by an underhanded outsider. And then if it was, they will hound those responsible to the end of the world and beyond if need be. Do not forget Irwyn: Wrath and Pride. When the latter is infringed, the former follows.¡±

    And well, there was nothing Irwyn could think of to say to that. They sat in silence for a while and Irwyn realized the atmosphere in the room had gotten much heavier. People were glancing their way, as many had been before, but those eyes were far less hostile. Not worried, no, but angry. Not for Irwyn - most likely didn¡¯t like him after what had happened earlier in the day - but furious that someone dared infringe on their event.

    Well, at least they seemed to be on the same page that this was too coincidental to be an accident. Not five minutes later, a group of men in black cloaks trod out of the Voidways and began openly investigating the dueling grounds. Not that anyone had dared use them after the earlier mishap.

    And interrogating. Irwyn felt an old instinct twitch as he was approached by the enforcers of law though he remembered that this time they would be on his side. So, he calmed down the best he could and tried to predict some of the upcoming conversations in his head. They had questions for him too after all.

 3.15 Sick

    It turned out that the interogators didn¡¯t have that many things to ask... at least not from Irwyn. Most of their questions were also rather straightforward - with no trace of attempting to entrap him - and Elizabeth had not been even asked to keep away while the men erected what Irwyn assumed was particularly potent privacy warding.

    First, they asked if Irwyn had any idea this was going to happen in the first place. Fair thing to ask, though he had not. They were using some kind of magic to determine the truth of his words and seemed satisfied with the results. Next, they questioned how he thought it might have happened and if he had noticed anything off beforehand. He shared the speculation of Fate magic being the most likely culprit, his unfounded belief that this had been no accident as well as not noticing any signs of such a serious malfunction.

    Next, they asked about how Irwyn had survived. And he would not have a good explanation for that without lying. Of course, that would be if Irwyn was sitting there alone.

    ¡°I have personally provided Irwyn an expendable life-saving artifact,¡± Elizabeth proclaimed before Irwyn could answer. A bald-faced lie, though to Irwyn¡¯s surprise, the men in black did not even attempt to deploy the truth divining - or whatever other principles it worked on - magic and moved on, not bringing it up again. The interrogation was concluded soon after.

    ¡°They did not check you were telling the truth,¡± Irwyn said, implying the question.

    ¡°I am an heiress to House Blackburg,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°By tradition, only the Duke has the right to demand divination be performed on me.¡±

    ¡°That sounds like an extremely convenient rule for a House that supposedly hates scheming,¡± Irwyn noted.

    ¡°It¡¯s more of a ¡®who dares even put into question someone like me?¡¯ kind of thing. Pure Pride rather than application,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°But among the ridiculous old rules and traditions, some are convenient, yes.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn nodded, then spotted someone approach in his peripheral vision. ¡°We have company.¡±

    ¡°So we do,¡± Elizabeth nodded, then stood up upon seeing who it was, as did Irwyn. Illius was approaching with his two followers.

    ¡°Ladyship Elizabeth and Irwyn,¡± Illius bowed, surprisingly deep.

    ¡°Lordship Illius,¡± Elizabeth mirrored him, though she merely inclined her head. ¡°What brings you here?¡±

    ¡°An apology, of course,¡± Illius nodded. ¡°A terrible accident has nearly occurred!¡±

    ¡°If there is any blame to distribute, it would be on whoever was responsible for the array,¡± Elizabeth narrowed her eyes slightly. ¡°Be that the person who maintained or sabotaged it.¡±

    ¡°Ah, but here we do not see eye to eye, Elizabeth,¡± Illius shook his head. ¡°A death has nearly occurred. Who could be responsible but the one who wielded the spell? Bethal.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± and the masked young woman nodded, stepping from behind Illius at the command. She walked in between Elizabeth and Irwyn, then knelt. Kowtowed, her masked face touching the floor. ¡°Please, accept this unworthy one¡¯s apology.¡±

    ¡°That is quite¡­¡± Elizabeth started while Irwyn forced himself to remain silent, though he agreed it was rather excessive. Also, Elizabeth was interrupted.

    ¡°Properly!¡± Illius yelled. Irwyn was too distracted with Bethal¡¯s kowtow to notice him step closer. His knee rose and the heir to House Brightbeak stomped his follower¡¯s head to the floor just as she was starting to rise. A ring sounded as well as a subtler wooden cracking of her mask.

    ¡°You are being excessive,¡± Elizabeth frowned ever so slightly.

    ¡°Am I?¡± Illius laughed, and it sent a chill down Irwyn''s spine. He could not quite point out why but there was something¡­ savage in it. Malicious and cruel. ¡°Bethal has almost slain your entourage. What else can that be called than failure? And each failure has consequences proportional to it. Else, would House Brightbeak not be accused of not taking responsibility in your Duchy of Black?¡±

    ¡°And¡­¡± Elizabeth opened her mouth while Irwyn froze. He suddenly saw the trajectory, the words she would say. And realized they were a trap of sorts. Still, he hesitated, because if he interrupted her it would go against etiquette and custom. He had to evaluate which consequence would be worse¡­ but Elizabeth was already talking. Inaction was a choice in itself. ¡°...do you think this is appropriate?¡± she frowned. Irwyn saw Illius smile and suppressed a flinch.

    ¡°No, of course not!¡± and there it was. Irwyn mirthlessly watched Illius'' grin sharpen. Elizabeth¡¯s eyes widened at the reply, for the tone implied the opposite direction than she had intended. But Irwyn could almost see the next few seconds playing out, and knowing that stopping it would not be worth it. It bothered him... but not enough to stick out his neck. So instead, to distract himself, he thought of a memory.

    Illius reminded Irwyn of several people he didn¡¯t really want to recall. Not the perfect visage or the royal robes, rather it was the attitude. The savageness behind his eyes. Back in Ebon Respite Irwyn had the displeasure of meeting too many such. Gang leaders, their enforcers, or those who thought themselves such. People who ruled with more not just a threat of violence but the certainty of it. That a whim could spell death for anyone within line of sight - and that such whims struck their fancy fairly often.

    Of course Elizabeth had not seen it. For all House Blackburg was an insurmountable bogeyman to the Guild, it did not devour those that were part of it. For all the emphasis on raw power and the Wrath in their veins, they still fought with arrays to spare life and limb - squabbled rather than truly fought. Elizabeth was used to a world where most of the time the price of incompetence was a loss in status. Withdrawal of favor and privileges. Illius - Irwyn realized - was much like a gang leader, the very worst of their kind.

    ¡°This is,¡± the heir¡¯s knee lifted again from Bethal¡¯s head with speed that could only mean extensive magic. Several intentions at least for it rose up and down faster than Irwyn could blink. So fast he heard the crunch and wet squeal before his eyes caught up to the carnage. Red and gray, splattered on the floor. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t do for anyone to think House Brightbeak does not take responsibility for its mistakes.¡±

    Irwyn stared down at the corpse, unmoving, as Elizabeth flinched. So did many of the room at the sudden explosion of violence. Bethal had been a prodigy, without a doubt. 4 intentions when 20 at the oldest was considered an exceptional achievement. And Illius had killed her without blinking. Without care that he was stripping his own House¡¯s future strength. Murdering someone who - if her spells were to be believed - was loyal beyond dispute and could reach great heights in the future. There was a glimpse of something terrifying it revealed to Irwyn. Because for all the justifications Illius had set up, it had not been necessary in the least.

    ¡°What¡­¡± Elizabeth opened her mouth, too flabbergasted by the turn of events to form a coherent reaction.

    ¡°Of course, House Brightbeak will also compensate the lost treasure with something of equivalent value,¡± Illius ignored her and stepped closer. He touched Irwyn on the shoulder, those eyes betraying the amicable smile. ¡°I am sure there is something suitable for a Light and Flame mage like you.¡±

    ¡°You humble me with such exceptional determination, Your Lordship,¡± Irwyn lied with practiced ease as he bowed.

    ¡°Nothing less should be expected of me!¡± Illius laughed again, then stepped away over the corpse and the expanding pool of blood. ¡°That being said, I think I will retire early today. Wincent, if you would?¡±

    And he stepped away, the other servant stepping up to secure Bethal¡¯s body, carrying it towards the Voidways, magic stopping more blood from dripping. The men in black who had come to investigate earlier stared at his back but no one stopped them. Irwyn knew that both Illius and Bethal had been interrogated at the same time he had been so perhaps they didn¡¯t care. More likely, they didn¡¯t quite dare. For all this was the Duchy of Black, Irwyn imagined that Illius was a walking international incident just waiting to happen. Or perhaps actively goading anyone into causing one.

    ¡°You did say he was cruel,¡± Irwyn nodded, glancing at Elizabeth. She was frowning at Illius¡¯ back, though at least she didn¡¯t appear at all shaken by the brutality or blood beneath her feet - none seemed to stick to her dress.

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± she admitted, indeed more surprised than disturbed by her tone. ¡°I had expected him to make some unreasonable demands because of ¡®failing security¡¯ or such. Or at least a jab about your near death. This? This is mild compared to the Illius I have known.¡±

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    ¡°I see,¡± Irwyn said though he really didn¡¯t. Murder was not considered mild by most accounts, perhaps he was just not understanding her perspective. Though, fair enough, he had not tried to hurt either him or Elizabeth beyond the initial challenge.

    ¡°I think I have had about enough,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°A silver lining is that this gives us a perfect excuse to leave the Exenn early without anyone taking offense.¡±

    ¡°At least something,¡± Irwyn glanced down at the blood. He hadn¡¯t even noticed some had splashed on the cloak he had been given. He felt a bit of pity¡­ but not too much else. There were worse ways to go than a crushed head. ¡°I will steal some of the seafood on our way out.¡±

    <hr>

    They took it easy in the afternoon as Irwyn adorned his less formal clothes and then had another proper suit fitted to replace the shredded one in case it was needed. It was really more of a distraction as neither he nor Elizabeth were in the mood for another duel. Instead, Irwyn ended up reading for much of the remaining day.

    The investigation concluded before dinner, House Blackburg moving fast. No trace of interference had been found even though the investigators had gone so far as to open the mind of the mage responsible for maintaining the array. There had been no flaws before the Exenn began. The conclusion was similar to the one Elizabeth had come to:

    ¡®Possibly natural accident. Most likely extremely subtle Wresting and sheer chance. Inconclusive whether the victim had been the intended target. Deeper investigation recommended.¡¯

    After dinner, both Irwyn and Elizabeth went to sleep early having made plans for the following day. Unfortunately, said plans were interrupted by a simple yet unfortunate circumstance:

    Irwyn woke up violently sick. Dizziness galore with perpetual nausea and a frankly uncomfortable frequency of vomiting as well as a low yet constant migraine.

    ¡°You know, it is probably the prawns not sitting well with me,¡± Irwyn speculated in the rare few minutes of respite. ¡°Seafood might just be too rich for me.¡±

    ¡°You have been eating ¡®rich¡¯ for months now, Irwyn,¡± she grinned.

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°But not ¡®catered for high nobility celebration by House Blackburg¡¯ kind of rich. I might have swallowed something with too much Void mana without realizing?¡±

    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just a bad flue,¡± Elizabeth suggested.

    ¡°I do not really get sick, Elizabeth,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°The only times I have ever been anything like this was from bad food or once from actual poison.¡±

    ¡°People tend to feel better after throwing up once or twice if it¡¯s from food,¡± she commented.

    ¡°Then maybe the sixth will be the charm,¡± Irwyn muttered back.

    ¡°I should get you to a healer,¡± she frowned. ¡°It¡¯s better to see what the issue might be.¡±

    ¡°Well, I suppose you can afford it,¡± Irwyn mused after suppressing the instinct to refuse. ¡°Give me five minutes, I don¡¯t want to leave a trail down the hallway.¡±

    Except, the healer found nothing wrong. He guessed that whatever was causing the adverse reaction must have already been absorbed into the body. They simply looked for any known poisons or diseases and could at best diagnose what wasn¡¯t the root of the issue. All Irwyn was given for it was some medication to suppress the urge to gag on an empty stomach and advice to seek out someone more ¡®senior¡¯ if he wasn¡¯t feeling better by the next morning.

    When he woke up the following dawn, Irwyn realized he felt even worse.

    Things became a bit of a blur after that. Elizabeth had, apparently, gotten someone far more capable - and likely also far busier and more expensive - to have a look at him. The exact conversations eluded memory, though Irwyn found himself at some point staring out a window into the evening sky, wondering when the various tubes had been stuck into his flesh.

    On the third(?) day, Irwyn found himself once again lucid. Which let him realize he was feeling incredibly weak. Unable to move his limbs kind of weak. His wit and even magical senses dulled to less than half of what he knew they should be ¨C not even accounting for the recent vision. Meanwhile, Elizabeth slept in an armchair not far away from him. Also, he realized that this was quite distinctly not his room. He didn¡¯t wake her so he just lay there until she stirred about... half an hour later? Keeping track of time was not easy.

    ¡°Good morning,¡± he said as she woke, the words making his throat dry and sore.

    ¡°Irwyn?¡± she jumped awake and hurried to his bed. ¡°You are awake.¡±

    ¡°Well, yes,¡± he tried to nod. His neck did not move. ¡°Was I that out of it?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± she nodded, approaching and grabbing his hand on the side of the bad. The touch felt muted, distant. ¡°How are you feeling?¡±

    ¡°Still horrible,¡± he admitted. ¡°But that¡¯s presumably better than yesterday.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­¡± she said after hesitating for a suspiciously long time.

    ¡°So, what is actually happening to me?¡± he figured it was just as good of a time to inquire as any.

    ¡°Nobody seems to know,¡± she bit her lip. ¡°But since you actually woke up, something must have had an effect. I have already alerted the staff. If they can figure out the source¡­¡±

    ¡°My first actual illness probably ever and it¡¯s this kind of thing,¡± Irwyn smiled mirthlessly. ¡°Figures.¡±

    ¡°If you never caught a regular disease of course whatever you might catch would be something extreme,¡± she grinned back.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it contagious though?¡± he asked, hiding any worry that tried to slip into the tone.

    ¡°If I hadn¡¯t caught it in the first two days, it''s presumably not,¡± she shook her head. ¡°Most likely it¡¯s a curse.¡±

    ¡°Since when are those considered diseases,¡± he failed to incline his head.

    ¡°I never claimed it was actually a sickness,¡± she shrugged ever so slightly with a hint of a smile. ¡°The real issue is that no common curse-breaking methods had any effect until today. And even I cannot drag in every specialist imaginable without having any idea what kind of affliction you are even suffering from. Not at the start of a Lich War.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Irwyn said, then they descended back into silence. Not long later the staff came, healers in white robes. Irwyn would almost expect them to be black, though the practicality of stains being easily visible seemingly bypassed the local fashion trends. They quickly surrounded Irwyn, most walking behind his bed. There was magic circling there, though Irwyn could not turn his head to look. Soon they returned with a conclusion.

    ¡°Here, a spike in the soul¡¯s activity,¡± one of them said out loud.

    ¡°That could be chance,¡± another opinioned.

    ¡°Unlikely to be raw stimulation after several days of fugue,¡± the first voice replied. ¡°We should bring in an inquisitor or a similar specialist.¡±

    And so they did. Not fifteen minutes later a man seemingly in their forties walked through the doors, feeling like the severance of the soul from its vessel - not necessarily a living one. A conception mage. The man approached and examined Irwyn for several minutes before shaking his head.

    ¡°I can barely feel anything,¡± he admitted. ¡°Just the slightest trace of trace. If I wasn¡¯t specifically looking for it I would never have found it. This is beyond me to identify, much less cure.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Thank you still, for at least confirming the source lies in the soul.¡±

    ¡°I am ashamed I could not do more for the Deathslayers of Abonisle,¡± the man bowed low, then left. The staff stared silently at Elizabeth who ignored them, stepping into the far corner and erecting a black veil of privacy with only herself hidden within. She only stepped out several minutes later, returning to Irwyn¡¯s side. This time, her smile seemed far more hopeful.

    It couldn¡¯t have been more than a minute later that a woman stepped through the door. She felt¡­ ordinary. Not pretty nor ugly, hair cut short, visage of no more than thirty years. She did wear a white robe and a vaguely familiar badge on it though: A skull on a white background, six distinct cracks almost splitting it to pieces. She did not wait for a second before approaching.

    ¡°Hold still,¡± the new inquisitor instructed, as if Irwyn had the strength to move. She placed a hand against his heart, then nodded after not more than two seconds. ¡°Hmm, yes.¡±

    ¡°Have you found the cause?¡± Elizabeth immediately asked.

    ¡°I have,¡± the inquisitor nodded. Then a tidal wave of mana flooded the room and Irwyn¡¯s body for a split second. He had not felt anything reminiscent of a concept from the woman, yet there was no doubt anymore she held far more than that - if there had ever been any uncertainty to begin with. And then, as it withdrew the next instant¡­

    ¡°I feel better,¡± Irwyn realized. Like a weight has dropped off of his shoulders. Yes, he was still quite weak but the dizziness dropped by orders of magnitude, most of the fatigue washed away as if taken by the change of tide. ¡°What did you do?¡±

    ¡°It was indeed a curse of sorts,¡± the inquisitor nodded. ¡°The inquisition calls such cases Soulrot. You have found yourself in proximity to a particularly powerful Lich in Abonisle, correct?¡±

    ¡°We have been checked for hostile soul magics afterwards,¡± Elizabeth frowned. ¡°It should have been detected.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s incredibly subtle while inert, hiding in the physical body rather than soul. Even I might not have necessarily noticed,¡± the woman shook her head. ¡°And also very rare. If the undead has the time to apply Soulrot, they also had the time to just kill you outright. And for all their hatred, even most Ravener¡¯s don¡¯t have the agency to choose a slow death of their victims over more immediate cathartic certainty.¡±

    ¡°Is this Soulrot lethal then?¡± Elizabeth¡¯s eyes widened slightly. Meanwhile, Irwyn thought back at the Lich in Abonisle. Curse hidden in the flesh. Perfect to bypass the temporary immunity to soul magic he had been granted by Dervish¡¯s artifact during the incursion. Perhaps he should feel flattered to be given such priority. There had been mages stronger than him available to attack.

    ¡°In most cases,¡± the inquisitor shrugged, then turned to Irwyn. ¡°You, young man, have an incredibly resilient core. Unbelievably so for an imbuement mage. Most would have died on the second day because of their souls sundering from within. Yours barely has surface cracks that will heal in¡­ average would be a month, though you can count on it being faster. All the symptoms you suffered were merely the secondary effects of the curse that confuses your body into simply feeling ill in order to make the rot harder to detect in time - what¡¯s left will naturally fade as your body physically recovers.¡±

    ¡°What of me and the others then?¡± Elizabeth asked. ¡°Although it was very shortly, the two of us as well as some conception mages had the misfortune to stand before a Ravener.¡±

    ¡°You are fine,¡± the inquisitor shrugged. ¡°I will be leaving City Black in approximately 52 hours. If you manage to gather the rest somewhere on my way I can spare a few seconds to check. Please, do understand that if it was not for both your background and the deeds attained in Abonisle I would not have spared you this much Time. Every second I am not hunting down the Betrayer¡¯s rot is a second it spreads. Speaking of, I am done here,¡± then she turned around to leave.

    ¡°May I at least ask your name?¡± Irwyn stopped her.

    ¡°High inquisitor Wesuvian,¡± she glanced back. ¡°I will look forward to fighting side by side, should we both live until the next Lich war or the one after.¡±

    Irwyn would do his damn best to remember for once. You don¡¯t get your life saved every day.

 3.16 Circle

    It took two more days for Irwyn to fully recover after that. He slept a lot during that time, more than he would have expected to be proper. When he finally left that white-sheeted bed, he expected atrophy to have set in at least somewhat. Instead, to his surprise, his legs felt better than ever. His body overall appeared stronger, which should not have been the case after lying in bed for almost a week. Actually, he was feeling better than ever as far as he could recall. Elizabeth had an answer when he asked.

    ¡°Well, of course,¡± she raised an eyebrow. ¡°It¡¯s not exactly difficult for a good healer to maintain the patient¡¯s muscle. They also adjusted yours a bit since you were not exactly in perfect shape.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s possible?¡± Irwyn stared.

    ¡°Very few things are not,¡± Elizabeth shrugged.

    ¡°If I had known I would have asked months ago,¡± he did not look away.

    ¡°A procedure like that takes a day or two where you cannot really move,¡± she shrugged. ¡°And practicing magic can mess with it. They need to Graft the muscle and then carefully settle any signs of rejection, at least that¡¯s the simple explanation I received. It would have probably been annoying and likely not particularly important, though this was a convenient opportunity for it.¡±

    ¡°This is not important?¡± he shook his head. He felt amazing. Irwyn had never been completely out of shape - what thief could afford that? - but neither had he ever been athletic. Waylan could always borderline lap him in a sprint and his body strength would not match a farmhand. Now thought? He felt strange dexterity that went beyond his magic. ¡°I don¡¯t remember ever feeling this.¡±

    ¡°This?¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, confused.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing in particular,¡± Irwyn tried to explain. ¡°I have always been healthy and healed right. But I feel just¡­ better. Slightly, in almost every way. I cannot point anything out as different but it¡¯s genuinely incredible.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± she paused, frowning. ¡°Had I known the difference would be so marked for you I would have suggested it sooner.¡±

    ¡°Probably one of those things lost in translation,¡± Irwyn nodded, flexing his hand experimentally. It held strength it hadn¡¯t before. Nothing even remotely relevant in combat... but what was a rounding error in battle somehow had a far greater benefit in a different way.

    ¡°That being said we should get going,¡± she interrupted his self inspection. ¡°I have already delayed as long as I reasonably could before people start to grumble about not fulfilling my duties.¡±

    ¡°Going where?¡± Irwyn paused, frowning.

    ¡°You don¡¯t remember?¡± she frowned right back, then shook her head. ¡°No, I shouldn¡¯t assume you remember anything from during your sickness. We have received our deployment.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Irwyn nodded at that. ¡°Your mother did mention you would be relegated to a ¡®position of no actual merit¡¯.¡±

    ¡°A captainship of a company in a city with most likely no actual undead infiltration,¡± she smiled. ¡°But recent enough undead-related accident that it wouldn¡¯t be unreasonable that I would be sent there.¡±

    ¡°Then we should get going,¡± Irwyn said.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you a least bit curious where we might be headed?¡± she said with a slight pout.

    ¡°I mean, it will be the same either way for me, won¡¯t it?¡± he shrugged. He wasn¡¯t exactly well-traveled or particularly connected across the Duchy. He presumed that wherever they went would be much the same.

    ¡°Honestly,¡± she shook her head. ¡°And I had the whole conversation planned about getting you to guess it.¡±

    ¡°Then somewhere I presumably know,¡± Irwyn concluded from that. Then paused. Oh. There were really not many places it could be that weren''t a ruin.

    "You grinned," she commented, then copied the gesture. Just one that Elizabeth would likely know about.

    "It''s Ebon Respite."

    "Got it in one," Elizabeth nodded, still smiling.

    Irwyn paused to really process that. Ebon Respite, the city he had once called home. Maybe it still was. It had been¡­ less than three months or thereabouts since he had left. Probably. It felt like much longer. Irwyn had just lost count of the days with how intense they oftentimes were. He had assumed it would be years before he accumulated the kind of power that would let him stride in through the front gate with his head held high, if he ever could come back. And yet, in such a short time he was returning, no longer a fugitive without recourse as he had left.

    And he was¡­ different. Irwyn understood that much about himself. It would be delusional to think otherwise. Magically for one, he had left as a whelp with one intention to his name - he was returning with at least 6 and the hint of a Name. The ''at least'' was because he did have another vision during the Exenn. And with the following sickness he never had the chance to test what growth that may have offered.

    "Can we spare a few more minutes?" he asked. "And are we magically insulated?"

    "Sure, what do you have in mind?" Elizabeth nodded.

    "Well, I did have another vision during the festivities."

    "And you improve after those."

    "Exactly," Irwyn smiled. "I want to see how much further this brought me."

    To that she only gestured for him to go ahead. Not hesitating Irwyn began to summon rods of Flame, five intentions each. It was the most reliable metric he could measure. One, five, eight, 12, 15¡­ and no more. He was close to the 16th, sure, but he still frowned. It was small compared to the leaps he had made in the past.

    "A lot less of an improvement than usual," he commented. From 13 to not even 16. Fraction of the previous time. Yes, still incredible for what had essentially been 30 minutes¡­ perhaps he was just getting spoiled.

    "Maybe it''s because of the frequency?" Elizabeth suggested.

    "I don''t think these visions particularly care about the binding of Time," Irwyn shook his head.

    "But your body does," she mirrored the gesture. "The Universal Law of Flow: Any magic that affects things or beings susceptible to Time will be affected by its passage to a greater degree than it otherwise would be, unless the magic already fully complies with its flow."

    "I had no idea there was such a thing," Irwyn paused.

    "It''s not exactly one for the beginner textbooks," Elizabeth shrugged. "Spells that bend or outright break the rules of Time are above even most Domain magic, no need to bother the average mage with knowledge that will never affect them. I only know this because my father is skilled enough at such bending for the Law to matter."

    ¡°I suppose that is good to know,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°Let¡¯s get going then.¡±

    <hr>

    Traveling was not difficult. City Black had its Temporal beacon, which meant they could be far more easily teleported out with the skilled mages manning such stations. Ebon Respite wasn¡¯t too far to begin with, the town named for its proximity to the Duchy¡¯s capital. Irwyn did note one thing while they were making their way over to the translocationist that would send them, though.

    ¡°You are carrying a bag,¡± he squinted at Elizabeth.

    ¡°My dress¡¯ subdimension is too difficult to access without the Beacon,¡± she shrugged, inclining her head. ¡°You know that.¡±

    ¡°Well, intellectually perhaps,¡± it did matter quite a bit during the Abonisle incursion. ¡°It just goes against the usual image, I suppose.¡±

    When they exited the Voidways they were not even made to wait, blatantly skipping the line in whatever the teleportation center was called. The Time mage that sent them along was notably barely middle-aged, though Irwyn supposed that Ebon Respite really was not far. He blinked, then they were somewhere else, in a room with only a door and nothing else in it.

    ¡°Where are we?¡± he asked.

    ¡°The administration''s building,¡± Elizabeth hummed. ¡°Want to show me around?¡±

    ¡°Figures,¡± Irwyn did not have the best memory of this place. ¡°Unfortunately, my best familiarity in these parts happens to be with the dungeon beneath, and a passing one at that. I suppose I could try and point out the spot where Alira cursed herself.¡±

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    ¡°I meant the city,¡± she rolled her eyes. ¡°I have been here once or twice in the past, though only ever in this building or thereabout.¡±

    ¡°Are we not supposed to introduce ourselves to the soldiers?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. ¡°I assume they are already in Ebon Respite. And you are supposed to lead them.¡±

    ¡°They set up on the edge of the slums,¡± she nodded. ¡°There was still enough rubble from the undead attack a few months ago that they weren¡¯t really displacing anyone setting up in the middle of the city.¡±

    ¡°Which side?¡± Irwyn nodded. Only the most desperate or most isolated would even try to live in undead-made debris.

    ¡°Side?¡±

    ¡°Well, yes,¡± Irwyn inclined his. ¡°Which slums - the Mainside or the Otherside?¡±

    ¡°There¡­ are two?¡± she asked hesitantly.

    ¡°Otherside is a lot smaller,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°It used to be ruled mostly by a gang called Stars. Actually, kind of amusing in hindsight. It¡¯s probably Mainside thought, that¡¯s what most roaders think of when they say slums.¡±

    ¡°You are overwhelming me a bit with the slang here, Irwyn,¡± she paused. ¡°What is ¡®roader¡¯ even supposed to mean?¡±

    ¡°Road street folk,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°The big fancy street going through the middle of the city, around the road that goes to and from City Black.¡±

    ¡°You know that is a lot more than just one street, right?¡±

    ¡°Everyone called it Road Street,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°Same kinds of people all way along.¡±

    ¡°You would know better I suppose,¡± she hesitantly nodded. ¡°We should probably ask for exact directions. I am not sure anyone even noticed we have arrived.¡±

    ¡°There did not use to be any mages here,¡± Irwyn smiled. ¡°Not after that magelord guy died a few years back. I wonder if that has changed before the army came.¡±

    ¡°There has never been any magelord staying in Ebon Respite,¡± Elizabeth frowned.

    ¡°That is what everyone called the bastard,¡± he just shrugged. ¡°I do not recall their name, obviously, but they were not very liked.¡±

    ¡°I haven¡¯t studied the city¡¯s recent history to know the exact people garrisoned here in recent years,¡± she said. ¡°But it certainly wasn¡¯t a magelord. That is a very exact title.¡±

    ¡°What does it mean then?¡± Irwyn inquired, ignoring that they were still, in fact, standing around in the room they had arrived in.

    ¡°It declares someone¡¯s right to start a House¡­ or School, or Sect or whatever, depending on where in the Federation they are,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°The title requires both appointment from a Duke and for the mage to attain at least a Domain. It¡¯s also universally accepted in the entire Federation.¡±

    ¡°The same level as Dervish,¡± Irwyn noted, quite amazed.

    ¡°Not quite the same level,¡± she shook her head. ¡°Dervish has three and each is a massive leap in both power and difficulty. He could pounce right through most mages with one without even slowing down.¡±

    ¡°Fascinating, thank you,¡± Irwyn nodded, thoughtful. ¡°But we should probably get going.¡±

    ¡°I wonder how many more times that will end up being said before we actually do,¡± she smiled.

    Well, they did actually get things done after that. They found some kind of office worker nearby who became very nervous upon noticing Elizabeth¡¯s quite visible insignias. Though the first person did not know what the duo wanted, they were quickly escorted to someone who did. Soon enough Irwyn and Elizabeth were out on the street, on their way to Elizabeth¡¯s appointed company.

    ¡°As I thought, Mainside,¡± Irwyn nodded when they were out of earshot. ¡°Barely even the slums, really. More like their outskirts.¡± The slums proper did not have street names or exact addresses. Where they were headed did.

    Upon further discussion Irwyn convinced Elizabeth there was really not that much to see in the City and so any sightseeing was skipped. Afterward they were on their way, getting a carriage to take them down the Roadstreet. It was almost strange to walk down there as if he belonged¡­ until Irwyn remembered that he did, in fact, belong - more than that, even. He looked around at the vaguely familiar sights: The overabundant guards, the massive warehouse complex where that fateful heist had taken place, close and distant streets he had trod upon in the past¡­ It was strange to look down at them so.

    It only took a dozen or so minutes to arrive at their destination. The coach took a side road that led towards a few establishments not far from the main highway, letting them depart at their leisure. It so happened they needed to cross to the opposite side, though instead of heading for the nearest overpass - the road itself was generally not really crossable during the day with all the traffic - Irwyn had another idea. He conjured steps of solid Flame, leading up above the carriages and wagons, then gestured Elizabeth to go on ahead. She did with a slight laugh.

    Then they trod overhead the many merchants and rich folk heading down the road, one step at a time appearing in front of them then vanishing right behind. It would certainly start rumors aplenty but that was quite fine. Those were not always a bad thing. It felt exhilarating - to not speak a word yet scream of his own newfound importance. In a city that had given and taken much, where he had for so long shuffled around with his head held so very low. The company¡¯s camp was still a good few minutes of walking away from the Roadstreet once they crossed. When they were close Irwyn decided to slow down to be that formal half-step behind. Elizabeth, though, would have none of that.

    ¡°Side by side, Irwyn,¡± she smiled.

    ¡°I thought that was considered inappropriate,¡± he raised an eyebrow though did not object, taking a few faster steps than matching her pace again.

    ¡°On a formal occasion, in the halls of politics and politeness,¡± she nodded. ¡°Here, we are showing soldiers that you have my implicit trust. So that they don¡¯t doubt you if you ever need to borrow the authority that is my blood right.¡±

    The camp itself was both simple and amazing. The soldiers had cleared out more than a few blocks, setting up a large perimeter around a dry moat, palisade, and a blockade of metal rods behind all that. Beyond were buildings from unmarked grey stone which could have only been erected by Realm mages given the short time and distinct sameness. For all they looked improvised, Irwyn assumed they had to be solid, though he did not understand what regulations the army applied. It certainly allowed for a much more condensed campsite than tents would though.

    Irwyn and Elizabeth approached a bridge - one stood approximately in each cardinal direction. The soldiers manning the checkpoint noticed them well before they even left the cover of buildings around the clearing, visibly spreading the word of their approach to anyone nearby. By the time the duo arrived, there was a whole welcome party. What followed was a barrage of formalities and names Irwyn frankly struggled to retain.

    Elizabeth took it all with easy grace, handling the soldiers with the authority she had been born into and clearly taught how to wield. In a few minutes'' time the group of two dozen split apart to spread her words. She would hold a meeting among the officers the following dawn and expected all of them to be present - that was the main message Irwyn got from the whole ordeal. Just one soldier stayed along to guide them to Elizabeth¡¯s personal building which would apparently also serve as the point for officer meetings, vault, emergency office space, and a few other functions if need be. Irwyn had doubts about putting all that into one target but wasn¡¯t going to question the doctrine of an ancient organization that presumably knew better than him. The building itself looked unassuming at least, no different than the surrounding constructs of rock, lightly outwardly enchanted as they all seemed to be. He wondered where the soldiers got all the raw material from.

    ¡°Dismissed,¡± Elizabeth nodded to the soldier that had brought them who saluted and quickly left. ¡°Well, this is presumably where we will be staying for who knows how long. Pick any of the bedrooms on the first floor. They should all be the same.¡±

    ¡°I might be out often,¡± Irwyn said, eyeing the lobby. It was a spacious hall taking up the entire floor with several boards, a large table as well as a map of Ebon Respite. ¡°I have to figure out how the city has changed while I was gone. And reconnect with old friends. The Guild could be very helpful in spotting any undead machinations there might be if we are taking the assignment seriously.¡±

    ¡°You do that,¡± she nodded. ¡°I will be busy with paperwork today... and the nearby future. I probably have a backlog from the delay.¡±

    ¡°Is there a lot of paperwork given the nature of this deployment?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. They were basically supposed to just look for a possible budding incursion that was most likely not even there.

    ¡°You would be surprised,¡± she sighed. ¡°I practiced for these things, you know. Had tutors dedicated to explaining how all this works and to guide me through practical exercises. The company has scribes to deal with mundane stuff but unfortunately the Duchy of Black¡¯s doctrine has been historically very top-heavy when it comes to decision-making. It¡¯s supposedly a lot better than before my father took power but I cannot delegate all that much.¡±

    ¡°I would help but you know¡­¡± paperwork.

    ¡°Yes, go reconnect,¡± she nodded. Then beckoned him towards the stairways. There were two, one on each back end of the hall. ¡°But pick a room first. Also, be here for the meeting tomorrow morning. I have to at least tell everyone that they should listen to you.¡±

    ¡°I will probably be back to sleep,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°What time is it, barely noon?¡±

    ¡°Just past,¡± she affirmed. They were up the stairwell at that point revealing that the second floor was more of a long rectangular corridor with rooms in the middle and a narrower circular stairway in each corner. There were grated windows to the sides, providing natural light as well as what seemed like ceiling enchantments for the evenings. ¡°The bedrooms are here. The top floor is office space.¡±

    ¡°This is certainly a curious arrangement¡­¡± Irwyn stared a bit. He counted four large-ish rooms, split into two rows. The doors were also notably made from solid metal.

    ¡°The idea is that anything ambushing you in your sleep has to go through two walls, giving you a split second extra to react,¡± she shrugged.

    ¡°What about being buried in debris,¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°The doctrine prioritizes the survival of competent mages above all else,¡± she explained. And just one floor¡¯s worth of rock with a small drop wouldn¡¯t bother those compared to anything that could collapse them. ¡°Barracks for non-mage soldiers are built differently.¡±

    ¡°I will take this one then, I suppose,¡± Irwyn nodded, pointing to one of the rooms. It stirred some memories about his old room with the Tears: A windowless chamber on the second floor of a building with split stairways leading up. Feeling that reminiscence, he ended up picking the third room on the left, which was around the same distance from the stairwell as his old room had been. Not that he measured, it was just a feeling somewhere in between nostalgia and muscle memory. He was back in Ebon Respite, after all, it was only appropriate.

    ¡°I will have your things brought over,¡± Elizabeth nodded, then she went up to the upper floor.

    Irwyn meanwhile entered his room. Unlike the previous corridor, it was dark inside, which he quickly solved with a bit of Light magic. He noticed there was actually an enchantment in the room¡¯s ceiling that connected to a switch imbued into the wall by the entrance, though he would honestly probably not use it given his magic was easier than raising a hand.

    Looking around, the room was simple, if surprisingly spacious: It had a bathroom corner with a toilet and a sink - luxuries he presumed most did not get in their own rooms - an open closet, a small stone table with two chairs, and a bed. What more could he really ask for? Irwyn hummed and was about to turn around and leave when he noticed something else underneath the bed. Frowning he leaned down, checked it for magic, then pulled the thing out when he felt none. It was a wooden box which he promptly put on top of the bed, nondescript, except for a single detail:

    A minimalistic drawing on the top. Really more of a few scribbles that most people would not be able to make sense of. But Irwyn did recognize it immediately. He had seen it quite a few times, drawn exactly like that. It was, after all, a crow.

 3.17 Notable

    Irwyn stared at the box for a few moments before he chuckled. First hour back in the Ebon Respite and he was already getting secret memos from Old Crow again! He opened it, riding the nostalgic high, finding a letter neatly placed on top of a cloth layer. Not impatient, Irwyn read first:

    I,

    Or Irwyn. Secrecy appears redundant at this stage. Congratulations on your temporary acquittal, not many people get away with crossing House Blackburg or any of its branches. Though between us, I never had any doubt - Avys von Blackburg is a fearsome ally. Ideally, make sure that your interests remain aligned for the next few decades at least.

    I too have been busy. The escapade at Abonisle had disrupted the schedule I have expected, not to mention that I have lost many acquaintances in the fall of Steelmire. Even delivering this package I had to delegate. It carries far fewer things than I would have wanted it to. Do not let down your guard, Irwyn. A Lich War is a disaster at all levels. Given you have resolved your dispute with House Blackburg I will redirect my attention to preparing for the calamitous surprises that no doubt await.

    Inside this box you will find a few gifts I had gathered in the meantime. The potions are Soul warding, they should offer notable protection even against conception Soul magic. The intricate circles are spirit catchers, they should delay Liches in returning to the phylactery if you bring one close enough, effectiveness varies. The ring enhances mental alacrity, though frankly, House Blackburg will likely provide you with a better one if you ask. Lastly, the pendant¡­ well, I will let you figure it out for yourself, though I believe you will quite like it.

    I will not tell you what to do in Ebon Respite - you seem to have handled yourself rather well deciding on your own - but I would suggest that you visit the penal platoon sooner rather than later.

    Best regards,

    Old Crow

    Irwyn smiled at that, thinking it over but also looking at the paper itself. Specifically, at the blank back side. Irwyn summoned a bit of heat, not enough to burn the paper - just to warm. And a few seconds after that more words began to appear, a second letter on the flip side. Not a speck of magic, nothing such on the letter. Old Crow never mentioned it but Irwyn now wondered how many mages would not even consider that a secret message could be purely mundane in nature. The new text was far less formal.

    Step lightly about Steelmire. Something is wrong with its fall but I cannot yet determine if Avys was involved. If she was, it is better to remain uncertain.

    Do not go to the Duchy of Yellow. I have recently uncovered secrets best not put to the page, however, avoid heading there. Even with the backing of House Blackburg, it is not safe.

    Alira has put a bounty on your head. As far as I am aware she has gone behind the backs of House Fathomsight. The price is therefore not enough to attract anyone particularly dangerous, however, do not let your guard down. I have already made sure it will not be taken or spread by the Guild.

    One of the spirit catchers has a slight notch. It is more potent than the others, to the point it might cause suspicion. The same applies to one of the soul wards.

    Please, keep these secret from the girl. Avys has been attempting to find me and she might incur some hint of my movements. Best of luck to you, Irwyn.

    Irwyn read the letter, then read both sides a second time. Afterwards, he burned it to ash, frowning. He would keep it a secret as his mentor requested, though he wasn¡¯t too happy about it. Particularly keeping the fact that there was some kind of bounty for his head close to the chest as there existed actual repercussions this might have for Elizabeth. And also because she could most likely do something about it.

    Nothing for it though, Irwyn proceeded to remove the layer of cloth and look into the box. First, he removed the potions, Soul wards of some kind. He felt no magic from them though that was perhaps the point. A close inspection revealed that there was indeed just the slightest notch just below the cap of one, so small he would not have noticed if not looking for it. Noting which one it was, Irwyn put them away into his spacial bag. Then there were the spirit catchers: Complicated art-like mandalas. Not quite runes though - runes were reminiscent of letters. These were just seemingly haphazard pretty shapes. Not a trace of magic either.

    He moved on to the ring, inspecting it and quickly finding that the enchantment was still too complex for him to really decode. It definitely felt like concept magic, though obscured. In such a way that Irwyn could not feel what the nature of the concept was, or even the element. He put it on and felt a surge of clairvoyance as his mind¡¯s speed leapt forward¡­ Well, jumped might be more accurate. The increase was significant, just not groundbreaking. Irwyn was always maintaining the magic overlaying his brain that improved his cognitive capability manyfold over to the point it had become subconscious. The ring added just¡­ another chunk. Maybe a tenth, probably less.

    It still notably worked together with the mind enhancement though - the technique''s main limit was Irwyn¡¯s tolerance of the empowered perception, which the ring somehow bypassed. And maybe he was also getting choosy that a ten percent increase no longer felt like a massive improvement for what was essentially a one hand motion of effort. Curbing those thoughts, Irwyn looked at the last item inside the box.

    It was, indeed, a pendant. A beautifully carved little thing from a borderline glowing golden wood. It depicted a figure somewhere in the middle in between a person and a Star - the human silhouette was there, but wavy, as if changing to or fro. And it was all overlaid over the spherical shape of a sun, melding into one another and leaving Irwyn guessing if it depicted a Star taking on human shape or shedding it.

    It was a bit too large to reasonably wear as an amulet, so it would be an awkward and very visible fit with a suit. It could easily be hidden on the inner side of a robe though. Irwyn felt around with his magic and quickly found a magical receptacle of sorts. Once within his magic flowed over familiar pathways, tracing out a¡­

    WEEPING STAR

    Irwyn did not reel from the strong impression for once. He had half expected it after feeling the beginning of those channels. Yes, it had been a while ago but they had left an impression back then. The finished product looked different stylistically but there was no doubt as the Starfire exited the pendant empowered by a decent chunk: This was exactly the amplifying thing Irwyn had helped test in Abonisle.

    He even remembered the crafter¡¯s name! Han Daut, for all it sounded funny - visiting Abonisle with his daughter, Alice. Thinking back, Desir had mentioned that the craftsman from Steelmire had some connection to the Guild. Apparently, he used to also owe Old Crow a favor which had been burned for Irwyn''s sake¡­ not that it probably mattered given that Steelmire had apparently been razed to the ground without any survivors.

    Irwyn shook his head, intently not thinking about the dead too much. He had certainly coveted this thing back then when he had been just asked to help prove it worked at all, so it would be hypocritical to complain about it ending up in his hands. He would need to figure out exactly how to use it. It empowered his Starfire in a strange way that defied the simple arithmetic of counting intentions. It also could only empower a certain quantity of mana at once which still had to pass through the entire pendant. That took around a second if Irwyn pushed, already a long time in battles he could fight currently and that would no doubt only become more extreme in the future.

    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    That was all fine. He expected that the return to Ebon Respite would be, if not uneventful, at least safe enough. There would be plenty of time to test out and iterate.

    That being said, he had to readjust his plans a bit. Instead of just directly leaving the camp he headed upstairs after exiting his room. The office area was basically the inverse of the residential zone beneath. The main corridor went through the middle of the floor leading to several open cubicles that had all the equipment Irwyn would expect from a scholar¡¯s place of work - well, maybe he would expect a proper window rather than the thin grate that barely let in enough sunlight. Elizabeth had claimed one such table right by the stairs and had clearly noticed Irwyn¡¯s approach.

    ¡°Do you need anything?¡± she had begun sorting through documents judging by the few stacks on her table. There were maybe a few dozen, so a lot but not nearly enough to form overwhelming towers.

    ¡°I have received a message that changed my plans a bit,¡± Irwyn admitted. There was no second chair so he made himself one from solid Starfire, sitting opposite to Elizabeth.

    ¡°Message?¡± she frowned. ¡°You were in your room.¡±

    ¡°And that¡¯s where it was planted,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°A package from the Old Crow.¡±

    ¡°Your¡­ mentor,¡± Elizabeth said hesitantly, though the unhappy grimace did not leave her face.

    ¡°Exactly.¡±

    ¡°Which has somehow gotten past all our security and into your room with no one being the wiser,¡± the frown only deepened.

    ¡°It did mention an intermediary doing the delivery itself,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°Though I would expect nothing less of the old man.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I witnessed firsthand that he can eavesdrop through crows,¡± Elizabeth sighed.

    ¡°He can?¡± Irwyn paused. He had not known that. ¡°Old Crow isn¡¯t a mage.¡±

    ¡°That was my exact first thought,¡± she nodded. ¡°He did the pretentious run around that old timers love, saying that magic as we know it isn¡¯t the only path to power without actually explaining anything.¡±

    ¡°Huh,¡± Irwyn paused. ¡°In hindsight, he obviously couldn¡¯t have been just a wise elder. Controlling crows¡­ it could certainly have a lot of utility for spying. And no one would expect it.¡±

    ¡°I asked Calm but even he doesn¡¯t know exactly,¡± Elizabeth continued. ¡°Apparently the powers that they use outside the Duchy Federation are much more esoteric. And Calm is from there so he would know."

    ¡°I see,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°It was mentioned to me that Old Crow did come to the Duchy of Black from somewhere North of the mountains, thought I don¡¯t know where at all. My only clue is that he likes some special tea from his homeland.¡±

    ¡°Yes, the tea also came up, though it seemed completely normal to me, a bit distinct I suppose. And I know magical tea. That was not one such.¡±

    ¡°I did not try it when he offered - just as I was about to flee Ebon Respite,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°Kind of regret it in hindsight since it was apparently more than just regular tea.¡±

    ¡°You mentioned a message,¡± Elizabeth re-railed the conversation.

    ¡°More of a letter,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I got some trinkets and some advice which I intend to follow.¡±

    ¡°Anything good?¡± she asked.

    ¡°This ring,¡± he showcased it. ¡°Makes my mind faster. I am surprised these never came up, since they are apparently possible.¡±

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t wear it outside of battle or sometimes training,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°There are many enchantments that empower the body or mind, and they are generally addicting. I, for one, have mine tucked away.¡±

    ¡°I was wondering why I never see you use anything like it,¡± Irwyn admitted, taking the ring off. The sudden slowing of thoughts was a bit jarring.

    ¡°In Abonisle they were locked away in the dress where I couldn¡¯t reach them,¡± she nodded. ¡°And they are not usually appropriate for sparring and such. I might as well just come at you gowned in defensive talismans you cannot hope to breach at that point. Here I am going to keep them within arm¡¯s reach. How is the effect of yours?¡±

    ¡°About a tenth improvement.¡±

    ¡°I should get you a better one,¡± she frowned. ¡°There must be hundreds of 30 percent or better in our ancestral vaults somewhere. And a few more things while I am at it.¡±

    ¡°Heh,¡± Irwyn chuckled.

    ¡°What?¡± she stared slightly.

    ¡° ¡®Frankly, House Blackburg will likely provide you with a better one if you ask,¡¯ well, I suppose I didn¡¯t even need to make the request,¡± Irwyn quoted with bemusement.

    ¡°Just a way to deflect a subpar presents,¡± Elizabeth scoffed.

    ¡°I am sure this is quite valuable for people whose family hasn¡¯t owned an entire region for millennia,¡± Irwyn rolled his eyes. ¡°He might have gotten it months ago before it was apparent I would end in your good graces as well.¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± she surrendered. ¡°What else did you get?¡±

    ¡°Some potions,¡± Irwyn produced one, not with the notch thought. He had been asked to keep a secret and he damn well would. ¡°Soul warding, apparently.¡±

    ¡°I feel no magic,¡± she frowned. ¡°There should be at least something apparent from a proper potion.¡±

    ¡°Neither do I,¡± Irwyn shrugged. He hid the potion and produced the other similar article. ¡°But I trust Old Crow enough that these will work. Next, I have these spirit catchers which are much the same.¡±

    ¡°I think we have about a thousand of ¡®spirit catchers¡¯ in a storehouse somewhere here in camp,¡± she raised an eyebrow skeptically. ¡°Those are provably efficient at evicting the undead.¡±

    ¡°These are handmade though,¡± presumably. ¡°And not meant for just killing regular undead. Apparently, they can help keep Liches from escaping after defeat, at least for a while.¡±

    ¡°And again, without a trace of magic in them,¡± she glared a bit. Irwyn just shrugged with a smile. He knew Elizabeth didn¡¯t like Old Crow before they started talking so he would take her skepticism with a grain of salt.

    ¡°Lastly I have this,¡± Irwyn revealed the pendant which, to his joy, Elizabeth did not recognize at a glance. He ended up explaining what and how it did, down to the impressions he received from using it and the story of his earlier encounter with it in Abonisle.

    ¡°Han Daut was marked as what? Brink of attaining conception?¡± Elizabeth paused for several long seconds when Irwyn was done talking. Then stared at the pendant with something in between frown and flabbergasted amazement.

    ¡°That¡¯s the impression I got from him when we met,¡± Irwyn nodded, remembering that semi-incomplete feeling.

    ¡°That,¡± Elizabeth pointed at the box, ¡°Is not the work of a conception mage. It¡¯s barely a work of an exceptional domain craftsman. Nothing less should be able to accomplish what you describe.¡±

    ¡°The effect is great,¡± Irwyn said slowly, skeptically. ¡°But it doesn¡¯t seem that great.¡±

    ¡°Say it again, Irwyn,¡± she shook her head.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°The impression it gave you.¡±

    ¡°WEEPING STAR?¡± Irwyn had to raise an eyebrow as he repeated himself.

    ¡°Yep, that¡¯s exactly it,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°At least I assume it¡¯s the same thing as last time since I couldn¡¯t hear it.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean ¡®couldn¡¯t hear it¡¯?¡± Irwyn stared.

    ¡°Exactly what I said,¡± she laughed. ¡°My brain short-circuits just trying to understand the words. Just hearing them said out loud is such an unbearable strain my soul replaces the sound with incomprehensible noise, Irwyn. Sure, it¡¯s probably amplified because the Light part of it clashes with my Void, but that isn¡¯t a concept or a domain, Irwyn. That is an Aspects damned Truth. And it¡¯s insane you somehow remember it.¡±

    ¡°But that is ridiculous,¡± Irwyn almost instinctively replied.

    ¡°Oh, it absolutely is,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Retaining even the smallest fragment of a Truth of any sort at our level is supposed to just disperse your soul. More precisely, it just shouldn¡¯t be possible at all.¡±

    ¡°Are Truths not even above domains in terms of magical attainment?¡± Irwyn stared. ¡°How could I possibly have that.¡±

    ¡°I mean, you obviously cannot tap into even a fraction of what a Truth has to offer,¡± she smiled. ¡°I am still processing this cataclysmic implosion of a news you just dropped on me, Irwyn, so I don¡¯t exactly have any answers. Presumably, it has something to do with your visions?¡±

    ¡°This¡­ seems like a lot,¡± Irwyn said carefully.

    ¡°You are telling me that,¡± she scoffed, paused, then sighed. ¡°Damn it, I am not getting any of the paperwork done with this coursing through my head. Anyway, there will definitely be more to that pendant than just ¡®amplification¡¯.¡±

    ¡°I may have a distraction for you then,¡± Irwyn smiled. ¡°In big part, I came up here because I was advised in the letter to go and see our penal platoon.¡±

    ¡°The penal platoon,¡± she repeated, a bit skeptically.

    ¡°I was a criminal, you know,¡± Irwyn inclined his head. ¡°That¡¯s where I am statistically the most likely to recognize someone. And I assume there will be someone specific.¡±

    ¡°Yes, you are right, sorry,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°The penal platoons just¡­ don¡¯t have the best reputation.¡±

    ¡°Yes, people have a dislike for crime,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°The penal platoon is not for petty theft, Irwyn,¡± she shook her head. ¡°They are dedicated meat shields and human bait that got a choice between probably dying at the hands of an undead abomination and the literal noose.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Irwyn paused. ¡°I had no idea there was such a practice.¡±

    ¡°Sometimes the undead bite only into living flesh,¡± she shrugged. ¡°Better that flesh be a death row convict than a soldier. Or a mage.¡±

    ¡°Calloused,¡± Irwyn commented.

    ¡°Better than most Duchies, honestly,¡± Elizabeth inclined her head, deep down clearly uncaring. ¡°The Duchy of Purple for one has innocent conscripts dying in numbers on a daily basis outside a Lich War.¡±

    ¡°I am not so soft that it would bother me,¡± Irwyn explained himself. ¡°Though I would prefer we do not overuse that resource.¡±

    ¡°We probably won¡¯t see any undead at all,¡± she shrugged.

    ¡°Should we get going?¡± he offered.

    ¡°Yes, let¡¯s,¡± she nodded at that.

 3.18 Friend :]

    Elizabeth led way through the camp confidently. How she knew where exactly to go Irwyn wasn¡¯t sure and didn¡¯t ask, their last conversation still weighing on his mind. A few of the soldiers eyed them on the way, though no one quite ever got the courage to question Elizabeth. Irwyn was observing though: There were mages among them, dozens from just what he could see or feel along the way. Sure, most barely felt like mages, not even capable of imbuing intentions if Irwyn was reading them right, but mages nonetheless.

    A quick question revealed that the company counted 305 soldiers including the two of them, from whom 33 were mages. Ten percent-ish¡­ he would have expected more from what he was feeling, but perhaps he was just perceiving the majority of them from a distance while just not noticing most of the normal soldiers. Whether one in ten was a lot or a little, Irwyn didn¡¯t actually know, though any number was significant for a place like Ebon Respite.

    The camp was littered with lightly enchanted stone buildings, each looking outwardly almost identical. Which was probably the point. From an outside perspective, if Irwyn wanted to attack the command center from a distance he would have no clue which building it might be. Sure, that could be remedied with spying and such, but what information couldn¡¯t? Looking at it like that, Irwyn decided it was a solid simple countermeasure, for all it could be a bit confusing.

    The penal platoon did not appear any different at first¡­ except that the entrance had a large metal gate. It was open at the moment, though Irwyn had no doubt it could be closed shut and tight if need be. Presumably in the evenings.

    ¡°And who is¡­ augh!¡± a voice sounded attracting their attention, just in time to see a man getting smacked over the back of his head by a fellow soldier. Irwyn immediately noticed a distinct black mark had been tattooed to their forehead - and it wasn¡¯t hard to guess what it implied.

    ¡°Sorry, madam, sir,¡± the second penal soldier was already apologizing as the first reeled. ¡°My friend got a loud mouth, is all.¡±

    ¡°Gather the platoon, soldier,¡± Elizabeth basically ignored their theatrics and commanded. ¡°I want to have a look at them.¡±

    ¡°Eh¡­ yes madam,¡± the man paused hesitantly, then nodded, then dragged off the other man who had shut up. Some of the non-penal soldiers within earshot had heard them and were gathering as well, though only in the distance in small groups. Elizabeth let them be, therefore Irwyn didn¡¯t care either.

    It took¡­ several minutes for the lot to gather on the empty lot in front of their building. They streamed out of the building in small, rough-looking groups. For one, Irwyn didn¡¯t spot a single woman among them - not that men were not a majority in the army, it just wasn¡¯t 100% anywhere else. What he did spot thought were the old familiar habits and poses. Another bout of nostalgia struck as he damn well identified half the people as gang muscle, a formerly vital skill of being able to tell who on the street was likely to try and rob him. Or just try to knock his teeth in out of principle. Most were not the nice type of enforcer from what Irwyn could see. Muscular brutes, massive arms, much less upstairs - at least generally. A fair number had ticks that Irwyn associated with narcotic withdrawals or scars from a shanking.

    The other half generally didn¡¯t strike Irwyn with a particular impression. They seemed like¡­ people. Men of various builds that generally looked nervous compared to the street scum used to the ever-present threat of death. One even wore spectacles! That being said, Irwyn still frowned. He kept looking over the faces yet recognition did not strike.

    ¡°35,¡± Elizabeth was frowning as well. ¡°There is one missing.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, yer madamship,¡± a familiar voice sounded from the right, making Irwyn snap to it. He had not noticed so much as a hint of anyone getting there in broad daylight. ¡°I figured, make an impression, eh?¡±

    ¡°...¡± Elizabeth opened her mouth and was about to speak, though Irwyn did first.

    ¡°You look like a mess,¡± Irwyn said, smiling fondly. The tattoos were certainly new. Not just the one dot on the forehead but countless engraving of black ink forming images and something reminiscent of letters on every bit of exposed skin, very much including the young man¡¯s face.

    ¡°Not half bad, actually,¡± the other man grinned. ¡°Shit¡¯s rough since a few cocksuckers are hoarding every shower time. Doin¡¯ about as well I would expect.¡±

    ¡°Language, Waylan,¡± Irwyn could not suppress his grin as he slightly chided.

    ¡°Ehm,¡± Elizabeth cleared her throat. ¡°I believe introductions will be in order.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­¡± Irwyn nodded and was about to introduce his best friend, except he was cut off.

    ¡°A less public place will do,¡± she then turned towards the gathered penal platoon who were, frankly, staring. Irwyn was pretty sure he could point out one of them who had made some kind of issue with Waylan given that the massive man looked on the brink of fainting. ¡°Dismissed.¡±

    ¡°No¡­ procedure or some such needed?¡± Waylan asked hesitantly a few moments later as they began to walk out of earshot. "OUr boss lady was out but doubt she''ll be pleased."

    ¡°My word is procedure enough,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°The census can be adjusted when convenient.¡±

    ¡°Noted, madam,¡± Waylan obviously did not argue for paperwork and promptly stopped himself from blaberring. The walk back to the command building was the same, though it felt longer, passed in silence. It was still empty so they took up the larger corridor on the third floor.

    ¡°The introductions then,¡± Irwyn suggested as he made them each a chair from solid Flames.

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t dis¡­ burn?¡± Waylan stared at his hesitantly while Elizabeth was already seated.

    ¡°Perfectly safe,¡± Irwyn assured. Containing all the heat within the magic at this range was downright rudimentary nowadays. ¡°I can switch yours to Light if you prefer.¡±

    ¡°Will take yer word,¡± Waylan grunted and sat down with the look of a man jumping into a cold pool. He looked almost surprised that it felt just like a regular chair. A bit better even - Irwyn made chairs often enough he had spent the small effort needed to make them more comfortable than just a stiff board.

    ¡°Elizabeth, Waylan, my old partner in crime and best friend,¡± Irwyn offered, ¡°And Waylan, Elizabeth von Blackburg, high on that last name ladder.¡±

    ¡°Pleasure,¡± Elizabeth offered.

    ¡°Likewise, likewise,¡± Wayland nodded twice, not quite hiding his eyes going wide, then he turned back to Irwyn. ¡°Wow, I didn¡® know what to think when Old Crow said he got you into touch with help but¡­ wow.¡±

    ¡°Am I so unexpected?¡± Elizabeth inclined her head.

    ¡°I was thinkin¡¯, you know, maybe a political rival or sometin¡¯,¡± Waylan paused, then pointed at Elizabeth''s insignia ring. ¡°No offense, but my upbringing taught me a load of fear for that mark.¡±

    ¡°My mother tells me that fear can be a healthy thing,¡± she nodded.

    ¡°Your mother as in¡­¡± Waylan inquired.

    ¡°Yes, the Duchess,¡± Elizabeth smiled, which was strange given she never did that when speaking of her mother. It was already unusual she would bring Avys up at all.

    ¡°How did you even end up in a penal platoon, Waylan,¡± Irwyn changed the topic rather than dwell on it.

    ¡°The only way me knows how,¡± he grinned, ¡°Theft.¡±

    ¡°Theft is not a crime severe enough to be relegated to there,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

    ¡°Aye, usually not,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Except the cunt who grabbed me was sure it was a conspiracy and I was refusing to give everyone else up. It may have also been an artifact that went missing, which had the prick pissy since he couldn¡¯ find the mundane little me for a fuckin¡¯ month.¡±

    ¡°I remember a report like this,¡± Elizabeth paused, thinking for a moment. ¡°Almost a month ago, at the fortress South of Drathsol, they opened their war vaults for inspections only to find out the Mantle of the Impresent was missing.¡±

    ¡°A named item, sounds important,¡± Irwyn half asked.

    ¡°All artifacts are named. Well, almost,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°It¡¯s the legend that makes them artifacts instead of just a good enchantment in the first place.¡±

    ¡°Ye, it was a cloak blacker than black,¡± Waylan nodded.

    ¡°How in the world did you break in, unnoticed even,¡± Elizabeth seemed genuinely curious. ¡°It was in a fortress¡¯ vault."

    ¡°Eh, all the security was magic,¡± Waylan grinned. ¡°I snuck right through. Getting dem keys was a problem since there be at least three separate keys to get in. I skulked around for a week before enough holders got drunk enough at once to not notice till morn¡¯. From there it was easy enough. Lazy, those soldiers.¡±

    ¡°There are hundreds of protections overlaying a vault fortress like that,¡± Elizabeth was exacerbated. ¡°The foundation is domain magic.¡±

    ¡°No clue what that is,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°But¡­ actually, better you just see. Irw, use some magic on me, just try to feel where I am. Ye can do that, right?¡±

    ¡°Easily,¡± Irwyn nodded, then summoned the magic with curiosity. Frankly, he did not have a proper spell for it but he wouldn¡¯t admit that. An idea had dwelled in his head for a while for something similar anyway. He just needed to downscale a bit rather than aiming for omniscience.

    Irwyn was pretty sure his old dream of ¡®seeing everything touched by Light¡¯ was still out of reach. That didn¡¯t mean he couldn¡¯t go several steps back from that for a simple, improvised perception spell. He sent a wave of weak Light made invisible, then he just perceived where the Light wasn¡¯t able to pass through. In theory, he should have easily been able to make out shapes and where they were as the light passed by and around everything in its way. For simplicity, as it was his first time using it, Irwyn kept it one directional.

    And it worked¡­ on the chair Waylan was sitting on. On the far wall, and the table and the other chair of the working station that happened to be right behind Waylan. All of that he could feel. But not his friend. It was as if Waylan was air.

    ¡°I cannot feel you at all,¡± Irwyn admitted.

    ¡°May I try?¡± Elizabeth chimed in.

    ¡°Go on,¡± Waylan shrugged, a smug smile tugging at his lips.

    ¡°Indeed, absolutely nothing,¡± Elizabeth frowned after a moment. ¡°This is far from my specialty but I should be able to feel something where you are. Or at least a hint of magical interference.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s ¡®cause this ain¡¯t magic,¡± Waylan fully grinned.

    ¡°What else could it be?¡± Elizabeth frowned.

    ¡°Dunno,¡± to that Waylan only shrugged. ¡°But it¡¯s some serious stuff. Old Crow gave me this book which had all these tattoos of power in it, Waylan gestured over himself. ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure about it at first. But then I found out I had apparently been doing these ¡®preparations¡¯ for it for actual frickin¡¯ years as daily exercise. Old Crow got me started himself on the first few and I filled my collections since. Stuff¡¯s wild.¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°You read a book?¡± Irwyn inclined his head teasingly.

    ¡°And where might it be?¡± Elizabeth asked.

    ¡°Aye, even I could bear with it for this,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°And I burned it when I was done, just as Old Crow asked me to.¡±

    ¡°Shame,¡± Elizabeth sighed.

    ¡°What can you do though?¡± Irwyn was much more curious about the effect than the source.

    ¡°I am much sneakier in basically every way,¡± Waylan nodded, leaning forward. ¡°I can slip through tighter spaces. My body is a bit improved. And¡­ that¡¯s it.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± Elizabeth repeated, dubiously.

    ¡°It ain¡¯t magic, as I said,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°I can¡¯t throw fireballs or just make chairs with a thought, never will. Old Crow said that magic is amazing and all, but also all about talent. Those who don¡¯t have that must do with lesser options. Then it''s better to be super specialized so I can match mages in at least something. So stealth it is.¡±

    ¡°Why are you so hard to detect though?¡± Elizabeth frowned.

    ¡°The book called it ¡®Will of the absent one¡¯,¡± Waylan explained. ¡°As long as I focus on it, I can have magic ¨C and other things, though I am not sure what that might be ¨C just act as if I wasn¡¯t there¡­ Well, magic not tryin¡¯ hurt me. Damn exhausting if I do it more than a few minutes thought.¡±

    ¡°But you did an entire heist under the effect,¡± Irwyn noted.

    ¡°I have pills that let me use it longer,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°Well, had. They got confiscated.¡±

    ¡°Those could be recovered,¡± Elizabeth suggested.

    ¡°Don¡¯t bother,¡± Waylan shook his head. ¡°The cunt who grabbed destroyed all my shit just to get a rise outta me.¡±

    ¡°What happened to the Mantle of the Impresent then?¡± Elizabeth asked. ¡°I don¡¯t believe it was ever recovered, so it must be somewhere.¡±

    ¡°I ¡®ate it,¡± Waylan nodded.

    ¡°That is a strong feeling to have towards something you stole,¡± Irwyn inclined his head.

    ¡°Not ¡®ate, ¡®ate,¡± Waylan said, then paused. ¡°Like, eat. Eaten. In before out.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Irwyn paused at that.

    ¡°What do you mean you ate an artifact?!¡± Elizabeth¡¯s reaction was far less tame.

    ¡°Chomp?¡± Waylan mimed biting while inclining his head.

    ¡°That is ridiculous,¡± she remained very exacerbated.

    ¡°I never knew you liked swallowing cloth,¡± Irwyn added.

    ¡°More like chewing,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°I chewed and swallowed whatever power was in it, then spat out the rest. No leather broth for me again, thanks. It passed down to the tattoos thought,¡± he pointed at his body. ¡°They grew four, five times as many after that. Gave me goosebumps for weeks. I have gotten much better at using them after.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t explain anything!¡± Elizabeth seemed on the verge of losing her composure.

    ¡°Presumably anything that has power could be subverted into something else, right?¡± Irwyn guessed.

    ¡°Maybe raw magical enchantment, but artifacts don¡¯t work that way,¡± she shook her head. ¡°Artifacts are no longer magic, at least not fully. Those that were originally magical might retain mana but artifacts are defined by their legend. By great feats that left a mark on Fate itself which transformed their power into a part of a living myth. The Mantle was the favorite cloak of the Impresent, a Named from many centuries ago. It is said they perished casting down 3 Named liches, leaving only this cloak behind in the ravaged battlefield.¡±

    ¡°You are speaking as if I could explain it,¡± Waylan simply shrugged. ¡°Maybe Old Crow could. I just followed the manual.¡±

    ¡°If¡­¡± Elizabeth opened her mouth, then hesitated. She glanced at Irwyn before sighing. ¡°I don¡¯t know who I would even consult. I cannot just ask about this openly because we don¡¯t want my mother getting interested but the curiosity is burning.¡±

    ¡°You will most likely meet the Old Crow eventually,¡± Irwyn suggested. ¡°You can ask yourself then. Or we can by proxy, I suppose.¡±

    ¡°Please do,¡± she nodded.

    ¡°We should head out, though,¡± Irwyn continued, glancing at Waylan. ¡°I was going to scout out the underworld before the letter sent me down this quest.¡±

    ¡°The Guild relocated,¡± Waylan nodded, hesitated, then continued. ¡°I can bring you. Not exactly an address.¡±

    ¡°Haven¡¯t you been locked in with the penal platoon?¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Built to keep in normal blokes,¡± Waylan shrugged, smirking slightly. ¡°I easily slipped out in the nights when they thought we were in a box. Who do you think brought the package to Irw?¡±

    ¡°Well, it will certainly make things faster,¡± Irwyn supposed.

    ¡°Ye,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s get going.¡±

    ¡°Just be back for the officer meeting in the morning,¡± Elizabeth reminded. ¡°I will decide the details in the meantime. You leave me with a lot to think about.¡±

    ¡°See you then,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Bye,¡± she was already walking back to her work desk, waving back in their direction instead of turning around. Irwyn and Waylan quickly made their way down the stairs and exited the building.

    ¡°Let me just go grab my stuff,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Better not leave the stash lying around any longer than I need to around the penal cunts.¡±

    ¡°Haven¡¯t you lost everything?¡±

    ¡°That was weeks ago,¡± Waylan pointed at his fingers, wiggling them with a grin. ¡°I was gathering supplies to make a run for it before Old Crow got in touch.¡±

    ¡°Did he mention me?¡± Irwyn was curious.

    ¡°Yep,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°I needed to get you that box after all. Though the schedule was a bit different than I was told to expect.¡±

    ¡°I was sick, which is why we were delayed,¡± Irwyn nodded. He and Elizabeth had been supposed to arrive a few days sooner. ¡°Also, you weren¡¯t even mentioned in the letter. Just the penal platoon.¡±

    ¡°What, sick?¡± Waylan paused. ¡°You don¡¯t get sick.¡±

    ¡°Cursed, technically,¡± Irwyn corrected, which apparently satisfied Waylan¡¯s curiosity well enough.

    ¡°Well, there was a good chance I would meet you before you got to read it,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°Or maybe the old man finally remembered mischief ¨C the older Tears used to talk about how he would be less serious before our time. Anyway, I will be right back. Wait for me two streets down from the southern gate. You will know where.¡±

    ¡°See you soon,¡± Irwyn nodded, blinked, and then Waylan was just gone. Not a sign of the fact that they had been literally looking at each other. If he needed any proof that Waylan had gotten even way better at stealth, that was certainly it.

    <hr>

    Waylan snuck out of both sight and mind with two quick steps, getting behind Irwyn before his friend finished the blink. He was not above making a game of it and it was also good practice, given what had become of his friend. Waylan wasn¡¯t sure Irwyn even noticed just how many times better his reflexes had gotten. And the muscle. Probably magic since that wasn¡¯t 3 months'' worth of exercise kind of improvement. He could ask later.

    Waylan wasn¡¯t the same either though. Yes, the stealth was maybe the most ¡®magical¡¯ part of his new abilities but there were other benefits. For one, he was pretty sure he had gotten inhumanly fast. Not to a ridiculous degree but he could move faster than anyone he had ever seen besides mages. Also more flexible, more precise. Deceptively stronger as well. And he hadn¡¯t been sick in a while, which he supposed finally put him on even-ish footing with Irwyn in that department.

    Speaking of Irwyn, he did not seem surprised whatsoever by Waylan¡¯s disappearance. Not even shrugging or looking around as he left. Well, that meant Waylan was not getting any more close-quarters stealth practice so he headed to do what he meant to. Instead of towards the penal platoon¡¯s building, he was right back into the structure they had just come out of. Some things were better left secret, even between friends. Especially between friends.

    Magic tried to wrap around him as he maneuvered through its strings, more on reflex than anything else. It has gotten easier since subsuming the cloak, almost trivial compared to the constant intense concentration he had needed when stealing it. He made his way up to the second floor, waited a few seconds then made sure to walk the last set of stairs up as loudly as possible, allowing the magic to finally feel him. Nowadays, it took conscious effort to not be soundless and traceless but he didn¡¯t want to surprise the terrifying girl. By the time he made it up, she was looking in his direction.

    ¡°You are back rather quickly, Waylan,¡± she inclined her head and Waylan had to suppress a flinch. Another benefit he had obtained from the tattoos, and intentionally did not mention, was a sixth sense for danger. Nothing major, just a slight tingle which misfired at times. But boy, was Waylan feeling in danger.

    ¡°Ye, I figured we best have a chat in private,¡± he nodded, approaching. There was no chair to sit on and the noble was not kind enough to conjure him one, so he stood.

    ¡°Not fifteen minutes and you already go behind Irwyn¡¯s back.¡±

    ¡°I figured it be best since neither of us wants him to hear what we have to say,¡± Waylan shrugged.

    ¡°Which is?¡± she raised an eyebrow, her eyes exactly as predatory as they had been from the moment she had first glanced at him. Downright territorial.

    ¡°I am going to send letters that I suspect you might be planning to get me killed,¡± Waylan decided to open with his strongest card. ¡°One to Old Crow definitely. Then a few to some people only Irwyn and I would know. The kind that wouldn¡¯t come up in a conversation.¡±

    ¡°I am not¡­¡± she didn¡¯t quite flinch, but there was a reaction. Good, because Waylan hadn¡¯t been completely sure his gut was right before that moment.

    ¡°No, but you are at least considering it,¡± Waylan shrugged, playing it casual. Unworried, at least outwardly. ¡°So, I came here to make sure you stop before you commit to the idea.¡±

    ¡°That is a¡­ considerable accusation,¡± she frowned, gears blatantly spinning at a thousand rotations a second behind those eyes.

    ¡°I am not accusing you of anything,¡± Waylan shrugged again. ¡°But your eyes don¡¯t lie. Honestly, I think Irwyn would have noticed too if he wasn¡¯t so biased.¡±

    ¡°You throw harsh critique at him.¡±

    ¡°Only the fair kind,¡± Waylan grinned. ¡°Which, by the way, I am genuinely impressed by. You couldn¡¯t have known each other for more than a few months and he acts with you close to as he would with me.¡±

    ¡°Close to?¡± she suppressed a frown.

    ¡°Lady, I have known Irwyn for what feels like most of our lives,¡± Waylan sighed. ¡°Saved each other¡¯s ass more times than we can count. Yes, that is not getting overtaken in less than a tenth of that time. Honestly, are you usually this greedy? Or is it just envy? I hear Void mages are prone to those.¡±

    ¡°I have mastery over my emotions, thank you very much for your concern,¡± she was controlling her face well, so Waylan wasn¡¯t sure if she actually was. Not that he needed to.

    ¡°Am I an obstacle?¡± Waylan wondered out loud. ¡°I don¡¯t need to be, you know, depending on what you want.¡±

    ¡°Why would what I ¡®want¡¯ have anything to do with you?¡±

    ¡°Too defensive,¡± Waylan shook his head, half speaking out of his arse, hoping he was doing it right. ¡°Clearly, you have intentions for Irwyn, because - let¡¯s be real - that is what gives me enough relevancy to warrant removal. You were not mad enough about my stealing the cloak for it to be that. So, let¡¯s figure this out. Talk before knives saves stars.¡±

    ¡°Fine¡­¡± she said after a moment. ¡°To dispel a misconception, any consideration for your death has barely crossed my mind as a possibility. I was thinking about different things.¡±

    ¡°Sure, I will give you the benefit of the doubt since this works better that way,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°I am still sending those letters thought.¡±

    ¡°What if you actually die from disease, or an undead ambush?¡± She frowned. Which was a fair worry since Waylan wasn¡¯t a mage which made him fragile in comparison.

    ¡°Presumably, you and Irw would be doing your best to protect me already,¡± Waylan raised an eyebrow instead of admitting the point though. He most likely wouldn¡¯t actually send any letters¡­ maybe one to Old Crow who exercised discretion. If he died he would rather not bring down whatever Irwyn was attempting to build here with him.

    ¡°Fine,¡± she said after a pause, realizing full well she couldn¡¯t do anything about it. Waylan had exactly one card to play and it was that Irwyn trusted him. Good thing she both realized that and cared.

    ¡°You got what I want: Survival and adventure,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Maybe some fun times sprinkled in between. Now, tell me what you want that I can help you with.¡±

    ¡°I¡­¡± she hesitated. ¡°I want Irwyn¡¯s support, I suppose.¡±

    ¡°The heiress to House Blackburg needs a thief¡¯s support?¡± Waylan asked skeptically.

    ¡°I want to be free Waylan,¡± she spoke, suddenly her gaze burning. ¡°From my mother and her machinations. From House Blackburg and its bindings. From¡­ the very shackles that is humanity. I want to be something more¡­ one day. Far in the future. I know it will not be soon - decades, maybe centuries, of labor are needed. But I want to walk that path. And¡­ I want Irwyn to walk it alongside me.¡±

    ¡°And not be dragged down by that mostly mortal old friend,¡± Waylan connected the pieces. ¡°Mages live longer, don¡¯t they?¡±

    ¡°Much longer,¡± she affirmed.

    ¡°I would think that not even twenty is too soon to think about relative lifespans,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°And my end goal in life is not chugging mountains at anything that annoys me. I am gonna retire one day with a castle¡¯s worth of gold and maybe a lover, then live my last years in obscurity somewhere safe enough. Pretend to be an old merchant or something like that. Haven¡¯t thought that far yet. I am not going to keep following Irwyn around when I am utter dead weight and only prone to get myself killed.¡±

    ¡°That is not the issue I had thought of,¡± she slowly admitted.

    ¡°What then?¡± Waylan frowned.

    ¡°You will be spending¡­ much time with Irwyn, won¡¯t you?¡± she carefully said, then hastily added: ¡°You could drive him away from me.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Waylan paused. ¡°So it is just plain old jealousy,¡± he snickered. Well, it was better than the alternatives, at least in most ways.

    ¡°Not I¡­¡±

    ¡°Alright, listen Elizabeth,¡± Waylan cut her off. ¡°I do get wanting all of Irwyn¡¯s time: He is a great bloke. As you have clearly seen since you expect that to be even feasible. But I am not going to just up and leave. Certainly not yet. And Irwyn does need breathing room from people. Less from me and apparently you, but still some. Force him into too many conversations in a day and he will squirm. I know that first hand.¡±

    She remained silent.

    ¡°I will tell you something, though,¡± so Waylan continued. ¡°I have said this before but I don¡¯t think you realize just how incredible it is that Irwyn trusts you as he does in so little time. I could count on one hand all the other people he would trust his back to without hesitation and all those bonds took years to build. You did that in months. I nearly jumped out of my chair in surprise when he just started sharing secrets out of his own volition in front of you. Girl, I am not sure what exactly you are trying to build when you talk about immortality but the foundation is solid, at least here.¡±

    ¡°Do you¡­ really think so?¡± she said hesitantly. And also without the hostility that had been there. Ah yes, he knew that look. For all that she was a terrifying mage, an icon of a House synonymous with terror¡­ Waylan noticed the young girl deep down. Younger than her age would imply, perhaps, in some ways.

    ¡°Yes, I do,¡± he reassured. ¡°I said I was going to help, didn''t I? I know more about Irw than anyone. We can talk¡­ later. I should get going before he gets suspicious.¡±

    ¡°Yes, of course,¡± she nodded. Paused. ¡°Thank you, Waylan.¡±

    ¡°Think nothing of it,¡± Waylan nodded as he left, happy enough with the results. An emotional lass was much better than the cold manipulator he had been afraid of finding. "I will see you soon enough."

 3.19 Two thieves walk into a bar

    ¡°You took your time,¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. He was waiting in a lone nook on the street, kind of out of sight. Indeed, an obvious spot to wait at. Since they were out of the camp Irwyn opted to envelop Waylan in an invisible barrier as well - it was only reasonable to take such a precaution while they walked.

    ¡°Two cunts loitering right on the loose tile,¡± Waylan shrugged.

    ¡°Language,¡± Irwyn smiled as they got going.

    ¡°Alright we headed for the Guild first, or to meet people,¡± Waylan asked.

    ¡°You know where people are?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°I found my sis,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Well, the brothel is still where it always was. Not much else. We got dragged here only a few days ago.¡±

    ¡°Nothing at our old hideouts?¡± Irwyn wondered.

    ¡°Nope,¡± Waylan could only shrug. ¡°Not a hint. Which is fair, it¡¯s been months and we ain¡¯t been expected.¡±

    ¡°To the Guild then,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I can catch up with Meilin later.¡±

    ¡°Fair,¡± Waylan nodded back, ¡°This way.¡±

    So Waylan led ahead through semi-familiar streets and corridors. Ebon Respite was the same old city except for the patchworks where it wasn¡¯t anymore. Buildings, namely, often either still damaged or visibly recently rebuilt in the place of damaged ones. More of the former in the slums, though when they got to the more working-class neighborhoods those two more or less equalized. They were not headed towards Roadstreet, where Irwyn had seen no such signs - it wouldn''t do for the artery to show damage after all.

    Soon enough they reached one of the sprawling heresies against urban planning that surrounded many of the city¡¯s manufactoriums. The owners had once upon a time cut costs by making their workers build their own housing. 30 or so years down the line, the streets were impossible to orient without extensive scouting, not to mention the many less-than-stable places of inhabitance. Waylan, thankfully, seemed to have a route memorized though. It involved many double and triple turns, dodging haphazard poles in the middle of the street and a makeshift overpass over someone¡¯s withering garden but soon-ish enough they were nearing their destination.

    ¡°Want to make an impression?¡± Waylan suggested.

    ¡°Maybe I will,¡± Irwyn paused, then smiled, taking out his Mockingbird mask. It was no longer necessary. Not really at least. His fear of his identity being connected had far lessened ever since the trouble with House Fathomsight had been cleared up. But there was just something to it: A mysterious young Fowl in a mask, wielding magics that would have even the most optimistic folk in the know guessing him a decade older... It might also be useful if he ever had the need to deal with the Guild incognito. Once everyone knew his face that would not be feasible. He did not crave people recognizing him on sight whenever he walked the street, a level of infamy Irwyn knew some greatly enjoyed.

    ¡°Cool mask,¡± Waylan observed as Irwyn donned it. ¡°Mockingbird, heh?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Irwyn smiled beneath it. ¡°Thinking about it, how are you looking on Fowlship? I doubt anyone our age can match you in stealth nowadays.¡±

    ¡°I have been eyeing Nightingale,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°But I need recommendations for it. Old Crow has the pull to get them if really needed as he did for you, but said I should need to convince a few Old and Young Fowls myself since I ain''t in such hurry.¡±

    ¡°Well, you can obviously count on me.¡±

    ¡°Already am,¡± Waylan smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s go, just three more streets further.¡±

    The entrance to the Guild¡­ did not look like an entrance really. Just a wooden wall that Waylan fumbled around. Which made perfect sense given recent-ish events. There used to be three Fowls in Ebon Respite for many years but unlike Abonisle they never ran things... nor were they mages. Old Crow had kept a low profile, staying with the Tears and only getting involved when they overlooked something that would really burn the gang. Old Hawk had been an assassin who had barely ever even stayed in the city, mostly going out on contracts as far as Irwyn knew. Then Old Swallow had been a thief and a notorious loner who refused to work with anyone on anything.

    No, the Guild had always been just a neutral ground with most of the underworld ruled by the many gangs in Ebon Respite. There would be at most a few scribe types that organized the services that the Guild provided for the tithe everyone paid, even the labor for those would be almost always outsourced¡­ Except the purge had hit them hard, Irwyn knew. Old Crow had stepped in to reorganize the local Guild, being the only Fowl left in the city at the time but he had said it would take them a while to settle and re-fill their ranks. Then came Alira¡¯s little rampage just when they had settled in. What exactly that had wrought Irwyn didn¡¯t know.

    Waylan seemed to finally find what he had been looking for, a click sounding as a small opening appeared in the wall. Rather seamless too, given the lack of magic Irwyn was feeling, he hadn¡¯t noticed it and he had been looking for something like it while Waylan worked the mechanism. Speaking of the mechanism itself, Irwyn decided to play around with his newest spell, filling a part of the wall Waylan had been fumbling near with invisible, intangible Light under his control, feeling for a discrepancy in the image it gave him.

    ¡°You know, I could have opened it for you with a bit of magic,¡± Irwyn glance at Waylan. No wonder it had taken him a while: The wall had three very small cracks on one side, just wide enough to fit a finger each and adjust the latch within Irwyn which presumably let part of the wall be dragged to the side.

    ¡°Not used to ya being so open with the spelling,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Will ask next time. Come.¡±

    ¡°After you,¡± Irwyn nodded and they descended, closing the door behind them. A ladder went down below the street level and into a tunnel Irwyn was quite sure wasn¡¯t part of the sewers, even though it led both ways and had a few intersections - mostly based on the lack of smell and jagged walls. They didn¡¯t walk for more than a minute though before they turned a corner in the tight corridor and Irwyn saw it opening into a cavern.

    ¡°How did they build this place in so little time?¡± Irwyn questioned as they approached. It was not that tall for an underground cave, maybe two stories, but that was still a lot of work to do without mages, in secret, and underground.

    ¡°Old village mine, apparently,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°Good old Respite flattened and buried it when eatin¡¯ the town. Someone found it under the hill, then the Guild decided it was as good a place as any, most of the tunnels were already here.¡±

    And as they stepped closer Irwyn saw better the wooden pillars illuminated in dim torchlight. The ceiling did look uneven enough to be a natural cave but it was still being supported. Irwyn had no idea what was above it in Ebon Respite, though Waylan had just mentioned a hill, which made sense given the top was likely above usual street level. There was no such thing as reception or a checkpoint as they just walked in. There was one other entrance on the other side and a proper doorway leading somewhere further in. The cavern itself thought? It was a¡­

    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    ¡°Bar,¡± Irwyn said the obvious, doubtfully. There were tables scattered around the spacious area and a proper bartending station at one edge. It was not what he would have expected. And looking quite full as well ¨C two-thirds of the tables were taken up by patrons with varying degrees of thugness to them.

    ¡°Where else would you make deals and burry hatches, eh?¡± Waylan grinned as he butchered the idiom. ¡°The old one used to be the same, you ¡®now.¡± Irwyn swore he hadn¡¯t taught his friend that one. Was Waylan going out of his way to learn them just so he could slit their rhetorical throats?

    ¡°Waylan, I thought you wouldn¡¯ be back till night,¡± a woman¡¯s voice interrupted Irwyn¡¯s thoughts making him look over at one of the tables not far away. Irwyn had been mostly ignoring the people beyond a simple headcount - it was much easier than it used to be, now that he knew they weren¡¯t a threat to him without magic. ¡°And you brought a friend too.¡±

    ¡°What can I say,¡± Waylan smiled heading in that direction. It actually required them to walk in between two more groups, earning glares. Surprisingly busy given it was not quite evening yet. ¡°Met the right bloke. Figured I best bring him.¡±

    ¡°The more, the merrier,¡± the woman nodded once they approached. She clothed well enough for such a place but did not look like someone used to fighting. The two silent giants by her side did though. Irwyn put her down as some kind of money lender or peddler.

    ¡°Good thing you are here too,¡± Waylan nodded, pointing at Irwyn as they both took the empty seats opposite to her. ¡°Saves me waiting around with him. Can you believe he refuses to drink? Mad.¡±

    ¡°Refuse is a strong word,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°I just don¡¯t enjoy numbing myself.¡±

    ¡°Then get better at it, duh,¡± Waylan bantered.

    ¡°I am glad I would be your first choice, Waylan,¡± the woman smiled. ¡°Who might¡­¡±

    ¡°As I was saying, I need your help,¡± she ended up interrupted, though. ¡°We gotta get in touch with the Tears.¡±

    ¡°That is not an easy ask,¡± the woman frowned, for more reason than one it seemed. ¡°The Tears don¡¯t speak with just anyone nowadays.¡±

    ¡°We are former members,¡± Irwyn offered. ¡°Current, technically, I suppose.¡±

    ¡°On a bit of a trip outta town,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Shit¡¯s been fucked after the Third breaking. tho. All our old spots are bust.¡±

    ¡°I heard things have been rough,¡± the woman nodded, slowly.

    ¡°You came to town after?¡± Irwyn asked, realizing his raised eyebrow was not visible under the mask.

    ¡°I used to do business in Drathsol but, well¡­ I ended on the wrong side of a dispute between Fowls and moved.¡±

    ¡°And business you do,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Now, can you get us that meeting? Or an address would do.¡±

    ¡°I am not inclined to offend the Tears, they have quite the reputation,¡± the woman - did Irwyn already forget her name? - said slowly. ¡°I could pass along a message.¡±

    ¡°Nah, won¡¯t do,¡± Waylan said, and indeed it wouldn¡¯t. ¡°We¡¯ll be meeting the lovebirds tonight, won¡¯t we?¡±

    ¡°That is the plan,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°In the evening, ideally. I have a meeting in the morning if you recall.¡±

    ¡°Do I look that spineless to you two?¡± the woman instead chuckled darkly as she sneered. ¡°You say you know them, but what do I know? Actually, I do know what that mark on your forehead means ¡®Waylan¡¯ if that¡¯s even your name. And a lad with a mask and physically tangible ego.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think my ego is particularly inflated?¡± Irwyn glanced at Waylan.

    ¡°Just the usual amount,¡± his friend shrugged.

    ¡°Boy, you walk into here with loose shoulders. Not a glance around at the cutthroats at every other table,¡± the woman did not quite let off. ¡°I am not messing with the Tears for dead meat and a rich boy who doesn¡¯t know to count the knives in the room.¡±

    ¡°Why would I count the knives?¡± Irwyn shrugged. Though, she had a point. He might have reached a similar conclusion less than a year ago. Except she had it flipped. ¡°Do you count the blades of grass when walking down a clearing?¡±

    ¡°Very funny,¡± the woman nodded. ¡°Now fuck off.¡±

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t think I will,¡± Irwyn said and remained seated. After a couple months a simple truth had, indeed, sunk in: Now that he had no need to hide his magic he bargained from the position of power.

    ¡°Are you sure about that?¡± the woman shot him a grim stare. People all around were rising from their seats. It was a simple thing, really: Gangs could stick together when perceiving an outsider. ¡°We don¡¯t much enjoy people who don¡¯t belong along these parts.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t belong, do I?¡± Irwyn inclined his head slightly. ¡°Well, perhaps Ebon Respite has grown too small nowadays. But I will defer judgment on that for later. Not like I have much need to pick pockets now, I suppose.¡±

    ¡°You probably still should from time to time,¡± Waylan seemed as unworried as Irwyn himself. ¡°It would be hilarious if someone tried to arrest you.¡±

    ¡°Would it?¡± Irwyn genuinely asked. ¡°I don¡¯t much enjoy causing people needless trouble.¡±

    ¡°Well, I do,¡± Waylan grinned, raising his arms in a theatrical motion, gesturing towards the large room. The same room where people were now walking up to the pair who refused to quite leave when told to by someone people knew, unlike the duo. ¡°This shit¡¯s fucking hilarious.¡±

    ¡°You knew it would be like this,¡± Irwyn sighed helplessly. It was not a question.

    ¡°Guilty as charred,¡± Wayaln¡¯s grin remained unapologetic, ¡°Honestly, all that power is wasted on you if you don¡¯t even goad people into knocking their teeth out on you once in a while.¡±

    ¡°This is pointless,¡± Irwyn argued.

    ¡°Enjoyment is a point,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°And you are playing along. Don¡¯t tell me you never wanted to do this. I sure wanted for years.¡±

    ¡°Then maybe it should be something you will remember for a while, lads,¡± the¡­ information broker? - probably - was seething a bit, probably because she was being ignored.

    ¡°This one¡¯s a bit rude,¡± so Irwyn continued doing so¡­ alright, it was a bit fun, even for him. Not like any real harm was being done. ¡°And I already forgot her name.¡±

    ¡°She never introduced herself,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°So you technically haven¡¯t this time.¡±

    ¡°Either way I should spend my considerable wealth on someone else,¡± one of the thugs surrounding them tried to throw a punch. Irwyn held the man¡¯s hand in place with a bit of invisible Light magic. A few were brandishing knives, though those wouldn¡¯t be used. Idiots got a beating, not a shanking. At least not right away in most places.

    ¡°You have a considerable wealth now, do you?¡± basically everyone in the room was watching them by then, not just the few more violently inclined that had approached at first. Some might have even been catching on the cause of their calm, though it was hard to tell from the distance.

    ¡°I know someone with so much money they literally do not know what order of magnitude they have,¡± Irwyn said. A few more tried to take a swing and Irwyn held their limbs in place. The only reason the Light magic even needed a single intention was to make it invisible.

    ¡°Sound like a great mark,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Are we robbing them?¡±

    ¡°Well, that would, technically speaking, be breaking the tenets, wouldn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°I suppose,¡± Waylan nodded after a moment. ¡°But what about your retirement fund?¡±

    ¡°I can just take a loan,¡± Irwyn shrugged. Some of the thugs seemed to be getting through their surprise. ¡°My acquaintance will probably forget I borrowed in a few months - or just make it a gift rather than a borrowing in the first place. I think they genuinely believe owning a mansion is completely normal.¡±

    ¡°A flawless scheme,¡± Waylan nodded.

    ¡°M-mage!¡± one of the thugs stuttered as they made the connection between their immovable limb and what it had been attempting to do just beforehand. Then it was as if a wave went through the room, filling it with exclamations of surprise. Mages were so very rare in Ebon Respite after all, and the last time many passed through left more than one person present crippled or brotherless. So, soon there was tense silence instead.

    ¡°I suppose I haven¡¯t introduced myself either,¡± Irwyn looked back at the unnamed information broker whose face seemed to be rapidly going through an entire spectrum of emotions. ¡°You may call me Young Mockingbird, or just the latter for short. The young part is, hopefully, quite obvious.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes, of course,¡± to her credit, the woman answered while mutters of ¡®Fowl¡¯ traveled through the room. This was the Guild after all, everyone knew what those titles etailed.

    ¡°Now, will you tell me where I can find my old friends or do I need to find someone else who will?¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes¡­ yes, of course,¡± alright, not handling it quite as well as Irwyn had thought as she did not continue after that for a moment.

    ¡°Waylan?¡± a new voice sounded though, cutting off whatever answer might have been upcoming. The speaker - a barely teenage girl - flinched as most eyes in the room turned to her. She still continued walking towards them though and no one got in her way. Her visage seemed¡­ vaguely familiar up close. What was more familiar though was the familiar armband of a water droplet - better fabric than Irwyn recalled too.

    ¡°Yo, Abbs,¡± Waylan was clearly more than vaguely familiar though. ¡°Been a bit, eh?¡±

    ¡°I couldn¡¯ recognize you with the tattoos,¡± she timidly admitted, though her stride grew more confident as she approached, then looked at Irwyn. ¡°And are you¡­¡±

    ¡°Who else could bear with this oaf?¡± Irwyn pointed at Waylan. He hadn¡¯t been away that long and the younger Tears would know their once secret mage, even if he might not know them.

    ¡°I guess we save on the brokering, eh?¡± Waylan grinned standing up. ¡°Do you have something you need to do here?¡±

    ¡°Nah,¡± ¡®Abbs¡¯, whatever her full name was, shrugged. "Just loitering."

    ¡°Then please, lead the way,¡± Irwyn nodded and they were off.

 3.20 Friends :) :) :) :)

    They left the Guild¡¯s bar, the exited the tunnels through a different egress: A trap door beneath the rugged carpet of a broken-down building. The area wasn¡¯t actually within the slums, rather, it was one of the more working-class districts bordering them.

    ¡°Moving up in the world, I see,¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow as he observed the general state of infrastructure seemingly improve with each step they walked.

    ¡°Aaron¡¯s idea,¡± Abbey - because that was the girl¡¯s name as Irwyn hoped to remember - explained. ¡°Also, you will look a bit out of place with the mask.¡±

    ¡°I suppose,¡± Irwyn nodded, removing it as the younger girl blatantly tried to have a peek as quickly as possible. ¡°I mostly wore it for the mysterious effect now.¡±

    ¡°You wouldn¡¯ need to. Your mug looks scary enough,¡± Waylan jabbed.

    ¡°Weak,¡± Irwyn shot back.

    ¡°Like your arms,¡± Waylan gave his favorite reply.

    ¡°My arms are not weak anymore, Waylan,¡± Irwyn grinned, his trap sprung.

    ¡°Bull,¡± Waylan scoffed. ¡°You can¡¯t build up proper muscle so quick.¡±

    ¡°You certainly can with magic,¡± Irwyn kept grinning as he flexed his arm. Waylan had to do a double-take.

    ¡°Fucking¡¯ ¡®ell.¡±

    ¡°Language.¡±

    ¡°We are almost there,¡± Abbey interrupted, pointing at a building across the street from them.

    ¡°Is that an actual orphanage?¡± Irwyn questioned staring at the building and the rather small sign declaring it as such.

    ¡°Yep,¡± Abbey nodded as they approached, ¡°We got more hideouts now. Don¡¯t know how the paper stuff works, tho.¡±

    ¡°Well, I can ask Aaron myself,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°Assuming I can meet him.¡±

    ¡°He should be home. Also Kali, Rain and Big Max. They have a boss meeting, I overheard.¡±

    ¡°Boss meeting?¡± Irwyn frowned at the word.

    ¡°Well, they started getting really weird two months ago,¡± Abbey shrugged. ¡°Like, powers and stuff. They keep saying it¡¯s not magic but, you know¡­ Not normal too. They convinced everyone that they should be bosses since Old Crow left - above adults.¡±

    ¡°Much like me, eh?¡± Waylan laughed, distinctly from the other side than Irwyn had thought he had been standing. ¡°I wasn¡¯t the only one Old Crow got a gift before leaving.¡±

    ¡°I guess that makes sense with the tattoos,¡± Abbey looked Waylan over again, specifically the thickly inked skin. ¡°It¡¯s more visible than anyone else¡­ well maybe except Kali.¡±

    ¡°These powers are visible?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°You will see,¡± she shrugged. ¡°I think they might evacuate if we stand by the entrance much longer.¡±

    ¡°Kalista almost made the call,¡± a new voice interrupted them, making Irwyn look over to a completely unfamiliar face - much like the voice. It was said by a strange lean boy - thin and tall wearing baggy clothes with all too many layers. And they looked at least in their late teens, so Irwyn should at least recognize them, which he did not. With a glance, he realized neither had Waylan.

    ¡°Who are¡­¡± Irwyn spoke but the boy interrupted him with a hand gesture.

    ¡°Inside,¡± they nodded their head back towards the entrance. ¡°Out of sight.¡±

    ¡°All right,¡± Irwyn nodded. No matter who it was, they were not a mage¡­ at least as far as Irwyn could feel. Perhaps a new recruit of some kind? The Tears usually only took in children younger than ten but there had been exceptions - like their cook - and things might have changed. So, they headed in, past the front door. There wasn¡¯t much of a lobby but there was a hallway with a decent number of coat hangers, most adjusted for the height of children and occupied by coats, as well as many filled shoe drawers. Besides the obvious door that led further inward there was also a side room where they were taken.

    ¡°Alright, give me a moment,¡± the strange boy spoke to Irwyn and Waylan, taking a few steps back. Abbey had left at that point, saying she would pass along that the duo was here.

    Then while Irwyn mused the boy began to change. Just a bit taller. Just a bit fatter. Facial features shifted; the throat visibly quivered with what had to be yet more transformation. Arms grew thicker, more muscular as did presumably the legs. Suddenly, the clothes were not quite so baggy but rather fitting the frame. Also, the face was very familiar.

    ¡°Maxim,¡± Irwyn gasped, doing a double take as his old friend took on the shape he had always known. ¡°Wow.¡±

    ¡°Fuck me thrice sideways,¡± Waylan¡¯s reaction was much wordier, accompanied by a laugh. ¡°Big M can now become any size and any letter.¡±

    ¡°Not really any size,¡± Maxim shook his head. ¡°I cannot actually shrink that much yet - I have to hide most of it under the clothes. Maybe one day.¡±

    ¡°You know, shapeshifting is supposedly extremely advanced art,¡± Irwyn smiled. ¡°I think those masters that can do it might genuinely go black with envy if they saw you do this without any magic.¡±

    ¡°I will take your word for it,¡± the man just shrugged. ¡°I am not properly shifting yet though. I can only do surface stuff: Skin, outer muscle and such - maybe a few tricks as well. Cannot really do anything with organs and bones - and won¡¯t for years.¡±

    ¡°It is still amazing,¡± Irwyn insisted.

    ¡°Insane for infiltratin¡¯,¡± Waylan nodded along. ¡°You could just do someone else. Even steal their voice.¡±

    ¡°I haven¡¯t quite dared go that far. Vocal cord are... finicky,¡± Maxim nodded. ¡°I have been practicing for it though. Anyway, we should go meet up with the others. Kalista was freaking out.¡±

    ¡°What happened?¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°I left before she got coherent,¡± Maxim shrugged. ¡°She sometimes sees something she probably shouldn¡¯t and needs to catch her breath.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go then,¡± Waylan led by example and headed for the door. ¡°I missed the lovebirds and brainman. And you too Big M.¡±

    ¡°We sure as the Void missed the two of you as well,¡± Maxim allowed himself a smile at that, leading the way. Back into the coat-way, then through. Beyond lied a large communal area mostly filled with tables. It was not quite as wide as the old expansive hall the Tears used to live in but it was not that far from it. There were many kids playing around in groups - besides those who had already noticed something exciting was about to happen and were gawking at the trio as they walked through the door - which marked this as a communal leisure area, though Irwyn saw a window open into the kitchen on one side, meaning it was probably where everyone ate as well. Besides that, the room had several entrances and exits Irwyn obviously wouldn¡¯t be able to parse. Maxim led them to one of them at the far end.

    Irwyn experienced another surge of nostalgia as he entered a large-ish office. The arrangement was exactly the same as the one Aaron had used in their old hideout. Down to the chairs and other supplies since it would double as the primary meeting place for the adults. Which is a purpose it also clearly served now, given the 3 other people inside. He had expected them of course¡­ then he paused as he took a second look

    ¡°Kalista?!¡± Irwyn exclaimed with alarm. He stared at his old friend, that eagle-eyed observer who could spot a fly on a moonless night¡­ wearing a thick blindfold completely covering both her eyes.

    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    ¡°Hey Irw!¡± she waved, cheerfully, though she sounded a bit winded. Rainer worriedly holding her in a hug only supported that idea.

    ¡°What happened¡­?¡± Irwyn wasn¡¯t sure how to phrase the question.

    ¡°Your eyes,¡± so Waylan finished for him.

    ¡°Hmm?¡± she paused, surprised.

    ¡°They mean the blindfold,¡± Aaron supplied from behind her. He was seated at his desk though Irwyn currently did not have the leeway to spare the man a proper look.

    ¡°OH!¡± Kalista exclaimed. ¡°No, this is nothing. I have been wearing it for half a month now.¡±

    ¡°What she means is,¡± Rainer actually explained. ¡°That her sight is not hurt. Quite the opposite, really. She can see you perfectly fine through it.¡±

    ¡°You can just look through solid objects?¡± Irwyn paused.

    ¡°Well, duh?¡± she smiled. ¡°I am not wearing it to flex though. I have been¡­ witnessing a lot of shit, frankly, when it¡¯s not on.¡±

    ¡°Kalista had been seeing a bit too good lately,¡± Rainer supplied again. ¡°She often cannot describe what she saw properly but she had been knocked out by it a few times out of nowhere before we did this.¡±

    "That sounds dangerous," Irwyn frowned. "Maybe there could be a way to shield from it better?"

    "Not exactly many people I could ask," Kalista shrugged.  "So blindfold it is."

    "But maybe I could," Irwyn replied. Seeing things one shouldn''t see? The source might have been more magical but Elizabeth had experience with that. And presumably also knowledge about how to deal with such issues. It was hardly unheard of among mages.

    "True, Irwyn''s been makin'' new friends," Waylan nodded with a slightly exaggerated emotional tone. "Really brings a tear to me eye - Irwyn talking to other people. Well¡­ person."

    "Now that is unfair," Irwyn defended himself. "I have made more than one friend over the past few months."

    "More than one generally means two," Aaron gave his two cents. "I might believe you if you say three convincingly enough."

    "Now that is just plain rude," Rainer spoke. "I am sure Irwyn has made dozens over his long journey."

    "Do you, of all people, not live by the motto of ''one is enough''."

    "I don''t think you quite understand what you just implied, Irwyn," Kalista chuckled.

    "Hmm?" Irwyn raised an eyebrow, looking back at his words, then almost fumbling and backtracking. "No! Not like that!"

    "Are you sure?" Waylan immediately backstabbed him.

    "Yes, quite!"

    "Very defensive," Aaron commented.

    "Who is she?" Kalista was clearly latched on.

    "I do not like the angle this is taking."

    "What angle? Please elaborate,¡± Rainer grinned.

    ¡°I am going to walk out,¡± Irwyn threatened.

    ¡°Fine, fine, I wanted to figure something out anyway,¡± Kalista smiled. ¡°Waylan, Irwyn, could you please stand at the opposite sites of the room?¡±

    ¡°Aye,¡± Waylan affirmed while Irwyn gave a ¡®sure¡¯, each walking as far away from the other as they could, curious but following her request. When they did Kalista took a deep breath, turning her head towards Waylan. Rainer gave her a slight worried glance as she removed her blindfold.

    Although the room wasn¡¯t small for an office, it wasn¡¯t large either. As Kalista stared at Waylan Irwyn could somewhat see her eyes from the profile, if barely. And they were quite something to behold: For instead of her old iris, Kalista¡¯s eyes now shone. With an iridescent swirl of dozens of colors and their shades, from bright to dark, sharp to soft; Irwyn would have thought it clearly magic was he not feeling otherwise.

    Kalista stared at Waylan for a good ten seconds before nodding, taking a shaky breath and began to slowly turn in Irwyn¡¯s direction. Irwyn was clearly missing something from how careful she was being. It took Kalista a few more seconds just to look to the center of the room, intently not shifting towards Irwyn. Then she flinched.

    ¡°Alright, nope, nope, nope,¡± she snapped away from Irwyn, Rainer already putting her blindfold back on in the middle of that motion with exceptional dexterity.

    ¡°Are you fine?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Yes, I am alright, just freaking out a bit,¡± she sighed. ¡°Were you always like this or is that just recent?¡±

    ¡°Like what?¡± Irwyn inclined his head.

    ¡°Does he look normal to everyone else?¡± she first asked instead of answering, then continued when she got nods from the others. ¡°Well, with the blindfold on you are kind of glowing. Which is already notable because everyone else looks completely normal. Without it, looking at you feels like literally staring into the Sun. Maybe worse because you are so close. Painful even at an angle.¡±

    ¡°Ah, that sounds¡­ unpleasant, sorry,¡± Irwyn apologized.

    ¡°Not your fault,¡± she sighed. ¡°But try not to come unannounced too often. I nearly passed out when I wanted to check who was coming here out of the blue.¡±

    ¡°And we almost evacuated,¡± Maxim added. ¡°Except it was so unexpected I went out to see what is going on up close since we would probably not have the time to run even if we needed to.¡±

    ¡°As I said before, I can try and ask if there might be something that can be done,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Where can we find you, if need be,¡± Aaron asked.

    ¡°We are at the soldier¡¯s camp,¡± Waylan answered. ¡°Well, I might be all around the place if Irwyn can get me out of my ¡®duty¡¯.¡±

    ¡°It should not be a problem to free you up,¡± Irwyn shrugged. Elizabeth wouldn¡¯t mind.

    ¡°Your friend is from the military?¡± Kalista observed.

    ¡°Nah,¡± Waylan answered again, ¡°She is very much above it.¡±

    ¡°Elizabeth, her name,¡± Irwyn started, ignoring Rainer and Kalista snickering. ¡°Is nobility and has been assigned to captainship of the company stationed here due to the Lich war.¡±

    ¡°Oh, wow,¡± Kalista whistled.

    ¡°He is underselling it,¡± Waylan glanced at Irwyn. ¡°Nobility is a few notches lower than the word I would use.¡±

    ¡°I would not want to overwhelm Kalista by telling her right away.¡±

    ¡°I am unfreakable,¡± she harrumphed with a snort.

    ¡°You said higher,¡± Aaron said. ¡°How, high are we talking?¡±

    ¡°As in, meets the Duke for family dinners,¡± Waylan snickered with a grin.

    ¡°You are fucking with us,¡± Rainer first laughed, then paused, staring at Waylan¡¯s unmoving face. ¡°Holy shit, Irwyn.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­¡±

    ¡°You are traveling around with an actual Blackburg,¡± Kalista did not quite freak out. She just stared; mouth slightly opened. ¡°Wow.¡±

    ¡°You really are moving up in the world,¡± Aaron laughed. ¡°And I thought we were making progress here in our hole of a city.¡±

    ¡°It was Old Crow who got me in touch,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Then I got lucky while almost dying several times along the way. For one, I was in Abonisle when it was attacked.¡±

    ¡°You have to tell us that story,¡± Maxim immediately latched on. ¡°We have only heard rumors.¡±

    ¡°Later, over something to eat,¡± Aaron said. ¡°Are you in a hurry?¡±

    ¡°I only need to be back by dawn,¡± Irwyn said.

    ¡°And he still has a flexible schedule,¡± Rainer pointed at him in mock outrage, though he was visibly still reeling a bit from the revelation. Almost everyone seemed to be with the notable exception of Waylan who had already known.

    ¡°Wait,¡± Irwyn frowned, then stared at Rainer¡¯s extended finger. ¡°Are your¡­ fingers longer?¡±

    ¡°Finally caught it, eh?¡± Rainer grinned, regaining his composure, then showing his hands off. His digits were¡­ extended for the lack of a better world. Not enough to look inhuman but they did appear a bit uncanny. ¡°Not beautiful like Kali¡¯s eyes, but I don¡¯t complain.¡±

    ¡°Hey, I love them,¡± Kalista patted his back encouragingly.

    ¡°I know,¡± Rain grinned then gave her an extremely exaggerated wink. ¡°They are also more dexterous than ever.¡±

    ¡°What about Aaron?¡± Irwyn glanced over at the last person in the room rather than entertain the pair''s antics. Maxim could change shapes, Kalista¡¯s eyes glowed, Rainer had longer fingers¡­ Even Waylan was tattooed. These new powers - that Irwyn was definitely going to have a lot more questions about - had changed everyone¡¯s appearance to a point. Except Irwyn could not see anything wrong with Aaron, his friend was as he had always known him: Spectacled and lean. So Irwyn tried to look for what was off.

    There was no ink on his sleeves for one, which there usually used to be but that was probably not it. Aaron wore a hat indoors so he might be hiding something beneath, probably that since he never used to do that before¡­ or maybe the mark was beneath his clothes.

    ¡°Well, mine looks the least pretty,¡± Aaron did not stall, showing that it was indeed the hat. Irwyn suddenly realized that his friend had been wearing a wig attached to the headwear - so similar to his old hairstyle that Irwyn hadn¡¯t even suspected it. And when the hat was fully off, Irwyn saw that it was indeed not pretty.

    There was no other way to describe the bald head other than deformed. Like the cranium tried to extend up, forcing the skull to twist into an uneven bulbous shape. Almost like a tumor thriving on top the top of the cranium. It also did not help that the area was scabbed over and scared in places, angry red intersecting healthy-ish skin.

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t dat¡­ hurt?¡± Waylan asked quietly.

    ¡°Only when it gets bigger,¡± Aaron smiled. ¡°And I have painkillers for that. It¡¯s not nearly as bad as it looks. And it¡¯s absolutely worth the inconvenience.¡±

    ¡°Does it make you smarter?¡± Irwyn guessed. He knew that the brain was the conduit between the body and the Soul. And that most brains couldn¡¯t fully tap into their soul¡¯s capacity for cognition. After all, his own technique to accelerate his thoughts basically relied on flooding his brain with mana to make it a better conduit for the transfer. But hypothetically having more brain sounded like it would also work.

    ¡°Yep, exactly,¡± Aaron grinned. ¡°A lot smarter. And I can think faster.¡±

    ¡°That does suit you,¡± Irwyn admitted. Then had a thought. ¡°Does your manual or guide or whatever say you should not mess with enchantments?¡±

    ¡°Nothing like that,¡± Aaron shook his head.

    ¡°Then how about this,¡± Irwyn smiled as he reached into his spacial bag. From within he took a certain ring that had reached him just recently. The one that would increase mental alacrity and he just so happened to have been promised a better one. Irwyn threw it at Aaron, ¡°Try it on.¡±

    ¡°Kalista?¡± Aaron caught it, then called out for Kalista. She turned around and shifted the blindfold from one eye to have a closer look, back facing Irwyn.

    ¡°Yep, magical,¡± she shrugged. ¡°Too complex to really get anything.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s at least conception magic,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°I have literally no idea what that means, Irwyn.¡±

    ¡°That it is really hard to understand, I suppose.¡±

    ¡°We gotta have a conversation about magic later,¡± Aaron nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t really have reliable sources and it would be good to know at least the generics. All right, I am putting it on.¡±

    And so, Aaron did, slipping the ring onto his finger. A slight tremble went through him, his eyes widening. An ecstatic grin crossed his lips for a second¡­ Which slipped immediately afterwards. Then Aaron began to violently vomit.

 3.21 Fireside

    Aaron had emptied his stomach of all there had been, then kept dry heaving. The ring had been removed from his finger after Rainer had to jump out of the first barrage¡¯s way but that seemed to make it barely better. Everyone stood around him, worriedly, as he sat in his chair

    ¡°I will have to redo these,¡± Aaron cursed in between retches, vaguely pointing at his ruined paperwork, as everyone stood around, worried and awkward. They had been taught a lot and were good at what they knew¡­ But they would hardly know anything about this. It was simple enough to teach someone to clean and bandage a cut. Half of them would even know how to stitch or do basic resuscitation. Yet what in the world were they supposed to do about some kind of magic-induced sickness? And so, they could only stand around and hope.

    Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t getting worse.

    "I will go get some towels," Kalista offered standing up.

    "Take Irwyn with you," Waylan suggested.

    "I think I should stay here, no?"

    "And just stand around, all anxious with us?" Waylan raised an eyebrow. ¡°Nah, better the kids look at you and don¡¯t notice nothing wrong in here.¡±

    ¡°I am not that much to look at,¡± Irwyn shrugged.

    ¡°But you are,¡± Maxim jumped in. ¡°How many casters do you think they have seen besides you?¡±

    ¡°Zero,¡± Kalista provided with cheer.

    ¡°Go show them that you are still alive and on their side,¡± Maxim nodded.

    ¡°Oh, I think that wasn¡¯t everything yet¡­¡± Aaron interrupted, then dry heaved again for a few seconds. Nothing more evacuated though.

    ¡°We will also bring some water,¡± Kalista stood up and borderline dragged Irwyn out of the office, back into the mess hall. ¡°We are going to bring that up every chance we get for at least a month.¡±

    ¡°Cruel,¡± Irwyn smiled.

    ¡°I am already figuring out what numbers to fake when he asks us to refile reports,¡± she grinned right back. ¡°I had a good look and the balance sheet he checks everything else against is half melted.¡±

    ¡°It sounds like the paperwork has increased substantially since I left,¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. The kitchen was just a few steps away though they stopped before actually entering, letting all the kids see them just talk.

    ¡°Well, yeah, but no one can really complain,¡± Kalista shrugged. ¡°After Old Crow left Aaron made this whole plan of how we could take over and transition into something better suited.¡±

    ¡°And it seems to be working rather well,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°For the most part,¡± Kalista agreed carefully, then paused. ¡°You can do one of those fancy privacy bubbles, right?¡±

    ¡°I can improvise,¡± Irwyn shrugged and did so. It was not difficult to create a bubble, then make it invisible, isolate, mute, and suppress. He had some doubts about how effective it would be against mages who knew how to get past such protections, but it was more than good enough for the moment. ¡°Done.¡±

    ¡°Just like that,¡± Kalista shook her head in disbelief, then turned away from Irwyn, removing her blindfold for a few moments before resuming the conversation. ¡°And it¡¯s firm too.¡±

    ¡°Firm?¡±

    ¡°I sneaked a peak at a few mages lately,¡± she nodded, blindfold fully back on. ¡°But they were¡­ slower. And the magic I could see in their spells was a lot looser, like strands of cloth unravelling and flying to the wind.¡±

    ¡°Leaking magic is a sign of insufficient control,¡± Irwyn had a good guess of what Kalista might have seen. ¡°And mine is very good for my age.¡±

    ¡°I suppose that even magic doesn¡¯t change the simplest truth of life:¡± she chuckled at that. ¡°You are either rich, talented, or fucked.¡±

    ¡°More than you know,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I have seen that the majority of mages are¡­ startlingly impotent.¡±

    ¡°Woe be to our Duchy¡¯s population.¡±

    ¡°Not what I meant and you know it,¡± Irwyn sighed.

    ¡°You could at least pretend to be embarrassed,¡± she smiled.

    ¡°That would only encourage you,¡± he scoffed. ¡°Though as I was saying: Most mages are genuinely weak.¡±

    ¡°And you are not?¡± she asked, curious.

    ¡°That depends on who you are comparing me to,¡± he explained. ¡°Compared to the average? No. My age? Absolutely not. But I have witnessed some proper leviathans. Did you know that the Duke had apparently slain a dragon?¡±

    ¡°The big lizards, breathe shit?¡± she blinked at him cluelessly.

    ¡°You should really read the Book of the Name at some point,¡± Irwyn grumbled. ¡°Dragons are the scariest monsters by its account.¡±

    ¡°It is pretty long, and I have different pastimes,¡± she shrugged unapologetically. ¡°But this is not why I asked for privacy. Don¡¯t look, but: The rightmost corner of the room from us, bench, right by the window.¡±

    And so Irwyn did not look, at least not directly. He instead rather, he manifested his remote eye by the side of his head, making sure it was not visible. What he beheld was a single child, sitting by themselves, playing with something cube shaped and quite possibly looking in Irwyn¡¯s direction. That wasn¡¯t the important part though, so Irwyn felt more closely, and then realized why exactly Kalista had asked him that.

    ¡°They have magic,¡± Irwyn concluded. It wasn¡¯t much¡­ but they were a child. He couldn¡¯t tell how old without looking from closer but somewhere between six and ten would be Irwyn¡¯s guess. That was when most of the Tears were recruited. And he thought he would have most likely noticed if the child had been around before he had fled the city.

    ¡°Yep,¡± Kalista nodded. ¡°Twice orphaned, poor lad. I noticed the spark though and have been losing my head over it a bit ever since.¡±

    ¡°I honestly have no idea how talented he might be,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°But I could ask. And if they pass whatever criteria there are they might be taken in by whatever institution manages the education of young mages.¡±

    ¡°Vague,¡± she frowned.

    ¡°Because I don¡¯t know how any of it works,¡± he shrugged. ¡°Or he can just stay here. It could be that the little spark is so weak as to not be notable or even worth nurturing to the powers that be. I cannot even tell its element from how little there is, if he has one at all. I know nothing about this.¡±

    ¡°Well, you did figure out most of it on your own,¡± Kalista said slowly.

    ¡°Old Crow helped me,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°And from where I stand now it is obvious that I had my talent keeping me afloat me through a lot of that ignorance. To an absurd degree, in all honesty.¡±

    ¡°How absurd are we talking here, Irwyn?¡± she seemed somewhat skeptical. ¡°Even if you are outside the norm, you never had any problems.¡±

    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    ¡°I learned recently¡­¡± Irwyn said as he summoned a glove of Flame to envelop his hand. Then he let loose enough heat to make it feel like a blazing fire from a few steps away to Kalista before dismissing it again. ¡°...that universally all Flame mages have some burn scars. Even with the best education, they mess up eventually and melt a bit of themselves - a bit of an elbow, a patch on the chest, and some such. Except, Kalista, I never burned. I still do not ¨C that isn¡¯t normal even for geniuses. It is not something I have neither learned nor really earned. This is just how I have always been. From what I have seen, I am basically to mages what someone born invisible would be to thieves.¡±

    ¡°Flex understood,¡± she grumbled but let it go.

    ¡°Hey, I have enough praise for myself to stretch all the way back to the office.¡±

    ¡°Honestly¡­ a few months with a Blackburg and you suddenly develop a sense of Pride,¡± she shook her head, though in good humor again.

    ¡°What can I say,¡± Irwyn grinned. ¡°I have to make up for the years of self-doubt and hiding.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s been quite the three months, huh,¡± she sighed, a bit¡­ wistful. ¡°You and Waylan have certainly changed. But so have all of us I suppose.¡±

    ¡°A crisis does that to people,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°And I went through like three, I think.¡±

    ¡°Where did you have the time to find a girl?¡± she teased, shaking her head.

    ¡°It was not so time intensive as to be exclusive with the other,¡± Irwyn rolled his eyes.

    ¡°Any relationship takes a lot of time, Irwyn,¡± she chided.

    ¡°I meant the crisis¡­ crises? crisisis?? What is the plural form of that, even?¡±

    ¡°Ask Aaron, not me,¡± Kalista shrugged, snickering. ¡°Speaking off, we should get those towels. And a pitcher.¡±

    ¡°True,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    They had been talking for a while right in front of the kitchen door so they finally entered. The room was rather spacious, full of various appliances¡­ which Irwyn did not give much attention to since he instead found another familiar face.

    ¡°Narcinia,¡± he smiled at the cook.

    ¡°Busy,¡± she snapped back, leaning over a pan and refusing to turn around, ¡°I think the stove broke again.¡±

    ¡°Yes, the Flame is uneven,¡± Irwyn felt, glancing over curiously. ¡°I did not know this neighborhood had a butane supply.¡±

    ¡°A what?¡± Kalista asked.

    ¡°Cooking gas - and no, we have a tank,¡± Narcinia finally turned around. ¡°Hey, Irwyn, what do you mean uneven.¡±

    ¡°It happens to be a good bit hotter on the right side of the stove.¡±

    ¡°How would you know?¡± Kalista questioned.

    ¡°I just¡­ feel it?¡± Irwyn inclined his head. ¡°Magic, obviously.¡±

    ¡°It was fine just yesterday,¡± Narcinia muttered, turning back to her cooking. There was also a large pot boiling and two more pans sizzling. ¡°Say, Kali, could you try convincing Aaron to get me proper steel instead of this.¡±

    ¡°What I see is already miles ahead of your last kitchen,¡± Irwyn pointed out

    ¡°There is no such thing as a fully equipped kitchen,¡± Narcinia chided. ¡°You can always improve something.¡±

    ¡°I feel like that cannot be true in practice,¡± Irwyn opinioned.

    ¡°And Aaron already vetoed a new stove twice,¡± Kalista added. ¡°Though you might get on his good side with a pitcher of water and some towels.¡±

    ¡°I am cooking for 60 people with a busted stove,¡± she scoffed. ¡°You know where supplies are.¡±

    ¡°Honestly, you could be at least a bit fawning over Irwyn suddenly showing up again,¡± Kalista harrumphed, but went for one of the shelves.

    ¡°I. Am. Busy.¡±

    ¡°Sure thing, duchess of the soups,¡± Kalista rolled her eyes, finding a few towels - closer to rags, really - picking a pitcher, then filling it from a large barrel in the corner. Irwyn had half-forgotten most of Ebon Respite didn¡¯t really have proper plumbing or sinks. ¡°She will freak out when her brain catches up.¡±

    ¡°Is she often¡­ like this?¡± Irwyn also found her reaction strange. Kalista handed him a platter of cloudy glasses.

    ¡°Ever since she got a bigger kitchen. Not to mention her being probably the only person here more at ease with Old Crow gone,¡± Kalista shrugged. ¡°She gets way into it now. Well, the meals are tastier and it¡¯s better than her brooding all day long. You should mess with her by turning your eyes normal again when she realizes.¡±

    ¡°Normal?¡± Irwyn paused.

    ¡°Well, I am presuming they are not so¡­ golden most of the time?¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Irwyn had, in fact, himself forgotten that his eyes were nowadays perpetually golden. ¡°No one else seemed even surprised.¡±

    ¡°It is a mild change comparatively. Just magic,¡± Kalista shrugged. ¡°I am more interested in how you got so buff.¡±

    ¡°Just magic,¡± Irwyn shrugged right back.

    ¡°Very funny,¡±

    ¡°No, seriously,¡± Irwyn shook his head, flexing an arm slightly. ¡°I have been like this for literally less than a week.¡±

    ¡°That is such crap,¡± Kalista cursed. ¡°How much must that cost?¡±

    ¡°No clue,¡± Irwyn admitted. ¡°Turns out unfathomable riches obscures such meagre concerns as cost.¡±

    ¡°Must be nice,¡± she sighed.

    ¡°An all-inclusive vacation in a City Black mansion at no cost is nice, true,¡± Irwyn sagely nodded.

    ¡°Ugh,¡± she grunted and squinted at Irwyn.

    ¡°Shame I did not have the time to visit the spas¡­ or whatever the upper crust does to relax.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s just go back before you make my blood boil.¡±

    ¡°Envy is unhealthy,¡± Irwyn still nodded and so they went.

    When they returned the room seemed rather quiet, though the mood was quickly revived by Waylan jabbing about ¡®the incredible difficulty of getting towels quickly¡¯. Kalista immediately used that as an excuse to leave the cleaning of vomit to their sneak and nestled next to Rainer again. The clean-up was not that difficult and quickly over with. Although Aaron remained pale and out of sorts, he appeared fine enough. The conversation quickly returned to the ring which had led him to that state.

    ¡°The obvious next step is for me to try it on,¡± Kalista raised the ring above her head so that everyone could see.

    ¡°Aaron just barfed his guts out over it,¡± Maxim pointed out

    ¡°Well, we have to see if it¡¯s just Aaron or the Honing in general, right?¡± Kalista shrugged.

    ¡°And you read by example,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°But it seems to me like that ain¡¯t happening, is it?¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s not,¡± Rainer said, easily snatching the ring from Kalista with nigh inhuman dexterity. ¡±You are already lightheaded from Irwyn being too bright.¡±

    ¡°That is not actually an insult,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°Do me a solid and take it as one anyway?¡± Rainer smiled, moving the ring across his fingers with almost hypnotizing speed.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have¡­¡± Kalista started, but before she could even finish her sentence Rainer had already put the ring on.

    ¡°We should have brought a bucket first,¡± Maxim observed as Rainer paused. The young man stared blankly for a moment, then grimaced, heaved backwards and¡­

    ¡°Just messing with you,¡± ¡­laughed at the top of his lungs. ¡°Yep, I am totally fine. It¡¯s just Aaron being too smart to be even smarter, I guess. This thing is nice.¡±

    ¡°Who do you think you were fooling?¡± Kalista just scoffed.

    ¡°Not convincing enough for you?¡±

    ¡°Please! If you were actually going to puke you would have turned away,¡± she grinned. ¡°After all, we both know full well what would happen if you ruined my dress.¡±

    ¡°Noted for the next time I play out violent sickness,¡± Rainer muttered.

    ¡°How are you feeling?¡± Irwyn inquired.

    ¡°I am¡­ thinking faster?¡± Rainer shrugged. ¡°Not feeling particularly smarter though. I suppose with this I can make stupid decisions with unmatched speed.¡±

    ¡°Give it over,¡± Kalista moved to snatch the ring and was not stopped, then put it on. ¡°Oooooh, this is nice.¡±

    ¡°Are we doing rounds now?¡± Waylan asked. ¡°I am also curious.¡±

    ¡°Have at it,¡± Kalista quickly removed it and threw it Waylan¡¯s way¡­ missing severely.

    ¡°You would think that seeing exactly where you are throwing would make you better at it,¡± Irwyn grinned.

    ¡°I am sure you have a perfect pitch,¡± Kalista shot back.

    ¡°Don¡¯t say that or he will try to sing,¡± Waylan grunted, putting the ring on. ¡°Yeah, feels convenient.¡±

    ¡°Pass it over,¡± Maxim nodded. ¡°Where did you even get it?¡±

    ¡°A gift from Old Crow, actually,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°Delivered by Waylan, even.¡±

    ¡°I knew I should have rummaged through the package,¡± Waylan grimaced as he handed the ring over to Maxim.

    ¡°And you just what, don¡¯t need it?¡± Kalista inclined her head. ¡°It sounds really useful for magic.¡±

    ¡°It was seemingly obtained before it became clear that I would grow so close to House Blackburg,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°And the Duke¡¯s family has deeper pockets than we can fathom.¡±

    ¡°So Irwyn¡¯s ¡®friend¡¯,¡± Waylan said. ¡°Apparently offered to just get him a better one upon being unimpressed with this.¡±

    ¡°Pretty much,¡± Irwyn admitted.

    ¡°Damn. Maxim, you need to go seduce a Blackburg too,¡± Kalista cursed.

    ¡°Can¡¯t exactly turn myself into an actual mage, can I?¡± Maxim just shrugged with good humor. ¡°If Irwyn is anything to go by, looks are not exactly the way to go.¡±

    ¡°Hurtful,¡± Irwyn smiled.

    ¡°And trueeeee,¡± Waylan laughed.

    ¡°So, how did you actually meet your ¡®friend¡¯,¡± Kalista winked.

    ¡°Surprisingly enough, Old Crow arranged some kind of a meeting,¡± which Irwyn ignored. ¡°I am not exactly sure how but he seems to have some kind of line to the Duke¡­ or at least someone close enough.¡±

    ¡°Or maybe it just has to do with these,¡± Aaron suggested, pulling up his sleeve. For a moment nothing was visible¡­ then a black mark bubbled to the surface right in the middle between the wrist and elbow. And, to his surprise, Irwyn realized it was tangibly magical. Weak, or perhaps just heavily concealed, but surely belonging to the Void.

    ¡°This is?¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°Old Crow¡¯s parting gift,¡± Rainer explained. ¡°He said that the Guild was due reparations after Alira¡¯s rampage and he was the only Fowl left in the city at he time.¡±

    ¡°Supposedly it marks us as Blackburg assets,¡± Kalista nodded. ¡°Except no one knows whose assets exactly. Because there isn¡¯t actually anyone who recruited us.¡±

    ¡°But if anyone who can track these found out and questioned it, they would just be told they are not qualified to learn that information,¡± Aaron smiled at that. ¡°And no one actually important spends any time in Ebon Respite¡­ well, until now, I suppose.¡±

    ¡°You are diverting,¡± Kalista complained. ¡°How. Did. You. Meet?¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not exactly a short story,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°I might as well talk about everything after leaving for context.¡±

    ¡°We have time,¡± Aaron shrugged. ¡°Start from the beginning.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn nodded. got seated, and talked. And talked and talked and talked¡­

 3.22 Technically a war council

    Irwyn only left the orphanage after hours, deep into the night, when Kalista decided that it was way past the time they needed to herd the children to sleep. He had to promise he would visit again soon and Waylan chose to stay - at least for the moment. Aaron promised to keep a closer look at the undercurrents of the underworld and any sign of the undead and would send their sneak friend over if anything urgent happened. He also hinted they would be able to do more with a degree of ''sanction''.

    The only other notable thing was perhaps Narcinia freaking out when she finally internalized that Irwyn and Waylan were back - which Irwyn exacerbated by increasing and lowering the shine of his eyes throughout their conversation. He felt a bit bad about it afterwards given how good of a dinner the girl had cooked.

    Irwyn had no trouble finding the way back to the army¡¯s camp even in the darkness. The sentries were more of a problem as they did not recognize Irwyn. He ended up spending several minutes in a futile struggle to convince them that he was not undead trying to deceive one of them into leaving to get someone higher up - mostly by pointing out how extraordinarily inefficient such a plan would be given neither of the soldiers were mages. He never managed to get through to the men, though the abnormality was spotted and someone a notch more important came to investigate, immediately recognizing Irwyn.

    The Sergeant in charge of the night watch was blatantly far less than pleased at the unannounced return though even more clearly did not dare blow up in the face of someone they had seen shadowing the company¡¯s new Captain¡­ Irwyn opted for politeness and promised to be ¡®more mindful of proper protocol in the future¡¯ after apologizing, which seemed to calm the man greatly. And Irwyn did mean that: He had always harassed Waylan about following their own protocols for safety''s sake, only to break the army ones on the very first day. It was at the very least embarrassing and needless. Irwyn decided he would damn well learn the whole manual the next day before finally going to sleep.

    In the morning he was actually woken up by Elizabeth knocking on his door with an invitation for breakfast and tea. They ate at the large table of the ground floor¡¯s meeting room. The camp had a few dedicated cooks, though the quality was a bit of a letdown for both of them. Perhaps Irwyn was just getting spoiled by chef-made cuisine - at least the tea was exemplar.

    ¡°You usually wake up on your own around dawn,¡± Elizabeth noted.

    ¡°I usually also go to sleep sooner,¡± he sighed. ¡°I got absorbed in conversation and arrived quite late.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I know, you tripped about six separate alarms when entering the building,¡± she nodded. "My fault as well in not keying you into them properly."

    ¡°We have alarms?¡± Irwyn paused.

    ¡°Obviously,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Do you think the undead don¡¯t deploy assassins? This building has magical tripwires everywhere, bound to notify me.¡±

    ¡°I have not felt anything, though,¡± he frowned. ¡°And this company does not have any actual conception mages, right?¡±

    ¡°My personal place of residence for what could be months was not warded by our mediocre enchanters, Irwyn,¡± she shook her head. ¡°A proper professional made them. This place is built to hold off even Ravener¡¯s long enough for reinforcements from City Black to come.¡±

    ¡°Would those not just¡­ wait for you to leave the building?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Not all undead keep that much of their sanity. Or patience,¡± she shrugged. ¡°The whispers of the Betrayed drive them mad, stroking their hatred of the living until it sometimes boils over, suppressing reason. There are records of Named Liches acting hastily in bloodlust.¡±

    ¡°I always wondered whether these ¡®whispers¡¯ are literal,¡± Irwyn asked. ¡°The Book of the Name mentions them a few times in reference to the undead, though it is never elaborated on.¡±

    ¡°There are accounts of people not being immediately subverted by undeath,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Mostly very senior inquisitors being hastily raised in the middle of major battles and then turning on their defilers. I think there used to also be a monk monastery famous for remaining clear-minded past undeath, though they were wiped out centuries ago. These people, before being put to true death, have repeatedly accounted for an actual incessant voice compelling them to destroy everything. It is widely believed that this voice is heard by all undead and belongs directly to the Betrayer.¡±

    ¡°Just those raised ¡®hastily¡¯?¡± Irwyn noticed the specification.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t think Liches like disobedience in the souls they conscript for their cause. If any such cases happen when the necromancers have the Time to cut them into shape, they obviously don¡¯t get recorded. You mustn''t forget that anyone important or powerful enough is bound by very potent oaths and other countermeasures against being raised. Only the strongest of Liches would be able to circumvent those in the first place.¡±

    ¡°Sounds nasty,¡± Irwyn nodded. It made sense to him. They had used something similar in Abonisle even on their level.

    ¡°How was your reunion?¡± Elizabeth changed the direction.

    ¡°It has only been three months since I left, yet a lot has changed,¡± Irwyn summarized. ¡°It feels like much longer whenever I think back on it. But friends are friends, I suppose?¡±

    ¡°Tell me more about it?¡± she asked, and so Irwyn did. He attempted to recount moments without the proper context, struggling to relay what they had been to him - and failing. Well, it did kill time if nothing else.

    ¡°I think my officers are arriving,¡± Elizabeth paused Irwyn as he was ending a short rant about Waylan¡¯s targeted and continuous mutilation of all that is idiom.

    ¡°Yes, I can feel,¡± Irwyn nodded. Mages were approaching the building, seven in total. Soon enough they began to file in as Elizabeth stood up, Irwyn immediately following her example. By the time everyone had walked in - surprisingly enough all carrying clip boards, and obviously in uniforms - Irwyn remained the only person on the same side of the large table as their Captain.

    He had actually remembered to study the military hierarchy since his time in Abonisle, therefore Iwryn could count the ranks in the small crowd. In total, they numbered four Lieutenants and three Sergeants. The latter being a whole rank lower implied that the present trio was somehow outside the usual structure - and the night watch sergeant from that very early morning being among them only reinforced that. They were each in their more advanced years, though not old old. Also, all were mages wielding intentions rather than concepts, most attuned to the Void.

    ¡°As you well know by now, I am Elizabeth von Blackburg,¡± the heiress opened. ¡°I will be your Captain for the duration of our deployment in Ebon Respite. Next to me is Irwyn¡­¡±

    ¡°Pleasure,¡± he nodded as she beckoned.

    ¡°You may consider him my right hand,¡± she said. ¡°He acts at his discretion with my confidence in regular matters. You may each introduce yourselves now.¡±

    ¡°Lieutenant Schwartz,¡± the first man introduced themselves, though Irwyn was rather confident he was going to forget. Well, he had some doubts about how important it was for him specifically to remember ¨C the man looking extremely plain did not help. ¡°I lead the First Platoon, specialized in urban warfare.¡±

    ¡°Lieutenant Blackadder, commanding the Second Platoon. We are best at trench and defensive battles,¡± the man had a mustache and strong eyebrows.

    ¡°Lieutenant Mattador, the Third Platoon. Reconnaissance and moving battles,¡± a cut ear was the most notable feature Irwyn could notice.

    ¡°Lieutenant Blackhill,¡± notably the only woman besides Elizabeth. More notably, her face and what little skin the uniform exposed were covered in scars. ¡°I direct the Penal Platoon.¡±

    ¡°Sergeant Trecha,¡± said a man with a beard and mustache merging into one. He also had a distinct feel of Time/Space magic on his person. ¡°I am in charge of the logistics squad, plus the adjacent scribes.¡±

    ¡°Sergeant Izeres,¡± the night watch sergeant spoke. ¡°I manage in-camp security.¡±

    ¡°Sergeant Hiera,¡± the last man introduced himself. Irwyn noted that he was by far the best in the officer group at restraining their own mana and seemed overall rather detached. ¡°I lead a small elite squad outside the usual structure, should your Ladyship ever need to deploy us.¡±

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    ¡°With introductions out of the way, best we start by addressing the most immediate concerns and establishing our overall strategy,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°As you may have guessed, I am behind on paperwork and procedure given my delayed arrival. If there is anything that should be addressed right away, best we speak of it now.¡±

    ¡°If I may your Ladyship,¡± Blackhill, the woman in charge of the Penal Platoon, spoke up. ¡°Am I right to assume the individual you have removed from my care is to remain as such?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Elizabeth nodded, not needing to even glance at Irwyn. ¡°They may yet help us through Irwyn, but in a less official capacity either way.¡±

    ¡°In that case,¡± she nodded back, taking out two sheets of paper from her clipboard, then placing them on the table. ¡°I have prepared the forms for a pardon by your authority and a release from conscription. Just needing your signature and filling.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Lieutenant,¡± Elizabeth inclined her head, though left the papers lie for the moment. ¡°Anything else?¡±

    ¡°I have a¡­ concern I would rather first attempt to solve unofficially,¡± Trecha, the logistical Sergeant said hesitantly after a few seconds of silence from the others.

    ¡°Speak then,¡± Elizabeth beckoned.

    ¡°A young but very talented mage has been assigned to my care,¡± Trecha nodded. ¡°However, she experiences what I can only call existential anguish. Should no remedies be made soon, I fear our first casualty may be to suicide.¡±

    ¡°There are procedures for that,¡± Blackhill immediately pointed out, frowning.

    ¡°Which leave marks on their record, for decades and perhaps even centuries,¡± Trecha shook his head. ¡°Hence why I would, with her Ladyship¡¯s leave, at least attempt to resolve this without involving a committee and heavy-handed specialists.¡±

    ¡°If said attempts produce no clear results or this mage¡¯s condition worsens, you will not hesitate to follow the necessary protocol,¡± Elizabeth thought for a few moments before allowing the officer¡¯s plea.

    ¡°Of course, I have prepared her dossier,¡± Trecha nodded, presenting the relatively thin file to Elizabeth. Irwyn glanced at it with idle curiosity¡­ Then paused and focused fully on the picture.

    There, a bit more disheveled was a familiar face. More than that: Recognizable. Irwyn could put names to few faces but this one... he had not forgotten. Irwyn was quite certain he was looking at a picture of Alice, the young heiress to Steelmire whom he had met alongside her artificer father in Abonisle.

    ¡°Something the matter?¡± Elizabeth had noticed his slight shift.

    ¡°I recognize her, your Ladyship,¡± Irwyn frowned, his mind spinning but not forgetting to remain polite. He knew that Steelmire had been destroyed, supposedly wiped out to the last child. Yet the girl was clearly alive¡­ barring undeath. But an infiltrator would not act so disturbed as to be singled out. But then, it could also be a girl who just happened to not be in Steelmire when disaster struck¡­ while her entire family likely had been.

    ¡°Is that so? From where?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Her exact identity might be sensitive,¡± Irwyn thought through his words. ¡°I would rather err on the side of caution with discretion.¡±

    ¡°Then we can discuss this in private later,¡± Elizabeth affirmed. ¡°I will let you know soon Sergeant, though I expect a familiar face may be welcome.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, your ladyship,¡± Trecha nodded, glancing at Irwyn cautiously.

    ¡°Then if there is nothing else,¡± Elizabeth paused and only continued when no one had another issue to raise. ¡°We need to get on the same page on what this company will be doing in Ebon Respite.¡±

    ¡°We are supposed to suppress any arising undead threat,¡± Blackhill stated the obvious.

    ¡°There is no point in denying that this close to City Black we are not performing a glamorous duty,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Though we are not likely to actually encounter any undead, I expect the company to perform adequately enough so that I can give out any reasonable commendation and we can all move on when time comes. Hence, we must be on the same page on the methods.¡±

    ¡°The third platoon is the best trained for searching, Your Ladyship¡± the mentioned platoon¡¯s Lieutenant spoke out.

    ¡°Not necessarily in an urban setting,¡± Schwartz shook his head. ¡°The first specializes in tight streets and from what I have seen of this city the architecture would test even the best doctrine. Our scouts require actual experience for that.¡±

    ¡°Is there any point in patrolling at all?¡± Blackadder - whom Irwyn was intently trying not to mix up with Blackhill - spoke up. ¡°My second platoon is best dug in, waiting for an attack.¡±

    ¡°The Penals cannot be let loose into the city, obviously,¡± Blackhill added. ¡°They will be staying in camp where I can see them until we know of an actual undead force.¡±

    ¡°Ebon Respite is far too large to feasibly patrol with our numbers,¡± Irwyn pointed out the obvious. ¡°Why not outsource information gathering?¡±

    ¡°To whom?¡± Blackhill asked.

    ¡°I have connections in the city¡¯s underbelly,¡± Irwyn vaguely admitted. ¡°It would be the lowest of the low who should be first targeted by any potential undead trying to be insidious. The people no one would miss or notice being gone, except each other. I say we ask for eyes to be kept out.¡±

    ¡°And the price?¡± Trecha immediately questioned.

    ¡°All things are negotiable,¡± Irwyn said as he had no idea. Aaron had provisionally agreed to keep an ear on the city¡¯s dead nerve endings but they had not exactly talked money during their reunion. And of course, with more resources more could be learned - not to mention Irwyn wouldn¡¯t want to pay his friends less than they were worth but rather the opposite.

    ¡°Budget can be discussed. Or expanded, if need be,¡± Elizabeth said and there was no discussion in that direction after that.

    ¡°Patrol our immediate surroundings, then prepare search squads for any potential discovery,¡± Schwartz suggested. ¡°Mixed squads, first and third.¡±

    ¡°We will need to start training them to work together. Today, if possible,¡± Matt¡­ Matt something said. It¡¯s been just minutes! Irwyn wanted to curse. He would need to ask for a name list at least, then study it. ¡°But it is agreeable.¡±

    ¡°Do so then,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Lieutenant Blackadder and his platoon can, in the meantime, focus on being prepared to use their expertise of need be. For everything else operate as you usually would. I do not expect perfect cohesion in a week but aim in that direction. Thank you for your time, anything else?" No one spoke up. "dismissed.¡±

    What followed was a round of bowing and polite goodbyes before the group indeed left.

    ¡°The girl?¡± Elizabeth asked when everyone was safely out of earshot.

    ¡°I am quite sure she is the preferred heiress to Steelmire or something along those lines,¡± Irwyn nodded, glancing at the file which Elizabeth opened up again. "I have met her briefly in Abonisle."

    ¡°Steelmire was obliterated,¡± Elizabeth frowned.

    ¡°So I have heard,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°This doesn¡¯t mention such an affiliation,¡± her frown deepened, staring at the dossier. ¡°Rather, it has a completely different background. But you are sure.¡±

    ¡°I do not remember most faces,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°But I think I would not mistake the few I do. They are people who left impressions.¡±

    ¡°And she had?¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Well, perhaps not just her, but the day was notable,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°It was when you had temporarily left the city. She came to Abonisle with her father, I think I mentioned Hen Daut.¡±

    ¡°I read a report, yes,¡± Elizabeth nodded, biting her lip. ¡°It only mentioned that the man had submitted he would be traveling with his apprentice.¡±

    ¡°Is it that easy to lie when traveling by teleportation?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow at that.

    ¡°I don¡¯t run the duchy¡¯s intelligence network or any sort of inspection,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°I would assume my mother would have known, or at least one of her subordinates would have - could be it was a discreet agreement¡­ but I obviously do not double-check every smidgen of paperwork I come upon with her.¡±

    ¡°What do we do about this, then?¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°I can see why she would take on a fake identity but it is only a matter of time until someone else makes the connection.¡±

    ¡°Assuming my mother already hasn¡¯t and this isn¡¯t some kind of long-winded ploy of throwing her my way,¡± Elizabeth sighed, looking back at the dossier. ¡°It passed the recruitment criteria, I suppose, so the forgery cannot be completely paper thin at least.¡±

    ¡°How likely is it that this is the Duchess¡¯ doing?¡± Irwyn questioned. If he had not met the Duchess himself he would have thought it just paranoia. Now he was genuinely wondering.

    ¡°Hard to tell with what little I know,¡± Elizabeth sighed again, wearier. ¡°How good is she?¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± Irwyn thought back. They had competed, briefly. Restrained in a game sure, but it was something. She had used¡­ around a dozen two-intention constructs? Thereabouts. The math from that was not hard. ¡°When I met her I think she was close to achieving four intentions.¡±

    ¡°And she is our age as well,¡± Elizabeth paused. ¡°Well, I suppose the heiress to Steelmire would have to be a genius by the usual standards. What element does she wield.¡±

    ¡°Time,¡± Irwyn replied. ¡°I had neither sensed nor seen anything else. And I am not the best judge of skill since I have scarcely ever met any other such mages.¡±

    ¡°A prodigious Time mage, huh,¡± Elizabeth bit her lip. ¡°What did you think of her? As a person, I mean.¡±

    ¡°We have not talked too much,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°A bit arrogant and naive, I suppose? Competitive. Though she must have shifted somewhat given her trauma. She seemed rather cheerful and careless before, for one.¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± Elizabeth hummed, thinking. ¡°What do you think we should do then?¡±

    ¡°Well, checking up on her does sound simple enough to do,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°After that? I do not think I honestly care that much.¡±

    ¡°If possible, Irwyn,¡± she spoke hesitantly. ¡°I would like you to try to recruit her to my banner.¡±

    ¡°What happened to ¡®not making allies¡¯?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow slightly.

    ¡°With Steelmire gone, its inheritor wouldn¡¯t have enough connections to be considered ¡®threatening¡¯ as politics reckon such things,¡± she sighed, then hesitated again. ¡°I hope you won¡¯t think less of me for it, but my reasons are rather calloused.¡±

    ¡°People get used,¡± Irwyn just shrugged at that. ¡°I dislike needless cruelty, Elizabeth, but I will not draw a line at using basically strangers.¡±

    ¡°Alright. The reason I want her is twofold,¡± Elizabeth nodded, her gaze sharpening. ¡°First of all, she is a talented Time mage. Having such on retainer is incredibly convenient. If she progresses her magic far enough in the future, having an established relationship with her could spare us a lot of problems.¡±

    ¡°I suppose teleportation does sound convenient,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Not just that Irwyn,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°Transportation, safekeeping, preservation of items, warding against offensive Time magics. Mages like her excel at all those and more.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡±

    ¡°Secondly, there is a good chance my mother will attempt to investigate Steelmire and what happened there more closely,¡± Elizabeth resumed. ¡°At such time, if Alice is already staunchly following us, my mother would need to bribe me into allowing interrogation. Which is why I hope you can obtain Alice for me.¡±

    ¡°Well, I can try, but I am not exactly an adept recruiter.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to be,¡± Elizabeth shook her head with a strange smile. There was a shred of pity in it, though certainly not for Irwyn. ¡°She is a young girl who has lost everything. All you need to do is be comforting, understanding. Offer a helping hand from the quicksand of despair. Then bring her to me. I never excelled at those lessons, Irwyn, but I am still my mother¡¯s daughter.¡±

 3.23 A homeless girl

    Irwyn found Trecha, the supply Sergeant, in the building dedicated to the logistical squad and their adjacent personnel. The setup was a bit different than Elizabeth¡¯s abode, even though the buildings seemed outwardly the same. A stark change was immediately apparent on entry though: The bottom floor was not an open meeting room, rather, it was dedicated to many individual cubicles on each side with a small area in the middle looking like something between a waiting room and a communal rest space. It was there that Trecha awaited him.

    ¡°Sergeant,¡± Irwyn greeted. He was not the only man on the floor, though most of the surrounding cubicles were occupied by manaless scribes, or notaries, or whatever the correct term was in the army.

    ¡°Irwyn,¡± Trecha nodded back. ¡°I expected you would take longer to deliberate with her Ladyship. I barely got back myself.¡±

    ¡°I may have made my concerns sound more serious than they are,¡± Irwyn smiled. ¡°As I said, better to err on the side of caution.¡±

    ¡°So, you will try to help?¡± Trecha asked, hopeful. It was almost strange the man would be bothered so much for Alice considering it was unlikely they had known each other for long.

    ¡°We have met before on good terms,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Perhaps not the closest acquaintances, but a familiar face might be what she needs. Either way, I will try.¡±

    ¡°Whatever you think might work,¡± the man nodded. ¡°I truly wish we could at the very least make her somewhat better before getting mind mages involved. Adjusting dark thoughts is exponentially less damaging to one¡¯s career than¡­ despair.¡±

    ¡°You seem very¡­ caring,¡± Irwyn spoke. Then paused. ¡°That sounded cynical, did it not?¡±

    ¡°A bit,¡± Trecha laughed politely. ¡°An old friend pulled some strings to have her assigned under my command. Looking after her and her career is the least I can do, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°I will not argue with that,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°The second floor is the bedrooms, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, she would be in her own,¡± Trecha nodded. ¡°I will bring you.¡±

    ¡°I can only feel one presence on the second floor,¡± Irwyn said. Two more mages were also at the very top level of the building. ¡°I will find my own way, thank you.¡±

    ¡°You can feel through the floor?¡± Trecha paused. ¡°It should be enchanted against that.¡±

    ¡°It is not too hard,¡± Irwyn frowned. It was trivially easy, actually. ¡°The mana in Ebon Respite is so thin. Most mages shine like candles in the night.¡±

    ¡°Well... I suppose an ordinary mage would not be the right-hand man of her Ladyship,¡± Trecha smiled. ¡°Go then, please, see if you can stir something.¡±

    ¡°I will do my best,¡± Irwyn nodded and headed up past the Sergeant. The end of the room had a stairway leading to a second floor almost identical to the one in Elizabeth¡¯s building. Six bedrooms in the middle and a hallway on the edges of the room. It was not hard to track Alice¡¯s presence to hers.

    There was no reply when Irwyn first knocked at the door. Nor the second, nor the third. He might have doubted Alice was inside at all if he did not feel her magic. It was scarcely restrained after all.

    ¡°Alice, are you awake?¡± he said, softly but loud enough to be heard through the door, ¡°We need to talk.¡±

    There was quiet again after that, the presence inside frozen in place for a few more seconds¡­ but just as Irwyn was considering trying something else it moved. Sluggish - draggingly. From within the room to the door before the handle leaned down ¨C then even slower the door opened.

    Alice looked terrible. There was simply no other way to put it. In the picture Irwyn had seen in the file she had looked more worn than he had recalled, yet it failed to encompass the extent of it standing before him. It wasn¡¯t that she looked sick - perhaps only the deep circles beneath her eyes did. It was the¡­ stillness of it. Hair uneven and unkempt, chewed and overgrown in places - all of it disheveled. The stale stench, not of decay but of a body unwashed, room uncleaned. Stained clothes with several small torn holes that couldn¡¯t have all been recent. Eyes drooping, tired to the point of exhaustion yet failing to find respite when they shut - glancing into emptiness for too long moments.

    ¡°You are¡­ Irwyn,¡± it took her solid 20 seconds after opening the door to register she had a visitor as Irwyn observed in silence. At least she recognized him.

    ¡°Hello, Alice,¡± Irwyn nodded. She appeared to somewhat stir at the mention of her own name. ¡±It¡¯s been a while. May I come in?¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± she stared straight through him and did not move.

    ¡°Alice, may I come in?¡± Irwyn asked again.

    ¡°Okay,¡± she nodded, then paused. After a few seconds she did indeed step back though, allowing Irwyn entry.

    The room was no less of a mess than it had seemed at first glance. It was built similarly to Irwyn¡¯s own, though almost unrecognizable from it. From the dirty clothes strewn around to unattended stains, Irwyn would hesitate to walk through the room without boots given the improvised caltrops omnipresent across the floor. Alice though just returned to her bed and collapsed. Not daring to try anything else, Irwyn summoned himself a chair of Light after closing the door.

    ¡°You don¡¯t seem in the best state,¡± he tried.

    ¡°Hmm.¡±

    ¡°Do you need help?¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± she remained face plunged into the pillows.

    ¡°Alice, can you hear me?¡±

    ¡°Hmm.¡±

    ¡°Alice.¡±

    ¡°Hmm?¡± that was at least close enough to recognition of sorts.

    ¡°Alice, speak to me,¡± he urged. The Name seemed to work somewhat.

    ¡°About what?¡± she moved her head from the pillow at last, facing Irwyn at least somewhat before grunting.

    ¡°Anything.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Just speak to me, Alice.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to,¡± she closed her eyes again.

    ¡°Speak to me, or speak at all?¡±

    ¡°Hmmm.¡±

    ¡°Alice. Silence will not make you better.¡±

    ¡°Speaking won¡¯t either,¡± she grunted, then turned away from Irwyn.

    ¡°It might,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°So try. For your own sake.¡±

    ¡°Not worth the effort.¡±

    ¡°So, you want to just wallow in pain forever?¡±

    ¡°Hmm.¡±

    ¡°Alice!¡±

    ¡°Not forever,¡± she turned to him again. ¡°It has to end at some point.¡±

    ¡°So, you are just waiting for death?¡± Irwyn frowned despite himself.

    ¡°Death comes for everyone.¡±

    ¡°Those are the words of necromancers; they do not fit you.¡±

    ¡°Well, they are also surrounded by ghosts,¡± she shrugged, ever so slightly.

    ¡°Last I have seen you, Alice, you were beaming, full of life,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°I don¡¯t believe all of that just up and left.¡±

    ¡°Why not?!¡± she raised her voice, snapping. ¡°It just happens Irwyn. It¡¯s there, then it¡¯s gone!¡±

    ¡°Perhaps with some things,¡± Irwyn carefully nodded. ¡°But does it have to happen to you?¡±

    ¡°Why not?¡± she closed her eyes again. ¡°Who cares anymore?¡±

    ¡°I do,¡± he lied. ¡°We have not known each other long but I like to think we were friends.¡±

    ¡°Too bad for you, I guess,¡± she did not open them again.

    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°Alice,¡± Irwyn kept calling out.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°You cannot just stay like that,¡± he argued.

    ¡°Yes. Yes, I can,¡± she replied, then turned away once more, eyes still closed.

    And what was Irwyn supposed to do? He was not great at this. What was the right thing to say, and what words would burn beyond repair? What was apparent to him though that his approach so far was not getting him anywhere. At least not at a tangible pace. It was fine enough at getting his foot through the door but he was stuck. So, he decided to risk more.

    ¡°Is that what your family would have wanted for you?¡± he thought of Hen Daut. He seemed loving of his daughter at the very least. Hopefully pulling at that string would not snap it. ¡°To just decay in a grave of your own choice?¡±

    ¡°SHUT UP!¡± then there was not even a pause, just a surge. Alice snapped around and attacked. Time magic was fast, fueled by a spike of rage and, of all things, five intentions. Irwyn had no time to think about that though beyond registering it before the spell collided with his barrier. It was some kind of wave attempting to displace matter with different nearby matter in close proximity - at least as far as Irwyn could tell. On air, the effect was barely visible, though Irwyn assumed it would shred through flesh or stone¡­ or anything that relied on structural integrity, really. Irwyn¡¯s shield held without a problem given that it was also built from 5 intentions, even if one was invisibility - it peeled away the outermost specs of mana from his shield, shoving them haphazardly to the sides¡­ where Irwyn could just reabsorb all of it back into the spell. The Time magic did not seem suited to breaking purely magical barriers in the least and dissipated quickly.

    ¡°Am I wrong?¡± Irwyn''s calm voice belied his spiking adrenaline - he had not expected to be attacked, whatsoever, much less by something this powerful. He was also pretty sure someone else would have noticed that. Trecha at the very least. Indeed, a second later the man¡¯s presence was moving, as well as one of the two mages from upstairs.

    ¡°Oh. Oh no,¡± instead of answering she jumped upright, right out of the bed, approaching Irwyn which made him tense¡­ but she was summoning no more magic and paling even further at visible rate, so he did not try to stop her. ¡°Are you alright? I am so sorry!¡±

    ¡°I am quite fine,¡± Irwyn nodded, not moving. But he did summon a sign of Light saying ¡®stay out¡¯ just outside the door. After a split-second of consideration, he decided to make it not all that hard to magically perceive - Alice was unlikely to catch it right away.

    ¡°But¡­¡± in part because she was staring at him in startled shock and simultaneously on the brink of tears. It was like her brain worked on several seconds of delay for most things, leaving her dumbfounded at Irwyn¡¯s lack of mortal wounds. She paused to process what she was actually seeing. ¡°...It didn¡¯t touch you.¡±

    ¡°I have gotten into a habit of always having a barrier active,¡± Irwyn nodded, then decided it best she was not left to interpret that as a sign of distrust. ¡°I have lived through the undead incursion in Abonisle and it has left¡­ paranoia if nothing else.¡±

    ¡°I am so sorry; I didn¡¯t mean to!¡± she properly burst into tears. And Irwyn felt pity at all the hurt coursing through the girl as well as a pang of guilt at the part of his brain that whispered this was progress. He snuffed it out.

    ¡°Don¡¯t think anything of it,¡± he smiled, the best he could ¨C and Irwyn could fake a smile well. He simultaneously silently replicated the privacy bubble he had improvised the night prior. Irwyn wished he had a proper spell for it with incantation and all ¨C there was no guarantee the Time mages would not try to listen in. ¡°You have clearly been through far worse than me.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know what to do Irwyn,¡± she fell back into bed sobbing. ¡°They killed everyone. I couldn¡¯t believe it. I still don¡¯t want to. Why?!¡±

    ¡°I cannot know,¡± Irwyn said slowly. The two mages who had noticed were outside the room now, though not entering - and the last one was coming, attracted by the commotion. Irwyn dimmed the sign¡¯s magic a bit, no need to risk that Alice might notice it when its purpose had already been served. ¡°All I have heard was that it was an Undead ambush.¡±

    ¡°That is a lie,¡± she sobbed again. ¡°A dirty lie.¡±

    ¡°I can only repeat what I have heard,¡± Irwyn said slowly.

    ¡°They said that would be the story, and it is,¡± she shuddered. ¡°They did that and they are getting away with it. Fuck.¡±

    ¡°They¡­¡± Irwyn couldn¡¯t help but ask.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, I couldn¡¯t see them. I hid and listened, nothing else,¡± her tears returned twofold. Secrets she should probably really not be spilling to Irwyn flowed because of the desperate urge to just let it all out. ¡°Gran¡­ grandpa wouldn¡¯t tell me who they were. He was so afraid, Irwyn. He was never afraid before, but at just the thought of fighting that man, he was shaking. It had to be someone from the Duchies! Maybe even a Duke. No, it definitely had to be. No one else could beat him. No one, Irwyn.¡±

    ¡°You were there,¡± Irwyn realized. Nothing else made sense from how she spoke. That could have only made it worse.

    ¡°I hid as Grampa told me to. Then, when they began to fight he displaced me away. Hid any traces so that they couldn¡¯t follow me. Couldn¡¯t even know I had left. Had ever been there,¡± she sobbed less now, almost frantic in her retelling. ¡°I don¡¯t understand why Irwyn. Why? Then I woke up somewhere in the Duchy of Black.¡±

    ¡°If you were brought to the Duchy of Black, then it wasn¡¯t House Blackburg,¡± Irwyn speculated out loud on incomplete information. That was fine, he was just scrambling to convince his audience of one. ¡°It couldn¡¯t have been.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ you are right,¡± she nodded, seemingly accepting the flawed logic.

    ¡°But you are not safe,¡± Irwyn sighed, putting as much feeling as he could into it. ¡°I recognized you from a picture. I am not sure how you forged your identity and won¡¯t pry,¡± because there could be other people involved she would want to protect - a needless risk. ¡°But if I noticed this, it is only a matter of time until someone else does. And those people would know you were missing from Steelmire. They must be looking for you, even if they do not realize the full extend of your knowledge, they must want to be rid of any loose ends.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Alice paused, then panicked as if that possibility had never before crossed her mind. ¡°Oh, no. What am I supposed to do?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I might be able to help,¡± and he meant it. Even if it was under somewhat false pretenses, he doubted Alice had any better options anyway. ¡°I have a friend that could keep you safe.¡±

    ¡°Friend?¡± she repeated.

    ¡°She is an heiress to power,¡± Just like you were, though Irwyn was pretty sure saying that out loud would be a bad idea. The association though? He reckoned it was a good first brick on the foundation of trust. ¡°Just our age, but competent and a prodigious mage. I would trust her with my life.¡±

    ¡°It won¡¯t be enough,¡± Alice seemed to wilt as she chewed on the realization of her inevitable pursuers.

    ¡°Not to shield you directly, of course not,¡± Irwyn did not deny it. The girl had speculated an actual Duke might be involved. ¡°But she can hide you. Better than anyone I know. So, well that no matter where your enemies look they won¡¯t find a trace. Not a mention in paperwork, not a glance of your face. Well-connected enough that their pursuit will find no help from those who might understand more in this Duchy either.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± she stared at Irwyn then. And something too complex to parse flashed through her eyes. Her expression shifted into something Irwyn did not recognize.

    ¡°Are you willing?¡± he asked, serious expression. That was better than a smile when making the real offer. People expect a peddler''s smile to be fake, Old Crow would probably say. ¡°We can consider something else but nothing even comparable comes to mind.¡±

    ¡°For that which is bound, shall nevermore be found,¡± Alice quoted, suddenly entranced by her own words. Not a spell since she put no power into it, though perhaps it could have been. ¡°Thank you Irwyn, can you bring me to her?¡±

    Between those two sentences something in her tone had changed.

    <hr>

    The way back to Elizabeth¡¯s lair was both strange and mundane. Alice was strangely enough suddenly coherent. Almost fluent as she apologized to her squad mates for the commotion and her recent behavior. Irwyn explained that Elizabeth would like a word in person to make sure with her own eyes how Alice was doing, which no one dared gainsay. Sergeant Trecha just seemed genuinely glad the girl under his command appeared more alive.

    That would not be unexpected, except that Alice became¡­ strange. Not despairing or agonizing anymore. But she did not speak to Irwyn again who dared not interrupt her after getting this far. Yes, interrupt because the girl was muttering. Like a chant, those two sentences. Over and over and over again. Like a prayer:

    ¡°For that which is bound, shall nevermore be found.¡± ¡°For that which is bound, shall nevermore be found.¡±

    All the way until Elizabeth welcomed them to her building.

    Irwyn did not get to see what happened behind closed doors. Alice asked for him to not be present, strangely enough. At least she was far more¡­ clear-headed. He did get to hear it though. Irwyn played with the tiny plate, small enough to be invisible in a pocket. Yet the enchantment on it was layered so precisely and competently Irwyn could not feel it. But it was simple enough to use that a person did not even require mana for it.

    And through it, he could hear the two young women speaking. As had Elizabeth listened to his own conversation through the paired piece. An obvious measure to take since Elizabeth had guessed there might not be time to share information without losing the effect she sought.

    What was happening surpassed Irwyn¡¯s expectations wildly. The Alice that spoke was not the incoherent mess from a quarter-hour prior. She was suddenly refined. Fluent. Focused.

    ¡°Your Ladyship,¡± Alice spoke, tone polite.

    ¡°Alice,¡± Elizabeth greeted back, seemingly not letting the change in demeanor shake her. ¡°Please, call me Elizabeth if you like.¡±

    ¡°You must be from House Blakcburg, right?¡± Alice immediately asked. ¡°Irwyn carefully avoided speaking it, but that just means it has to be the case.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I am indeed,¡± Elizabeth admitted without hesitation. ¡°I am sure he had his reasons to be careful. I am Elizabeth von Blackburg, 5th in the line at the moment.¡±

    ¡°And you want me¡­ Because I fell into your lap like this, maybe, but you want me,¡± Alice¡¯s voice was a bit more frantic.

    ¡°I will not deny your talent entices,¡± Elizabeth replied, collected despite it all. ¡°And your existing acquaintance with Irwyn weights the scales further. Much can be forged at our age.¡±

    ¡°Good, good,¡± Alice chuckled slightly, sadly. ¡°I have to thank him. And you. If you haven¡¯t tried, I don¡¯t think I could have woken up.¡±

    ¡°I am not sure I understand,¡± Elizabeth said.

    ¡°That which is bound, shall nevermore be found,¡± Alice quoted again and this time there was more to it. Still not quite a spell but beyond just mere words.

    ¡°The Ring,¡± Elizabeth muttered, probably for Irwyn¡¯s benefit, though he could still not see it outside the room.

    ¡°I have forgotten about it in my self-pity,¡± Alice paused. ¡°But it remembers. It knows.¡±

    ¡°It is known the Chosen heir¡¯s ring of Steelmire is an artifact,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s speech was slower, wary. ¡°Thought I did not know it possessed intellect.¡±

    ¡°Because we hid it,¡± Alice laughed and sobbed in the same sentence. ¡°We gathered a great many secrets, even from the Duchies. And look what it had earned my family. The ring is screaming at me, even now, that you wish to add me to your banner. Whispering how to best slip from your grasp, or at least escape at the lowest cost.¡±

    ¡°And yet you are still here.¡±

    ¡°And yet I am still here,¡± Alice affirmed. ¡°Because what would I run to, Elizabeth? To what end? My family is gone, everything is dust. Just speaking of it I can feel it trying to crush me, even after I locked it in the Ring. I don¡¯t want to escape. I want just one thing.¡±

    ¡°Revenge,¡± Elizabeth guessed.

    ¡°Revenge,¡± and was right.

    ¡°It is not something I can offer as I am now,¡± Elizabeth admitted. ¡°Steelmire could not have been destroyed by meager foes.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t even know who erased Steelmire,¡± Alice laughed ever so slightly at that, sounding almost mad. ¡°But we are young, as you said. We have Time, centuries if need be. And you have Irwyn, who I know is so ridiculously talented - yet he would still call you prodigious. So, hide me, Elizabeth. Bind me to your banner, use me as you wish. But swear, upon the Mother in black and the Winder eternal. Swear that one day, whoever has destroyed my home will pay.¡±

 3.24 Tea, ring

    The next thing Irwyn knew, the three of them were enjoying tea by the ground floor¡¯s large table ¨C prepared by Elizabeth personally, he had noticed. Irwyn had summoned them chairs of solid Light as the noble girl ¡®caught him up¡¯ on the deal she had sworn. All inside Elizabeth¡¯s ebony black bubble of privacy, of course ¨C it would not do to be overheard. The retelling was exact and Irwyn played along ¨C pretending he was hearing it all for the first time. He would have thought it would be fine to tell Alice he had listened in¡­ but wasn¡¯t going to contradict Elizabeth on it.

    Alice¡¯s ring when it came up, which he was almost sure hadn¡¯t been there before, he had made sure to stare at it. A strange piece of jewelry: Seemingly merely silver without any gem nor other adorning, yet the carving of it was incredibly intricate. Like it was woven from thousands of metal latices rather than carved out of an ingot ¨C not to mention the seemingly haphazard patterns Irwyn was sure had to have some kind of deeper meaning he could not grasp. The enchantment too was beyond Irwyn''s ability to perceive, though it had to be there.

    ¡°An intelligent ring, though?¡± Irwyn shook his head, voicing his thoughts as soon as the opportunity presented itself. ¡°That is possible?¡±

    ¡°Rarely, objects might come to possess souls,¡± Alice explained. ¡°Mostly by coincidence¡­ but at times artifacts may obtain them long after their creation.¡±

    ¡°Is there a method to achieve that?¡± Irwyn questioned. It was his first time hearing it was a possibility at all.

    ¡°Not one anyone knows,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Perhaps if one were the Artificer but that Name, or similar, had never been claimed in our Realm. It is, at the very least, excruciatingly difficult - countless craftsmen of all fields have attempted to create a method and failed utterly. All cases I know of have been one off lucky breaks.¡±

    ¡°Steelmire¡¯s founder believed that praying to the ring and for the birth of a spirit within it would cause such a change,¡± Alice said. ¡°Be it luck or clairvoyance, he was proven right long after his own demise.¡±

    ¡°And it just lets you lock away negative emotions?¡± Irwyn asked, incredulously.

    ¡°It is not that uncommon of a magic,¡± Alice raised an eyebrow. ¡°The biggest advantage in this area is that the ring does so with next to no risk and without the need to involve a Soul mage.¡±

    ¡°Irwyn can be ignorant of matters of mages that we might consider common knowledge,¡± Elizabeth defended his ignorance. ¡°Though incredibly talented, he had spent most of his life so far... quite away from high society.¡±

    ¡°I will keep it in mind,¡± Alice nodded. ¡°Yes, such methods are expensive but not beyond reach for established powers¡­ thought when the process is performed by a mage it is intrusive and therefore avoided whenever possible."

    ¡°Well, I am usually not shy about asking,¡± Irwyn smiled at that. ¡°Why is involving a Soul mage so bad?¡±

    ¡°Because it gives them direct access to your Soul, obviously,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°They could implant new memories, create habits, conceal commands, and anything else you can imagine. It is difficult to give anyone that much trust. And all but the best specialists tend to pose a risk of¡­ side effects.¡±

    ¡°It is said a qualified Soul healer swims neck deep in corpses of those who allowed him to be now called ¡®qualified¡¯,¡± Alice nodded grimly. ¡°The brain is fragile and the soul is inconceivably complex. The larger the part the mage has to cut or replace, the harder it is to not break either in the process.¡±

    ¡°Well, that applies to most Soul mages - they require Souls to practice. But it is not nearly as macabre as Alice implies,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°The main reason the Duchy of White can support so many of them is their Alabaster Bastion.¡±

    ¡°I think I might have heard that name before,¡± Irwyn thought, then decided to take a big sip of the tea. It was scalding hot, though Irwyn did not burn and therefore did not mid. The taste was herbal, almost minty with an undertone of sweetness. Irwyn had to admit it was excellent.

    ¡°It¡¯s the White Duchy¡¯s equivalent of the ancestral palace of House Blackburg,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°Like we have the Voidways, they have halls where Blank souls perpetually manifest from some kind of great artifact or mayhaps even ancient Edict. Those can be bottled and distributed at a fraction of the price, skill, effort, and moral hindrances selling souls otherwise requires. It¡¯s a strategic resource at a scale no one can hope to compete with for nurturing their Soul mages.¡±

    ¡°I hear it¡¯s a gargantuan castle of white stone, overlooking City White from atop its perch on a cliff,¡± Alice smiled. ¡°I always wanted to see it.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not actually as high as people say,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Maybe half of what I would call ''gargantuan''. And the cliff¡¯s sheer rock is reinforced and enchanted to the point it might as well be considered part of the structure.¡±

    ¡°You have been??¡± Alice looked over with some excitement.

    ¡°The Duke of White has invited my family to his centennial celebration. I had gone along the delegation back then. Some 3 years ago.¡±

    ¡°What else did you see?¡± Alice¡¯s eyes were almost sparkling.

    ¡°I was not much for sightseeing,¡± Elizabeth said slowly, squirming a bit. ¡°Most of the day I had spent in the dinner hall which was not too extraordinary.¡±

    ¡°Not ¡®too extraordinary¡¯ by mortal standards or by your standards?¡± Irwyn jumped in.

    ¡°Alright, probably extraordinary for most people,¡± Elizabeth surrendered. ¡°It has not left that deep of an impression but I think the Duke built a Soul mirror on the ceiling, creating mists that left colored trails reflecting anyone walking on the ground level - the trail''s length and thickness depending on the person¡¯s Soul. The Duke of White basically took up a tenth of the whole ceiling when he was socializing. Actually, I think the Duke of Purple might still be holding a grudge over it.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡± Irwyn couldn¡¯t help but ask.

    ¡°Because the Duke of Purple is a petty small man with no real accomplishments to their person,¡± Elizabeth grinned slightly. ¡°I think that being so small on the ceiling compared to the other Duke embarrassed him greatly. Though, in all fairness, even my Father could not compete with the Duke of White in raw power of the Soul. Perhaps only the Archduke of Red himself could.¡±

    ¡°It sounds fascinating to behold,¡± Irwyn admitted. And for a moment wondered what he might or might not see if he looked above in such a room.

    ¡°For about a few minutes,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°The wonder of it hemorrhages when you realize that you are too small to see yourself.¡±

    ¡°I would still want to see it,¡± Alice said. ¡°I barely ever got to travel.¡±

    ¡°Well, I had not left this City once until a few months ago,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°You are most likely still the more traveled of us two.¡±

    The conversation after that turned to less interesting horizons. Mostly travel experiences which followed the pattern of Irwyn or Alice mentioning something they thought mesmerizing, only for Elizabeth to recall seeing something similar on ten times the scale while falling asleep from boredom of its ¡®meagerness¡¯. Well, she was probably making fun of them¡­ Probably. Either way, the conversation slowed down. Alice quickly finished her tea - clearly not indulging in it as much as Irwyn with his slow sips - and was going to depart.

    ¡°One last thing, before you go,¡± Elizabeth said as Alice was standing up. ¡°It¡¯s in our mutual best interest that you pretend your recovery is more¡­ gradual. You should certainly act a lot better but not completely fine as you are. Maybe for a week.¡±

    ¡°Good idea,¡± Alice nodded as she left. ¡°Best people don¡¯t figure the ring out.¡±

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Elizabeth nodded as she bid Alice farewell.

    ¡°Enjoy your newfound self, Alice,¡± Irwyn also sent her best wishes. The girl waved back at them with a slight smile, then was outside the veil. And therefore both outside earshot and sight.

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    ¡°How¡­ unexpected,¡± Elizabeth gathered her thoughts once Alice was gone from her privacy spell.

    ¡°You are telling me,¡± Irwyn inclined his head. ¡°I did not know magically removing depression was possible until less than an hour ago.¡±

    ¡°Anything is possible if you stretch reality far enough ¨C or convince someone more able to do it for you,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°I am both intrigued and afraid she might be more trouble than she is worth. But no matter, I have sworn.¡±

    ¡°Oaths can be bypassed, I have seen that,¡± Irwyn noted. "And hers did not seem without... holes."

    ¡°You have also beheld how that had worked out for poor Alira,¡± Elizabeth smiled at that. ¡°It¡¯s all about weight Irwyn, like most of magic tends to be ¨C Alira underestimated yours by orders of magnitude and paid for it. I have the Fate of House Blackburg clinging to me. Even if I am not the true inheritor, blood right of Names courses through me - more of it than most of the line, even. And that is a double-edged sword when it comes to Oaths, Irwyn, because I am heavier to hold afloat should I break my boat.¡±

    ¡°That is not a profession of impossibility,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°Two prodigious heiresses of great legacies, two Aspect¡¯s invoked over the Oath,¡± Elizabeth elaborated. ¡°It¡¯s not impossible. It¡¯s just ill-advised with even the most expensive measures. Perhaps if a sufficiently powerful and specialized mage personally shielded me I would dare, but none such live in the Duchy of Black. Yes, loopholes make that easier but they would still not let me just ignore the spirit.¡±

    ¡°Two ¡®great¡¯ legacies?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. ¡°For all Steelmire had significance it cannot be compared to the Duchy of Black.¡±

    ¡°But she holds all of that legacy while I am entrusted with just a fraction of a fraction,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°And that ring¡­ If I didn¡¯t know it cannot be stolen, I might have been tempted.¡±

    ¡° ¡®Cannot be stolen¡¯ is usually followed by a robbery,¡± Irwyn smiled.

    ¡°I don¡¯t mean that it cannot be physically taken, but rather than no one but her can use it,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°It has been tried before. Two times someone had stolen that exact ring, only to find it was completely inert unless resting on the finger of the one Chosen for it. And that¡¯s the only reason anyone would be willing to ransom it back at all. Its power is enticing.¡±

    ¡°Even for House Blackburg?¡±

    ¡°Especially for House Blackburg,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°Because we would have the strength to actually hold on to it. Intelligent artifacts are staggeringly rare, Irwyn, twice so if they are genuinely powerful. Quadruply so if they are so innocuous.¡±

    ¡°You are talking it up a lot,¡± Irwyn observed. ¡°Is what it did so impressive?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the versatility of it. As if three dozen artifacts in one.¡±

    ¡°Like your dress?¡± Irwyn gestured.

    ¡°My dress is an ancestral treasure made by a Named artificer-adjacent of ages past, borrowed to me from the House¡¯s vaults ¨C and is not technically an artifact,¡± she shook her head. ¡°You will notice the vast majority of magical items serve one explicit purpose. Those few who can do more than that also rarely ever meld the functions into each other so seamlessly. Her ring seems comparable in complexity.¡±

    ¡°I have no frame of reference for how much that is.¡±

    ¡°She can regulate her own emotions with it, which is already an exceptionally complex effect. Then it definitely improves her magecraft by a massive margin.¡±

    ¡°She had gone from perhaps barely four into incantation-less five-intention spells in a short time frame,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°I would bet it also reinforces her affinity with Time while at the same time having a similar amplifying effect as your new pendant - except much more convenient and presumably potent. Then there is the hiding feature. The precognition - since how else could it have so confidently warned her of a plan barely even formed behind closed doors? Obviously mental alacrity is expected in that package, plus the lock that lets only their Chosen heir wear it. And that is not mentioning that it is loaded with some kind of devastating attack magic.¡±

    ¡°How would you know that?¡± Irwyn paused.

    ¡°The dress¡¯s precognitive ward considered the ring a potential danger.¡±

    ¡°Your dress sees the future?¡±

    ¡°More like recognizes immediate threats to my person that happen to also be in close Fatal proximity,¡± she said. ¡°For anything more than that I have to supply mana. And I don¡¯t have a fraction of a fraction of what it would need to do more.¡±

    ¡°That seems to be a common issue for it, I have noticed.¡±

    ¡°Yes, the dress is meant to be worn by someone significantly more powerful than me. I can barely activate half its functions and for some of those I still have to cheat. One day I hope to grow into it properly,¡± she nodded. "Then again, most of its effects are for convenience or defense."

    ¡°But her ring does everything on its own, easily.¡±

    ¡°As I said, an artifact that inspires Greed even in me,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°That it requires no major fueling from the user means it will become comparatively less effective past forming a domain¡­ but that¡¯s more than fine for an Heir¡¯s companion.¡±

    ¡°But it lets her approach us magically,¡± Irwyn observed with wary awe. ¡°That in itself is incredible.¡±

    ¡°There are magical items that can kill domain mages easily,¡± Elizabeth just shrugged though. ¡°Scrolls, or crystals, or weapons that need to just be pointed at something. A child could do it. Those are not impressive, Irwyn. Powerful, yes, but not inspiring. They are crutches. Rope to cling onto for those who cannot climb the wall the right way. And then, when one day, they drag themselves to that summit, see that edge - they will realize the simplest of facts: No artifact in this reality makes it easier to claim a Name.¡±

    ¡°I would still think they are useful in battle,¡± Irwyn pointed out. "Being faster or more powerful is clearly an incredible advantage, even if artificially."

    ¡°In battle, yes,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But only in battle - only when the alternative is likely death. There is a reason why I use no enchantments to improve my spellcraft when training. Don¡¯t perpetually wear a ring that would make my mind twice as fast. Why I refuse to use these advantages in our duels. Because every bit of the magical power I make part of myself I intend to be truly mine, not borrowed.¡±

    ¡°Well, I never used any agressive magical items because I had none,¡± Irwyn chuckled slightly. ¡°But your philosophy does sound enticing. I like that, I think. The magical purity of it. Just me, in all the weakness and glory.¡±

    ¡°One of the few things my father personally taught me,¡± she smiled.

    ¡°Although it does remind me of another issue I need to bring up.¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡± she asked

    ¡°During my reunion last evening, an unexpected issue became apparent. I thought you of all people might know of¡­¡± Irwyn recounted Kalista¡¯s condition. Or rather, her issue of seeing so well her mortal mind could not keep up. At least that appeared to be the crux of the issue.

    ¡°Hmm, the army stockpiles some glasses with properties of muting magic,¡± Elizabeth thought for a few moments. ¡°Bring one pair with you next time. I don¡¯t know if it will even work in this case, but if it does I could also order a custom-made pair made.¡±

    ¡°Won¡¯t that raise eyebrows?¡± Irwyn questioned. They had basically agreed after Waylan to not bring up Irwyn¡¯s Honing-involved acquaintances, or get anyone back in City Black interested in them. Elizabeth admitted to be rather ignorant on the topic so decided that secrecy was preferred.

    ¡°I will say the binoculars are for Alice,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Mages in emotional distress can develop nocturnal hypersensitivity to magic. If the symptoms are optical they can wear such spectacles to better sleep ¨C hence why we have a stockpile. More sensitive mages require stronger glasses, nothing strange about that.¡±

    ¡°You have her involvement figured out already, huh?¡± Iwryn asked.

    ¡°I have the paperwork half ready to submit for preliminary entourage membership,¡± she smiled. ¡°Basically, my intention to recruit her. It will stop someone from attempting the same and guarantee additional oversight to any problems she might get into with authorities. Most importantly, it is anonymous who has made such a petition, only known to the Duke.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious, with you two being in the same town?¡±

    ¡°The list is composed of every noble with half a House to cling to the title in the whole Duchy. Hundreds, even thousands of declarations like this are ongoing. No one is keeping track of the exact location of every single noble of the whole Duchy, then comparing it to the location of every new declared candidate - not to mention they would also have to figure out who and where exactly the prospective entouragee is. The only person who might think that¡¯s worth the effort is my Mother - and she has access to that information no matter what I do. Which is why I have no intention of even hiding it. Well, not for long, at least.¡±

    ¡°Elaborate?¡±

    ¡°I will report that we found the lost heiress of Steelmire and that I intent to recruit her,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Right after already submitting the documents, of course. Those are lines of tradition my Mother is careful about crossing. Except instead of sharing what she had learned about the fall Steelmire I will claim poor Alice is currently too mentally unwell to undergo questioning. Even request a mind mage be reserved if she doesn¡¯t get significantly better in a fortnight. From my mother¡¯s response, I intend to glean what she might know and intend.¡±

    ¡°Will the Duchess not see through it?¡± Irwyn was doubtful.

    ¡°My mother has only so much attention she can spare me,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°She will have whoever her spies in camp are snoop around, report on how Alice is doing, and then that¡¯s that.¡±

    ¡°Which is why you asked her to feign a gradual recovery,¡± Irwyn smiled and sipped his tea again, just finishing the cup.

    ¡°Well, hiding her ring¡¯s power is also a genuine concern,¡± Elizabeth added. ¡°How is it?¡±

    ¡°You know, I never had any idea you brewed tea,¡± he nodded. ¡°To my ignorant tongue, it is quite delicious.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not that difficult,¡± she shrugged, though there was a bit of tension in her shoulders. ¡°I started doing it when I used to be sick. Nowadays it is trivially easy with a bit of Flames."

    ¡°You never brought it up before.¡±

    ¡°Mundane hobbies are¡­ frowned upon among nobility,¡± she hesitated. ¡°Distractions, they are called. Not that most don¡¯t have far worse and more time-consuming vices than this, but there is an expectation to keep such behind closed doors. And¡­ I was not willing to make an attempt until I had some confidence in the choice.¡±

    ¡°Is the point of any hobby not to enjoy it?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. ¡°I certainly do enjoy the brew.¡±

    ¡°I thought you would,¡± she nodded. ¡°I am happy I was right.¡±

    ¡°So am I,¡± Irwyn smiled, then finished his tea. ¡°I could get used to it.¡±

    ¡°Maybe we shall, not like we can pass the time dueling here,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°Or have the time to spare in the first place. I have to sort through the rest of the paperwork today while keeping with my exercise.¡±

    ¡°I would help if I could, but, you know¡­¡± Irwyn said. ¡°In case you need me I will be in my room. There are some spells I wanted to figure out. Now is a good Time.¡±

 3.25 Private eye

    Irwyn sat in on his bed and pondered. He had two distinct goals in the moment, both pertaining to magecraft: To create a proper chant and structure for a privacy spell and for his perception spell. Perhaps refine them as they were both undeniably a bit¡­ improvised. After a moment he decided to focus on the latter of the two.

    His perception spell worked on a simple principle: Send waves of invisible Light to envelop everything in a general direction, then feel where they were, therefore figuring out where they were not. And those gaps in his perception meant there had to be something which blocked the Light. And it worked¡­ to an extent. The image was extremely imprecise, for one. Perhaps the principle could be improved.

    Irwyn returned, once again, to his old fantasy of perceiving everything that natural Light touched. It has been a while since he had attempted it. In fact, since before he had reached Abonisle. It was worth another attempt, so he lay in his bed and felt.

    Dust was everywhere - in the air, on every surface, in every nook and cranny where light could reach. Indescribable quantity of it. What was just as bad was the kaleidoscope of colors, so many that it all blurred together like blotches of paint on a ruined canvas, subverting what was into something closer to a mere approximation. Everything else were details. The singular mice scurrying through the camp, unnoticed. People in the nearby structures, each of various builds, heights and features. Elizabeth upstairs and a sphere which no Light pierced close to her. Letters, strewn across pages in an incomprehensible myriad as all of them individually appeared in his mind.

    Then Irwyn felt like a nail was driven into his head. As though the weight of the very Realm was placed atop his skull, then released to crush him. Like every Star in the night sky exploded simultaneously inside his head.

    He gasped and recoiled, breaking out of the immersion, it couldn¡¯t have been more than half a second. Thankfully - mercifully - the unbearable migraine was quickly subsiding. A few minutes later it reduced to merely a dull ache and was withdrawing further.

    Still far, far too much, Irwyn sighed internally. It was still overly ambitious by many degrees of magnitude it would seem. That was fine, it was an aspiration to cling to. He would try again¡­ perhaps when he reached conception. He was a bit blurry about how large of a leap that would be but assumed massive.

    He had still glimpsed something though: He had felt more than just vague shapes. He had experienced color and much more detail. The issue was simply that it was all too much. But what if he could downsize? Instead of perceiving through all Light, instead do so through only that which he himself wielded.

    Which is exactly what he tried. For the first attempt, he created a small mass of Light magic which he layered over one of his room¡¯s walls. No intentions involved. Just that much, then tried to feel through it¡­

    Dust again, and he himself. The bed and the four walls of the room, each irregularity and slight chip of the walls and ceiling perceived with individual clarity. The closet, the bed, strands of his own hair strewn haphazardly, yet he understood their exact position. The floor¡­

    Irwyn snapped out of it and the beginning of a new headache receded. Then frowned. He had only been trying to feel part of one wall but ended up feeling the whole room. He did not need to ponder long to realize his mistake: He had summoned Light, which glowed.

    There was a distinction between natural Light and magical Light, Irwyn knew. Sunlight, or Light from woodfire were purely physical - a real particle with energy. It had no more mana than grass or raw steel. It was not affected by Finity and simply faded when its non-magical energies were exhausted. Then, of course, there was purely magical Light. The kind he wielded. Pure elemental magecraft he held direct control over. Conjured from nothing and then returning to it as Finity dicated.

    But his spells could glow. Even non-Light spells often might. Irwyn had pondered this in the past and found in literature that such Light was considered pseudo-magical. It behaved as physical Light might, yet was still affected by Finity and would completely vanish when its magic did. Irwyn had known that was the case¡­ he just had no idea it could affect his spells this way.

    Because he was almost certain that the issue had been that he had not been feeling through just the elemental Light of his spell but also through the pseudo-magical Light it emitted. To test this hypothesis, Irwyn added an intention into the spell, making it invisible.

    When he attempted to feel through his magical Light again the result was exactly the same - with minimal deviation even in dust position as far as he could tell in the moment before ending the attempt. Baffled, Irwyn frowned. He did not get how that was possible but decided to try from a different angle. He removed invisibility, then manually reduced the glow of the spell to the point it barely emitted any particles at all, to the point it would be barely possible to see in a dark room. Then he imbued the intention to suppress into the spell for good measure, making his elemental Light covering the wall look like just a dull yellow layer. Completely glowless.

    When he attempted to feel through it again, he got what he had been hoping for in the first place: He felt that chunk of the wall and only that chunk of the wall. Each little chink and imperfection but also the exact areas of every perfect part. Nothing was left unperceived.

    It was¡­ still a lot. But not completely beyond his ability to handle. Now that his mind was not actively being overwhelmed by too much information, Irwyn could attempt to parse it. Except he was not sure how to go about doing that. How was he supposed to just know which part was important and which was not? Not sure where else to head, he began to gradually try and reconstruct the wall''s entire image in his head. Down to every small ridiculous detail.

    It must have taken him¡­ 10 minutes? Maybe more, maybe less. He was too focused to count the time. Definitely impractically long but he thought he had achieved it.

    To test it Irwyn closed his eyes and stood up, dismissing the magic and letting it dissipate. Then, in his mind, picked a specific distinct spot on the image of the wall he still held and approached - a larger-than-usual dent. He guided his hand and blindly managed to find the spot on his second try, finger brushing over the indentation.

    The effectiveness was questionable. The image was already fading from memory. It was simply ludicrously complex even for something as seemingly monotone as an undecorated wall. Though Irwyn held suspicion that any outward ¡®complexity¡¯ would actually not matter too much at this level of detail: Diverse objects would not be too different from this up close.

    Irwyn¡¯s mind returned to why his attempt with invisibility earlier had failed to produce the intended results and quickly arrived at seemingly the only conclusion: Just because something was invisible didn¡¯t mean it was no longer there, did it? Just because the spell¡¯s glow could not be seen did not mean it was not being emitted. Which was in itself fascinating¡­ although Irwyn had no idea what implications that had.

    It did bring him to a different sidenote thought: Since the pseudo-magical Light of his spell had been affected by his attempt to feel his own magic, would it be possible to control it? Perhaps imbue it and turn into an attack of some kind. Yes, it had vanishingly little mana in it, especially compared to the spells it was caused by but it was fast. Way faster than anything else Irwyn could conjure. A thought for later.

    He came back around to the spell he wanted to make. What he had created was progress, but still too much. It was too precise. He did not need to know the exact details down to the scale of dust particles¡­ So, he imbued the whole construct with blur. And invisibility again for good measure.

    The resulting perception was, obviously, blurrier. Which was exactly what Irwyn had wanted. Details faded, becoming exponentially less exact compared to the last attempt. What Irwyn felt now were only the most distinct dents¡­ It also took him barely a few seconds to recreate the image in his mind.

    Touching it blindly after dismissing the spell had taken him two attempts again, though that was probably caused more by his imperfect spacial awareness and manual dexterity than the spell itself. Satisfied with what he had done Irwyn looked for angles of further improving it.

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    He looked for ideas on more intentions that could be used¡­ and came back empty-handed. He had tried a few but nothing that seemed to make him better parse the information. The limiting factor was not the spell being weak, rather, it was his brain. Ultimately, he opted to head in the direction of instead making the spell more subtle. Hide and conceal rounding up to 5 along with invisible, suppress and blur. Sixth would be an overkill and take up too much focus to maintain the spell itself rather than parsing what Irwyn needed to glimpse from it.

    He would need to figure out his exact limits¡­ But there was a different step to take before then. Perhaps more intentions could not assist in expanding his ability to process¡­ but an incantation likely could. If he created a good one. First off, he worked from the end. The name.

    ¡°Lightsight?¡± he muttered out loud. But that was not quite right. He needed to focus on his ability to process that information, and the spell¡¯s name held the most power of all the chant¡¯s lines. Nothing came to mind at first, then he had an idea: Unlike with offensive or defensive magic he did not need to empower the spell itself. In fact, he was actively hindering it just to make it usable. Why then would he need a chant that empowered it? Rather, what if he focused only on a single facet: Only on the the part which actively needed it. Yes, the whole spell could still be Lightsight, but the chant would be altered.

    ¡°Lightsight comprehension,¡± he muttered and it felt like a spell. From there he just had to craft the rest of the chant.

    ¡°Apprehension? Attention?¡± he went through the rhyming permutations - hey, that also rhymed, quite well actually - line by line. Focusing on the thought aspect of it. It took him quite a few minutes but he did end up with something satisfactory:

    ¡°Through a blindfold,

    like the Sun, behold

    with unerring attention

    Lightsight comprehension¡±

    Mentioning a blindfold was for a simple reason: The spell explicitly did not rely on Irwyn¡¯s physical sight and would be the most useful when perceiving things Irwyn couldn¡¯t actually see. Mentioning the Sun was both an association with Stars ¨C which seemed to always serve Irwyn well - and also that Sun¡¯s Light covered the landscape just as the Light of this spell would cover the things it would perceive. Unerring attention as well as ¡®comprehension¡¯ being in the spell¡¯s name was obviously to reinforce that he wished for the enhancement of the mental aspect.

    And since he had a proper chant he could get on with understanding the limits. How much could he take in at once now? He needed to find the exact point which overwhelmed him, then either stay clear or see if pushing that repeatedly moved it further.

    He started with all four walls, the ceiling and the ground, basically constructing a cube. First before chanting, then with it. The difference was massive - he thought the former was pushing close to his limitations while adding the incantation seemed to barely strain him. He could recreate the mental image of the wall and know mostly well where every little gap was compared to himself. The small rounding error, as far as he could tell, was not caused by magic but by lack of more physical alacrity.

    So, he moved to envelop the entire room¡¯s interior¡­ And found it far easier than he would have even hoped. Not only possible but actually quite easy still, which baffled him for a split second before realizing the culprit: He was no longer perceiving dust. No more countless particles each needing to be individually processed and placed, all thanks to the intention to blur. And since he was not perceiving airborne dust he was not really perceiving anything in the open space - which was easy to fit into the mental image even with a whole lot of nothing. In a way even though he expanded to the whole room, all he had added to his range was the furniture, himself, the books - all his other belongings were either in the closet or in the spacial bag he carried on him.

    So, he covered a larger area. Pushing past the closed door was not great for his magical efficiency and potency, but the hard part all remained inside his head. He found that actively perceiving the magic actually helped increase the distance ratio at which detached magic grew weaker and more troublesome to control. He covered all the walls of the entire floor, excluding inside the other rooms. That was already enough to slow his mental imaging down to a crawl.

    Sure he had far fewer details of the walls but there was also a lot more wall, which he needed to fit into the image. Scale and distance seemed to be a major detriment as Irwyn felt where everything was comparative to himself and everything else touched by the spell. And comparative became more difficult when there were many things in a multitude of different places, only made much worse with significant gaps in between.

    It took him perhaps a full minute to project the entire floor into his head. Then he dismissed it and scaled down. The sweet spot, after much testing, appeared to be around half the floor¡¯s walls at the moment - though that would improve as Irwyn¡¯s proficiency with the spell was improved as well as when he became more powerful in general. He couldn¡¯t quite gauge the exact scale he could handle, but he managed to get a decent feel of it, enough to be able to eyeball things more or less accurately if need be.

    Next, he stretched the spell. Casting a spell across distance while having literally no line of sight of where it would need to go was certainly a novel experience. Irwyn was half guided by the spell¡¯s own expanding snake of perception and half by memory of the building¡¯s layout. It took him longer to reach the stairs than he would have thought, though practice would likely make perfect in time. Then he let it climb to the floor above.

    He still knew which cubicle Elizabeth had taken up, so he led the spell there. It was slow and stumbling, and he was mostly blind. Which made it rather surprising when the spell was grabbed. Half wrested out of his control but still attached to him. Surprised, Irwyn attempted to dismiss it, only to find out he could not. His own magic defied his command, making it quite apparent this was not mere intention magic. Perhaps not even conception. Then Irwyn realized it was not just his spell that was frozen in place - it was his very being. All the motion seemed to be concentrated in his suddenly thundering heart.

    He was stuck somewhere in between bafflement and horror for a few seconds before the effect suddenly subsided. His spell was released in the exact same state it had been, not even made unstable by the events. He might have dismissed it right away if not for Black letters suddenly manifesting before his eyes, a lack of Light so distinct and concentrated enough to be readable ¨C Void magic of some kind.

    ¡®You triggered a countermeasure. Please be more careful, Irwyn. E.¡¯

    Oh, Irwyn paused, embarrassed. In hindsight, he had been rather reckless. He had been literally told that there were defensive spells layered in the building. It had just not occurred to him that he might trigger them in his excitement over new magic. He reformed his ongoing spell into a visible ¡®sorry¡¯ for a scarce few seconds, then dismissed it all completely. He would test distance later.

    Chastised - and urgently wanting his mind on something else - he moved on to the simpler of the two projects he had set out to accomplish: A privacy spell. The principle for that was simple - a bubble that sound nor image passed. That was easy enough to achieve even without intentions by just tightening the magic until even vibrations struggled to pass through. The real issue was ensuring its security. Irwyn was not well versed in methods other mages might use to get through. Intentions like privacy, isolation, secrecy, conceal, and mute seemed like the best five after some time of pondering. He could also try to add suppress as a sixth if need be. Or use invisibility if he was not worried about lip reading for whatever reason.

    Once again, he turned to naming the spell. Except nothing great came to mind, at least not right away. ¡®Privacy bubble¡¯ did not sound proper to him, and was most likely widely used already by other people and even elements which would diminish the potency significantly¡­ So he took out a dictionary.

    His books had been delivered when he was out, just as Elizabeth had promised. From his Book of the Name to the spellcasting literature he had been given. A dictionary was, of course, included. A convenient tome to grasp inspiration from. True, it wasn¡¯t the fastest method, but Irwyn did not consider his time wasted. What words caught his eye could perhaps be used in a different spell somewhere down the line. Or help him understand more easily what an opponent¡¯s spell might do. Eventually, he did find something he liked.

    ¡°Penetralia - the innermost parts of a building; a secret or hidden place,¡± he read, nodding his head. The definition specified that it was a place, while also being hidden. Building was a bit of a stretch but it was close enough to the structure of the spell he was going with to apply. And it was rather obscure, which was good for a spell that likely had thousands of permutations developed and used across the Duchy. Too many spells having the same name was documented to weaken them proportionally.

    He worked from there and eventually had words he liked:

    ¡°I infringe upon reality

    to wear confidentiality

    like a regalia

    Starborn penetralia¡±

    With the first line, he drew a distinct separation between the within of his spell and the rest of reality ¨C he wanted total isolation. The second line mentioned confidentiality, restating the spell¡¯s purpose, then wearing it ¡®like a regalia¡¯ had a straightforward meaning: It imparted certain ceremonial majesty. Regalias were after all not something worn constantly. That meant the spell would be marginally more powerful if used scarcely, in moments that mattered - or less if used too often or wantonly. Irwyn did not expect he would need to provide such privacy on a daily basis. Then the name itself made sure to mention Stars since Starfire was the basis of it. Irwyn quite liked it.

    A small issue was testing the efficacy. After all, what he desired first of all from the chant was to make the spell resistant to intrusion. And he couldn¡¯t exactly intrude on his own magic, could he? He would have to ask if Elizabeth could provide assistance. Before then, he opted to practice the spells thought. Both of them. Until he could somewhat chant them without speaking the words. It was definitely not because he did not want to speak about his security mishap.

 3.26 Speaking of artifacts

    Irwyn practiced until lunch, quite quickly finding a plateau of his improvement. In a few hours, he realized that he could no longer tell if his proficiency was getting any better, having long gotten to the point of not needing to voice the spells without losing most of the incantation¡¯s benefit. When the time to eat came he and Elizabeth shared to large ground-floor table again.

    ¡°Sorry about earlier,¡± he apologized.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± she shook her head with a smile. ¡°You are not the only one of us two to ever be overzealous with new spells. Ugh, but that is a story I am not keen to retell.¡±

    ¡°I will not ask then,¡± Irwyn nodded, then changed the topic to something else dwelling on his mind. ¡°Now that I think about it, what else besides practice are we supposed to do while around here? Assuming you are right and no undead appear.¡±

    ¡°Sit tight and not die of boredom,¡± Elizabeth shrugged.

    ¡°Surely that cannot be the best allocation of resources,¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°This is not a glamorous post, Irwyn, that¡¯s the very point,¡± Elizabeth shook her. ¡°We are expected to achieve nothing - yet a garrison has to be in the City. Because otherwise it¡¯s too easy of a target.¡±

    ¡°You say that but a single conception mage would be a massive problem for us to deal with,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°You are not accounting for scale, Irwyn,¡± she shook her head. ¡°In a Lich War everyone but the strongest of mages are just numbers. Not just on our side. Sure, the undead could send a conception mage here to wreak havoc, but they would die quickly. Approximately 20 seconds for an emergency response team teleport in and kill them, to be exact."

    ¡°You could be a target,¡± Irwyn pointed out. ¡°One more than worth such a sacrifice if the undead are planning ahead.¡±

    ¡°Which is why I am rather extensively protected,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°And my talent has been widely underreported. Perhaps some of that was dispelled in Abonisle but I could have just as easily been using an artifact instead of my own power, at least from the Rot''s viewpoint. There are ways of temporarily jumping several intentions ahead.¡±

    ¡°But you dislike them,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°As I said yesterday, no artifact will help me claim a Name,¡± she affirmed.

    ¡°I thought they would still come after any children of Duke Households,¡± Irwyn admitted, returning to the prior point. ¡°Even when downplayed, you are still widely known to be talented.¡±

    ¡°You are not wrong,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°My mother thinks that this Lich war will be particularly bloody for heirs, even. Usually the undead might struggle with identifying the right targets, but this incursion is caused by remnants hiding from the last. That implies cunning and planning, including in the war over information. The reason I don¡¯t feel endangered is, again, numbers. How many conceptions mages do you think the undead will have, Irwyn?¡±

    ¡°Thousands? Tens of thousands?¡± Irwyn guessed. It was a large number¡­ but the Lich War would envelop the whole of Duchy Federation. What percentage of mages reached conception? A fraction, clearly, but how small of one? And how many mages were there altogether? Irwyn lacked background knowledge of such statistics.

    ¡°That, probably more. Hard to estimate before the real fighting starts,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But what they will certainly have is ten times as many places those mages could be used. And so do we. Both sides are forced to prioritize, analyze what constitutes a justifiable assignment. What is a worthwhile goal to sacrifice a single conception mage for? What about ten of them? A hundred? As I said, numbers. And I am not going to make the priority list. Not this close to City Black where any attack is a guaranteed one-way trip and likely to fail.¡±

    ¡°But there still needs to be someone to make Ebon Respite not be a cost-effective target for weaker undead,¡± Irwyn grasped. ¡°So that a random necromancer with barely any power cannot just secretly inflict damage.¡±

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°We have barely over thirty mages here, and I expect a good chunk of them will be reassigned when the War really picks up somewhere else. And non-mage soldiers are a plentiful resource. We are ultimately a cost-efficient deterrent. At least in theory - me being here skews the math.¡±

    ¡°Hence why you keep saying that we probably won¡¯t meet any undead,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°There is no critical infrastructure to destroy, no cultural institution to shake morale on a strategic scale, no particularly vulnerable mages. The closest thing to an important target the city has are the manufactoriums making mundane ammunition or casing for more advanced weaponry. And with our garrison here any possible damage to even those would be minimal without a disproportionate investment. Hence why this city is not worth attacking as long as we keep an eye out.¡±

    ¡°Which is why just have to sit and not die of boredom,¡± Irwyn recounted with a sigh. ¡°You know this used to sound a lot more exciting.¡±

    ¡°This is barely the third day,¡± she rolled her eyes. ¡°And we do have two days off every month.¡±

    ¡°Am I even getting paid for this?¡± he rolled his right back with good humor.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she said without a hint of jest.

    ¡°Really?¡± Irwyn paused. ¡°I thought I wasn¡¯t technically part of the army.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not the army that¡¯s paying you, but me,¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. ¡°Did you think being part of a retinue is not financially lucrative?¡±

    ¡°In all honesty, I have not put that much thought into the matter, given what was happening at the time,¡± Irwyn admitted. It had originally been mainly presented as part of his escape from imminent execution.

    ¡°You have a salary, going to the account you have made with our Duchy¡¯s bank during your time in Abonisle,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°I asked the accountants to make it particularly generous. And if you need more funds you can just ask, you know.¡±

    ¡°I would, but I do not think I do for now,¡± Irwyn paused. ¡°You have already been covering all my expenses ever since I got to City Black. And I was never exactly prone to shopping around ¨C not that there is much expensive to buy here¡­ besides property I guess?¡±

    ¡°I should bring you to a proper marketplace then,¡± Elizabeth frowned. ¡°City Black has incredible shopping districts¡­ well, will have them again once the Lich War is over. Most of said goods are going to be deployed against the undead for the moment.¡±

    ¡°Do the owners not complain about that?¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°Especially merchant types hate any losses. Or is the Duchy buying out all their stock?¡±

    ¡°They might complain but what good will that do them?¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. ¡°Nationalization of weaponry and supplies is a common practice in face of a Lich War."

    ¡°People tend to leave if they feel openly robbed by institutions,¡± he pointed out, surprised that was actually the case.

    ¡°And go where exactly, Irwyn?¡± she pointed back. ¡°Every Duchy in the Federation confiscates all magical weaponry they can for the War. It¡¯s not like crossing somewhere else will change the situation.¡±

    ¡°They could leave the Federation,¡± Irwyn suggested.

    ¡°The trip would be arduous and expensive. The Everburn Isthmus is impassable and the seas are a fool''s gamble since long sea routes are no longer kept safe by our navies - which are instead on standby in case there is a need for them for the War. The only way would be through the Divide mountain range in the North¡­ but the lands beyond it are known to be not nearly as prosperous and therefore far less profitable. So no, merchants cannot just ¡®leave¡¯ because their goods get taken for the fight.¡±

    ¡°I suppose everyone is in the same mess,¡± Irwyn sighed.

    ¡°There is a reason Lich Wars are often framed as Federation-wide natural disasters,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°It makes it much easier to swallow all the losses - not for just merchants. Seeing everyone else also struggling in the aftermath definitely helps reduce bitterness. Noble families for example make sure to organize funeral parades for the former brightest, showing off their own dues. There has been a lot of thought by many great people over the centuries put into perfecting the methodologies for fighting and then recovering from Lich Wars.¡±

    ¡°Which you were taught,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Well, not everything and not in complete detail,¡± Elizabeth acknowledged. ¡°Another Lich War was expected at the very least decades from now - likely longer - so it hasn¡¯t been a priority. But I understand the general principles at play.¡±

    ¡°I think I will just focus on spellcraft for the moment,¡± Irwyn sighed.

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s likely too late for you to study the socioeconomic impact now,¡± she nodded. ¡°Not to mention not particularly relevant for us since we don¡¯t make the decisions. But it is fascinating. I, for one, am very interested in whether the postwar markets will develop as theory predicts.¡±

    ¡°I will probably head out in the afternoon,¡± Irwyn changed the topic again to something less out of his depth. ¡°You mentioned the glasses?¡± Hopefully that would help Kalista.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she nodded. ¡°You should go bother Alice, she is part of the logistics team. And our cover if it comes to it.¡±

    ¡°Will do,¡± he nodded, looking down at his empty plate. And finished tea. ¡°Is she going to be done with lunch?¡±

    ¡°Presumably,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°The other mages are not served significantly later than us.¡±

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    ¡°I will drop by before I leave camp,¡± Irwyn nodded. They traded short goodbyes, then Irwyn left.

    He found the logistics building seemingly abandoned, not a soul on the ground floor. Except Irwyn could feel there actually were people, just at the very top. Four mages, presumably the entire supply squad. So Irwyn made his way up the stairs, past the rooms of the second floor, then to the top.

    He expected the same office cubicles that were in Elizabeth¡¯s own building but what he found was far more casual. There were still four desks available for work in the corners of the room but rather than being divided, the floor was mostly open - including some more leisure-inclined installations. A few were clearly enchanted devices with various shapes and buttons Irwyn could not wager a blind guess to the function of. He was pretty sure he recognized one as a communication tool though ¨C Irwyn remembered seing a few just like it in Abonisle.

    ¡°Irwyn, good afternoon,¡± he was obviously spotted, Sergeant Trecha calling out to him just as he finished climbing up the stairs. All four of the mages were seated around a large table placed squarely in the middle of the room. Notably, empty plates of food were still on it. The other two mages besides Alice - a man and a woman - were actually surprisingly young, not much older than Irwyn himself¡­ although they felt extraordinarily weak. Irwyn was sure that if Ebon Respite was not so meager in ambient mana he would not be able to even feel them from a distance.

    ¡°Sergeant Trecha,¡± Irwyn nodded, ¡°Good day to you as well.¡±

    ¡°What brings you?¡± the man asked, shooting him a curious glance.

    ¡°I wanted to speak with Alice,¡± Irwyn glanced at the gathering. It seemed¡­ casual. Almost comfortable. ¡°But I am not in a hurry.¡±

    ¡°Come sit then,¡± Trecha invited, beckoning him forward. And why not? There was no fifth chair, so Irwyn conjured one from Light.

    ¡°Wow,¡± the other young woman - not Alice - almost jumped in surprise. ¡°I couldn¡¯t even tell you were a mage.¡±

    ¡°I try to keep my mana contained,¡± Irwyn inclined his head, not sure what else to say.

    ¡°You have been the center of everyone¡¯s gossip,¡± the young man jumped in.

    ¡°Have I?¡±

    ¡°Suddenly appearing alongside the Lady, striding in and out of the camp, not even wearing a uniform,¡± the young man nodded. ¡°Who wouldn¡¯t want to know more about you? Especially after you somehow saved Alice as well.¡±

    ¡°She mostly helped herself,¡± Irwyn shrugged, looking at the woman in question.

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t downplay how much you did,¡± she said with a weak smile. Alice was, presumably, pretending to be more sullen than in private, as they had agreed to with Elizabeth. ¡°I couldn¡¯t have woken up from the nightmare by myself.¡±

    ¡°You are not a healer by any chance, are you?¡± the young woman asked.

    ¡°Far from it,¡± Irwyn shook his head.

    ¡°We don¡¯t have one in camp then,¡± she grimaced slightly. ¡°Damn.¡±

    ¡°Now, now,¡± Trecha chided. ¡°We are rather unlikely to see much, if any, action.¡±

    ¡°And city Black is within reach, even on foot,¡± Irwyn added. Well, it was a bit more than a day¡¯s march but it was not a completely unreasonable distance.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to find out if they have the capacity to teleport me to a healer while I am waiting for the stitching potion to run out,¡± she shivered slightly. ¡°My grandpa died that way. His potion reverted before they got him to help. He was not that much further away from City Black at the time than we are.¡±

    ¡°The War has barely started, no need to already be so pessimistic,¡± Trecha tried to wave the concern off. ¡°I hear it might be remnants from 17 years ago. It¡¯s possible it will all be over before we see a single zombie.¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t bet on it,¡± the other young man shook his head. ¡°My aunt overheard that the Duke himself said it would not be easy.¡±

    ¡°Yes, he seemed quite sure it would be as bad if not worse than usual Wars,¡± Irwyn confirmed.

    ¡°You saw the Duke¡¯s speech?¡± Trecha asked, everyone staring at Irwyn. They seemed surprised by that.

    ¡°Well, yes,¡± Irwyn looked at them, slightly confused by their befuddlement. ¡°Her Young Ladyship did attend the Exenn.¡±

    ¡°What does that word even mean?¡± Alice asked. No one else seemed to recognize it either.

    ¡°So I am not the strange one for not knowing it,¡± Irwyn noted out loud with slight satisfaction before elaborating. ¡°A big gathering for the nobility - and followers I suppose. The Duke¡¯s speech actually started it off.¡±

    ¡°How was the Duke?¡± the girl asked, eyes glinting a bit.

    ¡°Well, he appeared¡­ normal I suppose. At least from a distance, I did not get close,¡± Irwyn recalled. ¡°I think you could almost mistake him for someone ordinary from afar, if it wasn¡¯t for the ceremonial jewelry¡­ and the dragon throne.¡±

    ¡°Who would make a throne of all things from a dragon?!¡± Alice suddenly burst out, seemingly enraged by the very notion.

    ¡°Well¡­ the Duke of Black?¡± Irwyn felt a slight smile tuck at his lips.

    ¡°Do you have any idea what an artificer can make from a dragon¡¯s carcass??¡± she seemed to forget her melancholy for the moment. ¡°The hide could become an armor worthy of domain mages - or beyond - dozens of sets of them. The ivory into weapons that tear through magic as if it was water. Organs and ichor for potions with effects most cannot even imagine! A throne?!?!¡±

    ¡°I remember that story, though I never knew if it was true,¡± Trecha interjected. ¡°Legend has it that the Duke - just an unfavored heir at the time - had slain a dragon that was devastating swaths of the Duchy while his brothers ignored it, infighting over the Dukedom. Seeing the destruction he had sworn to claim the Duchy of Black rather than leave it in unworthy hands... Or so the story goes.¡±

    ¡°Slaying a dragon,¡± the supply squad¡¯s young man nodded, staring a bit dreamily at nothing in particular.

    ¡°It¡¯s suicide, that¡¯s what it is,¡± Alice scoffed. ¡°Dragons have slain Named mages in the past.¡±

    ¡°No way!¡± the other young woman exclaimed.

    ¡°Very much way,¡± Alice shook her head. ¡°Dragons are terrifying. My grandpa had told me¡­ a story about one. A Time dragon that once ravaged the Duchy of Teal. It could teleport hundreds of meters several times every second, its claws could rend even domain magic as easily as the air, striking as fast as Sunlight. Being around it contorted directions, going as far as to make right literally left, up down and so on ¨C except switching around haphazardly at unpredictable intervals.¡±

    ¡°And it¡¯s breath?¡± the other woman asked, entranced.

    ¡°It aged anything it touched,¡± Alice said, slowly. ¡°A mage caught in it would die of old age a dozen times over before it passed. A limb caught would rot and wither away in a blink. It was so potent that even sheer rock would visibly age before one''s eyes if struck. Worse, the dragon could control it. Wield it like we would a spell, except the breath was far faster than our meagre magic and could also be teleported by it.¡±

    ¡°I know that story as well,¡± Trecha nodded. ¡°The Aeonwrath of Rakachel, it was called - named a town in the Duchy of Cyan it had spontaneously appeared next to and destroyed. I was just a wee lad when it was slain but everyone talked about it for months - though with fewer details.¡±

    ¡°Were you from close to there, Sergeant?¡± the Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Not every Time mage is from the Duchy of Cyan, Irwyn,¡± Trecha chuckled. ¡°Well, I was born close to the border but lived most of my life in City Black or on deployment.¡±

    ¡°That reminds me,¡± the young woman - still not Alice - chirped up. ¡°I would have thought we would have heard about someone like you in the academies. Were you home-tutored like Alice?¡±

    ¡°In a way,¡± Irwyn said agreeably - admitting to being half self-taught would probably not even be believed - glancing at Alice who had seemingly remembered she was supposed to be morose after her earlier story. ¡°I want to keep most of my past to myself but I used to actually live here, in Ebon Respite.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± the boy asked, surprised.

    ¡°I have been meaning to reconnect with some old acquaintances,¡± Irwyn nodded. Although the ¡®old¡¯ in this case being significantly shorter time than the others probably imagined.

    ¡°Does her Ladyship just allow you to leave the camp?¡± the young woman gawked.

    ¡°Yes?¡± Irwyn inclined his head with mild confusion.

    ¡°Irwyn is technically not part of the military,¡± Trecha jumped in, spotting the misunderstanding. ¡°Though he lives with us at the camp, he is not subject to most doctrine. He is only beholden to her Ladyship¡¯s wishes rather than our discipline¡­ or curfew. And speaking of discipline, our lunch break is over.¡±

    ¡°We already checked all the teleportation wards,¡± the young man pointed out.

    ¡°Then we should get started with sorting the expanded crates,¡± Trecha nodded. ¡°We need to finish a full inventory and make sure that none of them are close to expiring because of Finity. Trust me, you don¡¯t want to be cleaning the aftermath after a cartful of beef explodes in the cellar.¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t have a cellar,¡± the woman said doubtfully.

    ¡°Are you volunteering to dig?¡± Trecha raised an eyebrow and that silenced further protests.

    ¡°Just a moment of your time, Alice,¡± Irwyn nodded to his latest ally as the Sergeant marched the other two young mages off, down the stairs.

    ¡°What do you need?¡± she nodded.

    Starborn penetralia. Irwyn used the opportunity to cast his new spell, an invisible bubble of isolating Starfire rising above them. It was temporarily a bit weaker due to his practice overuse but Irwyn had managed to reliably cast the spell without speaking even the spell¡¯s name out loud.

    ¡°You are using a proper spell now,¡± Alice noted.

    ¡°I realized it was a tool I was lacking yesterday,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°So, I added it to my arsenal.¡±

    ¡°Overnight?¡± she raised an eyebrow. ¡°That¡¯s fast.¡±

    ¡°I strive to impress,¡± Irwyn smiled, deciding not to mention that it was more over just the morning, most of which was actually spent with another spell.

    ¡°Mind if I test it?¡± she smiled.

    ¡°It would actually be quite convenient to know how effective it is,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Alright, I always had a knack for bypassing these,¡± her grin widened. Then she closed her eyes and let magic flow from her.

    It was a conservative amount and she was clearly trying to be subtle about it. Irwyn still perceived it but did not comment for the moment. He was not measuring his mana-sensing skills so he let Alice gently prod at his spell. She did it without ever directly touching it with her own magic. Then she paused, took a deep breath and leapt through.

    ¡°I felt that,¡± Irwyn announced, if only barely and for a split second. Her spell had passed through his gapless bubble without ever touching it but the violation of the boundary still left a distinct impression of wrongness. ¡°Really good to know that this is what it feels like. I probably would have been confused about what happened if I hadn¡¯t known you were trying.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not bad at all if you could perceive that, though that might have been more you than the spell,¡± Alice complimented. ¡°It¡¯s also almost always harder to get in from the outside.¡±

    ¡°Well, you still got through,¡± Irwyn pointed out. He noticed she had opened and maintained a small portal above her palm. Miniscule in scale but that was enough to let sound and sight pass beyond the boundary.

    ¡°The important part isn¡¯t being impenetrable,¡± Alice disagreed, cancelling her spell. ¡°It¡¯s knowing when someone tries to break in. Which you clearly will, at least at our level. With the ring I don¡¯t think many mages before conception are better than me at this¡­ well, except specialists and such I suppose.¡±

    ¡°That is reassuring, thank you for the help,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Think nothing of it, I like solving spells like this,¡± Alice nodded back. ¡°What is it you actually wanted to see me for anyway?¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s nothing major¡­¡± Irwyn began, explaining that he needed shielded glasses for a friend in the city, vaguely why he needed to go through her, and that he might need to use Alice as cover if a stronger pair needed to be obtained.

    ¡°Well, conveniently, I already have a useless pair on me,¡± Alice nodded, pulling the spectacles from her personal storage hung by her uniform¡¯s belt. ¡°The Sergeant had the same thought that they might help me sleep while I was out of it. I obviously don¡¯t need them anymore.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Irwyn took them from her, putting the pair into his own spacial bag, never looking away. That allowed him to witness Alice¡¯s eye watching his hand, followed by her expression freezing for a moment¡­ Then she half stumbled, tears cascading down her cheeks in a spontaneous waterfall.

    ¡°Are you alright?!¡± Irwyn exclaimed with alarm, flabbergasted and unsure what to do.

    ¡°Yes, sorry,¡± she nodded as the tears stopped, just as quickly as they had started. Her expression had never even shifted. ¡°I am fine now.¡±

    ¡°What happened?¡± he stared

    ¡°That¡­¡± she pointed to Irwyn¡¯s waist level ¡°¡­was made by my father, wasn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Irwyn paused as realization struck him about exactly who had made his bag. ¡°Yes¡­ I thought the ring helped you?¡±

    ¡°It did remove the pain and despair,¡± Alice nodded, caressing her finger where the ring was - either invisible or even hidden from more than just sight. She had obviously concealed it again once her deal with Elizabeth was concluded. ¡°But it¡¯s not perfect. Sometimes the Soul remembers even through the glass. I will likely suffer from¡­ outburst when the wrong thoughts invoke associations, for a while at least.¡±

    ¡°Are you really fine?¡± Irwyn had to reiterate.

    ¡°All I need to do is tell the ring to swallow whatever is dredged up,¡± Alice nodded. ¡°It¡¯s not too much to handle.¡±

    ¡°Alright. Thank you again,¡± Irwyn said, though the conversation had turned awkward. They said their goodbyes, then he left as quickly as he could without looking hurried.

 3.27 There must have bean a better pun somewhere here

    Irwyn dropped by Elizabeth¡¯s office to announce his departure, then was on his way. For all he had only been to the orphanage once before it was not too far away and Irwyn remained somewhat familiar with the streets of Ebon Respite - despite all the recent changes there were enough small landmarks for him to navigate. He hesitated to walk through the front as to not startle Kalista, though ultimately decided that he was not completely unannounced, given his promise of visiting again soon. They would probably need to do some scheduling for the future though. He quickly went through the main entrance and past the hallway that led into the communal area. Heads turned to him but the children and the few adults seemed to recognize him.

    ¡°Irwyn!¡± Kalista exclaimed as soon as he entered, waving his way. She was sitting in the corner, sharing a dish with Rainer. Looking around Irwyn spotted only Waylan from their closer group who did spare him a wave but seemed otherwise occupied playing cards with a gaggle of children just about reaching early teens.

    ¡°Kalista, Rainer,¡± Irwyn nodded a greeting as he approached the indivisible pair. Kalista was smiling radiantly even with her blindfold, though Rainer seemed a lot more sour. Irwyn could not help but notice how Kalista triumphantly received a handful of coins from him as he had been approaching. ¡°On when I return?¡±

    ¡°I expected the evening,¡± Rainer sighed. ¡°Everyone else was on yesterday or tomorrow. Maxim is actually off to work and Aaron is rather¡­ preoccupied is an accurate word. He won¡¯t be available for a few more hours unless it¡¯s something really urgent.¡±

    ¡°Then I might use that to borrow Kalista for a moment,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get jealous, dear,¡± Kalista sent Rainer an exaggerated air-kiss, standing up. They went over to the side room in the entrance hallway, mostly because it was the only private spot Irwyn knew in the building. Then he summoned his penetralia.

    ¡°I did get you these,¡± Irwyn took out the glasses.

    ¡°You think they will work?¡± she immediately understood.

    ¡°They might,¡± Irwyn shrugged. The pair seemed unenchanted to him but he didn¡¯t think Alice would hand him a dud. It was probably more the material than magic.

    ¡°Alright, let me,¡± she nodded, then turned away from Irwyn. The blindfold came off, quickly replaced by the new accessory. When that was done Kalista began to slowly turn until. She was hesitant for obvious reasons but did not flinch away and eventually, she came to face Irwyn.

    ¡°Huh,¡± she smiled. ¡°It does work.¡±

    ¡°More than expected,¡± Irwyn nodded, making eye contact. There was one more distinct visual change he noticed. ¡°Your eyes look normal again, at least through the lenses.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± she paused. ¡°How does that make any sense? The color change is literally physical.¡±

    ¡°Maybe it isn¡¯t?¡± Irwyn guessed. Their honing was not magic but it had be drawing that power from something. ¡°I don¡¯t actually understand how the spectacles work. I can ask.¡±

    ¡°Please do. This is great,¡± Kalista grinned, then rolled her eyes as hard as feasible¡­ now that she could again. ¡°Especially since I was afraid the eyes might be more noticeable than the blindfold.¡±

    ¡°Yes, the iridescent sheen was quite striking from what little I could glimpse last time,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Mortal words, please Irwyn.¡±

    ¡°Iridescent is not even that abnormal.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± she said while tilting her head in a way that very much said ¡®not really¡¯. And rolling her eyes, of course.

    ¡°Multicolored, changing from different angles,¡± Irwyn grumbled.

    ¡°Unfortunately, I have already forgotten the magic word itself,¡± she gave him an exaggerated sign. ¡°That makes the definition less useful.¡±

    ¡°You know, willful ignorance is not a virtue, right?¡± he scoffed lightly.

    ¡°Tell that to my eyes,¡± she immediately shot back, rolling them again clearly relishing it could be seen. ¡°And about the mage thing?¡±

    ¡°Mage thing?¡± Irwyn frowned. Then realised that he had been supposed to ask Elizabeth about the education system, given one of the young Tears did seem to possess a bit of magic. ¡°Oh, I¡­ may have forgotten to ask.¡±

    ¡°Huh,¡± she grinned suppressing a chuckle.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°You had literally two things to do,¡± she couldn¡¯t help but laugh.

    ¡°In my defense¡­¡± Irwyn opened his mouth, then reconsidered. He had been distracted by several things but that would only give her more ammunition. ¡°Actually, not much defense. I forgot, sorry.¡±

    ¡°Not like we are in too much of a hurry,¡± Kalista said through the tail end of the giggle. ¡°I suppose that some things don¡¯t change. Maybe you should pay Waylan to be a full-time secretary since you can afford it now.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think the paperwork could survive his snide,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°And his butchery of idiom might lead to lynching in some circles.¡±

    ¡°At least he would be the easier of you two to understand,¡± she chuckled.

    So, to preserve his last bit of grace he harrumphed away to the sound of her snickers. Which was immediately made particularly awkward because the room only had one exit, subjecting Irwyn to the mocking laugher while they returned to the common room through the hallway where Kalista went off to re-entangle with Rainer. Irwyn instead chose Waylan. The sneak had seemingly finished the prior hand and seemed in the middle of dealing the next.

    ¡°So, what are we playing?¡± Irwyn took one of the empty seats. Besides Waylan there were 4 other people, all a lot younger.

    ¡°Rummy,¡± one of the children - he seemed almost 12, though Irwyn did not know them - replied.

    ¡°Deal me in then,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Unfair! We are playing over chores which you don¡¯t have,¡± another one pointed out.

    ¡°How about I bet a magic trick then?¡± Irwyn smiled.

    ¡°Really?¡± that seemed to make the crowd interested.

    ¡°Well, if I somehow don¡¯t win, that is,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I can¡¯t do a lot of things but it might be a good challenge to figure out how to do something.¡±

    ¡°Just don¡¯t ask him to blow up the house,¡± Waylan warned. ¡°I¡¯ve seen Irw do that.¡±

    ¡°I despise that accusation,¡± Irwyn scoffed while the cards were being dealt.

    ¡°Well, as far as I saw, you can blow-up houses better than do cards,¡± Waylan mocked ¨C it wasn¡¯t even true! Which made Irwyn decide he was definitely going to cheat rather than let Waylan win a single round¡­

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    <hr>

    Turned out that being able to magically perceive everyone¡¯s cards was not actually that useful in Rummy¡­ It was nice knowing when he could afford to take risks and when the other players already had a winning hand, but ultimately it was not a game about bluffing but rather about getting lucky.

    Irwyn also found it difficult to see the cards within the deck. Lightsight comprehension struggled with distinguishing each layer. Ironically, the reduction in precision that the spell had to involve to be usable resulted in making it hard to differentiate layers of a stack with the thin cards. With the number of players involved he couldn¡¯t quite reliably see what his own next draw would be until halfway past his turn ¨C not to mention the fact that people could disrupt the draw order.

    After a dozen hands when the scores were tallied, Irwyn found himself coming out of it second last mostly due to terrible luck. He squinted at Waylan¡¯s grin, undecided whether he had been actually unlucky or whether Waylan had learned how to stack the deck¡­ and if he had why did the stealth extraordinaire still end up not winning?

    ¡°I told you Irwyn was bad at this,¡± he had the gall to grin.

    ¡°Rummy is about luck,¡± Irwyn defended.

    ¡°Well, yep, you would have definitely been last in poker,¡± Waylan just sagely nodded. ¡°Probly by a multiple.¡±

    ¡°I am not even bad at poker.¡±

    ¡°Sure you ain¡¯t,¡± Waylan nodded the same way again. ¡°Anyway, I think you owe Shaun that favor as the winner.¡±

    ¡°No going around that,¡± Irwyn nodded, looking at the boy who had beaten everyone else. They seemed almost surprised to be reminded of the bet. ¡°So, what would you like?¡±

    ¡°What can I even ask for,¡± the boy quickly recovered, then got to thinking. Old Crow had taught them better than to get starstruck in front of opportunity.

    ¡°Please, nothing that would be seen through half the city,¡± Irwyn smiled. ¡°I cannot do anything long lasting. Other than that, I want to try and see if I can figure out how to do whatever you come up with.¡±

    ¡°Can I think about it?¡±

    ¡°No hurry,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Even if I leave I should be around every few days.¡±

    ¡°About that, how is my presumed pardon?¡± Waylan interjected.

    ¡°Already filed yesterday,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°The Lieutenant seemed eager to not dally.¡±

    ¡°Well, she seemed smart. Not much else good,¡± Waylan muttered.

    ¡°Not a fan?¡±

    ¡°The penal platoon is expendable and she very much knew that. Nothing more to say than that,¡± Waylan shook his head.

    ¡°I could seek petty or not so petty revenge on your behalf,¡± Irwyn suggested.

    ¡°Nah, is fine,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°I stayed out of sight so nothing bad ¡®ere.¡±

    They chatted for a bit longer, Irwyn noting some of the ¡®adults¡¯ come and go through the front. No one seemed to pay that any attention and in all fairness they were mostly still all young enough to not look out of place exiting an orphanage even to outsiders. Who did cause a disturbance was Aaron finally emerging from his office. He must have been there for hours given it only had one exit. And Irwyn¡¯s friend appeared¡­ dazed. Barely looking around and significantly subdued.

    ¡°Aaron,¡± Kalista was the first to greet. Their friend in question barely turned towards her though and only after a moment, replying with an ever so slightly slurred ¡®hey¡¯.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Irwyn had gotten up from his seat and approached, Waylan not far behind.

    ¡°Irwyn?¡± Aaron asked - the reaction again delayed. ¡°Ah, we should speak in my office.¡±

    ¡°Mind if we tag along?¡± Rainer spoke for everyone.

    ¡°Hmm?¡± Aaron paused, just as he was turning back to the room he had just emerged out of. ¡°Oh, yes. Why not?¡±

    Irwyn was obviously somewhat worried as he followed. The slight stench of blood inside did not help alleviate said misgivings. Looking around Irwyn immediately noticed the red-tinged rags stuffed inside a small water bucked - to the side but very much still in sight.

    ¡°What happened?¡± Irwyn asked when Aaron took his seat, still sluggish, though seemingly getting better by the moment.

    ¡°He had a bit of a breakthrough in his honing, with all the unpleasantness that involves,¡± Rainer supplied instead. ¡°As I said earlier, preoccupied.¡±

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯ that make him better thinker,¡± Waylan asked doubtfully.

    ¡°He is obviously high as a tower,¡± Kalista added with some humor.

    ¡°Yes, the process is quite unpleasant¡­ sober,¡± Aaron nodded, slowly reaching up to remove his hat and wig. The tumor-like bulb did seem slightly bigger than two days prior, but much more distinct were the fresh scars - still raw red and barely scabbed over. ¡°The painkillers I use have¡­ side effects. I should be better¡­ soon.¡±

    ¡°The first time was actually kind of hilarious,¡± Kalista nodded. ¡°He overdid it and looked drunk for half a week.¡±

    ¡°Did you get glasses?¡± Aaron interrupted with a frown.

    ¡°No, you are just imagining them,¡± Rainer shook his head immediately.

    ¡°Oh, my bad,¡± Aaron nodded. Then paused. ¡°No, you are messing with me."

    ¡°He isn¡¯t,¡± Waylan immediately jumped in. ¡°Kali is wearing the same blindfold.¡±

    ¡°You do realize I approve your earnings¡­ right?¡± Aaron slowly rolled his eyes.

    ¡°Waylan could definitely sneak in and adjust the paperwork,¡± Kalista suggested.

    ¡°Which is why our real books are coded,¡± Aaron shrugged. ¡°Well, it¡¯s just good practice in¡­ general.¡±

    ¡°Blackmail. Woeful,¡± Rainer sighed. ¡°I suppose we will have to unleash Irwyn.¡±

    ¡°I am quite content being uninvolved, thank you.¡±

    ¡°UNLEASH!¡± Kalista immediately cheered.

    ¡°UNLEASH!¡± ¡°UNLEASH!¡± Waylan and Rainer did not hesitate for a second to join her.

    ¡°You do realize I literally cannot rewrite anything?¡± Irwyn fought the smile tugging at his lips

    ¡°But you could just burn all the paperwork,¡± Kalista pointed out.

    ¡°Then I would have to use all of you in the effort to redo it,¡± Aaron nodded. ¡°Perhaps there is something to that. You might lose some of the¡­ snide.¡±

    ¡°We have reconsidered, Irwyn,¡± Rainer paused. ¡°Please hold back with the arson.¡±

    ¡°I will consider abstaining,¡± Irwyn shrugged.

    ¡°Actually, Irwyn, I have something for you.¡± Aaron jumped in before more banter could bloom, taking up a sheet of notes from somewhere in the piles. ¡°I have been thinking how we could get¡­ things to work with the whole probable undead issue.¡±

    ¡°Technically speaking there are not likely to be any undead,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°Poor Irwyn lost his paranoia,¡± Kalista traced a fake tear going down her face.

    ¡°And worse, replaced it with optimism,¡± Rainer added.

    ¡°I have it on solid authority,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°None of us here actually really know anything about Lich Wars.¡±

    ¡°What I am thinking is¡­¡± Aron grabbed the conversation back, squinting at the duo ¡°...it will have to be done, at least tangentially, with the Blackburg name behind it.¡±

    ¡°Elaborate,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°So, obviously, you don¡¯t want a bunch of false alarms bothering those soldiers all the time. But the bounty also has to be good enough that people actually want to find something, despite the danger implied. So, I have two ideas: First, very few people would actually be brazen enough to try and scam House Blackburg since the purge is still in recent memory. And second the payout for a tip is relatively small but if your soldiers do confirm it is actually undead the bounty becomes huge.¡±

    ¡°Sounds simple enough,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°But it would take a lot of micromanagement.¡±

    ¡°Here is where we would come in, well, not quite yet,¡± Aaron grinned. ¡°First of all, you wore a mask when you were to the Guild¡¯s bar as a Fowl, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°And how much of your magic did you show off?¡± He asked. ¡°Specifically, how much variety?¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± Irwyn thought back. ¡°Just Light and mostly subtly since it was invisible.¡±

    ¡°Perfect,¡± Aaron grinned wider. ¡°And last, how well could you alter your voice?¡±

    ¡°No idea,¡± Irwyn shrugged. Yet there was a very good chance Elizabeth had something or knew how to get it. ¡°But most likely pretty well. Am I going back in disguise?¡±

    ¡°Very much so,¡± Aaron nodded. ¡°Maybe playing up the fire show¡­ and the arrogance so that no one would even doubt you are in league with House Blackburg.¡±

    ¡°How do I get you to manage it?¡± Irwyn was nodding along.

    ¡°Well, obviously some noble would not know how exactly the Guild works, so they would ask whoever is in charge¡­¡±

    ¡°And the Tears have a mage Fowl now,¡± Kalista grasped from the side. Everyone was obviously listening in. ¡°We would be the obvious intermediaries to go through. Especially if we make sure to have some people there to suggest it.¡±

    ¡°We can pretend to figure out things for a few days after that,¡± Aaron affirmed.

    ¡°I like it,¡± Irwyn confirmed. It was concrete and seemed solid.

    ¡°Great, then I have some notes to help you sell it to the garrison,¡± the mastermind nodded, passing the first page. ¡°First off, I have the whole plan written out with some variables, redundancies, scheduling and details of the cooperation.¡±

    ¡°Only next week?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow as he skimmed the timeline near the top.

    ¡°Later, ideally,¡± Aaron nodded. ¡°It¡¯s a bit too much of a coincidence if the Fowl and the Blackburg walk into the bar within the same week.¡±

    ¡°You could make a joke from that¡­¡± Kalista attempted to interrupt.

    ¡°I will figure out how urgent it is and let you know,¡± Irwyn ignored her with learned determination.

    ¡°Next, here I have a complete breakdown of the costs,¡± he handed over a second sheet, full of numbers. ¡°My best guesses what would work and how well.¡±

    ¡°Good,¡± Irwyn nodded. Concrete numbers would certainly help sell the idea. He did not want to rely on Elizabeth to just overrule their entire hierarchy for his plan if it was faulty.

    ¡°And last,¡± Aaron passed the final sheet, it was almost filled up. ¡°Here is a list of suggested fake names for you.¡±

    ¡°A what?¡± Irwyn paused.

    ¡°The list of fake names,¡± Waylan nodded with utmost seriousness. Everyone mirrored him.

    ¡°Lord Pur Suierof El Iz Abeth?¡± Irwyn read out loud dubiously.

    ¡°I like that one,¡± Kalista chimed in.

    ¡°You came up with it, dear,¡± Rainer pointed out.

    ¡°And I did a really good job,¡± she nodded.

    ¡°Everyone contributed to it,¡± Aaron grinned. ¡°In fact, I think they have outdone themselves.¡±

    ¡°Guy-ding Lite? You barely tried with that one, Waylan,¡± Irwyn scoffed.

    ¡°That is a frame-up,¡± Waylan retorted. ¡°That one was Max.¡±

    ¡°Sure, sure,¡± Irwyn rolled his eyes.

    ¡°A red earring!¡± he exclaimed.

    The proceeding conversation was not too far removed from verbal torture.

 3.28 Shifting forms

    Irwyn did not end up staying for dinner. He left in time to have some leeway getting back for the meal after agreeing that he would visit the orphanage two or three times a week if time allowed. He shared supper with Elizabeth who voiced her pleasant surprise at his return along with a serving of tea - she had certainly been getting into the brewing habit ever since their arrival in Ebon Respite, not that Irwyn minded.

    It also gave him the opportunity to present Aaron¡¯s ideas and attempt to iron out many of the details. He was informed that he did, in fact, have a uniform in his closet ¨C he couldn¡¯t exactly show up in the same clothes and armywear would be appropriate since he would be playing out the role of a soldier. Then came the less mundane part of the disguise.

    ¡°I suppose this would work,¡± Elizabeth nodded, pulling a simple metal ring from her bag. It was unadorned, though still polished to shine.

    ¡°Why is it always a ring?¡± Irwyn shook his head.

    ¡°Well, everyone has ten fingers, I suppose?¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Easy to carry¡­ also close to your hands since many mages need to activate them manually, can be hidden among regular jewelry¡­ There are many reasons to choose a ring.¡±

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t artisans be more creative?¡± Irwyn sighed.

    ¡°Most weaker enchantments are produced according to an unchanging formula,¡± she shrugged. ¡°I suppose rings sell better than amulets or earrings? It might be that people expect it to be a ring, so the craftsmen make it that. I have never really put much thought into it.¡±

    ¡°I suppose it barely matters,¡± Irwyn admitted, returning to the main topic. ¡°This one would let me change my voice?¡±

    ¡°Much more than that,¡± Elizabeth nodded, putting the ring on. Then, of all things, a small magical screen manifested above it - though Irwyn could not see anything more than the outline. Elizabeth only took a few seconds to adjust it with her other hand before a marked change happened.

    ¡°Voice is obviously an option,¡± Elizabeth said, though she no longer sounded anything like herself. It was not even just the shifting of the pitch up or down: It was the cadence itself that morphed, as well as the hint of an accent appearing, and other subtle changes Irwyn could not point out. It was not just different, the new voice was utterly unrecognizable.

    ¡°Facial features are naturally included,¡± her visage smoothly shifted in a similar manner into something almost androgynous as she tapped on the screen again. Not a trace of familiarity remained, including the eye color or bone structure. "Exact details are difficult but vague instructions look realistic."

    ¡°Then height, proportions,¡± she was suddenly taller, downright towering. Her arms grew thicker, insanely muscular. "Those are easy enough."

    ¡°And you just carry that around,¡± Irwyn inclined his head at the demonstration.

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s on the lower end as such things are reconned,¡± she shrugged, everything back to normal in the blink of an eye. ¡°It¡¯s using barely a few intentions. I have never actually used it in practice before since any half-competent security would see through it. In upper circles its basically a toy. But it should be more than enough for a gathering without mages.¡±

    ¡°Lower budget of House Blackburg are like artefacts for the common people,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°This is quite wondrous. Is it an illusion?¡±

    ¡°Obviously it¡¯s an illusion,¡± Elizabeth chided. ¡°It would be an illusion even if it actually twisted flesh.¡±

    ¡°That sounds unpleasant, compared to just a trick of Light,¡± Irwyn paused. Creating a false image with Light magic over the body seemed like the obvious easiest choice to make such a thing work. Well, except the voice, he supposed.

    ¡°Illusion as a concept stems from Life, and the Deceiver, do not forget that,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°As does this ring. If it was Light magic for the visual parts you would likely just see right through it. No, this illusion changes your surface-most nature.¡±

    ¡°Yet you said it doesn¡¯t twist flesh,¡± Irwyn pointed out, interested. His grasp on Life magic was limited to say the least.

    ¡°An illusion may cause a visual change without actually changing someone, and the other way around,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°There are very distinct differences between change as Life mages reckon it. What the ring achieves is considered ¡®outer deception¡¯ - you present a false outline of Life. It merely adjusts how the Life is perceived by the world, not its inner nature. It is a temporary change that will fade with Finity. Besides illusions, Life-based stitching works on this principle.¡±

    ¡°As opposed to?¡± Irwyn prodded.

    ¡°Next would be ¡®surface deception¡¯, the shape of Life is changed,¡± Elizabeth obliged. ¡°This is where the actual flesh twisting happens. Life-based graft healing works like this - taking pre-existing flesh from somewhere, then changing it into whatever is missing in the wounded area - but much more is possible. Changing the physique, readjusting organs¡­ probably any physical change you can think of. Since it alters physical flesh the changes are as permanent as the Life that bears them, though Finity can mess with the process itself.¡±

    ¡°From there it gets more¡­ mystical. I have only surface knowledge - stories and examples rather than in-depth dives. The next is ¡®inner deception¡¯ where Life changes its fundamental nature. This is generally around the domain level and has very few restrictions in variety. Bodies that no longer require blood or air, substituting them with something else. Esoteric physiques with extraordinary resistance to magic, or specific forces of nature. I heard of a mage who made their skin completely frictionless while also reconstituting their entire anatomy with paramount speed - that way they could move many times the speed of sound without so much as a tailwind, much less the notorious boom of the sound barrier.¡±

    ¡°Last is ¡®True deception¡¯ where, and I quote ¡®Life becomes change, change becomes Life¡¯. I genuinely do not know what that means, I just read it in a book. The only other thing I gathered about this stage is that the Fae are naturally born into it. Even examples are a tightly kept secret.¡±

    ¡°Well, if that stage anything like the magic Fae use it is bound to be strange,¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°Like deceiving magic itself to use other elements than Life. Or spontaneous death and resurrection for no good reason.¡±

    ¡°Well, the most powerful Life mages are notorious for being extremely hard to kill even through complete bodily erasure,¡± she nodded. ¡°The Duchy of Green has the majority of the oldest Nameless mages in the Federation for a reason and it¡¯s not just longevity.¡±

    ¡°Fascinating,¡± Irwyn smiled, reluctantly returning to the prior topic. ¡°Then will I be able to use the ring?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I can key you into it,¡± she nodded.

    ¡°Other than that?¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°It looks like the plan should work,¡± Elizabeth confirmed. ¡°We can go over the budget with Trecha, then present it to everyone. I don¡¯t think anyone will complain.¡±

    ¡°With you around it might be more about whether they will want to rather than whether they will,¡± Irwyn smiled.

    ¡°What is that supposed to mean?¡± she raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°That House Blackburg is terrifying?¡± Irwyn mirrored her. ¡°Surely you are aware people are scared of you. Now, I obviously don¡¯t know how deep-rooted that is within the army itself but I doubt it¡¯s not omnipresent.¡±

    ¡°The army is built on discipline, not fear, Irwyn,¡± she shook her head.

    ¡°So you couldn¡¯t, theoretically, completely sink their careers with one short letter?¡± Irwyn asked with doubt.

    ¡°Well, yes, I suppose,¡± she bit her lip. ¡°But I would not do that unless it was really warranted.¡±

    ¡°And they understand that, I am sure,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°What they are worried about is what your definition of ¡®warranted¡¯ might be. I have seen how Alira named herself a judge with only sentence she dispensed being death. And it takes just one bad example for everyone to start sweating whether they might be meeting the next.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s different with¡­ well, with mages,¡± she paused, then continued when Irwyn did not interrupt. ¡°There is a distinction between mages and non-mages. Both in the eyes of tradition and law. Even Alira with her background would not elude harsh punishment if she had killed so many mages.¡±

    ¡°And you are saying the same goes for careers. Mages simply have protections and recourse others would not,¡± Irwyn nodded, unsurprised. It was rather¡­ blunt. But not like he had not noticed the lines in the sand. In fact, probably even on paper. From what he had seen, the Duchy of Black actively tried to isolate their two demographics. With encouraging gathering places like Abonisle or City Black, and creating vacuums like Ebon Respite.

    ¡°Ideally there is supposed to be minimal interaction between the mages and the rest,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°The Archduke of Red has always disapproved of any indenturement or outright ownership of people, especially on a larger scale. And, more importantly, he had repeatedly traveled to enforce that displeasure until a more hands-off approach was taken by the mage nobility of yore and passed down from there.¡±

    ¡°But since apathy is the standard, who cares about a little rampage here and there?¡± Irwyn grimaced. Yes, apathy was certainly a good word to describe the Duchy¡¯s approach to its more mundane citizens.

    ¡°It could have been much worse. With the Pride of House Blackburg we are naturally inclined to develop a disdain for those ¡®lesser¡¯,¡± she tried to elaborate. ¡°It¡¯s for the best if we don¡¯t have the urge to prove our superiority.¡±

    ¡°Do you?¡± Irwyn asked, carefully, immediately unsure whether he should have.

    ¡°Being bedridden for half my youth did wonders for curbing my ego, I suppose, or at least let me develop an awareness of it,¡± she replied, just as slowly. ¡°But being as high as I stand in both birth and talent means I look down on almost everyone, Irwyn, mage or not. If I hated people just for being lesser in some way it would drive me insane.¡±

    ¡°You have a point,¡± he nodded reassuringly but noted something: Almost everyone.

    He had not gotten the impression that Elizabeth looked down on people, but thinking back he realized his mistake. She had not looked down on Dervish. Nor on himself, and that was certainly a pleasant bit of knowledge to hold. But analyzing further, when else had he ever seen Elizabeth interact with people for more than a sentence? No, rather - when else had he seen her interact without playing out a role?

    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    He thought back to the night before Abonisle nearly fell. With Desir she had acted polite, but perhaps just acted - like it was part of the experience, of her little pseudo-criminal adventure. But he also remembered that shop owner they had bothered to make them something to eat far past the closing time. Irwyn had been quite embarrassed to intrude. Elizabeth barely looked at the woman, as if she did not matter beyond delivering what the heiress desired¡­ But how could one not be like that when they had been raised surrounded by servants? Irwyn had seen City Black, or at least a part of its high class. How many of the nobles saw the omnipresent maids and butlers as people? And had he when staying there for weeks?

    ¡°Are you¡­?¡± she began to ask with a hint of worry.

    ¡°I suppose I am not so different,¡± Irwyn interrupted her. ¡°I don¡¯t care about people, do I? I always thought of myself as ¡®better¡¯ because I did not draw any pleasure from hurting others. But I was comparing myself to the true scum. That better isn¡¯t good. It¡¯s also just apathy when it comes down to it. What right would I have to criticize that?¡±

    ¡°You have every right to be above it,¡± Elizabeth smiled slightly at that, as if relieved. ¡°If not by birth, then by talent alone. I believe that it is power that gives people a choice. Be it political or magical. Your choice may only be denied when someone or something can stop you.¡±

    ¡°The whole plan for spotting undead seems like a light topic now,¡± Irwyn sighed, then moved away from the conversation.

    ¡°We could get Trecha to have a look at it,¡± she nodded, following the change. ¡°It¡¯s not so late as to be improper. Not quite even curfew yet.¡±

    ¡°Then I would like to know his thoughts,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    <hr>

    ¡°How accurate are these numbers?¡± their senior supply officer questioned, reading through Aaron¡¯s calculations.

    ¡°My friend has the metaphorical hand on the artery of Ebon Respite¡¯s underworld,¡± Irwyn assured. ¡°So I would say as accurate as an educated guess gets.¡±

    ¡°It seems far too low,¡± Trecha frowned. ¡°Paying out these ¡®tips¡¯ might not even be noticeable on our budget if these rates actually hold.¡±

    ¡°This is not a particularly rich area,¡± Elizabeth suggested. ¡°Despite the proximity to City Black, Ebon Respite basically exists to provide cheap mundane labour. The underworld¡¯s expectations would be informed by the general lower standard of wealth.¡±

    ¡°I will admit to some doubts about whether this will work,¡± Trecha nodded. ¡°But judgement can be deferred and most of this lies outside my area of expertise. At this price point, or even three times more, I would agree that the plan seems very cost-effective as is with no adjustments. But we should consider a contingency, just in case.¡±

    ¡°If my failure of judgment proves too expensive I will take responsibility to supplement us from my personnel wealth,¡± Elizabeth reassured.

    ¡°You have my full support, if it was needed,¡± Trecha bowed slightly. ¡°Anything else I can do for you, Captain?¡±

    ¡°Actually, yes. I had a thought,¡± Elizabeth did pause the Sergeant¡¯s departure. ¡±This plan calls for a liaison.¡±

    ¡°Do you have someone in mind, Captain?¡± Trecha paused.

    ¡°Alice would be a good fit, given her notably anorectic line of duties.¡±

    ¡°It seems that nothing can escape your discerning eye, Captain,¡± Trecha replied, a hint of nervousness creeping into the voice and stance.

    ¡°I will not begrudge you looking after her when she was so volatile,¡± Elizabeth waved her hand in dismissal of those worries. ¡°But now that she is getting better it would not be amiss to assign her something more than free time.¡±

    ¡°Then should I inform her?¡± Trecha nodded.

    ¡°I intend to tell her myself,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Just arrange the meeting. Let¡¯s say¡­ after lunch tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Then I will relay the message,¡± the sergeant promised, then left.

    ¡°Alice?¡± Irwyn asked once Trecha was gone.

    ¡°I obviously want to keep the unusualness of your company obscure,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Alice is about the only person I can trust not being a spy for my mother. We don¡¯t want her getting interested in your acquaintances because of the ''honing'' if at all possible.¡±

    ¡°I suppose it will not hurt if we learn to work together in an easy setting,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Since she is also bound for your entourage.¡±

    ¡°That as well,¡± Elizabeth agreed. ¡°It is quite late now though. Goodnight?¡±

    ¡°Goodnight,¡± Irwyn smiled.

    <hr><hr>

    Ezax von Blackburg sat on his throne, deep within his line''s ancestral palace, Avys beside but below him. His chin rested on his first, elbow on the high armrest - not an unusual choreographed display of arrogance and feigned disinterest. Truly feigned in this case for his unexpected guests were quite fascinating indeed. He would not have granted them his presence otherwise.

    ¡°I have offered you precious Time in days when every minute is scarce,¡± his voice boomed towards the two kneeling figures. ¡°Speak your piece.¡±

    The first was a familiar enough sight. Ezax was no stranger to demons of Lust, in fact, they were quite hilarious. The one in front of him was actively trying not to look too much like Avys. Lust took whatever shape those around them found the most desirable, though they could force some adjustments and mix from everyone around them... Except in this case only Ezax and Avys were in the room and Avys¡¯ magical presence was so faint next to his she might as well not be present. This one had correctly guessed that taking the exact form of his host¡¯s wife would give offense and was squirming to not let that happen, much to the Duke¡¯s amusement.

    The second figure remained cloaked by more than just cloth, all features of the humanoid silhouette concealed. Perhaps they were pretending to be half-elven, though such efforts were pointless against Ezax¡¯s sight. No, the figure was a demon as well - as the Duke easily saw - though they lacked the usual identifying traits. Five of the sins Demons embodied were quite formulaic if one knew what to look for. As for Pride¡­ well, no one knew whether Pride demons even existed anymore - not even House Blackburg had a single record of them. But the last unaccounted for was Envy, and those Demons were diverse, to say the least.

    The one in front of him had 77 eyes. Not really human, more spider-like and scattered around the body - only 10 pairs placed on their ¡®face¡¯. Then there were the mandibles and several folded extra limbs concealed beneath the cloak. The overall distinct insectile and arachnid features suggested the Demon - or its ancestor - had once been something Voidborn spider-adjacent.

    Not that it mattered too much. Both of the demons were domain mages. The succubus at two, the spider at seven. One was the negotiator, the other muscle. Except strength was a mere formality before someone who could extinguish them both with a glance. And they clearly knew as much from the subtle waves of existential dread Ezax¡¯s presence caused to course through their very essence. Yet still they had requested to meet.

    ¡°Of course, Your Majesty,¡± the demon of Lust bowed from already kneeling - it was almost a kowtow at that point - before looking back up at Ezax. ¡°We shall not waste a second.¡±

    Which in itself was strange. The word ¡®second¡¯. Most might not pay it any attention but Ezax knew Demons. He had ventured into the Void on countless occasions and met more than almost anyone still living in the Federation. And Demons, simply put, usually did not really understand the passage of Time as a concept.

    As deep in the Void as the smarter ones lived ¡®Time¡¯ became loose after all. Faster, slower, halted¡­ at least compared to the mostly objective passage outside. It still passed in the Void, yes, but at different paces and sometimes with pauses in-between its flow. Demons were also naturally immortal so they very rarely needed any conception of Time keeping. If they needed to meet one another they would usually just go to the agreed upon ¡®place¡¯ - as incorrect as the term was when speaking of the deep Void - and simply¡­ wait. Subjective centuries in some cases - it made no difference to them.

    But this one used the word ¡®second¡¯. That in itself already told Ezax much. The Demon either spent a significant part of its existence in more mortal realities¡­ or they lived in shallower depths than domain holding Demons ought to.

    ¡°We represent a Named patron who insists they remain anonymous, Your Majesty,¡± the Lust demon explained. ¡°We have been sent to pursue a fugitive into your demesne.¡±

    ¡°Are you then asking permission?¡± Ezax raised an eyebrow. Avys still sat by his side, though she had remained silent so far.

    ¡°Nay, this fugitive is far below your notice in power, Your Majesty,¡± the succubus shook their head. Expressive. Very used to dealing with humans it could not afford to affect with its charming magics then. ¡°This pursuit is more petty than practical. Moreover, we have found much evidence they have already perished before our arrival.¡±

    ¡°Then why come to me?¡± Ezax frowned slightly, making sure it was visible.

    ¡°We have been unable to locate a key witness, your Majesty. After weeks of searching, scarcely a trace of them emerged. Therefore, we thought they might have extraordinary associations. Thus we seek both your help and perhaps permission.¡±

    My time is far from cheap. Frown more, Avys¡¯ voice sounded in his head.

    ¡°My Time is far from cheap,¡± Ezax echoed it, his brow furrowing further.

    ¡°Of course, your Majesty,¡± the Demon of Lust quickly assured, squirming under the hint of displeasure. Then he gestured towards the other Demon. ¡°We naturally offer adequate payment.¡±

    ¡°Your Majesty,¡± the other Demon spoke for the first time. The voice was raspy and mechanical. As if it strained the creature of Envy to speak at all. ¡°A Lich War brews in your demesne. I would offer my magic for six months of battle once our matter is concluded.¡±

    Six months after the real fighting starts, Avys relayed as she sat motionless.

    ¡°Six months after the real fighting starts,¡± Ezax replied.

    ¡°Of course, your Majesty,¡± the Envy demon confirmed without hesitation.

    ¡°Very well, then within reason you will have help,¡± Ezax nodded. Six months of a high domain asset could have a notable impact on their overall losses. And Avys was undoubtedly already salivating over how to best use the Demon. Ezax foresaw much scapegoating, so that the Demon would bear the blame for their own actions right before departing the Realm. ¡°Then who is it you seek?¡±

    ¡°We have only known them as ¡®Young Mockingbird¡¯,¡± the Demon of Lust said.

    Ask me, Avys clearly recognized the title. Ezax had not a clue.

    ¡°Have you heard of such a person, Avys?¡± the Duke turned to her.

    ¡°Yes, it is rather familiar,¡± the Duchess nodded, frowning. ¡°It is an alias used by the young mage Elizabeth has taken into her entourage recently.¡±

    ¡°Ah, that complicates matters,¡± Ezax voiced, turning back to the demons. ¡°A member of my daughter¡¯s entourage is, by extension, under my protection.¡±

    ¡°We can be unintrusive,¡± the Lust Demon said slowly. ¡°We merely need to confirm some matters.¡±

    ¡°You will be unintrusive,¡± Ezax corrected. Then he LOOKED at them. Not with his eyes, but with what he was. With the weight of his magic. Not in full force but revealing just the hint of the dread beneath. The Demons recoiled, for the shortest of moments experiencing such pure fear a mortal mind could never contain it. Ezax knew Demons, after all. His condition would not be defied. Then he ceased staring, allowing the conversation to continue.

    ¡°May I at least read the truth of their words?¡± the succubus would likely sweat if their body could. ¡°I assure your Majesty that it would be without notice or consequence.¡±

    Insist they do not share anything about the two with anyone here. And that they don¡¯t prod anything else.

    ¡°You will swear to secrecy concerning all matters and details you might learn about my daughter and her subordinate - not a soul in this Realm will learn of them from you,¡± Ezax nodded. ¡°And you will only try to learn things that concern this fugitive you seek.¡±

    ¡°That is agreeable, your Majesty,¡± the Lust demon nodded.

    ¡°Then say the words, on Umbra¡¯s Name.¡±

    And the demons did. Since Avys did not point out any loopholes in their wording Ezax knew there would be none. Afterwards Avys gave them directions, following by the Demons¡¯ desperate departure from Ezax¡¯s presence.

    ¡°You think something is strange,¡± he noticed on Avys¡¯ face.

    ¡°No one goes this far just to confirm some nobody who slighted them is dead,¡± Avys allowed herself a frown. ¡°Especially not someone so unimportant.¡±

    ¡°You know what they were after?¡± Ezax raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Not what, who,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°I would not, from the top of my head, if not for Lizzy¡¯s boy. I read every report on Abonisle that concerned him twice. There was one particular person that died with Irwyn being the only real witness. A recent friend, apparently. No body ever found, which would match why they want better confirmation. And there had been some strange occurrences at Abonisle recently that could be explained by two powerful Demons snooping around. Too many things add up.¡±

    ¡°Half-elven then? Something else?¡± Ezax frowned. ¡°They were not lying when they implied their target had come from the Void.¡±

    ¡°Possibly, if thin-blooded,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°I have attributed that person no importance beyond being decently talented, so notoriously promiscuous it made it into every report, and friendly with the boy. Now¡­ Now I am suddenly very curious about their real background.¡±

    ¡°Tell me if you unravel anything important,¡± Ezax nodded. ¡°I might have some insight into Demons.¡±

    ¡°Of course, dear,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°I will see what little time I can spare. Unfortunately, that might be preciously scarce nowadays.¡±

    ¡°Is it beginning?¡± Ezax¡¯s gaze sharpened.

    ¡°A few of our spies reports the Duchy of White is moving its troops. Surrounding an area¡­ as if they had found a horde hidden there,¡± she nodded. ¡°The first real battle of this war may happen as soon as tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Then I wish them luck,¡± Ezax nodded. ¡°And hope they have not underestimated what they will face.¡±

 3.29 So, guns literally do fire

    Irwyn ended up meeting Alice sooner than lunch. In the morning he had decided to finally don the uniform which had been provided to him upon arrival, then promptly forgotten in a closet¡­ and apparently tailored if the fit was anything to judge by. Thereafter Elizabeth had suggested it would not be a bad idea to wander around the camp and show his face - she was still finishing up the last of her accumulated paperwork but assured him she would be much more free starting in the afternoon.

    His run-in with the new entouragee happened at the same time as his discovery of the shooting range. Well ¡®target practice range¡¯ since it could be used for more than bullets, but most of the soldiers gathered there at the moment ¨C maybe two dozen of them ¨C were seemingly using those. Guns were not the most useful against undead but were still clearly in supply. With plentiful ammunition if the soldiers were allowed to shoot the targets mostly to pass the time.

    Alice was very distinct in the crowd because she was the only mage present. And based on the cheering as she approached the mark, she was quite liked among the gathering. Irwyn watched from a bit away as Alice brought the large riffle up: It was an overly massive contraption, looking far too big for her build. Then she made a theatric of loading a single massive shell into the chamber. Afterward she brought it up to her face and fired after just a split second of aiming.

    The sound of gunfire was muted, likely by the magic Irwyn felt around the range. Recoil - which Irwyn presumed would be significant from his limited understanding - did not seem to even shake Alice. What was more obvious was a large hole appearing right in the red mark of the target - a sheet of hoisted paper ¨C or perhaps rather replacing said center. Then another gunshot sounded. Irwyn paused. Third and fourth followed.

    Now Irwyn was no expert but he had assumed that loading a single bullet into the chamber meant the riffle would fire a single time. Fascinated he approached as the fifth to eight shots happened. The ninth was a lot louder since Irwyn had just passed the boundary muting sound, as were the thunderous cheers echoing her every shot, as he was assured of after the tenth.

    Then they finally stopped, though the exclamations remained. Irwyn also finally noticed what the crowd had earlier obscured: Alice had not been shooting at just one target but rather at an arrangement of ten, each a bit further than the last but also at different heights and angles, likely each harder to hit than the last¡­ and she had hit the center on each. That was, presumably, impressive. Irwyn knew next to nothing about firearms but everyone seemed to be losing their mind cheering and reliable precision was generally considered a hard-earned skill in anything.

    Alice finished the event by raising her open palm overhead, then clasping it into a fist. Most of the soldiers followed the gesture, though that was not the point as she immediately showed. She angled her fist down, palm aligned to ground, then half opened it. Empty bullet shells quickly poured from the space they certainly would not have physically fit, clinking on the ground moments later - exactly ten of them.

    Well, Alice was a Time mage so minor teleportation was only to be expected. The mundane men and women of arms did seem to appreciate it though so Irwyn did not put a voice to his lack of awe. She proceeded to receive a lineful of shoulder pats and good-natured handshakes as Irwyn hung around the back of the crowd. She seemed to enjoy the moment and accepted all the praise with a smile. It continued for almost a minute until he was noticed by her.

    ¡°Irwyn!¡± After her call out the soldiers finally began to notice him. One by one at first, then a whisper and a hush spread through until the jolly mood from moments ago suffocated under their weight. The former center of attention approached him, ¡°What bring you down here?¡±

    ¡°Alice,¡± he greeted - pretending the tangible wariness from everyone but her did not bother him. Why was that reaction so immediate¡­ and was it him in particular or any mage in general? ¡°I noticed the commotion and wandered towards it. Impressive aim.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± she smiled and it seemed the sudden tension was dispersing at a tangible rate. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t think you would take interest.¡±

    ¡°Well, I have not seen much of firearms actually firing in my life. Novelty begets curiosity,¡± he pointed towards the massive riffle she was still holding in one hand. ¡°Especially something that size.¡±

    ¡°Anti-material, 12.8 millimeters - I just removed the scope,¡± she said, nodding, as if that explained or meant anything to Irwyn. ¡°Not the biggest I ever used but nice.¡±

    ¡°Are you¡­ well acquainted with firearms?¡± Irwyn was unsure what to say. ¡°I am not. But I did notice that it fired more bullets than should be in it. Were you teleporting them in?¡±

    ¡°That, and helping the firing mechanism reset,¡± she nodded. ¡°These are not built to actually shoot more than once every few seconds.¡±

    ¡°Usually takes two people to operate it,¡± someone from the crowd pointed out. The positive mood had been somewhat resurrected, if not to the prior height.

    ¡°Just shooting is fun as well,¡± Alice grinned. ¡°But someone wanted me to show off. So I did. Didn¡¯t think a mage could shoot straight, heh.¡±

    ¡°Is that¡­ unusual?¡± Irwyn guessed.

    ¡°Well, are you spending hours in your day learning how to shoot?¡± she asked. "Combining magic with other martial disciplines is often underestimated."

    ¡°Fair point,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°Thought I feel like just practicing magic will bring me further.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s exactly the issue,¡± Alice shook her head. ¡°You also have to have fun from time to time.¡±

    ¡°Magic is plenty of fun,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°Nerd.¡±

    ¡°I am just¡­¡±

    ¡°Nerd.¡±

    ¡°You are being juve¡­¡±

    ¡°Nerd.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Irwyn inclined his head, resisting a sigh.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she nodded. ¡°You should try shooting.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ suppose?¡±

    ¡°Right, everyone?¡± she turned to the crowd of soldiers¡­ who were looking on with a mix of bewilderment, dread and embarrassment. The mundane people were all at least nearing twenty as Irwyn had seen and many were much older¡­ which made the youngest significantly elder to both Irwyn or Alice who were technically approaching their late teens... And the latter of them was certainly acting her age at the moment.

    ¡°Of course!¡± a few affirmed with distinct hesitation.

    ¡°I mean, why not,¡± Irwyn shrugged, interested enough to at least try.

    ¡°Alright, great. Let¡¯s see, for a beginner¡­¡± she glanced around. Then a slightest wave of magic passed through the air and she was holding a small handgun. ¡°Something easy. You have never shot before, right?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Irwyn affirmed. He had always used magic if there was a desperate need for such force, even if he had to disguise and moderate it for most of his life until recently. Firearms were never too common in Ebon Respite, even in the underbelly.

    ¡°Alright, it¡¯s simple,¡± she led him towards the mark painted to the ground. Irwyn assumed that no one stepped past it. ¡°You align the sights with target, then pull the trigger,¡± she looked up at the distinct lack of undamaged targets, paused, then with a wave of magic replaced them from somewhere¡­ Every second Irwyn was realizing what Elizabeth had meant when calling Time mages convenient to have around.

    ¡°I can certainly try,¡± Irwyn nodded, aiming at the target right in front of them, not even that far away. He braced for the recoil, because he knew at least that much, then fired. It was fascinating in its own right. The unexpectedly strong kick of the gun and slight flinch led to him missing, but that was only half of it. The rest was Irwyn finally taking notice of the more inner workings of the gun in his hand. He finally made the obvious connection of why there was fire in firearm. There was a spark, then a brief moment of burning in what he assumed was the bullet, then the projectile was in the air moving faster than he could perceive.

    But his mind was fast enough to mostly distinguish between the first spark and the total ignition, for all they were rapid. And that got him an idea.

    ¡°Not a natural sharpshooter,¡± Alice noted with a hint of amusement.

    ¡°All magic, it appears,¡± Irwyn pointed at himself. ¡°Though I bet I could beat you at gunplay if we could use magic.¡±

    ¡°When firing bullets from the gun, not just hitting the targets themselves with magic,¡± her eyes narrowed. Just as competitive as Irwyn remembered.

    ¡°Just guns and a bit of magic to help when shooting,¡± Irwyn nodded with a grin.

    ¡°Bring it,¡± she scoffed, a second identical pistol appearing in her hand. ¡°Five rounds, one shot each.¡±

    ¡°Fine by me,¡± Irwyn kept smiling as he aimed at the target again. This time he did hit, even if only on the outer circle.

    ¡°Five,¡± Alice nodded.

    ¡°How is the outermost circle five?¡± Irwyn questioned. "The center is marked as ten."

    ¡°There are bigger ones that go all the way to one,¡± someone said from the side.

    ¡°My turn,¡± Alice walked up with a last suspicious glance, then rapidly took aim in a single fluid motion. It was almost mesmerizing in the trained smoothness, really, and obviously done as quickly as possible to avoid whatever Irwyn was blatantly intending to pull.

    Except there was no gunshot. Alice frowned while Irwyn kept up a smile. She gave him a glare, then a different identical handgun replaced the first. which still did not fire. Neither did the third. When she attempted to check the bullets and then directly teleport them into the chamber Irwyn had to try a bit to not laugh. There was just something inherently hilarious about a prank like that working.

    ¡°You are messing with me, somehow,¡± she correctly concluded.

    ¡°I have no idea what you are talking about,¡± Irwyn immediately replied and winked.

    ¡°This is clearly against the rules you set,¡± she tried. ¡°You are messing with my round.¡±

    ¡°I said ¡®Just guns and bit of magic to help when shooting¡¯,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°This would clearly fall under that. You are shooting after all, never said it would be restricted to our own rounds."

    ¡°So you are doing something,¡± she said but clearly did not know what.

    His interference lay in the spark. First, there was a spark that ignited the inside of the shell which then propelled the actual projectile. But what if the ignition just¡­ didn¡¯t happen? Irwyn could feel even natural Flames when he tried to. And he could force them under his authority with just a bit of magical infusion. What he was essentially doing was immediately taking over the spark, then snuffing it out.

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Sure, the spark was faster than conscious thought but much of magic already operated at that level. Irwyn hadn¡¯t been completely sure it would work but he decided it was worth trying whether having every intention to subsume the spark as soon as it appeared would be enough. If it hadn¡¯t been, all he would have lost would have been a small bet. Not like there was much of anything at stake.

    The trickier part was making it not obvious. He couldn¡¯t just flood the entire area with his mana, Alice would notice that right away¡­ But he had long known how to displace magic away from his body. The issue with that was only that it became exponentially harder to control, as well as more costly and less powerful, based on the distance. But such a little spark? This close? It took just the barest imperceivable sliver of both mana and focus. At least as a baseline.

    ¡°I would be ruining my chances if I told you now, wouldn¡¯t I?¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°How long can one person spend on a round without firing before they lose it?¡±

    ¡°We haven¡¯t agreed on that,¡± Alice said. ¡°So there doesn¡¯t need to be any timeout.¡±

    ¡°It would be mighty awkward if someone took a point lead and then just refused to shoot until the competition was called, wouldn¡¯t it?¡± Irwyn argued back. ¡°I think three minutes is generous.¡±

    ¡°From now,¡± Alice bit her lip. He thought she might refute that in which case she would either figure out how to stop him or they would glare at each other awkwardly for a while before calling it a draw.

    ¡°Can someone time it for us?¡± Irwyn spoke towards the crowd. It took a few seconds for someone with a wristwatch to walk up and nod. From there Alice tried to figure it out. Her first three minutes she seemed to be casting a lot of subtle spells at the gun, seemingly attempting to figure out what could possibly be wrong while repeatedly attempting to shoot the target.

    ¡°Time,¡± the soldier who had volunteered spoke. Irwyn did not hesitate for a moment as he walked up with his own firearm, then fired after a moment of aiming.

    ¡°Seven points,¡± Irwyn read and announced. ¡°Your turn.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the bullets,¡± she correctly concluded. ¡°Everything else works just fine.¡±

    ¡°If you say so?¡± Irwyn inclined his head, not giving up anything.

    Then Alice attempted to flood the entire chamber with her own mana. It was an obvious counter: Just stop whatever Irwyn was doing by brute force. So obvious, in fact, that Irwyn had expected it. And while she just flooded it, Irwyn had long been ready to add intentions.

    Fundamentally, his spell was manifested at the exact spot of the spark when it appeared. Now that the chamber was enveloped with Alice¡¯s magic, Irwyn had to get his mana into that spot¡­ Which raised a curious question of how Irwyn¡¯s displacement of spells worked. The spell was manifesting exactly in that spot, but what did that actually mean? Was there a metaphysical but space-obeying link between Irwyn and the place his spell appeared? Was it like teleportation? Or perhaps it traveled to a layer of reality he knew nothing about. The biggest question was: Would he need to displace just a bit of Alice¡¯s mana or pierce through everything?

    Pierce and bypass were obvious choices when uncertain. Then Irwyn decided on fortify and reinforce so that his magic could not easily be broken by Alice''s spread force. And since he did have two options left he opted for diffuse and confuse, likely making it much harder for Alice to correctly determine where exactly his magic was happening. Of course, this all only took effect when Alice took the next shot - or at least tried to.

    ¡°Holy!¡± she exclaimed, flinching, then shot him a glare. ¡°That is way too much magic.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps you want me to make this¡­ easier?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow, taunting her. Six intention spells had a lot of mana in them even when Irwyn tried to trim the amount and scale down to a minimum. Without any intentions dedicated to hiding that Irwyn¡¯s control was not so perfect as to not leak anything, especially since the spell was being manifested displaced, right next to her arm. So instead, he was rather deliberately letting it leak enough to confuse where exactly in the chamber it was happening.

    ¡°That is not what I said,¡± she immediately shot back, redoubling her efforts. She tried to fit intentions into the formerly raw mana in the chamber but she had not yet identified where it needed to be. What followed was a round of Alice repeatedly attempting and failing to block Irwyn¡¯s spell.

    ¡°How do you burn this much magic without even sweating?¡± Alice glared at him as the time was called. Perspiration was certainly starting to surface on her face.

    ¡°It¡¯s not actually that much,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°I am focused on one spot, you are not.¡±

    ¡°One spot,¡± she repeated, grinning. Oops. It seemed like Irwyn had gone a step too far with his taunts. He quickly fired his shot - completely missing - and returned to metaphorical baton to Alice within a few seconds.

    The next round started with Alice attempting to identify where this one place was. She did so by passing a thin film of mana back and forth through the chamber length-wise, trying to fire repeatedly all the while. Inevitably, her intentionally weak bit of magic got disrupted by Irwyn¡¯s much more powerful spell the closer she got to the right spot. But she had done it quickly enough that Irwyn had not come up with the idea of casting a fake spell to feign the spot until after a dozen rapid attempts when she already had what she needed.

    ¡°The back end of the bullet, is it?¡± Alice smiled, turning to Irwyn. ¡°Almost have you now.¡±

    She then proceeded to attempt the very same thing height-wise near the spot she had found earlier. Attempting to determine whether it was the dead center or closer to the top or bottom, presumably. But as she started pulling the trigger again, Irwyn noticed something she had clearly missed. The gun fired to Alice¡¯s and everyone¡¯s great surprise - and didn¡¯t hit the target. She flinched, actual recoil affecting her for the first time. Based on her expression, the mistake stung more than the kick.

    ¡°You forgot to aim after you assured me of your incoming victory,¡± Irwyn added insult to injury, breaking the startled silence. He was not obligated to prevent her shot if it was clearly going to miss.

    ¡°That is low!¡± Alice accused.

    ¡°My turn,¡± Irwyn did not rise to it, quickly firing the next shot. ¡°Another five, up to you.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the Aspects damned primer, isn¡¯t it?¡± Alice half asked half stated after a moment of staring at the gun in her hand, then slapped her forehead. ¡°Or at least the gunpowder. It¡¯s so obvious. How did I not think of this?¡±

    ¡°I am not sure whether I should laugh or be worried,¡± Irwyn spoke. ¡°If only I knew what a ¡®primer¡¯ was. And the presumed seconder.¡±

    ¡°Of course, the Flame mage would mess with the fire,¡± Alice refocused, Irwyn failing to distract her. She spent a few more seconds thinking, then took aim, reflooded the chamber with her mana and pulled the trigger.

    The gun went off. Irwyn paused. His spell had worked, he was sure of it. Alice had done nothing else as far as he could perceive and yet his spell suddenly had no effect. It was not overpowered, nor broken. Just¡­ bypassed, somehow.

    ¡°What did you do?¡±

    ¡°I would be ruining my chances if I told you now, wouldn¡¯t I?¡± Alice grinned. ¡°Full ten points. Doesn¡¯t look good for you, does it?¡±

    ¡°There is only one round left anyway,¡± Irwyn pointed out. ¡°With me at 17, any hit just guarantees I win.¡±

    ¡°If, you can hit.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Irwyn nodded, taking aim the best he could, definitely at least a bit competitive. Then he paused, a thought striking him. He fumbled with the gun for a few moments before he found the button which allowed him to detach the magazine. Sure enough, there was only one bullet there, a visibly deformed piece of metal that undoubtedly would cause subpar accuracy.

    ¡°You messed with the clip,¡± Irwyn calmly noted. Fair enough, two could play that game as the saying went. No use complaining about his own medicine, as one idiom said. There wasn¡¯t even a Waylan around to defile them.

    ¡°It¡¯s a magazine, Irwyn,¡± Alice corrected.

    ¡°May I have a different one?¡± He called towards the crowd and one was quickly provided. He immediately enveloped the entire magazine in Light magic, reinforcing it the best he could against teleportation¡­ then he also discarded the top three bullets before reloading, making sure the ammunition remained guarded as he loaded it back in.

    When he tried shooting nothing happened. Irwyn frowned and tried several more times. He proceeded to pull the magazine out again, but the bullets were still there. Confused he tried again, futilely.

    ¡°I cannot watch this,¡± someone blurted out. ¡°You need to pull the top of the gun after loading a new magazine and disengage the safety.¡±

    ¡°Safety?¡± Irwyn paused.

    ¡°Small lever on the top right side, above the handle.¡±

    ¡°He would have lost,¡± Alice muttered with a glare.

    ¡°Well, it would be way too anticlimactic,¡± their timekeeper pointed out. ¡°Ten seconds left.¡±

    Irwyn scrambled to follow the instructions as the last moments were counted down. He was down to three before he thought he had accomplished getting the gun ready to fire. Two before he raised it. Without much time to fire at all, Irwyn just pulled the trigger. Almost condescendingly Alice did not even try to disrupt it with her own spell.

    ¡°Miss,¡± instead she just smiled and stepped up.

    ¡°Don¡¯t celebrate too soon,¡± Irwyn said, thinking quickly. Not everything was yet lost. He was still ahead as long as Alice did not get to fire again. So, he expanded his spell. From just the back of the bullet to cover the entire chamber. As soon as his subconscious perceived that spark it would extinguish all fires there. It would hog exponentially more mana but Irwyn was confident he could keep it up for the three minutes with ease thanks to his extensive reserves, no matter what Alice tried.

    Alice pulled the trigger, birthing the spark, only for it to be extinguished in the same instant. It worked just as well as the first time. Except, Irwyn realized, there was a reason Alice still covered the entire inside of the chamber with her mana. Because there was an anomaly. It just wasn¡¯t at the bullet where Irwyn expected it but rather almost right by the other end. The bullet loaded in the chamber indeed never fired.

    ¡°It¡¯s a different bullet,¡± Irwyn realized all too late, as he glanced and the target and the new little hole in the center. Another ten for a total of 20.

    ¡°All it takes to ignite the primer is a knock of force - that is what the trigger is really for,¡± Alice nodded. ¡°That is easy enough to do manually with Time magic. Then I just have to put a portal in front of the actual bullet I am triggering ten meters away from here and connect it to the nuzzle. You cannot mess with the bullet if you don¡¯t know where it is. At least not without just putting up a barrier.¡±

    ¡°Well, you win,¡± Irwyn admitted, much to Alice¡¯s pleasure.

    ¡°What were you actually doing?¡± Alice asked after basking in it for a moment. ¡°I know kind of what but not the how.¡±

    ¡°I was taking over the spark as it formed, turning it magical with an infusion of mana, then - since it was my magic at that point - forcing it to extinguish without igniting anything else,¡± Irwyn obliged. ¡°Honestly, I wasn¡¯t sure I would be fast enough for it. But magic is faster than thought in this case.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know Flame mages could actually just take over mundane flame.¡±

    ¡°Very convenient for snuffing out candles,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°And dousing large fires if it comes up. Not much else.¡±

    ¡°Well, we are just taking up space now. We can leave the range,¡± Alice looked around. The mundane soldiers were clearly still listening to their conversation and cheering with some excitement over their little competition but were¡­ separated. As if they didn¡¯t dare to join in on their conversation. Even their former timekeeper had quickly vanished back into the small crowd as if attempting to avoid being singled out again in any way.

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn nodded, following her away. They passed the sound muffling and then stepped a bit further towards one of the nearby buildings. There was not much open space in the camp to begin with and people were still lingering around in the late morning though that was solved well enough by Irwyn¡¯s penetralia. Not transparent for the time being.

    ¡°Were you actually looking for me earlier?¡± Alice asked right away.

    ¡°Not really, why would I be?¡± Irwyn shook his head.

    ¡°Well, I apparently have a meeting with the big Lady at lunch and Trecha refused to tell me anything,¡± she shrugged. ¡°I figured this might be why.¡±

    ¡°No, I was really just wearing in the uniform since I now know have it,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°I think Elizabeth just wants to tell you herself. Probably wants to frame things in a specific way.¡±

    ¡°Yes, she is quite meticulous,¡± she nodded. ¡°What rank even is that?¡±

    ¡°What rank?¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°The insignia on your uniform,¡± she rolled her eyes and pointed at it. It was, in fact, a mark of rank. Placed in the same spot where most wore the marking of privates, sergeants or even lieutenants - Irwyn had taken the time to learn which was which - but the one on him was unfamiliar. That had not quite clicked in the morning when putting the uniform on.

    ¡°I do not know,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°I just wore what was in my closet.¡±

    ¡°Unbelievable,¡± she shook her head. ¡°I am not well familiar with the Duchy of Black¡¯s ranks but I have not seen anyone else with that one. Nor when I looked up those in the main command structure.¡±

    ¡°Probably something to do with Elizabeth,¡± Irwyn could only shrug. ¡°I think I am not technically employed by the army but by House Blackburg directly.¡±

    ¡°And the commendations?¡±

    ¡°The what?¡±

    ¡°Under the rank, you have two little white stripes,¡± she said and Irwyn confirmed they were indeed there. Thin strings sewn into cloth. ¡°What do those mean?¡±

    ¡°That is a very good question,¡± Irwyn paused. ¡°Probably¡­ something to do with Abonisle? I did contribute to saving it and we were with the military for that. Not much else it could be.¡±

    ¡°How are you not curious about this?¡±

    ¡°Well, I am now,¡± he admitted. ¡°I have not exactly spent my life thinking about the military. Very close to the opposite, actually. It will take some adjustment.¡±

    Alice opened her mouth to say more but Irwyn stopped her. He looked to the side where someone was prodding his bubble of privacy. Not subtly, thought that was clearly not the point. The repeated but non-aggressive stabs were obviously meant to just gather his attention. Dismissing the bubble Irwyn found that it was the night watch Sergeant, ... . that is where their name would have been in his thoughts if Irwyn had remembered it.

    ¡°Anything the matter, Sergeant?¡± Irwyn suddenly realized the military custom of calling people by rank rather than name was actually quite convenient. Perhaps he was predisposed for the army life after all.

    ¡°Her Ladyship had called for you with some urgency,¡± the man seemed slightly pale, Irwyn realized. Fearful. ¡°She has some¡­ guests. That is all I know for certain.¡±

    ¡°I will head there right away then,¡± Irwyn nodded, bid Alice a quick goodbye, then half jogged back to Elizabeth¡¯s building. Before he was out of earshot, he caught the Sergeant telling Alice her lunch meeting might be delayed if ¡®things¡¯ dragged out. Irwyn wondered whether the slight unease he felt in his stomach was indicative of what was to come.

 3.30 Foreigners

    Everyone seemed to be giving Elizabeth¡¯s building a wide berth. It was apparent in the wary stares of the soldiers who were attempting to stay as far away as they could while keeping the structure in line of sight. That being said, Irwyn had been assured that Elizabeth was inside and waiting with whoever these ¡®guests¡¯ were, therefore he stepped in after slowing from his jog.

    All three figures sat around the ground floor¡¯s large table. The heiress was facing him, and gave Irwyn a nod as he entered. The outsiders had their backs turned towards him, revealing little - not even a trace of magic. One even wore a loose cloak while the other was¡­ Irwyn paused. Was their hair turning darker with every step Irwyn took? By the time he arrived at the table he was almost sure that had been the case.

    ¡°Please, take a seat, Irwyn,¡± Elizabeth inclined her head, her tone implying that whatever was happening it was quite serious.

    ¡°Thank you, your Ladyship¡± he nodded as he sat down with all the etiquette he could muster, turning towards the newcomers. The cloaked figure revealed nothing new even from the front - their visage was obscured by impenetrable darkness. The other was far more curious, forcing Irwyn to suppress a frown. They seemed half-familiar, yet also uncanny at the same time. Like their features did not quite mesh together perfectly. Irwyn could not even guess what their gender may be: Some clues screamed male while others the opposite - yet not really in a way he would call androgynous.

    ¡°Good day to you, Irwyn,¡± the uncloaked one spoke, scrutinizing the young mage. Their companion merely dipped their head and remained silent.

    ¡°To you as well,¡± he nodded. Irwyn kept scrutinizing the face and realized it was slightly shifting. Slowly enough it was difficult to perceive but there were still some hints. He also realized why they seemed rather familiar - he was pretty sure some of those mismatched facial features belonged to Elizabeth, though the smile was certainly someone else¡¯s.

    ¡°They have come to ask you questions,¡± Elizabeth said with a slight frown.

    ¡°Questions?¡± Irwyn repeated, glancing at them. He was unsure who the presumed shapeshifter was but Elizabeth was not questioning their appearance so it could clearly wait.

    ¡°Yes, our apologies for taking your time,¡± the clearly more sociable of the two guests spoke again. ¡°We have, however, obtained the Duke¡¯s permission.¡±

    ¡°I have been advised by my mother that it would be unwise to lie,¡± Elizabeth glanced at Irwyn. ¡°But also that ask is all they will do.¡±

    ¡°I would not dare bypass the Duke¡¯s will,¡± Irwyn nodded his agreement. No lying¡­ but perhaps refusing to answer was on the table. It really depended on the topic. And Elizabeth bringing up Avys implied that the situation would be within a schemer¡¯s palm. ¡°Please, ask away.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I will show a series of pictures,¡± their spokesperson nodded. ¡°Tell me if you recognize the person within them. The first one¡­¡±

    Irwyn shook his head as the first portrait was presented. It was not a photograph but rather a hand-drawn portrait with exceptional attention to detail and realism. The only reason he could even realize that was because there was no background.  ¡°No,¡± The first person was a bearded man. The second was androgynous - leaning woman - also completely unfamiliar. As were the next three - people of various visages. Though Irwyn had noticed they seemed to be of similar build and height, the detail was only apparent because the portraits were drawn with the exact same style and structure.

    ¡°And the last one,¡± the man opposite to Irwyn showed the final picture. That one did give Irwyn pause.

    Irwyn slowly nodded. ¡°Yes, I know him,¡± because it was, beyond the shadow of a doubt, Desir. And that brought up a lot of questions, but it did seemingly answer what this was about. Desir had once upon a time implied he had pursuers¡­ On the other hand, were the previous pictures unrelated or just personas? Looking back at them, it would have been a very impressive disguise but Desir could have fit the general build. Not that it mattered in the great scheme of things - Irwyn¡¯s friend from Abonisle was quite dead.

    ¡°Under what name have you known them?¡±

    ¡°Only as Desir,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°No last name.¡±

    ¡°Where have you met them,¡± they asked.

    ¡°In a small-town North of Drathsol, I don¡¯t recall its name,¡± Irwyn thought back. ¡°We have bumped into each other by accident as I was heading towards Abonisle by cart and foot. We met a few times more along the way and eventually made the final track for the city together.¡±

    ¡°What did you note about him at the time?¡±

    ¡°That he seemed quite paranoid, as if being hunted,¡± Irwyn paused. ¡°Well, I can see now he clearly had a reason to be.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, yes, this conforms with what we know,¡± the apparent interviewer nodded. ¡°Has ¡®Desir¡¯ ever spoken about his origins?¡±

    ¡°No, I do not believe so.¡±

    ¡°How would you describe his social skills?¡±

    ¡°Quite high,¡± Irwyn recalled. ¡°Both men and women seemed to swoon around him.¡±

    ¡°Has he made advances towards you?¡± they immediately followed. Irwyn thought he noticed Elizabeth shift slightly.

    ¡°No,¡± Irwyn paused. ¡°I was called a ''pointless battle'' or something of the sort.¡±

    ¡°I see, thank you,¡± the guest seemed to sort through their thoughts for a moment. ¡°Has Desir ever consulted you with preparations to leave Abonisle? Or has he done anything that implied he was looking to flee, such as a high-risk burglary, antagonizing powerful people for short term gain, or taking desperate gambles?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Irwyn shook his head after thinking for a long while. But he could not recall anything like that. In fact, Desir had seemed rather worried about his reputation just on the eve of the undead incursion, even arranging leisure time before the Undead began to swarm. ¡°Not as far as I know.¡±

    ¡°I see, then lastly I would like you to reiterate the events that have led to his presumed death,¡± the conversation jumped forward. ¡°What do you recall of it?¡±

    ¡°The ceiling was collapsed by the undead while I was talking with him,¡± Irwyn explained. ¡°I barely managed to run out, not really keeping track of my surroundings. Desir was further in and no one had seen him thereafter.¡±

    ¡°Did you ever see the body or moment of death?¡±

    ¡°No, but we brought a Life mage to check for any survivors,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°None in that section of the rubble. I don¡¯t know if a corpse was ever recovered ¨C though it sounded unlikely in the wake of an undead incursion. I left Abonisle soon afterwards.¡±

    ¡°Do you believe Desir is truly dead?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Irwyn nodded truthfully.

    ¡°Thank you. That is all we have to ask,¡± said their guest despite being the only one from the duo to ever speak.

    ¡°May I ask why you are so¡­ interested?¡±

    ¡°You may ask, I will not answer,¡± they nodded, then stood up and vanished.

    Irwyn blinked. He had perceived nothing, not even a trace of mana or motion. His mind, for all it had been accelerated, had not registered any transition between the two figures being present and then gone.

    ¡°What¡­ was that about?¡± Irwyn asked as Elizabeth sighed a deep relieved breath.

    ¡°I have next to no idea, and now my mother is interested,¡± she grimaced. ¡°She has been listening in until a moment ago.¡±

    ¡°Who were they?¡±

    ¡°Demons,¡± Elizabeth said, much to Irwyn¡¯s surprise. They seemed human, even up close¡­ Maybe that is why one was cloaked and the other most likely a shapeshifter. Succubi did have some kind of shapeshifting based on the mortals around them, Irwyn recalled. That would explain their possession of Elizabeth¡¯s facial features, and presumably his. Irwyn had not spent enough time in front of a mirror throughout his life - and especially lately - to be sure about individual half features of his face. ¡°Particularly powerful Demons, both with domains.¡±

    ¡°And they are looking for seemingly a nobody imbuement mage?¡± Irwyn paused. Desir was by most metrics quite talented¡­ but not nearly at Elizabeth¡¯s or Irwyn¡¯s level. ¡°That does not add up.¡±

    ¡°You can probably see why my mother is suddenly so interested,¡± Elizabeth sighed, blatantly unhappy about it. ¡°They called him a fugitive from the Void, mentioning some kind of powerful patron he had offended. I can keep you updated if I am told more.¡±

    ¡°Please,¡± Irwyn nodded. It would be a lie to say his curiosity was not stirred.

    ¡°At least it did not take long,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°I was afraid this might turn into a labor of hours where they meticulously ironed out the tiniest detail. I suppose I need to let Alice know that right after lunch still applies.¡±

    ¡°I actually ran into her earlier,¡± Irwyn said.

    ¡°Really?¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°At the target range,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°She is quite good with firearms.¡±

    ¡°A rare skill,¡± Elizabeth inclined her head. ¡°Mostly because no one bothers.¡±

    ¡°I had the same assumption,¡± Irwyn agreed. ¡°Maybe it was more common in Steelmire?¡±

    ¡°You can ask her yourself,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°There is a reason they are not favored by House Blackburg and by extension not particularly cared about.¡±

    ¡°That seems insensitive at best,¡± Irwyn shook his head. Asking about a destroyed home was hardly a light topic.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°She has her ring.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not completely flawless,¡± Irwyn reiterated. ¡°I have seen her still suffer a short outburst of grief, if only for a moment.¡±

    ¡°Is that so?¡± Elizabeth paused, eyebrow rising. ¡°I suppose it might not be wholly without issues.¡±

    ¡°Hopefully it will get better with time.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°I have to admit though that you were right that Time mages seem convenient to have around,¡± Irwyn kept to the topic. ¡°I had not realized they could just teleport random items around at a whim. It seemed almost too easy. Just anything nearby placed anywhere she wants it with a thought.¡±

    ¡°Well, she is rather talented. It is also more difficult with magical items and people,¡± Elizabeth inclined her head. ¡°Not to mention distance. Finity still applies which makes travelling across long ranges prohibitively expensive, as well as other laws making it difficult. Continental teleportation requires rule-bending.¡±

    ¡°Like the Beacons,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°An extreme example,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Those are edict adjacent with a Named sacrificed for their creation and thus beyond mortal comprehension. Usually, Time mages will just learn to fold space, thus reducing the actual distance their teleportation needs to cross despite Finity.¡±

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t this ¡®folding¡¯ also be affected by Finity?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Yes, but the initial cost is a fraction of the actual teleportation and can be much better optimized,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Teleportation is all about optimizing and reducing the cost on mana and mind. Especially when the targets become magical.¡±

    Irwyn paused. ¡°How does being magical affect it?¡±

    ¡°Teleportation is, in principle, changing the location of something in an instant,¡± Elizabeth began to explain. ¡°It needs to account for variables - the displacement of air is a physical example that applies to everything. The issue with highly magical items in particular - and I mean containing concepts at the very least - is that their magic has a certain presence. It interacts with the ambient mana and even nearby magics in small ways I will not go into. But simplistically these tethers are gradually established through spacial proximity and changing them too quickly results in what is called dissonant resistance. A term used basically only in teleportation and for specialists moving at incomprehensibly extreme speeds.¡±

    ¡°How does that work with travelling through the Void or alternative methods?¡± Irwyn immediately remembered the alternative he had semi-witnessed in Abonisle and asked.

    ¡°That is different,¡± she shook her head. ¡°There are principles you are missing, but the dissonant resistance is caused by things essentially leaving such a footprint in the fabric of Time and Space that being resynced requires either a Time mage to manually mend the dissonance or risks damaging the transported object. When going through the Void the object is severed from the local fabric of Time and Space completely and then re-enters, reforming that bond anew, thereby causing no dissonance. Same as with most exotic methods of teleportation.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean ¡®severed from Time and Space¡¯?¡± Irwyn paused.

    ¡°Time slips in the Void, you know that,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°To a lesser degree that also applies to other, albeit smaller, regions of absolute elemental purity. The exact mechanics of it are the subject of entire academic courses and, frankly, beyond my ken.¡±

    ¡°Fine, I suppose the basics are enough,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°Does it work the same with people?¡±

    ¡°The dissonance still applies - and the result of not eliminating it can be quite gruesome - but people are hindered by more,¡± she elaborated. ¡°For one, Fate disagrees with displacing people from where it knows them. Just like good incantations will make it assist in spellcraft, teleporting a person over long distances will cause a progressively stronger negative causal nudge. Secondly, with mages who had claimed a domain their imprint goes from just the fabric of Time and Space to downright influencing any magic in their vicinity. The mage teleporting a domain holder thus must overcome that resistance. That is not easily done even when their target assists them in the endeavor and this becomes only worse with even more powerful mages. Teleportation of strategic assets is a major hindrance in every Lich War as there are simply not enough Time mages with peerage in magecraft to the Federation''s best war mages."

    ¡°And the beacon ignores that because?¡± Irwyn asked for elaboration with interest.

    ¡°Edict nonsense,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Truths can bend laws and Edicts can outright rewrite them. I am sure there is someone out there who knows exactly how the Beacons work but it¡¯s not me. Alice might understand more but even if she does there is a high chance you will learn nothing from an explanation given by a Time mage. Imagine you explaining to someone how exactly Starfire burns.¡±

    ¡°I suppose it would be difficult to go into detail beyond what it feels like to me in some places,¡± Irwyn admitted after a moment of thought.

    ¡°It is outright recommended to learn magical concepts of affinities you will not wield from a generalized book or an instructor who is like you,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Academics who can describe higher concepts in ways that those without their affinity can easily grasp are relatively rare, better not to roll the dice the person in front of you is one of them and just use a tome which has stood the test of time.¡±

    ¡°You know, somehow you seem to always know the answer to almost anything I ask about magic,¡± Irwyn smiled in mild disbelief.

    ¡°I know everything about magic on a very surface level,¡± she shrugged. ¡°As should most heirs to nobility, if they didn¡¯t slack in their studies. There are likely a few secrets in my mind that some others might not possess but omnidirectional basic knowledge is the standard, not an exception. The exact methods, chants, and pitfalls might be jealously kept but the Federation has long been in accord that it is best their future leaders and elites be taught enough to understand at least somewhat the magic of those they will one day command¡­ and to not be caught unaware by the undead. Some nasty tricks can be avoided with ease if you know how to identify and counteract them.¡±

    ¡°Like?¡± Irwyn smiled, curious. ¡°Give me a particularly bad one.¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± she thought for a moment. ¡°Reducing the air pressure low enough will make the spit in your mouth both freeze and boil at the same time, simultaneously making breathing quite difficult as oxygen thins to almost nothing - unpleasant, but not lethal by itself. The issue is when this begins to also affect the blood inside the veins. This is particularly dangerous because it can happen even if the mage reinforces their flesh enough that the pressure itself does not harm them and the effect is seemingly entirely non-magical.¡±

    ¡°Gaseous blood does sound lethal,¡± Irwyn paused, imagining it. Would it be painful or numb? Presumably the former.

    ¡°It¡¯s not a common angle of attack, mostly only used deep in confined underground spaces,¡± Elizabeth continued. ¡°But the rarer something is the more dangerous it can be. Of course, anyone who knows the signs can either immediately dig up to open air, rapidly retreat, or employ a more personalized countermeasure.¡±

    ¡°Knowing what to do seems useful, yes,¡± Irwyn nodded. If he was caught unaware but a strange phenomenon like that would he run? Or perhaps hunker down with several barriers, looking for whatever was causing it? He was not sure whether the barrier he used would protect him from low or high air pressure - Irwyn scarcely understood it as a concept. But since air did pass through it, he assumed not.¡±

    ¡°Natural phenomena are still very much capable of killing even powerful mages if they have the wrong countermeasures - for all it is an uncomfortable thought,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Which is why the Federation makes sure its mages are not easily caught unaware. For example, I have enough specialized enchantments on hand to let me comfortably survive without breathable air for a week, and a day more very uncomfortably if I subvert different ones. Starving powerful mages out of oxygen rather than fighting them used to be a particularly popular method among the undead in the past. Nowadays they rarely ever try it anymore within the Federation.¡±

    ¡°They just stopped because it did not work anymore?¡± the implication gave Irwyn a pause.

    ¡°The undead can be intelligent and they pass on knowledge and schemes seamlessly between ¡®generations¡¯,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°None are opposed to holding back an ace for several centuries if it means using it to achieve a critical strategic objective, neither do they fear death nor sacrifice. It¡¯s in part what makes fighting them so dangerous despite the millennia of experience the Federation has. As we learn, so does the enemy. And the Betrayer''s rot is unsurprisingly competent at misleading us. Every new discovery or weakness could very well be just a trap prepared for your great-grandchildren.¡±

    ¡°Surely there are methods that work though,¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°Methodologies and such that apply at least most of the time.¡±

    ¡°The Inquisition¡¯s official stance is to never assume you know the rot¡¯s schemes,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°And they have two dozen often-contradictory doctrines distributed among their junior members so that there is no blind spot that covers all of them. Their senior inquisitors are highly encouraged to develop their own sets of methods, ideally several each and to still make sure to either toss a coin or roll a die when deciding between even options lest their personal bias makes them predictable over years and decades. And the Inquisition is dedicated entirely to hunting undead and necromancers. The Duchies take their word for it on such matters.¡±

    ¡°Certainly encouraging word in the middle of a Lich War,¡± Irwyn smiled ruefully.

    ¡°Well, we are sitting this one out so far,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°And if it¡¯s any consolation, I told you previously we are far lower on their assassination priority list than we would be if the extent of our talents was fully known.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ early lunch?¡± Irwyn asked after an awkward moment.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think the kitchen will be ready for at least an hour yet,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Even my word is unlikely to manifest a meal from thin air.¡±

    ¡°We could eat out,¡± Irwyn suggested. ¡°Or something could be brought if you think leaving the camp¡¯s safety is too risky for you. Plenty of good food to be found around the city.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, it does sound enticing,¡± Elizabeth said, then sighed. ¡°Alas, the visiting demons have added yet more workload to my plate - right before I thought I would be done with paperwork too. My report must be written out before I meet with Alice or my mother might begin to grumble - it would be helpful if you could inform our Time mage that I will still expect her after lunch though.¡±

    ¡°The Duchess had literally listened in,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°Yes, and she still wants me to write down every little observation and detail that she might have somehow missed,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Unlike our recent guests, my mother does, unfortunately, insist on excruciating detail once she takes interest.¡±

    <hr align="center" size="2" width="100%">

    Irgaleth suppressed a shudder as he and his companion vanished, passing a hop and a skip away through the shallows of the Void. The two demons did not dare linger in the home of nothingness, feeling the Duke¡¯s omnipresent gaze following each of their movements. They soon re-entered the Realm in a secluded location where they had, ironically, far more privacy.

    ¡°Those children were strange,¡± his cloaked companion spoke in their raspy and broken voice. The metamorphosis that Envy had offered him was wonderous¡­ but not flawless nor painless.

    ¡°No shit,¡± Irgaleth allowed himself the slightest shake of fear. His physical features were already vanishing as he quickly purged the lingering shapeshifting. He rarely did so but his oath to the Duke compelled him to do everything he could to not learn more. ¡°I can see now that the Duke¡¯s insistence we do not snoop was more than pointless flair.¡±

    ¡°The girl is like a Temzda,¡± his companion nodded. ¡°Mortal children cannot be that way.¡±

    And she did feel like one. It was not magic or any technique that had allowed them to perceive that. It was something far more innate and instinctual. After all, albeit the Demons were Umbra¡¯s creations she had sparred them little love. Elves, on the other hand, elves were her darling children. So much so that to this day Demons experienced something akin to existential dread when in their presence. Even after eons it was recognisable.

    ¡°Too potent to be just half-blood,¡± the succubus analyzed. ¡°Yet not enough for pure. And the Duke likely did not lie when he called her his daughter in the oath¡¯s wording.¡±

    ¡°Someone has caused this,¡± the demon of Envy nodded his agreement. ¡°This must be investigated closely.¡±

    ¡°I agree, albeit it cannot be us,¡± they were still oathbound not to do so. ¡°But the Duke only forbade us from spreading anything we learn across this Realm,¡± not that he would not have a way to escape the bindings in time ¨C it was all a matter of price. Likely his death, in this case. Thankfully, he would not have to resort to that. ¡°Our liege will certainly be interested. Perhaps these mortals have uncovered something that could be subsumed for his project. Better yet, someone to replace his dead pet.¡±

    ¡°I will learn what I can without breaking the oath during the war,¡± his companion affirmed. ¡°Perhaps the Lord will forgive the death of the stable sample because of this.¡±

    ¡°Keep an eye out for them, even after what we know,¡± Irgaleth warned. ¡°There is a slim but distinct possibility they have enlisted the help of someone powerful enough to feign even the demise of their Fate.¡±

    ¡°I know, I will be careful,¡± the Demon of Envy slightly nodded. ¡°Fighting the rot is still the safer of our two tasks.¡±

    ¡°So it is,¡± Irgaleth slowly nodded. He grasped the thread of reality, ready to open a way into the Void. He would need to be careful as to not allow the Duke¡¯s gaze to trace him all the way home ¨C there would be no surviving that failure. ¡°Hopefully his peerlessness will be in a good mood upon my return.¡±

 3.31 The nature of progress

    Irwyn ended up finding Alice not far, loitering with a gaggle of almost a third of the company¡¯s mages who had gathered just around the corner. They seemed to be in the middle of either gossip or fearful muttering. It ended up being the Time mage herself who stepped up to ascertain the situation for everyone.

    ¡°Everything is quite fine,¡± Irwyn gave his best nonchalant shrug. ¡°You seem to have overblown this out of proportion in your heads. Our guests are already gone.¡±

    ¡°And these ¡®guest¡¯ were¡­¡± Alice begun skeptically.

    ¡°Presumably confidential,¡± Irwyn interrupted. ¡°I am sure her Ladyship will inform anyone who needs to know if it comes to it."

    ¡°They appeared in the middle of the camp without the slightest trace,¡± one of the soldiers Irwyn did not recognize spoke up. ¡°Of course everyone is freaking out.¡±

    ¡°Nor even the slightest spacial fluctuation when they left,¡± Alice added.

    ¡°Is it so strange that powerful mages visit a daughter of House Blackburg?¡± Irwyn inclined his head and applied a misdirection. It was probably for the best given their visitors had not been mortal in nature. ¡°They had business and my involvement was agreed upon. That is all anyone needs to know unless our Captain says so.¡±

    ¡°Not much of a gossip, are you?¡± Alice harrumphed which seemed to make a few of the mages behind her stare at her back with wide eyes.

    ¡°You can ask her yourself if you have more curiosity than sense,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°Your meeting is still after lunch.¡±

    ¡°I think I will,¡± Alice nodded, then turned away.

    Some of the mages seemed still staggered by her mannerisms though most quickly dispersed. But that did not mean that the simple conversation had sunk all the tensions. The mortal soldiers knew far less but that perhaps only made it worse. It had to be quite stressful to see the mages themselves get so visibly nervous and the word had clearly gone around in that brief time frame ¨C Irwyn could see that. Unmaking that was not Irwyn¡¯s job¡­ but he had little else to do. So he decided to mostly walk around the camp in his uniform until lunch, showing that he was doing quite fine.

    After the meal Elizabeth had gone to the upstairs offices with the newly arrived Alice, committing to a meeting Irwyn would take no part of this time. They did not talk too long before he was invited up, in any case. When Irwyn reached the top floor, Elizabeth had brewed fresh tea for him, making herself a second cup while Alice was still only halfway through the first. It seemed lukewarm at that point.

    ¡°As I planned yesterday, we have reached an agreement that Alice will be a second liaison between the army and your friends,¡± Elizabeth announced as he sat down.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I can give her a bit of a crash course on the Tears and such.¡±

    ¡°When am I to be introduced to your illegal contacts then?¡± Alice said with a good deal of mirth and excitement.

    ¡°I have scheduled a visit for tomorrow,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°We can talk now though.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that might be for the best,¡± Alice nodded.

    ¡°I would also like to hear more,¡± Elizabeth chimed in.

    And so Irwyn ended up explaining about the Tears and Ebon Respite¡¯s underworld in general. With some hesitation, he mentioned the honing of his friends and some of the dynamics. He had actually remembered the young boy with a spark of magic and asked for advice ¨C Elizabeth strongly recommended getting an education as a mage before they accidentally crippled themselves. With the conversation sprawling into various directions and jumping away from the topic it was over an hour later that Alice excused herself.

    ¡°We should probably focus on training more,¡± Elizabeth mused as their third left.

    ¡°We both are practicing, pretty much daily,¡± Irwyn pointed out. He usually did right before sleep.

    ¡°I mean dedicate all the free time we can to it,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Rest and leisure are also important¡­ but I am starting to feel like I have been too unfocused recently.¡±

    ¡°I get the sense of urgency,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Though I doubt we will achieve much in time. Even if we reach conception before the War ends it would be of limited use.¡±

    ¡°Not as such,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°This Lich War could sprawl over many years. And the two of us will likely sprint to the end of conception at a breakneck pace. Much faster than imbuement is taking us.¡±

    ¡°Is that so?¡± Irwyn paused. ¡°Why do you think that.¡±

    ¡°Well, it is in the nature of what each attainment represents,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°The very first step of a mage is to learn how to summon mana into your Vessel and circulate it. Then to draw and maintain the magic outside their body. You have mastered those so quickly that you might as well have skipped those novice stages - so have I and most prodigies. But keep in mind that those with meagre potential may very well spend months in training before they can achieve any spellcraft at all. You have seen that many of our mages cannot wield a single intention despite some of them being older than 40. Many factors apply to this but the most important in these two steps is raw affinity to your elements.¡±

    ¡°Then a mage learns to imbue intentions. They must twist their mind. In essence, imbuement is about thought. About being able to split your mind into too many incomprehensibly complex details. Of course, affinity, Soul, as well as other advantages still apply, but ultimately to pass through imbuement you must sharpen your mind beyond mortality. Reforge it into a tool of magic, then continuously refine it.¡±

    ¡°My mind is not that much faster,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°How much do you think you can push something like the human brain? Each multiple will inevitably be harder than the last as you force more performance from the same physical grey matter. You are doing quite fine,¡± Elizabeth inclined her head. ¡°And it¡¯s not just about being faster but being better at parsing magic. Have you not noticed that magic is so much easier in comparison to everything else? That lifting your hand requires more attention than beckoning a firestorm?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I suppose I have,¡± Irwyn conceded. ¡°Only, it was a long time ago. Before reaching Abonisle I have found that I could split my mind far better when directing magic than I could otherwise, when reading a book for example.¡±

    ¡°Since then the ratio has almost certainly increased by a decimal, perhaps two,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°You are refining both the raw cognition at your beckon as well as improving its suitability for spellcasting. That is the essence of imbuement. Of course, your raw talent still accelerates how quickly you achieve this as well as other advantages you take for granted that would make others seethe with envy.¡±

    ¡°Such as?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow curiously.

    ¡°It¡¯s better to let you demonstrate,¡± she smiled. ¡°Could you create a Flame spell with, let¡¯s see, intentions of arbitration, twenty-seven, forgiveness and perpetuity?¡±

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Irwyn shrugged and did so a hoop of solid flames appearing. He was unsure what direction she was going but it was as easy as breathing, perhaps easier.

    ¡°See, you take it so for granted you have no idea what exactly you are even doing,¡± she grinned at him.

    ¡°Doing what?¡±

    ¡°Arbitration, an advanced principle loaded with much interpretation. Useful for certain types of divination, interrogation or spells targeting criminal elements. Eased by a background in law or its enforcement,¡± she paused, staring at Irwyn while maintaining the smile. ¡°An average suitable mage capable of one intention spells can expect to grasp it within two to three months.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Irwyn asked, caught off guard.

    ¡°Twenty-three, a number turned into intention,¡± she continued over his surprise. ¡°Turning something detached from linguistic meaning and interpretation adds major difficulty, especially to those with no prior experience. Numbers are the most common of these as they have a use in highly complex enchantments interlaying countless spells. A suitable mage can expect a breakthrough with the logical leaps of numbers in two to three months and then a work day or two on each new number.¡±

    ¡°Forgiveness, a loaded emotional intention. Suitable mages who have experienced such strongly can learn it within a month, non-suitable have an unusual divergence, as is common with emotion-bound intentions, of four months. Perpetuity, in principle simple enough. Two months on average.¡±

    ¡°Do mages usually¡­ learn intentions?¡± Irwyn realized the implication with complete bafflement.

    ¡°Yes, they do Irwyn,¡± she laughed at his expense. ¡°In fact, it is half of what imbuement mages do. Those with ambitions for conception plan out which intentions they will target to speed up their progress. Carefully walking the line between countless hours of effort and situational powers. In the meantime, you don¡¯t even slow down just making them up on the spot.¡±

    ¡°Can you do that?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Most I can grasp within seconds,¡± she nodded. ¡°I may take a few minutes with those particularly unsuitable. Do understand, we are a ridiculous rarity in this. For a while, I thought you knew, but at in Abonisle, I realized you had no idea.¡±

    ¡°And Alice, to benchmark?¡± Irwyn asked. Alice was, by all means, a prodigy as well after all.

    ¡°Presumably hours, maybe minutes with the ring, though estimation is difficult,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°This is more a side effect of an exceptional Soul - it is your inner essence that interprets and integrates magic for you to use. I have little indication of how powerful her Soul actually is.

    ¡°Alright, this was definitely a blind spot I somehow missed¡­¡± Irwyn paused thinking back. There were probably some conversations that had come up in, and he had not realized. Though what actually stirred memory were the books. They would occasionally reference something like ¡®learning intentions¡¯ and such. Irwyn had paid it no mind at the time - absorbed in learning the other contents, blinded by a misunderstanding - though in hindsight it was obvious. ¡°Yes, that sounds very inconvenient for the average mage now that I hear about it.¡±

    ¡°Many have just a few intentions they use and rush towards conception,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°For all the books I read I am still unsure what exactly is required to grasp a concept,¡± Irwyn inclined his head. The books on magic he had been given were mostly censured of some secrets. Elizabeth was not when she spoke. ¡°Or why you think we will pass it quickly, which I think was the original topic.¡±

    ¡°To reach conception you need to inscribe a single concept. We use that word because you quite literally write it onto your soul,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°For that, you first must discover one, either by trial and error - a dangerous proposition for most - or by following a known combination of 9 intentions necessary for it. It¡¯s basically a linguistic association puzzle, except using the wrong solution has the tendency to severely wound you.¡±

    ¡°Should I be worried?¡± Irwyn paused. ¡°What if my writing problem extends to this.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t see your soul being in any danger of being scorched by neither Light nor Flame, should that be the case. If that indeed happens¡­ We can look for solutions then,¡± Elizabeth paused. ¡°There are many ways to help or bypass some of the requirements. It¡¯s quite difficult for people who need to carefully learn each intention going into their chosen concept, or don¡¯t have raw talent and soul resilience to survive a miss-step. Of course, any mage has the option of enrolling into the academia where they will be educated in how to safely progress, even helped with planning what exact intentions they will need for the concepts they fancy inscribing much later into their career.¡±

    ¡°With a mild indoctrination on the side,¡± Irwyn presumed.

    ¡°Well, House Blackburg is not exactly a charity,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°The mages with no backing get secrets and education, we get bodies unlikely to run from the next Lich War or actively work against our interests during peacetime.¡±

    ¡°And conception will be a breeze for us because¡­?¡± Irwyn steered away and back to the original topic, hopefully for the last time.

    ¡°Right,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Imbuement is mainly a test of the mind. Conception is a test of the Soul. As I said, you need to inscribe concepts onto it. That means that they must ¡®fit¡¯. Too weak of a soul and you will be unable to bear even one. And that is why we will have no trouble, Irwyn. Our Souls already have the power to bear several, maybe all 9. Moreover, they have much greater potential to grow rapidly if that is not the case - each concept will nurture and stimulate such progress further.¡±

    ¡°So all that will slow us down is how quickly we can ¡®inscribe¡¯ them,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Which is still an involved process and requires breaks in-between,¡± Elizabeth affirmed. ¡°But it will be much faster than our gradual amelioration through imbuement. Months rather than years.¡±

    ¡°What about domains then?¡± Irwyn asked with curiosity. ¡°In your comparison allegory.¡±

    ¡°Test of everything,¡± Elizabeth shrugged.

    ¡°How¡­ simple,¡± Irwyn squinted slightly.

    ¡°A lot of circumstances usually need to align for even a chance at attaining a domain,¡± Elizabeth replied. ¡°Fraction of a fraction of a fraction ever achieve it. Too weak a soul and it will shatter; too little talent and it will elude every grasping reach; too little skill will lead only to a stumble; and too little time results in a wilting death before meeting the requirements. Remember the Ambassador from the Duchy of Red? He has been bottlenecked at the peak of conception for centuries yet had never taken the final step. His case is only unique in the longevity. Not to mention the trouble involved in actually choosing what domain to attain.¡±

    ¡°That makes a difference then?¡± Irwyn observed.

    ¡°Much like how concepts are formed from intentions, domains are born from concepts,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Except they are not actually created. There is a reason the terminology is ¡®attain¡¯, not made or anything such. Domains are principles of magic, the underlying mechanisms from which laws stem. They are, in a way, omnipresent with some exceptions. Attaining one entails first aligning 9 appropriate concepts, then convincing the very essence of reality that you would make a worthy host for it.¡±

    ¡°This has a cost. Each domain puts perpetual strain on the Vessel - the term becomes more appropriate than just ¡®body¡¯ at such level - and constantly drains tremendous quantities of mana. If the mage survives the attainment process and manages to offset the downsides, they become inhabited by said domain and can begin to wield its principle with exceptional potency. More importantly, they can pour practically infinite quantities of mana to empower the principle further¡­ with diminishing returns.¡°

    ¡°Take Dervish for example. His domains are BLADE, SEVERENCE, and ELEMENTAL VOID. He had excellent affinity with them and managed to attain them essentially as soon as his Vessel and Soul could bear it, in that order. He had almost completely stalled in his progress since.¡±

    ¡°That does make sense,¡± Irwyn admitted. ¡°Though wouldn¡¯t he have attained ELEMENTAL VOID first? It seems kind of important for a literal Void mage.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not like he could not wield Void magic just because he did not grasp the Domain,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°He would still conjure his weapons using Void magic, and although he would have been able to make them more powerful the domain of BLADEs simply had a far greater impact. It is also an issue of affinity. Convincing a domain you would be a worthwhile bearer can often come down to personal affinity¡­ or so I am told. I have chosen to not learn too many details.¡±

    ¡°Choice, rather than it being a secret,¡± Irwyn noted.

    ¡°There are few secrets of magic my father would not divulge if I truly desired,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But to learn the exact details before even making an attempt stymies potential to vanquish a bit of risk in return. Same with many great achievements. How could I possibly have the ambition to one day claim a Name if I don¡¯t dare sharpen myself throughout the journey?¡±

    ¡°No shortcuts, no held hands,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I agree with that. Earning power myself is enticing. As long as I am not heading in the totally wrong direction.¡±

    ¡°Nothing wrong with looking from the shoulders of giants to see over the tree line - just as long as we climb down and make the journey ourselves,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°That has always been my philosophy.¡±

    ¡°Speaking of philosophy, I suppose there is plenty of time until dinner,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Hours still for improvement,¡± she nodded. ¡°As many as a day can fit without draining our spirits.¡±

    ¡°I will see you later then,¡± Irwyn nodded, then went to his room. All that talk of power has certainly set his blood ablaze a bit, making his following practice both tantalizing and frustratingly inefficient. How long would it take him to reach conception, he wondered.

 3.32 Counting strings

    ¡°I cannot believe you would suggest this, Irwyn!¡± Alice shook her head exaggeratedly.

    ¡°You mean¡­ walking?¡±

    ¡°What an awfully peasant action to take!¡± she nodded.

    ¡°The Duchy of Black doesn¡¯t really have ¡®peasants¡¯,¡± Irwyn pointed out. At least not by that name.

    ¡°Semantics, semantics,¡± Alice tutted. ¡°How could you possibly expect me to just walk out of the camp? What if I am seen?¡±

    ¡°It has literally been noted down you would be leaving,¡± Irwyn said with a raised eyebrow.

    ¡°Honestly, you are no fun,¡± she scoffed.

    ¡°I apologies for my lacking delusions of grandeur,¡± Irwyn replied, deadpan.

    ¡°Fine, be like that,¡± Alice rolled her eyes. ¡°But I was being serious when I said we should not walk through the front. We are going incognito after all. Someone might be watching the gates.¡±

    ¡°Well yes,¡± Irwyn nodded. Neither of them wore their uniforms. ¡°But flying over the walls is much more eye-catching.¡±

    ¡°Who do you think I am, Irwyn?¡± she shot him a grin.

    ¡°I was under the impression that teleporting people was difficult,¡± Irwyn shrugged. The implication was clear coming from a Time mage and he had obviously thought of it. ¡°Especially from within a camp defended against such attempts.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not easy, but distance matters,¡± she shook her head. ¡°Two people just a few streets over? And I have been taught the camp¡¯s bypass, meaning I can teleport from the open ground and back in.¡±

    ¡°Not the buildings,¡± Irwyn noted.

    ¡°Most of those don¡¯t have any bypass for obvious reasons,¡± Alice nodded. Undead were notorious for their conversion rate after all. ¡°Otherwise it¡¯s easy enough if you just don¡¯t resist my spell.¡±

    ¡°And what does not resisting entail?¡± Irwyn nodded his agreement.

    ¡°For direct displacement, I would need you to let my mana seep into your entire body¡­ Which is why we will be using a portal that is much less intrusive,¡± she explained. ¡°Just keep any magic in your Vessel - to not disrupt my spell - and don¡¯t stop moving until you are on the other side. I am paying extra for every moment something is in-between. Ready?¡±

    Irwyn nodded. Alice waved her hand and reality opened. It was distinctly not tearing. Rather it was practiced and precise twisting. A surgeon¡¯s incision followed by re-stitching. To the naked eye, the spell caused a disk to emerge. The very edges were teal blue - there was a reason the color was associated with Time magic - while the rest was much like a mirror, showing a street Irwyn guessed was just at the edge of their line of sight through one of the gates. There were seemingly no people around. Everyone was giving the camp a massive birth with maybe the exception of a few curious snoopers ¨C hence the worry of someone watching the gates.

    ¡°Can I look it over?¡± Irwyn asked. ¡°I am not sure how much mana it costs you.¡±

    ¡°Only the price of natural light and air passing through,¡± Alice shrugged. ¡°Those are almost weightless so the cost is negligible. The portal is already made, keeping it open does not cost anything beyond paying for things to traverse... at least while I am this close. Go ahead.¡±

    So Irwyn did. He walked around making a few observations: For one, the portal was impossibly thin - to the point it was invisible from the side - and was one-sided. The back was dimmer Teal though it seemed nothing would be able to pass through. His second observation was that it was incredibly subtle magically¡­ At least while dormant. Being cast, and presumably used, was exponentially more noticeable.

    ¡°Is it possible to cast without intentions?¡± Irwyn asked curiously. He was counting four, though Alice was doing a good enough job of controlling the spell he could only guess which.

    ¡°Continuity or something of the sort is required for actual portals,¡± she shook her head. ¡°Regular displacement technically speaking does not, though I would not try that on anything non-mundane or living. My teachers let the children try it on a rat or a rabbit when we are just learning so that we never do it again. I certainly won¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Fascinating,¡± Irwyn nodded. Then he stepped to the other side. It was¡­ much like walking through a door. He thought he might have felt some kind of pressure shift, but that could have been him imagining things. It was, frankly, incredibly smooth.

    ¡°I do wonder how that works,¡± Irwyn looked back as the portal closed behind Alice. A moment later there was no trace of it as they began to walk, Irwyn leading the way. ¡°Is it some kind of space folding? Reducing the distance to zero?¡±

    ¡°No, not whatsoever!¡± Alice shook her head rolling her eyes with sudden but clear annoyance. ¡°It is a fundamental principle of Time that you can use mana to instantaneously change something¡¯s location. That mana cost is proportional to distance, weight, Finity, and other details that you don¡¯t really need to understand. The portal does not remove the distance between the two ends or any such nonsense that people assume for some reason ¨C removing distance is more of an extra thing I can do for longer-range spells. Portals work on the same principles as displacing things directly; you just move them one layer at a time.¡±

    ¡°Well, it does look like the other side is moved closer,¡± Irwyn pointed out. When the portal stood the other side had literally looked a step away.

    ¡°Because natural light travels through from the other end¡­¡± she began.

    ¡°And natural light reflecting off of surfaces is how the mortal eye sees,¡± Irwyn finished for her, grasping the explanation. ¡°That does make perfect sense.¡±

    ¡°If were to I isolate the light the portal¡¯s face would be entirely teal. Though it¡¯s rarely worth the effort. Filtering out specific things from passing through is orders of magnitude more difficult than the portal itself.¡±

    ¡°Actually, what did you mean ¡®one layer at a time¡¯?¡± Irwyn frowned, thinking a few sentences back. ¡°I hope that only sounds dangerous.¡±

    ¡°It means exactly what I say,¡± Alice shrugged. ¡°And portals are incredibly dangerous if something disrupts them. Never use one made by an incompetent mage, getting split in half is a very real possibility. Honestly, I thought you might refuse to use one on principle, even if you trusted me.¡±

    ¡°That is usually the kind of stuff you tell people before asking them to step through,¡± Irwyn stopped walking and glared.

    ¡°Consider it me testing you,¡± she just innocently smiled. ¡°It¡¯s hard to take your ignorance at face value with how powerful you are.¡±

    ¡°What if I was too hard to transfer?!¡± Irwyn did not relent his stare.

    ¡°Oh yes, you are definitely absurdly heavy,¡± she nodded. ¡°Like, about thirty times more expensive to move than I would expect you to be. But I am not some lass fumbling my way through this. I have practiced portals thousands upon thousands of times. If you were too heavy for me to bear - if there was any risk whatsoever - I would have realized it before your fingertips were halfway through and shut it down.¡±

    ¡°With my fingertips already on the other side,¡± Irwyn had to point out.

    ¡°This happening is not a ¡®maybe¡¯ hypothetical,¡± she rolled her eyes. ¡°It¡¯s a ¡®what if an insane one in a million happens because you are somehow carrying something crazy that messes with my magic in obscene ways despite being impossible to sense¡¯ scenario. In which case learning would be presumably worth your fingertips. With Elizabeth here she would probably just get you a proper graft within ten minutes.¡±

    ¡°I am carrying a spacial pouch,¡± Irwyn said.

    ¡°Made by my father to not impact teleportation,¡± she nodded. ¡°If it was a fourth-rate temporary trash bag I would need to account for it. A well-made bag does not interfere with most common transportation techniques. AND has fail saves if something like that were to happen.¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°I will expect you to warn me before using something potentially lethal on me next time.¡±

    ¡°I will be sure to shout my every attack if we ever spar,¡± she snickered.

    ¡°Very presumptuous you would have the breath to spare,¡± he smiled. ¡°Or chance of landing one.¡±

    ¡°I hoped your friend is as good of a cook as you claimed yesterday,¡± Alice changed gears, deciding that maybe challenging Irwyn¡¯s magical might may not be a conversation she would win.

    ¡°You just ate lunch.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean I wouldn¡¯t want something more to snack on.¡±

    ¡°Narcinia doesn¡¯t really do desert as far as I am aware,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°She already has enough work cooking regular meals for all the kids.¡±

    ¡°Truly unholy,¡± Alice raises her fist in an exaggerated gesture. ¡°We should create a god of sugar and sweets for her to worship.¡±

    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°I am not sure that¡¯s how it works,¡± Irwyn paused. He had mentioned Narcinia¡¯s direction of worship when talking to Alice of the Tears so it was not that surprising it came up.

    ¡°Of course it does work like that¡­ well outside the Duchy of Black,¡± Alice shrugged as if it was self-apparent. ¡°But we could go a bit South then come back. A quick beacon trip.¡±

    ¡°Take a step back,¡± Irwyn urged. ¡°What do you mean create a god.¡±

    ¡°Do you¡­?¡± she raised an eyebrow. ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t. Since you brought up gods yesterday I thought you knew how they worked.¡±

    ¡°Is that something widely known?¡± Irwyn question

    ¡°Well, mostly,¡± she nodded. ¡°I think. Maybe not. Want a rundown?¡±

    ¡°Obviously,¡± Irwyn urged.

    ¡°Gods are a lot like artifacts when we get down to it,¡± she said. ¡°Belief and legends have inherent power. When enough faith is gathered around something else than a specific item, it forms a godhead. Then someone either takes it on and becomes a fulcrum of that worship or it can eventually be granted a soul of its own and start a life as a pure god.¡±

    ¡°How have I never heard about this?!¡± Irwyn stared, startled by his own ignorance in the topic.

    ¡°Well, we use the word ¡®gods¡¯ but they are really not that impressive,¡± Alice shrugged. ¡°Their power is weird and not compatible with magecraft. They also need ridiculously large followings to become actually mighty. Not worth the effort.¡±

    ¡°Do the Duchies not harness this then?¡± Irwyn was baffled.

    ¡°The inquisition keeps if a few as far as I know. Gods dedicated to hunting the Undead,¡± Alice said, thoughtful. ¡°Their kind of magic works completely differently from what mages do so they can be useful for countering strange tricks. As for why they are not used often¡­ Well, if someone important goes through the effort of spreading stories and legends they might as well just make an artifact, you know. The results of that are much more reliable and don¡¯t need maintenance. Gods are way more common in the North as far as I know, though. Past our borders.¡±

    ¡°You mentioned the Duchy of Black is different,¡± Irwyn remembered while digesting that.

    ¡°Yes, quite notoriously there are no gods in the Duchy of Black,¡± Alice nodded.

    ¡°You made it sound like that was the case almost everywhere.¡±

    ¡°No, no, I said no one usually bothers raising one into something useful. There are many unimpressive lesser deities splashed around the Federation. Some are practically just monsters, usually born from widespread legends about local monsters. A few embodiments of weather or landmarks. Then a few mortal cult leaders and such. In the Duchy of Black there are none.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Not the slightest idea,¡± Alice shrugged. ¡°My grandpa tried to figure it out on a whim a few times but never could. All he found out was that they started rapidly vanishing around 120 years ago. Maybe Elizabeth knows or can ask someone who does.¡±

    ¡°And the ¡®New gods¡¯?¡± Irwyn asked after a moment. ¡°I am pretty sure they have a larger following from what I have heard.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but they reside North, way past the Federation,¡± Alice nodded. ¡°Whole religions. Some tried to spread southward to us with no real success. Go halfway through the Duchy of White and most people would not have even heard of them.¡±

    And why would they? The mages had nothing to gain by worship - they were each deities unto themselves. Without official endorsement or support, which Irwyn had never even heard of being granted, the only way to propagate was by mortal mouth. That word rarely ever travelled far, Irwyn would wager. Even if these gods did grant their ¡®blessings¡¯ within the Federation¡¯s borders it would be more of a rumor than a known thing. Those who believed and even chose prayer would thus remain an ever-obscure minority. He had once wondered why they were not banned despite the Duke Households practically worshipping the Aspects at least outwardly¡­ but perhaps an outright ban would grant the religions more legitimacy than they otherwise ever had.

    ¡°Probably don¡¯t mention any of that in front of Narcinia,¡± Irwyn sighed.

    ¡°Noted, unpromised,¡± Alice grinned.

    ¡°I think you will get along with Kalista.¡±

    <hr>

    And Irwyn had been right. For all the initial introductions were a bit awkward the icebreaking did indeed happen through Kalista. Not just because of their mutual propensity for teasing, though that certainly played a role, but because the two got caught up in a spotting competition of all things.

    ¡°262,¡± Alice announced with a grin.

    ¡°Correct,¡± Aaron admited. Only he had known how many balls of string had actually been put in the other room ¨C someone must have stolen a whole shipment for so many to be lying around. Irwyn in the meantime had made sure Alice would not cheat by using her magic preemptively while his friend had been hiding them there.

    ¡°How can you count them so quickly?¡± Kalista complained as she put her glasses back on. She had been staring into the wall¡­ or rather through it. She had not lost every time, but was definitely more likely to than not.

    ¡°Magic,¡± Alice smiled.

    ¡°Magic,¡± Irwyn nodded sagely in support.

    ¡°Magic,¡± Waylan joined in.

    ¡°You cannot even use magic,¡± Kalista pointed out, eyes narrowing at their tattooed companion.

    ¡°Never claimed otherwise,¡± Waylan shrugged with an innocent grin.

    ¡°It is not reasonable to just say ¡®magic¡¯ whenever we ask how something is possible,¡± Rainer spoke in Kalista¡¯s support.

    ¡°True,¡± Alice nodded in full agreement¡­ Then proceeded to silently sit with a serious expression.

    ¡°Please explain?¡± Kalista tried.

    ¡°Fine, fine,¡± Alice chuckled. ¡°I do have two big advantages. Firstly, my mind is accelerated to a significant degree, that makes an obvious difference. Second, the way I spot with my spell means I don¡¯t actually have to count. I understand the quantity in a different way than individually adding them up, then I just need to transfer that into thought and words.¡±

    ¡°Welp, she has you beat,¡± Rainer patted Kalista on the shoulder, earning a glare.

    ¡°Unfair!¡± she sighed.

    ¡°Magic is an unfair advantage, yes,¡± Alice nodded. ¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t want to sound rude, but your eyesight is impressive. And pretty but that is beside the point.¡±

    ¡°Definitely pretty,¡± Rainer nods, giving Kalista another pat.

    ¡°I had no idea honing left such visible effects,¡± Alice nodded. Everyone paused.

    ¡°You know much about it?¡± Maxim was too good to let his eye narrow or to flinch. The mood though certainly became sharper. It was obvious their abilities were not mundane¡­ but their exact origin was still a secret Irwyn had vehemently refused to expose.

    ¡°Hmm, it came up,¡± Alice nodded. ¡°Back¡­ home there were a few people who practiced it, so Grandpa told me that it exists.¡±

    ¡°It seems to be very rare around here,¡± Irwyn noted. So much so that even Elizabeth seemed to have very little knowledge on the topic. And yet the heiress of Steelmire for some reason did. Well¡­ Steelmire had been a mercenary settlement as far as he recalled. They did not employ only mages so it would be a natural place of gathering for many manaless yet still relatively capable people.

    ¡°They were foreigners from up North,¡± Alice elaborated. ¡°Those sometimes go to the Duchy Federation, seeking fortune without knowing they are far too weak to grasp much of it even if they find it. In the end there is a small but distinct niche in the market for people who have superhuman abilities but are not mages. Spies, mostly ¨C a lot of people dismiss anyone without mana as completely mortal. But none I had seen had such distinct changes¡­ or were as good as any of you.¡±

    ¡°Still not much next to a mage, clearly,¡± Kalista sighed.

    ¡°Mages rule the Federation for a reason,¡± Alice shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing. Irwyn could not deny that perhaps it was. ¡°The environment here is so good for us, we have outcompeted and smothered out everything but the undead.¡±

    ¡°I would still think the Federation might utilize any kind of power or advantage,¡± Aaron frowned.

    ¡°I had the same thought years ago,¡± Alice nodded. ¡°But just honing is not enough power on its own to be used at scale - easier to just devote those resources to more mages. And apparently honing is completely unsuitable for said mages. For my curiosity, my grandpa found out that some centuries ago the brother of that time¡¯s Duke of Green was rumored to have been killed for taking such experiments too far ¨C and he still achieved no results. And the man was definitely neither the first nor last to try. Since no one ever figured it out in all this time it¡¯s probably impossible.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, Old Crow did sometimes mention he was born North,¡± Rainer hummed in agreement. ¡°It makes sense.¡±

    ¡°Old Crow?¡± Alice turned to him with sudden alertness and no small amount of alarm.

    ¡°You recognize the title,¡± Aaron was the first to give voice to the obvious conclusion.

    ¡°Old man, kind of decrepit, knows many things non-mages absolutely shouldn¡¯t?¡± Alice described, then paused. ¡°No offence.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget mysterious - yet harsh but flare,¡± Waylan nodded.

    ¡°You have met him?¡± Aaron asked directly while Irwyn mind worked to connect the dots.

    ¡°My father had hosted someone like that for weeks, much to my mother¡¯s disapproval,¡± Alice nodded, frowning. Irwyn kept his expression neutral. He had been almost certain that the little amulet Old Crow had sent him was the very same item made by Hen Daut¡­ who was Alice¡¯s father. Of course, it made perfect sense they had met. He had just not thought enough about it to reach the conclusion sooner. ¡°You said title. I had been wondering whether it was a nickname or something back then, since he never told us his actual name.¡±

    ¡°To us neither and he had basically built up the foundation of this place,¡± Aaron sighed.

    ¡°Now that I am thinking back to some things I have overhead¡­¡± she looked up at Irwyn, frowning even deeper. ¡°They did talk about some prodigy in trouble and their similarity to my father. Hearing about this connection¡­ was that perhaps you?¡±

    ¡°Most likely,¡± Irwyn nodded slowly.

    ¡°Wait, did my dad hire you to test and item he was making for you,¡±

    ¡°Quite probably,¡± Irwyn smiled. ¡°Very gainful employment. Though in my defense, I had not known at the time.¡±

    ¡°What trouble could you even have been in?¡± Alice squinted. ¡°You are literally following around a Blackburg heiress.¡±

    ¡°At the time I had last spoken with Old Crow he would have thought I might end up outright hunted by a branch of our Duke¡¯s House.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± she blinked.

    ¡°Oh, indeed,¡± Irwyn couldn¡¯t help but blink. ¡°It is close enough to resolved now, thankfully.¡±

    ¡°What does ¡®Old Crow¡¯ even mean?¡± she returned to a prior point. ¡°It¡¯s a weird title.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s obviously a Fowl,¡± Kalista shrugged.

    ¡°Foul?¡± she repeated doubtfully.

    ¡°Fowl, as in, bird,¡± Maxim corrected.

    ¡°Bird¡­¡± Alice paused, frowning as she visibly dredged up memories. ¡°Oh, he did call my dad Rook. I thought it was meant like in chess but that is a bird as well, isn¡¯t it? What do these titles even mean?¡±

    ¡°It might be talking about your father''s past,¡± Aaron broached. ¡°It speaks quite volumes, actually.¡±

    ¡°He did say it was an old nickname,¡± she paused. ¡°Is it something bad?¡±

    ¡°Depends on how you look at it,¡± Kalista grinned.

    ¡°All about perspective,¡± Rainer added. ¡°An honest living if you ask anyone here.¡±

    ¡°Fowl has a specific meaning in some circles,¡± Irwyn decided it would have to be him who properly explained, judging by her confused expression. ¡°Specifically, the robbery and theft inclined ones.¡±

    ¡°Wha?¡± Alice seemed genuinely surprised. ¡°My dad might have been brash at times but certainly no criminal!¡±

    ¡°He said himself it was an old nickname,¡± Aaron appeased. ¡°It could have been in his youth, before you were even born, settling somewhere on the more over-the-desk side of things. It¡¯s not common for those who make a Fowl but not unheard of. What was your father¡¯s profession.¡±

    ¡°Enchanter,¡± Irwyn answered before she could get her thoughts in order. ¡°Demand is always presumably high for that.¡±

    ¡°He could have been much like us,¡± Kalista hummed. ¡°Orphan who had once grown under Old Crow¡¯s charity. It fits with what you are saying.¡±

    ¡°I suppose¡­ it¡¯s not impossible,¡± Alice reluctantly admitted, clearly uncomfortable with it. ¡°Why birds of all things though? That is just kind of dumb.¡±

    ¡°Which is why we use the word Fowl,¡± Aaron pointed out. ¡°Each is a person of high competence, bearing respect of anyone in the Guild.¡±

    ¡°It still sounds stupid,¡± Alice reiterated.

    ¡°Now, now, you wouldn¡¯t wanna hurt the feelings of the one in the room,¡± Waylan chuckled.

    ¡°Presenting in all his glory¡­¡± Kalista stood up, as if on cue, and began walking over to Irwyn.

    ¡°...the one and only!¡± Rainer followed her, both aligning behind their friend with all the improvised flair they could muster. ¡°Young Mockingbird!¡±

    ¡°Chirp!¡± Irwyn did his best impression.

    ¡°Pfff,¡± Waylan nearly fell out of his chair.

    ¡°I¡­¡± Alice paused. ¡°I don¡¯t know what to say.¡±

    ¡°Chirp!¡± Irwyn shrugged.

 3.33 Dangerously easy

    Irwyn swaggered down the dark hallway, summoning dancing Flames across his sleeves to light the way. Not Light, of course, that would defeat the whole purpose of detaching his identity. The orange glow gave his uniform a certain sheen and making himself a bit taller complemented that.

    Irwyn had made several other adjustments with the ring Elizabeth had borrowed him - enough that he would not be recognized at sight but not too much. For example, he did not change his hair color but made the cut a bit longer than what he usually wore. Same eyes, minutely different shape. Same facial features, misaligned. Just enough so that words would still result in the same general description but he would be unrecognizable at sight. Elizabeth had assured him that was the case.

    This time when he walked into the Guild¡¯s bar everyone went quiet within a moment. Of course they would. The uniform was one thing, the insignia of House Blackburg donned near the visible magic turned it into quite another. The rules around using the imagery were relatively lenient as long as one received permission, such that even an heiress could give on word alone. It was not jewelry nor any other pretense at status the way he wore it, rather a mark of allegiance.

    ¡°I have been made aware that the criminal elements of this city persist,¡± Irwyn proclaimed, the voice not his own. ¡°Graciously, it has been decided that you shall find use in our duty of curbing the Rot. Who is in charge here?¡±

    And as he said that no one answered. How could they? The Guild was more of a loose association which at most helped mediate and negotiate. What central power it had was invested more in neutral bureaucracy rather than leadership, at least in Ebon Respite. The people present were almost all members of other organizations or independent individuals just making use of neutral grounds.

    ¡°Well?¡± Irwyn raised his voice in feigned annoyance as no one responded. He made the Flames he kept alive around him flicker ever so slightly. Just enough that people might think they imagined it.

    ¡°T-the Tears have a Fowl,¡± the girl¡­ Abbey Irwyn managed to recall, spoke, just as they had planned. The nervous stutter, whether feigned or genuine was a nice touch.

    ¡°Foul? I have little interest in filth,¡± Irwyn scoffed, his chin as high as he could muster. They had half included that just to jab at Alice, whether she would hear about it or not.

    ¡°No sir, as in, a bird?¡± the girl asked back, seemingly baffled.

    ¡°Ah, a Fowl, of course,¡± Irwyn inclined his head. ¡°I do now recall something of the kind being written somewhere. So, your¡­ organization would have the authority to speak for this gathering?

    ¡°No one will argue there is anyone more fitting to deal with you,¡± Abbey carefully nodded.

    ¡°Is that so?¡± Irwyn looked around the room, theatrically turning in a half circle. No one so much as muttered a word. ¡°Then lead the way.¡±

    And so she did. Irwyn thought that someone might follow them, though no one dared at least as far as his spell could feel. Kalista and Waylan were also on the prowl just in case. Alas, the lack of any warning signs suggested nothing had gone awry.

    That meant up next was Irwyn not needing to do anything while Aaron organized the details of how the Guild may help the army¡¯s efforts. It was best to let people do what they excelled at.

    <hr>

    Irwyn was eating lunch with Elizabeth a couple days later when she received the message. He noticed her sudden frown first, then a blooming smile as she read the contents. Before Irwyn could ask what the matter was, she was already sending him off to herd Alice to her.

    ¡°I just received rather fascinating news,¡± Elizabeth said as the three of them gathered not long later.

    ¡°Fascinating enough to interrupt my break,¡± Alice noted, though there was no heat in it.

    ¡°You are not usually doing much during the day,¡± Irwyn rolled his eyes. Things were still stuck in the organization part of Aaron¡¯s plan and despite being introduced as a second liaison Alice¡¯s workload had not increased significantly.

    ¡°It is for this,¡± Elizabeth ignored the bickering and took a small metallic cube out of her pouch, quickly bringing it to the large map of Ebon Respite that hung unused on the wall. The thing attached itself seamlessly right around the middle. ¡°Irwyn, if you would?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow but approached. Putting his hand on the device it was immediately apparent what she wanted. There was something of a receptacle which Irwyn could distinctly feel the intentions of mana and absorb. The entire cube was deceivingly complex on the inside, with many intentions and individual spells overlaid. Perhaps more than just intentions even, but it did all seem Light aligned or at least adjacent. So, Irwyn funneled Light mana into the receptacle, first a weak flow and then orders of magnitude more when it became apparent the item was quite hungry.

    A screen manifested over the map, feeding off of the Light mana to exist. Irwyn in the meantime stepped away to retake his seat - pouring from the short distance was less efficient but not by too much. While the box¡¯s magic drew on a staggering amount of magic for the average intention mage, Irwyn thought he could maintain it almost indefinitely.

    An image appeared on the screen. The scenery of a forest, a mountain barely visible in the distance. First, there was calm. Then there was carnage¡­

    <hr>

    It was cold. Not the bone-freezing kind, nor frigid¡­ just cold. Or perhaps the chills were merely creeping up his spine. Aesseth double-checked that the construct remained properly attached to the back of his retina. He was surely not the only one recording for House Blackburg and the magic would capture merely image and sound but there was no harm in making sure it had not broken. He had nothing better to do anyway as they crept closer¡­ except perhaps counting the trees.

    Step by step, nothing changed yet the tension grew. Aesseth could see in the distance the Scar, the mountain peak grasping at the clouds as if to drag them down and devour as it did with most who dared enter. It had been where he was last stationed and it was rather ironic that the enemy gathered close enough to see it¡­ that or worrying. There was no telling what the Scar could spit out. The entire region around it was encircled by two fortress rings for a reason. Why, rumors had it that half the Lich Wars began there.

    The inquisitor leading them stopped and they all followed suit. Then it became difficult to breathe, so his lungs adjusted to take in more air. Still, the silence persisted. For seconds, then what felt like minutes. Finally, mercifully, Aesseth perceived it course through his blood: A command.

    It would be foolish to use Soul magic for their communication against Liches, after all. The Federation had long found a much more reliable way of coordination against their eternal foe. Perhaps fearless but the undead were hardly ever masters of Life. And so, through his blood Aesseth was made to understand what was required of him. He did not understand how exactly he knew, but he did. So, he spoke:

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    ¡°And thus shall end,

    the delusions we make.

    All will bend.

    All will break¡±

    His ears did not perceive the dozens of others casting in sync. His eyes did not see where he was aiming. All he knew was that moment of absolute undiluted focus as the concept of BREAKING carved into his very Soul heaved and screamed with the effort. Motes of raw Fate gathered across his skin as he forced them into a purpose. Like a mist he made them surge forth, just as he had been instructed. They met a barrier. By raw arithmetic, it should have withstood Aesseth¡¯s magic. Fate had meagre offensive properties and his spell was, at a glance, essentially just a clamp of raw mana.

    Yet the moment the two spells collided the barrier dispersed. It had not been pierced. There had been no exposing of weak points or sundering of the spell¡¯s structure. No, Aesseth merely Wrested the opposing caster¡¯s Fate until his concentration was forced to BREAK. He did not know what exact form that took - Logos was ever fickle in his whims - yet what mattered was that ultimately the barrier was no more.

    Aesseth saw several more spells flying through the air in the wake of his own before he keeled over and vomited. Bile ran down his throat for a full dozen seconds as his very soul shook and trembled. Such was the price to pay for grasping above his station. An imperfect vessel hosting something it had never been ready for.

    Everyone had told him that attempting to grasp conception with his talent was a fool¡¯s gamble. Aesseth had not cared. He had gathered all the good luck he could, then took a knife to his very soul. His goal was not for it to BREAK. Yet BREAK it did and in that moment of utter desperation, he had wrested his death into a different kind of power...

    Power that remained unreliable and painful to use. Grasping the intentions necessary to use it at all had taken him almost two years and still what he had was by far lesser than real conception mages did. He would not be able to muster a similar spell for several hours if that¡­ Which was fine. Aesseth had done his part. All that was left was to watch, muster the occasional weaker spell if need be. He managed to stand up with a small infusion of luck, then stared ahead.

    Just in time to see the forest be swept in a cascading wave of Flame. Like high tide, it swallowed everything ahead. Barriers rose, barriers broke. By the time something managed to shatter the large spell the damage was visible for all to see.

    Now that it was no longer obscured by the foliage ¨C no trees as far as the eye could see had survived that - it was visible that the horde had gaps. Large wounds of empty space with less than even scorched earth for that Flame from moments prior had evaporated everything down to bedrock and sometimes even further, resulting in numerous pits inbetween. The undead, much like a tide themselves, were already rushing towards them, the gaps filling with swarming bodies. Some humanoid, some repurposed monsters, some gargantuan beasts that should not have been able to hide among the tree line. The mages among them cast spells to counter those of the Federation¡¯s soldiers and yet they were on the backfoot. A step behind, endlessly forced to stop their opponents¡¯ last spell while a new one was already being cast. Quickly they were being picked off by mages dedicated to killing through barriers ¨C or just killing quickly when those flickered for a moment.

    In the meantime the Federation¡¯s weaker mages curbed the legion. No lessers among them as the battlefield was simply not suitable for those without magic, no matter what the Duchess may advocate. Aesseth watched as a wheel of bone and sinew charged forward faster than his allies expected and willed his magic to make it crack on a nearby rock. He beheld a centipede constructed entirely from human heads suddenly falling to dust. He witnessed a leviathan as tall as six stories of decaying flesh unburrow from the earth only to be instantly set aflame and devoured by their incinerating hunger just moments later. Some of the undead simply dropped, their defiled souls extinguished by the inquisition¡¯s more subtle magics. In the distance, the sound of battle screeched in every direction as the undead kept coming and coming.

    Thousands were felled, then ten times that. Then ten times that again. Aesseth counted the hours passing as he slowly recovered. No matter how much they killed, the line did not move an inch. More charged at them stopping the mages from taking a single step. Every undead caster slain had another replace them in the same breath - the only reason there were not more was that they physically could not fit without being so close together that any area attack could wipe several out.

    Then, at some point, the onslaught slowed. The enemy''s magic faltered. The horde no longer charged ahead quite as quickly as it was being destroyed. Everyone noticed. Even the many mages on break, recovering their exhausted Vessels - or even Reservoirs in some cases.

    The Duchy Federation took a step forward. Then another. Soon they were moving at a walking pace. Every second the tide thinned as more and more of the Rot died. There could have only been so many that fit in the secret stretch of woods despite the countless tricks that had been undoubtedly deployed.

    At some point, Aesseth looked into the distance and saw other humans on the other side. Just like them, advancing one spell at a time, keeping a safe distance, watching out for burrowed and latent threats. The undead mages slowed again, then cut off entirely. The last few were inevitably hiding their power, hoping to perhaps ambush someone careless up close.

    And eventually, the enemy was no more.

    The soldiers raised their hands. Their remaining mana flared. Their throats screeched. A cry of victory and glory echoed so many times over it might be audible all the way to the Scar¡¯s fortresses.

    The Duchy Federation had won the first large battle of the War. It was best Aesseth ignored the voice at the back of his head suggesting that it had been too easy.

    <hr>

    The recording ended. It had taken over three hours, most of it continuous, unending slaughter. It would have likely gotten almost boring had the three of them not had plentiful opportunities to bicker. Which in itself was a strange realization. Several hours of near perpetual battle yet somehow it managed to feel mundane. Repetitive.

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s over,¡± Alice noted as if she had not been paying attention. Perhaps she had not. All three of them could reasonably focus on both a screen and a conversation but could as well choose not to.

    ¡°Are those numbers good?¡± Irwyn asked, glancing at the screen. At the end of the recording, the post-battle ¡®estimate¡¯ casualty report appeared. The Federation had lost one intention mage for every 28 slain. One conception per 20. And no attrition of domain mage against the Undead who lost three. No mention of those carrying lesser or greater powers ¨Cno one could have reasonably counted the sheer quantity of lesser undead. Those would definitely be incredible numbers¡­ against anyone but the Undead.

    ¡°Far better than most battles,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°About thrice as good as is needed for a battle to be considered a tactical victory. That is not necessarily positive¡±

    ¡°And that at the bottom?¡± Alice pointed. There, indeed, in bold text were two short phrases: ¡®Tactical victory¡¯ and ¡®Inestimable strategic impact¡¯.

    ¡°We don¡¯t know whether the undead were doing anything besides just gathering,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°It could have been a hidden force preparing to strike something important just as easily as it could have been bait meant to distract us from something else. For all their numbers, the majority had been fodder. The Federation has severely overcommitted the forces needed to win the engagement in both numbers and powerful mages. Those mages could have detected some kind of subterfuge that would cause far more damage than this entire legion.¡±

    ¡°Or we could have genuinely ambushed them and destroyed the army with no downsides,¡± Alice suggested.

    ¡°It might be the case,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Either way it is going to be positively received by more common soldiers. This was technically the first real open field engagement of the Lich War. Winning decisively will raise morale.¡±

    ¡°Will they all see the recording?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°No, it is restricted,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°The estimates of losses on both sides are obviously not to be shared with others either. The official announcement will be made at dinnertime. But while seeing it might not be equal to being involved in the battle, it could be educational. I have not played this wantonly. A proper undead horde has many facets to it and much to learn from them. I have done this with tutors in the past so therefore¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh, no,¡± Alice immediately squirmed with terror at the implication. Irwyn did not share her hesitation.

    ¡°...We will be analyzing the recording,¡± Elizabeth smiled, her glare locking Alice in place. Irwyn did not understand the reaction. It sounded rather exciting.

 3.34 Applent

    As the end of Irwyn¡¯s first month back in Ebon Respite approached, another curious duo had come to their camp. This one rather less frightening to the average soldier it seemed, given they had bothered coming through the checkpoints and did not wear mystery like a veil. After briefly talking with Elizabeth they withdrew into one of the compound''s corners and began to erect some kind of a platform.

    ¡°Do you want an explanation?¡± Alice spoke from behind Irwyn who was watching the two with a frown.

    ¡°You know what they are doing at a glance?¡± he did not look away. ¡°One of them is a Realm mage, building. The second is just standing around for the moment. Obviously, they will do something at some point. Enchantments? I cannot perceive their element.¡±

    ¡°Time,¡± she said.

    ¡°You can feel that?¡± Irwyn frowned further. The mage had an iron grip in their mana. Irwyn could barely catch a trace. Perhaps the girl could with her own affinity lying in that direction but it seemed like a stretch.

    ¡°No, but it¡¯s obvious,¡± Alice explained. ¡°They are building a teleportation platform.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Irwyn paused. ¡°Is that needed?¡±

    ¡°Much safer than a portal, much less intrusive than direct displacement,¡± she nodded. ¡°It swaps the Space above two different platforms, simplistically put. What matters is that it doesn¡¯t need to flood everything with intrusive mana or risk portal-related complications.¡±

    ¡°Could you not just do that regularly?¡± Irwyn finally turned to her.

    ¡°It¡¯s much harder than it sounds,¡± she shook her head. ¡°Besides being about three orders of magnitude more mana intensive, the finesse needed to cast such spells on the fly¡­ Saying I will have achieved that by the end of conception would get me called a hopeless optimist by most peers.¡±

    ¡°Not impossible, just impractically hard,¡± Irwyn nodded in understanding.

    ¡°Summary of all complex magic,¡± she chuckled. ¡°That being said, I am hoping I might be able to glean something from seeing the spell inscribed into the stone - so I came to look.¡±

    ¡°Do you want to see the enchantments cast then?¡±

    ¡°No, just feel the flow of magic if I can. Most of the runecraft has already been done by the Realm mage deep within the stone,¡± Alice shook her head. ¡°Presumably, all of it has a blueprint. They must have done this a hundred times at least since the Lich war was announced. The Time mage will just do the finishing touches that cannot be completed with mundane geometry, then start up the spells. These platforms usually run for years at a time or until maintenance is needed. Each is designed to bypass Finity.¡±

    ¡°I can imagine they would be in high demand during a Lich war,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°What an understatement,¡± she snorted. ¡°If not for Elizabeth, this camp would not have reached the top of the waiting list by the end of three Wars. In the first place, probably only the lieutenants will have the opportunity to even use it. I expect most will go to City Black for their time off.¡±

    ¡°Elizabeth had mentioned that,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I presume it will lead only to the capital?¡±

    ¡°Yes, the Beacon cuts the cost to a fraction of a fraction. This close to City Black even an average intention mage will be able to operate it with a bit of specialized training. Well, not really operate, more like keep functional.¡±

    ¡°Like you?¡± Irwyn noted.

    ¡°Far from average but ugh, you are right,¡± she grimaced. ¡°I will probably be made to maintain it and check for tampering before every use. Trecha is not bad but he learned the hard way. That means he won¡¯t be able to make head or tails of this.¡±

    ¡°The hard way?¡± Irwyn asked, dubious.

    ¡°He got where he is through years of effort, dedication, and relentless study,¡± Alice nodded. ¡°Which means his talent is meager. He can only understand what he knows - what he has already learned. Meanwhile, talents like us can glimpse something more when we look. I can somewhat intuit when a Time spell is wrong, even if it is far beyond my ability in principle. You and Elizabeth are most likely the same in your own elements.¡±

    ¡°I suppose,¡± Irwyn nodded. He could not think of a specific example from the top of his head but he could not deny he certainly perceived some things most mages didn¡¯t.

    ¡°Suppose, huh,¡± she rolled her eyes. ¡°You sell yourself too short.¡±

    ¡°Humility is not a bad trait,¡± Irwyn hummed. ¡°And I am not really that humble, just polite.¡±

    ¡°I wish I could test that ¡®humility¡¯ at some point,¡± she replied. ¡°Unfortunately, I will not be able to leave camp if I end up being the only person who can maintain the platform. Elizabeth said she had already reserved a dueling room for you two while I will be stuck here.¡±

    ¡°Yes, she had also mentioned that,¡± Irwyn nodded. Not the exact detail about the sparing but what else were they going to do in City Black?

    ¡°How are you not keeping track of that?¡± she frowned at him. ¡°I have had my time off marked down since basically the day I woke up from the stupor. You are just, what, vaguely aware you will be free at some point?¡±

    ¡°Scheduling has never been my strong suit,¡± Irwyn paused, feeling a bit defensive. ¡°Just tell me where to be and when. I am not really doing anything that cannot be postponed most of the time anyway.¡±

    ¡°Unbelievable,¡± she scoffed. ¡°You know, I used to memorize my schedule a month in advance most of the time and did my best to keep up with it.¡±

    ¡°Did you have a lot to do in Steelmire?¡± Irwyn cautiously asked since she herself brought the topic up, though Alice¡¯s ring seemed to thankfully be working.

    ¡°Mostly training, learning, then training disguised as games,¡± she smiled slightly. ¡°But that was not the point. The point was making it a habit that I would always know when and what I intended to do.¡±

    ¡°I suppose I am much too whimsical for that,¡± Irwyn shrugged.

    ¡°Whimsical, sure,¡± Alice snorted.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°You are too logical to be called that,¡± she said. ¡°Whims imply randomness, flights of fancy. I have only ever seen you do things for a reason.¡±

    ¡°I am literally standing here because I got curious about the two strangers,¡± Irwyn pointed out the clear fallacy.

    ¡°Curiosity can be reason enough,¡± she agreed instead. ¡°And you are not curious about two strangers. You are curious about two powerful mages. You know there is a difference.¡±

    ¡°I am sure you have a perfect grasp on my character from the few meetings,¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°My grandpa taught me to look at actions rather than people. You have shown enough for a good guess,¡± she shrugged. ¡°Anyway, it is beginning.¡±

    And indeed, the Time mage was stepping up. A large platform had been raised by the Realm mage, though too small to justify the time it took them. Presumably, the fortifications and inner workings were deceivingly complex. When the Time mage started up Irwyn did try to grasp something¡­ then gave up after a minute of barely being able to perceive the mana at work. One glance at Alice told him she was focused on something, so Irwyn left her to it and went to see Elizabeth. He really should figure out what day his vacation would be - for all he did very little actual work.

    <hr>

    It was over two weeks later that their first ¡®time off¡¯ came about. Irwyn had even inquired about the exact date after his chat with Alice. It was a bit over a month since their arrival, which Elizabeth explained with the need to not leave their camp short staffed - the company¡¯s lieutenants had indeed used the teleportation platform¡¯s utility to spend their time off in City Black and had done so before the young prodigies who had first arrived days after them.

    Alice was also indeed put in charge of maintaining it. Or, more accurately, making sure it was still in proper shape since actually tampering with the platform remained beyond her. She was also wearing the biggest scowl Irwyn had ever seen on her face.

    ¡°It¡¯s giving me a brutal headache,¡± she explained when he broached the topic. She was already leaning over the platform, prodding it with her mana.

    ¡°Her Soul is trying to grasp magic that the physical body cannot,¡± Elizabeth confirmed what Irwyn already suspected. Elizabeth of all people had plentiful experience with that phenomenon. ¡°It is exactly that which lets her tell whether anything is wrong with the spell though.¡±

    ¡°A thankless task,¡± Alice muttered. ¡°And I cannot even go to the City since no one else can do it.¡±

    ¡°Then she is not the one teleporting us,¡± Irwyn noted.

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    ¡°The arrays inside the platform do most of the directing and supply a smidgen of magic,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°The rest is taken care of on the other side.¡±

    ¡°I could operate it, if you let me,¡± Alice looked up from the platform. ¡°Everything is in order. Now excuse me, I will go die in my bed over the next few hours.¡±

    ¡°No painkillers?¡± Irwyn wondered once she departed and they stepped on.

    ¡°Those are ill-advised,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°There are cases in these situations when the brain retains something it really should not have. That will make the pain and negative effects gradually worse but it also lets you know there is a problem. If you numb the pain you may very well miss the signs until it¡¯s too late.¡±

    ¡°Did that not cause issues during your long¡­ sickness,¡± Irwyn carefully inquired. The cause of that had, after all, been exactly what Alice was experiencing.

    ¡°I was receiving some of the best healing this Duchy has to offer, Irwyn,¡± she smiled wanly. ¡°For all diagnosis eluded for years, there were very few ways I could have actually died. The boundary between technically still alive and dead is multitudes wider than most realize.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Irwyn nodded unsure what to say. Then changed topic. ¡°The platform will just activate?¡±

    ¡°We have a few minutes before our time slot,¡± she nodded. ¡°Scheduling is rather tight with the Lich war.¡±

    ¡°Any more major battles?¡± Irwyn asked. ¡°I have only heard of the one you showed us.¡±

    ¡°A few skirmishes,¡± she nodded. ¡°All of them against ambushed forces the Federation found hiding around somewhere. On the other hand there are reports of small settlements and companies disappearing from all the Duchies. Much of the countryside is being evacuated closer to major military instalments now.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t placing so many people in one place counterproductive?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°There is no quantity of lesser undead that can breach a proper fortress,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°And should the normal people be caught up in the War, it is far preferable if that happens within line of sight and range of artillery. Denying the necromancers biomass and large quantities of souls is as important as deterring them from attacking populations ¨C they can make much more dangerous things if they have Time as well as resources.¡±

    ¡°Makes sense,¡± Irwyn said hesitantly. That had not been the direction in his mind, though it was sound in a cold logical way. That was followed by a short lull in the conversation during which Irwyn felt mana finally gathering and shifting beneath their feet.

    ¡°It¡¯s here,¡± Elizabeth affirmed. The next moment they stood on a different yet familiar platform inside City Black. Elizabeth did not so much look at the staff as she stepped ahead. They had to go through a short hallway which split into many other such platforms towards the Voidways entrance by a main lobby of sorts.

    ¡°Duel first,¡± she said as they stepped into the privacy of that endless corridor.

    ¡°Are we not early?¡± Irwyn asked. They had departed sooner than originally expected.

    ¡°Not overly so,¡± she shook her head. ¡°Like before the Exenn, a vacancy is likely. Even if not we can wait.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Irwyn nodded. They spoke for a bit more before reaching their destination, Elizabeth once again knowing exactly which door led where they wanted to go with unerring certainty. The lobby they arrived in was becoming rather familiar to Irwyn after several visits. The heiress was about to find a staff member and inquire when they were interrupted.

    ¡°Ah, Elizabeth,¡± a voice sounded from behind them. ¡°Good thing I managed to catch you.¡±

    ¡°Johnson,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s gaze snapped to it, clearly recognizing the man. A strange title and name, though the way of address suggested familiarity. Johnson was clothed in a simple light blue robe and wore a truly grand beard. ¡°I was not expecting to see you here.¡±

    ¡°I wasn''t sure I would make it,¡± the man nodded. ¡°It would have been uncouth to arrange a meeting, then not arrive. Helping in Abonisle has been taking up most of my time.¡±

    ¡°In Abonisle of all places,¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. ¡°What would you even be doing there?¡±

    ¡°Plenty of work to conduct following an incursion,¡± the man chuckled, curling the forementioned beard. ¡°And both Elanoir and Ebapell have been stationed there to help with the recovery efforts. Your mother wanted me to ensure their well-being.¡±

    Irwyn frowned, trying to remember if he had heard those names and coming up blank. Elizabeth noticed and answered the unasked question. ¡°My older siblings. Second and fourth in seniority.¡±

    ¡°Ah, but how rude of me. You must be Irwyn,¡± the doctor looked over. ¡°Pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Doctor John Johnson, a fellow retainer of house Blackburg.¡±

    ¡°The pleasure is all mine,¡± Irwyn reassured as he shot Elizabeth a questioning glance.

    ¡°Doctor Johson has been my mother¡¯s and then her childrens¡¯ family healer for many decades,¡± she explained. ¡°You may have met him sooner had he answered my requests during your bout of sickness.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes, that was indeed regrettable,¡± the man nodded, turning to Irwyn. ¡°Allow me to apologize. I have been in a strict information quarantine zone for the entire duration of your ailment. Otherwise, I would not have missed the opportunity to properly examine someone like you.¡±

    ¡°No need to worry. I know better than to feel entitled to anyone¡¯s Time,¡± Irwyn replied politely.

    ¡°Alas, it still pains me to miss such an opportunity,¡± the man shook his head with visible regret in his visage. ¡°Hopefully another opportunity will present itself.¡±

    ¡°I would rather not be sick in the nearby future,¡± Irwyn hesitantly said.

    ¡°The likeliness of you being in need of care again at some point is still quite significant, is it not?¡± Johnson smiled. ¡°At that time it would be preferable if I had the leeway and was within reach. Just at a cursory glance, you are biologically fascinating, Irwyn.¡±

    ¡°Thank you?¡±

    ¡°You wanted to meet me for a reason,¡± Elizabeth interrupted.

    ¡°Ah, yes, sorry, my mind wanders,¡± Johnson nodded, reaching into the bag by his side. ¡°I have come to deliver the material manifestation of my sincere regret.¡±

    ¡°Which is?¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow as Johnson kept rummaging in his bag for several more seconds.

    ¡°I swear it was right here somewhere,¡± the man was frowning at that point. ¡°Ah, my mistake. Irwyn if you would step closer?¡±

    ¡°Of course?¡± Irwyn hesitated though Elizabeth gave him a nod which brought him the courage to push through the strangeness.

    Some of that dissipated as Johnson quite literally reached behind Irwyn¡¯s ear the next moment. ¡°There it is!¡± the man pronounced with a smile, withdrawing the hand that was holding a ring. Forged from emerald-coloured metal with an eye like jewel. Irwyn was more focused on the fact that he had felt not so much as a smidgen of mana despite it happening so close to his skin.

    ¡°I see. Thank you,¡± Irwyn tried to not let his confusion seep into the sentence.

    ¡°Honestly, children used to love these kinds of things,¡± Johnson shook his head.

    ¡°We may be a few years too old for that, doctor,¡± Elizabeth suggested. There was a hint of amusement in it though, likely at Irwyn¡¯s expense. ¡°17 to be exact.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure you are that old,¡± the doctor frowned at Irwyn.

    ¡°I know nothing that would suggest otherwise,¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Ah, my mistake I suppose,¡± Johnso shook his head. ¡°You truly are anomalous. Tell me, did you go through something extremely unusual nine years ago?¡±

    ¡°Doctor, now may not be the best time for an interrogation,¡± Elizabeth interrupted. ¡°The ring?¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes, at a later date then,¡± Johnson sighed. ¡°The rings is my answer to your unfortunate lack of proper equipment, Irwyn. A fine work by all means, especially given I could only work on it in my free time.¡±

    ¡°The ring to enhance my cognitive ability,¡± Irwyn¡¯s eyes widened slightly in sudden anticipation. Elizabeth had promised she would request a better one for him.

    ¡°Were you not busy in Abonisle?¡± Elizabeth questioned, though more curious than heated.

    ¡°I was quite occupied by needing to be there in case I was needed,¡± he nodded. ¡°Not so much so that I could not work on a side project. Go on, try it on.¡±

    ¡°All right then,¡± Irwyn nodded, made sure Elizabeth did not protest, then put the ring on.

    The power of it was incomparable to the one Old Crow had given him. Irwyn found his thoughts racing at speeds beyond anything in the past. The leap ¨C yes, a proper leap this time ¨C was almost staggering in its potency. Yet like the weaker ring it did not run into any issues with overwhelming his ability to adjust to faster thoughts.

    ¡°How is it,¡± Johnson asked with a smile. His gaze however was locked onto Irwyn with incredible intensity.

    ¡°Incredible,¡± Irwyn gaped for breath. ¡°This has to be something around... 50 percent?¡±

    ¡°That is too high,¡± Elizabeth immediately frowned, turning to Johnson. ¡°What did you do?¡±

    ¡°Just made a small guess,¡± the man grinned, not looking away from studying Irwyn¡¯s expression. ¡°I merely estimated that Irwyn¡¯s Soul outpaces his body to an absurd degree from the information given to me. Therefore, instead of wasting any of the ring¡¯s power on enhancing or protecting the soul as most such items do, I completely devoted it towards the flesh. Well, grey matter in this case.¡±

    ¡°What if you had been wrong?¡± Irwyn had to ask.

    ¡°Well, there is a reason I delivered it personally,¡± the man laughed. ¡°Worry not, Irwyn, the last time a patient of mine suffered permanent damage or death was over two centuries ago.¡±

    ¡°You also take very few patients,¡± Elizabeth pointed out with a slight frown.

    ¡°It would not do to admit in any lost causes and stain my record,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°Though there was really no need to worry. I would have been well prepared for even the worst-case scenario of self-perpetuating synaptic collapse.¡±

    ¡°Is it even safe to use when you are not around,¡± Irwyn asked, frowning. He did not like even the implication that it could have gone wrong.

    ¡°The only question was whether the foundational hypothesis was correct,¡± Johnson explained. ¡°I would advice against using it if you sustain severe spiritual injuries. Otherwise, it is even safer than most other items of the kind.¡±

    ¡°I see, thank you for the gift then,¡± Irwyn gingerly took the ring off. Either way, he would heed Elizabeth¡¯s advice and use such items scarcely rather than become reliant on it. The exact circumstance only added to his caution.

    ¡°Alas, for all I enjoy the chitchat I must hurry away,¡± Johnson sighed. ¡°If we ever find ourselves in the same room again, I would be happy to speak more. Bye for now.¡±

    ¡°Goodbye¡­¡± Irwyn said but by the time his words left his mouth Johnson was already gone. He had moved with that completely uncanny speed of very powerful mages. Domain at least, most likely. Irwyn could feel nothing throughout the conversation though. ¡°That was certainly an encounter.¡±

    ¡°Johnson can be a bit¡­ particular, yes,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°You seemed well acquainted,¡± Irwyn noted.

    ¡°He has been my family¡¯s physician since before my eldest brother was born,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Johnson has also spent much time keeping me alive through my sickness and was eventually the one who made the connection to its cause. The exact how is a longer story but I am - despite his personality and loyalty to my mother - reasonably fond of the man.¡±

    ¡°Why ¡®doctor¡¯ though,¡± Irwyn mused. ¡°I have read the term used in the past - and presume it means healer - but not once since stepping into mage society.¡±

    ¡°It is a title from the North, outside the Federation,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Not often used here, though it is practically synonymous with healer or physician.¡±

    ¡°Is Johnson from there then?¡± Irwyn wondered.

    ¡°Apparently he had been born in the Duchy of Green, then decided to spend some Time away from the Federation. There he was being employed by my mother¡¯s old family and ended up following her to the Duchy of Black when she made the move. I only know the roughest shape of everything but both my parents seem to trust him implicitly despite all the eccentricities. That likely means a lot of manipulation and impregnable oaths are involved.¡±

    ¡°And what does he get from it?¡± Irwyn asked. ¡°He seemed powerful enough by himself.¡±

    ¡°Protection of House Blackburg? Funding, probably. Johnson supposedly spends much of his time on ¡®personal research¡¯ though I was never privy as to what that entails.¡±

    ¡°He certainly seemed curious,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Experimentally inclined, even.¡±

    ¡°Johnson definitely up-played the risks,¡± Elizabeth rolled her eyes at Irwyn¡¯s implication. ¡°He is still the healer my mother sends to all my siblings and me. Such a person cannot be prone to recklessness with his patients, as few of them as there are.¡±

    ¡°I hope you will excuse that my first impression is still not the fondest,¡± Irwyn sighed.

    ¡°He can grow on you with time,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°Anyway, we did come here to duel, did we not?¡±

    ¡°And coincidentally we are no longer early, are we?¡± Irwyn mused with a smile. He had been looking forward to it.

 3.35 All quiet

    Time passed. The Lich War was, as far as anyone knew, the quiet and insidious kind. Battles took place only when one side took the other by surprise. Sometimes a horde would be wiped out, sometimes a smaller force of the Federation would be caught off guard and vanish. Elizabeth told Irwyn that no undead beyond the power of a domain had been so much as spotted yet, which left everyone in the know nervous.

    It all seemed rather detached in Ebon Respite. Though the cooperation with the Guild had been set into place, no real signs of the undead had come yet. Irwyn spent most of his days practicing his magic, occasionally visiting his unlawfully inclined friends. Like that, days flew by.

    Soon enough it was over 3 months since his return to Ebon Respite.

    His improvement remained rapid during this time. When he had first arrived at Ebon Respite he could wield 15 five-intention spells, maybe turn that into a bit over two six-intentions magics on a good day. In those three months he had experienced no visions to make any sudden leaps, though that did not mean he stalled at all. By the time they passed he could wield 25 six-intention spells.

    Progress did, after all, accelerate the more powerful one became. Power beget power and such. To make a nine-intention spell was, purely mathematically, at least 362 800 times more difficult than wielding magic with just one. If the rate of progress remained the same all the way, there may very well be no mages who ever got even halfway to the end.

    Thanks to his training, Irwyn could almost cast three seven-intention spells. Despite that, he had not managed to surpass Elizabeth yet. Perhaps feeling him hot on her heels, she more than kept pace - a fact she embarrassedly attributed to the ambrosia she had imbibed. Without any visions to help him along she had actually slightly increased the thinning gap between them again¡­ at least as far as raw magic wielding capacity was concerned.

    When it came to the power of their Vessels Irwyn¡¯s advantage had only widened. He had noticed that even his most powerful spells gradually became less straining. Then at some point, he had reached a boundary when he had become literally unable to run out of mana - even his most powerful magics consumed less than he recovered. That was, apparently, unheard of even in the Federation¡¯s long history as far they could tell. Elizabeth guessed Irwyn¡¯s Vessel already surpassed almost all mages even at the peak of imbuement, keeping in mind that nine-intention spells were quite literally at least 72 times more mana intensive than his seven-intention ones.

    It was also that advantage that allowed him to keep up in their duels. Although Elizabeth still surpassed him in skill, at least technically, Irwyn had developed ways to close that gap. While he chose not to ¡®stall at all cost¡¯ - as that would be rather boring - his style was certainly more defensive and immobile compared to Elizabeth dexterously flickering around, depending more on hiding within her Void magics and deflecting than outright blocking.

    It was, coincidentally, after one of their ¡®hideaway weekends¡¯ as Alice had dubbed the way the two spent their time off dueling, that the relative normalcy was broken. They were resting after one of their matches, nearing the time they would have to return when a frown suddenly spread across Elizabeth¡¯s face.

    ¡°That is bad,¡± she muttered. ¡°We need to go. Now!¡±

    ¡°What happened?¡± Irwyn questioned, though they were already leaving. Elizabeth was, in fact, moving at a jog making Irwyn match the pace.

    ¡°Moment,¡± she headed for the Voidways, the staff not daring to disturb their obvious hurry. She only spoke again when they were inside at which point she also cast some quick body enchantment spells and ran. ¡°A patrol has gone missing.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Irwyn said. He had also cast several similar spells to keep up. His physical enhancement could not match Elizabeth but he could still do enough to run faster. ¡°What happened to ¡®no undead¡¯?¡±

    ¡°We do not know for certain it was undead,¡± she bit her lip.

    ¡°Of course we do not,¡± Irwyn smiled a bit teasingly, despite the grim situation.

    ¡°Let¡¯s first get back and learn more,¡± she sighed. ¡°The camp is put on high alert and the teleportation hub will give us priority. Alice is already checking the platform for us. Here.¡±

    They left the Voidways and were almost immediately intercepted by a clerk leading them towards one of the many platforms hosted there, somewhere presumably deep within City Black. It took a few moments longer for Alice to send over her go-ahead. Moments later they were back in Ebon Respite, heading towards the already arranged meeting.

    Alice was also invited, deciding to swallow a double dose of painkillers to help with her Soul related migraine. Elizabeth assured her that she would look after her in case of any side effects, to which the Time mage  informed them that even with the pain dimmed the meeting would be agonizing. Irwyn was not sure if that had been a joke. Soon enough they made it to Elizabeth¡¯s central building. There, at the first floor, all of the officers had already gathered, awaiting them.

    ¡°The missing soldiers - all manaless - were on their way to confirm a report from our Guild contacts,¡± one of the Lieutenants - ¡­ - Irwyn had given up remembering their name, it was the one who led their first platoon, spoke, expression rather grim. ¡°Our equipment has detected a small flaring of mana at the same time their lifebound marks shattered at our end.¡±

    ¡°We need to get in touch with my contacts,¡± Irwyn suggested. ¡°Perhaps¡­¡±

    ¡°I am already here,¡± a new voice sounded, making all the officers flinch away from it. To them it was disturbing for Waylan to seemingly just materialize behind them, unseen, unperceived. That usually implied a mage far stronger than them, rather than a mortal man merely supernaturally competent at stealth.

    ¡°Waylan,¡± Elizabeth spoke his name, bringing the room back to order through her calm. ¡°Your people have already heard then?¡±

    ¡°I went straight here, but yeah,¡± he nodded. ¡°I think half the city will know at least a bit of it by the end of the day.¡±

    ¡°What exactly happened?¡± Elizabeth frowned.

    ¡°We had no visual on the events,¡± the scarred woman in charge of the penal platoon replied. Certainly not the answer Elizabeth had wanted but Irwyn had noticed that their company seemingly had rather¡­ limited means of gathering information from a distance.

    ¡°A pillar of Light happened,¡± was Waylan¡¯s more concrete answer.

    ¡°Elaborate,¡± Elizabeth frowned.

    ¡°People saw a pillar of Light rise from several streets over,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Except those people probably had no clue it happened right where your lads were standing. My friend made sure they were followed in case someone dumb tried to jump them. There was no trace they had ever been there by the time the light was gone.¡±

    ¡°Why would the attack be so showy?¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°Standard doctrine,¡± the scarred woman spoke again. ¡°As per our procedures, one of them was carrying a volatile magnifying talisman. It does ja¡­ little to protect them but when someone tries to hit them with magic, well, there are fireworks¡­ lightworks? Good for making sure nothing sneakily slits their throats without us knowing.¡±

    ¡°There was certainly very little of throats left to cut,¡± Waylan commented drily. ¡°Though perhaps the makers had hoped for more collateral damage.¡±

    ¡°Can we know whether they were aiming to kill or to capture?¡± Elizabeth asked, ignoring the sneak.

    ¡°Undead don¡¯t take prisoners,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°We do not know for sure the attack is undead in nature,¡± she said.

    ¡°It does seem likely though,¡± Alice spoke. She seemed pale despite the medication.

    ¡°I have heard of undead capturing soldiers to replace them with impostors,¡± the penal lieutenant added in support.

    ¡°We make no assumptions yet,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°Very little is known so far. First of all, whoever gave that tip - find them.¡±

    ¡°Being tracked down already, probably,¡± Waylan nodded. Aaron would think of that, surely.

    ¡°Then the place, on the map,¡± she nodded at Waylan, then pointed at the large map of Ebon Respite that had always hung unused on the back wall.

    ¡°Ugh,¡± Waylan suppressed a flinch. ¡°I don¡¯t exactly know where. Not much enough to even guess, really.¡±

    ¡°Fine, later then,¡± she nodded despite that. ¡°Back to my first question: Is capture a possibility?¡±

    ¡°Not anymore, their lifemarks are broken,¡± the first Platoon¡¯s Lieutenant shook his head ¨C he seemed grimmer than usual. ¡°But it is true it cannot be ruled out. Had the assailants known about the amplification talisman they would not have likely triggered it - and undead would at least know it was a real possibility. It is plausible that the soldiers were killed in the explosion caused by the talisman itself.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Lieutenant Shwartz,¡± Elizabeth nodded, perhaps at Irwyn. He tried to commit the name to memory for the next few minutes. ¡°Though actual undead might intentionally take a misstep just to confuse us.¡±

    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°We need to be ready if an actual incursion starts,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°It would spread like a wildfire.¡±

    ¡°No spike in necromantic magic as far as our equipment can tell,¡± Shwartz shook his head. ¡°If undead were being raised in number we would know immediately. No, this was a targeted attack.¡±

    ¡°Then why attack just regular soldiers?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°Because those would be the easiest to extract information from,¡± Elizabeth concluded. ¡°They could even alter their memories so as to forget any such encounter ever occurred afterwards. Or just harvest intelligence from a distance if skilled enough.¡±

    ¡°Light magic implies they might have been intending to bind them first,¡± Shwartz guessed. ¡°Therefore, it is unlikely our enemy has the strongest grip on Soul magic as that would render physical restraints moot. Possibly there is not even a necromancer, just a small group of infiltrators.¡±

    ¡°Which would only be sent here either to secure some kind of strategic advantage or for an assassination,¡± Elizabeth said with a frown. ¡°But we can really only guess."

    ¡°We do not know enough,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°But how do we learn more?¡± Alice asked.

    ¡°Just sending people to look won¡¯t do any good,¡± Waylan opined.

    ¡°Bait it is,¡± the penal Lieutenant nodded, earning a glare from her tattooed once subordinate.

    ¡°That would be risky,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°We have no idea how powerful they might be.¡±

    ¡°We do not actually need to find them,¡± Elizabeth interrupted.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°Our goal is to prevent an undead incursion,¡± she said. ¡°Not hunt down any trace of the Rot.¡±

    ¡°A small group can still do severe damage,¡± Alice said.

    ¡°Ebon Respite has no real strategic targets,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°The closest thing to one are the manofactoriums and an attack one of those would cause enough ruckus that they can be taken out by one of the very bored and powerful mages waiting for rapid deployment in City Black.¡±

    ¡°The undead could infiltrate deeper while we abstain from action,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°They can do that no matter what we do. The inquisition will have to do a sweep through the city¡¯s governance either way after the War.¡±

    ¡°So we just¡­ wait?¡± Alice asked with a frown.

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°From what we know right now anything else is taking a pointless risk. We can afford to be patient and respond to our enemy¡¯s next move when we are better prepared for it. For the moment we will postpone vacations and restructure our doctrine - it is not suitable against a small but powerful group. In the meantime, we shall warn the manufactoriums to improve their security and give them a way to get in contact in case of a frontal attack. Until we know more no essential personnel will so much as take a step outside of camp. Any questions?¡±

    ¡°What about me?¡± Waylan asked.

    ¡°With your skill at stealth you are naturally an exception,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Not to mention technically external personnel. Anything else?¡± no one else contradicted her. ¡°Then dismissed for the moment. We will discuss later what concrete steps to take.¡±

    And so the lieutenants filtered out, each wearing a frown. Alice and Waylan remained behind alongside Irwyn though. It was him who spoke up first. ¡°Are we really just going to sit around doing nothing?¡±

    ¡°Is there something wrong with that?

    ¡°It just feels¡­ incorrect,¡± Irwyn admitted. ¡°We have seen in Abonisle what the undead can get up to when given time.¡±

    ¡°If it even is undead in nature,¡± Elizabeth stressed.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Alice rolled her eyes, then sighed. ¡°I am heading to bed. Trecha will probably have a speech about the painkillers too before he agrees to have someone keep watch over me.¡±

    ¡°We need to keep our minds open,¡± the other heiress shrugged, ignoring the short rant. ¡°And I am not completely abandoning investigation. Waylan, you had mentioned your friend was looking into things.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Aaron likes a puzzle,¡± the boy nodded. ¡°I cannot know how many clues there even are though.¡±

    ¡°Keep us updated,¡± she nodded, looking back at the map. ¡°For now we wait but we will prepare.¡±

    <hr>

    Irwyn would have thought that an encounter with the enemy, even a remote one, would be followed by some excitement. Unfortunately, it ended up being the exact opposite. As per Elizabeth¡¯s decision, almost no one left the camp anymore. That very much included him. Gone was his schedule of visiting the Tears twice a week.

    It only took him a few days to realize that it was exactly those more social occasions that had allowed him to relax and focus on his training most of his days¡­ or perhaps it was just the sudden tension catching up to him. Either way, Irwyn found his progress suddenly sluggish. His attempts at imagining new magic uninspired.

    Alice seemed no different in that regard, their tea-accompanied meetings with Elizabeth soon progressing into happening far more often than for meals and business but genuine attempts at the leisure they suddenly craved. Perhaps sensing that Waylan came to visit almost daily, always poking fun at their security which failed to so much to glimpse a trace of his arrival or departure in broad daylight.

    The undead refused to make another move. No sign of anything awry happening on the equipment the army had. Those magical apparatuses had, much to Elizabeth¡¯s chagrin, been running at full capacity ever since the attack. It was the first time Irwyn had found out there was an option of not doing so, as well as any details of their functions really. What he came to understand was that the enchantment was expensive to keep up and suffered damage from use.

    ¡°It seems this is not going to work,¡± it was after a week of such that Elizabeth revisited their strategy. ¡°These undead are patient.¡±

    ¡°I thought we did not know for sure it was undead?¡± Irwyn asked with a smirk.

    ¡°Very funny,¡± she rolled her eyes. ¡°Odds were they would have done something by now.¡±

    ¡°Dead don¡¯t have no lifespan urging them forward,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°Why would they hurry?¡±

    ¡°They are driven by their hatred of the living, this is well known,¡± Alice shook her head. ¡°My grandfather taught me that 90 out of 100 undead were incapable of holding themselves back from killing for more than a few hours. And those who could tended to be the necromancers who had turned to undeath willingly.¡±

    ¡°Exactly my thought process,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Six days is considered the 99th percentile of their patience. That means that whatever we are dealing with, unfortunately, most likely has endless restraint.¡±

    ¡°What do we do then?¡± Irwyn wondered.

    ¡°We will start sending out patrols again,¡± she sighed. ¡°I am sure the Guild has gathered some suspicious rumors for them to pursue.¡±

    ¡°Won¡¯t they just get picked off?¡± Waylan frowned.

    ¡°Possibly,¡± she nodded. ¡°Which is why we will be taking several countermeasures. If we cannot outlast them, we need to at least know what we are dealing with.¡±

    ¡°The Lieutenants won¡¯t like that,¡± Alice frowned. ¡°Especially Shwartz, he seems to care for his men to some degree.¡±

    ¡°Does he?¡± Elizabeth seemed surprised. ¡°I never noticed.¡±

    ¡°First Platoon, right?¡± Irwyn confirmed.

    ¡°Irw, even I know that by this point,¡± Waylan rolled his eyes at him, then turned back towards Elizabeth, perhaps staring a bit.

    ¡°All it took was talking with his soldiers,¡± Alice nodded. ¡°He seemed upset for days after the last attack - two of the casualties were his men. Shwartz also promised to attend to funeral service when it happens eventually. Not how someone uncaring would act.¡±

    ¡°We can use second or third then,¡± Elizabeth decided.

    ¡°And what, they still just get picked off again?¡± Waylan said.

    ¡°We will be paying much closer attention this time and send several such patrols at once,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°We will be able to estimate numbers, power, perhaps more elements.¡±

    ¡°They will expect the amplifiers this time for sure,¡± Alice pointed out.

    ¡°We have more tricks to equip pawns with,¡± Elizabeth assured.

    ¡°Then I suppose I should go get your excuses from Aaron,¡± Waylan nodded. The next breath he was gone. If Irwyn had to guess, rushing out of the camp.

    ¡°He just¡­ left?¡± Alice asked after a moment, surprised. They were quite literally in the middle of discussing strategy, even if in a less official setting. Elizabeth did not seem overjoyed by it either.

    ¡°Waylan doesn¡¯t like this, you know,¡± Irwyn sighed.

    ¡°Like what?¡± Elizabeth fully frowned and Alice also looked over.

    ¡°Sacrifice,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°The very idea of it.¡±

    ¡°Ah,¡± Elizabeth paused as if it had not ever occurred to her - perhaps it had not.

    ¡°You certainly seem¡­ indifferent,¡± Alice also seemed surprised by the obvious revelation as she spoke.

    ¡°I never cared much,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°But Waylan¡­ well, we had what we called the ¡®Trials¡¯ in the Tears. Perhaps they still do it, I haven¡¯t asked. It was a simple concept really: Everyone had to earn their keep as an adult. So, after each Solstice, we would take everyone who had turned 12 and sent them out to work.¡±

    ¡°As thieves,¡± Alice noted.

    ¡°Or robbers, burglars, blackmailers occasionally,¡± Irwyn nodded, though the last was not too common a choice for young teenagers. He only remembered it because it was how Aaron earned his first bits of wealth. ¡°They had years of training and some support from their elders. But, you know, there were never that many of us and it was rather hands-off.¡±

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t a lot of them get caught,¡± Elizabeth frowned. ¡°Inexperienced thieves seem like a bad matchup against career guards and paranoid shopkeepers.¡±

    ¡°They were taught for years, Old Crow seemed to always know how to uncover latent talents too,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Which meant a third usually made it all the way through their first week. Third of that through the first month. Then the attrition slowed down, though we would lose older adults from time to time.¡±

    ¡°That is too much,¡± Alice opined. ¡°Even mortal mercenaries don¡¯t have attrition that bad when getting bloodied.¡±

    ¡°Well, some got locked up and we could get them out for a second shot,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°The issue, unfortunately, often wasn¡¯t the work. It was not getting shanked on the way to and from. We lived in a pretty bad area and reputation only goes so far, especially when I was younger. People only started to be wary of us when we robbed another gang out of existence for going too far and that was only about four or so years ago.¡±

    ¡°That sounds¡­ unpleasant,¡± Elizabeth was clearly at a loss for words. Alice¡¯s frown revealed that she still didn¡¯t think the numbers added up but was not going to push the issue.

    ¡°Well, it seems to be better now,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°And as I said, I never cared that much. Could scarcely remember the kids. Waylan though¡­ well, he always despised the Trials even if he never truly spoke up against it. He just cares for people more than a thief ought to, I suppose.¡±

    ¡°Now I feel bad for involving him in this,¡± Alice sighed.

    ¡°If you have any alternatives I am listening,¡± Elizabeth glanced her way, then at Irwyn. ¡°This plan has only been discussed between us so far.¡±

    ¡°I have nothing besides just waiting more,¡± Irwyn admitted. He had spent some time during the week pondering options and it always came down to the same hurdle: Most plans involved putting himself in major danger against undead of unknown power. The rest of his ideas usually came down to reinforcements which made them barely solutions and more wishful thinking about someone else cleaning up their mess. It was not like Elizabeth couldn¡¯t force some help to come, it would just be wasteful if it wasn¡¯t warranted. And Irwyn had a distinct feeling she wanted to solve things herself if the odds seemed reasonable.

    ¡°Nothing either,¡± Alice shook her head.

    ¡°Then we break it to the Lieutenants,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Perhaps they will have thought of something.¡±

    They had not. Neither were they too happy about Elizabeth¡¯s plan. Irwyn watched as Elizabeth tried and failed to get most on board. The speech was fine and eloquent, it was just that none - except perhaps the scarred woman in charge of the penal platoon - seemed particularly eager to make such sacrifices.

    Irwyn also watched as not a single one so much as hinted at their dissatisfaction ¨C false smiles and nods of agreement was their response. He wondered if Elizabeth had noticed. He had, after all, spoken with her about the fear that her family name was bound to inspire. It was, in a way, gratifying to see that these career war mages feared that insignia just as any thief would.

    What Irwyn was not looking forward to was coaxing Waylan into things. His friend would come around to it, Irwyn knew. It would not be without much grumbling and mood spoiling. Either way, he agreed with Elizabeth¡¯s assessment that staying idle was not working. So, he steeled himself and played out the upcoming argument in his head. Waylan was going to return sooner rather than later.

 3.36 A result

    There was a certain nervous energy permeating the air as the soldiers departed to their probable deaths. Most were grim, the rest either too hard to read or just oblivious. They went in groups of four, usually with one or two people from the penal platoon, bearing that distinct mark on their foreheads. Five such bands had been gathered and sent out around the same time.

    ¡°Now we wait,¡± Elizabeth watched dispassionately. Irwyn was feeling a bit conflicted. He did not like sending the people to very likely perish¡­ nor did he particularly hate it. The feeling was closer to slight dislike. An irritation rather than outright compassion. From the looks of it both Alice and Elizabeth seemed even more detached from it than him, both simply calculating the worth of each soldier in the plan rather than considering that each was, in fact, a living human being with a life. Waylan¡­ Waylan had left a while ago to ¡®keep an eye out¡¯. Irwyn opted to afford him that time alone.

    ¡°Run me through all¡­ this?¡± Irwyn suggested, waving his hand around the piles of equipment Elizabeth ordered brought to the large meeting room. They were far from alone, though everyone besides her was clearly busy keeping track of whatever information they were getting.

    ¡°Is now the time?¡± she bit her lip.

    ¡°Are you actively keeping any of it running?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°You are just trying to distract me.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°So, what does that one do?¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± she sighed, following Irwyn¡¯s hand. The devices were mostly mimicking the appearance of machinery: Large boxes with displays showing data Irwyn was unsure how to interpret. He did wonder how difficult it actually was to understand.

    ¡°What is this one called?¡± he had chosen one at random.

    ¡°Soul link stabilizer,¡± she said. ¡°With the help of a Soul mage we created a spring-like binding between the Souls of the soldiers and the device. While they are alive this has almost no effect, however, the instant their flesh stops acting as an anchor the soul will be flung back towards us.¡±

    ¡°And captured?¡± Irwyn guessed.

    ¡°Their Souls are not resilient enough to survive such a journey - they will disperse along the way,¡± she shook her head. ¡°It does mean they cannot be corrupted by necromancy nor interrogated though. And we will know exactly when it happens.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you have those life-marks for that?¡± Irwyn wondered.

    ¡°More than one measure,¡± she shrugged. ¡°Makes it less likely they can counter all of them at once. The life marks are based on Life magics, this is Soul.¡±

    ¡°Predictably,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°You would be surprised how often people use ¡®void¡¯ in the name of things that do not use any Void magic,¡± she shook her head.

    ¡°What about this then?¡± Irwyn turned to the next contraption.

    ¡°Yes, this¡­¡± and Elizabeth explained. Speaking seemed to relieve some of her nervous energy. At least at first. As minutes went by the air of anticipation intensified. Everyone was expecting something to happen, they just did not know when or where.

    Live reports from the soldiers were being transcribed, each group equipped with a limited-use communication crystal and instructed to speak the moment anything seemed awry. Their locations were being tracked in real time, projected onto the map - which in hindsight was notably outdated in places as the soldiers would seemingly sometimes walk through a building or need to detour around an empty spot.

    A different kind of mood enveloped the hall though when the groups reached their destinations without being accosted. Each had to investigate a tip of some kind provided by the Guild. Something suspicious that could be associated with undead, after some filtering.

    One group went after a desecrated small graveyard. No signs of necromancy nor magic were detected there by their equipment - apparently there was plenty of single-use consumable for this kind of thing in supply. Nor were any corpses missing. It seemed to be a graverobbing inspired by avarice rather than heresy.

    The second group checked up on a bad-side-of-town bar with reports of a faint rotten smell crawling up from the basement. It turned out to be ¡®merely¡¯ a poorly covered-up murder by the owner. Still a grave offense but not what the soldier had been dreading to find.

    The third barged on a group of mortal, and certainly illegal, alchemists. It was possible to create some very mild magical medicines, poisons, and chemicals even without magic - Irwyn knew that much. And completely mundane concoctions were still very effective against non-mages. The soldiers checked upon their workshop and found any rumours of the Rot fully unfounded.

    The fourth went to one of the warehouses near Road street. After inquiring, Irwyn found with some amusement that the owners were cooking their books concerning how many goods they actually received. Except, their contacts in the underworld found out that their supposedly real secret ledgers did not match up either. Irwyn had some doubts about how likely that was to be connected to the Lich War, but Aaron had screened their clues. The chance had to be higher than zero. Eventually, all the soldiers found were living people being smuggled ¨C slaves, apparently. Serious enough Elizbeth opted to command this was absolutely not to be overlooked as many other smugglings had been.

    The army was working with the Guild on this after all, and as far as Irwyn understood many of the Fowls and higher-ups had made deals with House Blackburg. The exact details of that agreement he was still fuzzy about, though there were definitely lines that should not be crossed. Outright slavery was, at least from what he was seeing, taken seriously. He recalled Elizabeth once telling him that in most Duchies such practice had been completely banned since their founding, so it made sense to him.

    The last group was a decoy. Well, all of them were, but the fifth did not go to verify any rumor in particular. They were merely meant to walk in a circle around much of the city, ensuring that the undead would definitely notice them if their surveillance options were limited.

    None were accosted during their tasks. Not so much as a trace of a threat had been seen during the whole day. The first soldiers returned, relief visible in their eyes as they passed the gates. They were quarantined for the moment as they reported in - looking for any major discrepancies in their memory - though nothing seemed wrong with them according to all the equipment. Then the second was back. The third, fourth. When the fifth returned unharmed and healthy, Elizabeth was downright befuddled.

    ¡°Not a trace of anything awry,¡± Elizabeth sighed.

    ¡°Maybe the undead just left the city?¡± Irwyn suggested. ¡°You know, realized they had been noticed and scrapped their plans.¡±

    ¡°Or this is just a bluff to make us drop our guard,¡± she bit her lip. ¡°It would not be unprecedented.¡±

    ¡°I can see why my grandpa called dealing with the undead maddening at times,¡± Alice noted drily.

    ¡°We cannot let our guard down completely,¡± Elizabeth decided. ¡°But we cannot keep on full alert forever. I will consult with the Lieutenants but it seems likely we will mostly have to return to how things were before the attack. Except we will not be leaving the camp.¡±

    ¡°Because they might be assassins lurking about,¡± Irwyn guessed.

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Well, there always could be. I have never left other way than by the teleportation for that reason. Now though, the threat remains much more realistic for you two as well. Young talented mages are always a good target of opportunity, even without blood ties to House Blackburg. It would be exactly what I would expect - making us lower our guard by pretending to be long gone only to strike at someone more valuable than regular troops.¡±

    ¡°No visits for me then,¡± Irwyn sighed. He had hoped that he would be able to start visiting his friends again, though that seemed unrealistic with undead of unknown power quite possibly lurking nearby. A risk not worth undergoing for a social occasion.

    ¡°You could start writing letters,¡± Alice suggested. Irwyn and Elizabeth gave her very blank stares. At first confused, then embarrassed when the realization struck her. ¡°Oh, right, you can¡¯t. Eh¡­ I could write for you?¡±

    ¡°I will keep the offer in mind,¡± Irwyn smiled slightly. ¡°I could just tell Waylan what I want said and pray he doesn¡¯t twist my words too badly.¡±

    ¡°He wouldn¡¯t do that,¡± Alice shook her head with a grin. ¡°He would just make up a different message entirely.¡±

    ¡°Talking behind my back?¡± Waylan revealed himself. He could have been there for a while or might have just arrived. After months of his antics, everyone took it in stride.

    ¡°Of course not, you are facing us,¡± Irwyn immediately countered. ¡°Such accusations are thus baseless.¡±

    ¡°Fair,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Everyone alive, eh?¡± the apparent results had put him in a better mood.

    ¡°As far as we know,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°There will be quarantine for a few days just in case but it seems like nothing at all happened.¡±

    ¡°Not what you were hoping for?¡± Waylan asked, glaring a bit again.

    ¡°I am not sure what I was hoping for,¡± Elizabeth shrugged, not rising to the provocation. ¡°This is far from the worst-case scenario at least.¡±

    ¡°I will be sitting around for a while longer still though,¡± Irwyn sighed. For an indeterminate time, actually. ¡°I am thinking, maybe it would be possible to stay in touch with some of those communication magics. They cannot be that rare since we sent the soldiers out with them.¡±

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°Hmm,¡± Elizabeth hummed at the request. ¡°Something better than single use is not too hard. Sufficient encryption though, that is a different matter.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t need utmost security for chatting,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°Something slipping out could still be a risk. Or tracking of the source,¡± she pouted for a moment. ¡°But I can arrange it. Just make sure both of you are mindful that anyone might be listening in on such conversations.¡±

    ¡°We aren¡¯t children,¡± Waylan rolled his eyes, then reached into an inner pocket. ¡°Anyway, I have a letter from Aaron. He wrote up a report about the observers on our side.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Elizabeth nodded as she took it, though she did not open it yet. ¡°Anything interesting?¡±

    ¡°Not as far as I know,¡± Waylan shook his head. ¡°I suppose he thanked you for your patronage.¡±

    ¡°You can have Trecha pay out your bill, yes,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°I am quite happy with this arrangement independent of Irwyn.¡±

    ¡°Always pleasure being paid,¡± Waylan nodded. And they were getting paid very well for Ebon Respite. Exceedingly well even. Irwyn did not know how much the Tears had been pulling lately but it was likely a lot less than what the army paid them for keeping an eye out and organizing the underworld collaboration. Funnily enough, Trecha was used to much higher labor costs to the point that he thought the army was getting a very good deal rather than being borderline fleeced. Irwyn was keeping to himself that most local gangs would do what the Tears were for a fraction of the price, if not quite as well. Trecha was, after all, used to collaborating with civilian mages when hiring outside help - not semi-completely mundane thieves.

    ¡°I will drop by tomorrow then,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°If you don¡¯t need nothing else?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Elizabeth shook her head.

    ¡°Moment,¡± Alice interjected. ¡°I wanted to talk about something in private.¡±

    ¡°Al¡¯ight?¡± Waylan raised an eyebrow but they quickly went a good distance away, Alice erecting her own privacy spells. Besides blocking sounds, their features became distorted meaning that their lips could not be read, even if Irwyn wanted to approach close enough to try that. He had never been very good at it.

    ¡°Any clue what that is about?¡± Elizabeth asked.

    ¡°None,¡± Irwyn shrugged. He felt like it was none of his business either way. ¡°What do we do now?¡±

    ¡°Have tea, I suppose?¡± she sighed. ¡°I wish there was an obvious solution to this business. Alas¡­¡±

    ¡°There is none,¡± Irwyn nodded. Waylan and Alice were done speaking quickly and his tattooed friend had already vanished while the Time mage walked back. ¡°Tea does sound nice.¡±

    Alice heard him and immediately turned around, heading to her lodgings, wearing a sudden perfect poker face. She did a poor job pretending the reason for her sudden departure was not related to boiling water and leaves.

    Irwyn could only chuckle in amusement as Elizabeth pouted.

    <hr>

    ¡°It should be set up on our side,¡± Elizabeth frowned, staring at the device. It was half crystal, half a monocular, at least in appearance ¨C all inert at the moment. The lenses, as far as Irwyn understood, seemed to be more decorative than useful, given the actual image would be projected by a metal box attached to the wall. Both Irwyn was feeding with his mana, the strain barely noticeable.

    ¡°Maybe they are struggling to get it running?¡± Alice suggested.

    ¡°The other node is designed to be trivial to use without any setup,¡± Elizabeth pointed out.

    ¡°They cannot troubleshoot anything magical being wrong,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°If it doesn¡¯t work tonight, so be it. No need to be impatient.¡±

    ¡°We should have sent something allowing for better coordination to go with it,¡± Elizabeth sighed.

    ¡°Too late to regret,¡± Irwyn shrugged. It was just a few minutes past sundown, their agreed-upon time. There were many possible reasons for being late though.

    ¡°It¡¯s working, I think,¡± Alice interjected. They were not in the large hall at the ground level but instead in the top floor. Things had been neatly rearranged in the sizeable corridor between the office areas, leaving plenty of space for just the three of them. And at the far wall Alice had created something of a perfectly flat panel, upon which the previously mentioned box had been placed. Finally, it stirred, an image appearing.

    It was a rainbow. Or so Irwyn thought for a split second before figuring the shape was not right and neither were the colors. Sure, the vibrant shades were myriad but a rainbow required quite a specific order. And in the middle of all the top end of a large black dot disrupted the scenery.

    ¡°Would you step away please, Kalista?¡± Irwyn said, wondering if he could be heard.

    ¡°Oh, damn, sorry,¡± his friend quickly stepped away, putting on her glasses which hid the colorful chaos of her sclera. Seeing it from the front for the first time, Irwyn had to admit the Honed change looked even more wondrous upfront than from the profile.

    ¡°It¡¯s working now?¡± Aaron¡¯s voice sounded. The magic made it difficult to distinguish directions. Though since he was not in sight, behind the device was a good presumption. Kalista stepping away revealed the inside of Aaron¡¯s office. Rainer was sitting in one of the chairs, seemingly just concluding a conversation with Waylan. Maxim was nowhere in sight. The image moved around for a moment as it was seemingly just then hoisted back onto a wall.

    ¡°Yep,¡± Kalista nodded. ¡°Hey, Irwyn, Alice. Elizabeth?¡±

    ¡°Pleasure,¡± Elizabeth nodded with a smile. Aaron stepped into the frame as greetings were quickly exchanged. Although the Tears had some justified weariness of Elizabeth¡¯s background, the introductions went smoothly. Likely due to the many stories involving her that Irwyn had shared and her willingness to act half-casual - the most easy-going she was usually willing to be even in private. Not that he would ever say that out loud, since Waylan would likely force him to hear something along the lines of ¡®Plot, meet mettle¡¯ or such nonsense.

    ¡°Why the delay?¡± Alice eventually ventured. Refocused on the conversation rather than predicting Waylan¡¯s next linguistic malfeasance.

    ¡°Something was misaligned and the cube wouldn¡¯t connect,¡± Kalista replied, already tucked in on Rainer¡¯s lap. ¡°Faulty thing wouldn¡¯t work.¡±

    ¡°Even I cannot requisition high-quality equipment in the middle of a Lich war,¡± Elizabeth sighed. Though this was already a lot more than the original plan had been. Also a lot more secure, which Elizabeth justified by personally partaking. Whatever measures she personally possessed were degrees above the communication devices themselves.

    ¡°More like at the start of one,¡± Alice corrected. ¡°Not many major battles yet.¡±

    ¡°How did you even fix that?¡± Irwyn frowned. The devices were magic.

    ¡°Well, I could see what was wrong,¡± Kalista shrugged. ¡°And Aaron found a back panel presumably added for maintenance...¡±

    ¡°The issue was solvable without magic through a bit of blind jerry-rigging, thankfully,¡± the man in question interjected. ¡°Though maybe a backup is warranted.¡±

    ¡°The box you have is pretty disposable,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°It carries less than ten hours of use before it has to be re-enchanted. It¡¯s designed with that in mind,¡± she then pointed to the half-optical contraption sprawled on the table on their side. ¡°It¡¯s this distributor that is the expensive part. Those that can receive from a significant distance without needing a mage on the other side are in high demand.¡±

    ¡°I can imagine,¡± Aaron nodded. ¡°I heard that the Duchy of Black has the most mortal soldiers of all the Duchies. Say is that¡­¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about a war?¡± Kalista interjected.

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Rainer supported. ¡°You can talk about politics when I pass out.¡±

    ¡°You are not even drinking,¡± Waylan grunted with amusement.

    ¡°Alas, doing so would risk subjecting the rest of you to politics.¡±

    ¡°Thank you for your sacrifice,¡± Kalista turned and hugged him. ¡°I will remember it.¡±

    ¡°It''s more policies, than politics,¡± Elizabeth sighed.

    ¡°Politics can actually be rather exciting,¡± Irwyn added. ¡°Almost too much.¡±

    ¡°I am sure rumors about third cousins of third cousins are exciting,¡± Aaron said drily. ¡°To my understanding, House Blackburg is very¡­ connected.¡±

    ¡°A common concern. Most Houses retain a geneticist to smooth out the deficiencies of incest,¡± Elizabeth delivered with complete lack of emotion, everyone suddenly stared at her. ¡°Though my mother has sidestepped the issue by being born far North. What?¡±

    ¡°Most people¡¯s answer to a self-inflicted problem is to stop perpetuating it,¡± Alice laughed. ¡°Not hire someone to repeatedly fix the issue.¡±

    ¡°Is it so strange to you?¡± Elizabeth sounded genuinely surprised.

    ¡°Yes!¡± Rainer and Kalista yelled in unison.

    ¡°I see,¡± Elizabeth nodded slowly. ¡°I suppose it is inevitable dislike would arise among people without access to countermeasures.¡±

    ¡°I take it back, let''s rather talk War,¡± Rainer interjected.

    "It is considered an... uncomfortable topic," Aaron faked clearing his throat.

    ¡°Any history is riddled with unpleasant truths,¡± Alice spoke up. ¡°The writers often want to avoid including their own embarrassments. And the propagandists who then spread them obviously seek to avoid what a common person would find diminishing.¡±

    ¡°News to me that anyone high up cares what a common person thinks,¡± Waylan scoffed lightly.

    ¡°Maintaining public opinion is an important part of governance,¡± Elizabeth answered. ¡°It is not about the individuals though, it is about a majority. Widespread public unrest is highly inconvenient in peace time and potentially dangerous during a Lich War. Cases of the latter are recorded as leading to devastating consequences.¡±

    ¡°No one would possibly rebel during a Lich War,¡± Kalista frowned.

    ¡°You would think so, but how does the common person know there is such a thing occurring? Few see the horrors first hand and live,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°How does a cobbler know what a Lich War even is? Where does the illiterate housewife hear that undeath is objectively evil? They are simple facts that anyone in the know takes for granted. Yet it is in that wrong assumption that disaster can be seeded. Opinions must be managed.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to sound rude, but I have heard of exactly zero times someone took the ¡®official¡¯ stance at face value,¡± Rainer said.

    ¡°Propaganda is not merely what is said or written,¡± Elizabeth shook her head again. ¡°It is what is thought. Ideally, desired ideas become self-perpetuating, spreading through habit and word of mouth. Competently done, the majority of the population will agree on the core principles. Isn¡¯t your Guild an example of such? Your every member fears House Blackburg and its authority even though they distrust anything we might ever say."

    ¡°That dread is very much enforced,¡± Aaron commented, unamused.

    ¡°Perhaps, yet never outright stated by the nobility,¡± Elizabeth seemed ready and eager to defend her point, not noticing that perhaps the topic was not ideal.

    ¡°Is it a part of this grand strategy to name every other institution ¡®Something Black¡¯?¡± so Irwyn changed the topic. ¡°And every first one as well while they are at it.¡±

    ¡°That is¡­ more of a tradition, I suppose,¡± Elizabeth paused. ¡°I believe that at the time most of our institutions had been first founded there was something of a rivalry with the Duchy of Yellow to the West. Patriotisms lead to overindulgence of themes related to the Void and such, even by people who had practically nothing to do with them. Since then, such naming and esthetic convention has been preserved through the sheer momentum of tradition, something the Duchy of Black always desperately clings to.¡±

    ¡°So other Duchies are not so¡­ obsessed with their color?¡± Irwyn dared hope.

    ¡°Nope,¡± Alice answered in her stead. ¡°It applies to the biggest buildings and the most important mages, yeah, but normal people just wear¡­ clothes. Any color¡­ if they can afford the pigment. Magic and mundane people are less separated, at least in White and Teal, but at the same time the common people obsess about magical symbols less. The Duchy of Black is the weird one.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t celebrate too early,¡± Elizabeth rushed to correct. ¡°On official occasions, the color scheme is still strictly followed, and you will likely be visiting other Duchies mostly on those. What Alice means is that casual dress code in other Duchies tends to be far less constricted.¡±

    ¡°So you are telling me the Duchy of Green is not full of people living in a forest in green overalls?¡± Rainer chuckled from beyond the screen.

    ¡°I have never been to Duchy of Green, but I would presume that no,¡± Elizabeth replied. ¡°Their famous nature cabals are known to opt for a total lack of clothes instead.¡±

    ¡°I am sure it is still the land of infinite forests you have envisioned, dear,¡± Kalista laughed, stroking Rainer on the chin.

    ¡°People always assume that there are many forests in the duchy of Green,¡± Elizabeth frowned at the comment though. ¡°It has always puzzled me.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean? Green, forests? Hello?¡± Rainer seemed befuddled. Everyone else was lightly frowning too.

    ¡°It is Green because green is the color of Life, it has little to do with vegetation,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Chloroplast matching such is the sign of it copying green of Life, not the other way around.¡±

    ¡°If not forests, what do they have?¡± Irwyn wondered out loud, ignoring whatever that word had been for the moment. He could look it up in a dictionary later.

    ¡°Animals,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°Lots and lots of animals.¡±

    ¡°Oooh,¡± Kalista perked up. ¡°Is it too much to ask for a house-sized cat?¡±

    In the end, that comment definitively derailed the conversation.

 3.37 Here be allies

    A week more passed before the next upheaval. Operations at the camp had returned to somewhat normal, with a bit of additional security. Irwyn never fully believed that things were over, though, so when he felt the burst of Void magic from the floor above his room he rushed out without hesitation. He ran for the stairs, meeting Elizabeth just exiting the office story. That she seemed in a hurry but not ruffled at least let Irwyn know that whatever was happening, the surge of magic was more to gather his attention than to protect herself from an ambush.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, downstairs,¡± she commanded, already descending two steps at a time.

    ¡°What happened?¡± he asked, following.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know yet, but have been notified of an emergency,¡± she hurriedly said. They were almost on the ground floor by then. It was empty so they immediately headed out. The pair ended up running into Sergeant Trecha just as they were about to rush out of the front door. The man was enveloped in¡­ perhaps a slipstream was the closest thing to describing it. Like he was passing through space just a bit faster, smoother - with less resistance. Not quite as quick as teleportation, of course, but teleporting into anywhere within the camp had been made almost impossible out of prudence.

    ¡°Your Ladyship,¡± the man came to a quick halt from his enhanced sprint, clearly a bit out of breath but refusing to waste time catching it.

    ¡°Report,¡± Elizabeth demanded.

    ¡°I have spotted something moving on the horizon,¡± he said, motioning for them to move outside. ¡°I am unsure of what it is or if it¡¯s even a threat but it has to be massive. I deemed it prudent to notify you as quickly as possible - every minute may count if we need to make preparations.¡±

    ¡°Where,¡± Elizabeth asked, nodding. She, as well as Irwyn, had already been led outside but neither could spot anything in the distance.

    ¡°That direction,¡± Trecha pointed over the buildings of Ebon Respite. ¡°High in the sky, East-North-East.¡±

    Irwyn followed the hand and frankly saw nothing. Squinting did not help. Elizabeth tried to look with mortal eyesight for a moment, then infused her sight with a significant quantity of magic. Apparently, that was enough to witness whatever the soldier had.

    ¡°Incredible you have spotted that,¡± Elizabeth admitted. ¡°I would not have without the warning and a dedicated spell.¡±

    ¡°I always prided myself over my eyesight,¡± Trecha said, gratified by the compliment. ¡°Luck has also played a role. I have been practicing a self enchantment similar to one your ladyship must have used and just happened to be looking in the right direction.¡±

    ¡°Who have you notified,¡± Elizabeth nodded. Irwyn noticed the very slight signs that she was likely communicating throughout her ring with someone far away - City Black presumably. The tell was mostly that her focus slightly slacked when controlling her facial expression and body language, as any distraction really would - there was no perceptible magic or some truly clear sign.

    ¡°The Lieutenants only for now,¡± Trecha reported. ¡°Though the few mages directly under my command have undoubtedly grasped something is amiss.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Elizabeth nodded then fell into silence. Irwyn looked back in the direction. He thought that perhaps he could suddenly vaguely see something there despite his lack of a proper farsight spell. Or he was just imagining things.

    ¡°It¡¯s moving extremely fast,¡± Trecha opined, frowning.

    ¡°It will pass overhead in likely just a few minutes,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°What are your orders,¡± Trecha asked, a bit grim.

    ¡°I have contacted City Black and been notified of the nature of these visitors,¡± Elizabeth turned to him. ¡°Spread the word that what is coming is not hostile. In fact, these are reinforcements to our War efforts - be sure to reiterate that, otherwise we might have to calm down panic among the soldiers. Notify the Lieutenants that there is no true emergency.¡±

    ¡°As you command, Your Ladyship,¡± Trecha was immediately turning.

    ¡°Also, inform Alice that I request her presence,¡± she added, the man already sprinting away a moment after her words sounded, that strange tailwind following a step behind him again.

    ¡°So, what is actually happening?¡± Irwyn asked. There definitely was something visible on the horizon at that point, though he couldn¡¯t tell much else.

    ¡°Foreign reinforcements, coming to support our War effort,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Just as I said.¡±

    ¡°Is that common? Outside nations sending help,¡± Irwyn asked. ¡°I have never heard of anything like it.¡±

    ¡°The Undead are the common enemy. If the Duchy Federation falls, the rest of our Realm will soon follow,¡± she said. ¡°Those aware strive to offer what little help they can.¡±

    ¡°Does the Federation send help to other nations also engulfed in such conflicts then?¡± Irwyn thought out loud.

    ¡°There are no such Wars ever starting outside the Federation. Not real ones,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°We are the fulcrum of this Realm, Irwyn. Our ancestors have gathered almost everything that truly matters within our borders. This Realm cannot fall before the Federation does but it also contains more than enough resources to make the undead unstoppable should they accomplish it ¨C to the point any strategy except attacking us has been deemed futile by the Rot. From my understanding, it has still been during the Tyrant¡¯s reign that an invasion was last attempted from without our borders.¡±

    ¡°Still, it¡¯s been months since the Lich War was declared,¡± Irwyn pointed out. ¡°They are only arriving now?¡±

    ¡°They could have been incredibly far away when the word reached them. This Realm is not small,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°In fact, they are likely among the first to arrive. Some may not make it before the War ends if things develop well.¡±

    ¡°And ¡®they¡¯ are?¡± Alice finally jogged up to the talking duo, interjecting. There was definitely a distinct dot on the horizon at that point.

    ¡°The Skylords of Zarkiel,¡± Elizabeth said.

    ¡°I think I have heard that name before,¡± Alice frowned, trying to stir memory. Irwyn was quite sure no bells were being rung on his part.

    ¡°They are known to participate in almost every Lich War,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°One of the few outside forces not utterly ruined by their contribution. And actually helpful too ¨C potent air support, if lacking in subtlety.¡±

    ¡°Is ¡®help¡¯ usually not helpful?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°Most foreign powers cannot provide anything relevant besides horde fodder,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°It is simply the nature of the Federation¡¯s power. Many still attempt out of a misguided sense of duty when their ¡®reinforcements¡¯ are more burden than a contribution.¡±

    ¡°I have heard some stories,¡± Alice contributed. ¡°My Grandpa once told about how someone sent a few companies of mostly regular soldiers armed with nothing but steel blades. They apparently expected to fight regular zombies, maybe a few ghouls at worst.¡±

    ¡°I cannot imagine that turned out well,¡± Irwyn could only grimace. Zombies were basically the least of undead, essentially soulless lumbering flesh. Even an inferior mage without intentions could destroy them by the dozens. Ghouls had vestiges of intellect and tended to be more physically potent - back when Ebon Respite had its minor crisis, it had been mostly ghouls - still, they were not completely beyond normal soldiers. Those could still be called lesser undead, without actual magic or supernatural abilities. Any greater undead though? Those equivalent to imbuement mages in power could practically not be overcome by mere numbers ¨C not without a ruinous cost. Irwyn had seen in Abonisle how even the Duchy¡¯s soldiers - trained and equipped extensively for exactly that kind of battle ¨C struggled with them. Draugr or Raveners would not be even slowed by bodies in their way.

    ¡°They refused to leave when first told they would be useless, if I recall,¡± Alice nodded. ¡°I think they were almost completely wiped out by Dreambiters. No idea what happened to the remnants.¡±

    ¡°Do I want to know what that is?¡± Irwyn asked with morbid curiosity.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    ¡°Undead worms that attack sleeping victims, burrowing into the brain through the ear,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°They are one of the reasons why the army never camps on untreated soil. Except foreigners do not know how to deal with all the common hazards.¡±

    ¡°Those are common?¡± Irwyn asked worriedly.

    ¡°They are lesser undead, extremely efficient for both biomass and invested power,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Their necromancers can just scatter them across any random field they pass, let them hibernate and hope the critters get results. Often long after the Lich War itself is over.¡±

    ¡°And that doesn¡¯t cause issues?¡± Irwyn asked incredulously. ¡°There is a lot of traveling happening all around.¡±

    ¡°Roads and the areas around them are carefully cleansed and regularly checked for any such issues,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°But yes, absolutely never sleep in the wilderness unwarded - especially far away from any settlements. The Federation tries to root out all of the Rot remnants after each War but it is practically impossible.¡±

    ¡°I think I can see them now,¡± Alice interrupted. ¡°What actually are these ¡®Skylords¡¯? And what is Z¡­ Z-something.¡±

    ¡°Zarkiel,¡± Elizabeth repeated. Irwyn was not even going to try with that one. ¡°And I wouldn¡¯t want to ruin the surprise. It is quite the spectacle.¡±

    ¡°You have seen them?¡± Irwyn asked. ¡°I thought they would only come for the Wars from what you have said.¡±

    ¡°I have seen a recording,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°When I first heard of them I simply had to ¨C and it did not disappoint. I was quite young then and just the concept was very fascinating.¡±

    ¡°I think there are several things flying,¡± Alice pointed out. They were, indeed, getting closer quite quickly. And bigger because of it.

    ¡°I see a big dot at the center and much smaller ones kind of around it,¡± Irwyn described. "I think."

    ¡°Still not telling us what it is?¡± Alice pouted.

    ¡°No,¡± Elizabeth just smiled.

    By then the regular soldiers too had grasped something was happening and gathered outside their barracks and buildings. Their company had very limited responsibilities for the size after all. That meant there was little actual work to do on most days. Distractions were welcome and none of the officers seemed inclined to cut short an impromptu break, joining in instead. The grounds became almost crowded with most of the soldiers outside, watching the skyline as word spread.

    ¡°Do I see wings?¡± Alice said eventually.

    ¡°I do not,¡± Irwyn contributed, squinting again.

    ¡°Definitely wings, at least on the big thing in the center,¡± Alice nodded.

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Irwyn shrugged.

    ¡°It will be much more visible soon,¡± Elizabeth contributed, smiling at their reactions.

    It was a strange kind of feeling, though not unpleasant: To stand there in anticipation¡­ yet without fear. Chattering about nothings as something large made rapid approach from the horizon, yet with understanding it would not be hostile towards them. At least for a while, before more of its nature became apparent.

    ¡°Tell me that isn¡¯t a dragon?!¡± It was Alice who broke that serenity when the dots got close enough to better see. The wings were, by then, quite distinct, swinging up and down. It was not a question of if it was some manner of flying creature but rather what.

    ¡°That is impossible, right?¡± Irwyn frowned. Alice saw significantly better than him so he could not yet quite tell the exact shape of the thing approaching them. It was, however, getting bigger faster as it got closer and closer.

    ¡°I am not an expert,¡± Alice pointed, clearly shaken by her assumption. ¡°But that looks like a dragon, I have seen drawings. Four legs, wings sprouting from the torso.¡±

    ¡°It is a dragon,¡± Elizabeth revealed with a grin.

    ¡°Dragons are monsters,¡± Irwyn stared at her. Monsters did not have minds or souls. It was essentially their defining trait beyond the instinctual ravening. ¡°The most fearsome of them. How could there possibly be a tamed dragon?¡±

    ¡°They are notoriously hostile to everything and anyone,¡± Alice added.

    ¡°Tamed is the wrong word for it,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Perhaps it is not even truly a monster anymore - I think this would be one of those debates many scholars disagree on.¡±

    ¡°What is it then?¡± Alice asked, voice still a bit harried. It was not difficult to spot that some trace of fear had grasped her despite Elizabeth previous assurances of safety.

    ¡°That would be Zarkiel, the god of Skies, Destruction, and Sanctuary,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°Though once it had most likely been a dragon, until from centuries of misguided tribal worship of an often slumbering calamity, a deity was born within its flesh, overtaking the monster''s body with an actual divine intellect.¡±

    And as the dragon got closer, Irwyn could see it - perhaps in part because he knew to look for it. A black body with scales that each had to be as large as houses to be somewhat distinct from so afar. Large and long head attached to an even longer neck, and the closed maw; eyes as dark magenta as the scales. Four limbs, aligned with the body rather than hanging, yet seemingly stunted - almost degenerated.

    ¡°And those around it?¡± Irwyn questioned. What he saw was still only the central creature. There were many far far smaller dots swarming around it.

    ¡°Perhaps its spawn?¡± Alice had a guess. ¡°I could see the big one somehow controlling smaller dragons.¡±

    ¡°How would that work with mating and such?¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°Dragons are hermaphrodites,¡± Alice said as if it were obvious.

    ¡°What?!¡± Irwyn paused, staring.

    ¡°They do not need any partner''s help with producing progen¡­¡±

    ¡°I know what a hermaphrodite is, I am just baffled,¡± Irwyn interrupted Alice. ¡°How have I never heard about this?!¡±

    ¡°It had been deemed unwise to let the public know that any dragon can, in theory, just self-breed into a calamitic swarm over a few decades,¡± Elizabeth said.

    ¡°That can happen?!¡± Irwyn continued staring.

    ¡°Purely theoretically,¡± she shrugged. ¡°Dragons have incomprehensible breeding patterns. And I mean incomprehensible to dedicated researchers spending centuries on the topic - Some go millennia without hatchlings, then suddenly produce four in half a century. Among the leading hypotheses are that dragons breed only to maintain an exact same number of them across the entire universe or that they only bear progeny when it is necessary for a specific whim of Fate.¡±

    ¡°Are those an exception then?¡± Alice pointed. ¡°Because even though I cannot see them I would still bet those are smaller dragons.¡±

    ¡°If you made that bet I think you would be quite happy at first glance,¡± Elizabeth turned to her. ¡°And then very disappointed when you found out you are actually wrong.¡±

    ¡°So, the huge dragon is not surrounded by smaller ones?¡± Alice frowned. ¡°That is incredibly anticlimactic.¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s better you see it for yourself first,¡± Elizabeth chuckled. She had been clearly enjoying this entire thing, a grin on her face.

    ¡°My bet is on wyverns, or something of the sort,¡± Irwyn added. Such monsters were close enough to dragons to be mistaken for them at first but were, in fact, orders of magnitude less dangerous - and presumably easier to control and propagate. Irwyn had little idea how taming monsters was actually done, only that it required specialized mages and grew exponentially harder on more powerful creatures.

    ¡°Care to wager then?¡± Elizabeth turned to him.

    ¡°On second thought, it¡¯s never a good idea to put money against someone smiling like that,¡± Irwyn corrected himself, frowning. Clearly, he was not right.

    ¡°She could be bluffing,¡± Alice added. ¡°It has to be dragons.¡±

    ¡°Wait and see,¡± Elizabeth just shrugged.

    The massive dragon flew closer by the minute. And it was gargantuan, that much was clear. Irwyn could see that better as it approached. The skies were cloudless but elsewise it would be flying well above that line, likely casting a shadow over the landscape far and wide around the city ¨C not that Irwyn could see much aside from the skies with buildings in the way. The smaller shapes flying around Zarkiel slowly arrived at a distance where they were legible. First to Alice, who frowned as if disbelieving, then to Irwyn who had to say they looked very similar to the gargantuan god in the flight¡¯s center. Almost like copies even, magenta and with similar proportions.

    ¡°They are dragons!¡± Alice shot Elizabeth a determined death-stare as soon as it became apparent.

    ¡°Or so it seems at first glance,¡± the other heiress just smiled, smugly even. ¡°It is a reasonable assumption: It looks like a dragon, flies like a dragon, follows around a bigger dragon. Common sense says that the swarm should, indeed, be of dragons.¡±

    ¡°But they are not,¡± Irwyn grasped from her speech.

    ¡°They are Cherubim, servants of a god,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°These merely happen to be shaped as dragons¡­ Best not mention that in front of the Skylords though, they are supposedly touchy about the subject.¡±

    ¡°The difference sounds academic,¡± Alice grumbled.

    ¡°Dragons, for one, are an order of magnitude more dangerous,¡± Elizabeth inclined her head. ¡°And don¡¯t forget acting their part as mindless ravagers. These are docile servants and mounts.¡±

    ¡°There are people up there?¡± Irwyn asked. Mounts implied riders.

    ¡°A god can only exist with worshippers,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°There is an entire city on Zarkiel¡¯s back, the people call themselves the Skylords, standing atop a living, flying fortress..¡±

    ¡°How would an entire town fit?¡± Irwyn questioned. It was still just one creature, even if massive.

    ¡°Just wait,¡± Elizabeth pointed. The dragon and its swarm were drawing ever closer. They seemingly moved faster since the distance was not so large anymore.

    Then Irwyn realized he had vastly underestimated the dragon¡¯s sheer volume. He had thought that perhaps its scales were as large as buildings - he saw each was closer in size to an entire street. And as the flight was upon them Irwyn realized that, perhaps, between the dragon and Ebon Respite it might be the city which was smaller. Such majestic size did this titanic creature reach.

    ¡°Wow,¡± Alice gaped.

    ¡°Alright, that is much bigger than I thought,¡± Irwyn stared as a shadow engulfed the city. For all they flew above cloudline, the sun itself was eclipsed while Zarkiel passed over their heads¡­

    And then revealed again, not long later, as the dragon passed over Ebon Respite and carried on, not even a strong breeze hitting the city despite the massive wingspan ¨C which could have been intentional magic or just the thing being too high for that to be necessary. For all it was gargantuan beyond anything living Irwyn had ever witnessed it was also flying incredibly fast. The city had rested in its shade for perhaps less than a dozen seconds. Smaller draconic creatures - its Cherubin according to Elizabeth - swarmed all around it most with riders on their backs clearly visible.

    Then everyone had to turn around to watch the dragon fly away. Its speed was exactly as rapid as when heading towards them, less than 15 minutes later they would disappear over the horizon.

    ¡°I have to say, I had honestly been more fascinated by the recording I have once seen,¡± Elizabeth broke the awed silence. ¡°Perhaps¡­ the juvenile excitement I once held for dragons has long passed.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Irw, get the girls, we have a problem,¡± Waylan spoke. It was not an hour later that he appeared behind his room¡¯s door. With the spectacle gone everyone had dispersed rather quickly.

    ¡°The dragons?¡± Irwyn guessed after letting his friend in. ¡°They were not hostile, though I presume it might have caused some upheaval across the city.¡±

    ¡°Sure, but that is not what I am talking about,¡± Waylan shook his head. ¡°I think Aaron has new clues for your disappeared soldiers¡­ and it don¡¯t look great.¡±

 3.38 Mystery Broth

    The four of them gathered in the privacy of the top floor¡¯s offices. For all Waylan spoke with urgency he was not in enough hurry to skirt secrecy. Still, tea was not served in the haste.

    ¡°Elaborate then, what has Aaron found?¡± Elizabeth spoke as soon as they were seated. Almost sooner.

    ¡°So, as I tell Irw, we got new clues as to your dead men,¡± Waylan nodded, grim. ¡°Though it ain¡¯t good news. We gotta thank that scary fly for it, Aaron reckons.¡±

    ¡°You mean the dragon?¡± Irwyn squinted.

    ¡°It flies, don¡¯t it?¡± Waylan grinned, then the smile slipped again. ¡°But aye. Streets full of shat pants after that. So much so that it stirred something in people. Lost memories for one, some normally not forgot.¡±

    ¡°Altered recollections?¡± Alice¡¯s gaze immediately hardened. ¡°Among one of yours then, if you found out so fast?¡±

    ¡°Aye again,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Not sure why or how, but two of ours suddenly remember things.¡±

    ¡°Shock and fear of death,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°Extreme mental or emotional turmoil in general is known to loosen some mental magics, especially hostile ones. Since something could be stirred, those memories were merely obscured, not outright removed - that means that whoever had done so was meaning to either hide their tampering from inspection or was not the most competent. Here in Ebon Respite I would assume the latter¡­ Willpower might also play a role at shedding such influences if weak enough.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps they underestimated the Tears¡¯ mental resilience,¡± Irwyn opined. ¡°Anyone who has been going out is a full adult by our reckoning, even if they might appear as young teens to most. They have been trained and gone through much.¡±

    ¡°Who knows? The ¡®how¡¯ is not the most important,¡± Waylan interjected. ¡°What matters more is what they remember. It was not that bad at a glance, actually. A conversation. Until they dig into who was talking and about what.¡±

    ¡°Undead?¡± Alice asked immediately.

    ¡°What? No,¡± Waylan glanced at her in feign confusion, then grinned. ¡°Lost a bet, eh?¡±

    ¡°Technically I haven¡¯t bet anything,¡± she quickly backtracked. ¡°And it could definitely still be undead.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s hear out the rest first,¡± Elizabeth said, though there was a hint of amusement fighting the seriousness.

    ¡°Yeah, so one of our girls reports this to Aaron, then second comes with just the same issue,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Neither can remember much of what happened but they both talked with two men, no face, no where, just that. And small snippets. One knows they were asking about this army place here, the other remembers the two wanted to know about Blackburgs.¡±

    ¡°Why would anyone need to ask about House Blackburg?¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°They are quite notorious.¡±

    ¡°They could be foreigners,¡± Alice suggested. ¡°How much do you know of House Jaderoot?¡±

    ¡°Fair¡­¡± Irwyn admitted after a moment. ¡°Is that Green?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°It is a good point. It also essentially rules out undead. They do not need to ask such simple questions.¡±

    ¡°It could be a red herring!¡± Alice put up a last hope. ¡°A deception.¡±

    ¡°Unlikely and you know it,¡± Elizabeth shook her head, the circumstances did not line up for that. Then she turned back to Waylan. ¡°There has to be more, no?¡±

    ¡°Well, we put things together that the only place the two have both been to is likely the Guild¡¯s little bar,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°So, I went to check¡­ and found nothing out of the ordinary.¡±

    ¡°Anticlimactic,¡± Alice muttered.

    ¡°I ain¡¯t done,¡± Waylan shook his head. ¡°Aaron wanted to double-check and sent Kali with me. And boy, did she find. Two men, sitting at a table that no one knows exists at the corner just¡­ watching.¡±

    ¡°What details did she see?¡± Irwyn immediately wanted to know.

    ¡°They wore weird clothes, apparently, like nothing she had seen before. Strange leather and different colored fabric strung in between. They also both wore masks she could not see through, at least not from outside - we weren¡¯t gonna risk walking up on the cunts.¡±

    ¡°The masks?¡± Elizabeth asked, frowning.

    ¡°Smiling faces, kind of creepy,¡± Waylan seemingly quoted. ¡°All she said.¡±

    ¡°I have a few suspects, though the masks throw me off,¡± she nodded. ¡°I will quickly compile a dossier, if you can bring it to her and see if any of it fits.¡±

    ¡°Can do,¡± Waylan agreed.

    ¡°Give me a moment. I will be right back,¡± Elizabeth said and stepped downstairs, leaving the trio behind.

    ¡°Anything else to ask?¡± Waylan turned back from his eyes following her departure. ¡°I will have to run when she gets back.¡±

    ¡°How is everyone holding up with this revelation?¡± Irwyn said.

    ¡°I think almost everyone is still freaking out about the dragons,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°Even the sharper ones are too off-key to notice something wrong. Only our closed circle knows.¡±

    ¡°Are people holding up? I freaked out with a warning, are the folk going crazy?¡± Alice wanted to know.

    ¡°Suicide rates will be up this month, all around,¡± Waylan frowned. ¡°Lot of people thought it was the end, you know. Just suddenly this giant fucking lizard, swooping at us. We thought it might all be over and that is knowing about the girl is in the city whose pa apparently killed something like that before.¡±

    ¡°The Duke¡¯s trophy looked thousands of times smaller if that is any comfort,¡± Irwyn offered. He still remembered the throne that had been displayed at the Exenn. It had been large, just not remotely city-sized.

    ¡°Volume is deceiving,¡± Alice disagreed. ¡°Voidborn monsters in particular defy it. What is the point of size if the concept of space is loose where they live?¡±

    ¡°To swallow stuff whole,¡± Waylan pointed out.

    ¡°Some do take that route but many Void creatures are focused on extreme speed,¡± Alice explained. ¡°It is also why they are rare and usually much less dangerous here, Realmside. They are used to the very basic rules of reality not applying where they live and fully adapted to be apex predators in such an environment - which makes them break without it.¡±

    ¡°I saw a Void bird once failing to take flight,¡± Irwyn nodded, it sounded about right.

    ¡°You never brought that up,¡± Waylan gave him a narrow-eyed stare.

    ¡°Uh, it was a bit of a footnote,¡± Irwyn excused, though it wasn¡¯t even a lie. And that in itself was quite incredible.

    Before he could be interrogated though, Elizabeth returned, holding a yellow crystal of some kind. It felt like Light magic, a deceivingly complex piece for all it held little power. ¡°This contains images, just hold it to an even surface. They are numbered, see if Kalista recognizes any of them.¡±

    ¡°Be back then, see ya,¡± Waylan took the crystal, then vanished from sight. Even the enchanted item itself seemed to vanish from Irwyn¡¯s senses.

    ¡°You said you have a suspicion,¡± Irwyn broached.

    ¡°We will need confirmation but I do,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°There is a certain mercenary group that fits such a description. Their more senior members only wear the leather of monsters they have personally slain, a mark of status among themselves.¡±

    ¡°And the colored fabric?¡± Alice asked.

    ¡°They add one patch for every mage they kill, corresponding to their element,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°I think it is very likely their origin is such, though the masks are unusual.¡±

    ¡°I have never heard of such a group,¡± Irwyn admitted, turning to Alice. ¡°Have you?¡±

    Stolen story; please report.

    ¡°Nope,¡± she shrugged. ¡°Maybe the name would stir up something.¡±

    ¡°Tempered Testimony,¡± Elizabeth said.

    ¡°Very vaguely familiar,¡± Alice admitted after a moment. ¡°I don¡¯t think they ever butted heads with Steelmire.¡±

    ¡°They operate in the Duchies of Yellow and Brown. Much like Steelmire did in Black, White, and Teal. I think there was never much cause for conflict since there would always be more work than could be handled locally.¡±

    ¡°If you are right, what would they be doing in the City?¡± Irwyn refocused the conversation.

    ¡°Work, presumably,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°Possibly something involving us if they are asking about the camp and my family.¡±

    ¡°Could it be sabotage?¡± Alice suggested.

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Illius seemed like the spiteful type,¡± Irwyn hypothesized. ¡°Would her really not be petty enough to sabotage you? Duchy of Yellow fits.¡±

    ¡°Even he would not dare stoop to that. It would be suicide,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°A Lich War is the time of universal crisis. Traitors are not tolerated, even heirs to whole Duchies. The Archduke of Red might personally get involved if need be because letting anyone get away with something as overt as sabotage is a slippery slope ending with this entire Realm dying because an idiot thought the Undead would be convenient for getting rid of a rival. Illius is too smart not to realize that and know that the odds of getting caught would be significant. He would not risk his future just to spite me.¡±

    ¡°Who else could be responsible then?¡± Irwyn asked, coming to his own conclusion. He trusted Elizabeth¡¯s reasoning why it wouldn¡¯t be the Brightbeak heir. That left just one prime suspect in his mind.

    ¡°Undead hiring them through a proxy,¡± Alice suggested, though it was clear even she was not buying it. ¡°Which would technically make it the Rot¡¯s work.¡±

    ¡°What about Alira?¡± Irwyn said instead. And it all fell into place. Old Crow¡¯s warning rose to the top of his memory. Alira had put a bounty on his head behind her House¡¯s back ¨C it so neatly explained everything. In that case he just needed to convince the girls it was a plausible explanation without that knowledge he had promised to not share.

    ¡°Elaborate?¡± Elizabeth frowned.

    ¡°Well, it is obvious isn¡¯t it?¡± Irwyn said, confidence in his voice. ¡°She would not let go of the grudge against me. Assassination seems like the obvious next step after her failure during the Exenn.¡±

    ¡°House Fathomsight would not dare disobey the Duke¡¯s verdict concerning you, despite my mother¡¯s machinations,¡± Elizabeth did not seem convinced by that. ¡°Not just out of fear, Irwyn, but they are rigid, extremely conservative. Breaking tradition in such a way¡­ the only scenario where that would make sense would be if they were declaring rebellion - not happening during a Lich War. Especially during a Lich War, actually, since such poorly time betrayal would pit everyone against them.¡±

    ¡°Which is exactly why these mercenaries are from the Duchy of Yellow or Brown, not local,¡± Irwyn elaborated. ¡°This is not House Fathomsight. This is just Alira, lashing out without the knowledge of her elders.¡±

    ¡°That would be extremely foolhardy,¡± Elizabeth frowned.

    ¡°Alira has shown herself to not be particularly clairvoyant when it comes to consequences,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°Is it really such a stretch she would carry on believing herself untouchable despite all the proof to the opposite? She has done that every step of the way so far.¡±

    ¡°I am gathering we do not like this Alira person?¡± Alice interjected.

    ¡°Oh,¡± Irwyn paused. It had not come up, had it? Such an uncomfortable topic most of the time that they avoided it. Of course Alice would not know.

    ¡°We can explain properly later but she is just a half-crippled brat with some noble background,¡± Elizabeth said, deceptively calm.

    ¡°I will note that as ¡®Yes, we do not like Alira¡¯.¡±

    ¡°If it is indeed Alira acting on her own, there should be a trace of that. Missing liquidity from her personal wealth,¡± Elizabeth thought out loud, then paused and bit her lip. "Traceable."

    ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you have a convenient way to audit her finances,¡± Irwyn sighed.

    ¡°Not without asking my mother,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°Which you want to avoid,¡± Alice understood.

    ¡°She will ask for something back,¡± the other heiress sighed. ¡°Let¡¯s wait for Waylan. We might be spiraling in a completely wrong direction. Other explanations could present themselves¡­¡±

    <hr align="center" size="2" width="100%">

    But they didn¡¯t.

    ¡°She said 4 and 8 looked close to one while 11 and 12 to the other, maybe different colored fabrics,¡± Waylan explained. He had, indeed, hurried to come back as soon as possible. ¡°The masks looked nothing like those they actually wore, not even close.¡±

    ¡°Is that the confirmation you wanted?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Indeed,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°They are a master, apprentice pair from the Tempered Testimony. Unfortunately, they do not make their real power as mages readily apparent in cloth. So, in the absence of better options, I will contact my mother for help.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps I could go scope things out,¡± Irwyn suggested.

    ¡°And put yourself into incredible danger against unknown enemies?¡± Elizabeth gave him a very intent stare until he looked away in embarrassment. ¡°I had once said I would not let the dislike for my mother get you killed. That has not changed. I will go and¡­ negotiate. Alira¡¯s finances are not such a closely held secret as to be too expensive.¡±

    And so she left, seeking the further privacy of her own room. In the meantime, Alice and Irwyn filled Waylan in on what they had discussed during his absence. In the first place he would have been there for that conversation if they hadn¡¯t been in such a hurry. It was still uncertain how much ¡®of the essence¡¯ time was with the situation. That meant it was better to err on the side of caution and do everything with all reasonable haste. When Elizabeth returned a few minutes later she did not look any happier than when she had left - not any grimmer either though.

    ¡°My mother has confirmed that there is indeed a discrepancy in Alira¡¯s funds,¡± she announced. ¡°For exactly how much or where it all went she will need time, especially to afford discretion. Tomorrow, maybe the day after, is what she promised.¡±

    ¡°So we wait until then?¡± Alice asked.

    ¡°Risking them leaving is far better than going in blind,¡± Elizabeth confirmed. ¡°And they have likely been waiting around for a while now. A day will hopefully not make a difference.¡±

    ¡°What did she ask of you?¡± Irwyn was far more focused on that.

    ¡°She said it was merely a small favor,¡± Elizabeth answered slowly, then looked at the other heiress. ¡°All she wanted in exchange was that - once this situation is resolved - I would negotiate with her the price of Alice¡¯s testimony¡­ about what happened in Steelmire.¡±

    ¡°Testimony, huh?¡± Alice chuckled, her expression suddenly dark. ¡°What a polite word.¡±

    ¡°I¡­¡± Elizabeth hesitated, unsure what to say.

    ¡°Don¡¯t,¡± Alice interrupted her. ¡°I am honestly amazed I was not dragged off for this long. I got a better handle on my wits than I used to. It will barely be unpleasant, I expect.¡±

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t need to speak with them at all,¡± Waylan huffed. ¡°Though that ain¡¯t how anything works.¡±

    ¡°It is indeed strange our hand was not forced¡­ earlier,¡± Irwyn admitted. Elizabeth had told him - back when she had asked Irwyn to recruit Alice - that part of it was to demand a price for this particular testimony. At first, they had stalled, having Alice act out a week more of depression that would keep such demands away. When that period passed though, Irwyn had expected the Duchess would want to have a word¡­

    Yet she never had. Months had passed and Elizabeth had scarcely brought the topic up. It was as if Avys had already lost interest in events as massive as Steelmire¡¯s slaughter. To the point Irwyn and Elizabeth had begun to suspect the Duchess already knew all she wanted to.

    Perhaps Avys had merely been bidding her time. Waiting for Elizabeth to need something before she sprung it onto her. Forcing her to negotiate had a major advantage for the Duchess: Elizabeth could not so easily simply walk out if none of the bargains struck her fancy. She probably still could technically, but it would be disastrous for the reliability of future deals. Therefore, the Duchess would likely emerge with either a better deal or with Elizabeth thinking she did not get underpaid, despite Avys¡¯ leverage to do so ¨C a different kind of debt.

    Maybe¡­ probably. Irwyn could think, estimate, and predict all he wanted. He didn¡¯t dislike untangling the mess of schemes like one would a puzzle - as long as it involved no actual talking - but he was ultimately an amateur before Avys. Perhaps she was playing a game he did not even know existed.

    ¡°I want a cut,¡± Alice said. ¡°I don¡¯t know what. I don¡¯t know how much. But I want something if my recollection is being sold.¡±

    ¡°I will bring you to the table,¡± Elizabeth agreed immediately. ¡°Involving you like that will also show my mother that I fully intend to support you as a member of my retinue. Well, future member. Either way, it should dissuade her from the worst possibilities she might entertain.¡±

    ¡°Dissuade, what confidence,¡± Waylan muttered.

    ¡°I will not lie. If my mother has her mind truly set on something there is nothing I can do to stop her,¡± Elizabeth readily admitted. ¡°But if she is not determined beyond reasoning, I can sway her. What I will promise, Alice, is that I will do my utmost to spare you from harm.¡±

    ¡°This is already better than I could ever get without you,¡± Alice smiled sadly. ¡°Were it not for you, I wonder whether they would just keep me in a damp cell, drained for every droplet of knowledge, then left to rot just in case there would be some use in the future.¡±

    ¡°That is a bit¡­ extreme,¡± Irwyn said. It was a horrid picture his friend painted.

    ¡°Is it?¡± Alice wondered. ¡°It has been done, in fact, it is a common enough practice today across the Federation. Grandpa told me those stories from time to time: How Steelmire had been hired to rescue someone from exactly that Fate¡­ and how little of that person often remained still lingering within the prisoner¡¯s body. Knowing too much is dangerous and I am likely several steps past that. The picture of the Duchess you have painted¡­¡±

    ¡°About what I would have guessed, honestly,¡± Waylan sighed.

    ¡°We can start preparing while we wait,¡± Irwyn redirected from the grimer topic. ¡°Even if we do not know what to expect, we can make plans for multiple scenarios. Have them ready and adjustable.¡±

    ¡°And our call today,¡± Waylan added, turning to Elizabeth. ¡°You said they might not be the most secure.¡±

    ¡°It should be better with my involvement¡­¡± she said slowly.

    ¡°...But better safe than sorry,¡± Irwyn interjected. ¡°We will act as if nothing is wrong. Talk about the dragon, maybe. Never even bring up we suspect anything, assume that duo listens in.¡±

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Waylan said but discretely rolled his eyes at Irwyn. It would be rather obvious to the Tears, the basic secrecy. They had mostly said it out loud for Alice, maybe Elizabeth, though doing it this way would make the cautioning not seem insulting in case they were already on the same page from the start. ¡°I will head off. Might be back later if Aaron has anything else you can chew on.¡±

    ¡°See you around,¡± Irwyn nodded and Waylan vanished. Then he turned towards his remaining companions. ¡°So, plans. What can we do?¡±

 Dream of Evermore

    And then it was finished. Irwyn faced Az¡¯morgis, the First Undead reduced to a disembodied soul and bound by powers not even it could hope to escape. The Grand Crusade had taught them well that Named undead were beyond death ¨C and even the one exception was simply not feasible in this case. Therefore, they had long prepared to capture. It was unlikely their once friend could have resisted three of them¡­

    Let alone all nine. After what felt like eons of effort, they had finally cornered and bound him. Stopped him from spreading the seeds of the poison.

    Low he may have been laid, there still was no hatred. No grudge in the eyes of the Betrayer¡¯s very firstborn creation, unlike all the rest Irwyn had slain. Just a¡­ certainty. That it had been inevitable.

    <hr>

    ¡°That path would take all too long,¡± the man with grey eyes shook his head, staring everywhere at once. He wore a hint of a m¡­ocking smile.

    ¡°How? what?¡± Irwyn paused, staggering as he was forced to become himself once more in between instants.

    ¡°Everything in time. If I explain you will forget again,¡± the man said. ¡°For now, a change of order is warranted. A shortcut.¡±

    <hr>

    Right before Irwyn lay the altar. A funeral pillar of more-than-stone. He wished he could have crafted it himself, alas, Golem¡¯s work would be all that would be had. He stared and stared until a hand was placed upon his shoulder, a surge of pain coursing through him as their anathemic natures sizzled.

    Even though it burned, Irwyn did not flinch away from his brother¡¯s touch. The grief, albeit dulled, still hurt more than something merely skin deep. The rising agony was almost a welcome distraction.

    ¡°A fitting place for all this pain, I think,¡± Umbra''s scion said, dragging Irwyn away before he could spend days brooding as he had last time they had done this. All the way to the entrance. ¡°Better it be in nooks we can forget.¡±

    Central to the tomb was a divide between Light and Void, a wall of Flame that allowed the two remnants to exist within such close proximity.

    Half of the hall was engulfed in Light ¨C gentle, mending, forgiving, indefinable¡­- the other in Void. And in the middle that great divide of Flame separated the two, only such force able to stop them from clashing. Though even suppressed, their power felt all-consuming. Even to him.

    Of course, They could never seal them utterly. Try as they may, their best effort struggled to hide the true nature of what they were. Therefore, they had been sealed in layers. Severed Fate and enforced distance. Bit by bit, through rooms and labyrinths. By the time the presence of the shattered pieces reached the exit only the faintest trace would remain. So meagre even the two brothers would not be able to feel it.

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    For they were burying the Aspects. Or at least the smallest fragments. Secrecy was paramount when one sought to not let such might fall into the wrong hands. Only a Fate so great as to survive even being severed could possibly hope to find them.

    And what power it was: beyond reckoning. Beyond understanding¡­ Beyond control. For all they were their children, none were ever meant to harness this source. Magic had been made to be wielded. The fragments? They were power incarnate, forcefully stripped of will and purpose by the Betrayer. Without the gentleness of structure tempering them.

    ¡°Perhaps it is a mistake to do this at all,¡± Irwyn admitted.

    ¡°Under some lenses, perhaps,¡± his brother half agreed. ¡°But it is a choice we have made. Do not let doubts lead us astray. Either way, it is done.¡±

    Perhaps a different path was hidden somewhere. But this tomb was neither the first nor the second. ¡°Fourty eighth,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°The last triad. The rest will have to be inhumed separately.¡±

    Put simply, the only reason that remnants of both Lumen and Umbra could exist in such objective proximity was the stability provided by Ignis. Alas, in the First Betrayal¡¯s wake, their father had left¡­ far fewer pieces than the rest.

    ¡°Everything one step at a time, brother¡­ It might be appropriate to leave some within the Void and among the true skies. There they will not be in the danger of corruption.¡±

    ¡°There they will also be much easier to find and usurp,¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°Not all are worthy.¡±

    ¡°Even so, if some mortals are, surely a few among the immortal will be as well,¡± his brother disputed. ¡°And it would make my heart easier to leave more there. Especially¡­¡± then he paused, hesitating.

    ¡°Especially because those would not require a contingency,¡± Irwyn finished for him, nodding.

    ¡°Reasonable as it is, I still fear we might have made a mistake in that,¡± he nodded. ¡°That a Time will come when the Rot learns of this and abuses our preparations. That rather than an opportunity to subvert doom, the tombs will become its very cause.¡±

    ¡°Such is the risk of consigning Fate into mortal hands - and that is what you wanted,¡± Irwyn disagreed. ¡°If none are worthy, then may they perish alongside the Rot.¡±

    However much they had pondered and argued Irwyn would not relent on that point. He would not let their parents be defiled again. It was their duty to ensure as such. Yet the fragments were useless in their own hands. Irwyn could not create and his brother refused to - and most other uses would be wasteful. Eventually they have decided to give those far beneath a chance at contributing ¨C through chance and Fate beyond artificial reproduction¡­ As long as a safety measure was in place.

    After all, the Crusaders had found one way to destroy the Named Undead in the end¡­ albeit not reliably and at such a ruinous cost that it had not been used more than a scarce few times. The fragments of their parents did hold their untamed power whereas only an Aspect could erase a Name. But in doing so that fragment and everything even remotely adjacent would cease to be. Including allies and their own Names. A foolhardy use; a sufficient contingency.

    Not looking back anymore, the brothers stepped out of the tomb, the doors sealing behind them. They would only open for one of truly undeniably meant to come if they would ever crack open at all. Only at a Time of need and despair.

    Desert skies spread before him, a familiar landscape. A place of a memory which was why Irwyn had chosen it. In the distance stood mountains of glass and two suns shone high overhead - one of his own making, from when he still could. One day the tomb would be opened and give this Realm a last glimmer of hope when facing death - or spare it from a Fate far worse otherwise. Either way, the Rot would burn. That was all that truly mattered.

 3.39 Order of actions

    Irwyn awoke, sweat on his brow. He did not panic nor let his heart beat out of his chest. One could only be surprised by visions so many times before they became somewhat¡­ mundane, for all they let him witness half incomprehensible things. It had been months since Irwyn had last been made to witness one during the Exenn. He had been frankly expecting another sooner.

    So, he delved right away into analyzing what he had seen. It had begun in the tomb, staring at the pillar¡­ except Irwyn realized he couldn¡¯t quite recall what it looked like. It was stone, definitely, but nothing else came to mind as to its shape nor appearance. He knew that the innermost chamber was within a genuine labyrinth of sorts, except could not remember a single specific step along the way. Details were glaringly absent. Unlike his previous visions.

    But perhaps that was merely a side effect of what the tomb contained: An actual remnant of Lumen, if he was interpreting correctly. A shattered piece of an Aspect. That could make his heart skip beats. And if he had understood things correctly, of Ignis and Umbra as well. That in itself was enough to awaken very un-Light Greed deep within him. Enough to make his head spin for a moment. Although it was selfish, he could not easily dismiss such a desire. Because it promised power, oh so much power.

    And Irwyn had a need for power. The limited Time of his defacto pardon that the Duchess had granted him was one thing, but much more urgent was the constant threat of the Undead. Being stuck at camp due to his lack of magical might had begun to stink. The knowledge that any random Draugr could be hiding behind a corner and kill him on sight - for all such a scenario was unlikely. And while he was not as paranoid as Elizabeth about the likelihood of it, the situation did bother him. And frankly, there was only one solution to that: To achieve such power that he could forego fear. That careful approach was enough to nigh guarantee survival rather than merely increase odds¡­

    But perhaps he was getting ahead of himself. The issue with the vision was that he could not know where it had taken place. But even to that there was a hint. The desert surrounded by glass mountains was familiar - he was quite certain it was the very same place where his first vision had taken place. And since that was the case, perhaps it was no coincidence. Quite possibly, it could be somewhere he could reach.

    Back then such a thought had never even crossed his mind. He had kept those visions mostly secret and lacked the resources to even attempt looking into them. But things had changed since then. He had someone he could confide him who also happened to have the resources to help him search. So, he left his bed and walked downstairs. It was not much earlier than when Irwyn usually woke as became apparent when looking out one of the building¡¯s small windows. He found Elizabeth just placing down tea for their breakfast.

    ¡°We need to speak, full privacy,¡± he said as soon as he sat down.

    ¡°Done,¡± she sat opposite to him and announced after a few seconds, a veil had spread around them by them. ¡°Another vision?¡±

    ¡°Am I that predictable?¡± he sighed.

    ¡°First thing in the morning you just remember something of utmost urgency and secrecy?¡± she rolled her eyes with a smile. ¡°Yes, it is quite obvious. Does it have to do with our current predicament?¡±

    ¡°Seemingly? No,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°Rather, it could be a solution to our more long-term woes. Let me explain¡­¡±

    And so, he described what he had seen. Though as always, Irwyn excluded that he had been to one to take part in building the burial site¡­ Or other things that hinted at the Name he could still distantly feel when he forgot to intensely ignore it but was still not quite willing to accept was real. Nor did he mention the other person in it, for it was all too unbelievable even to him. Neither of those details were what mattered the most either way, the dream was mostly about the fragments.

    ¡°And this¡­ tomb,¡± she said hesitantly. The very idea of it seemed to shake her. ¡°Do you have any idea where it supposedly is?¡±

    ¡°That I will need your help with,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°It was the same desert of my first vision, of that I am almost sure. It is no coincidence, I think, that it had appeared twice, even if much time would have passed in between. Therefore, I think it is not a stretch to think it would be somewhere in our Realm. A desert, surrounded by mountains of glass¡­ possibly with two suns.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean possibly with two suns?!¡± she stared.

    ¡°Well, that is what I have seen in the vision.¡±

    ¡°Our Realm only has one Sun,¡± she reiterated the obvious.

    ¡°It does now,¡± Irwyn nodded slowly. ¡°Which is why I would not have suspected it at first. But then I thought: Did it always? Is there any possibility that one is simply¡­ gone?¡±

    ¡°Solaricide,¡± Elizabeth said an unfamiliar word with wonder, though the meaning was obvious. ¡°It is¡­ not impossible I suppose. But it would have predated the Federation by eons - otherwise, I think I would have at least heard of it. Likely a Lich War as well, who else would do such a thing?¡±

    ¡°How would someone slay a Star?¡± Irwyn asked, baffled by the very concept for all he was the one proposing it.

    ¡°The same way one slays any great immortal: Deceit and a thousand attempts,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°As they bring down our Named and more. A Lich only needs to succeed once.¡±

    ¡°But a Sun?¡± Irwyn repeated. ¡°They seem quite untouchable and far more powerful than even a ¡®great¡¯ immortal.¡±

    ¡°I obviously don¡¯t know the specifics,¡± she shrugged. ¡°But we have a word for the slaying of a Star. Its very existence implies it is more than possible, for all it is obscure knowledge.¡±

    ¡°How do you even know it?¡±

    ¡°Ehm¡­ mythological books,¡± she replied after a pause.

    ¡°You just said that it has not so much as a mention in our recorded history,¡± Irwyn argued back.

    ¡°Mythological and taking liberty with historical accuracy,¡± she corrected, visibly embarrassed.

    ¡°Is that a convoluted way to say fiction?¡± Irwyn couldn¡¯t help but smile.

    ¡°Even if that were the case, the word was not just made up by the author. As with many words for higher concepts it had likely arrived in vocabulary and dictionaries by the way of extraplanar visitors,¡± she explained. ¡°But that is all beside the point. A desert surrounded by glass mountains, I will ask around. Something like that should not be impossible to find.¡±

    ¡°It could also be that it simply looks like there are two Suns because of some Illusion or something of the kind,¡± Irwyn suggested, though he highly doubted that would be the case. It was worth not dismissing outright though.

    ¡°How hushed should I keep this?¡± she asked. ¡°It will take much longer to find anything if I have to try and go under my mother¡¯s nose, if I even can manage that.¡±

    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°In the vision it was implied that it could only be found by someone Fated for it,¡± Irwyn thought out loud. ¡°Given the powers involved, I think it would be a fair assumption to say that the opposite also applies: Those unworthy should find nothing even if they know where to look. Or at worst, they would be at least unable to enter. And I think faster is preferable.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, I will try to make it not completely obvious still,¡± she nodded. ¡°Perhaps inquiring about a varied list of places with specific yet vague enough description.¡±

    ¡°Sounds like a plan.¡±

    ¡°And what do you plan to do when we find it?¡± Elizabeth¡¯s gaze suddenly intensified.

    ¡°I have not¡­ necessarily thought out all the details so far,¡± Irwyn admitted.

    ¡°If you are right, and you might be, that those are genuine fragments of the Aspects¡­ I don¡¯t know,¡± she shook her head. ¡°What even can we do with that?

    ¡°Gain power,¡± Irwyn pointed out the obvious.

    ¡°How?¡±

    ¡°...Fair point,¡± Irwyn admitted. ¡°I just figured it would come naturally at that point.¡±

    ¡°Even if that happens it would be foolish to not be prepared for the opposite,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Such lack of foresight is unlike you.¡±

    ¡°That is not¡­¡± Irwyn instinctively wanted to defend his stance but had the state of mind to pause and analyze. Was it really reckless to just walk up to the pieces of reality¡¯s very sculptors and assume things would turn out fine? YES, obviously! he realized. And that was quite troublesome. Why was his first thought directed in such a reckless direction? ¡°Perhaps I have gotten a bit too used to improvisation always working in my favour when it comes to magic. It is obviously quite arrogant to believe I am infallible, even if in just one thing.¡±

    ¡°I cannot say I don¡¯t have some similar tendencies,¡± Elizabeth empathized. Her very bloodline was known to sing of their Wrath. ¡°Though I have learned to curb them with logic and caution. And your visions¡­ they always had a purpose, even if we could not discern it right way. If we are led towards this tomb, it must be for a reason. Either we are after a weapon¡­ or after a potion of sorts - ludicrous as it feels just to voice it. The Ambrosia no one even dares consider.¡±

    ¡°Do you know of any precedence for this?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Remnants of the Aspects don¡¯t exactly appear all around Irwyn,¡± she shook her head. ¡°There is a finite number of them in the universe ¨C that much is known. If any of the other Duchies have obtained some they hide it well. I am almost sure House Blackburg hasn¡¯t ever held one since its founding and that in itself should be a testament to their rarity. My ancestors would have stopped at nothing to obtain such a trophy and tool. I know of exactly one documented case of them being seen and even used.¡±

    ¡°Which was?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s too long of a story, but simply put, the Duchy of Green¡¯s capital is considered the most unassailable stronghold in the entire Federation. That is because it is built around and within a tree offshoot from the Deceiver¡¯s firstborn creation ¨C a great Tree of Life if you recall - which could only grow because a ¡®Lie of Vitaros¡¯ had been planted beneath its first root when it was still just a sprout. There it has stayed ever since and likely will forever as the tree is widely considered equal to a Named mage in power but orders of magnitude more difficult to kill.¡±

    ¡°Wait, the Duchy of Green has a living tree?¡± Irwyn paused. ¡°One intelligent enough to know magic from what you are saying.¡¯

    ¡°Probably a lot more than one, though their capital is special. Every Duchy has a few dozen imposing landmarks,¡± Elizabeth shrugged as if sapient trees were normal. ¡°The Duchy of Teal has an infinite tower, that I find more fascinating than smart foliage.¡±

    ¡°An¡­¡± Irwyn began to exclaim.

    ¡°It¡¯s probably not the time for that,¡± Elizabeth interrupted him before he could finish. ¡°I also had news before you dropped yours on my head.¡±

    ¡°Oh, sorry.¡±

    ¡°It is not so urgent, though we should not dally,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°My mother has delivered on her promise of information.¡±

    ¡°That was fast, to achieve it overnight,¡± Irwyn admitted.

    ¡°Even odds she already had everything in hand and waited to make it seem less suspicious,¡± Elizabeth disagreed. ¡°Either way, I now know the exact sums that have mysteriously left Alira¡¯s possession.¡±

    ¡°And how much is that?¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°A significant wealth, apparently,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°I thought it rather meagre, but then you have warned me many times that my perception of money is twisted. So I asked several accountants and close enough people that are involved in hiring more¡­ mercenary help.¡±

    ¡°The conclusion?¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Enough to hire a mage or maybe even two capable of intention magic. Maybe halfway towards the next leap but that seemed a stretch to them unless said mages happened to be desperate. All of them were certain about one thing though: The only way a conception mage would even consider working for such a sum would be if they were already passing through the area on another business and considered the work extremely safe or owed favors ¨C unlikely in this case.¡±

    ¡°Because you are sure those two are from out of Black,¡± Irwyn noted.

    ¡°Besides the masks that your friend had brought up, everything fits,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Even the flow of money implies the Duchy of Yellow - although the exact details are not possible to trace in a short time frame. And masks, well, they are not always part of an attire.¡±

    ¡°So, a Light mage, we know that much from the first attack,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°And a Soul mage that can alter memory to a small degree. Would what we have seen match up with what we have seen them do?¡±

    ¡°Yes, it would,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Low imbuement is about at the level of what we have seen if regular people could break out of it with a nudge.¡±

    ¡°Then I should go meet them,¡± Irwyn nodded right back, fully expecting refusal. The trick would be persuading her out of that position.

    ¡°Absolutely not,¡± she shot right back.

    ¡°Why?¡± Irwyn challenged.

    ¡°This could all still be an elaborate trap,¡± she insisted. ¡°A way to get us to go outside the camp.¡±

    ¡°So any risk is too high a risk?¡± he questioned. ¡°Is that what you are saying?¡±

    ¡°...Yes.¡±

    ¡°You have said yourself that the undead have avoided overt attacks so far during this War,¡± Irwyn inclined his head. ¡°How often have they actually gone after settlements? Even for assassinations.¡±

    ¡°Almost in no cases,¡± she hesitantly admitted.

    ¡°Surely there have been more vulnerable targets than us in that case that were not targeted.¡±

    ¡°Maybe.¡±

    ¡°Then the chances of your fears coming to fruition are infinitesimal.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I cannot,¡± she bit her lip. ¡°I must not leave. Not just because of fear but duty as well. I am so very weak, Irwyn, and my corpse would be so enticing to the Rot.¡±

    ¡°Which is why you have countermeasures binding you,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°Those can still be overcome with enough effort,¡± she looked like her teeth might bite through any moment. ¡°It would be so monumentally irresponsible of me.¡±

    ¡°I will go alone,¡± Irwyn shrugged. Whether it was excuses, genuine duty, or a mix of the two, Irwyn had already intended to go without her. He had a plan of sorts hatching after all and it only worked that way.

    ¡°No,¡± she almost instinctively insisted. ¡°There is still risk.¡±

    ¡°That is paranoia speaking,¡± he said, staring her down. ¡°The inner voice that refuses to take any risk for any reason. You may as well start assuming that a Named Lich is personally coming to kill us.¡±

    ¡°That is astronomically unlikely,¡± she refuted.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Irwyn nodded, letting her puzzle out that this had been exactly his point. After a few moments of silence her embarrassed squirming let him know that she clearly did.

    ¡°Assuming these are really just normal mages betraying the Federation,¡± she said slowly. ¡°What if they are more powerful than we expect? There is no going back once they see you.¡±

    ¡°I said I want to do this. Not that I want to do it stupidly,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°And it would be very idiotic to go as Irwyn, their likely target.¡±

    ¡°Alira had known who you were associated with,¡± Elizabeth pointed out

    ¡°Do you think she cared to remember what we were called? And that it translated to those two?¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°It is a possibility, but I would think it not likely. There is a good chance those would-be killers don¡¯t even know I am associated with someone like you. Coming to a different Duchy for a relatively meager pay smells a lot like desperation and subpar decision-making. They could be outcasts on their last leg.¡±

    ¡°Then what do you suggest?¡± she sighed. She did not seem fully on board but at least was no longer outright protesting.

    ¡°I have gone out of my way to separate Irwyn and Young Mockingbird, at least in the eyes of the Guild,¡± he explained. It had been a whim at first, then for appearances to more easily get the Tears involved. Suddenly, that divide between identities had a much more important purpose. ¡°That is the key, I think. I can approach them, scope things out. Then judge how to proceed.¡±

    ¡°I still don¡¯t like it,¡± she admitted.

    ¡°I know,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°And if you truly insist that I shouldn¡¯t do this I will not. But I really think I should. We cannot live in constant avoidance of any danger. If we want power, we have to grasp it, that will not be done without risk in itself.¡±

    There was silence for a few tense seconds after that but Elizabeth spoke eventually: ¡°You will take Sergeant Hiera with you, to serve as backup.¡±

    ¡°Who?¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°We do have a small more elite squad of mages, since you have clearly forgotten,¡± she rolled her eyes. ¡°Sergeant Hiera leads it.¡±

    ¡°That is fine,¡± Irwyn nodded. Thinking back, he vaguely recalled something of the sort being mentioned. It had been months. ¡°But we should be careful about what we tell them. We cannot know where their loyalties lie. Hidden allegiance to House Fathomsight is not an impossibility as far as I am concerned.¡±

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°I am not letting you go without discussing this precisely.¡±

 3.40 At home in a den of lies

    By the late afternoon, everything had been arranged, relaying the plans to Aaron included - even though the Tears would play a limited role. Irwyn¡¯s old friends were skilled and subtle but the situation likely called for a cudgel. Only Waylan would even accompany him and only from a good distance, then run at the first sight of trouble. Most of the coordination was to make sure none of their members would be at the Bar in case things escalated. That was easy enough given Aaron had already made sure of that the day prior when finding out about the suppressed memories. The rest was really more about staying put and ready to react if need be.

    When it was time for Irwyn to go, Elizabeth still had one more thing to relay. She had been looking somewhat hesitant for at least an hour. Before then she had been distracted with the actual planning, though once that no longer required her hand directly she seemed suddenly consumed with newfound anxiety. At near the last moment, she finally spoke.

    ¡°Take this as well,¡± she handed him a simple black gemstone. It looked completely mundane to Irwyn¡¯s eye and yet Elizabeth stared at it with something in between awe and fear. An incredible reaction given how often she perceived the insane as mundane.

    ¡°What does it do,¡± Irwyn hesitantly took it. Elizabeth¡¯s hand almost struggled to let go.

    ¡°It¡¯s a final contingency,¡± she said solemnly. ¡°And I mean final, Irwyn. It¡¯s meant for a ¡®I am seconds from dying¡¯ emergency.¡±

    ¡°Yet you are giving it to me,¡± Irwyn noted - despite all her paranoia. ¡°Are you sure?¡±

    ¡°I will be stuck here, quite safe,¡± she smiled, still staring at the gem in question. ¡°You on the other hand¡­¡±

    ¡°Thank you, I really appreciate it,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°So, how would I use it?¡±

    ¡°Just push Light into it, it should shatter easily even with one or two intentions.¡±

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that make it prone to just breaking randomly?¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°It can only be shattered with knowledge of it and the will to break it - supposedly,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°It is above me.¡±

    ¡°And what happens then?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°I am explicitly forbidden from explaining that,¡± she sighed. ¡°I am honestly not completely certain myself but I have some guesses. What I do know is that it is meant to protect me in a truly desperate moment.¡±

    ¡°You,¡± Irwyn noted the wording.

    ¡°I will be in trouble if it is found out I let it leave my person, yes,¡± she nodded. ¡°Nonetheless, if you must use... it is far preferable to the alternative.¡±

    ¡°I suppose I owe you twice over for that.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the least I can do since I am just going to be sitting here,¡± she shook her head.

    ¡°Agree to disagree,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°Either way it is time. See you soon.¡±

    ¡°Good luck.¡±

    With that Irwyn went. Outside Alice was already chatting with Hiera and his squad. They were five mages, including the Sergeant, each past the halfway point of imbuement.

    ¡°Sergeant,¡± Irwyn greeted Hiera with a nod. He had managed to retain the name considering it had come up dozens of times during the day.

    ¡°Sir,¡± the man returned it, seemingly unsure on how to address Irwyn. His expression was serious as can be though. ¡°Are we moving out?¡±

    ¡°Yes, as we agreed¡­¡±

    ¡°...We follow from a distance, then wait at the designated spot, wait for a signal,¡± Hiera finished for him.

    ¡°Flame is kill, Light is capture, Starfire is retreat,¡± Irwyn reminded with a nod. It was a simple way for him to signal things.

    ¡°We are professionals¡­ sir,¡± one of the squadmates said, seemingly annoyed at being reminded again. Well, he probably had a point - Elizabeth had channeled her paranoia into preparing obsessively. That had resulted in levels of micromanagement and plan preaching that couldn¡¯t have been pleasant, especially if the squad was even half as competent as they acted.

    Still, that had been a rude remark. No reason to reply politely. ¡°Trust is gained, soldier,¡± Irwyn glanced at the man. ¡°You must first earn the presumption of competence from me.¡±

    ¡°We should get going,¡± Hiera moved to bail out his subordinate without putting himself in the line of fire. Fine by Irwyn as he was not planning to push any further anyway.

    ¡°Yep, I got it,¡± Alice agreed, finishing up her spell - she had begun her preparations at some point during the conversation. A portal opened in front of her which Irwyn immediately stepped through; if their camp was being actively observed somehow, leaving through one of the physical gates might tip the presumed assassins off. And him not walking out of the camp could instead help him sell the lie.

    Hiera¡¯s squad would follow, Irwyn knew. Not that he would see it as they had a dedicated specialist for group stealth. It was not nearly on Waylan¡¯s or Elizabeth''s level, of course, but the mage made things convincing enough that Irwyn would not be able to spot them with eyesight alone. The magic was far more traceable to Irwyn, though mostly from up close and in part because of his Light affinity and practice - the spell in use was Void based, working on similar principles of impresence as Elizabeth¡¯s own.

    The squad would move to a predetermined spot near one of the bar¡¯s many tunnel exits where they would wait. Depending on how things developed, Irwyn had the option of using them for an ambush or as reinforcements if things got out of hand. The squad being ¡®elite¡¯ meant that unlike the rank and file each of the members was well past the halfway point of imbuement, making them assets in a fight on Irwyn¡¯s current level.

    Waylan would also be¡­ somewhere. Irwyn had tried to pass onto him the importance of staying out of collateral damage range and hoped his friend adhered. His role would be that of a messenger ¨C magical communication would likely be too noticeable so Waylan would instead follow Irwyn around and relay news. Whether that be to Hiera¡¯s squad, Elizabeth, or even the Tears, the sneak would need to exercise his best judgment.

    After a few minutes of walking Irwyn was at one of the entrances to the Guild¡¯s gathering place. He had donned his Mockingbird mask as well as the very same suit from the day he had first come make an impression at the Bar. Beneath that, he had also once again borrowed the ring altering his appearance into something notably different from his usual - just in case the presumed assassins had a way to see through his mask, best he looked nothing like his own description beneath.

    Through the doorway, down the stairs, then following a long-ish tunnel until he found himself standing at the entrance to the Guild¡¯s Bar. He had contemplated arriving invisible as to make his meeting a tad bit more clandestine, though that had ultimately been decided against. He had no real reason to hide and invisibility might be misinterpreted as hostility. And the plan was that Irwyn would try to talk to them before making a decision.

    Right as he stepped through the door a murmur quickly took the room over. Irwyn held both his hands behind his back as he stepped forward, already feeling the strangeness in one corner of the room. No one stopped him as he trod between the occupied tables, all eyes on him as he reached the perceived anomaly. Light magic, with a hint of something else - probably soul since being invisible would not be enough to go completely unnoticed for long. Irwyn could not see through the seemingly empty spot but he did not need to.

    ¡°Break,¡± he said, pretending to need the half chant, summoning his own Light to pierce into it. The spell was, in principle, simple and not particularly sturdy. It shattered like glass when Irwyn subverted its stability, revealing the hidden duo.

    The first man was a chain of brilliance. A binding so glorious one welcomed it - asked to be fettered just to gloat in its radiant glory. The man himself was visibly advanced in age despite the mask ¨C wrinkled skin being the biggest giveaway ¨C wearing strange green leather, seemingly pox-marked with subtle yellow dots. Besides that there were also many small colored ribbons sewed into the clothing.

    The other was blinding luminescence made flesh. The man¡¯s very existence was antithesis to sight, yet demanded to be beheld. If he so wished every eye would gather, like moths to flame, then be forced to close forever. Beneath that presence though was a man wearing a similarly strange attire to their compatriot. Like their companion, he wore a smiling mask Irwyn was not familiar with.

    Conception magic. Irwyn did not panic. This had been considered as a possibility, however unlikely. He had kept his hand behind his back for a reason, subtly raising five fingers. A signal for Waylan who would be sure to see and report the situation to Hiera. Maybe Elizabeth directly, unless his friend chose to return. Suppressing his worries, Irwyn stepped closer to the two men, schooling his expression despite the mask.

    ¡°Pleasure, gentlemen,¡± Irwyn nodded as he sat down, creating himself a chair of Light. ¡°I apologize for not welcoming you sooner to our City. Alas, you have not announced yourselves.¡±

    ¡°We thought it best things be off the record,¡± the concept of blinding manifest said. It was a good thing Kalista had only seen them through walls, barriers, and from a distance, otherwise this one would have likely hurt her by his very nature.

    ¡°Fortunately then, records are often not kept, not by us, anyway,¡± Irwyn nodded. The pair seemed more amused than offended. If they were indeed mercenaries as Elizabeth had presumed being professional and focused on business was likely the best bet to keep them calm. ¡°But I couldn¡¯t help but notice some trouble cropping up in my City.¡±

    ¡°Trouble?¡± the Light Chainer inclined their head. He also sounded old.

    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°Now, gentlemen, I might take some offense at you for coming to work in my City without letting anyone in to tell me - but fair enough I have been rather hands-off. I would overlook it for fellow mages,¡± Irwyn glanced between the two. ¡°Now what I find more troubling is who you have been asking about. Given we are strangers I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you do not know whose toes you are about to step on.¡±

    ¡°And whose would that be?¡± Blinder ¨C a good and memorable placeholder for the man¡¯s unknown name ¨C asked with almost tangible amusement.

    ¡°You know, your clothes tell me you are not exactly used to wearing Black,¡± Irwyn started. ¡°So you might not have heard. We have a few Tennets in our Guild, not quite binding but highly recommended for the good of everyone. In particular, what you are doing come rather close to breaching the Third.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t mess with House Blackburg, was it?¡± Blinder said with a chuckle.

    Instead of answering right away Irwyn looked between the two. The mask concealed their faces but the body and hands still revealed much. For one there was no tension. No surprise at the implication. No fear.

    ¡°Fuck me, you know exactly what you are doing,¡± Irwyn said, taking a deep breath.

    ¡°Which also just so happens to be none of your business,¡± the chaining mage opined. Chainer? Good enough.

    ¡°It will be very much my problem when the Duke razes the entire underworld to the ground, executes everyone I have ever met, then presumably captures our souls to torture further,¡± Irwyn spat out with all the heat he could muster in the moment. ¡°They slaughtered us for someone attempting to steal from a caravan by one senile fool. If someone clearly closely involved with that girl blatantly wearing their insignia dies it will be madness.¡±

    ¡°If only I cared,¡± Blinder inclined his head.

    ¡°But I do,¡± Irwyn crossed his hand in front of him, thinking. He had to get away, that could only happen if he convinced them to let him. They had a plan for that, he just needed to adapt and correct it a bit. After a dozen silent seconds, Irwyn spoke again. ¡°You would not be doing something this dangerous if it was something you could be talked out of, I suppose.¡±

    ¡°No can do,¡± Blinder shrugged.

    ¡°And business was doing so well,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°All right, I know when to cut my losses. I will let you hire my gang help you.¡±

    ¡°Or we remove you,¡± Chainer suggested with a bit of cheek.

    ¡°If you kill me, people will talk,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°If you kill everyone here you will be found out anyway, or at least close enough to it that it will make your job impossible and your position much more dangerous. And I do have a lot to offer. Sure, I might be gambling with my life on the line, but this hand does look good enough and folding is not an option.¡±

    ¡°I have doubts about this ¡®usefulness¡¯ you attribute yourself,¡± Chainer said.

    ¡°A poor bluff,¡± Irwyn scoffed. ¡°You would have done your research, so you know that my Tears do work with that military camp down by the slums. You also know damn well that ever since the attack - which I now presume was your doing - no one important has so much as stepped into the line of sight of an entrance. So here you are, stuck, hoping they somehow decide to suddenly stop acting on their paranoia.¡±

    ¡°It is only a matter of Time,¡± Blinder shrugged again.

    ¡°I suppose you could find some undead for them to kill, hoping who you want goes to see,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°But then, they will probably notice it was bait and become thrice as paranoid as they already are. They have been running my people half-ragged, chasing after non-existent ghosts in wine cellars and supposed necromancers in a potion shop. I wouldn¡¯t count on recklessness.¡±

    ¡°But you are suggesting you can convince them to leave that camp?¡± It was Chainer who spoke up.

    ¡°They are dead sure that it was the undead,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°And so they will never expect the living to double-cross them. It will take some thinking but I am confident I can craft a specific enough lie to get your man to come out.¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± Chainer nodded after the two shared a look. ¡°Let¡¯s talk details.¡±

    ¡°Not now,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°We both need to cover our asses. Talking long enough for a precise deal? People will see. Then the Blackburgs will have me dead to rights as a prime suspect within the hour afterwards. No, we will meet outside in a few hours with no one looking on, any entrance you want.¡±

    ¡°Five minutes,¡± Blinder corrected.

    ¡°It will defeat the whole point if you just follow right after me.¡±

    ¡°I will leave behind illusions, there are no mages that could see through them here.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, that will work,¡± Irwyn nodded after a moment. ¡°Where?¡±

    ¡°The exit by the abandoned bookstore,¡± Chainer answered.

    ¡°Then see you there,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°How transparent is this sphere from the outside?¡±

    ¡°Our general shapes can be seen,¡± Blinder replied.

    ¡°Very well,¡± Irwyn stood up. ¡°Now I sell it to the crowd.¡±

    He began to gesticulate with his hands as angrily as he could emulate. The mask hid his face so no one on the outside would be able to see he was not actually speaking but it would look like he was furiously ranting. Then Irwyn stepped back, taking a deep breath.

    ¡°You absolute, dell¡­¡± he stepped out of the bubble. ¡°...usional fools! If you want to commit elaborate suicide, be my guests. I will have no part in it. Out of respect, I will give you until tomorrow to get the hell out of my City. If we meet each other again I will be ending that encounter with a head in each hand!¡± then Irwyn turned towards the staring room. ¡°I am pre-emptively glad no one present will be stupid enough to speak with those two, am I understood?¡± then he turned around and stormed out in a feigned huff.

    He was immediately followed.

    The two conception mages did not wait the promised five minutes, leaving the illusion of them remaining at their table while pursuing with invisibility. Irwyn pretended not to notice, instead slowly walking ahead.

    ¡°Abandoned bookstore, huh?¡± Irwyn muttered and shook his head when he was seemingly alone. If Waylan was still nearby it would give his friend time to do whatever he thought best. Then he headed to that particular exit. Thankfully, the Guild had actually marked the way across the walls in subtle code as Irwyn had found out and knew roughly how to follow each of those trails. That way he could get to the once-store even though it would be his first time leaving through there.

    Waylan was already waiting for him, leaning against a wall. It was a bit of a stretch that his friend knew where to find him but hopefully whatever they were about to improvise would offset that. The area was abandoned as it was evening in the part of time people generally did not want to linger, meaning they did not need to move somewhere more secluded.

    ¡°So, how did it go?¡± his friend asked as soon as he spotted Irwyn.

    ¡°Moment,¡± Irwyn raised his hand, then pretended to weave a spell with the other. It was an older construct of his - a remote eye. He wasn¡¯t sure how advanced the spell that perceived things through the Light touching them was nor how subtle it would be. He needed something simple that he could be sure would be noticed while he pretended to hide it. It was, after all, a stage act. The two conception mages were already standing right beside them. ¡°Could have been better, our guess was right.¡±

    ¡°So, they after the Blackburg, eh?¡± Waylan caught on, immediately acting for an audience he could not see.

    ¡°And they know what they are after, mad men,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Could you take them?¡± his friend asked, probably half genuinely.

    ¡°Definitely not,¡± Irwyn shook his head with the genuine answer, then added flair. ¡°Something is off about them, unlike any mage I have seen and I cannot tell how good they really are. My skin was crawling the whole time we spoke.¡±

    ¡°What do we do then?¡± Waylan sighed. ¡°Report it and hope for the best?¡±

    ¡°We could,¡± Irwyn admitted. It would be too suspicious to not consider it. ¡°But then we just get used as decoys anyway. Disposable pawns of our dear tyrants.¡±

    ¡°Nothing else to do though, is there?¡± Waylan shrugged.

    ¡°We could¡­ help them.¡±

    ¡°Yer fucking with me,¡± Waylan paused, feigning shock. ¡°Ain¡¯t no way we get away with that. It¡¯s batshit.¡±

    ¡°No, think about it,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°We will not be their first suspects by a longshot. You saw how they think about normal people: They will assume only mages could have been involved. Then they will also try to go after those far more powerful than me first - look for traitors inside their ranks rather than the nobody thief. It will give us a head start.¡±

    ¡°So, we die in a week, not a day?¡± Waylan frowned. ¡°Well, presuming a quick death - stupid fucking assumption, Mockie. Ain¡¯t no way they don¡¯t take their Time.¡±

    ¡°Not if we leave today,¡± Irwyn said, looking up at the sky. It was getting late. ¡°Maybe tomorrow. First thing past dawn.¡±

    ¡°I am still not seeing why that is the better option,¡± Waylan noted.

    ¡°Mostly, I think the odds we live that are not any worse, maybe even better,¡± Irwyn nodded, then his gaze sharpened. ¡°And since that is the case, maybe the untouchable House Blackburg deserves a slight taste of their own poison.¡±

    ¡°Pursuing revenge is stupid,¡± Waylan grimaced.

    ¡°They took your sister¡¯s eye,¡± Irwyn improvised the first plausible lie that came to mind. Though the purge of their underworld had been cruel, they had avoided it. That did not mean that its infamy left no wiggling room to make up stories in such a widespread event.

    ¡°Still stupid,¡± Waylan grit his teeth, pausing. ¡°Alright, say I wanna commit this sure suicide with you. What do we do?¡±

    ¡°They will meet with me here soon,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Go to Aaron and start preparing. We keep just a skeleton crew to keep up appearances. The rest leave first thing tomorrow. I will try to bargain them down to at least 4 days of prep time. That should be enough head start to get a city or three away.¡±

    ¡°Where they will still find us.¡±

    ¡°They mostly only know my face and barely,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°Everyone else is below the nepo brat¡¯s notice. We will need to rebrand, change our names, but we can get away with it.¡±

    ¡°Fuck, we are actually doing this?¡± Waylan groaned.

    ¡°I think I have made up my mind,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°I would pray but I don¡¯t think Umbra is on our side with this one,¡± Waylan groaned. ¡°Fine, good luck. Get us at least something in return.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what negotiations are for,¡± Irwyn nodded as Waylan turned around and left. Their two observers remained around for a few seconds longer but when it became clear Irwyn would stay in contemplative silence they left back down to the Guild¡¯s tunnel. Less than a minute later they were returning, walking down the hallway.

    Irwyn could still feel them. The presence of their concepts was just¡­ too stark in the ambient absence of Ebon Respite, for all they were trying to suppress it. Such a feat would require a spell dedicated to the task, which they had not opted to re-erect. Still, he waited until the moment he could see the first trace of them in his remote eye before dismissing the spell, intentionally doing a poor job in hiding the residual magic.

    ¡°So, I suppose you have had time to ponder what you can offer,¡± Chainer smiled as the duo walked out.

    ¡°You want your mark out of that camp,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I am confident that can be arranged.¡±

    ¡°When?¡±

    ¡°Seven days.¡±

    ¡°Two.¡±

    ¡°That is just ridiculous,¡± Irwyn scoffed. ¡°Five. That¡¯s more than reasonable.¡±

    ¡°Two,¡± the man repeated.

    ¡°Four at the very least,¡± Irwyn grit his teeth. ¡°You think it¡¯s a matter of hours to convince a bunch of paranoid freaks that they need to leave their fort but at the same time the situation doesn¡¯t require reinforcements?¡±

    ¡°Fine, three,¡± Chainer half-heartedly relented. ¡°If you can convince us this idea of yours has any chance of working.¡±

    ¡°Fine. You are fleecing me on time so I hope you will at least pay well,¡± Irwyn sighed but nodded his head. ¡°The plan is obvious: The army thinks there are undead in the City. So, we will give them the undead they so desperately desire. Plenty of them. So much so the twat you want will have to see for himself.¡±

    ¡°You seem sure.¡±

    ¡°I have had to deal with these people for months,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I am confident it will work if done properly, though I do need Time to prepare this. And I still expect to be paid.¡±

    ¡°I think this will suffice,¡± Blinder took a ring out of his pocket. ¡°I have no further use for it.¡±

    It was a ring - because every other enchanted piece apparently was - enchanted quite heavily. It was obviously Light aligned and at first glance¡­ a maze of some sort. Maybe a puzzle?

    ¡°What does it do,¡± Irwyn still feigned complete ignorance despite his guesses.

    ¡°A portable training regiment,¡± Blinder said. ¡°Quite useful for someone like you.¡±

    ¡°Then, gentlemen, I think we have a deal,¡± Irwyn reached for the ring.

    ¡°On completion,¡± the man tsked.

    ¡°On reaching the final step,¡± Irwyn immediately shot back. ¡°I don¡¯t intend to be in this city by the time you two are done.¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± Chainer agreed in the other man¡¯s stead ¡°See us right here in two days. We will be expecting more precise details.¡±

    ¡°Will do,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Pleasure doing business with you, gentlemen.¡±

    And then the three of them split. Or at least seemingly. Indeed, visually, two people walked in the other direction from Irwyn. Unfortunately, or perhaps very fortunately, Irwyn was quite aware that was not the case. Merely that an illusion had left while the duo depicted by it had turned invisible.

    He was, once again, being followed.

 3.41 First impressions

    The plan had been to reconvene at the camp. That was no longer viable. Irwyn remained very much aware that if things came down to combat he would stand no chance against one conception mage, much less two. In all likelihood, Hiera would have gone back to camp and relayed to Elizabeth what Waylan had shared about the situation. That meant a real possibility of reinforcements being on the way¡­

    And yet by the time Irwyn arrived at the orphanage, not a sign of anything of the kind had appeared. That was worrisome considering it should have been as much as half an hour since Waylan had gone to inform the sergeant. More than enough Time for someone powerful enough to be delivered from City Black and resolve the situation.

    Perhaps the presumed reinforcements had merely gotten lost... But that could not be counted on. Irwyn was forced to assume no help would be coming. If it did, then great. If not, he needed to reconvene with Elizabeth and figure out why not. Therefore, he needed to grift the duo following him even further than he already had and with Waylan¡¯s warning his friends would be the best people for the job. He just needed to convince their audience of two that he did not mean to betray - that the act was and had always been the truth.

    So Irwyn did not pause for a single step, entering the orphanage the Tears had come to occupy. Through the entry hallway and into the mess room, the door was unlocked and Irwyn did not meet anyone before entering the Tears'' gathering place. There, he immediately noted the tense quiet. The children were seated as they would normally be but clearly they realized something was off.

    ¡°Mockingbird,¡± Maxim waved at him, or a presumably shapeshifted Maxim given Irwyn did not recognize the face. That he did not use Irwyn¡¯s name told him that they were already on the same page. ¡°Aaron¡¯s office.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Irwyn nodded walking straight to the backroom, ignoring the uneasy or excited whispers from all around him as well as the two mages following him. He only took off the mask when he was stepping through the office''s doorway - best the kids did not notice his features had been magically altered.

    Upon entry, he immediately noticed an absence. ¡°Where is Kalista?¡±

    ¡°She felt pretty sick,¡± Rainer shrugged, his fingers hidden in gloves and partially under the table. He also notably did not look happy about it. ¡°Bad timing but no helping it.¡±

    ¡°We begin without her then,¡± Irwyn nodded, not revealing his worry. The odds were Kalista had risked a peek at him and his pursuers, one of whom was quite literally the concept of Blinding given flesh. He would need to check up on her as soon as possible, maybe inquire about a healer if need be. ¡°As we were afraid, it''s a code nine.¡±

    ¡°We could have guessed that,¡± Rainer grunted in acknowledgment. If there had been any doubt about it before, they now knew for certain that they were not alone. It felt almost nostalgic - in a bad way. Another invisible mage in the room Irwyn had to announce. Hopefully there would be less of a reckoning than after Alira. ¡°Waylan already told us some of it. What worries me much more is that he made it sound like you wanted to help the two twats.¡±

    ¡°It is the best option,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°It is the fastest road to a graveyard,¡± Rainer shot right back.

    ¡°No, our Fowl is correct,¡± Aaron shook his head instead. ¡°From what Waylan told us I agree we are fucked one way or the other. If we have to pick a side, betrayal will give us an edge.¡±

    ¡°Unless those two betray us first,¡± Rainer muttered.

    ¡°Not like the royal brat would protect us even if we sided with her - she wouldn¡¯ waste perfect bait,¡± Waylan joined the argument. ¡°Mockie has a point. If we get bent over no matter what, maybe we at least choose how.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t like it,¡± Rainer grit his teeth. ¡°But I can see when I am outvoted. Alright, what do we do.¡±

    ¡°First we recall anyone on longer-term assignment,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°And get ready to move. Everyone we decide is not needed for the plan leaves tomorrow morning.¡±

    ¡°Already on that. Waylan,¡± Aaron nodded, withdrawing a sheet of paper from among the piles on his table. ¡°Our members on duty and how to get in touch. Stress to each the need for immediate withdrawal.¡±

    ¡°I suppose I ain¡¯t no planner,¡± Waylan scoffed taking the piece, then briskly headed for the door. Not that he would actually be getting in touch with their people. At least not right away ¨C Waylan could slip those two even if he was followed after all. ¡°Aight, give me the short version when I am back.¡±

    ¡°Where do they flee to?¡± Aaron asked once Waylan left. Thankfully, none of the two hidden mages decided to give chase after taking a glance at the notes that had been passed around. Knowing Aaron, the list was either real or very close to it.

    ¡°Drathsol,¡± Irwyn immediately decided. For all it was an act it was best to play it as if it was real whenever possible. Then he would be much less likely to get tangled in the necessary lies. ¡°I know of a shortcut we could take the rest through once it''s done, that way we can reconvene in the city.¡±

    ¡°We have a hideout set up there,¡± Aaron immediately nodded. ¡°Not enough space for everyone but the advance group can use it as staging ground.¡±

    ¡°I will leave the details to you,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°The real issue we need to figure out is how to do what we need to.¡±

    ¡°Presumably you have an idea since you brought us into it,¡± Rainer said.

    ¡°Yes, I do,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°It¡¯s all about believability you see. The soldiers will not leave their camp while they think there is something capable of killing them prowling about ¨C not the important ones, anyway. Yet to leave they need something that drives them, yet doesn¡¯t spook them into getting more powerful help. A bit of a paradox, because with undead they supposedly always presume the worst.¡±

    ¡°And how do we solve that?¡± Aaron nodded.

    ¡°With a decoy,¡± Irwyn smiled. ¡°Their worry is that everything is a smoke screen made explicitly to bait someone important into the open. So, we will have them hire us, Maxim to be specific, to pretend he is that someone important. And when the person in disguise does not get attacked it will give them the confidence to leave.¡±

    ¡°Will that work?¡± Rainer asked doubtfully.

    ¡°I think it will from my read on them,¡± Irwyn nodded for all he thought it would not. He wasn¡¯t so sure even body doubles would abate Elizabeth¡¯s paranoia nor whether they could be made reliable but the concept sounded plausible enough. If one presumed gullibility and arrogance of the army, that is. ¡°They will probably want to be involved, faking the feel of the soul and whatnot with their own magic, but I think they will bite if we time it right. The Blackburgs will never expect us to betray them after all. Out of both our fear and the mutual undead foe.¡±

    ¡°How do we convince them there are actual undead attacks though?¡±

    ¡°By leaving all the signs they want to see,¡± Irwyn immediately replied. ¡°Tell me, Aaron, what is the main reason to have a garrison in an unimportant place like this?¡±

    ¡°So it doesn¡¯t get suddenly overrun by a horde?¡± Aaron half-guessed.

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°I had a peek and they have all this equipment to detect anything large scale¡­ but what about something smaller? Like a family disappearing in their own home. We tell them to send their soldiers to see to it like we traced many other rumors, making sure they find some damning evidence.¡±

    ¡°We cannot fake the magic,¡± Rainer pointed out.

    ¡°Which they will assume is the undead covering their tracks.¡±

    ¡°What do we use as our proof then?¡± Rainer wondered out loud.

    ¡°A corpse,¡± Aaron suggested before Irwyn could. ¡°Just a scrape of rotten meat - far too old to be from the family - stuck somewhere strange. An unnoticed accident, maybe in a door hinge or something like that."

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Irwyn agreed, then turned to Rainer. ¡°Looks like you are going hunting.¡±

    ¡°We can probably find someone a week post shanking in the severs, sure,¡± Rainer sighed. ¡°Not looking forward to it though. Where do I bring it?¡±

    ¡°I have a place,¡± Aaron quickly scribbled an address on two sheets of paper, handing one to Rainer and Irwyn each. ¡°Conveniently lived in until yesterday. We can have the place roughened up by dawn. Make sure the neighbors are not inclined to spoil things.¡±

    ¡°So, in the morning, when we have this ready, I will go report it alongside a few other rumors,¡± Irwyn nodded. In the morning then, better late than never. For all he would rather be discussing with Elizabeth an actual plan rather than the theatre, he could not afford to hurry over much. ¡°And when they check it they will have their proof of undead in the city.¡±

    ¡°That is not enough for what we need though,¡± Rainer pointed out.

    ¡°No,¡± Irwyn smiled. ¡°But it is a precursor. We fake two, maybe three more scenes in a similar way. That will get them on edge. Then, we commit arson on a place just as I report it.¡±

    ¡°It will look like undead covering evidence,¡± Aaron smiled. ¡°What then?¡±

    ¡°Then, they will naturally want to send their best Flame mage to the scene ¨C so that they can salvage what can be and determine if and what magic was used,¡± Irwyn grinned. ¡°It just so happens that their best one by a long shot is our new friends¡¯ mark. Lulled to fake sense of security by a double.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think we will get any better,¡± Aaron nodded. ¡°Rainer, I will need you to run a few messages for me before you go below. But don¡¯t expect to sleep much tonight, either of you. We will go over every detail, then double-check and triple-check that we are not overlooking anything before we commit.¡±

    ¡°Until dawn then,¡± Irwyn nodded. Overtime it was. After all, their audience was still looking over their shoulders, looking for a lie. A slip up. They would find none. Irwyn trusted his friends with that much.

    <hr>

    With the first rays of dawn, the Tears evacuated. They would not actually flee the City if they could help it but the act had to go on. Kalista would be going along with the escapees as the only other person besides Irwyn who could reliably detect the two mages in case one or both decided to double-check on their escape. For all it would at a price for her in that case¡­ They could not talk about it in the evening prior, but the fact that Kalista also wore an eyepatch underneath her glasses in the morning was rather telling. So was her paleness and Rainer¡¯s worried glances. Irwyn sincerely wished her the best of luck and that no further sacrifice was needed from her.

    That thankfully seemed to be the case as Irwyn was followed by both the mages on his way to the garrison¡¯s camp. There was a certain tension to it, as he wondered that perhaps, despite all the effort, the two would decide that letting their apparent collaborator talk to the Blackburgs was not worth the risk at the very last possible moment. Step by step, heartbeat by heart, Irwyn fought to keep his calm facade. That tension thankfully slowly drained away as Irwyn approached his destination. The duo finally left altogether when Irwyn reached some arbitrary distance a few blocks away from the main camp ¨C about two corners away from the buildings being in eyeshot.

    He was still wearing his mask as he walked into the camp, only removing it when those manning the checkpoint gave him an unimpressed stare. Belatedly he also remembered to change his appearance back to the one they recognized, immediately being let in afterward. Nonetheless, Irwyn made sure to never turn around and allow his face to be in the line of sight of the gate - just in case. When his meeting with Elizabeth came about not minutes later, she was both visibly shaken, disheveled, and trembling with fury. He could not recall seeing her so angry. Not even after the attack in Abonisle.

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    ¡°They denied me,¡± she seethed after their short greetings, red in the face. He could almost see the effort it took her to not scream. Alice sat with them to the side.

    ¡°I figured out as much after the first few hours,¡± Irwyn nodded slowly. Elizabeth would have known where he was, especially after Waylan had gone out and presumably updated her. That no squad of elite mages arrived to bail him out was rather telling in itself.

    ¡°Not just denied, categorically refused,¡± she continued. ¡°Said to my face that my ¡®belief¡¯ was not good enough. That if I wanted someone who can kill two conception mages that I needed proof, not speculation. I was basically called a liar to my face, Irwyn!"

    ¡°They don¡¯t know you,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°I am still a rightful heiress to the House Blackburg! When I say that two conception mages need to die, who are they to question me? How dare they? I was not asking the impossible, not even the unreasonable. Not with such blatantly poor excuses! Moreover¡­¡° she looked away, a different emotion than anger flashing across her face ¡°My mother does understand, and she still refused to send me help when I asked!¡±

    ¡°Ouch,¡± Alice opined with a slight flinch from the side. She also looked rather worn.

    ¡°It¡¯s not that I am hurt, just that I would expect her to be at least reasonable,¡± Elizabeth shot Alice a glare. ¡°And yet she insisted that if she gave me what I wanted it would be too expensive.¡±

    ¡°She had taken a risk on my behalf before,¡± one thing did not add up in Irwyn¡¯s mind. ¡°Surely it would not be so costly as to risk my life if the Duchess considers me an investment.¡±

    ¡°Well, yes, she¡­¡± Elizabeth glanced at Alice, hesitated, then decided to speak anyway after a moment. ¡°Somehow my mother knew I had lent you the contingency. Or maybe just guessed and I had given the truth away in my surprise. She insisted that if the situation had been so dire as to truly need immediate help, you would have already used it.¡±

    ¡°Ah,¡± that made significantly more sense. If the Duchess thought he would not be made any safer, then forcing the reinforcements through would have been a pointless waste in her eyes. For all the night had been stressful ¨C and he definitely would have liked to be rescued. ¡°Now that I am here, is help any more likely to come?¡±

    ¡°Yes, actually,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°Now that I can truthfully certify that you can personally confirm two conception assassins, I cannot be so easily denied. Likely more help than we even need since my mother had the whole night to get her affairs in order.¡±

    ¡°I am glad things are suddenly going to be easy,¡± Alice jabbed with a roll of her eyes.

    ¡°Then let¡¯s get to it,¡± Irwyn immediately re-railed the conversation instead though. ¡°What do you need from me.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s simple. Just¡­¡± Elizabeth held out her insignia ring, gesturing for Irwyn to touch it. He did.

    ¡°What now?¡± Irwyn asked. He felt a link of sorts form, latch onto his Soul. It felt fragile - like he could break it with just a thought - for all it likely carried significant magic.

    ¡°Do you truthfully claim the presence of two hostile, living conception mages in Ebon Respite?¡± Elizabeth asked with a degree of solemnity. There was a nudge. A compulsion to tell the truth Irwyn had no reason to resist.

    ¡°Yes,¡± he nodded.

    Is that enough for you? he heard Elizabeth¡¯s voice again, though she had not opened her mouth. It took Irwyn a split second to recognize it had been sent directly into his mind.

    Yes, quite, a different yet familiar voice sounded as well. It belonged to none other than Avys von Blackburg herself.

    Is this¡­ some kind of communication magic? Irwyn questioned. Speaking without speaking came to him almost naturally, though it felt slightly off as he could still ¡®hear¡¯ his voice despite never making a sound.

    You have been temporarily induced into the circuit, Avys confirmed. It is enough of an official channel that I can use snippets in legal proceedings. I do apologize for not sending help sooner ¨C you had the misfortune of being assigned to a hostile coordinator. At least, with my daughter breaking many rules, you were nonetheless safe.

    Why do we have hostile coordinators? Irwyn questioned. That sounds irresponsible at best.

    Hostile to you, Avys explained. House Fathomsight has allies and associates after all. As I said, unfortunate that you happened to run into one who could obstruct you without technically breaking any rules.

    I had bee under the impression the nobility disliked scheming, Irwyn frowned. And what else could such interference be called?

    It is more petty revenge than a conspiracy. The coordinator was never instructed nor rewarded for what he has done. Quite the opposite as they will find out soon enough. Just a saboteur of opportunity.

    You could have sent someone despite that, even if it raised eyebrows, Elizabeth thought harshly as if waiting for the opportunity.

    And have it be found out you gave out your lifeline to seemingly just a follower? Avys scoffed. That is called emotional leverage, Lizzy. You would do well to not have it be known. By the time your report came the situation was already unlikely to deteriorate - have some faith in your man. That is all also completely ignoring the political capital it would cost us.

    But we will get help now? Irwyn made sure while diverting the topic.

    Why, it is quite possible the now undeniable assassins might be after the heiress! Avys chuckled darkly. Their goals are, ultimately, just conjecture. House Blackburg must thus answer adequately. You will have a Shadow.

    Which? Elizabeth immediately asked while Irwyn processed the information in stunned silence. Dervish was a Shadow. So was Alira¡¯s once guardian who apparently went by Oxen. Each of them Irwyn had met, however, had been a domain mage. That was downright excessive force for two just in conception.

    Impression, Avys answered as Irwyn¡¯s thoughts coursed. She has been inducted into their ranks just weeks ago after an unexpected breakthrough, thus you would not have heard of her.

    Still a domain mage though, right? That seems almost too much. Irwyn opined.

    She remains unstable after being inhabited by the domain and her specialty is the exact opposite of what is usually needed in a Lich war: She is a spy and interrogator using exclusively Soul magic. Horrible match against necromancers of equal power.

    When can we expect her? Elizabeth asked instead.

    About¡­ twenty minutes? Avys¡¯ smile was somehow almost audible. Anything more is her stalling, Impression can be deceivingly quick. She has also been noted to have quite the attitude by her past handlers. I expect you will have no trouble wrangling her.

    Yes. Thank you¡­ Elizabeth reluctantly said, sliding her hand away from Irwyn¡¯s. We will await her then.

    ¡°We should head upstairs,¡± Elizabeth said after a moment, turning towards the last person in the room who had been just¡­ awkwardly standing around during the entire conversation she could not hear. ¡°Alice, sorry, but I am not permitted to involve you despite my protests. I can brief you later, probably when this is all over. Or call you if you are needed, though I do not foresee that being the case.¡±

    ¡°Well, at least I will have a secret to puzzle over instead of just doing nothing all day besides bleeding off the tension into my ring,¡± Alice shrugged, taking it in stride as she turned to leave. ¡°Good luck with whatever. We are getting help though, right?¡±

    ¡°More than enough,¡± Irwyn confirmed with a nod.

    ¡°See you later then.¡±

    ¡°Tea?¡± Elizabeth asked as they turned towards the stairs.

    ¡°I would like to hurry things along,¡± Irwyn admitted. ¡°My friends being left unattended with those two does not sit well with me.¡±

    ¡°Understandable but we will be forced to wait a few minutes no matter what we do. Might as well use them productively.¡±

    ¡°Fine. Please,¡± Irwyn belatedly agreed to the earlier offer. Not five minutes later they were sitting at one of the top floor office spaces, enjoying a hot beverage. Elizabeth had taken the opportunity to also get some more paperwork done as soon as they sat down.

    ¡°How can you even focus on that?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°Well, I will have to write an entire report about all of this,¡± she sighed. ¡°Might as well get started. Actually, you could help me with describing the parts I am not aware of. Waylan only knew so much and admitted a lot of it was conjecture. Just his ¡®beast read¡¯.¡±

    And so Irwyn did. He couldn¡¯t be sure what she already knew and so he explained everything to the best of his memory ¨C the retelling rather slow given Elizabeth kept asking for details. It was almost 25 minutes later that he was cut off.

    ¡°You took your time,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s eyes suddenly sharpened as she turned her head towards the doorway. Irwyn turned, seeing nothing there. Then he blinked and a short woman suddenly stood in there. Thanks to Waylan¡¯s conditioning to that exact scenario, Irwyn was barely even surprised by the sudden appearance.

    The Shadow felt like¡­ Irwyn frowned. She felt like something. Irwyn was absolutely certain she gave him a suppressed but distinct impression. Much like Dervish or Oxen, a domain was hard to completely suppress and neither had Impression managed it. It was just¡­ just¡­ no matter what Irwyn did he could not remember what that feeling was. Like trying to hold water, it slipped right through his fingers, leaving the vague sensation of metaphorical moistness and absence of something that had been there. That feeling, Irwyn belatedly realized, also applied to her clothing and appearance. He knew the Shadow was a woman¡­ but that was likely just because the Duchess had told him so. And short, mostly by where she was not. Nothing else entered his thoughts even as he stared directly at her. The effect was, nonetheless, impressive.

    ¡°Your Young Ladyship, I am Impression, at your command.¡±

    ¡°Control yourself,¡± Elizabeth was not impressed. ¡°Your domain does not need to be held so loosely.¡±

    ¡°My apologies,¡± she bowed and Irwyn could suddenly tell much more. The Shadow seemed vaguely middle age, was definitely a woman with a pixie cut of¡­ uncertain color and wore all black robes. She took a seat, even though there was no chair ¨C Irwyn barely noticed the strangeness of that. ¡°I have not been properly briefed. All I know is that I am to interrogate then either capture or kill two concept mages.

    ¡°Irwyn, if you would please enlighten our help on the situation,¡± Elizabeth beckoned him.

    ¡°Of course,¡± Irwyn quickly nodded. ¡°It is like this¡­¡± Irwyn once again repeated the most important points of his encounter with the two assassins. This time rather than great detail he focused mostly on the most important points. Namely, the need to ideally hurry.

    ¡°Strange, I could not feel them when coming here,¡± Impression frowned. ¡°Were they hiding their Soul particularly well?¡±

    ¡°I think they were both Light mages,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°But they had tampered with some memories. Could be I did not feel a minor Soul element?¡±

    ¡°Subpar mastery would not hide them from me,¡± she shook her head, biting her lip. ¡°Tracking is not my specialty but Conception Souls should be rather blatant¡­¡±

    Irwyn caught the implication: That a reason for that could be the absence of such mages in the City. ¡°One was Blinding made flesh and the other Fettering¡­ with a hint of submission or something of the kind,¡± Irwyn thought back, making a realization as he spoke. ¡°That is likely Soul-based, a secondary element to support Light. Is that reasonable?¡±

    ¡°Not common but not unheard of either,¡± Elizabeth concluded. ¡°Lesser focus on Soul magic would explain the sloppy memory suppression coming from a Conception mage. And a Binding adjacent concept could also help with hiding - wardens may be inclined to hide the location of their inmates. A bit of a stretch, yet a plausible explanation.¡±

    ¡°I will judge for myself when I see them,¡± Impression nodded.

    ¡°How so?¡± Irwyn paused. ¡°I do not wish to doubt your ability but I do worry¡­¡± he started. He was sure that¡­ about what?

    Irwyn frowned. His thought had been starkly cut off and he did not like that. There was also a strange feeling of wrongness coursing through him. Since he did not know who else to ask he would need to find Elizabeth¡­ except he had no inkling where she might be. Perhaps down¡­ down where? There was nothing below his feet as far as he could recall. What was he even doing?

    Tightness spreading through his chest reinforced his¡­ newfound inkling that something was wrong. Except he could not guess what. He wanted to sigh, except there was no breath to do so with. Ah, he was not breathing. He was quite sure that was bad. Except, how did one breathe? And what was the point of¡­

    Irwyn took a deep breath, a tremble going through his body as he fell to the ground. It could not have been more than a few seconds if that and he had not moved but the chair conjured of his own magic beneath him had at some point collapsed, ¡°That was¡­ unnerving,¡± he admitted, giving the Shadow a stare. He only half recalled what had just happened but it made his head spin. There could also only be one culprit.

    ¡°You are overstepping your boundaries,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s gaze was significantly more heated as she was rapidly reaching a conclusion about what had just transpired.

    ¡°He wanted proof, did he not?¡± the Shadow looked at Elizabeth with certain condescension. Irwyn bit back an unpolite response. ¡°That is not unlike consent.¡±

    ¡°Are you used to getting away with rudeness?¡± Elizabeth¡¯s voice lost its heat, turning frigid instead - not that it was a good sign. Her eyes turned to the desk, the half-done paperwork still strewn around besides just the neat piles of older reports.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t call it rudeness,¡± the woman just shrugged nonchalantly. ¡°A doubt was raised and I quelled it.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Elizabeth nodded, as if to herself. She grabbed an inkwell, then stretched the hand out towards the other woman. ¡°Drink.¡±

    ¡°You cannot¡­¡± Impression immediately spoke, clearly startled by the command.

    ¡°I suspect you have been lethally poisoned and this ink is the only known antidote,¡± Elizabeth interrupted her. Her expression was cold, not once shifting as she stared the Shadow down. ¡°All of it. At once.¡±

    And for all the ridiculousness of it, Impression did not speak any denial again. Her arm struggled and writhed, muscle doing everything it could to disobey what it was being forced to do - at a battle with itself. Nonetheless, the hand visibly had been detached from its owner¡¯s free will. All that remained was an inviolable command. The Shadow took the ink vial from Elizabeth and slowly, strugglingly, brought it to her lips.

    Irwyn watched spellbound as the woman - the most powerful mage in the city by so many degrees of magnitude it was beyond proper comparison - tipped the small bottle and swallowed its mostly full contents.

    To her credit, Impression barely choked. As the ink went down her expression cringed, then she gagged a little, followed by some dry heaving. It was a break of composure, yes, but Irwyn was half expecting a spray of vomit or perhaps a much more¡­ volatile reaction to it. None of that came. All that followed were seething grit teeth and burning words swallowed in fear.

    ¡°For all I do not seek conflict, neither will I tolerate overt insults, Impression,¡± Elizabeth unblinkingly stared at the tail end of the Shadow¡¯s expression twisting. ¡°Not from someone who is so utterly not in the position to deliver them. Do you think that just because my cousins are too idiotic to figure out the loopholes of your fetters that this applies to the entire bloodline? Or that because some of my family¡¯s delegates were spineless that the Duke¡¯s progeny has forgotten Wrath? That just because you are now a Shadow you have somehow become more than you have always been?¡±

    ¡°No¡­ Your Ladyship,¡± the woman managed to force out. There was still a bit of heat in those eyes but also something not unlike fear as far as Irwyn could tell - and much more of the latter.

    ¡°Then we stop wasting Time on outbursts,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°There are rogue mages in the City under my watch. That shall not last.¡±

 3.42 A prolonged hunt

    Irwyn glanced at the empty inkwell resting on the table. The Fate of its contents had been¡­ farther than he would have thought appropriate. Cruel even. And yet it was difficult to begrudge Elizabeth becoming furious on his behalf. Irwyn was not sure what to think and therefore did not speak before the conversation moved on.

    ¡°If everyone is on the same page, we are heading out,¡± Elizabeth announced.

    ¡°We?¡± Irwyn paused. ¡°You are coming along.¡±

    ¡°With a domain mage, this close to City Black?¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°You had a point that I need to put an end to my paranoia somewhere. This¡­ this is more than safe enough. And since that is the case, I want to see it with my own eyes.¡±

    ¡°Then we best get going, I am expected to resolve things by noon,¡± Impression nodded. She seemed to have recovered from her ordeal very quickly, returning to her confident posture, for all it had lost some of the prior arrogance. Quickly they walked down the stairs, exciting through the front.

    Irwyn was wondering how they would explain Elizabeth¡¯s sudden lack of caution to the soldiers but they did not need to. No one stopped them. In fact, no one seemed to so much as acknowledge their existence.

    ¡°As if they cannot even notice us,¡± Irwyn wondered out loud, no one seemed to hear him.

    ¡°Yes, that is the point,¡± Impression nodded. ¡°I am exceptional at hiding.¡±

    ¡°Is that Soul based or something else?¡±

    ¡°Why care?¡±

    ¡°Academic curiosity,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°And if I ever encounter someone like you it could prove useful knowledge.

    ¡°Answer,¡± Elizabeth inclined her head.

    ¡°Purely Soul based, yes,¡± Impression nodded with the slightest grimace. ¡°I can exert influence on Souls in the vicinity to make them Forget whatever I wish. Here, they forget seeing us before their brains even register that such a thing happened.¡±

    ¡°Unlike conception mages, a domain allows this to be a persistent state rather than a spell requiring concentration and precision,¡± Elizabeth expanded. ¡°Domain magic can affect even targets the caster is not aware of for example as long as they are in range.¡±

    ¡°How far does that ¡®vicinity¡¯ stretch though?¡± Irwyn pondered.

    ¡°It¡¯s not really spacial proximity as you are thinking,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°With most Soul domains, anything capable of perceiving her should be ¡®close¡¯ enough. Am I wrong?¡±

    ¡°With the exception of domains that counter the effect or more directly manipulate metaphysical distance¡­ yes,¡± Impression confirmed.

    ¡°Domains can slightly nudge the rules and laws of reality. Targeting range is a common trick - as long as the magic doesn''t butt heads with Finity overtly. Domains dedicated to range can target foes from outrageous distances.¡±

    ¡°So, you cannot be seen and even any disturbance of your passing will be forgotten,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°That would make an exceptional infiltrator indeed. Especially with other tricks.¡±

    ¡°I was once an interrogator and a spy,¡± she slowly nodded. ¡°My domain has been built on that foundation after decades of effort.¡±

    ¡°Interrogator first,¡± Elizabeth noted. ¡°How does forgetting help someone remember something you need to know?¡±

    ¡°People can forget to guard their secrets,¡± Impression explained after squinting for a moment. ¡°Forced to neglect maintaining the protections over their Souls, making them far easier to access with lesser magics. They can be also made to forget about reacting to such an attack, unable to even form the thought of questioning what is happening to them until I have long carved out every secret worth having ¨C and then forget that they had lost anything in the first place.¡±

    ¡°I thought that you were not suitable for combat,¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°But couldn''t you just make an equivalent mage forget to defend themselves? Or forget who is friend and foe even in a group battle. From the top of my head, I can imagine many ways you would be difficult to fight for an equal.¡±

    ¡°My domain is very powerful in combat,¡± Impression softly scoffed. ¡°Merely¡­¡±

    ¡°It is far less useful against undead who exist with single-minded purpose,¡± Elizabeth explained in the Shadow¡¯s stead. ¡°It is much like making a zealot completely forget their cause - to erase the very reason for their being. Their hatred of the living infects their every though and action, making them ironically much harder to manipulate with Soul magic. That becomes even more so when the necromancers - along their usually significant mastery over Soul magic ¨C interfere and erect defenses. Soul magic tends to be binary: Either it utterly overwhelms the victims or it fails to break through and is rendered near useless. Like in Abonisle, you might recall.¡±

    ¡°I suppose you have read my file,¡± Impression begrudgingly nodded.

    ¡°This much is obvious,¡± Elizabeth rolled her eyes. ¡°Your strengths and weaknesses are both glaring. I expect you will find a method to overcome them soon. Most Shadows don¡¯t survive their first Lich War otherwise, or so I have heard.¡±

    ¡°I will¡­ keep your advice in mind.¡±

    ¡°It is hardly something you would be unaware of,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Are you still not feeling anything?¡±

    ¡°Not a trace of two conception mages,¡± Impression shook her head. ¡°Not much of a hint of anything, really. This place is strangely barren.¡±

    ¡°Lack of mages seems to do that to a city,¡± Irwyn shrugged.

    ¡°No, there is more to it than that,¡± Impression disagreed.

    ¡°Elaborate,¡± Elizabeth frowned.

    ¡°Has either of you been to another more¡­ provincial town?¡± Impression muttered. They both shook their heads - Irwyn technically had been but his senses at the time had been far worse, rendering the comparison rather pointless. ¡°I suppose you cannot tell. The magic here is abnormally scarce even for that. Especially this close to City Black¡­ it¡¯s strange.¡±

    ¡°I would think this would have been pointed out in a report somewhere,¡± Elizabeth frowned.

    ¡°Maybe everyone presumes it¡¯s obvious?¡± Impression suggested. ¡°Bringing it up would be running the risk of giving insult. Lesser mages are usually warry of doing that.¡±

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°Perhaps,¡± Irwyn nodded, thinking about the why. From the top of his head, three possibilities presented themselves: The Fae in the forest nearby, the old laboratory he and Waylan had uncovered some time back, or perhaps some secret magical project by House Blackburg ¨C though that last one was more of his imagination than anything based on evidence. ¡°Actually, do we know since when this has occurred? I cannot tell if this is recent or has been as such for years ¨C my senses used to be so much worse when I lived here.¡±

    ¡°I can ask when we return,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°If such a development has come to pass not long before our arrival it might make sense why it was not brought up.¡±

    ¡°We are getting close,¡± Irwyn voiced. ¡°Maybe just a few streets away.¡±

    ¡°Still nothing,¡± Impression nodded. ¡°Just the many manaless.¡±

    ¡°Then we might need to go looking around,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°If they are indeed not here, there are other places.¡±

    The orphanage looked no different from the day prior when they entered. Elizabeth looked on with a certain degree of curiosity as it was her first time personally in the place while Impression looked on with professional detachment. They also remained completely unseen. The Shadow had insisted she would not allow herself to be seen unless directly ordered to and, frankly, she had a point. Elizabeth, for all she had taken a step out the camp, was not eager to be seen outside of it either. Eventually, Irwyn opted just to walk into Aaron¡¯s office then ask Impression to reveal him.

    ¡°Are you becoming Waylan now?¡± Aaron raised an eyebrow. Thanks to their aforementioned mutual friend he did not so much as skip a beat at the sudden appearance.

    ¡°As full of tricks as ever,¡± Irwyn shrugged with a grin.

    ¡°I thought you needed to open the door,¡± Aaron pointed to it. Irwyn, belatedly, realized a tripwire had been set up there. ¡°You did not trip it.¡±

    ¡°Long explanation, lot of secrecy, less time,¡± Irwyn shook his head. He also had no idea how they did not trigger the improvised trap. Did impression... make the very world physically forget their passing? ¡°I need directions.¡±

    ¡°So can I presume...?¡± Aaron half asked.

    ¡°The two are not here right now,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Which leaves me worried as to where they might be.¡±

    ¡°But presumable they are not the hunters anymore,¡± Aaron inferred, already scribbling onto a piece of paper as he did so.

    ¡°Very much so,¡± Irwyn confirmed. ¡°But saying more would not be appropriate, sorry. Bit of a code 9, if far less dangerous for us.¡±

    ¡°You already have the address of our decoy,¡± Aaron nodded, not showing any overt reaction. He just handed Irwyn the note. ¡°This is for our away group, then a few other places our problems might possibly be hiding - though the Guild is more likely than any of those, I would reckon.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Irwyn took the paper. ¡°Hopefully this will be solved soon.¡±

    ¡°Hopefully,¡± Aaron nodded.

    <hr>

    It was not.

    The unmemorable trio went to the false incursion house¡¯s address next. Everything had indeed been setup to make it look like a family had been disappeared there, with the slightest remnants of long rotten flesh to sell the lie of an undead attack. It was the most likely place the two assassins may be hiding, observing the discovery. They were nowhere near, according to Impression.

    At that point they shortly returned to the garrison at Irwyn¡¯s suggestion. Elizabeth quickly organized a group to head out to their prior location - no point dropping the act as long as their foe was still on the loose. Impression did not approve of the ¡®waste of time¡¯ but did not grumble overly when Elizabeth glared at her. Of course, the soldiers themselves had no idea what they would find. Only the officers were briefly told it was bait ¨C as to avoid any panic ¨C and to not say a word of it to anyone.

    The trio then exited with the same stealth as before, heading for the Guild¡¯s bar. When the two were not present there, Irwyn worriedly hurried to the hideout that the other Tears had gone to, thought thankfully they did not uncover anything amiss there either. From there their best clues were the location of generic hideouts or out of place areas someone might have feasibly hid in. Impression appeared still rather dubious there were any assassins to be found, then she ceased mentioning it when Elizabeth had ordered her to stop. With no better choice, they kept walking around in circles, often double backing to the Tears orphanage or the Guild in case their enemies had deemed to show up.

    By the evening, Irwyn decided to inform Aaron they would need to carry on with the plan they had made up as an act. Elizabeth in the meantime would also play along to sell the events, coordinating the officers so that no false alarm would actually be raised outside their camp. For all of Impression¡¯s insistence that the two assassins had likely left the city, Irwyn was not convinced they were simply not hiding exceptionally well. Therefore, he would act as if their actions kept being observed until the deadline came.

    The two had insisted that Irwyn update them with a detailed plan in two days after all. Of course, it would be preferable if their hunt was concluded sooner - twice so judging by Impression¡¯s mounting impatience ¨C but that did not seem likely.

    In the end, the two never appeared. Not until the meeting they had originally set, at least.

    <hr>

    So, it was a full day later that Irwyn, Elizabeth, and a very irritated Impression, waited by the abandoned bookstore. The sun was beginning to set as the Shadow seethed at the ¡®waste of time¡¯ and how it would ¡®reflect poorly on her¡¯. Irwyn sympathized with that a bit, Elizabeth seemed to stand more on the schadenfreude side of things.

    ¡°Ah, they were indeed not in the city,¡± Impression suddenly interrupted idle chatter. Her scowl finally withdrawing. ¡°I was right about that much.¡±

    ¡°You can feel them,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°Just a faint trace, coming from far away,¡± the Shadow confirmed.

    ¡°Which direction?¡± Irwyn immediately inquired.

    ¡°Moment,¡± Impression said, already halfway through the motion of taking out a pendulum from her pocket. She extended her hand with almost blurring speed and let it hang from it. In a moment it began to pull in a direction.

    ¡°You cannot tell the direction?¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°Yet you can tell they are coming from far away.¡±

    ¡°Space and Soul operate independently at certain point,¡± Impression squinted at him with a frown. ¡°Except Finity and other laws enforce that my senses and magic have to dull with distance and Time. That does not mean they are operating based on how far away something is, I can merely tell when something is further because of the proportional ¡®dullness¡¯ of my perception. I lack the affinity with Time to properly parse that back into directions, so I use a tool. Also, West to North-West. Anything interesting there?¡±

    ¡°Just a forest,¡± Elizabeth inclined her head.

    ¡°An old road,¡± Irwyn realized exactly where the pendulum was pointing. ¡°It leads to Drathsol. I had mentioned it when making up the false plan¡­ perhaps they were scouting their own path of escape?¡±

    He decided not to mention the local Fae. It was certainly not the time to bring it up in front of Impression. He couldn¡¯t be sure how tight lip the Shadow might be about secrets, for all it was Avys who had sent her to them. Nor was he sure it was a good idea to even inform the Duchess in case she did not already know.

    ¡°No, they were looking for something else,¡± Impression shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t quite know what yet. Disciplined minds, these two.¡±

    ¡°You are already reading their thoughts,¡± Irwyn noted.

    ¡°I am a spy,¡± Impression scoffed. ¡°There are other people who could kill these two with ease. Only I will also learn everything there is to know about them in the process.¡±

    ¡°How long do you need?¡± Elizabeth asked.

    ¡°Depends,¡± Impression shrugged. ¡°I am just looking for any surprises while they come closer. A more thorough interrogation can be carried out after they are captured. Ideally, with Time dilation, these two feel like it might take a bit of effort to utterly shatter open.¡±

    ¡°Tell us what you are reading so far,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°They have some kind of countermeasure for Soul magic,¡± the Shadow smiled. ¡°I will be looking forward to their expressions when they realize it''s useless. Also, they are almost sure that the entire act you put up is a lie.¡±

    ¡°Why play along then,¡± Irwyn frowned, trying not to think about what that could have meant. ¡°And why head back here.¡±

    ¡°Ego, probably,¡± Impression paused. ¡°Ah, they think you had accessed them wrong, not realizing they possess concepts. Apparently, they had been coming off as merely middling intention mages.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± he shrugged. ¡°It seemed unmistakable to me.¡±

    ¡°You are just more than they could ever expect,¡± Elizabeth chuckled. ¡°So, what are they planning now?¡±

    ¡°To interrogate the boy with their inferior Soul magic just in case he was not lying. They consider it likely that their target - still thinking those are two separate people - would want to personally come and set an ambush for them due to their own ego. Well, they are technically not wrong.¡±

    ¡°Now we cannot have that, can we?¡± Elizabeth smiled, though the hint of anger in it was clear.

    ¡°No, we cannot,¡± Impression seemed to be on the same note with her for once. She certainly channeled all her frustration over the delays into her voice. ¡°I think we will both enjoy this, your Ladyship.¡±

 3.43 ??

    ¡°Now we cannot have that, can we?¡± Elizabeth smiled, though the hint of anger in it was clear. Not that it wasn¡¯t obvious that Irwyn would not be left for interrogation and execution, she just seemed to enjoy a bit of theatrics in that moment.

    ¡°No, we cannot,¡± Impression seemed to be on the same note with her for once. ¡°I think we will both enjoy this, your Ladyship.¡±

    ¡°There is not much point in making an example with no witnesses, is there?¡± Irwyn half hid his discomfort.

    ¡°Even though they would kill you twice over?¡± Elizabeth inclined her head.

    ¡°I do not particularly enjoy needless suffering,¡± Irwyn shrugged.

    ¡°Yet do you hate it?¡± the heiress immediately shot back.

    ¡°Not too much, I suppose,¡± Irwyn surrendered. ¡°But I would rather not be witness to things going too far.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, I acknowledge we should not waste Impression¡¯s time overmuch,¡± Elizabeth slowly nodded. ¡°But they came to this city to kill you Irwyn. Travelled here for that explicit purpose. I cannot forgive that. I will not be satisfied with just a sudden, painless death.¡±

    ¡°What would be enough then?¡± Irwyn asked, unsure what answer he wanted. What would be too much? If she demanded more than he was willing to accept would he contradict that? He was not sure himself where the line was drawn, how could he stand in its defense?

    ¡°I want them to come here, full of their arrogance, then watch it turn to ash,¡± she said, staring Irwyn intently in the eyes. ¡°I want them to kneel, stripped of any hold over their Fate and realize, truly internalize, that their lives are over. That nothing they can do or say could possibly save them. I want to witness that moment of comprehension in their eyes, lock gazes as it happens¡­ That would satisfy me.¡±

    ¡°I can live with that fine,¡± Irwyn nodded. A few moments were not too long. Arguably not even torture, certainly not physical. He was not going to argue too much leniency for assassins after his head. He would be happy as long as he did not witness too much cruelty. And that he would not be forced to confront what exactly might or might not be ¡®too far¡¯.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± she smiled, that intensity from just prior seemingly gone in an instant.

    ¡°They will be here soon,¡± Impression interrupted. ¡°I assume you would like me to set up the scene?¡±

    ¡°If you would indulge me,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°I would indulge much more in this case, your Ladyship,¡± Impression mirrored her grin. ¡°Although for different reasons, I am also rather miffed. Here the dead men come.¡±

    And indeed, they did. The duo had already dismissed their invisibility when they approached - or perhaps had simply forgotten to maintain it. They wore the same strange leather and colored ribbons. Immediately their eyes locked onto Elizabeth. Impression contemptuously took a spot almost in-between the two groups, forgotten in plain sight.

    ¡°We have not agreed on another person,¡± the Blinding made flesh frowned.

    ¡°Compulsion makes for poor deals,¡± Elizabeth gave them her best welcoming smile. ¡°They have a tendency to be altered when you no longer hold all the cards.¡±

    ¡°And you believe that you do,¡± Blinding inclined his head, amused.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t right,¡± Chaining frowned. ¡°Something is¡­¡±

    ¡°Something is what?¡± Blinding turned to him.

    ¡°What?¡± Chaining said, visibly confused.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t finish your sentence,¡± Blinding nodded, his eyes widening halfway through his sentence.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± Chaining cursed. ¡°Soul¡­ Soul what?¡±

    ¡°They are not too bad,¡± Impression idly commented. ¡°The old one particularly. He can almost resist me when I am not putting my domain behind the magic.¡±

    ¡°Almost,¡± Irwyn noted as he watched the two mages trying to do whatever they could and forgetting themselves halfway through every action. They also seemed to have forgotten Irwyn and Elizabeth altogether, not a coincidence, that.

    ¡°Well, I let him notice something was wrong, that gives him a large advantage,¡± she nodded. ¡°Usually, I would be done without being noticed. But that would not satisfy the Young Ladyship, not to mention I can use the practice. Restraining my domain is a¡­ curious experience.¡±

    ¡°You said they have a countermeasure prepared, right?¡± Elizabeth inquired.

    ¡°Something from their anonymous employer,¡± Impression nodded, scoffing. ¡°They don¡¯t even know what it is, just that it protects the Soul.¡±

    ¡°Crush it,¡± Elizabeth commanded.

    ¡°It will be my pleasure,¡± Impression grinned. She made no gesture, yet the two mages shifted on the palm of her hand.

    ¡°The cord!¡± Chaining yelled. Both he and his companion were allowed to reach for their belt, withdrawing an item from their pouches - clearly spacially expanded ones. It was a wire, or perhaps more accurately, a cord. Perfectly white, just about long enough to be tied around a neck.

    ¡°Are those¡­?¡± Irwyn stared. It was familiar like in Abonisle when Dervish...

    ¡°FORGET,¡± Impression spoke, for the first time tangible power behind her words. Irwyn blinked. What had he been thinking about?

    ¡°Why would they have those?¡± Elizabeth sounded shocked. Irwyn followed her gaze to the two men holding those immaculate white cords, frozen in place. Like they fell unconscious standing upright. They were familiar, like those given to them by Dervish in the Abonisle incursion.

    ¡°I am locking them in place,¡± Impression was no longer smiling. ¡°This escalates the situation.¡±

    ¡°Is that what I think it is?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°Cord Immaculate,¡± Elizabeth confirmed pointing.

    ¡°That sounds like trouble.¡±

    ¡°That, Irwyn, is a strategic resource,¡± she chewed on her lip. ¡°However the two got their hands on them, heads will roll.¡±

    ¡°Many heads,¡± Impression nodded, she began walking towards the duo, a mighty frown on her face. ¡°I am not important enough to be issued one unless it is determined they would be needed on an assignment. There is a very limited number of¡­¡±

    Then the two moved. Their eyes were still glazed over, their expression did not reveal a trace of consciousness. By almost every observable metric they were still completely unconscious. More than that ¨C they were being forced to Forget every thought or action that might possibly occur to them¡­ And yet their limbs flashed upwards with all the speed they could muster.

    ¡°Impossible!¡± the Shadow blurred forwards. She was fast, superhuman. Far faster than Irwyn or Elizabeth could possibly move¡­ but not nearly so much as Dervish for example. Not fast enough.

    The two cords sunk underneath the flesh of the exposed necks they had enveloped. Then all the haze vanished from their eyes. The two conception mages looked up and this time it was clear they could see Impression as well.

    ¡°Call for¡­¡± the Shadow glanced at Elizabeth, that was all the time she had.

    A river of glowing chains erupted from every direction, interwoven by blindingly brilliant radiance ¨C all of it rushing towards them with speed faster than Irwyn¡¯s eyes could follow. All of it was utterly crushed by a tidal wave of raw mana, coming from Impression as the Shadow retreated back towards him and Elizabeth. And Irwyn understood why, even if it took his mind a second to come to the conclusion. He and Elizabeth had used those cords back in Abonisled after all. ¡®Practially immune to Soul magic,¡¯ Dervish had called them. Apparently, it had been at the very least powerful enough to defend against the Lich who had been influencing and reading their minds.

    Not much unlike Impression, really.

    The chains and brilliance returned, then were obliterated by raw magic orders of magnitude above them. And yet before the last barrage even ended a new was already being summoned. Impression was still a domain mage. She possessed multitudes more raw power. And yet she was forced to fight without her element. Soul magic was not based on impacts and projectiles. It was about directly subverting or breaking the mind. Of attacking the core of a foes being and leaving it a broken husk. Without that option, all Impression was left with her superior quantity of mana.

    Yet it was clear even to Irwyn she had limited experience with shaping just raw, unattuned magic. Each motion was sloppy, imprecise, and needed to overpower a hundred to one in order to crush with sheer magnitude. Her range was limited and seemed to sharply drop off mere meters away from Impression¡¯s body along with what limited control she had. But still, the two conception mages would likely not be able to kill her, not in a reasonable amount of time anyway.

    Impression was not their target.

    An illusion sprinted into the fray, that of the Chainer. It was blatant to Irwyn that it was an illusion. The Light within it was far too obvious while the other mage''s concept was still tangible at a safe distance. Which was why he was baffled when Impression fell for it. The Shadow overextended for just a moment, rushing forward with her incredible speed to deliver a lethal blow. It only took a fraction of a second for her to realize her mistake, but that was enough. Impression had no tricks to reverse her momentum or rapidly appear somewhere else. Even powerful Soul mages scarcely did, apparently.

    The two hostile mages had moved around the circle of Impression''s range with equally superhuman speed and used the opening to launch two separate attacks. They should have huddled together, Irwyn recognized all too late. Made themselves easier to defend. And yet it had only been a scarce few seconds since the battle had begun. It was perhaps the shock, the reversal of immortality into peril. Maybe the realization had not fully hit them that they were indeed in danger. Nonetheless, Irwyn wanted to curse over such a mistake.

    An unstoppable barrage of blinding Light surged towards Elizabeth, except it would do far worse than blind if it connected. Meanwhile, Irwyn was accosted by a torrent of chains that were clearly binding in more ways than just physically. And Irwyn realized that Impression would not make it to both of them in time, for all they were just a few steps away from each other. With her limited control, their guardian could not project her power from far away, lest she just accidentally killed them herself through the sheer brute force of her mana. And Irwyn had no illusions what choice the Shadow of House Blackburg would make.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    Chains dragged him away before he even processed they had bound him. In an instant fetters already held each limb in several places. His mind finally kicking into gear, Irwyn attempted to subvert them like he had done with Flame before. It was Light at the core of the chains after all. One withered to nothing as Irwyn wrested the magic into his own hands and then immediately released it. Three more arose to replace it. He had to do more, faster¡­

    A spike of glowing Light slammed into Irwyn¡¯s eye. A lethal blow by any reckoning. Yet Light would not hurt Irwyn just the same as Flame would not burn him. Irwyn subverted more of the chains, his heart racing out of his chest. It was about thinking of them not as individual constructs but a whole. All four chains grasping his left side vanquished at once. The followed up attack consisted of two dozen similar spikes, attempting and failing to pincushion Irwyn. He was sure he would be able to wiggle free with just a dozen more seconds. Alas¡­

    The assassin, clearly a resourceful man, did not attempt to use more Light magic. Even more chains surged to replace those being destroyed. Chaining did not wonder what or how Irwyn was achieving. The man did not stare in stunned surprise nor give up any of his initiative. He just pulled out a large revolver, moving to aim it in one smooth motion. Elizabeth yelled something in the background as everything seemed to slow to a halt. Irwyn was out of Time, still bound. A barrier would not work, the other mage would just break it with his own magic along the bullet¡¯s path.

    So, he coursed magic through that small black gem stuck to his chest.

    He had not forgotten Elizabeth¡¯s contingency. Perhaps he should have triggered it even sooner but at that moment it was clear to him it was the only option - for all it would apparently be rather problematic that it had been borrowed to him at all. The small gem shattered in an instant. Long before the gun could fire. Irwyn kept subverting the chains as he was not sure what¡­

    ?

    <hr><hr><hr>

    The eye opened.

    The eye saw nothing at all.

    Light withered away.

    Fate flinched.

    Time dissolved.

    The eye watched, for that was its purpose. An eye needed to see.

    Yet the eye had to behold nothing at all - such was its nature. Such was its Truth. Immutable, unchangeable.

    And since it must see and must also see nothing, all it sees must become nothing.

    The world will have unraveled. Or perhaps it already had. What was the difference between ¡®before¡¯ and ¡®after¡¯ with chronology driven extinct?

    Without Time an instant would last an eternity. Forever could end before it began.

    Without Fate, there could be no cause and effect. No purpose. No path to tread, no steps in between.

    All that remained then was a conclusion. An inevitability merely stuck in the uncertainty of something ended yet simultaneously also not. The end was foregone, what remained could only be called hollow theatrics.

    The eye saw nothing at all.

    The eye saw nothing at all.

    The eye saw nothing at all.

    THE EYE SAW NOTHING AT ALL

    The eye¡­

    The eye closed.

    <hr><hr><hr>

    ¨C¨C

    Irwyn gasped, air filling his painfully empty lungs. Everything was spinning as reality once again became objective. Whole, unbent. His Soul was quivering - fighting between trying to figure out what had just transpired and assessing what was happening in the wake. The first thing he noticed was that he was lying sprawled on the ground. Next, he remembered the two mages and the rather disastrous situation he had been in an eternity prior. He focused, looking around for the threat, but he could neither feel nor see the slightest trace of his foes. The gem¡­

    ¡°Ugh,¡± a grunt from the side was the first sound he heard ever since ¡®hearing¡¯ became possible again. Elizabeth too was lying on the uneven street, clutching at her head. She seemed all too pale even with her face half obscured.

    ¡°Are you¡­?¡± Irwyn scrambled to get on his feet and failed. His body felt like shattered glass - too broken to fulfill its purpose. He certainly hoped everything would not begin to hurt as numb as his muscles felt in that moment.

    ¡°I am¡­ fine I think,¡± Elizabeth took a deep breath, remaining sprawled. ¡°I hope. I might vomit.¡±

    ¡°What happened?¡± Irwyn asked, also giving up for the moment. He paused, his mind staggering. ¡°Was that¡­ your contingency?¡±

    ¡°I suppose it was,¡± she chuckled weakly. ¡°I suspected, you know, even if I wasn¡¯t told. But no expectation could ever prepare me for witnessing that.¡±

    ¡°What kind of magical bomb was it?¡± Irwyn questioned. ¡°It felt like reality was forced to break.¡±

    ¡°Not a bomb,¡± Elizabeth inclined her head. ¡°And it felt like that because reality was bent.¡±

    ¡°Semantics,¡± Irwyn grunted. ¡°Then offensive enchantment, or artifact, or whatever it was. You know what I mean.¡±

    ¡°I know what you mean, and you are wrong,¡± she replied. ¡°The gemstone wasn¡¯t too highly enchanted. It was not really the source. It¡¯s effect was far lesser.¡±

    ¡°Then what did it do?¡±

    ¡°It only told someone where to look.¡±

    ¡°The Duke,¡± Irwyn paused again, staring. Because that was his first guess. Elizabeth pretty much confirmed it had been the doing of her father with a slow nod. Such incredible might¡­ only to be expected from the man, even if Irwyn¡¯s understanding only clawed at the bare edges of its essence. Yet City Black was a day''s travel away, Finity should make that impossible even for the greatest mage¡­ but only if it had coursed through this Realm.

    ¡°He did it through the Void,¡± Irwyn realized. Just like Oxen had arrived in Abonisle with other Shadows during the incursion. Distance barely mattered in those depths. He remembered that... ¡°The only problem then is accuracy; I think you said that once.¡±

    ¡°Hence a beacon,¡± she said, still clutching her head as she turned her gaze towards him. ¡°A little gem that cannot be missed.¡±

    ¡°Your eyes are bleeding,¡± Irwyn immediately realized.

    ¡°You too,¡± she smiled softly.

    ¡°Why were we hit?¡± Irwyn hadn''t even realized. But indeed, a touch revealed a crimson trail going down his cheek. ¡°Is that a stupid question?¡±

    ¡°A bit,¡± she chuckled, her voice sounded suddenly¡­ shaken. Forced. Or perhaps not ¡®suddenly¡¯, just ¡®finally¡¯. ¡°We were not ¡®hit¡¯ Irwyn. We were distantly grazed by a tailwind actively trying to avoid hurting us. Do you know what would be left of us if we were ¡®hit¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Nothing, obviously. I felt that much,¡± he slowly nodded, then looked around again. ¡°Like the assassins. There is not even a trace left that they had ever been here.¡±

    ¡°I wish I could have watched it more closely,¡± Elizabeth nodded wistfully. She finally managed to sit up after a significant struggle. ¡°But my Soul could not handle even this much. The migraine already feels like it will pound out of my skull from what little I gleaned.¡±

    ¡°My head is thankfully fine,¡± Irwyn struggled to sit as well but his bones still behaved like broken twigs. At least the debilitation felt like it was starting to fade. ¡°I suppose I have my incompatibility to thank for that.¡±

    ¡°Almost certainly,¡± she nodded. ¡°Though looking at you, I think you might have been more affected in other ways.¡±

    ¡°My limbs are wet noodles,¡± Irwyn confirmed. ¡°Hopefully that will get better.¡±

    ¡°If not there are healers for everything,¡± there was no worry about that at least. ¡°I think I can stand now.¡±

    ¡°Careful or we will be stranded,¡± Irwyn said, looking at the emptiness around them. He only realized then that not only the two assassins were gone - a large chunk of the whole street had vanished. Some of the buildings lost half of their mass and the rest was crumbling. ¡°Well, someone will probably come stare at this sooner or later, once they stop running away.¡±

    ¡°That would be problematic,¡± Elizabeth also looked around. ¡°I don¡¯t think I can use magic. You?¡±

    Irwyn tried, then instantly flinched from the sudden surge of pain spiking through his head. Looking within he immediately realized the problem: There was not a trace of magic remaining in his Vessel, as if it had been¡­ well erased. Looking further in, he tried to peer into the Funnel that should pour magic from his Reservoir, which appeared woefully damaged. Almost mangled, at a glance. Either way, there was not a trace of magic passing through. ¡°I think all my mana was annihilated as a side effect. The Funnel feels¡­ wrong. Very wrong.¡±

    ¡°Best not to even try and strain it then,¡± Elizabeth nodded, shakily standing up. She started walking towards Irwyn with strained steps. He managed, with herculean effort, to finally sit up. ¡°We should get going though.¡±

    ¡°If I can walk,¡± Irwyn noted.

    ¡°You will be fine,¡± Elizabeth slowly made her way toward him, still very much bound to the ground. She seemed to be getting ever so slightly better with each step. When she was finally close enough, she offered a hand which Irwyn took.

    Except when they pulled Elizabeth¡¯s knees buckled, causing them to crash into a heap. Hitting his head disoriented Irwyn for a moment so when he came to he realized Elizabeth was sprawled over his chest, clutching at his clothes and crying. Practically bawling her eyes out.

    ¡°I am so sorry,¡± she whispered through the tears.

    ¡°Everything is fine,¡± Irwyn patted her head, unsure what to do about the sudden shift.

    ¡°We should have just killed them. Because of my ego you almost died.¡±

    ¡°It was bad luck, incredibly improbable.¡±

    ¡°Still, if I just didn''t have to sate my own willfulness it would have been over before it came to that. It was all my fault. Whatever could have happened and still might.¡±

    ¡°Elizabeth,¡± Irwyn smiled forcing her to look up at his face. Then he hugged her as tight as his still feeble hands let him. ¡°It was not your fault. You were a bit willful, so what? You deserve to be. Life is pointless if you do not enjoy it. Do you think I never messed up in a way that almost got someone I care for killed? That I never did anything incredibly stupid because it felt right in the moment? Mistakes happen, they are no one¡¯s fault or you will drive yourself crazy - we just need to learn from them. At the end of the day, all that matters is that we are both alive.¡±

    ¡°I¡­¡± she quickly look away, then went silent. For perhaps half a minute not a word was spoken as her tears withdrew. Then Elizabeth finally spoke again. ¡°I think I despise it. Even more so than I once thought. This weakness. This slippery rope above a bottomless pit.¡±

    ¡°We do not get much a choice in walking it ¨C the Lich War is happening across the entire Federation,¡± Irwyn pointed out. ¡°And our ¡®rope¡¯ is already far less tight than most.¡±

    ¡°Maybe,¡± she nodded. ¡°But we are so not ready for the Lich war - for any proper conflict, really. I was supposed to have decades still before the Rot next returned. Things were supposed to be quiet for so many more years to come. I imagined I would have claimed a domain at least by the time I was forced to prove my mettle. Yet here I am, out of my depth, praying not to draw in any of the island-sized sharks.¡±

    ¡°What can we do though?¡±

    ¡°Claim it, Irwyn.¡±

    ¡°It?¡± he raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°What we saw today. This power. I always wanted it and said as much. But I think this made me realize exactly how much I actually crave it. To know with certainty that I can make Time flinch. That if need be I can grasp Fate with my own hand and intimidate it into compliance. That pedestal of paragons and immortals in waiting. I want it. I must have it. So, I have decided that nothing will stop me from taking it.¡±

    ¡°You make it sound so simple,¡± he shook his head with a smile, letting go now that Elizabeth seemed less distressed. ¡°As if some of the greatest feats a mage can achieve are as simple as reaching out to grab them.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s our birthright,¡± she pushed herself from Irwyn¡¯s chest, standing up, much stabler than before. ¡°What can possibly take it from us except for death itself? All we need is the Time to claim what is rightfully ours. And I see it clearly now, how we can force Fate¡¯s hand to give us exactly what we need.¡±

    ¡°Do tell,¡± Irwyn held up his hand and she took it, helping him stand. He needed support to not collapse but stand he did.

    ¡°It¡¯s so obvious I feel stupid,¡± she sighed. ¡°No, rather, I have been blind to it because of my Pride. Some misguided sense of duty when I am really more of a burden than a contributor. The answer is simple Irwyn: We are fleeing.¡±

    ¡°Just¡­ running away?¡± Irwyn stared blankly.

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Elizabeth grinned. ¡°We shall turn tail and flee. Out and away from this Lich War.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that desertion or something,¡± he was struggling to wrap his head around such a sudden shift.

    ¡°I will just coax my father into giving us a pre-emptive pardon,¡± she kept smiling wider and wider. ¡°Beg and swear oaths if that is what it takes. They will not stop us if I truly insist.¡±

    ¡°Where to though?¡± Irwyn nodded eventually. He would not say no to getting away from all of it. The paranoia of the Lich war. The tiresome and dangerous politics¡­ Yes, it sounded rather appealing when put like that. He would miss his friends but he had already realized and accepted that his time in Ebon Respite would¡­ end. The city was simply no longer large enough for him.

    ¡°That desert you dreamed of. It¡¯s nowhere within the Federation - I have found out that much,¡± she explained. ¡°And probably nowhere too close since no record was dug up in a short time frame. But it must be somewhere, right? We will just go look for it.¡±

    ¡°Just wander the whole Realm in the search of a specific, niche, possibly concealed place?¡± Irwyn asked incredulously.

    ¡°Destiny is basically dragging you there, isn¡¯t it?¡± she rolled her eyes. ¡°We will find it, as sure as dawn and dusk. With the winds Fate behind us we need not steer to arrive where we are meant to be - and it is clear that is where we are to go.¡±

    ¡°Honestly,¡± he sighed, shaking his head. ¡°We wanted to go back though, didn¡¯t we? Best we head back to camp.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ yes,¡± she said, pausing. ¡°Thinking about it more clearly¡­ I don¡¯t think the communication circuit of my ring is working. Oh, there might be quite the tension building in City Black then. This would not have gone unnoticed.¡±

    ¡°A good reason to hurry,¡± Irwyn nodded, though he was limping. ¡°It would be for the best if things are made clear before someone teleports in a dozen Shadows.¡±

    And so, they hurried away, just as they remembered coming there: The two of them alone.

 3.44 Forgettable

    Selene hazzarded a glance behind. She knew exactly what she would find, yet dared still hope in the opposite.

    ? The eye was there.

    She flinched and kept running, ahead and ahead, across the sprawling infinity. Time and Fate were dead, but her Soul was not so easy to erase. It shone like a beacon, defiant to the all-consuming darkness.

    ? The eye watched her. No matter where she looked, Selene saw it.

    ¡°LEAVE ME BE!¡± she screamed but the eye showed no sign of intellect.

    She understood why. The eye was not just a spell, it was a representation. It was a scar left behind when reality was forced to bend out of shape - the outline of usurpation. That was a Truth: The natural order of reality twisted out of shape, then replaced.

    Time was no more. That she could still perceive a semblance of it was an extension of her own domain mimicking it in her perceived need for its passage. But a lie reimained. Whether she spent subjective eons or minutes, the eye was always going to do what it was meant to: Turn all to Nothing. Struggle before that was futile.

    Still, what was she supposed to do? Just lie down and die? She refused, and so she ran, because as long as she was in motion, as long as she denied the inevitability of it, the conclusion was not yet reached.

    ? The eye never stopped watching.

    Selene bit her lip and began pacing instead of outright running. She had hoped that fleeing would at least earn her a moment of mental respite from the gaze¡¯s influence. That had clearly been wrong as no matter where she looked it would always be there. She needed to think. To analyze. She had survived tremendous trials before, this was just another one.

    Her greatest source of hope was that she was likely collateral damage, as absurd as it sounded. She was certain that the power before her was a Truth and Void in origin. Rumor had it that the Duke possessed a Truth that was ocular in nature and with his daughter there¡­

    The Shadow cringed at the memory of her failure. There would be consequences for that - especially if the boy died in the same way she yet might. It would do her no good to ponder that for the moment. No, survival came first. For that, she needed to better understand what she even could do.

    She was not the main target. Whatever had happened it had been instantaneous. Even the Duke would not have the liberty to fully distinguish ally from foe when trying to protect his daughter possibly split second from death. That did not mean she bore the full weight - proven by the fact she had not been erased without a chance to react.

    Therefore, Selene did not need to survive a Truth trying to kill her. She just needed to weather being caught up in one. She was a Shadow of House Blackburg, her liege would recognize her, if not as decisively as his own descendant. ¡®When¡¯ a semblance of Time existed again the Duke would spare her. She was sure of it ¨C if only so she could be properly judged for her failures. All she needed was to make it through the initial burst.

    ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

    Selene jumped, feeling the eye as if suddenly in every direction and more. Watching her from impossible angles that had never existed. Was it getting worse? She began to pace faster and the sensation seemed to recede.

    Time was gone, Fate severed. She did not possess the power to reinstate those, nor the raw might to resist the same being imposed on her. Her only island of respite was her domain. All else she would need to let go.

    The ? eye ? stared. She felt her body start gradually unraveling and decided not to fight a futile battle for its survival - it was a construct of Life. Selene was her Soul, not her flesh. Directions were melting away even in the limited perceived space around her, she let them. Fate¡­ Fate had been gone from the moment the eye first opened, much like all the other elements. Unlike with Time, her nature was not so tightly bound with Fate as to temporarily maintain its mockery ¡®around¡¯ herself.

    Soon enough, all that remained was her Soul. Her domain refused to bend. The eye demanded there was nothing, her domain declared there was a Soul. A hopelessly one-sided battle in a vacuum but the eye was not fighting just her but all of reality. Selene was not defying the eye, she was merely tipping the scale in reality¡¯s favor for what it was worth.

    Her innermost essence kept pacing. Stillness was death. Ceasing was to submit to the conclusion. Pausing would mean the eye SAW NOTHING AT ALL. That was the key. The eye would see nothing at all before it left. She could not stop it, Fate could not be subverted post-mortem. Neither could Selene outlast it without Time. She would have to bend it so that she fit into that nothing without dying in the process.

    Her body would not survive, she had accepted that. If her Soul could make it to the other side a new vessel could be made easily enough as long as her domain would keep her from proper death. She just needed to not die. She just needed to not die. No matter the cost, she would not flinch.

    The eye glanced at h?er again. It was aggravating, the way she could see it despite not having her own eyes anymore¡­ or did she? Eye, eye, eye¡­ the impression was clear. The organ was important for the magic. It had to be. And while Selen no longer had a body of flesh, she had not abandoned her sight.

    As she paced her essence reached up. Even disembodied she was too attached to her human form not to maintain it. Perhaps that was a weakness. She knew power could be found in sacrifice for all she had been unwilling to practice such herself. But what choice did she have? To survive she saw a clear first step to take:

    She tore sight from her Soul with a surgeon¡¯s precision. The very concept of her eyes, all of it cut out with exacting accuracy. Selene was no butcher as to mutilate herself with anything less than perfect control. The Shadow told herself it was a loss she could live with ¨C there would be no healing that. As a domain mage she could adjust to it¡­ maybe even turn it into a positive!

    The eye still stared but it was less distinct. Selene could no longer quite see it. She kept pacing. Steps, motion. Hope still flickered as the declaration of nothingness pushed at the edges of her island. It was ¡®slower¡¯ than before but she was nonetheless fading. She needed to act faster.

    How does one become nothing?

    No, she knew the answer. Selene realized she was just denying it. She had the tools if she dared use them. Her domain was to Forget. Why would it not be able to target herself? That just begged the question: How much would she have to shed before ¡®nothing¡¯ was left. Or rather, where was the line where she could force the rest to the other side? She couldn¡¯t know¡­

    She stopped pacing.

    ?????????? ?? ????? ???????????? ???????????????????????????????? ? ? ???????????? ???????????????????????????????? ????????? ??????????? ?????????? ?????????? ??????????? ?????????????????????? ????? ???????? ?????????? ?? ??????? ?????The eye saw nothing at all. ? ???? ????????? ????????? ?????? ???????????????????????????? ??? ????? ?????????????????????? ?????????????? ???????????? ? ???????????????????? ????????? ????????????????????????? ????????

    The island grumbled, devoured by the Truth. But not all at once. Selene felt herself being erased from the ¡®edges¡¯ for all the word was inaccurate. Bit by bit, piece by piece, she was being lost.

    And so, she cut. She gripped her domain and severed chunks of herself as soon as the Truth infected them with its edict. Consigned those pieces to oblivion. To forget - to be forgotten - was ultimately not all that different to the nothingness of the Void.

    Selene forgot her closest acquaintances first - that made sense given how few and feeble those bonds had been. Then her childhood. Young adulthood. More. More. Evermore. Because she knew that as long as the eye kept erasing it was not yet sated. Not yet nothing at all.

    Soon enough the woman did not remember her own name. She hesitated, but then that emotion too was engulfed and cut away. Her very imprint on the word was forgotten, any memory of her gone. Yet it was still not enough. Perhaps anticipating the worst, she had hidden it at the very core of herself: The plan to survive at any cost. In the end, there was only the hand holding a scalpel called a domain. Then it severed itself.

    Finally, the eye saw nothing at all.

    A blind woman breathed a deep breath, lying on the ground. Her oaths still bound her as she was a Shadow of House Blackburg - that was enforced by magic far greater than she herself could possibly scratch. Her body was still there, for all she did not remember losing it. She had never been the main target of the spell after all, even though it may have felt devastating in the moment. Just collateral damage for magic carefully crafted to not accidentally kill those far weaker than her. It never had the power to truly hurt the woman. She did not recall that thought.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    She recalled nothing at all.

    <hr>

    When Irwyn and Elizabeth returned to camp it was not to much fanfare or uproar. They had decided to even approach visible, deeming it rather important to not be accidentally deemed a threat by whatever response City Black had sent. They fully expected that would at the very least surprise their troops who had never seen Elizabeth leave camp other than through the teleportation platform. The men at the checkpoint had no reaction to their arrival. In fact, it became immediately apparent that something was severely wrong given their vacant expressions. Varier, the two of them entered past the checkpoint. There, a familiar older man waited. This time Irwyn realized for the first time he felt like Delusions. Which was strange given Irwyn could not actually quite put a finger on what that felt like.

    ¡°Calm?¡± Elizabeth exclaimed, recognition striking her even faster than Irwyn.

    ¡°Your Ladyship,¡± the mage executed a truly courtly deep bow. ¡°Good to see you mostly unwounded.¡±

    ¡°Is it just you?¡± Elizabeth looked around. She indeed looked reasonably fine once they had wiped the blood out of their eyes and off the cheeks.

    ¡°A seer was employed to monitor the situation. Given the lack of further threats, I was deemed sufficient for the clean-up.¡±

    ¡°How bad are things?¡± Elizabeth questioned.

    ¡°Before then, it may be prompt to ask: Do you have any irregularities in your memory?¡± Calm inquired. ¡°Examine extremely flawed logic, nonsensical details, or outright gaps. Please, think for a moment.¡±

    Irwyn did. And quickly found several. Why had the two of them decided to confront two conception mages? Minutes ago he had not questioned it at all ¨C in fact he had been certain they could have killed them at any moment before something went wrong. Except he had no clue what. The further he looked the more issues became blatantly apparent.

    ¡°Damn,¡± he said. Elizabeth¡¯s expression told him she was finding no fewer issues.

    ¡°That is a lot of problems,¡± she muttered, appearing panicked. ¡°None of my¡­ no, my protections are all triggered. I just never noticed. How? Some must have been actively blaring into my ear for who knows how long but I just¡­ ignored them?¡±

    ¡°Was made to ignore them,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°You will agree that a prompt commitment to a specialist is warranted, I hope.¡±

    ¡°How do we know you are real then?¡± she immediately countered. ¡°Everything could be a delusion.¡±

    ¡°True,¡± Calm nodded, reaching into his clothes. ¡°I have anticipated this much and brought some proof.¡±

    What he removed was a small token, Black - because of course it was - and ornate. It had the heraldry of House Blackburg. Besides that, it seemed entirely ordinary. The way Elizabeth scrutinized it suggested it was anything but.

    ¡°Fine¡­ I will believe you,¡± she slowly nodded.

    ¡°Just like that?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°If someone can fake that then they can force us to do anything they want,¡± Elizabeth explained.

    "My next recourse is, in fact, force," Calm added. "I am glad this could be resolved diplomatically."

    ¡°I suppose there is more to it than just the emblem.¡±

    ¡°Naturally,¡± she chuckled. ¡°Here is probably not the place to speak about secrets though.¡±

    ¡°Everyone is quite out of it I assure you,¡± Calm shook his head. ¡°Except that girl you have taken under your wing - she is keeping an eye on the platform.¡±

    ¡°Are we to head back right away?¡± Elizabeth asked

    ¡°Ideally, yes,¡± Calm nodded.

    ¡°Then we go.¡±

    The platform was not far. Barely a corner away, really. The soldiers along the way still appeared rather dazed, standing in place and ignoring them. Alice was a distinct exception, hunched over the magical installation yet visibly fidgeting in place.

    ¡°What in the world happened?!¡± she yelled as soon as they were in earshot, though the girl never turned towards them.

    ¡°Complications,¡± Irwyn weakly smiled.

    ¡°I felt your ¡®complications¡¯ all the way from here!¡± she scoffed. ¡°Seriously, I thought I was dying. Not sure I am not anymore.¡±

    ¡°Was it really so intense for you?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. The camp was quite far.

    ¡°I thought I felt Time itself end for a heartbeat, Irwyn,¡± she shuddered. ¡°Imagine what kind of panic you would feel if you had a moment of certainty where Light nor Flame existed anymore. Or maybe you don''t have to imagine, ugh. Seriously, what is happening?¡±

    ¡°It might be best if we explain things when we are in a better state of mind¡­ and have discussed what is and isn¡¯t a state secret,¡± Elizabeth interjected. ¡°Can Alice be brought along with us? She could seemingly also use help.¡±

    ¡°When I leave I can bring her along,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°I still have to go visit the site once I ensure you two are back in City Black.¡±

    ¡°And me?¡± Waylan¡¯s voice sounded, characteristically from behind them.

    ¡°Who?¡± Calm tensed for a fraction of a second before recognition seemingly struck him. ¡°Surprising people like that is dangerous, young man.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t think it would actually work,¡± Waylan shrugged, though Irwyn could tell the nonchalance was feigned. ¡°Aren¡¯t you supposed to be, like, a big deal?¡±

    ¡°How are you this¡­¡± Calm frowned for a split second, then his expression cleared. ¡°Oh, I see now. Strange. I suppose I have to thank you for pointing out a flaw in my perceptions before it gets me killed. And no. I have ultimately only attained conception, for all I stand in a position of trust.¡±

    ¡°Welcome, welcome,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Can I come along though?¡±

    ¡°Is there a need for it?¡± Calm questioned.

    ¡°Somethin¡¯ be telling me I ain¡¯t gonna hear shit about what went down if I stay,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°Will behave, promise.¡±

    ¡°Is it too unreasonable?¡± Irwyn asked, naturally willing to humor Waylan.

    ¡°Is it?¡± Elizabeth inclined her head, looking at Calm. The older man seemed thoughtful for just a moment.

    ¡°When Alice leaves with me,¡± he decided. ¡°There will be too many eyes on you two. Your father was not in private when this has gone down, Elizabeth. Things will get quite turbulent for the near future.¡±

    ¡°Damn,¡± Elizabeth cursed politely. ¡°How bad?¡±

    ¡°I was sent too quickly to be informed, but your mother highly advises you both act shaken upon arrival and hurry into privacy. That presumably leaves the most options open.¡±

    ¡°We will do that,¡± Elizabeth nodded, seemingly willing to heed her mother¡¯s advice when it came down to it in a crisis. Irwyn would not be pointing it out to her.

    ¡°Well then, Alice?¡± Calm glanced over.

    ¡°Still all ready,¡± she sighed, pointing at the platform. At least she seemed to be far less strained by assuring its integrity than she used to be.

    ¡°You will be expected,¡± Calm nodded. Elizabeth and Irwyn stepped onto the platform. ¡°Off you go. Remember: You are shaken.¡±

    Then they were standing somewhere else. A semi-familiar room in City Black where many of the platforms appeared to be situated. When Calm had mentioned scrutiny, Irwyn expected a few people on the watch-out, observing as he and Elizabeth made their way by them. Perhaps expecting subtlety was the wrong idea. There were no hidden eyes but rather an outright procession. Dozens of mages lined the far end of the room, mostly imbuement but several concepts were mingled in there as well, though recognizing them individually was not easy in the crowd.

    Elizabeth tugged at his sleeve and Irwyn followed a few steps behind her, making sure his footing was uncertain and his stare distant. Elizabeth instead played out a seemingly involuntary tremble going through her every couple of seconds - outwardly trying and failing to put on a strong face. Frankly, neither of them had to play it up that much, what they had just been through had been disturbing, if not to the point they pretended. To leave the room they needed to pass through the procession who just stared - observing them mutely. It was a bit humiliating, Irwyn had to admit: To stand in a room full of strangers, being judged for weakness. Analyzed for vulnerability¡­ It was more unpleasant than he would have thought. The short hall after the entry room was also lined with observers. There was also some normal traffic, though those people seemed to get swept up by curiosity in real time. At least it was not an overly long walk. Soon enough the two were in the lobby with the familiar gate into the Voidways at one end. Thankfully there seemed to be no line nor did anyone stop their duo from approaching.

    ¡°May I offer your¡­¡± someone tried to speak to them right in front of the gate, but Elizabeth just barged past them, Irwyn following right behind. The door to the Voidways shut before the unwelcome presumed volunteer guide could insert themselves.

    ¡°It was on purpose,¡± Elizabeth grit her teeth when they were again in privacy, though more annoyed than truly upset. She relaxed her posture a bit as they walked down that endless hall.

    ¡°What?¡± Irwyn asked, also loosening up.

    ¡°We could have been brought straight to my mansion,¡± she explained. ¡°But no, my mother clearly wanted a show. I suppose she got one.¡±

    ¡°I can kind of understand that having you seen alive in public is important after whatever uproar your father has caused,¡± Irwyn pointed out. ¡°Though, I am not sure about whatever else that walk of shame served.¡±

    ¡°There will be more on the second stretch,¡± she nodded. ¡°Annoying but my mother has judged correctly that I am not spiteful enough over it to put us at risk. And whatever she is scheming we will use to our advantage, I swear it.¡±

    When they exited the Voidways there was another horde of hanger-ons lining the road from the Voidways to Elizabeth¡¯s home. It was the very same mansion they had stayed at in between Irwyn¡¯s trial and the Exenn. Irwyn was honestly not sure what, if any, other properties Elizabeth might own so it was the place he had expected in the first place. When they finally stepped past the front door neither quite relaxed though. Irwyn was not confident about the reliability of the servants and it seemed neither was Elizabeth. Except they encountered none. Instead, they did feel a powerful mage deeper inside. There they found a familiar face, smiling at them.

    ¡°Doctor Johnson?¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. It took hearing the name for Irwyn to connect the appearance. John Johnson ¨C a name so clearly fake it might as well be a jab ¨C felt¡­ different than when they last met. Equally powerful, just different. Irwyn was not sure in what way exactly.

    ¡°Elizabeth! Irwyn! Please, take a seat, take a seat,¡± he gestured to the chairs. The man seemed downright exhilarated. ¡°Or perhaps lie down? Whichever you prefer.¡±

    ¡°What are you doing here?¡± the heiress questioned instead of following the instruction.

    ¡°Memory loss, exposition to Truth magic, near death experience?¡± the doctor listed out. ¡°Why, Elizabeth what a silly question. I am here to provide medical care since I am uniquely qualified to."

    ¡°I thought you were busy in Abonisle,¡± Irwyn remembered

    ¡°Bah, some things take priority,¡± Johnson scoffed. ¡°Thankfully I was within reach and my work there does not require constant supervision anymore. This, Irwyn, I would not miss for anything. Well¡­ almost anything. ¡®Anything¡¯ is a very strong word. But none of those other events are even remotely likely to occur in any given decade, I assure you.¡±

    ¡°Is healing us so¡­ exciting?¡±

    ¡°You cannot imagine how difficult it is to get data on exceptional prodigies such as you,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡° ¡¯State secret¡¯ that, ¡®you don¡¯t need to know about this extreme case¡¯ this. Bah! Bah I say! How am I supposed to learn anything new if not through unique beings like you two? Trust me, there is very little left for me to dissect from the masses.¡±

    ¡°You are here to heal us, right?¡± Irwyn had to make sure.

    ¡°Of course, Irwyn,¡± the man immediately nodded. ¡°If you were to be damaged on my watch I would be basically stealing from myself everything I am going to learn by caring for you two again in the future! Now do please lie or sit down... Unless you prefer to be carried?¡±

 3.45 Vessel inspection day

    Doctor John Johnson was a strange man, Irwyn concluded. There was more to it than just the surface eccentricity that he had displayed in their scarce prior conversations. That became apparent very quickly. At first, the examination involved the older mage simply putting a hand on their shoulder while muttering under his breath. His expression seemed uncomfortably too ecstatic about the situation though.

    ¡°Very good, very good. You are not in any immediate danger,¡± Johnson concluded with several exaggerated nods. ¡°In that case, we are going to do this properly. First off, wear this.¡±

    Then the man proceeded to bring out two sets of a 15-piece - Irwyn counted - setup involving a headband, five separate bracelets, shoes, suspiciously perfectly fitting clothes - including socks and underwear ¨C a hollowed out earpiece, and two tooth attachments of some kind.

    ¡°This thorough?¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow but took the entire hoard as if it was not ridiculous.

    ¡°Well I do not have proper data set for Irwyn,¡± Johnson explained. ¡°And you may have suffered unexpected deviations somewhere since the last time.¡±

    ¡°What is all this?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°Equipment.¡±

    ¡°For what?¡±

    ¡°You need a medical examination, do you not?¡± Johnson shrugged. ¡°There is no reason to not be thorough and complement that with a full physical and magical procedure.¡±

    ¡°I thought the issue was memory loss. Purely Soul adjacent.¡±

    ¡°From what I have been told you, young man, just went through quite the tribulation. Who can tell what sequelae that may have left?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Irwyn,¡± Elizabeth said, already holding her entire stack. ¡°This is not that unusual.¡±

    ¡°To you, maybe,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°Fine, it just feels strange.¡±

    ¡°No shame in that,¡± Johnson reassured. ¡°People of lower-class backgrounds are often unused to a proper standard of care in my experience.¡±

    ¡°I will go change,¡± Elizabeth stepped into the room¡¯s corner, raising a veil of Void magic around herself.

    ¡°I suppose¡­ so will I,¡± Irwyn sighed. Elizabeth seemed to think nothing was wrong with any of it, so perhaps he was just freaking out over nothing. He also stepped into a corner, raising his own Veil of obscuring Flames and quickly wearing the getup. There were extremely tight-fitting pants and a long-sleeved shirt as part of it as well as a robe that covered most of his form and the armbands. The earpiece and two tooth attachments ¨C which came with simple, drawn instructions ¨C felt like they weren¡¯t even there once he put both in.

    ¡°This does feel strange,¡± Irwyn admitted, returning to Johnson¡¯s side moments before Elizabeth. She wore a seemingly identical attire.

    ¡°You will get over it,¡± Johnson shrugged. ¡°This is already quite fascinating.¡±

    ¡°What is?¡± Elizabeth asked.

    ¡°I have to reevaluate the quality of your past physicians,¡± Johnson shook his head. ¡°Or perhaps this is recent? It would be rather strange if this was not mentioned.¡±

    ¡°You are stalling,¡± Elizabeth smiled.

    ¡°Just stating facts. Pah,¡± Johnson shrugged. ¡°Irwyn, are you aware of your supernatural regeneration?¡±

    ¡°My what?¡± he paused.

    ¡°Then I will take that as a no?¡±

    ¡°I suppose I always healed quickly and was never sick?¡± he answered hesitantly. ¡°But not to a degree I would consider abnormal.¡±

    ¡°How quickly, give me an example.¡± Johnson insisted.

    ¡°A few times I got knifed¡­¡±

    ¡°Irrelevant, I cannot account for standardized knife parameters or septic variables. Something else.¡±

    ¡°Ehm¡­¡± Irwyn paused, unsure what to say to that. ¡°A few small cuts from cooking would heal within a week when I was younger, sometimes as quickly as 4 days.¡±

    ¡°That would not account for it to the degree I am seeing now. Unless¡­¡± Johnson paused. ¡°How many calories did you use to consume.¡±

    ¡°A what?¡± Irwyn asked, unfamiliar with the term.

    ¡°Compared to others your age and body type, how much did you use to eat?¡± the doctor rephrased. ¡°How plentiful was food?¡±

    ¡°About the same as everyone,¡± Irwyn replied. ¡°We never went hungry but not really too full, I suppose.¡±

    ¡°Ah, then you may have been severely malnourished for many years,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°This malady has persisted¡­¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound right,¡± Irwyn interrupted. ¡°As I said, I was never hungry.¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes, the human part of your biology did not perceive a need for more nutrition and therefore did not request it,¡± Johnson rolled his eyes. ¡°Except your body is clearly not entirely human. As I was saying, my current best explanation is that you have been severely malnourished without anyone having any idea. This has been the case during your treatment after Abonisle ¨C which still did not mention such fast natural regeneration - and has only been remedied once Elizabeth arranged for a thorough treatment for detoxification, restoration, and sculpting.¡±

    ¡°I have not been eating anything more than usual in Ebon Respite,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°Likely starving yourself again,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°Or perhaps the need for energy is offset nowadays by your Vessel being permanently engulfed in mana as you have progressed. There will be ways to test my hypothesis, though they will take a few weeks to enact in all likelihood. This has already been enlightening, though.¡±

    ¡°Can we go back to the part where you called me ¡®not entirely human¡¯?,¡± Irwyn backtracked.

    ¡°Are you not already aware.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ suppose there have been hints,¡± Irwyn admitted after a moment. The Dreams were the main culprit but there have been other signs. ¡°It is just the first time having it said out loud like this. And I am not remotely as confident in that guess as you seem to be.¡±

    ¡°It is no guess, Irwyn. It is simply impossible for your body to be wholly mortal,¡± Johnson shook his head. ¡°Other signs are of course present but the biggest giveaway is that you are too talented.¡±

    ¡°How does that make sense?¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°Talent is not something with a hard limit.¡±

    ¡°Do you think it is possible for wholly mortal flesh to be so attuned with Flame it refuses to burn?¡± Johnson inclined his head. ¡°Or eyes that passively bend the laws of reality as to never be blinded by Light? If there is any doubt let me put it plainly: You are not just a statistical wonder. You are an impossibility within a human frame of reference. If we were to draw a graph of every example of magical affinity to ever exists, you would likely be further from the most talented pure human than they would be from the least.¡±

    ¡°What about Elizabeth then?¡± Irwyn glanced at the heiress who had just been listening on with interest. ¡°She matches me.¡±

    ¡°She is obviously the same, though that is not important right now. I already know what sets her apart quite well. You on the other¡­"

    ¡°You DO?!¡± Elizabeth burst out in surprise, interrupting Johnson.

    ¡°Do you think I would suffer NOT knowing for 17 years?¡± Johnson raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°I assumed that if there was something groundbreaking known about me I would have been told!¡±

    ¡°There is a dissertation on you already written, ready to revolutionize several fields of study¡­¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°As soon as your parents stop fussing about ¡®national security¡¯ and ¡®ancient secrets¡¯, and similar such poppycock. They still refuse to let me proceed with the unredaction.¡±

    ¡°And I have known nothing about this?!¡±

    ¡°I am specifically forbidden from telling you almost anything,¡± Johnson shrugged. ¡°Not that I would be inclined to anyway. Your knowledge would likely both hinder your growth and reduce the usability of any data. It is only a matter of time anyway.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know what to say,¡± she stared, wide-eyed. The revelation had visibly shaken her. ¡°No, maybe one thing. So, you know why exactly I am so talented.¡±

    ¡°I would not use the word ¡®exactly¡¯, but close enough to it, yes,¡± Johnson nodded.

    ¡°Then, when I was ill in my youth¡­¡± she started. A sour topic, Irwyn knew. He also remembered that it was Johnson himself. ¡°Was the origin of it the same?¡±

    ¡°The source of your sickness has been an unprecedented case of magical sensitivity affecting you at an age many years before a single recorded instance known in our recorded history,¡± Johnson said. ¡°But if you are asking whether the thing that makes you special made you special, then yes, it obviously did.¡±

    ¡°And yet it took you years to figure out.¡±

    ¡°In full disclosure, I spent that time going down a list of things I thought had been much more likely to be the affliction killing you. I was throwing anything that crossed my mind against the wall at that point,¡± Johnson shrugged. ¡°Anything more is a bit too specific for my vows, I am afraid.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ think I need to step out,¡± she averted her gaze.

    ¡°That is perhaps for the best,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°Your heart rate has passed 6 beats a second. The contingencies of my equipment are under-calibrated for this and might try to pacify you soon otherwise.¡±

    ¡°Do you¡­¡± Irwyn spoke up to offer comfort.

    ¡°No, alone is fine,¡± she shook her head, sighed, then stepped out of the room the same way they had arrived.

    ¡°So, Irwyn, how much can you bench?¡± the doctor did not even pause for a second before changing the topic.

    ¡°What?¡± Irwyn paused at the radical shift.

    ¡°Bench.¡±

    ¡°I can¡­ sit for a long while?¡±

    ¡°Ah, is the concept of a bench press unknown to your City?¡±

    ¡°This feels like I am missing context.¡±

    ¡°Then context you shall have,¡± Johnson shook his head vehemently, the stepped to the other side of the room. There was another door there that - as far as Irwyn recalled - should lead to a smaller side chamber. Opening the door, the doctor revealing it had been transformed into a gym filled to the brim with equipment.

    ¡°Bench press, let me demonstrate¡­¡±

    <hr>

    The concept of a gym had been half foreign to Irwyn. None existed in Ebon Respite as far as he knew nor had he heard of anything of the sort in any other City he had been - though fair enough, he had never looked for such. When questioning Johnson about it, the reason became apparent.

    ¡°It is not much practiced in these parts of the Federation,¡± the doctor sighed. ¡°Besides the Duchy of Green, refinement of flesh is often underestimated. Physical training is also much more widespread in some Northern nations where magic is not so overwhelming an advantage.¡±

    ¡°Then why did you act baffled I was not aware of it?¡±

    And Johnson in contrast clearly knew a lot about this kind of training. For all the man did not appear overly muscular beneath his clothing his frame hid monstrous strength. When showing him possible positions and exercises the doctor lifted the weights as if they were feathers.

    ¡°I have only the highest expectations of you, of course,¡± Johnson nodded as if it were obvious. ¡°You manage to achieve the impossible in enough ways already. Why not then assume the merely improbable in others?¡±

    Nonetheless, for all his former ignorance, Irwyn had been made to experience its contents quite thoroughly. The doctor first made Irwyn disable the magic reinforcing his body at all times, then pushed him to the limits of physical excursion over and over again over eternal two hours. Elizabeth eventually returned, though she moved on to also exercise on her own with no need to input from Johnson himself.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    ¡°Impressive, impressive,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°Also raises many questions.¡±

    ¡°The only one that comes to mind is: When will this end?¡± Irwyn found out he really did not care for it. The only silver lining he could find was that Johnson¡¯s complicated attire seemed to stop him from sweating.

    ¡°Please, we are making incredible discoveries here.¡±

    ¡°Such as?¡±

    ¡°Such as your strength being not fully physical in nature,¡± Johnson elaborated. ¡°I have expected as much already, but the difference is much smaller than my guess."

    ¡°You will have to explain more.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s take your bench press for example,¡± the doctor nodded. ¡°You have the muscle thanks to the treatment but lack the proper technique. So, from someone like you, I would expect a limit of somewhere around 140 kilograms. Do you know how much you actually lifted?¡±

    ¡°You did not tell me, just kept increasing the weight.¡±

    ¡°440 turned out to be your actual limit Irwyn. 3.143 times as much as I would expect based on purely physical attributes. The other data also suggest around 3.1 strength coefficient compared to muscle mass.¡±

    ¡°That sound like a lot?¡± Irwyn guessed.

    ¡°That basically breaks the limits of a human body for someone your build, Irwyn,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°And yet you have had no problems in your daily life, such as accidentally crushing fragile things, disproportionate use of force when moving objects, or anything of the sort, right?¡±

    ¡°As I said, nothing of the sort,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Therefore, it stands to reason that your strength is based on the intention to use it. And that is quite fascinating,¡± Johnson nodded.

    ¡°And unfair,¡± Elizabeth interjected. She must have gotten intrigued by the conversation enough to interrupt her own use of the doctor¡¯s gym. Irwyn was still not sure from where it had been brought, but then, City Black had a Beacon. Teleportation was easy. ¡°Completely unjust.¡±

    ¡°I am sorry about my perfection,¡± Irwyn replied with a mocking bow. ¡°But I am still unsure what crimes I have committed.¡±

    ¡°It took me so long to get used to not breaking everything,¡± she shook her head. ¡°And you just do that accidentally? I did not even think you had abnormal strength with how easily you adjusted.¡±

    ¡°So not adjusting easily was a possibility?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°As I said, I did not think you had extraordinary strength given how you have never mentioned or shown any sign of it¡­¡± she squirmed a bit in embarrassment. ¡°Thought yes, in hindsight that is something I should have at least considered and brought up after the sculpting. Sorry.¡±

    ¡°No need to worry over nothing,¡± Irwyn waved it away. ¡°Now you have me curious though. You are also significantly stronger then, I presume. Is that why you have put so much effort into enhancing your body with magic?¡±

    ¡°In a way,¡± she nodded. ¡°Void mages are not known to reinforce their bodies as it is very dangerous - for most people at least. I am not quite immune as you are but the risks are still a fraction of a fraction of what the average mage would have to deal with. Though it is all more in preparation. Body enhancements are relatively weaker before conception when compared to regular ranged magic.¡±

    ¡°It is a regrettable fact,¡± Johnson nodded along. ¡°Only Life mages practice it on scale as their superior healing makes them far more likely to achieve greatness before dying.¡±

    ¡°Why is that?¡± Irwyn asked. ¡°Everything I have read about enhancement was practical for imbuement magics.¡±

    ¡°It is the ratio between speed and Finity,¡± the doctor explained. ¡°An imbuement or lesser mage uses spells with range and speed that simply outclass an equivalent opponent trying to reach them with just their body, no matter what kind of magic they try to reinforce it with. However, in conception, the former¡¯s effective range does not increase much because of Finity. More reinforcement-focused mages however can experience an exponential increase in their speed as physical mobility over great distances is not affected by that restriction.¡±

    ¡°With my talent, I do not need to discard other paths for it,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But I do intend to develop further in that direction. It was actually Johnson¡¯s suggestion at first, that with my extreme degree of supernatural strength I have a unique opportunity. Enchantment does, fundamentally, multiply your baseline after all.¡±

    ¡°How high?¡± Irwyn asked with curiosity.

    ¡°Elizabeth currently possesses strength approximately 12.4 times of what her muscle mass should provide,¡± Johnson smiled at the frankly ridiculous sounding multiplier. ¡°This number has risen from 5.7 from the time when she first started to wield magic at the age of 12 and may yet go further.¡±

    ¡°I have also only gained the strength at the time all at once, which took months to get properly used to. Not just breaking things but it also made me a lot less dexterous as a side effect,¡± she grimaced. ¡°I had to be fed by servants at first because I couldn¡¯t hold on to the cutlery.¡±

    ¡°Though returning to you, Irwyn, there is more,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°Do you remember the last time you were physically exhausted?¡±

    Irwyn thought back, frowning. He couldn¡¯t, could he? The closest thing was perhaps in Abonisle but then that was closer to just mental fatigue. ¡°Probably not since I first left Ebon Respite after the nasty happenings with Alira.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that may have been the triggering point of all these changes and more as well, a competing theory to my proposed malnourishment. That was when your first vision has occurred if these dossiers are correct.¡°

    ¡°You are aware of those?¡± Irwyn asked, glancing at Elizabeth.

    ¡°I suppose my mother had shared as such,¡± any hint of a smile slipped from her lips.

    ¡°It would have been dangerous - and incredibly wasteful - for me to not take this into consideration,¡± Johnson retorted. ¡°It fascinates me all the more for another lack of precedent.¡±

    ¡°Surely visions are not such a rare thing,¡± Irwyn doubted.

    ¡°There are many of those. There have even been plentiful records of mages gaining in power after such dreams - except each and every one of them wielded the Soul as their element. For anything else though? it is quite literally unheard of. Although I have noted that only vague details have reached me.¡±

    ¡°Does the exactness of everything matter?¡± there were many such peculiar details he had never shared. Hints of a greater picture stretching to more than the visions themselves. Some led to conclusions he thought himself mad for reaching. Yet Irwyn could not deny distantly feeling that Name whenever he failed to ignore it.

    ¡°I am no dream interpreter, yet your heartrate does tell me you hide something significant,¡± Johnson shrugged. ¡°Perhaps I would be of help in deciphering and using any such enigmatic knowledge, no?¡±

    ¡°It is¡­ a conversation for another time,¡± he glanced at Elizabeth. ¡°And with someone else.¡±

    ¡°A shame,¡± Johnson followed his gaze but did not argue. ¡°Moving on. Do you have even the slightest clue of your parentage?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Irwyn shook his head. It was not a topic ever burdening him. ¡°Not that I ever cared to look. As you probably know, I have basically no memory of my youth.¡±

    ¡°Yes, just double-checking second-hand information,¡± the doctor nodded. ¡°I have another hypothesis as to the identity of at least one of them.¡±

    ¡°Go on,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s gaze sharpened. So did Irwyn¡¯s. He had never cared, yet Johnson was suddenly making the topic seem worth paying attention to.

    ¡°Well, the signs are really all pointing in one direction and Dervish seemed to have arrived at the same conclusion,¡± Johnson preluded. ¡°In all likelihood, you are a bastard son of our very Sun.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a possibility?¡± Irwyn gaped. It suddenly made sense why his potential heritage warranted the term ¡®hypothesis¡¯ rather than ¡®good guess¡¯.

    ¡°There are several verified records of our Star¡¯s trysts resulting in progeny,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°Though none of even them are quite as extreme as you in any way.¡±

    ¡°I suppose it is possible,¡± Irwyn admitted, thoughts racing. He had to have come from something. His body must have been created in some way. Why not then such a vessel? Could anything less even contain what he might be? The Name was. He forced himself to not think about it again. ¡°What does that mean though? How would you even prove or disprove it?¡±

    ¡°It means that since your body still behaves mostly mortal, you have much yet to tap into,¡± Johnson concluded. ¡°I have no idea how much, mind you. And that assumes I am even correct. Empyrean bloodlines are not a thing of thorough study due to their vanishing rarity - in the Duchy of Black especially so. Asking others might be a tad too suspicious though. Nevertheless, all that only raises only so many more questions: What secrets does your body still obscure even from you? And why the Duchy of Black? Yellow or Red would have been far more suitable for our Sun. And¡­¡±

    ¡°Perhaps those may be answered another day,¡± Elizabeth interrupted.

    ¡°Yes, yes, I keep getting distracted, don¡¯t I?¡± Johnson shook his head. ¡°We have a baseline for your physical prowess now Irwyn. We still need to measure the magical.¡±

    ¡°Measure,¡± he repeated the word. ¡°How?¡±

    ¡°Do you think the Federation does not have standardized methods?¡± Johnson spoke. ¡°You must have stumbled upon the term ¡®MU¡¯, or magical unit, during your studies.¡±

    ¡°It has been referenced and Elizabeth had mentioned it before,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°But it is always in relation to how expensive a spell might be. I am quite literally unable to run my Vessel dry, hence it seemed unimportant.¡±

    ¡°Almost sacrilegious, Irwyn,¡± Johnson scoffed. ¡°It is not about need; it is about knowledge and the spread of it.¡±

    ¡°I am not disinclined from learning. I have just been catching up and prioritizing,¡± Irwyn defended. ¡°Actual practice has seemed more important. If you believe it so important, then enlighten me.¡±

    ¡°These are fundamentals! Armonius¡¯ second law proves, that all matter is ultimately created of magic. It is the Law of Creation.¡±

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t that directly conflict with Finity?¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°No, no, no. You see, conjured matter can be made to undergo what is known as creational shift, wherein it becomes physical. And Finity does not affect purely physical phenomena. Every Realm and speck of dust in the Universe has been created from raw magic - by the Aspects for the most part, but mortals can come close enough. The magical unit, MU, represents the exact amount of magic that is required to create a single proton.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I have ever heard that term,¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°It is the most basic building block of physical matter. If you ignore some exacting details, anything physical in all of reality can be built from them.¡±

    ¡°How much is one then?¡± he wondered.

    ¡°A single drop of water contains approximately 1.8 times 10 to the power of 20 of such protons. As I said before, this ignores many other details, but it is a good show for scale."

    ¡°That is comically high,¡± Irwyn gaped. ¡°In all those manuals I have red the spells they proposed low numbers. Am I recalling that wrong?"

    ¡°Beginner spells made for one intention to be cast by mediocre mages not even offered tutors,¡± Johnson scoffed. ¡°The nature of magic is exponential. A weak mage who has just attained imbuement may be able to draw between 1.5 to 2 MU from their Vessel as such things are measured, a simple one-intention spell requires about one MU. Yet if you have done your math, you will realize that a nine-intention spell of equivalent relative difficulty will require 362 880 MU.¡±

    ¡°That is still missing 15 zeroes,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°Before you get completely sidetracked, you were supposed to do a measurement,¡± Elizabeth interrupted.

    ¡°Malevolent,¡± Johnson shot her an angry stare but then proceeded to bring out a small bronze box, another surge of excitement brightening his face. He opened the container revealing a bright orange gem. ¡°It is a small miracle one was available at House Blackburg¡¯s vaults. Hold it and don¡¯t resist the pull.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± Irwyn asked but followed the instructions. The moment it touched his palm it became immediately apparent that the gem drained his Vessel, though only very slowly.

    ¡°A proper measurement device, attuned to Starfire,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°Hopefully it will not break considering it is supposed to be able to take the high end of conception.¡±

    ¡°I just¡­ hold it?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°It will give you a very precise number of how much MU your Vessel can hold at a time,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°What is yours then?¡± he asked with curiosity.

    ¡°73 244,¡± she said with a grin.

    ¡°To give a frame of reference, a seven-intention spell like you two wield now usually requires between 5 000 to 10 000 MU to cast,¡± Johnson interjected. ¡°An average imbuement mage of your current skill can be expected to have 15 to 20 thousand.¡±

    ¡°Basically five times as much,¡± Irwyn nodded. And at the same time he knew it would likely be only a fraction of what he had.

    ¡°It is not a perfect measure,¡± Johnson said. ¡°The Reservoir and Funnel can also play a major role in the actual quantity of magic a mage can bring to bear. But an overly detailed analysis of the mathematics involved would be redundant now, I suppose¡­ It should be done soon.¡±

    ¡°Maybe it will take a while,¡± Irwyn suggested, looking at the gem. It had been slowly¡­ stirring his magic for the lack of a better word. The sensation was a bit strange but neither hostile nor unpleasant.

    ¡°Usually, the test would conclude in seconds for someone wielding seven intentions, though I obviously expected something special from you. Aaand, that¡¯s it.¡±

    The gem lifted above his hand abruptly. Irwyn noted that it used some of that magic it had been stirring to achieve that effect, though his thoughts were focused on the number.

    ¡°1 570 530,¡± Irwyn read it. ¡°That sounds ridiculous.¡±

    ¡°No damn wonder you can outlast me to such a degree,¡± Elizabeth shook her head in disbelief. ¡°I thought I was really pushing it guessing exactly 1 million.¡±

    ¡°You are not currently experiencing existential dread, violent sickness, narcolepsy, or death, correct, Irwyn?¡± Johnson asked, retrieving the gem and putting it back into the box.

    ¡°No,¡± Irwyn gave the man a look, still half-focused on the number. Was he calculating over 100 times the expected value correctly? No wonder he was literally unable to spend all his magic nowadays. He had enough power for roughly¡­ 310 seven-intention spells, not accounting for his mana recovering in the meantime. "Why?"

    ¡°Usual symptoms of Morrolor¡¯s disease, also known as Reservoir spillage syndrome. It can cause the Vessel to hold significantly more magic than it actually can without damage,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°Just double checking. That is presumably a new record at your age by about an order of magnitude including those who were being actively harmed by such a high concentration. How are you keeping your presence so restrained?¡±

    ¡°I have noticed it has been becoming harder lately,¡± Irwyn admitted. ¡°I used to be able to erase even the slightest trace of my magic back before my first vision. Nowadays, I feel like I could scarcely not trip an alarm. It was especially apparent back in Ebon Respite.¡±

    ¡°A natural consequence of growing in power,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°Most people never learn to completely hide their presence after stepping into conception. Bigger buildings are visible from further, unless you learn to raise hills around them. That you can do as much as you already manage at all speaks of your talent again.¡±

    ¡°Nonetheless, I am missing 14 zeroes instead to match a single drop of water, aren¡¯t I?¡° Irwyn returned to the prior topic. ¡°If there is so much power in raw matter, why bother using anything else?¡±

    ¡°Reversing a creational shift is an egregiously difficult procedure,¡± Johnson shrugged. ¡°Armonius himself, the mage who had discovered the process - at least in this Realm - was among the single-digit number of mages who have ever mastered the ability enough to use either at scale or in battle - at least those who were recorded by the Federation''s annals. It is truly a shame the man failed to claim a Name, lest he would have advanced our knowledge of the field by whole millennia more.¡±

    ¡°Millenia seems like a stretch,¡± Elizabeth chimed in skeptically.

    ¡°It is nothing of the sort,¡± Johnson shook his head. ¡°True brilliance of a researcher can bypass a hundred generations of effort.¡±

    ¡°The Federation itself is not much older than ¡®Millenia¡¯.¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°Surely you do not actually believe the Conflagration¡¯s propaganda?¡± Johnson raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°How is the Archduke of Red being brought into this?¡± Elizabeth asked. A familiar Name, even. If Irwyn recalled, the first Archduke of Red who had faced the Tyrant had also claimed the very same one.

    ¡°Truly? Are even brilliant seeds like you kept in ignorance on this? Or maybe it''s just purposefully never brought up?¡± the doctor shook his head in disbelief. ¡°How old do you think I am children?¡±

    ¡°At least¡­ a few centuries?¡± Irwyn guessed. Johnson seemed rather aged but not to the point of being near death. As a life mage he could also likely live longer than most already long-lived mages.

    ¡°658,¡± Elizabeth said.

    ¡°The day of my birth was the 27th bloom of the Everchange Willow¡¯s sprout. An auspicious event that occurs about every 1000 years.¡±

    ¡°I have never heard of it,¡± Elizabeth frowned, then paused, realizing the other point. ¡°27th?!¡±

    ¡°That is not strange,¡± Johnson ignored her surprise, instead focusing on the admitted ignorance. ¡°The next is still far away. I think the 30th should be in some 300 years, though I admit I might not have kept the time perfectly in my stay up North.¡±

    ¡°Am I mistaking my math?¡± Irwyn likewise gaped. ¡°2700 years?¡±

    ¡°Thereabouts,¡± Johnson shrugged. ¡°The exact numbers tend to blur at times, subjective temporal anomalies and such. I once fell into the Void for a few minutes and skipped a several years here.¡±

    ¡°That is not possible,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°Without a Name even 500 would be pushing the limits.¡±

    ¡°Namehood is not the only way to nigh immortality,¡± Johnson shook his head. ¡°To live is to deceive after all. Why not do so to aging and death? I promise you there are dozens of fossils like me scattered around the Duchy of Green. And in other places. Though methods not involving Life are much more complicated and thus rarer.¡±

    ¡°Even if we take that at face value¡­ 30th? Every millennium?¡± Elizabeth repeated her earlier question. ¡°How old would that actually make the Federation? That tree was not even planted until long after the founding I know that much.¡±

    ¡°Ask your parents, I might already get my budget cut for saying too much,¡± Johnson seemed to suddenly reconsider. ¡°More importantly, there are still things to be tested out. And for every answer you have given me, I only have - on average - 4.7 more questions.¡±

 3.46 Sealed

    Elizabeth stared intently at Irwyn¡¯s frozen face within the chamber. It had been a few minutes since he had entered¡­ for them. Probably less than a second for him.

    ¡°As fascinating as ever,¡± Johnson nodded, interpreting whatever raw data flowed directly into his head at speeds that defied reason. ¡°Even Finity seems to bend ever so slightly around Irwyn. By about¡­ 0.001%? Thereabouts. I wonder if that may increase as he grows in power. Moreover, it seems to always bend in his favor. Is that in an objective sense or in what he perceives then?¡±

    ¡°How did you even install a dilation chamber?¡± she interrupted before Johnson could spend the next ten minutes explaining the intricacies of the exception of an exception of a magical law that only mattered for Domains and above. While such discussions could be intriguing, there were more urgent things on her mind.

    ¡°I told your mother and it got done before I even arrived,¡± he shrugged lightly. ¡°I suppose they can be portable? Who knows how Time-aligned equipment works.¡±

    ¡°You, admitting to ignorance?!¡± she acted out mock outrage with a slight chuckle.

    ¡°Hush, hush. I don¡¯t need to know how to build a hammer when measuring its impact pressure.¡±

    ¡°Surely,¡± she smiled. ¡°Have you seen to¡­ that thing I asked you about?¡± then used that jovial moment to broach the topic before she could second guess herself into silence.

    ¡°Nothing. And by that I mean none whatsoever, neither in the way you had hoped for or dreaded,¡± Johnson told her. He at least knew to say it neutrally.

    ¡°I¡­ see,¡± she did not quite manage to hide the disappointment and, frankly, hurt.

    ¡°Don¡¯t make that face,¡± the doctor patted her on the shoulder. ¡°If your goal is impossible, simply adjust it. Nothing - and I repeat there is nothing - means neither positive nor negative. Take a step back and ask exactly what you have learned and what that might mean.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± she sighed, trying to let go of the glum. Readjust, was it? It was then that she found her insignia ring stirring. The enchantment had malfunctioned after the ordeal in Ebon Respite, however, it had reknitted itself since. As a creation existing explicitly for secure communication, it would be rather useless if it was so easily destroyed.

    Calm? she thought.

    I have brought Alice and Waylan, though they will need to stay away from you before scrutiny slips, he replied. Fair enough, smuggling them into the mansion carried needless risk. Also, whenever possible, your mother wishes to talk.

    Then I will bring Alice along, she returned. Might as well settle several things at once.

    Come pick her up at the Rose Hotel then, Calm immediately adjusted his plans. He himself could not safely travel the Voidways without a guide and her mother often insisted on the privacy of that study that could be accessed in no other way when they spoke candidly.

    ¡°I have to go. My mother,¡± Elizabeth sighed turning to Johnson.

    ¡°No need to apologize. There are still plenty of small things for me and Irwyn to figure out.¡±

    ¡°If at all feasible, remember to tell him where I have gone,¡± she began walking away.

    ¡°No promises,¡± Johnson muttered back half-jokingly, much of his focus clearly elsewhere again. She quickly changed back into her usual dress, then stepped down the hallway towards the front door. The lack of servants remained suspicious, even if reasonable under the circumstances. She took a moment to mess with her hair, toned down her calmness, then walked out.

    The observers have not yet left. Third sons of third sons with nothing better to do than stare at their betters - for their other betters who just happened to share more blood with them. The chaff of nobility that was sometimes so glaringly in sight. Those who failed to grasp Fate despite their origins. Still, Elizabeth pretended to be shaken for their eyes as she hurried towards the Voidways. It was just another cost of weakness. But she lived with the knowledge that unlike theirs, hers would be temporary. She had to suppress the spring that would have brought to her step as she planned the finishing touches of a scheme of her own. Elizabeth finally knew exactly what she would demand for Alice¡¯s testimony. She had a bit of an epiphany after the ordeal in Ebon Respite after all.

    The heiress soon stepped into the Voidways, the familiar atmosphere as comforting as ever. The artifact¡¯s mana whispered to her of calm, perhaps sensing her restlessness. Elizabeth answered with reassurance that she was quite fine. Without anyone else to annoy the endless hallway, the door she needed to take was the very first one on the right. Not that she would mention its moods to anyone - the intellect controlling the Voidways was on the list of secrets she was oathbound to keep. Alice jumped up from her armchair as soon as Elizabeth stepped out. The Rose Hotel was chosen mostly because the Voidways led to a private suite rather than an open lobby, allowing for discretion. Lodgings were also incredibly under-booked overall because of the War, letting Elizabeth meet her entouragee-to-be alone.

    ¡°Hello,¡± Elizabeth opened, allowing Alice a moment to recover.

    ¡°So, I was told to wait for you here but¡­,¡± Alice broached her confusion.

    ¡°You will have your promised meeting with the Duchess,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°We have been summoned.¡±

    ¡°This is a bit sudden, no?¡± the other heiress stared at her in surprise.

    ¡°That is for the best,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°It¡¯s better to not overthink.¡±

    ¡°Hold on a moment! I am not ready for this!¡±

    ¡°Preparation is rather futile,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. Her mother always had her way in the end. Struggles against that were meaningless. Better to just find a way to benefit right back. ¡°Just be polite and honest. There is usually no point in lying anyway.¡±

    ¡°I get nervous around powerful mages, you know?¡±

    ¡°Are you¡­ not aware?¡± Elizabeth paused.

    ¡°Of what?¡± Alice frowned.

    ¡°My mother is quite notoriously untalented. In straight combat, I might actually beat her nowadays.¡±

    ¡°Whaaat?¡± Alice stared again. ¡°How did she¡­¡±

    ¡°It may be better to explore that later,¡± Elizabeth urged. ¡°She will pretend otherwise, but my mother is waiting for us. And I am not in a mood to deal with a petty and upset Duchess.¡±

    ¡°I am experiencing culture shock here, ok?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not the right term, I don''t think.¡±

    ¡°Filial insolence?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s get going,¡± Elizabeth smiled slightly, then turned towards the Voidways before the semantics locked her in a full discussion.

    ¡°I am going to ask a lot of questions later,¡± Alice insisted.

    ¡°That is fine, just get your thoughts in order now,¡± Elizabeth said as they entered. ¡°You wanted a seat at the table and will have it. It¡¯s up to you to make the most of it.¡±

    ¡°Ugh, what is this place?¡± Alice flinched as soon as their feet passed the boundary.

    ¡°The Voidways,¡± Elizabeth inclined her head, watching Alice¡¯s visage twist in apparent disgust. She could not relate. The doorway closed behind them. Elizabeth immediately knew it would be the 10th door on the right. Alice seemed to aggravate them far less than Irwyn ¨C which made sense.

    ¡°Literally every direction is down, it¡¯s making me nauseous,¡± the girl complained.

    ¡°Every direction is deeper, not down,¡± Elizabeth corrected.

    ¡°Can I just close my eyes?¡±

    ¡°Will that help?¡±

    ¡°Probably not¡­¡±

    ¡°It is not far,¡± Elizabeth assured, leading the way at a brisk pace. The Voidways seemed to affect Alice notably worse than even Irwyn whose elements were quite anathemic to them. Then again, the Voidways were not meant to harm. Alice was being challenged not by power but by her own perception. At least the artifact was not outright hostile to the other heiress. Those that were actively disliked tended to get lost and never re-appear.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°I am not sure the meeting place will be better,¡± Alice grunted.

    ¡°The office is impressive but not quite so intense, I expect,¡± Elizabeth assured. ¡°Here. Again: Polite honesty. Do not be fooled by her honeyed words, most are careful manipulations.¡±

    ¡°Now you are just making me more nervous.¡±

    When they entered, the office was the same endless Void as ever. Elizabeth had to admit that there was something comforting about the black walls seemingly stretching into faux infinity as well as the half-hidden Temzda depicted in the distance, though she could not let that distract her.

    ¡°Good of you to come and see me, daughter,¡± Avys smiled, sitting in her seemingly favorite chair. The maid she had with her was wearing a lattice dress woven from what looked like steel. Besides looking uncomfortable, it was obviously a nod to ¡®Steelmire¡¯. Not the level of personal specify her mother usually deployed - but then again, there were very few people left alive who could let personal details slip about Alice, if any.

    ¡°You have literally summoned us here,¡± Elizabeth said carefully. She and Alice approaching their seats, though her latest follower seemed to have been set rather off balance. Not by the dress thought, she barely even registered it.

    ¡°Is it infinite?¡± Alice asked, staring at the endless darkness of the office, seemingly stretching forever in every direction. Unlike Irwyn, Alice did not seem to notice the subtly drawn Temzda behind Avys.

    ¡°It¡¯s not finite,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°That is not necessarily the same thing as you probably know. The room is not objectively that large, but there are no edges to reach.¡±

    ¡°Please, take a seat, Alice,¡± Avys invited, ignoring the explanation. ¡°I have heard many things about you.¡±

    ¡°I appreciate that you would pay attention to me, your Grace,¡± Alice bowed slightly as they took their seats. The posture was a bit off proper etiquette, but that was likely a drift caused by the distance of where she had been educated. At least it was immediately clear that she had been taught.

    ¡°Leave us,¡± Avys nodded to the maid who went and stepped into the Voidways. The woman was not a mage, which made her odds of finding a way out alone¡­ uncertain. Elizabeth did not think the ways liked her mother enough to be accommodating to her subordinates. Sure, there could be something else at play, but an alternative occurred to Elizabeth.

    ¡°Is this a very convoluted way of getting rid of inconvenient servants?¡± Elizabeth challenged as the thought appeared. Outright execution of disloyal servants was heavily frowned upon ¨C insubordination was seen as more of a weakness of the master and thus their fault. But no one would complain if they got lost in the Voidways ¨C another one of those illogical boundaries their Duchy¡¯s nobility clung on to. A servant who managed to get lost was unworthy... the straightforward nobility seemingly did not consider that such disappearances could be arranged.

    ¡°I had originally thought to only speak with my daughter,¡± Avys ignored her spite. ¡°Yet you brought your lovely latest follower with you. I presume for a reason?¡±

    ¡°You knew she would be coming,¡± her mother always did. ¡°And why.¡±

    ¡°Yes, but it would have been polite to tell me anyway,¡± Avys rebutted, then turned to Alice. ¡°So, surely you have had time to think about what you wish to ask for? The Fate of Steelmire does obviously intrigue me. First-hand testimony has been¡­ scarce.¡±

    ¡°I want¡­¡± Alice hesitated, trying to regain her poise.

    ¡°No,¡± Avys interrupted before the request could even be voiced. ¡°I will not agree to help you kill someone you yourself cannot even name.¡±

    ¡°...No, of course, you cannot,¡± Alice paused again, then blushed, embarrassed for being read so precisely. Elizabeth glared, unable to do anything as Alice surrendered leverage. If she had positioned to be disgruntled by the rejection they may have been able to demand more in return. Alas, Elizabeth also knew that outmaneuvering her mother had always been a vain hope in the first place, hence why she had scarcely prepared. Plans were much harder to read and perfectly counter if they never even existed.

    ¡°Surely you knew that,¡± Avys cemented her stance, losing nothing. ¡°What else have you thought of?¡±

    ¡°Then¡­ I would like instruction,¡± Alice voiced. It was an obvious option ¨C since revenge drove her, grasping power was her best option. ¡°My education is incomplete, gaps unfilled. If I wish to progress, I must learn - something few can provide to the standard I require.¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± Avys put a finger to her lips as if considering it. Then she reached into a drawer, pulling out a thick tome, heavily enchanted at a glance, though the magic was subtle enough it would be hard to detect by magical perception alone if Elizabeth wasn¡¯t staring at it. ¡°Perhaps this would suffice.¡±

    ¡°If you could elaborate,¡± Elizabeth nodded. It was not surprising her mother would have something on hand to fulfill one of the more obvious demands. Alice still seemed unduly impressed though.

    ¡°This grimoire had been written some 700 years ago by a Named Farstrider for a favored disciple,¡± Avys explained. ¡°It had been obtained by Elizabeth¡¯s ancestors at some point and seemingly left unused for at least a generation. It should provide all the guidance and knowledge needed to form a domain, perhaps several.¡±

    ¡°And you would¡­ give that to me?¡± Alice stared at it with such blatant hunger it was clear she was already sold.

    ¡°The information you have is not so valuable, dear,¡± Avys chuckled. ¡°I would lend it to you for up to¡­ let¡¯s say 100 years. A century is a nice round number. You would return it upon forming your 9th domain or were the time to run out first, though I doubt that given you had attracted Elizabeth¡¯s attention.¡±

    ¡°Subjective or objective years?¡± Alice immediately wanted to know.

    ¡°Objective.¡±

    ¡°I would want a clause about subjective temporal anomalies, rendering my subjective time with it to less than two-thirds of the objective span.¡±

    ¡°Expecting to travel through ruptures of Time, are you?¡± Avys seemed more amused than angry about additional demands. But then, she never let show anything she did not want. ¡°Very well. You may even have your contingency for an astronomically unlikely scenario for free.¡±

    ¡°Then I am quite satisfied with such a deal,¡± Alice admitted.

    ¡°I am joyous to hear that,¡± Avys nodded, then reached into her desk again, withdrawing a bell forged from black metal. She openly rang it, though no sound was audible. Not ten seconds later the only door into the room opened.

    ¡°Your Ladyships,¡± Dervish of all people bowed. Elizabeth formed a very subtle waving hand with her mana. Explicitly subtle enough to elude her mother¡¯s inferior magical senses.

    ¡°If you would take lovely Alice to her interrogation ¨C though I know it is a bit ahead of schedule,¡± Avys instructed. ¡°I swear to the gentlest treatment. Make sure my promises are kept.¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Dervish nodded, gesturing for Alice to follow him. She gave Elizabeth a hesitant glance at first ¨C not recognizing the Shadow ¨C though her recent liege¡¯s nod seemed to be enough to convince her.

    ¡°Well done with the girl,¡± Avys said as soon as the door shut behind them. ¡°You make me proud.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s talk about my cut of this deal,¡± Elizabeth refused to engage in the comparison.

    ¡°You would have me pay twice for the same service?¡± Avys feigned outrage.

    ¡°Would you not mess with me?¡±

    ¡°Say the words then,¡± Avys inclined her head. ¡°There is order to these things. For all this is just play-acting, it is close enough to real experience.¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± she grit her teeth but relented. ¡°You paid Alice for being interrogated. I am still owed for even letting this bargaining take place. I would have had every right to refuse.¡±

    ¡°The part about refusal is a bit on the nose,¡± Avys judged. ¡°It only works if you are in a position to refuse. And the other side must also know it - you will be surprised by how incredibly some people overvalue their importance, especially when you head North.¡±

    ¡°Why would you think I would head North?¡± Elizabeth feigned ignorance.

    ¡°Because I have your list,¡± Avys rolled her eyes. Elizabeth had requested the Desert of glass be looked into - along with 19 other vague locations she had completely made up. ¡°You know, historians who had traveled most of the Realm are quite difficult to find but surprisingly trivial to bribe.¡±

    ¡°Show me,¡± Elizabeth demanded. Avys shook her head slightly, yet handed over a sheet of paper. Elizabeth slowly, methodically, read each entry very much including the fake ones. Half of the places were simply marked as ¡®not real¡¯, though some of the areas she had made up apparently did match the description of actual exotic wonders of nature.

    Eventually, her eyes found the Desert. Up North, beyond the mountains and then two dozen nations further. A long way, multiple times the span of the entire Federation¡­ but that was where Fate awaited. That was where they would go. Elizabeth still carefully finished pretending to read the other entries. Most likely her mother was just guessing she wanted to go North, given that Elizabeth herself had just found out.

    ¡°Happy?¡± Avys smiled. ¡°It is a small thing, yet I wonder if it should be free. You do insist on being paid for Alice¡¯s knowledge as well.¡±

    ¡°I want everything our House has on imbibing ambrosia: Every ritual, spell, thesis, or artifact that makes the process easier in my hands,¡± Elizabeth made her demand instead of reacting.

    ¡°But not an ambrosia itself,¡± Avys noted. ¡°Even you will not be ready for another for at least a few decades, not to mention the scarcity. Now that certainly makes me wonder what is it that Irwyn had dreamt of.¡±

    ¡°Nothing your fingers will be able to find,¡± Elizabeth allowed a grin to crack her lips. ¡°Nor steal from under our own hands.¡±

    ¡°It would be difficult to smuggle out those artifacts,¡± Avys noted, returning to the original demand. ¡°And risky. Far more risk than what you have provided me is worth.¡±

    ¡°Yet it is still what I demand,¡± Elizabeth grit her teeth, calling Avys¡¯ bluff.

    ¡°How serious are you about keeping Alice,¡± Avys changed the topic seemingly out of nowhere.

    ¡°I like her, and so does Irwyn,¡± she carefully replied, unsure about the purpose of that question.

    ¡°She is going to be more trouble than she is worth for you,¡± Avys sighed. ¡°At least in pure, logical benefit. But I can already see you will not give her up easily.¡±

    ¡°Trouble was obvious given the Fate of Steelmire,¡± Elizabeth frowned. ¡°Yet you still feel the need to warn me. As if you suspected something specific. As if¡­¡±

    ¡°...I already knew who was responsible?¡± Avys smiled.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t you, right?¡± Elizabeth asked, because that would be very problematic.

    ¡°Something so wasteful?¡± Avys raised an eyebrow. ¡°I assure you that had it been done by my hand the circumstances would be far less suspicious with a lot less evidence left behind.¡±

    ¡°Then why do you even need Alice?¡± she questioned.

    ¡°Because more confirmation is always better,¡± Avys shrugged. ¡°And she may yet fill in some gaps. What happened at Steelmire had been done sloppily. With great effort but without true prior planning. A bit¡­ spur of the moment. A desperate atrocity. What I want to understand better is the why.¡±

    ¡°Who?¡± Elizabeth had to ask.

    ¡°Telling you at this point would be a mistake,¡± the Duchess simply shrugged. ¡°You will find out yourself in time.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it always you who says I mustn¡¯t step over your lines?¡± Elizabeth spat. Apparently, her mother was so confident about which secrets she shouldn¡¯t know yet, whether they directly concerned her or not. ¡°How am I supposed to do that if you refuse to even show them?¡±

    ¡°Ah, but this is quite different,¡± Avys laughed. ¡°Now that I know their Fate is sealed, I can plan around it. Maneuver myself into a position to take full advantage of their eventual death. Prepare to dodge the fallout and bring it upon the heads of our enemies.¡±

    ¡°Good for you,¡± Elizabeth grunted. It was true that whoever was responsible would have to die and that eventually, Elizabeth would be beyond stopping. It did not make her particularly happy that her mother was already planning on how to benefit while keeping details hidden.

    ¡°You will have your artifacts,¡± Avys returned to the original demand.

    ¡°I will?¡± she was doubtful it would be as easy.

    ¡°On one extra condition, of course.¡±

    ¡°There always is.¡±

    ¡°When you hunt down Alice¡¯s nemesis, I will be kept in the loop,¡± Avys inclined her head. ¡°And you will deliver me one specific item from the corpse.¡±

 3.47 Wrapping up

    After the dilation chamber, Johnson had many ideas on how to further test Irwyn¡¯s anomalous physique. Unfortunately, a lot of them Irwyn did not have a frame of reference to understand. Longaron¡¯s second law meant nothing to him and therefore breaking it revealed even less. Sometimes he could coax confusing explanations out of Johnson, sometimes the doctor was already too consumed by the next experiment to do even that much.

    Lot of the knowledge was also¡­ impractical. While he had not known his hair grew at an abnormally slow rate, it was not something that really impacted him. Speaking of his hair, it was apparently also unusually durable and resistant to magic. He thought it unlikely that he would lose much of it though - not like any part of him burned.

    Irwyn did manage to grasp several useful things though. For one, the doctor had found out that his immunity to fire extended to all heat including very much the negative. His hand refused to so much show signs of freezing when submerged, first in cold water, then ice when it froze around it. Irwyn had known that he was not prone to cold and even in the depth of winter usually only felt a comfortable chill. He had always ascribed that to some kind of vague idea of ¡®inner fire¡¯ until it became completely mundane and not something he thought about. Never had he considered the possible full extent of it. While chemical ''burns'' were still a danger, frost was not.

    After an explanation, he learned the likely reason: ¡®Cold¡¯ was fundamentally the absence of heat - spread by sapping temperature away into itself, trying to equalize. And heat was ultimately the domain of Flame. Magic manipulating raw cold - or rather, draining and absence of heat ¨C was apparently a scarcely utilized branch of Flame, immediately filling Irwyn¡¯s head with new possibilities. Such restrictions as ¡®difficult¡¯ or ¡®prohibitively expensive mana-wise¡¯ were oftentimes not even a roadblock for him after all.

    That being said, he was warned that Johnson wasn¡¯t certain about how effective that and other resistances might be against prismatic ¨C combined, ¡®for the less educated¡¯ - elements. Ice, for example, was one of the combinations of Flame and Realm. Would he still be completely immune to the cold of such magic? And how about cuts or direct bludgeoning of Elements that were only half-formed of his own?

    Then Johnson speculated about an obscure prismatic elements like ¡®Seasons¡¯ which was formed from Time and Realm, drawing inspiration from the cycle of seasons - Johnson thus wondered if Irwyn would be particularly resistant to summer¡¯s scorching heat or winter¡¯s chill wielded by a powerful mage as Flame as an element took no part in it. Such mages were rare though because the element was highly difficult to form before conception and not very well known, to the point Johnson didn¡¯t think he would be able to obtain anything of the element with a power worth testing - not on short notice, anyway. Much more importantly, the doctor reached revelations concerning Irwyn¡¯s Soul. For once, when Johnson bothered to explain, it was slowly. Gradually building up the context for his conclusion. Not that Irwyn minded.

    ¡°Do you know what is the Funnel, as the term goes?¡± Johnson said as he broached the topic.

    ¡°The connection between the Reservoir and the Vessel,¡± Irwyn nodded. That was one of the first bits of theory he had learned.

    ¡°True, but incomplete,¡± Johnson shook his head. ¡°What is the Reservoir? What is the Vessel? It would not be wrong to call each a representation of the Soul and the Body. A simplified term that we use when speaking of mana as to avoid the baggage of other words. But that is all: Representation. There is no convenient pocket of mana isolated from everything else within your Soul. You have likely already found that when magic is within the confines of your body it is not separate from it. The funnel is much the same. It is not a literal tube, rather, it may take a multitude of forms. All that is required is that connects the two and allows mana to pass in between.¡±

    ¡°Makes sense,¡± Irwyn nodded, though he did not see the point quite yet.

    ¡°There are, of course, extreme variations. One such is when there is no such funnel while the Soul and the Body are basically interwoven due to ¡®proximity¡¯. While some Life mages may accomplish this purposefully, it is usually considered a disability. With no funnel to regulate the flow, it is rather common for mana oversaturation and death to occur at an early age before one can develop magical skills to control it. Those that survive at first practically have the Vessel and the Reservoir merged. While that grants them great reserves compared to peers, they are also prone to sudden Reservoir depletion. An average mage will have enough time and symptoms to realize their Soul is being exhausted and stop draining it, however, without the funnel, it is quite easy to reach fatal levels of depletion in minutes - or even with a single massive spell. I had thought you were a variant of such a case, merely with a Soul powerful enough as to never even approach depletion and a body immune to the side effects of excessive mana.¡±

    ¡°You no longer do,¡± Irwyn noted the implication.

    ¡°At first your data seems to affirm my earlier theory: Mana enters your body from everywhere at the same rate¡­¡±

    ¡°My blood conducts it faster,¡± Irwyn frowned. He had discovered that much in his pursuit of magic. And not just blood, magic flowed into and through parts of him at a different speed. Johnson¡¯s statement seemed inaccurate at best.

    ¡°At the same rate when accounting for organ conductivity,¡± Johnson corrected. ¡°Blood is a better conduit than most organs or flesh. But I have done the math: Everything is within the ranges of coefficients. If you divide the flow by the conductivity, you will realize that everywhere in your body draws upon the Reservoir equally ¨C at least the difference is within the range of rounding errors. That is usually a symptom of lacking a Funnel: The name does not come from nothing. Usually, a mage has one or several points through which all the mana is ¡®funneled¡¯ into the Vessel.¡±

    ¡°But you are saying for me that is everywhere?¡± Irwyn reiterated.

    ¡°Exactly, which had thrown me off at first, as I have said,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°But you lack too many of the other symptoms: Your presence is too controlled, too subtle - that level would be impossible with constantly overflowing mana; your Soul is also not in¡­ enough ¡®proximity¡¯ to the body. My instruments have even found it blurred.¡±

    ¡°Blurred?¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°What is that supposed to mean?¡±

    ¡°Not your Soul, just the readings,¡± Johnson reiterated. ¡°In other words, something is stopping them from working properly. Like your Soul is obscured. If my earlier hypothesis of the Body and Soul being half melded together¡­ well such Souls are notoriously easy to access. So, I have a new hypothesis, nay, a theory!¡±

    ¡°Which is?¡±

    ¡°From everything I see, the only logical conclusion is that the exact opposite is true,¡± Johnson smiled. ¡°Rather than your Vessel and Reservoir being too close with no funnel in between them, they are instead separated by a powerful boundary, still technically lacking a proper Funnel. It explains why you draw magic at the same rate everywhere - as there is no path of least resistance that a Funnel usually represents. Imagine it like drawing water through a paper: It is infinitely easier if there is a hole in it, but with enough effort, you can still squeeze some through the material. That is what you have been essentially doing.¡±

    ¡°That can happen?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. ¡°I have never heard of something like that.¡±

    ¡°Yes, the condition is actually extremely common,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°Generally, it is called ¡®not being a mage¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Ah,¡± Irwyn nodded, understanding quickly dawning on him. ¡°If there is no Funnel but the Soul and Body are too distant, one shouldn¡¯t really be able to draw any magic. That poses more questions about me though - how am I a mage then.¡±

    ¡°The question of what allows or disallows one from being a mage is incredibly complex. Comparing them with your exact case would take an extreme breadth of experience,¡± Johnson said, then smiled. ¡°Thankfully, I would consider myself one of the foremost experts in the field.¡±A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    ¡°Is that so?¡± Irwyn raised an eyebrow. Johnson had been just hesitant in speaking about his expertise. Was that a slip or unrelated? ¡°Should I have guessed?¡±

    ¡°It is merely that most others scarcely bother understanding more mortally inclined humans,¡± Johnson shrugged. ¡°I have found them quite illuminating in certain ways - and the decade spent on such pursuit is still paying dividends, it would appear. Because of it I can tell you with complete confidence that out of the tens of thousands of cases I have seen, you are completely unique in this regard as well.¡±

    ¡°A lot of ¡®unique¡¯ being used today,¡± Irwyn smiled slightly.

    ¡°Non-mages do not possess the bare minimum amount of magic to even start learning to wield it. Often because their Funnel is either completely absent or so stunted it cannot draw any significant power. Usually, this is a result of the Vessel and Reservoir being too far detached¡­ Imagine two towns, trying to trade: The Funnel is a road. If they are close, trade will blossom and a better road may even be built because of that. If they are far away, however, trade is far more difficult - if a road is already not in place, it might be outright impossible. Of course¡­¡±

    ¡°Using ¡®distance¡¯ is a massive oversimplification?¡± Irwyn guessed. ¡°I think that when speaking of magic this has been the case more often than not, at least lately.¡±

    ¡°As a rule of thumb, people mean actual physical distance only when speaking about Finity or actual Time magic,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°Thought you have already picked up on that, it seems.¡±

    ¡°How am I different then?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°The chasm between your body and Soul are not merely ¡®distance¡¯. It is like your Soul is surrounded by a wall with no gaps.¡±

    ¡°Would that not make drawing magic only more difficult?¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°That is the purpose of walls,¡± Johnson smiled. ¡°They are meant to keep something out. Or in your case: In.¡±

    ¡°So you are telling me that my Soul is essentially locked inside an egg?¡± Irwyn squinted a bit.

    ¡°That is not an inaccurate summary,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°But it remains a rather purposeful egg, either built with intent or is a greatly fortunate natural formation. The walls become slightly more permeable when your body fills with mana. Mana from a source multitudes stronger than a Soul of an imbuement mage has any right to be. So much so that it can close the gap between Vessel and Reservoir by force at significant potency. I find it quite possible that rather than your Soul growing and thus increasing in power as is the case with regular mages, you are merely becoming more capable of drawing more of it.¡±

    ¡°That certainly explains my bottomless reserves,¡± Irwyn nodded. Yet in his head, a thought occurred: And what other source would be at the core of him if not the Name? What less would need to be kept ¡®in¡¯? When it came to his thoughts, he began to feel it again with renewed intensity - just at the edge of perception but always undeniable. He tried to bring his thoughts elsewhere as quickly as he could.

    ¡°Whether it is purposeful or not, it makes you significantly harder to affect with Soul magic. Also much harder to examine with it - that limits what I can find. Merely that it exudes great power and is of Starfire in nature - I may note that attuned Souls are unusual before domains, though not unheard of. Alas, I am not quite willing to risk shattering the shell to have a more precise look within.¡±

    ¡°Then what if the egg cracks?¡± Irwyn asked when Johnson brought the possibility up.

    ¡°That depends,¡± Johnson shrugged. ¡°Is your Soul already a chick or just yolk? I expect the power will be quite¡­ overwhelming. Certainly, more than your current body would survive. Whether whatever is within can adapt to flesh ceasing¡­ I have no basis to speculate in either direction.¡±

    ¡°So, I am constantly at a brink of death? Without ever having a clue,¡± Irwyn stared. ¡°With nothing I can do about it.¡±

    ¡°It has held steadfast so far,¡± Johnson shrugged. ¡°The best thing you can do to prepare is to become more powerful. If your Vessel becomes more magically robust it certainly won¡¯t hurt your chances if disaster strikes. And as I said, it is definitely possible you can survive your body disintegrating because of this uniqueness in your soul. There is a huge difference between ''completely bodily destruction'' and ''death'' when speaking of high magic.¡±

    ¡°Am I at risk of that destruction happening with any Soul mage though?¡± Irwyn inquired, not even trying to hide his worry. That would be an obvious vulnerability.

    ¡°Of course not,¡± Johnson shook his head. ¡°The Soul mages you can expect to meet don¡¯t actually understand how exactly they are manipulating a Soul. They merely tell a spell what to do. For them, your Soul will be more intangible and immutable. Even I did not spot the ¡®eggshell¡¯, as you put it, right away. If a mage capable of it gets hostile, you have far bigger issues and faster ways to die. Thought it is worth making sure it is not somehow damaged by accident.¡±

    ¡°Reassuring,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡±What can I even do then?¡±

    ¡°The first step would be learning to feel your Soul,¡± Johnson hummed. ¡°I am not sure how much more difficult the shell would be to perceive, but it is definitely the first step towards monitoring it.¡±

    ¡°That seems like a significant feat given I do not possess the element,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°It is not unlike feeling your flesh,¡± Johnson shrugged. ¡°You will get a hang of it quickly.¡±

    ¡°Feeling the Soul is obviously not the same,¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°I can feel my body quite well. Sometimes more than I even want. The closest I have come to feeling my Soul is trying to estimate how much mana I have left in the Vessel - quite a ways off.¡±

    ¡°Ah, so you can feel every fiber of muscle with perfect clarity?¡± Johnson raised an eyebrow. ¡°You can manually control which glands excrete which hormones? Regulate the function of your organs through will? Feeling your body and soul are fundamentally the same thing, albeit one you develop experience in from an early age, while the other usually not. Just like you will never feel your body the same way a Life mage does, neither can you experience the Soul the same way as a mage of the element. That does not mean the two are ultimately that different for someone like you.¡±

    ¡°I have¡­ not thought of it like that,¡± Irwyn said, thoughtful. Was there a flaw in the logic or was Johnson¡¯s explanation simply the truth? Intuitively, it felt wrong, but Johnson was the expert between them by eons. ¡°Still, if it is so subtle, how did you notice it? Is the equipment enough to overcome lacking affinity?¡±

    ¡°Hmmm?¡± the doctor hummed his confusion for a moment. ¡°Ah, no, you seem to make a common mistake Irwyn. For all I mostly advertise my skill with Flesh, I do also possess the element of the Soul - it is merely subtler. You were originally sent to my care because of damaged memories, if you recall. My equipment is quite good but it still requires a skilled guiding hand.¡±

    ¡°I had no idea,¡± Irwyn admitted. Then a thought struck him since Johnson wielded Life and Soul, ¡°Do you possess a prismatic element, as you call them, then?¡±

    ¡°Naturally - most of us with two affinities do eventually,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°Alas, the name of it is quite telling¡­ if you even know the word, quite obscure - nonetheless Avys would be quite wroth with me, given the secrets it implies. I know of no one else who has ever formed it within the Federation but neither have I looked particularly hard. Needless to say, it concerns my primary area of research. You may eventually peruse my hundreds of papers when the inconvenient branches are pruned and masks shed if you are still interested by then.¡±

    ¡°You work more closely with the Duchess than I had realized,¡± Irwyn admitted. And was doing something special in Abonisle, so much so it had to be done cut away from even communication. The man had offhandedly implied it when they had first met. And now that Irwyn had the chance to get a better grasp on him, Johnson did not seem like the type to ever bother with a lie. When he wanted something hidden, he just blatantly refused to speak on it. The same could not be said about the Duchess though ¨C he could not guess what she was planning at all.

    ¡°Well, I had come with her to the Duchy Federation - even if I mostly saw her as a volatile investment at the time,¡± Johnson nodded with a fond smile. ¡°Frankly, I had expected the little schemer to maybe snatch a middling Baron, letting me set up for a few years while I prepared for other ventures. Instead, she managed to entice Ezax von Blackburg and then helped him claim the Dukeship. As you may imagine, my plans had changed in the light of that.¡±

    ¡°There is a story there,¡± Irwyn opened.

    ¡°Indeed,¡± the doctor nodded. ¡°Not relevant to this though. I have a last few small tests I would like to try before Elizabeth inevitably steals you away.¡±

    Those turned out to be, indeed, mild. Testing taste buds, smell, balance, eyesight, and such. The doctor assured Irwyn that while sharp, his physical senses and subtler characteristics were not wholly superhuman. Elizabeth finally returned not long after that. She was wearing an incredibly fluffy black bathrobe. Somewhat embarrassed, she admitted that the Duchess had ¡®forced her¡¯ to attend a spa appointment after their conversation so as to sell any observers on her mental disquiet after recent events. That being said, Elizabeth did not seem particularly angry about that arrangement.

    With her arrival though, Johnson decided he was finally done for the moment. He promised to think of other possibilities to test when Irwyn next ¡®required professional care of a proper standard¡¯. Then the doctor promptly left, not even bothering to collect his piles of attire, the entire gym, or other magical equipment. How all that would leave the mansion, Irwyn did not know.

    ¡°At least he is not suggesting coming around every so often explicitly for testing,¡± Irwyn shook his head in disbelief.

    ¡°Johnson is most likely quite busy. He gets¡­ obsessive with his work,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°I cannot say what is devouring most of his time at the moment but this was more of an interlude for him, I presume. Like taking a stroll to clear your head, except Johnson is incapable of not being productive. Terrifying when you think about how long he has been at it.¡±

    ¡°How did your meeting go?¡± Irwyn asked before they could distract themselves further.

    ¡°I know our destination,¡± Elizabeth nodded, turning serious. ¡°We will be headed North. Far, far North.¡±

 3.48 Hanging

    Elizabeth led the way towards her study - Irwyn had not known there was one, but it was hardly surprising in a mansion. He had inquired about Waylan and Alice; the sneak was getting a crash course on ¡®do not get killed etiquette¡¯ while Alice was busy retelling what she knew of Steelmire¡¯s destruction and would likely be for a while, if not the rest of the day. It was not long until the main topic was brought into focus - barely after the tea was set down, really.

    ¡°Just as I had assumed, we will be heading North,¡± Elizabeth pointed to the sheet. Where her finger landed was indeed written ¡®a desert surrounded by mountains of glass¡¯. Except it was confusingly enough in the middle of a rather densely inscribed page.

    ¡°And the rest?¡± Irwyn frowned, quickly scanning some of it and finding it to be mostly irrelevant landmarks.

    ¡°Decoys for my mother, only this matters,¡± she reiterated, then read out loud. ¡°Past the Northern mountains, through eight nations and one, two other deserts and a lake as large as a sea. In between the Republica of Firland and the Scholardom of Imma.¡±

    ¡°Why is it not just nine nations?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°No idea,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Whoever gave the directions apparently had a feeling for flair.¡±

    ¡°Who even wrote these?¡±

    ¡°Someone well-traveled, presumably¡­¡± Elizabeth said, pausing. ¡°We can ask when we talk with my mother again. As loath as I am to say it, we will need her help with actually leaving.¡±

    ¡°Is getting through the mountains difficult?¡± Irwyn wondered. ¡°Does it require teleportation or some such?¡±

    ¡°Teleporting all the way through so much solid matter?¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°It would take a Truth mage specialist, I would guess. Black is terribly short on those at the moment¡­ well for the past few decades. Our last one suddenly disappeared about 30 years ago? I remember reading something of the sort, but that¡¯s beside the point. No, the mountains are either bypassed by sea or traversed through a limited number of tunnels.¡±

    ¡°You mentioned a while back that seas are unsafe because of the War,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°And I presume the tunnels are heavily restricted.¡±

    ¡°That. We would also not be able to get to one without being seen,¡± she nodded. ¡°The easiest to reach by far is just North of Abonisle, and the city is still very much on high alert.¡±

    ¡°What a coincidence,¡± Irwyn smiled slightly.

    ¡°Abonisle used to be more a fortress than a city for centuries¡­ maybe longer,¡± she explained. ¡°It was a natural place to build one such tunnel. Now that the beacon is so close, the others are scarcely used.¡±

    ¡°So, we arrange a meeting with the Duchess.¡±

    ¡°First, Alice,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°I would like to make her officially part of my entourage and then convince her to come along.¡±

    ¡°And Waylan,¡± Irwyn said.

    ¡°The journey could be dangerous,¡± Elizabeth pointed out. The implication was clear but also sensible.

    ¡°Eight nations and one,¡± Irwyn repeated. ¡°I think we will go through plenty of cities where he will be right at home.¡±

    ¡°I will not argue against it if you think it¡¯s fine,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Either way, this is for later. I don¡¯t think I can handle two meetings in the same week.¡±

    ¡°Duel?¡± Irwyn suggested.

    ¡°I am supposed to be distressed,¡± Elizabeth rolled her eyes, then smiled. ¡°We will have to wait until at least tomorrow.¡±

    <hr>

    Except on the dawn of the next day, Calm arrived to bring them to an altogether different occasion. He told them to wear formal attire, yet was evasive about what exactly they would be doing.

    ¡°It is more interesting as a surprise,¡± Calm smiled. ¡°I don¡¯t know if it will be quite to your taste, Irwyn, but Elizabeth will certainly enjoy such.¡±

    ¡°Now you have me even more curious,¡± she sighed as they walked out the front door. ¡°What happened to ¡®disturbed¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Now you are putting on a brave face in public, while still staying mostly out of sight besides traveling in between,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°Works well enough.¡±

    ¡°So, where we are going is not quite public?¡± she guessed.

    ¡°Oh, quite the opposite,¡± Calm shook his head. ¡°We will just happen to be out of sight.¡±

    ¡°Where to then?¡± she asked.

    ¡°To the theatre,¡± Calm replied.

    ¡°Waylan and Alice?¡± Irwyn wanted to know. Neither of them had made it to the mansion so far.

    ¡°Alice is already waiting for you there,¡± Calm said. ¡°Waylan had decided that he wants nothing to do with today¡¯s festivities. He seems to have found himself something else to burn the time, anyhow.¡±

    There was a short lull as they left the building and headed towards the Voidways. There were still people blatantly watching them come and go, though far fewer than just the day prior. Irwyn, nonetheless, put some effort into not looking at ease before they quickly reached the gate. From there Elizabeth led them through as confidently as ever. It was not long before they found themselves in a vaguely familiar hallway out of the black gate. There was no one around but Calm took over navigating, down two sets of stairs and then a bit further until they reached their suite. Inside, someone was indeed waiting for them. Or well, maybe not really ¡®waiting¡¯ as she seemed quite occupied.

    ¡°Alice?¡± Irwyn called out when she did not react to their arrival. The Time mage was sitting in one of the comfortable armchairs, intently staring into an open grimoire of some kind, all the while ¡®juggling¡¯ nine marbles of different colors. That is, if juggling could be confused with rapidly teleporting them around on a strange trajectory. There was something mesmerizing about their staggering motion, though it ended before Irwyn could ponder it.

    ¡°Sorry, a bit¡­ distracted,¡± Alice shook her head, closed the book then finally focused on them. ¡°Am I imagining things or is the Beacon just minutely different from the one in Abonisle? Genuinely cannot tell if it''s just in my head or a fact of things.¡±

    ¡°If it is I have not heard about it,¡± Elizabeth shrugged as she and Irwyn took their seats, then turned to Calm. ¡°Would you finally tell us what this is about?¡±

    ¡°Look for yourself,¡± Calm just kept smiling slightly, beckoning towards the stage.

    The first thing Irwyn noticed was that they were a lot closer than during the Exenn. In fact, they seemed to be in just the second row from the very front. That gave them a much better view of the stage, if a bit sideways. Immediately, he also noted that it had been restructured: Rather than tiered platforms to denote the status of guests, it was almost completely level. All except the empty dragon throne, which had been moved to the very back, where it overlooked everything.

    The main act concentrated around four people standing around an elevated box - about half an arm¡¯s length in each dimension. Two of them were almost nondescript: One wore a simple green robe, the other a white one. There were scarcely any other defying features to them and they mostly stood to the side. The third person also wore robes, though theirs were far more adorned: Pitch black but lined with silver symbols. Irwyn recognized the fort-like insignia of House Blackburg but also many others he was unsure of. Two that struck him were a pupilless eye and a depiction of an empty coffin. They were standing right behind the fourth person, a hand firmly on her shoulder.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    The last one was younger, and far less ritualistically attired. Also visibly nervous, trembling actually. Irwyn was close enough to see the gentle but frequent shudders. She wore a blindfold - likely hiding a visage of fear - and a simple dress, all black. Though Irwyn recognized the person easily despite that. The black scars seemingly tracing old tears were quite telltale.

    ¡°Alira?¡± Irwyn frowned, never too pleased to see her. It was almost palpable that she was afraid though, and whatever was happening did not involve him directly, so he deferred judgment.

    ¡°Alira,¡± Elizabeth confirmed, grinning an overjoyed smile. There was something intense about the stare she leveled towards the stage. Filled with thrill and anticipation. She also clearly already understood much more of what was happening.

    ¡°The person we do not like,¡± Alice affirmed, playing off her apparent ignorance and confusion. ¡°Though I still cannot put a face to her.¡±

    ¡°The blindfold is quite traditional,¡± Calm added.

    ¡°What is actually happening?¡± Irwyn asked. ¡°Some kind of punishment?¡±

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Elizabeth did not turn away from the stage as she answered. ¡°It would seem that secretly hiring assassins against the Duke¡¯s explicit orders was a step too far even for House Fathomsight.¡±

    ¡°Her family basically begged Ezax to take her, lest he starts to consider if someone else shares the blame,¡± Calm nodded, then paused. ¡°No, I am giving them too little credit. For all they are stubborn beyond reason, the branches are not so duplicitous. They cling on to their principles and traditions to the point of obsession - not just out of convenience. Alira has defiled those in several ways, House Fathomsight would have done the same even without a word from the Duke - albeit more privately.¡±

    ¡°They do so hate low scheming are defying hiearchies,¡± Elizabeth kept smiling. ¡°Everything has to be done in the ¡®light of day¡¯ as ironic as saying it that way is. In hindsight, it was obviously headed towards this the moment Alira¡¯s complicity in exactly that was discovered. Not that I mind the pleasant surprise, her own House turning on her has flair.¡±

    ¡°As strange as it may sound, I am almost surprised to see some kind of justice done,¡± Irwyn shook his head.

    ¡°Justice is subjective,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Some people just have the power to enforce their point of view. As far as some of our elder mages are concerned, the world is overflowing with the justice they have put in place.¡±

    ¡°Please, not philosophy,¡± Alice interjected. ¡°Next we will have to move on to subjective morality and how burglary or banditry can somehow be a good thing. If you do something, at least don¡¯t make any excuses.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough, I don¡¯t suppose I ever cared too much for what is ¡®just¡¯,¡± Elizabeth shrugged.

    ¡°Hi, a former full-time thief here,¡± Irwyn extended an arm to Alice in mock introduction. ¡°Expert on the importance of law.¡±

    ¡°Hush,¡± Alice grinned. ¡°Maybe I was a bit out of turn. I could never stand people justifying obviously wrong stuff in with such excuses.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps a bit,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But we hardly mind. And I believe it is starting.¡±

    Just as her word sounded, Irwyn felt it too. It was¡­ like the deep sound of a bell tower ringing, except without the sound itself. It had all the depth and gravitas, yet was also eerily silent. The effect was most likely Void in nature, yet Irwyn could not quite make sense of it. Either way, it signaled the beginning, everything turning to silence.

    ¡°Zett,¡± the man ¨C that was suddenly apparent from the deep tone ¨C in the ceremonial black robe spoke, then stepped fully behind Alira. Rather than just one hand, he placed both on her shoulders. His voice was deep and almost too loud.

    ¡°Did I mishear?¡± Alice frowned. ¡°Or is it just accent?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s mortal tongue,¡± Irwyn opined.

    ¡°Zett means crime¡­ but also more,¡± Elizabeth translated, never taking her eyes off the stage. ¡°It is also disobedience, acting beyond one''s station, breaking rules. It is, fundamentally, behaving in defiance of society - of one''s equals, lessers, and betters.¡±

    ¡°Ferre Zcel,¡± his hands moved along the shoulders until they grasped Alira¡¯s neck. The hold was firm enough to appear almost as if he was choking the girl from behind. The blindfolded heiress opened her mouth as if to speak but no words came out. Her trembling had only gotten worse.

    ¡°Ferre is judgment. ¡®Pruning of Fate¡¯ to be exact. Void can destroy a great many things, even parts of Fate can be cut away - until only one path can be trod. Though of course, that is not what is actually happening here,¡± Elizabeth explained again. ¡°Zcel means paragon. The single best individual in a community. Here in the Duchy of Black such rituals use it interchangeably with ¡®Duke¡¯. It makes it clear that the matter today falls firmly within my father¡¯s authority.¡±

    ¡°Xen,¡± the robed man spoke the third word after a long few second of silence. His hands flickered, and for a moment Irwyn did not even notice what he had done. He still held Alira¡¯s head firmly in place, except, the rest fell away. Literally.

    Alira¡¯s body crumbled to the ground, severed. Not a drop of blood fell. There was no sound, not even the thud of a torso hitting the ground. The executioner merely held the blindfolded head up, as if to show their audience.

    ¡°Xen is death,¡± Elizabeth didn¡¯t even pause with surprise while Irwyn and Alice mutely gaped. ¡°True death. Erasure of Life and Soul, such that no Rot can bloom from so barren a corpse.¡±

    Irwyn was a bit too stunned to respond so he merely watched. The two other robed men approached the corpse, touching it together. After a moment they stepped away and gave the executioner an exaggerated nod, whereas the corpse immediately turned to dust ¨C or whatever the appropriate term was for Void magic. Next the two approached again, touching the head and affirming something again.

    Next, the head was placed into the box, blindfold still on, which was then closed. When that was done, the other two robed mages approached it and placed a colored seal each on it - White and Green, just like their robes. The actions were slow, ceremonial.

    ¡°The closest kin may come and reclaim,¡± the robed man spoke in the common language when all of it was done, taking two steps back and staring dead forward.

    Shakily, a young boy walked onto the stage. He was clearly in his early teens, eyes bawling out of their sockets. Step by stumbling step, the boy made his way to the center, stared upon by countless strangers within the theatre. He never stopped crying as he accepted the marked and locked box from the executioner, then haltingly departed the same way he had come.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think they quite realize how their little prodigy will come to despise them for all this,¡± Calm finally broke the silence.

    ¡°Not as much as he will hate me, I imagine,¡± Elizabeth finally looked away, still very much smiling.

    ¡°Yet you will be leaving soon enough from what I have gathered,¡± Calm shrugged. ¡°Out of sight, out of mind, as they say. That will leave only one other group he can load all the blame onto.¡±

    ¡°This feels too far,¡± Irwyn finally brought himself to speak.

    ¡°Would you advocate for a light sentence?¡± Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, the smile slipping a bit. ¡°She had literally hired assassins after your head.¡±

    ¡°Which were unexpectedly powerful, yes, but from my understanding the presumption was that they almost certainly would not be,¡± Irwyn spoke, unsure of what to say. ¡°And maybe I am wrong to offer her any pity¡­ but this? This felt too far for comfort.¡±

    Not the death ¨C Alira had done enough to deserve it in his eyes. The ceremony of it. The prolonging and the observers. They were in a theatre of all places. It was different than just killing. It was not heat of the moment of battle, nor self-defense. Not survival - entertainment.

    ¡°It is not the assassination attempt that warrants death,¡± Calm interjected. ¡°That in itself would not be enough. In reality, out of her three crimes, that is the lightest, as far as the nobility reckons such things. What matters much more is that she has willfully defied the Duke¡¯s decree and that she had endangered an heir of similar or higher status. Either of those two would have ended her Fate when exposed.¡±

    ¡°She already received more than she had ever earned with the fanfare,¡± Elizabeth scoffed. ¡°The only redeeming circumstance is the opportunity to witness it.¡±

    "I get the executioner''s role, but what about the other two?" Irwyn asked after a moment of silence, hoping to diver the topic.

    ¡°All mages executed during a Lich war must be examined by a Life and Soul mage," Elizabeth answered. "As to deny them possibly being risen. At least in theory ¨C it is not necessarily followed for those before conception. Since the nature of her crime had become somewhat public in the recent days, House Fathomsight has at least ensured the event would be sufficiently ceremonial. That way they can shed at least some of the shame.¡±

    ¡°This is all a bit too macabre for me,¡± Alice spoke suddenly. She had been silent long enough to be almost forgotten. ¡°I think I want to leave now.¡±

    The three of them turned towards her. Now Irwyn noticed how she was completely stoic¡­ uncharacteristically so. Elizabeth spoke before he could think of something. ¡°Very well. It is over either way.¡±

    The way back was somewhat silent. Alice remained stonefaced and Irwyn was not in a mood to speak either. Elizabeth¡¯s smile had shifted into a slight scowl while Calm had excused himself before they even left the theatre, leaving the three of them to trod the Voidways without him. Back at the mansion, Alice asked only to be shown to her rooms, which fell to Elizabeth as servants were still absent. Irwyn did not dally in more communal areas either, opting to retreat into privacy. His thoughts remained quite uncertain well into the evening.

 3.49 Deal with the Duchess

    Moods got less sour by the next day. Alice seemed eager to not mention the execution and so was, in all honesty, Irwyn. Elizabeth followed suit. Waylan snuck in during the morning from who knows where and they had a small celebration over the reunion - really, it was just an early lunch. Elizabeth got a bit festive and decided to order them mana-enriched food. While Irwyn remained wary of overindulging, the experience was still cathartic. For Alice it was exciting but not something completely new, though Steelmire never had those in abundance. Apparently, it took only around 12 hours for the meat of even truly mighty monsters to lose much of its potency after death due to Finity. Irwyn did not even want to imagine the supply chain required to make that happen. Waylan¡¯s reaction remained the most intriguing of all:

    ¡°It tastes like nothing,¡± he shrugged, hiding disappointment. ¡°Not even like ash. Just nothin¡¯.¡±

    ¡°That sounds¡­ improbable,¡± Elizabeth frowned.

    ¡°Do normal people have the same reaction?¡± Irwyn asked. ¡°Could also be merely a quirk of Waylan¡¯s Honing.¡±

    ¡°I have no idea,¡± she admitted. Unfortunately, the staff was still missing and Elizabeth did not even know who to ask - except perhaps her mother, but she would not want to talk over something so frivolous.

    Then the sneak spent the rest of the day testing his stealth against the mansion¡¯s countless wards to Elizabeth¡¯s growing bafflement - he did not get past them all but did sneak through ''unresonably many''. Alice was wholeheartedly obsessed with a book of some sort and barely even left her room. Irwyn was testing out some ideas Johnson had brought upon him and scarcely made time for tea.

    The day after that the servants began to file in again. Few at first but by midday the mansion seemed fully staffed. Within hours every sign of filth, stain, or general wear Irwyn may have noticed - or even caused - over the previous few days vanished. It was also then that Elizabeth broached the subject of the journey as they gathered. The excuse was midday tea, much to Alice¡¯s dismay.

    ¡°North, eh?¡± Waylan nodded after a brief explanation of where. ¡°Aight.¡±

    ¡°Do you not have any questions?¡± Alice stared at him.

    ¡°Why?¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°Sounds fine enough. I gotta go say bye to the gang but what is it to me where we go? I ain¡¯t planning nothing anyway.¡±

    ¡°Because this is all terribly vague,¡± Alice frowned. ¡°Like the why for example.¡±

    ¡°It is complicated¡­¡± Elizabeth began.

    ¡°I would at least hope for honesty,¡± Alice immediately interrupted.

    ¡°Yes, you deserve as much,¡± Irwyn decided while Elizabeth hesitated ¨C it was his secret to give in the first place. Looking over at his friend, he continued. ¡°I am not sure if Waylan has caught up on everything either. I get a bit mixed up in what I told who.¡±

    ¡°Probably, but go ahead,¡± Waylan shrugged and Irwyn began to explain. At least a good chunk of it.

    The idea of visions did not seem that strange to Alice. She certainly showed interest in hearing the stories of them but was satisfied with the knowledge that it was those visions revealing the burial site of a great treasure of Light, Flame, and Void. He did not reveal that said treasures were possibly fragments of the very Aspects. Nor did he mention the ancient Name he suspected to be his - that was something that loomed overhead ever more intensely even between him and Elizabeth.

    ¡°Honestly, fleeing up North is a great idea to begin with,¡± Alice said afterward. No one was eager to die to the Rot. ¡°I have just heard that desertion during a Lich war is borderline impossible.¡±

    ¡°That is a hurdle to resolve,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But do not forget who my parents are. I don¡¯t know what price there will be to pay but I have set my mind.¡±

    ¡°Which means another meeting,¡± Irwyn guessed.

    ¡°Which means another meeting with my mother,¡± she confirmed, then paused. ¡°In a few days. I think once in a week is quite enough.¡±

    ¡°I will come along. This concerns me as well,¡± Irwyn offered.

    ¡°If I am not needed, I would rather stay,¡± Alice chimed in, giving Elizabeth a slightly confused glance. ¡°My ring keeps screaming at me now whenever I am just thinking about the Duchess.¡±

    ¡°It is wiser than I would have thought then,¡± Elizabeth nodded, earning an eyeroll from Alice.

    ¡°Don¡¯t think I am quite up to that importance, eh?¡± Waylan spoke. ¡°Can leave me out. Not like I have much polite to say.¡±

    ¡°We will need to also officiate Alice joining my entourage,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°It will make things simpler. Waylan, for you¡­ honestly, I don¡¯t think anyone will double-check a non-mage coming alongside us. Paperwork can be arranged just in case¡­ maybe pretending to be a servant or interpreter? I hear there are some Northern languages divergent from the common mortal tongue.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t speak no other language.¡±

    ¡°Barely the one,¡± Irwyn jabbed.

    ¡°Get me those papers in advance,¡± Waylan ignored him but grinned. ¡°I wanna memorize stuff just in case,¡± for all they liked to joke, Old Crow did not raise them to go into such things unprepared.

    ¡°It will be arranged,¡± Elizabeth nodded, just finishing her tea. ¡°Anyone wants another cup?¡±

    Waylan declined and Alice had barely touched her own. Irwyn stayed though, leaving them alone not too long after with fresh beverage.

    ¡°You know¡­,¡± he started, then paused. ¡°I¡­¡±

    ¡°The thing about your visions you always omit,¡± she smiled while placing down the new cups.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Was it so obvious?¡±

    ¡°Not until you mentioned it to Johnson,¡± she shook her head. ¡°Then I looked back and realized you were always vague about whose perspective they are from. Almost increasingly with each vision. Early on you said they might have been from the same being at different times but never brought it up afterwards, even to dismiss.¡±

    ¡°I do trust you. It¡¯s just that¡­¡± Irwyn gathered his thoughts. ¡°I am not sure I believe that which also cannot be denied either, if that makes sense.¡±

    ¡°A bit.¡±

    ¡°It would probably make me sound raving mad if I said it out loud,¡± Irwyn reiterated.

    ¡°That only makes me more curious,¡± she smiled. ¡°But not today, I think. I have enough to ponder about. And I don¡¯t believe there will be time to be so distracted in the near future.¡±

    ¡°When then?¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°When we are far enough away that my mother cannot catch a whisper of it,¡± she said after a moment. ¡°When I finally feel like no one is staring into my back. Where I won¡¯t be afraid she might ply the knowledge out of me with velvet and rancid words. Yes¡­ I think I would like that: A secret beyond theft, just between us, at least for a while.¡±

    <hr>

    The next two days were duels and spellcraft practice mostly as Elizabeth was still advised to not be seen too much in public. With the facility, it was quite possible to even have spectators while they fought at least. And neither of them minded showing off a bit. In the wake of that, Alice was looking at both a bit wide-eyed for a while and even Waylan failed to hide being impressed, much to Irwyn¡¯s smugness.

    But that was really only delaying what had to be done. After those two days, the tension became a bit too much and Elizabeth finally arranged a meeting with her mother regarding their intention to effectively desert. They had expected the Duchess would make time in the afternoon at the soonest¡­ instead, they were expected in her office just 20 minutes later.

    ¡°It will be fine,¡± Irwyn reassured as they walked through the Voidways. The surrounding Void always pushed slightly against him but by then he barely noticed, ever shielded by his Starfire.

    ¡°Perhaps,¡± Elizabeth said lightly, clearly not so sure. But then, she always seemed overly nervous when it came to her mother, twice so when meeting face to face.

    Soon enough they entered her office, the distant Temzda notably more distinct than last time. That had been so even before Irwyn¡¯s return to Ebon Respite, thus he attributed it to his significant growth since. Either way, it was not the thing to pay the most attention to. Besides the Duchess - wearing her ever-perfect smile - there was another person. Irwyn knew that Avys liked to send messages by the clothing of her maids but he really did not understand that one:

    It was not even a maid in the first place. The woman wore forgettable clothes, forgettable visage, and stood there in a forgettable way¡­ No, Irwyn realized. Rather than just ¡®forgettable¡¯, he was actively forgetting the details as he perceived them. That only made him try twice as hard. After a few moments, he decided there was definitely a blindfold present. His memory also retained the hint of white...Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    ¡°Please, feel free to sit,¡± Avys¡¯ voice woke him up from his concentration. He belatedly realized that Elizabeth was already standing by her chair a few steps ahead, awkwardly waiting for him.

    ¡°Thank you, your Ladyship¡± Irwyn tried to hide his embarrassment, quickly sitting down.

    ¡°No need to be so overtly polite in private,¡± Avys smiled. ¡°So, North.¡±

    ¡°Or so you presume,¡± Elizabeth did not quite frown.

    ¡°Am I wrong?¡±

    ¡°No¡­¡± Elizabeth admitted after a moment.

    ¡°So, North,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°Honestly, just thinking about it again makes me ever so slightly nostalgic.¡±

    ¡°I understand you have come from there,¡± Irwyn carefully offered.

    ¡°42 years ago almost exactly since I left my old home,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°Now I wonder how my siblings might be doing.¡±

    ¡°You never found out?¡± Elizabeth asked.

    ¡°I was quite busy helping Ezax win his throne for years,¡± Avys shook her head. ¡°By the time the dust settled¡­ well such things seemed pointless. A waste of resources just to sate my diminished curiosity.¡±

    ¡°And you don¡¯t want anyone to know about your past,¡± Elizabeth said with some confidence.

    ¡°No one untrustworthy,¡± Avys nodded, her smile growing even wider for a moment with approval. ¡°You see, I was forced to flee after a scheme of mine had gone disastrously wrong. Few people knew, yes, but even the most thickheaded traditionalist might raise an eyebrow if actual evidence of my nature was brought to them. Being underestimated used to matter even more in those early days.¡±

    ¡°Is that so?¡± Elizabeth said with a tone that clearly assumed the answer was ¡®no¡¯.

    ¡°You could visit if you want,¡± Avys chuckled. ¡°I am not sure whether it will be on your way, however.¡±

    ¡°And what should we look for?¡± Elizabeth jumped at the offer.

    ¡°House Azaleas of the kingdom of Venen,¡± Avys did not break her perfect smile. ¡°Though I would not recommend mentioning any relationship. The assassins would be quite bothersome ¨C they tend to wake you up most impolitely. Especially since any prospective heir of your generation would send their own pack your way if they believed you had any tangential claim to the Chalice they so desire.¡±

    ¡°That is rather¡­ cutthroat,¡± Irwyn commented.

    ¡°Snakes like me do not grow in henhouses,¡± Avys said. ¡°And House Azaleas is worse than most. I too vaguely remember a time when nothing else mattered beyond emerging the victor. In a way, I just brought that with me to apply against a different title.¡±

    ¡°If we have a moment to spare, I am sure we will be able to bring back some news,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Which brings me to why we are really here.¡±

    ¡°So hurried,¡± Avys sighed softly. ¡°Fine, fine. Ask the question.¡±

    ¡°You have not dismissed her,¡± Elizabeth glanced at the person still waiting to the side. Irwyn was startled to realize he had scarcely remembered their presence.

    ¡°Neither of you have any idea, do you?¡± Avys inclined her head.

    ¡°About what?¡± Elizabeth frowned.

    ¡°The source of your missing or strange memories,¡± Avys smiled.

    ¡°Ah,¡± Irwyn let a noise escape in surprise. That it had not been on the forefront of his mind over the previous days was in itself strange. Unnatural even.

    ¡°Explain,¡± Elizabeth demanded, frowning even further.

    ¡°Impression here has had a bit of a¡­ I do not know the proper term actually, but let¡¯s call it accident,¡± Avys spoke. ¡°A Shadow of House Blackburg with a recently formed domain. She did not take very well to my dear Ezax having too close of a look in Ebon Respite.¡±

    ¡°We were there with a Shadow!¡± Elizabeth made the connection at about the same time as Irwyn, though she spoke first. ¡°That is why we were so brazen against conception mages. A Soil domain mage? That is why the Cords mattered. Wait the Cords?¡±

    ¡°Quite troublesome and still unresolved,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°Though you are correct. Impression here has leaned fully into her domain then. As a result, everyone affected seems to have Forgotten her very existence. Including you¡­ and the woman herself.¡±

    ¡°Forgotten,¡± Irwyn repeated. There was slight weight to the word when spoken by Avys. The domain then.

    ¡°It caused quite a stir,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°She did try to reach even me after all, inside these walls. Quite fortunate none of the wards outright killed her during the attempt, I am told. The distance meant most of them did not even try to trigger.¡±

    ¡°Quite,¡± Elizabeth repeated, staring at the standing woman. The Shadow seemed barely aware of her surroundings.

    ¡°Impression, be so dear and leave us. Then forget the last two hours,¡± Avys finally dismissed her then.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Impression immediately replied. Irwyn did not quite catch any tone or gesture to accompany it. Then the woman walked towards the Voidways and indeed left.

    ¡°Will she be fine alone?¡± Elizabeth asked with a frown when the door closed again. She had mentioned navigation there was known to be perilous without a guide.

    ¡°The Ways supposedly like her - something about being similarly empty,¡± the Duchess shrugged.

    ¡°How could that even happen?¡± Elizabeth questioned.

    ¡°New domain bearers are surprisingly fragile, I am told,¡± Avys shrugged. ¡°Perhaps your father could explain more. The exact details of high magics are not my concern.¡±

    ¡°As if he would have the time to meet me during a Lich war,¡± Elizabeth grimaced.

    ¡°You could send a letter,¡± Avys suggested. ¡°Ezax would spare you a moment to answer it. Likely even today, things are not too busy.¡±

    ¡°If I want to make a request there is something else more on my mind.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°Ask the question then.¡±

    ¡°You know what I want.¡±

    ¡°It is not about what you want, Lizzy,¡± Avys chuckled. ¡°It is about how you are willing to ask. Many things can be gleaned from a question. Will you lie? Will you try to downplay its importance to you? Or perhaps exaggerate your seriousness? Much to learn indeed. Here is an example of a question: Is it so hard to humor me? I do not think you need the answer to understand the implication.¡±

    Elizabeth paused then, staring at Avys. For a moment she was angry but then calmed down. Her gaze gained intensity, moment by moment. When she finally spoke, it held something akin to weight behind it. ¡°What will it cost me?¡±

    ¡°Now that is a question, I like,¡± Avys kept smiling. ¡°What indeed. You are asking to openly break one of the Federation''s oldest laws. You are asking for something that will make your father appear soft when he needs to project strength. You are asking something that everyone knows better than to even suggest for their own heirs.¡±

    ¡°And still, I am asking,¡± Elizabeth nodded firmly. ¡°No. Rather, I think I am demanding. Whatever the cost is, I am ready to pay it. Be it to you or Fate itself if need be.¡±

    ¡°Whatever is a strong word to use,¡± Avys shook her head. ¡°There are so many things you would not give up, aren¡¯t there? But I digress. What indeed? What indeed!¡±

    ¡°You are also playing up how difficult this is for you,¡± Elizabeth spoke unhappily. ¡°The Duke always has the power to make it happen. There are loopholes or even official acts that would let me travel North unimpeded.¡±

    ¡°Which will all be blatantly an excuse,¡± Avys pointed out. ¡°A show of favoritism from a man who has labored to appear impartial in all things.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t pretend you will not be able to minimize the impact or even turn it into a positive,¡± Elizabeth almost spat.

    ¡°At the cost of great effort and much of my time,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°Do you think I have plenty of both to spare nowadays?¡±

    ¡°Yet you spend it jabbing at me, prolonging our conversations.¡±

    ¡°A way of relaxing,¡± Avys shrugged. ¡°Even I need breaks.¡±

    ¡°I am glad my suffering brings you such joy.¡±

    ¡°What do you think, Irwyn?¡± the Duchess suddenly redirected the conversation, catching him off guard as he was hesitating whether to step in.

    ¡°A great many questions were asked,¡± Irwyn said diplomatically, regaining his composure.

    ¡°Are you willing to pay the price?¡±

    ¡°I agree that we intend to head North,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Yet I am not the kind of person to accept a bargain before hearing a number.¡±

    ¡°A sensible approach,¡± Avys nodded, then withdrew two pages of paper from within her desk. ¡°This is my price, then.¡±

    It was a contract, if not an exceedingly complicated one. For her help in getting both of them official dispensation to leave past the Northern mountains with up to 4 other companions, the Duchess merely demanded a single favor. Unspecified. The rest of the page was spent specifying under what conditions they could deny granting it and under which they could not.

    For example, it could not ask them to do something they perceived as life-threatening or to hurt someone they cared about. Importantly, denial had to be invoked directly to the Duchess within one hour and would not null the favor owned, merely delay it for another opportunity. Irwyn glanced at Elizabeth¡¯s page and it seemed identical. A favor from each.

    ¡°Unlimited Time,¡± Elizabeth noted with a frown. "Contracts that do not expire are dangerous."

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t be like that,¡± Avys chuckled. ¡°Both of you will easily outlive me and this only applies to me, while alive,¡± a surprisingly important distinction, given Necromancy.

    ¡°And ¡®favor¡¯ is incredibly vague.¡± Elizabeth continued.

    ¡°Do I seem a prophet to you?¡± Avys raised an eyebrow. ¡°I have absolutely no intention of wasting this until you have at the very least each taken domains - likely not even then. My schemes, albeit precise, do not go into exact details of what needs to be done in a decade.¡±

    ¡°It is not a low price,¡± Elizabeth grimaced. Irwyn did not think it was that high either but did would not contradict her yet. Sure, there were many things a ¡®favor¡¯ could be, but the many clauses letting them deny them made it seem like it would be annoying unpaid labor at worst. Possibly even an easy task depending on the circumstances.

    ¡°It is the cheapest by a chasm¡¯s depth and the least risky way by far,¡± Avys inclined her head. ¡°If someone else came to me asking for the same I would demand half of their life in return if I even considered doing all it would take. I would ask that you at least do not spit on my generosity.¡±

    ¡°Or you are afraid that if you push too much it will turn sour,¡±

    ¡°Ask yourself then, would you have accepted two such favours? Three? Four?¡± Avys stared.  ¡°The way I see it, if I separated you I could talk you into two and Irwyn into at least five.¡±

    ¡°So suddenly you are a prophet,¡± Elizabeth bit her lip, gritting her teeth. Irwyn saw the Duchess¡¯ point though. He knew himself enough to understand that there was more than just a grain of truth to that.

    ¡°Will a distorted fingerprint suffice?¡± Irwyn asked. Technically he could perhaps sign despite his oathbound curse¡­ but invoking a Name did not seem a sound idea. Twice so in front of Avys.

    ¡°We could¡­¡± Elizabeth started to protest.

    ¡°Can you bargain down to half a favor?¡± Irwyn interrupted as gently as he could. Elizabeth was being stubborn just to spite the Duchess, he saw. Hopefully, she would not be too wrathful at him for getting them what they needed before things could actually turn sour. ¡°I think this is not too high a price. If you truly disagree, tell me now and we can look for a different solution.¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± she relented after hesitating. ¡°We will take your oath, mother.¡±

    ¡°Wonderful. The most important thing is the willingness, Irwyn,¡± Avys answered his earlier question. ¡°The signing is really more symbolic than anything.¡±

    So, they sealed the bargain. Elizabeth carefully etched her name into the paper using an exceedingly thin needle of Void magic ¨C pointedly refusing the offered pen. Irwyn on the other hand very carefully burned his thumb into the topmost layer of the sheet - not that the resulting shape was even remotely similar.

    ¡°Nothing for Alice?¡± Elizabeth carefully asked afterward.

    ¡°I do not need to carefully wrangle a raised mercenary for every little promise, if you forget her origins,¡± Avys shrugged. ¡°If the two of you part ways in the future, I am sure she will be quite amicable to being simply hired.¡±

    ¡°Then we are done here,¡± Elizabeth nodded, immediately standing up. Irwyn followed a beat after her.

    ¡°Stay out of sight for a while longer. I will get Calm to tell you the details when everything is in motion but don¡¯t expect to leave for at least a week,¡± Avys said, stopping them. ¡°You might want to ask him for some details about local customs as well. He also used to live North after all.¡±

    ¡°Goodbye,¡± Elizabeth nodded but then immediately headed for the door.

    ¡°Good day, your Ladyship,¡± Irwyn managed something polite before quickly following.

    ¡°See you both in a few years,¡± Avys waved before they quite made it out. ¡°Try to not let it stretch into decades.¡±

 3.50 A murder

    ¡°All four of you, if you would,¡± Calm arrived three days after they had made the deal. He requested all of them gather, quickly setting up in privacy. ¡°As promised, an excuse has been manufactured.¡±

    ¡°What do we need to do?¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°You have already done most of it. Your¡­ mental disquiet following a brush with death has been established in most minds,¡± Calm smiled. ¡°Officially you have been granted the office of a Requisitor, assigned up North. Unofficially, the Duchess has been seen and overheard repeatedly trying to petition the Duke on your behalf, thus making it seem like he was deferring to Avys¡¯ infamous whims.¡±

    ¡°In reality, all that is a play,¡± Elizabeth concluded.

    ¡°Obviously,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°But the unofficial story will spread in whispers. Focus will be put on your cowardice and desire to flee.¡±

    ¡°That ain¡¯t good, is it?¡± Waylan asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s actually quite convenient,¡± Elizabeth smiled slightly. ¡°Who would target a disgraced coward?¡±

    ¡°Someone with a club and empty purse,¡± Waylan guessed.

    ¡°Clubs are notoriously suboptimal during a ceremonial feast,¡± Elizabeth countered.

    ¡°Yes, for those there are knives,¡± Waylan nodded enthusiastically.

    ¡°No solution is flawless,¡± Irwyn mediated. ¡°But there are more benefits to bad reputation than might be intuitive - and the obstacles less problematic if you are not trying to reach what they are blocking.¡±

    ¡°Well, I ain¡¯t gonna bicker over much ¡®bout it. Not my name on the line,¡± Waylan surrendered with a shrug. Irwyn didn''t blame his friend, his knee jerk response towards Elizabeth kneecapping her reputation was not good either - even if the reasons made perfect sense. ¡°What ¡®bout the rest of us.¡±

    ¡°Irwyn and Alice are officially Elizabeth¡¯s retainers now,¡± Calm glanced at Alice who nodded in acknowledgment. Irwyn did not know when exactly it was made official but that much had been agreed to for a while. ¡°That means they go wherever she does with no questions asked. For you, Waylan, it is easiest to pretend you are a mortal servant. We expect no scrutiny on that point.¡±

    ¡°Papers?¡± Waylan half asked, half requested.

    ¡°Here,¡± and Calm quickly produced a small stack. At least 5 pages. ¡°You are already familiar with the thin bloods so it seemed an obvious cover. Clan Matau, 17th generation.¡±

    ¡°Thin bloods?¡± Alice asked and Irwyn also frowned in confusion.

    ¡°Has the term not come up?¡± Calm looked at their expressions. ¡°Very well. Where do you think all the servants you see swarming around come from?¡±

    ¡°A job market, presumably,¡± Alice chimed in. ¡°In Steelmire we would hire them on long-term contracts. From already trained professionals to village girls that needed to be taught how to even mop first.¡±

    ¡°That would be all too simple for the Lord and Ladies in Black,¡± Elizabeth rolled her eyes at said nobility. ¡°No, everything must have a painstaking tradition that is followed beyond the boundaries of reason.¡±

    ¡°So, they have clans of followers,¡± Waylan added to the conversation, apparently already familiar. His tone did not relay support for the system. ¡°Not just families: Actual fucking villages where everyone is ¡®part of the clan¡¯, very proud of it, and taught how to serve ¡®their betters¡¯ from bein¡¯ a kid.¡±

    ¡°Bloodlines, put simply, matter a great deal to our nobility,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°Of course, it would be an insult to equal non-mages to the actual descendants of the Duke of Wrath, thus a new term has been accepted at some point: Thinbloods.¡±

    ¡°Nobility among servants, tens of thousands of them¡± Elizabeth added. ¡°Some of those families are downright ancient.¡±

    ¡°That seems hardly efficient,¡± Irwyn observed. ¡°If there are as many as you make it sound, isn¡¯t there a surplus? There can only be so much nobility in City Black to cater to.¡±

    ¡°You underestimate what lengths our nobility would go to adhere to tradition,¡± Calm chuckled. ¡°But in this case, there is a very distinct benefit of the ¡®surplus¡¯ as you put it: It is a major export.¡±

    ¡°Every noble worth anything or pretending to be will want a Thinblood from City Black,¡± Alice grasped. ¡°The older their clan, the more prestigious it is to have them. Like exotic jewelry. And exotic is expensive.¡±

    ¡°Quite so,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°Positions overseeing this distribution are highly sought after. Under current rule direct bribery is rare but there were and will be times when such nobility can extract many benefits.¡±

    ¡°Thinly hidden people trade,¡± Waylan scoffed.

    ¡°If it is any comfort, the Duchess would prefer it abolished,¡± Calm said.

    ¡°Only because it is inconvenient for her,¡± Elizabeth denied any credit. ¡°As a Duchess she has no choice but to hire her staff from some of the oldest - and most politically involved - clans. Much more limited pool than if she could choose or train her own freely.¡±

    ¡°Waylan will pretend to be somewhere in the middle,¡± Calm steered the conversation back to safer waters. ¡°Not so old that anyone would easily notice a new name on the ledgers, nor so young it would raise eyebrows with an heiress of significant standing.¡±

    ¡°So, when are we allowed to leave,¡± Elizabeth asked.

    ¡°Things are not quite in place yet,¡± Calm admitted. ¡°In a week, most likely.¡±

    ¡°Through Abonisle, then up North.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± he nodded. ¡°Though for that matter I have some advice to offer about the North.¡±

    ¡°Ruining the mystery already?¡± Alice chuckled.

    ¡°No worry, I intend to be sufficiently vague,¡± Calm smiled. ¡°I could not relay everything even if I wanted to.¡±

    ¡°Then what is it you mean to tell?¡± Irwyn asked quite formally, earning an eyeroll from Waylan.

    ¡°I have three things to say,¡± he nodded. ¡°Sufficiently storylike, no? First, you will quickly realize that magic is far, far thinner on the other side of the mountains. Magic will be harder, your recovery slower. You may even suffer headaches and nausea from the shift. Do not be surprised, that is no anomaly - it will remain that way almost everywhere you go, though your bodies will adapt in time.¡±

    ¡°How much thinner?¡± Elizabeth questioned. ¡°I have not heard of less dense ambiance making magic harder. In Ebon Respite mana was almost suspiciously unpresent, yet I never noted anything of the sort.¡±

    It was Alice who answered her. ¡°Because even Ebon Respite would be like a holy land compared to the North. I have heard stories of men thinking the first checkpoint was a blessed holy grove of magic.¡±

    ¡°Which goes into my second point,¡± Calm continued. ¡°You will find that the people of the North are - as impolite as it may sound - lesser in many ways. Unlike the Federation, magic is scarce there. Obvious, simplest things will be considered unbelievable. Nations may be less powerful than some singular mages here. Keep that in mind when you inevitably run into¡­ cultural misunderstandings.¡±

    ¡°Will try to be the crown to earth person,¡± Waylan offered. Irwyn pointedly ignored him. Even Alice and Elizabeth seemed to barely glance at him over the atrocity against speech anymore.

    ¡°So, mages will be overall much less powerful,¡± Irwyn concluded.

    ¡°Mages will be overall rare,¡± Calm clarified. ¡°Instead you will run into plenty of wizards, hedge witches, warlocks, sorcerers, invokers, and outright charlatans.¡±The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    ¡°What is the difference then?¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°Who knows,¡± Calm shrugged. ¡°Does every animal of the same name look the same? I have also not been there for 40 years, my memory is far from perfect. They do not have the Beacons like we do ¨C magical and other traditions are far less connected between individual powers. One term can mean different things in two nations.¡±

    ¡°We can un-knot mysteries of magic when we see them, I am sure,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°What is the third.¡±

    ¡°Be careful about gods,¡± Calm said. ¡°Here we don¡¯t take the ¡®New Gods¡¯ and their pantheon all too seriously. In fact, the Duchy of Black doesn¡¯t even have any¡­¡±

    ¡°And why is that?¡± Irwyn asked curiously.

    ¡°Believe it or not, I have no clue,¡± Calm did not seem to mind the interruption.

    ¡°I do not believe it, true,¡± Elizabeth narrowed her eyes.

    ¡°This one predates your mother,¡± he shot her a knowing look. ¡°By¡­ at least 8 decades? That was when someone first noticed and recorded the strange absence of even the most minor divinity in our Duchy. Well over a full century and the mystery persists still.¡±

    ¡°And how dangerous are these gods,¡± Alice asked, re-railing the earlier conversation.

    ¡°It is not the gods themselves you need to worry about, hopefully,¡± Calm shook his head. ¡°It would have to be quite the conundrum if they personally descended to fight you. Rather you need to keep in mind their religions. I am saying this because there are massive organizations with the sole and explicit purpose of slitting the throat of anyone who talks badly about their patron.¡±

    ¡°And fighting massive organizations is bad,¡± Waylan concluded.

    ¡°Incredibly annoying at best. All of you still need to sleep,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°Then, I have a bit of an optional warning, I suppose.¡±

    ¡°Breaking the rule of three, touche,¡± Alice chided.

    ¡°It is hardly certain it will apply,¡± Calm explained. ¡°Only if you decided to visit Avys¡¯ former home.¡±

    ¡°And that is?¡± Elizabeth immediately asked.

    ¡°A fun fact about Venen: Killing someone with ingested poison is not considered murder among their upper crust.¡±

    ¡°What would they call it then?¡± Alice frowned.

    ¡°Public service,¡± Calm smiled. ¡°For ridding the world of an idiot who doesn¡¯t know to put an antidote into even well water they drew themselves. Would you like a few doses?¡±

    <hr>

    Calm had not left immediately after that: He had given them a map of many nations, major cities, and important geological landmarks - though Elizabeth decided they should try without them at first. The old mage also promised to gradually deliver them an excessive quantity of supplies over the following days - done in relative secrecy because¡­ they did not want to appear too prepared? Competent, maybe? Irwyn honestly was not sure why.

    Either way, carrying months'' worth of nutrition and other supplies was easy enough with Irwyn, Alice, and Elizabeth all having a high-quality spacial bag. Learning of that, Waylan also wanted one. Irwyn had briefly entertained requesting a lesser piece that would decay with Finity¡­ but decided he would probably have to help gather and clean the de-compressed contents in the aftermath. Instead, Waylan would receive a smaller pouch made expressly for stealth specialists ¨C mostly meaning it was not leaking even the slightest amount of mana.

    It was seven days later almost exactly that they were given the go-ahead. The four did not travel through the public hub of teleportation, but instead a more private platform had been arranged. The Beacon covered most of City Black after all - the unified center Irwyn had usually used in the past was more for convenience and easy regulation than real need.

    They also arrived in semi-secrecy via a private room on the other side, the Time mage accommodating that simply nodding and teleporting away without a word afterwards. Irwyn was rather nervous about their arrival in Abonisle, given the city¡¯s recent-ish troubles but things seemed normal when they left the empty building. Almost suspiciously normal. The streets seemed no less populated than he had remembered.

    ¡°Why is there a ceiling?¡± Waylan questioned, pointing up to the level¡¯s roof, several stories above and stretching towards the horizon.

    ¡°Abonisle is built in levels,¡± Elizabeth paused. ¡°Has this not been¡­ brought up?¡±

    ¡°I got that it was big, and has layers,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°This looks bigger than that.¡±

    ¡°It is quite massive,¡± Irwyn agreed. ¡°And surprisingly undamaged.¡±

    ¡°The Undead did not prioritize damaging infrastructure during their incursion,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°Much of the city is still considered potentially infested by stubborn remnants, but parts have already been cleared, then quickly repaired. We might see a boundary somewhere along the way.¡±

    ¡°Where are we even headed?¡± Alice asked.

    ¡°North,¡± Elizabeth said, pointing behind them. Squinting, Irwyn realized he could maybe see a hint of the three Spires far, far in the distance ¨C the exact other way than Elizabeth was directing. ¡°That way is obviously South. We want to leave by the Northern bridge. Since we are on the artery road already we will get somewhere close enough eventually.¡±

    ¡°That is a long way to walk,¡± Irwyn pointed out.

    ¡°Which is what carriages are for,¡± Elizabeth said.

    And hire one they did - a fancy creation powered by magic rather than horsepower with comfortable seats. It did not even take long to find one ¨C unsurprisingly, a massive City like Abonisle had demand for them, even after a disaster. Perhaps especially - the people most prone to dying to undead were those without magic and the associated wealth. Time was passed by explaining to Waylan and Alice more details about the city and the incursion itself. They had both heard the story before but some details would always be left unsaid. Eventually, a commotion stopped the carriage and forced them to exit.

    ¡°Lords and Ladies,¡± their driver, an ordinary man, had first knocked on their door, waiting for them to open it. Then he apologetically spoke. ¡°There seems to be some issue with the road ahead. Traffic is completely blocked.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± Elizabeth frowned slightly.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know as I cannot get any further,¡± the man explained, sweating a bit. ¡°We are down at the ground level, the exit to the outer city should be just a few minutes ahead of us. Alas, the road is blocked by my fellow drivers.¡±

    ¡°Fine, we can walk to the front and see,¡± Elizabeth sighed. Almost offhandedly she tossed a small pouch of coin at the driver who quickly thanked her and then turned around to leave before he could get stuck as well.

    ¡°How much did you pay him?¡± Alice wondered.

    ¡°Who knows,¡± she shrugged. ¡°I have hundreds of pre-packed pouches to pay for small services.¡±

    ¡°That is incredible,¡± Waylan gaped at her. ¡°Say, can I interest you in a sure investment?¡±

    ¡°Say no more, here, an ocean of coins,¡± she smiled, gesturing as if tossing them.

    ¡°There seems to be a blockade of some kind ahead,¡± Alice frowned while the two bickered. ¡°I think I feel Time locked down from here.¡±

    ¡°We can have a look,¡± Elizabeth nodded. So, they walked. There were good 20 rows of wagons - and about 8 of horses - ahead of them, though there was enough space on the side of the road to allow pedestrian passage. They had to split into a line themselves and avoid the occasional horse-mouth as they walked on the side but that was bearable. By the front they found not a roadblock but rather an outright military blockade - a barricade of solid stone with a single entrance had been raised a good distance ahead of the frontmost carriage, several imbuement mages in uniforms milling about behind and in front of it just from what Iwyn could feel.

    Their group did not need to actually approach as one of the frontmost carriage drivers was quite willing to explain: ¡°Something ¡®dangerous¡¯ in the severs apparently,¡± the woman grunted. ¡°I will be damned if it''s not more undead. They said they will open it up soon but it¡¯s been two hours.¡±

    ¡°Is there any way around?¡± Alice asked.

    ¡°None, bloody chokepoint in the safe areas,¡± she shook her head, visibly irritated. ¡°The closest to a way ¡®around¡¯ is leaving the city through East or West, then tracing the lake. Not really feasible.¡±

    ¡°I suppose we will have to wait,¡± Irwyn glanced at Elizabeth. ¡°We don¡¯t want to cause a scene.¡±

    ¡°You are right,¡± she sighed. They were trying to keep their departure somewhat on the hush side of things. Elizabeth throwing her weight around to maybe get through the blockade was bound to be loud. ¡°I suppose¡­ we can go snack on something?¡±

    So they did. It was still far from lunch, though that did not mean it was not the right time to nibble on something smaller. They doubled back to the nearest elevator, going all the way up to the top level. Since they were almost at the very edge of the inner city, that meant that there was plenty of higher elevation in the direction of the center as well as the Spires themselves towering. It was still quite a sight, Irwyn had to admit and he had seen it before. Waylan very blatantly gaped, staring at the lower city far, far beneath. And it was ravaged. For every sign of damage absent in the inner city, there were three in the outer. The buildings there had by no means been small - merely in comparison to the high city levels. From what Irwyn could see, about half of them had been leveled completely.

    ¡°I thought they didn¡¯t go after infrastructure?¡± Alice commented, staring at the same scene.

    ¡°Not at first, no,¡± Elizabeth merely shrugged. ¡°When their defeat became inevitable, the undead either burrowed or went berserk. In the first place, most of the outer parts had been overrun already¡­ some of the damage might be from long-range bombardment too. It will take years yet for full recovery, given the lost population and weak but numerous undead ambushers hidden too well to root out at scale while the War is still ongoing.¡±

    ¡°All¡¯s shit,¡± Waylan summarized.

    ¡°I think I see a sweets shop that way,¡± Alice changed the topic, pointing. ¡°I hope you are willing to sponsor a small sugar rush for your retinue, my lady,¡± she gave an exaggerated bow.

    ¡°Two, if need be,¡± Elizabeth smiled, then both began walking the way Alice had pointed. Irwyn almost followed, before he noticed something awry.

    ¡°You all right?¡± he asked Waylan. His friend was still staring down.

    ¡°How many people do you think died here?¡± Waylan asked.

    ¡°Haven¡¯t thought about it, honestly,¡± Irwyn admitted, it was better not to. ¡°Many. Uncountably many.¡±

    ¡°Yet all you hear is that there was an attack on Abonisle,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°No one says how bad. Not even how stupidly big the city is. Was.¡±

    ¡°Presumably, telling the truth could cause severe panic,¡± Irwyn pointed out. ¡°And that would be bad during a Lich war.¡±

    ¡°All¡¯s shit,¡± Waylan sighed again.

    ¡°You two coming?¡± Alice called back to them, the two girls had turned and were waiting for them.

    ¡°Ye!¡± Waylan called back a bit too loudly, then hurried along. Irwyn only hesitated a moment longer before also following. Perhaps sweets would help his friend reach a different mood. It was not that far away, although still decently so - it spoke highly that Alice had seen and recognized the store... She had probably been practicing recently to see better and further. When they were almost at the front door Alice frowned.

    ¡°Weird,¡± she said.

    ¡°What?¡± Irwyn asked, everyone pausing to look at her.

    ¡°Why are there suddenly so many crows all the way up here?¡±

 3.51 Onward to where Fate awaits

    Irwyn stared, Waylan stared, Elizabeth stared.

    ¡°What?¡± Alice raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°What do you mean crows?¡± Irwyn asked. ¡°I don¡¯t see any.¡±

    ¡°Well, up above?¡± she pointed towards the sky. He had to squint a bit to notice the small black dots. ¡°Mostly. One over there, another there,¡± she pointed at a nearby storefront, where one was sat half hidden behind a sign, then another was peeking out of a box pile.

    ¡°It do seem like someone is waiting on us,¡± Waylan said looking towards the sweetshop. There was a cake drawn on one of its walls though the windows did not let one a good look inside from where the four of them stood. Alice seemed a bit confused but followed the others in their suddenly serious silent approach.

    The place was not busy. In fact, it was almost completely empty despite the plethora of tables available. Just one was taken, right in the center. A gnarled old man waving at them. A familiar smile spread across his lips. They shared a glance among themselves before accepting the invitation to sit.

    ¡°Please, do order something,¡± he encouraged as soon as they did. ¡°The roadblock should take about an hour more to clear out.¡±

    ¡°What are you even doing here, Old Crow?¡± Irwyn questioned as they approached.

    ¡°I just barely caught wind of you all suddenly leaving for the North,¡± he nodded. ¡°It would be terribly rude of me to not at least talk with you, given I was already in the city.¡±

    ¡°Would you like anything?¡± a waiter had approached at that point. An ordinary man as far as Irwyn could tell. And probably not someone they wanted listening in.

    ¡°Do you have a menu?¡± Waylan asked the server.

    ¡°Yes, of course,¡± the man nodded. ¡°I can bring it for you.¡±

    ¡°Everything on it then, for everyone,¡± Waylan ordered. The waiter smiled in surprise, then quickly departed before anyone could tell him otherwise. Of course, the rest of them were a bit too busy giving Waylan surprised glances.

    ¡°We cannot possibly eat everything,¡± Alice pointed out.

    ¡°I dunno what the best thing is,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°Never been. Good chance to figure out my favorite while I still have an endless money person around.¡±

    ¡°Then why order for all of us?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°Do you have a favourite?¡± Waylan questioned with a grin, shutting him up.

    ¡°I do,¡± Elizabeth was thankfully immune to such a rhetoric trap.

    ¡°Same,¡± Alice nodded along.

    ¡°Half and half, good enough,¡± Waylan shrugged.

    ¡°Are you going to eat all the leftovers yourself?¡± Alice questioned. ¡°You did not even check how big their menu is!¡±

    ¡°I believe he has done quite a fine job distracting you from being overly serious,¡± Old Crow chuckled just as they had almost forgotten him, startling everyone back to staring at him. This up close, Irwyn tried to have a proper look, but no matter how he looked, his old mentor still seemed like an ordinary elder. No sign of honing, mana, or anything else that he could detect¡­

    And yet Elizabeth had once told him he could control crows and perceive the world through them. He clearly had deep enough knowledge of Honing to pick out manuals for some of the Tears. Nor had Irwyn forgotten the things he had been provided in the care package in Ebon Respite for all he had no chances to use them yet ¨C many handcrafted and supposedly powerful, yet not magical.

    ¡°You want to give us advice then?¡± Irwyn took the earlier comment for an attempt to return to the actual issue rather than dance around the topic.

    ¡°You have received some I presume?¡± Old Crow shook his head. ¡°I have something a bit different in mind. Of course, first I will ask what it would cost me to keep this little encounter secret.¡±

    ¡°In all likelihood, my mother already knows,¡± Elizabeth simply said.

    ¡°Do not get me wrong, I do not underestimate our dear Duchess,¡± Old Crow said. ¡°But she is quite busy. Do you think she has a dozen mages subtle enough to not be noticed tracing your every move? Doubly so since you are supposed to be leaving the Federation. No. She has considered it and dismissed it as not worth the resources. The only way she learns of me being here in the first place is if you tell her.¡±

    ¡°You are offering me leverage for nothing,¡± she frowned.

    ¡°I am offering you basic guidance, as I would any friend and steadfast ally of my once-wards,¡± he corrected. ¡°That it produces leverage is merely a convenient byproduct. Now that you have something that can be held over me, we can trade after all.¡±

    ¡°So then, you want to buy my secrecy, possibly a lie or denial,¡± she slowly nodded. ¡°That generally does not come cheap.¡±

    ¡°How daring, from hesitation to to fleecing an old man like me,¡± he laughed. ¡°But worry not, I have something you want: Tell me, do you actually know what your mother has been doing in Abonisle?¡±

    ¡°Most likely enjoying vacations,¡± Elizabeth replied. ¡°Though that will have to wait for after the rebuilding.¡±

    ¡°What an incredible crowning jewel the city is,¡± Old Crow smiled. ¡°I hear the story of why she cares so much is quite romantic and involves at least one dead dragon. But tell me, Elizabeth, is your mother so vain that she requires jewelry of this splendor?¡±

    ¡°No¡­¡± Elizabeth admitted.

    ¡°Yet still she built this wondrous city,¡± Irwyn spoke the obvious implication. ¡°You say there is more at play.¡±

    ¡°On the surface, Abonisle itself is enough to justify its existence - the trade, shifting of political power, so on, so on,¡± Old Crow explained. ¡°But Avys is not so wasteful a person as to only fulfill one goal where five can fit. So, I have been ever curious about what she may be hiding here. The incursion¡¯s aftermath had provided me an opportunity to look.¡±

    ¡°And you offer me that knowledge in return for silence,¡± Elizabeth concluded.

    ¡°It would be something to hold over your mother, if need be,¡± Old Crow elaborated. ¡°And it is quite the conspiracy¡­ perhaps not conspiracy exactly, given Avys is working with the Duke¡¯s knowledge and support. I wonder if there is a better word for it.¡±

    ¡°On who do we swear?¡±

    ¡°No need,¡± Old Crow shook his head. ¡°Oaths are quite a bit more burdensome for me to bear than for you. Your word will suffice. After all, if you speak of meeting me, it will also hint at the secret you bargain for now. Mutual profit and mutually assured loss are powerful enough motivators.¡±

    ¡°Which you have yet to speak of.¡±

    ¡°We are not in such a hurry,¡± Old Crow chuckled slightly again. ¡°Also, the food is here.¡±

    And there was a lot. The same waiter had to make several runs carrying large boards in both hands, filled to the brim with dessert. From rolls, ice cream, puddings, cakes, cookies, donuts, and a few Irwyn was unsure of what to name. Elizabeth quickly snatched two bowls of ice cream, Alice usurped most of the cake. Waylan and Irwyn kind of tried whatever was closest - everything was rather sweet anyway.

    ¡°There are three strings that tie the secret into one whole,¡± Old Crow began to explain, himself slowly enjoying some pie. ¡°First is missing nobility. Over the years I have gathered a list of people I believe Avys has made disappear without anything pointing towards her or the Duke¡¯s involvement beyond motive. This list, of course, has several uses but for the secret I wish to share I find an interesting correlation among the hundreds. A total of 47 nobles with all of the following traits:¡±

    ¡°Each belonging to a bloodline of the Duke of Wrath. Each was not an immediate threat but overall unreceptive towards Avys. None of them were ever found dead. All were adults but before biological aging started negatively affecting them overmuch. They disappeared either here in Abonisle or near City Black where the Beacon allows for quick and convenient transportation. In conclusion, I highly suspect that Avys has coordinated a gradual but relentless kidnapping campaign, centered around Abonisle.¡±

    ¡°So, she has disappeared many of her enemies somewhere around here,¡± Elizabeth slowly nodded. ¡°What am I supposed to make of it?¡±

    ¡°Second:¡± Old Crow raised two fingers instead of answering her directly. ¡°There is a hidden facility built deep under the Spires. Beneath even the Dredge. A large and incredibly warded metal box. After great effort, I have managed to map its edges somewhat - 8 to 10 meters tall, about 1200 square meters in area, mostly a box in shape.¡±

    ¡°If it¡¯s so heavily warded, how would you even find it?¡± Elizabeth frowned. ¡°Any divination would be misled and encountering it would trigger alarms.¡±

    ¡°By digging, of course,¡± he smiled. ¡°I have my ways to bypass many measures. Penetrating would be a different story, but just skirting around undetected is very much possible - with great effort, as I said.¡±

    ¡°And you think the missing nobility is stuck in there,¡± Irwyn guessed.

    Alice was shifting between seeming neutral, enjoying a bowl of pudding - apparently, her second choice after the cake ran out, she ate surprisingly fast - then staring intently at Old Crow with something complicated in her gaze, though she did not seem inclined to speak. Waylan sat quietly on the side, listening but almost slipping away from awareness¡­ And hiding whatever it was he was eating at the moment with some mild sleight of hand.

    ¡°Yes, which leads to my third point.¡± Old Crow nodded. ¡°After the semi-crumbling of Abonisle, their security has been shaken, which was exactly what I have been hoping for. It was how I was able to find the facility itself - though I had long suspected there might be something like it. It has also allowed me to pick out people likely going there in secrecy. Among them, I happened to find who happens to be Avys¡¯ most powerful Life mage on retainer.¡±

    ¡°Who?¡± Elizabeth asked.

    ¡°You likely know him,¡± Old Crow nodded. ¡°I believe he has been going by doctor John Johnson.¡±

    And in a way, it was an obvious thing. Irwyn had known the man had been oftentimes in Abonisle lately, even in communication quarantine. That something secretive was going on. He may very well have connected the dots himself if he had a few minutes to think. Elizabeth shot Irwyn a wide-eyed glance just as he did the exact same. Old Crow did not let that slip by him. ¡°I see you are already familiar then.¡±

    ¡°Quite,¡± Elizabeth frowned again. ¡°To the point I find it suspicious you would not know already.¡±

    ¡°Johnson is a dangerous mage to follow around,¡± Old Crow shrugged. ¡°My crows are very much alive and an anomaly in how their brains operate might be noticed even if my control is not ''magic'' as you mages use it. And you, I have not paid much attention to until our personal meeting not that long ago - Avys was quite successful in hiding your abilities for years, after all. I had assumed you have met but estimating how often - or that Irwyn would have also made the acquaintance - would be a blind guess at best.¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°So, you are watching me now, are you?¡± Elizabeth inclined her head.

    ¡°More than before, true, though you have no secrets I truly desire,¡± he shrugged. ¡°While I am sure the details of your power are fascinating¡­ my appetite lies more in politics and subterfuge.¡±

    ¡°Which is notoriously rather scarce in the Duchy of Black,¡± she pointed out.

    ¡°Yes, among your nobility,¡± Old Crow nodded. ¡°Which makes it all the more concentrated among the people who hide in-beneath their feet.¡±

    ¡°You say Johnson is involved,¡± Irwyn pulled at a different thread. ¡°And he is undoubtedly a powerful Life mage, even if I don¡¯t know how much exactly. But I am not sure what exactly he does.¡±

    ¡°He is obsessed with research and broadening his knowledge. A skilled healer if he chooses to be, albeit distractable. Eccentric by about every standard,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But even I do not know what exactly his expertise is. He must have at least several domains to be as old as he claims¡­ possibly even a Truth if you so confidently claim he is the most powerful Life mage in our employ. Not to mention his affinity for Soul is often neglected.¡±

    ¡°Clearly, you are familiar with the man and not the mage,¡± Old Crow said with a nod. ¡°Johnson has come to our Federation from the North alongside the Duchess before anyone would call her that. But do you know his history there?¡±

    ¡°Come back with her,¡± Irwyn corrected, shaking his head. ¡°But not much besides that.¡±

    ¡°Me neither,¡± Elizabeth mirrored his gesture.

    ¡°My homeland also happens to be the North, though I had left it behind a lifetime ago,¡± Old Crow said. ¡°But even then, I had made a name for knowing things that few others did. And Johnson, well, he had left blots on the pages of history. Not by that name, of course, not even by that appearance. But if you look between the lines, you can find it in historical records: Similar quotes, similar mannerisms. Words an eccentric man, appearing at a time of a disaster, solving the impossible, then vanishing once again after a few years.¡±

    ¡°Disasters?¡± Irwyn asked. Johnson had struck him as many things but not someone particularly heroic.

    ¡°Not just any, of course. Medical or close enough in nature. I have never found anything that spoke of him dispensing justice or slaying monsters - at most killing a few ungrateful toughs or soldiers trying to apprehend him during other deeds. What I meant are plagues, strange local diseases, miraculously saving a deathly ill monarch ¨C thus preventing a civil war¡­ Such things. The oldest I could find was from over 300 years ago, though such ancient accounts are vague.¡±

    ¡°Now I am curious,¡± Elizabeth admitted. ¡°During our travels, it might be worth visiting one of the places he had saved then.¡±

    ¡°Many happened in nations that have long since ceased. But I do have one if it strikes your fancy,¡± Old Crow said. When he received a nod from her and Irwyn, he began. ¡°It was some 140 years ago that the city of Gollatei was struck by a truly strange disease: Anyone within its walls would become wholly infertile. Not just those who lived there but even travelers passing through. Such a phenomenon was not noticed for a few months at least but when it did, this affliction caused an obvious ruckus. A city has no future without children. Not to mention that travelers and merchants soon avoided it as any other plagued city.¡±

    ¡°Then, one day, a man claimed to have found a cure. First, he was disbelieved as a liar - like many others before him. Then his patients uniformly proclaimed to be healed and so the city was at his fingertips. Still, he refused the wealth and power they wished to shower him with, simply continuing the work of a physician. Then he was named the Good Healer of Gollatei, saving a doomed city. When the strange disease truly vanished, he remained there for some ten more years before vanishing. Dying by some exaggerated accounts, even.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps I could see it,¡± Elizabeth hummed. ¡°If Johnson thought the strange plague was interesting enough to research. Maybe staying a few more years to observe any lingering effects.¡±

    ¡°That is one possible conclusion,¡± Old Crow nodded.

    ¡°Which implies others,¡± she immediately noted.

    ¡°Yes,¡± he smiled. ¡°But you wanted to know more about the secret here in Abonisle, if I recall, not my conjectures on history.¡±

    ¡°From what you have told, it would be guesses that you offer me anyway,¡± Elizabeth frowned.

    ¡°The best secrets can rarely ever be stolen whole,¡± Old Crow just chuckled. ¡°But I am an exceptional guesser: My conclusion is that the Duchess is trying to secretly raise a new generation of those terrifying Shadows of House Blackburg. But loyal only to her and Ezax.¡±

    ¡°A single Shadow may arise from ten thousand oath-sworn mages,¡± Elizabeth said dubiously. ¡°The requirements on talent, training, mental predisposition, and sheer dumb luck to attain a domain is ludicrous. Unimaginable for most.¡±

    ¡°Which is why no one would suspect it,¡± Old Crow nodded. ¡°If she has things her way, the little civil war that has been brewing over the past decades will be won in a single ambush. Before rivals even realize they had been had.¡±

    ¡°I remain doubtful,¡± Elizabeth replied.

    ¡°If you reject my conclusion in favor of your own, that is no one else¡¯s decision to make,¡± he shrugged. ¡°But I believe this does fulfill our bargain for a little bit of secrecy.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°Too serious,¡± Waylan spoke after being silent for a while. He then proceeded to steal the last piece of pie Irwyn had just been reaching for, shooting his friend a grin.

    ¡°Then perhaps let me lighten the mood with gifts,¡± Old Crow reached under the desk. There were distinctly no drawers where anything could have fit but he nonetheless began to pull out items. First of all was a metallic tube, which he handed to their sneak. ¡°For you, Waylan.¡±

    ¡°Which is?¡±

    ¡°I am not certain. But it once belonged to an order of assassins that had developed the Honing techniques that you now use. It is a sealed scroll case which is likely to contain more of their methods. If you can locate their temples in the great forest Kal¡¯pur, it may yet be possible to unlock its secrets there.¡±

    ¡°And which way is that?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Not a clue,¡± Old Crow shrugged. ¡°It has been well over 80 years since I have emigrated. Geographical details have left me long ago. Though for you, Irwyn, I have a collection of keys, cards, or other such access tokens for a great variety of Northern libraries ¨C I do not guarantee they all still exist,¡± he handed Irwyn a thick leather folder.

    ¡°There have to be hundreds,¡± Irwyn quickly counted. It was almost like a book in that it had ¡®pages¡¯ where these various means of entry were sorted by type, then categorized by what he presumed were names. From carved pebbles to metallic cards, there were all kinds. The folder also seemed even bigger on the inside.

    ¡°For Elizabeth, I have prepared a brooch.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± she hesitantly said. It was, obviously, a pitch-black crow, carved from some kind of dark wood. But it was cut in a strange way - all straight lines and sharp angles - that Irwyn did not recognize. Either way, anything dark would go well enough with Elizabeth¡¯s wardrobe.

    ¡°It is done in a classical style of my people. I could not think of many physical things that you could not obtain with a word. I thought that perhaps something more cultural would work,¡± he nodded, then turned to the last member of their group. The one who had been quiet for a while. ¡°And for you, Alice, I have answers to all the questions you have been hesitating to ask. If the rest of you would please settle the bill and give us some privacy?¡±

    <hr>

    They waited for Alice for some 15 minutes. Irwyn could only speculate most of their conversation would concern Alice¡¯s late father. When she finally walked out, she looked no different from usual, if more thoughtful. She was also carrying a bowl of pudding from the store. Irwyn supposed that after such a large order they would let them keep a dishware or two.

    ¡°You a¡¯right?¡± Waylan still asked.

    ¡°Still have the ring,¡± Alice smiled, letting it become visible for a few moments. ¡°Do you think the road will be open again already?¡±

    ¡°It has not been an hour, but it might be,¡± Irwyn speculated.

    ¡°No harm in checking, I suppose,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    They headed back towards the elevator, just so getting joined by a group of four mages as they entered. Irwyn felt Light from them but not more than an intention or two, so he quickly put them out of his mind. It still meant that their conversation would need to avoid most of the topics they wanted to actually talk about.

    ¡°It looked like it''s snowing North,¡± Waylan broached instead. ¡°Maybe we should get cloaks.¡±

    ¡°The snow isn¡¯t actually cold,¡± Elizabeth said.

    ¡°How can snow not be cold?¡± Waylan squinted.

    ¡°It¡¯s magical,¡± Irwyn remembered.

    ¡°The storms that cling to the side of the mountains most of the year are manifested purely from mana rather than water,¡± Elizabeth explained more. ¡°That means that Finity¡­¡±

    The elevator suddenly shuddered and stopped moving. Everyone looked around in confusion, finding one of the other passengers had initiated an emergency break - naturally, elevators had something like that. What was rather more worrying was that the person as well as the other 3 mages were drawing handguns, aiming at their group.

    ¡°I think the saying is ¡®your money or your life¡¯,¡± the one who had stopped the elevator said. Irwyn reinforced his barrier, the other barrier he maintained around Waylan, then took the half step needed to stand properly in front of his friend. He did not feel anything that would be a threat to him but was not going to completely discount the possibility.

    ¡°Very funny,¡± Elizabeth did not seem to share that caution. ¡°Is this a convoluted suicide attempt?¡±

    They did not seem to find it as humorous and fired in unison. Everyone had their defenses ready, and the bullets all ended up headed in Irwyn¡¯s direction anyway. They had a bit of Light magic infused into them, yes, but not nearly enough to even scratch his defenses. The metal evaporated upon impact, not coming within a rounding error of a noticeable threat. They did not seem to pose danger despite the hostility. Irwyn still hesitated for half a second. Should he aim to kill just in case the four had a genuinely dangerous trump card up their sleeve? Or perhaps it would be best to disable and interrogate. In that case, rely on ropes of Light as he had in the past, or outright maim with scorching Flames?

    Elizabeth in the meantime had manifested a blade of Void magic, clearly showing she did not think they were in any actual danger and was thus not taking their adversaries seriously - otherwise, she would have opened with a swarm of ranged attacks to help close the distance while vanishing from sight. Instead, she was halfway into the first step of rushing ahead, her weight shifting. Nonetheless, it was still too slow.

    Their four attackers suddenly fell to pieces. Literally. One moment they were standing, the next chunks of bloodied meat were crumbling to the ground. Like they had each been cut by a thousand impossible sharp blades in an instant. Irwyn glanced to his side at the third mage of their own group in surprise.

    Alice was staring in visible horror, paling before his eyes. ¡°They had¡­ no defenses?¡± she muttered in shock. Her eyes were growing wider, features paler, hand beginning to tremble¡­ then suddenly she was overcome with a sudden calm. Then the terror re-arrived in her eyes. Once again, color withdrew. A second later, it started to return along with a fleeting moment of serenity. And then dread again, accompanied by panicked gasps. To and fro, over and over. Irwyn noticed the ring had once again become visible on her finger, this time not intentionally.

    ¡°Alice?¡± Waylan approached her before Irwyn overcame his own surprise.

    ¡°Waylan,¡± she slowly said. Her serenity broke halfway through the word, voice cracking in terror. ¡°Could you¡­ cover my eyes? I¡­¡± the calm returned. ¡°...cannot look away.¡±

    ¡°Ye,¡± Waylan nodded and hurried to put his palms over her face. That seemed to finally pacify Alice at least for the moment. Her breathing calmed and any signs of shaking left, therefore Irwyn could turn towards the bodies¡­ Or the shredded pieces that once were people. It was just puddles of red chunks with the occasional bit of white or brown. The scene was gruesome enough that Irwyn had to fight hard not to flinch, though it reached a point where the corpses were so detached from the image of a human being he wholly avoided any instinctual nausea. He made sure his barrier would stop any possible smell.

    Elizabeth was also already kneeling by what was left of the four, looking back at Alice in visible surprise. A layer of magic protected her from the blood as she seemed to ascertain from a distance that Alice was fine already. Then she looked back down to the bodies as Irwyn approached.

    ¡°Nothing left to salvage,¡± she shrugged after a moment, standing up. Unlike Alice, she was taking it in stride. ¡°Assuming they even would have had anything to identify them. Even the weapons were shredded.¡±

    ¡°What do you make of it?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Desperate idiots.¡±

    ¡°Nah, that wasn¡¯t the look of desperate folk,¡± Waylan disagreed, raising his voice a bit to be heard. ¡°No dirt behind nails, good clean clothes, no fear. Ain¡¯t last leg folks, that.¡±

    ¡°Desperate for mages,¡± Elizabeth reiterated. ¡°Or maybe just incredibly greedy. We do look quite young. Four intention mages with weapons against a group of teenagers, one of whom is not even a mage? I can kind of see how they could believe they held the advantage. Many people our age have not even reached imbuement, perhaps they mistook an inability to feel our power for a lack of it.¡±

    "Shot too soon," Waylan added last shake of his head but did not have anything else to add.

    ¡°Then how do we handle the bodies?¡± Irwyn glanced down. ¡°Do we¡­ report it?¡±

    ¡°Too much trouble,¡± Elizabeth shook her head, Voidflame dancing at her fingertips. She let it flow down to the ground, along her leg, then latch onto the bodies. Unlike regular Flame, the Void of it gobbled up even the ash and smoke.

    ¡°Not a trace,¡± Waylan commented. All it took were a few seconds.

    ¡°There might be something left of their Souls still dispersing, but that takes a specialist to find,¡± she added. ¡°We will be long gone if someone even notices. Low profile, right?¡±

    <hr>

    Thankfully, unengaging the emergency break was simple enough. Once back at the barricade, they had to wait for a few minutes longer but the road ahead was already in the middle opening when they arrived. Their group spent those minutes by trying to find a carriage willing to take them to the edge of the city. That proved surprisingly difficult before Irwyn thought about it: There was actually basically nothing North of the City. A few small settlements at best but mostly just the Barrier mountains themselves. The carriages headed that way were all aiming somewhere in the outer city rather than leaving Abonisle altogether. They did manage to talk one of the drivers into a bit of a detour though - mostly by paying extra - so they made it near the bridge itself quickly enough.

    It was a lot smaller than the one Irwyn had once upon a time entered the Abonisle by. A single carriage could maybe pass through it but that was about it. It did not diminish the fascinating view of the bottomless Void lake surrounding the city. Waylan and even Alice certainly gaped. The checkpoints were each manned by a single soldier who glanced at them and promptly decided the group was not worth bothering. Over the bridge and then a bit further, they found the carriage that had been arranged to take them all the way to the mountains.

    It moved fast, a lot faster than any such vehicle Irwyn had ever ridden - but they had to travel a long way. The journey would still take them 3 hours. Alice¡¯s jolly mood gradually recovered, taken by the excitement of what may await them up North.

    The weather eventually broke and they found themselves with storms raging overhead. Snow piled in heaps ¨C or building-sized piles at times - that gradually vanished from the bottom as Finity made the purely magical particles cease to be. A single road seemed to be warded as to be always traversable and Irwyn never spotted anything resembling¡­ well, anything except hills of white along the way.

    For all that had happened though, they held an aura of optimism by the time they arrived at the small encampment at the very foot of the mountain. And then it was into the Northern lands beyond.

 Extra: A venomous flower

    Avys of House Azaleas calmed her breath as she heard the slightest creaking of the window. They came near midnight, just as she had expected. She could not afford the slightest noise, staring out the keyhole of her large closet. Soon enough the figures came into sight, or at least some of them. Silhouettes in black, circling her bed with trained silence, only slightly obstructed by its hangings. They did not talk, though hand-signs were exchanged, then, one by one, each drew out a handgun. Avys closed her eye and moved it away from the keyhole just as the mock firing squad released a barrage into what they believed to be her beneath the blankets.

    Her siblings were not aiming for subtlety then. That was fine. Neither was Avys.

    The explosion was deafening, even from relatively far away. Avys felt a piece of the shrapnel bite into her arm, piercing even through the thick wood but thankfully not severing something crucial. She burst out of the closet into a scene of carnage: The closest assassins had been shredded halfway to paste by the bundle of grenades they had set off and the pieces of metal were everywhere. On every surface, through every shattered window, across the floor, and inside the remaining assassins. Avys shot the first one she saw through the head. She had never been a great shot but her pistol had been enchanted to compensate for imperfect aim - an exceptionally expensive piece of work.

    ¡°Void bolt,¡± she whispered, summoning her spell as she looked for more. She was able to keep enough of her wits while imbuing the intention to seek, a feat she took much pride in at her age. The second and third assassins were on the floor, dazed and bleeding after the explosion and received a bullet each - well, two for the last once since the first shot had still barely missed. The fourth Avys noticed on the balcony, the moon tracing their shadow. She sent the spell, watching with some satisfaction as it ate through the wall and then the body behind it. She realized that her heart was beating out of her chest as the room returned to quiet.

    The heiress remained on high alert for a few moments longer as she calmed down. The custom was that assassins came in groups of eight or ten, so she counted. The four she had killed were easy, the mess around her bed was harder but after a few seconds she was pretty confident she had counted six pairs of legs among what remained of the bodies, that made the full ten. Tension left her.

    Avys fell to her knees and vomited. Thankfully her travelling clothes were durable enough to not be cut by the remnant shrapnel so the collapse was merely uncomfortable rather than maiming.

    Stress flooded out and she cried - bawled her eyes out for a few moments. It was not fair, a voice whispered but life often was not. She had always known that, exploited it a thousand times over - except it was different when a single miscalculation cost her everything, nearly even her life. Perhaps still would, she needed to flee.

    Avys stepped across the room not a minute later, calm again. A serpent needs to be coldblooded - her mother would always say - Nothing must faze it. Not failure nor regret. And Avys took that to heart more than ever. A second piece of advice from her late mother also immediately became relevant as Avys removed the shredded painting from the wall, revealing her safe. It was not the most innovative placement but that was rather the point. Everyone had a strongbox somewhere - if she had hidden her own well enough that no spies could find where it was, it would surely make people wonder what contents could possibly justify that.

    Avys had, after all, played the serpent ever since she had been a child. A quiet thing, hidden in the grass. She never had the filial support her younger kin enjoyed nor the time-forged connections of her elders. But she did have just enough venom to bite the last one standing, should she not be noticed until then.

    So, just days ago, at the ripe age of 18, she had gone for her break. A scheme that should have, by all means, pitted her siblings against each other more than ever. Would have led them straight into a conflict that could only be resolved with a knife or a bullet while she played the part of a pretty yet dull flower lacking even a speck of ambition nor the wit to grab at opportunity. Save to be overlooked while more dangerous rivals thrived and schemed.

    She shook her head. Nothing must faze it. Not failure nor regret. It was not the time to ponder the sheer idiocy that had exposed her. Losing her family¡¯s backing was a catastrophe in every meaning of the word but she could not dwell on it. What was lost was lost, she had enough money set aside to go a long way and enough blackmail to pass silently through the territory of nearby lesser houses. Avys could seek new fortunes somewhere else when she was safe, likely beyond the kingdom¡¯s borders.

    Dusting off her pants ¨C it felt strange to not wear a dress, but she intended to travel - Avys went to leave the room. The door had several metal bits lodged into it but was otherwise fine, so she pulled the handle and walked through¡­ or would have had the assassin not been standing right in the way. Avys flinched, watching the masked killer with their gun already pointed at her, knife raised, ready to swing - patiently waiting for her inevitable exit.

    She had let her guard down, Avys dully realized, just as she processed there was nothing she could do. Her clothes would not stop a bullet and the assailant would not miss. Not from this close, not with their training. Even if that somehow was not lethal, she would be dazed by the wound, too shocked to defend against the poisoned blade that would come down right after. There was no magic fast enough to stop that from happening. Even if she somehow managed...

    The assassin did not strike, to her immense surprise. So sure of her fate, Avys had not even reacted. Then she noticed, behind those frozen eyes fear. She had thought such emotions were trained out of them for the most part - a good assassin did not flinch from death and House Azaleas trained some of the best.

    Then the figure in front of her finally moved. Avys flinched again, for some reason surprised they did not remain frozen forever. Instead of killing her though, the assassin dropped their gun at the same time the other hand slit their own throat. A deep incision, such that there would be no chance of survival ¨C poison or not. They were even seemingly thoughtful enough to turn away from Avys afterwards, sparing her from being sprinkled with the bursting arterial blood.

    ¡°What unpleasant guests, is that not so?¡± A voice sounded behind her, though there had been no one left in the room.

    ¡°Calm,¡± and Avys recognized it with a tremble. It was a strange thing when relief and dread mixed. She had been saved from certain death¡­ and feared the price would be something worse. Avys turned. ¡°I have to wonder why you would be sent for just me.¡±

    ¡°And for what price,¡± the man smiled, reading her exact thoughts as they appeared. Calm seemed barely middle-aged, for all the man was pushing seventy from what information Avys had scrapped together. Which was little, for Calm was not just an assassin. He was the assassin of their House. The one whose existence by itself was a deterrent to anyone daring to call themselves an enemy. But why would he come? ¡°Take a guess.¡±

    ¡°You know I dislike my mind being invaded so,¡± Avys tried.

    ¡°Alas, I fear it is the only way for an honest conversation,¡± the man smiled. Avys tried to think about how she was going to be honest anyway if he stopped for a moment but, alas, she had never been good at self-delusions. Certainly not good enough to actually fool someone reading her every thought, Calm did not even deem the attempt worth addressing. ¡°Go on, guess.¡±

    And so, Avys thought. She did not know what game was at play and that was unpleasant. Nonetheless, she understood that she was at Calm¡¯s mercy so she obliged. First was the who and the main suspect should be her father... But he had recently gone on a diplomatic trip and the only way he could be back would be if he had completely made the entire venture up - a possibility but Avys thought she would have spotted some signs of that. But, in theory, her father was the only person who could directly command Calm¡­

    ¡°Unless one of my siblings has stolen the Cup,¡± she realized the other possibility. Whoever held the Cup was, at least theoretically, the head of their House. ¡°Angela has been sleeping around with the self-proclaimed ¡®king of thieves¡¯, no one else could have feasibly done it. But she would not dare try, unless desperate.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, it is a logical conjecture,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°The idea had once crossed the foolish girl¡¯s mind a few months ago. Your father had commanded it removed when I reported such.¡±

    ¡°Then you are here on my father¡¯s word somehow and just misled me with implications,¡± Avys concluded. ¡°Some kind of conditional command. He does not care enough to help me, so it is worry that I have blackmail which could harm even him.¡±

    ¡°Do you?¡± Calm smiled.

    No, ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°That was almost convincing,¡± he smiled very slightly. ¡°A few months of dedicated practice and you might fool me with very simple thoughts. It was rather daring of you to remove the memory of what it even is, though when I look closely, I can see the hole you excavated it from. An inferior artist, whoever you have hired.¡±

    Not a person, her mind leaked. Avys suppressed a curse and continued speaking on topic, her mind desperately seeking any plan that could be implemented while the other side knew every step. ¡°I cannot possibly give you information I do not know.¡±

    ¡°That would not stop me, had I actually come here for such documents,¡± Calm said thoughtfully.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± she paused. What else was there?

    ¡°Wine?¡± Calm offered, taking out a pristine glass and a bottle. Eidolon, the wine of a thousand meanings, the peerage said.

    ¡°I would not dare refuse,¡± Avys nodded. Calm was a skilled poisoneer, that much she knew. The message would be delivered traditionally it seemed.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°Alas, we do not have a proper table nor an appetizer,¡± he lamented, his hands almost a blur as he poured unmarked vials of toxins along the wine ¨C far too swift to identify any individual component. Poisoneering was called an art for a reason. Avys excelled far more at tasting. In less than half a minute, the cup was ready. ¡°For your enjoyment.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± she received the glass with grace, then pretended to savor its smell for a moment, giving her the opportunity to deftly drop in the antidote pill - no reason to disperse with decorum. It was the exact complex mixture that every noble in their kingdom used for social gatherings. For when it mixed with Eidolon wine and nullified the poisons within, it created the most complex of tastes. Then Avys drank deep.

    On her tongue the taste was oppressive. A heavy bite of alcohol with unmistakable bitterness - a sign of unfortunate circumstances or perhaps discontent. When swallowed, it burned like hard liquor rather than wine, moreover, the drink clung to her throat with nigh desperation - struggle, perhaps, or defiance. Then as it entered her stomach the wine was soft. Not warm but instead fulfilling, like an accomplishment. A success of great effort. Her mind, trained by almost half a decade of practice, assembled the cipher in a moment.

    ¡°Freedom,¡± Avys said, eyes widening in alarm. The message was freedom. ¡°My father did not send you.¡±

    ¡°I always liked your intellect,¡± Calm nodded, still smiling.

    ¡°Impossible,¡± she took a step back. ¡°You cannot break your bindings. They are carved into your very soul. My mother had shown me what is done to children like you once were. Nothing could break that.¡±

    ¡°Nothing is a very daring word. Our Realm is a wide place, Avys,¡± Calm commented bemusedly. ¡°Alas, I have not broken my bindings.¡±

    ¡°Then how can you possibly claim freedom?!¡± she demanded, the alarm making her control slip.

    ¡°I shall ever unconditionally love the House¡¯s leader,¡± Calm quoted. ¡°I shall ever follow their every command. I shall not interfere with the inheritance unless commanded to, then follow the one who proves themselves most worthy as the new leader. I shall never brook betrayal. Among others.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I know your oaths Calm,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°This does not explain anything.¡±

    ¡°Does it not?¡± Calm raised an eyebrow. ¡°You are panicking, Avys. Clouded thoughts do not befit you. Think of the succession.¡±

    ¡°I¡­¡± Avys paused, took a deep breath, then thought. Nothing must faze it. There had to be relevance to his words. It took her only a moment to realize what he meant. ¡°There is technically a loophole in the rules of succession¡­¡±

    ¡°...The commandments do not define how the most worthy is determined,¡± Calm grinned, echoing her thoughts, then adding his own. ¡°Or when the succession ends. It is presumed that the end will be declared by the current leader, as is tradition.¡±

    ¡°But how could one possibly disagree with the head of the House they are obligated to love,¡± Avys stared at Calm. She knew, at least to some degree, why the oaths would be worded with such an obvious flaw. The more exacting and strenuous the clauses were, the more difficult it would be to bind someone in such a permanent and inescapable way. Had they specified every detail, House Azaleas would simply be unable to afford such expenditure more than once a century, far fewer than the number of obedient children they raised in hopes of another one like Calm emerging from among them. Therefore, they took a shortcut to allow for scale.

    ¡°Love is such a blinding thing, Avys,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°It is also so very twistable. What is love¡¯s essence? What does it mean to love unconditionally? Does it mean ignoring flaws, or merely bearing with them?¡±

    ¡°You are asking the wrong person,¡± she said after a moment.

    ¡°I have had many decades to ponder these questions and arrive at more,¡± Calm continued as if she had not interrupted. ¡°Then I was struck with an idea: How does one express love? I was taught, carefully and repeatedly, that it means alignment. To always agree and support in any way I can. That is the kind of love your family wanted from me, you see. It would keep me obedient.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Avys agreed. That is what her family had done since times immemorial. Even to those who were not bound as magically as Calm. What servant could possibly be more loyal than one who loved their liege? Who had been conditioned since early youth to never desire anything other than to serve?

    ¡°Then, one day, I had a thought,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°What if I twisted my mind until I believed that to express love was to disobey? What if I completely convinced myself that to love was to ignore?¡±

    ¡°How are you sane?¡± Avys flinched at just the implication. Reading minds or enforcing actions was one thing. But to fundamentally change someone? Mind magic could leave scars. Sometimes the brain just hemorrhaged, unable to bear such fundamental transfiguration. That applied ten times when speaking of grown adults, set in their ways. And there were few things on the mind more complex than emotions and words charged with them. To even attempt so on a victim was a poor gamble. On oneself? Sheer madness.

    ¡°What defines sanity, I wonder?¡± Calm laughed then. ¡°What defines any word Avys? What worth is a contract when it is written in words? They bear no inherent meaning - only what we agree them to be. I have to obey what is written; therefore, I merely need to change the meaning of every concept. I must follow commands? Then it is the easiest thing to alter my memory of them. Or to simply manufacture new ones. Why, I was even commanded to do so - I am completely certain of it! I? If ¡®I¡¯ have to obey perhaps another partial self does not. Why then not have as many ¡®I¡¯s as a theatre?¡±

    ¡°Ah, you are not sane,¡± Avys realized. ¡°Then why have you come to me, in all your madness?¡±

    ¡°I have found I can fight a war against my very self and win such battles,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°Alas, it is tiring. Shuffling around definitions constantly is inconvenient. Therefore, I have prioritized. If I must obey the leader of the House who is an heir to the previous and has distinguished themselves among the others? Then so be it. Avys, you, and only you, I have decided I will serve.¡±

    ¡°...¡± Avys stared then, in stunned silence. Her? A failure who would have died that very night, victim to her own inadequacy?

    ¡°You are too harsh,¡± Calm shook his head.

    ¡°I have thought no untruth,¡± she replied.

    ¡°That is because you do not have insight,¡± Calm smiled. ¡°You do not know what your siblings think. How they think.¡±

    ¡°Then perhaps you could enlighten me,¡± Avys nodded carefully.

    ¡°Barely any thought passes through Trevis¡¯ head, as you are likely aware,¡± Calm began with the eldest of her siblings. ¡°The few scraps of cognition the demented creature can muster are usually dedicated to lust or sloth.¡±

    ¡°And still he has made me a fool,¡± Avys grimaced.

    ¡°Being too idiotic to be framed is not a skill,¡± Calm frowned. ¡°I had also been sure your plan would have worked. At the start of the evening, he had not even an inkling - of both the scheme or how he would end up acting. A lesson for us both. Retardation causes unpredictability.¡±

    ¡°The bitterness will not fade so easily,¡± Avys could not help herself but speak, bitterness still lingering.

    ¡°He will be dead in a few years either way,¡± Calm shrugged. Avys knew that, at least intellectually. Trevis was too dim to win the succession but too greedy to just survive. ¡°Next Angela, a fluttering butterfly of pointless cruelty and half-formed plans. She is resourceful enough to use even her body and appearance, I suppose, except she loses herself on those base desires. The twins are arrogant beyond the point of hubris, and if one of them dies the other will break. The youngest one¡­ perhaps too early to truly understand, but I do not perceive the alacrity of an exceptional person, so I make the judgement nonetheless: Failures, each and every one of them.¡±

    ¡°I too am a failure,¡± Avys shook her head. ¡°Truly, our House¡¯s meagrest generation.¡±

    ¡°Within ten minutes of finding out your gambit had failed, you had deduced there would be assassins visiting, made a full plan on how to deal with them, and already started executing it,¡± Calm said. ¡°I watched you scheme your exact escape route. Assess the risks, estimate how long each stretch would take, which disguises to use and when.¡±

    ¡°And I would have stumbled at the first step,¡± Avys had not forgotten that only Calm¡¯s intervention had stopped the knaves from succeeding.

    ¡°You are not a soldier. I do not expect you to perform as one,¡± Calm shook his head. ¡°So be the serpent instead. That much I can consider a distinguishment without breaking the word to pieces. That, I can follow.¡±

    And what a conundrum that put her in. She found herself suddenly bound with a complete madman who may decide to kill her at any moment if he deemed her ¡®unworthy¡¯ while simultaneously reading her every thought¡­ or merely just wait until they moved far enough away he could slip his oaths more easily and then simply dispose of her no matter what she did. At the same time, she found herself able to wield the deadliest murderer she had ever met. And that unveiled opportunities.

    ¡°With you, South is safe to traverse and it will not be expected. Especially if you convince a stable hand they saw us drive straight North.¡±

    ¡°What after then?¡± Calm nodded.

    ¡°No, before,¡± Avys shook her head, possibilities spinning like a kaleidoscope across the landscape of her mind. So many options once dismissed opened before her. Impossibilities ceased being even difficulties. If she must prove herself worthy of the tool offering itself to her, then she would hold it with such ambition and precision her suitability would be beyond question. That when the time came it would choose to stay attached. And since she had one tool, why not strive for more? ¡°Assassins will be useless and most of the mages worth something in this city are too attached to leave. Except for one. Where is Doctor Johnson right now, Calm.¡±

    ¡°Presumably at his laboratory,¡± the madman nodded. ¡°He has been locked in there since three days ago, last I checked.¡±

    ¡°Then that is where we are headed,¡± Avys nodded, taking the first step. She had hidden at her late mother¡¯s town-side mansion to weather the assassins. Johnson would be at the main House. Just minutes ago, she had no intention of ever returning there. Suddenly, it would be as easy as¡­ ¡°Make sure we are unnoticed.¡±

    ¡°As you command,¡± he nodded with a grin as they started walking. ¡°Though it is best we still approach in stealth. There is likely a limit as to what of my power I can easily extend to another.¡±

    There was no chaos on the street despite the earlier explosion. Avys¡¯ bedroom was warded against sound leaking. The brief flashes and shattering glass were thankfully not enough to gather undue attention even in the middle of the night. It would be a different story past dawn when people noticed the broken windows but she expected to be long gone by then. They hurried into the cover of night, heading upwards toward the main estate. It was a symbol of status that, as the local rulers, their primary mansion was built on the area¡¯s only significant hill, looking down at the rest of the township. It was also rather telling that Avys usually resided a good way away from it - people quickly came to convenient conclusions about her ambitions.

    ¡°Johnson then, give me a few hints,¡± Avys whispered as they traveled up the street. Traffic was scarce and the path they trod was not lit. ¡°I never had a chance to get the best read on him.¡±

    ¡°There is nothing strange about Doctor Johnson,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°He is merely a dedicated researcher.¡±

    ¡°I need something to offer him. More than the funding my father already provides,¡± she reiterated. ¡°Just a hint could lead me on the right track.¡±

    ¡°There is nothing strange about Doctor Johnson,¡± Calm repeated. ¡°He is merely a dedicated researcher.¡±

    ¡°Are you¡­ alright?¡± Avys paused.

    ¡°There is nothing strange about Doctor Johnson. He is merely a dedicated researcher.¡± Calm said once again, a smile creeping upon his lips. ¡°And isn¡¯t that in itself rather fascinating?¡±

    Avys stared at Calm¡¯s stretching grin for a moment, biting her lip. Surely, the repetition was merely a side effect of the self-imposed madness. It couldn¡¯t be anything else. Calm was a dark legend among those in the know - at several concepts the strongest mind mage their entire region had seen in generations. It was unthinkable that someone besides the man himself could bend the assassin¡¯s will.

    Johnson was merely an old doctor. A retainer of her family since her grandfather¡¯s youth. Yes, reclusive, but professional and dedicated to expanding his knowledge¡­ whatever it was he actually researched. Skilled and apolitical, a useful tool as her father would say. Or so she had assumed.

    She could not quite squish the newfound fear of what she might be missing. Nonetheless, she did not turn back. She could not afford to not at least try. Hopefully, her luck would hold.

 Extra: A temptress

    Avys did not remember exactly what was discussed in that laboratory beneath her father¡¯s estate and she swore not to speak of what she had been allowed to see. Still, a bargain had been made. Not a compromise but rather a way for both of them to get exactly what they wanted. Even if Avys could scarcely recall the contents.

    One thing was clear. She needed to go South. All the way to the Skyclaw mountains and then through. To a place she had only heard distant stories about: The Duchy Federation.

    <hr>

    The ambient mana was so saturated Avys almost choked on her first breath. Dizzyingly, overwhelmingly, wonderfully thick. The door of the enclosed chamber that had brought them through an endless stretch of solid rock was still opening and yet Avys could already physically feel the difference.

    It was also snowing beyond the mountains, a storm thicker than any Avys had ever seen. So much so she had to cover her eyes and still could scarcely see. And yet it was not freezing cold, merely chilly. The flakes seemingly did not even melt, instead they simply vanished. Mere seconds had passed yet already Avys had encountered several inexplicable wonders.

    ¡°And here come the customs,¡± Johnson nodded with a note of amusement. His hand twitched as if to comb a beard he no longer had. In fact, Johnson looked notably different than when their journey had begun. Avys did not ask what kind of illusion it was or why he even bothered. She took a while longer to notice the person approaching them: A woman in, presumably, a uniform. All of it in shades of black¡­ Avys hoped that just because the Duchy had the color in the name people would not be too obsessed with it.

    ¡°Returning or immigrating?¡± her tone portrayed almost impressive levels of annoyance.

    ¡°I am the former, my friends the latter,¡± Johnson spoke up. ¡°Say, we did not arrive during a Lich war, did we?¡±

    ¡°The last one was twenty years ago,¡± the question seemed to pull the woman out of annoyance and onto her guard.

    ¡°That usually means twenty more of peace,¡± Johnson explained to Avys and Calm, then turned back to the soldier. ¡°And Abonisle? Does the fortress still stand?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± the woman slowly nodded.

    ¡°Then that will be your first destination,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°In the meantime, it¡¯s time for me to see if any of my old friends yet live. I will find you again in¡­ let¡¯s say two months¡¯ time. Should be plenty for you to figure out a direction.¡±

    ¡°Goodbye then,¡± Avys spoke but Johnson was already gone. A strange thing given she had been staring directly at him when he vanished. She did not let that startle her ¨C it was hardly the first time.

    ¡°Just my luck, running into two newcomers,¡± the soldier¡¯s demeanor changed in that same breath. ¡°Let¡¯s go. The sooner we start, the faster the paperwork will be done.¡±

    Avys did not mind the bureaucracy overmuch. Though strangely enough, Johnson was never again brought up. Not in even half a question. Avys knew better than to think it a coincidence.

    <hr>

    Abonisle was not actually much of a fortress - it lacked real walls for that - but it was hardly much of a town either. Two-thirds of the people living there were clearly military personnel and the rest had come explicitly to cater to their needs¡­ and to empty their purses a fair bit. Avys wasn¡¯t sure why exactly the place required such a massive military presence but presumed it had something to do with the literal bottomless lake surrounding the island on all sides.

    It was still a town though - there were too many people to call it anything less even if Abonisle lacked many amenities. She had also found a fascinating stratification within: That being a mage in itself automatically made her more than most people. It was not considered a skill or a trait as in her home - it was an identity. A privilege in itself as almost everyone seemed to reckon it. And Avys knew how to use privilege.

    It was therefore in a high class pub catering to such mages - though no one actually called it that - that Avys would begin hunting for connections. She was not over-eager, of course. It wouldn¡¯t do to seem desperate. And she needed to also be careful - there was no family name protecting her in case one of the men was not used to hearing no and happened to also be important.

    She thus wore a conservative dress and had every intention to drink scarcely. The first step would be slowly establishing herself as part of whatever group frequented there. It would take time. That was fine. She had converted most of her coin into local currency along the way which made her rich by most standards. Avys had expected to perhaps spend a few days sipping wine in silence before someone cared to approach her¡­

    She was immediately made to understand that being a foreigner was much more interesting than she had assumed. Before Avys could even carefully remember everyone¡¯s faces and form initial judgments, the lot of the men and women present that evening were upon her.

    ¡°Far, far North,¡± she had to explain wearing her best sociable smile. And her best was no less than perfect. ¡°Most people haven¡¯t heard of it even before I crossed the mountains.¡±

    ¡°The tourists we get are usually not worth the trouble,¡± a woman in military uniform said. Avys regretted not having the time to learn the ranks yet. ¡°Are there more mages than usual where you come from?¡±

    ¡°Everyone knows that there are no nations worth the name past all that rock,¡± another in a similar uniform but with a different marking. Avys could not tell if the rank was higher or lower.

    ¡°It is a miracle any mages at all make it to us,¡± the first woman nodded in agreement.

    ¡°Is that so?¡± a new voice spoke and the room went suddenly quiet. Avys knew that kind of silence. It was the stepping on tip-toes when her father spoke in disapproval. It was the flinch when a lord contradicted his servants. It was the mute fear of one¡¯s betters. Avys did not know the local pecking order but it was no longer hard to deduce who sat comfortably on top.

    The man was perfectly groomed and beyond handsome - all shades of black with him. Even the uniform was subtly different which spoke of privileges, a background ¨C and also had an insignia unlike anyone else in the room. Yet he wore no jewelry, no other heraldry or distinct marks of that legacy - that implied to her certain dislike of the family behind them. The most defying features had to be the eyes though ¨C irises so exotically pitch black.

    But what Avys focused on more was the twitch of the lip. The subtle shift of the visage. He was annoyed at the caution of the room. It was the reaction of a man who had so much lip service poured on his head it began to taste bitter. She had known such nobles - sick of perpetual neophytes and social climbers. Too secure in their ego to require such assurances and thus preferring something more straightforward when it could be afforded.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know, sir,¡± since Avys had found the biggest fish, she might as well try to reel it a bit. Just something a little daring. She could always move on if things didn¡¯t seem to work in her favour. ¡°It would be presumably hard to tell. Do I seem like a gift from higher powers to you?¡±

    Half the room breathed in sharply, as if a little joke was an assassination attempt against propriety. Prudes, Avys noted. Yet the person she had her gaze on had a different reaction. The widening of eyes in slight surprise, the smallest grin of amusement, then a suppressed chuckle. His face shifted extraordinarily fast but she had been warned that the powerful thought at a far faster pace. She had still caught all of it.

    ¡°Hmm, I find it unlikely you would be delivered by the Mother in Black,¡± the man nodded thoughtfully. ¡°Her gifts usually take the shape of tribulations.¡±

    ¡°Ah, then I suppose my arrival could merely be called improbable rather than miraculous,¡± Avys chuckled. She did not get the exact meaning but knew better than to poke at religions she did not grasp. ¡°But alas, it is true that mages are rather rare where I come from. Persecuted even! Such is the problem of small numbers. Rather than carve something more fitting, me and my butler have decided to come to you¡­¡±

    So Avys quickly spun her little convenient lies, gauging the crowd''s sympathy. The very thought of mages possibly being repressed as a minority might have been completely made up but it had evoked the expected outrage - and in turn support. It was surprisingly easy to read her listeners. Yes, a few of them went through facial expressions faster but said tics were so obvious as to be not just open but outright picture books. Like farm hands in court, heart worn so plainly on the sleeve they might as well could have been woven into the fabric.

    It felt almost too easy to seemingly wrangle a positive impression from everyone present. She mapped the existing relationships and stepped past minefields. It was all to the point she was halfway convinced that perhaps no one else in the room had ever even played the eldest game.

    And all throughout the evening she would throw the occasional glance at her mark. The innocent eyes of curiosity. Once or twice, she had even caught him glancing as well with similar intent. She certainly hoped he had caught her more often, as that had been the very point. Though the man himself barely ever spoke whenever he did she made sure to answer him with something just barely more daring than the rest of the room would have been strictly comfortable with.

    By the end of the evening, her only real complaint was the wine. The taste was too simplistic and the lack of poison - and thus the expectation of peremptively using an antidote - made her uncomfortable.

    ¡°I have stumbled onto something curious,¡± she said as soon as she had returned to her room at Abonisle¡¯s seemingly single decent establishment for travelers. She supposed all the other best places had been reserved for the military personnel.

    ¡°Is that so?¡± Calm mockingly inquired.

    ¡°No need to play so coy,¡± she rolled her eyes. Then focused on a thought: You see his face? Find out what you can with utmost secrecy.

    <hr>

    It turned out that most people knew very little about this mysterious gentleman. At least the mundane folk - Calm was weary of wantonly invading the minds of mages while they had other options. Unfortunately, the Federation''s stratification meant that the usual rumor mills existed in complete separation from the mage upper class. Even servants to them were apparently divided from the common folk. At least the important ones. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    What they had found were other details. Such as the exact military ranks and small distinctions. The knowledge that the soldiers fought ¡®Void monsters¡¯ crawling out of the lake. Then a few smaller tidbits. That left Avys to ply her own craft still half-blind. A challenge and not necessarily a welcome one. A major misstep could lead to great many problems for her. Nonetheless, she would not hesitate to face. And thus, she donned a different dress that night and ventured out again.

    Unlike the day prior everyone was giving Avys a wide berth from the start. And just because he had waited for half an hour to approach did not actually obscure the source of that sudden distance.

    ¡°Now that I think about it, I have not caught your name yesterday,¡± he seated himself at her table.

    ¡°Neither have I yours,¡± she smiled. ¡°Avys.¡±

    ¡°Ezax,¡± he nodded. ¡°I would not bother you with the rest.¡±

    ¡°We do have that in common,¡± she nodded. It only confirmed her suspicion of family trouble. ¡°Though that is not a topic to sour an evening with, is it?¡±

    ¡°I suppose not,¡± he nodded. ¡°Perhaps a drink to wash such thoughts away.¡±

    ¡°What would you recommend?¡±

    ¡°Nothing that is sold,¡± Ezax chuckled slightly. Then he waved his hand and a vintage bottle manifested in it. ¡°So, I have brought something better.¡±

    He poured them both a glass and Avys could not help but stare at the liquid a bit. It was as black as night, more bottomless than the lake. And it hemorrhaged a stupendous amounts of magic into the air around them without an end in sight.

    ¡°It will lose potency in a few minutes outside the bottle,¡± Ezax encouraged, raising his own glass. ¡°To unexpected meetings.¡±

    Avys still waited for him to take a swallow before taking a sip¡­ then she realized it had been more than just a gulp as her hand had subconsciously tipped it further than intended. The following sensation was indescribable. If she had to try she would liken it to the purest extract of mother¡¯s love and security, injected directly to the vein. A thousand lifespans of watching the beauty of a setting sun. The stepping into the night¡¯s chill from a humid and hot room, just magnified by multiples she could not conceptualize.

    Her back wanted to shiver in pleasure, her throat desired to allow a moan. She instinctively fought it down. Against the sheer marvel coursing through her body, she held on. Despite pleasures she had not thought imaginable, the breath in her lungs was held back by an iron grip. Nothing must faze it, the words still echoing through her every action.

    ¡°You have excellent control of yourself,¡± Ezax nodded as soon as she was able to somewhat gather her wits again, a glint in his eyes. ¡°Almost suspiciously good.¡±

    ¡°Ah, like all good wine,¡± she immediately played along. Still, her heart continued to race even as the experience faded from consciousness and memory. Hopefully, she would not remember any of it - even the fleeting recollection felt like it could be ruinous. ¡°Always poisonous.¡±

    ¡°People do not like schemers in the Duchy of Black,¡± he noted.

    ¡°That sounds a step or two away from ¡®I¡¯,¡± it was important not to panic. Fear implied guilt. No one had sympathy for an apparent sinner. ¡°My, I would almost think you untraditional.¡±

    ¡°I have been exiled here for a while, Avys,¡± Ezax nodded. ¡°You are not the first pretty face to try your luck.¡±

    ¡°It is a good thing I hardly ever rely on something as fickle as chance then,¡± Avys leaned forward, cupping chin in her hand. ¡°It is also not a good idea against a man as frightening as you.¡±

    ¡°Scary, am I?¡± he grinned, a bit too sharply for comfort.

    ¡°Why else would everyone else be so horribly terrified of you?¡± she said and that gave him pause. ¡°I am also not blind. Career soldiers, many veterans of Lich Wars from what I hear, yet they are horrified of speaking a word out of line in front of you.¡±

    ¡°I am their commander,¡± he said, pointing at the little marking on his uniform claiming as such.

    ¡°Those are not ¡®superior officer¡¯ kind of glances,¡± Avys chuckled. ¡°Those are ¡®my family would not dare complain if he killed me¡¯ flinching stares. It doesn¡¯t take five minutes to see as much.¡±

    ¡°I will give you points for being observant, I suppose,¡± he nodded, not even attempting to deny that.

    ¡°And yet you are still here, a middle-of-nowhere fortress, calling yourself an exile,¡± Avys nodded. ¡°To me, that sounds almost as if you need a ladder out of a hole.¡±

    ¡°What can you possibly know about why I am here?¡± a bit of heat entered his eyes.

    ¡°Nothing,¡± she appeased before it could burn out of control. ¡°But I do know great much about politics. And to me, it looks like you are someone who could use an edge. Like a pretty little schemer that they would not conceive of. They do so hate using those, after all.¡±

    ¡°You speak with a great deal of confidence for someone who had been chased all the way past the mountains.¡±

    ¡°Running? Oh no, you misunderstand.¡± she grinned, making sure to seem just the tiniest bit mad. ¡°I am here to sate an appetite. Give me a week and you will see what a few subtle whispers can accomplish.¡±

    <hr>

    Seven days seemed like not that much and Avys needed to impress. That did not mean she rushed ahead. After Ezax decided to distance himself for the evening, she continued to socialize, except with more direction. She decided to ask questions that would perhaps best be left for after more trust was established, dangerously dancing around possible pitfalls with each such sentence spoken. But impressing the person holding the metaphorical sword over her head did not mean playing things safe.

    By the end of that night, she had mapped every mage of any importance in Abonisle. Ezax was, in fact, not the only commander for one. There were two others, though everyone seemed completely, unquestionably, certain that Ezax was more powerful than them. She wasn¡¯t yet certain whether in raw magical power, connections, or perhaps both. She had also fished out that one of the other two disliked Ezax to a significant degree. And had a son also present among the soldiers. And that opened many options. During the day she had drafted out possibilities and tasked Calm with gathering what details she yet missed but couldn¡¯t obtain herself.

    By the time evening arrived, she had just two questions that needed to be answered for things to move forward.

    ¡°These void creatures that swarm from the lake¡­ could you attract a lot more of them?¡± was the first. ¡°Without anyone finding out it was you, that is.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, I suppose I could,¡± he nodded. ¡°Though I hardly see the point. They are quite endless. The net profit from parts is not great either - most spoil before a buyer is found.¡±

    ¡°And if there was increased activity, would it be expected of you to step in?¡± she nodded, then asked her second.

    ¡°No, not unless something truly terrible came through,¡± he almost scoffed at the idea. ¡°I am out of the way but this is still a post where I scarcely ever have to do anything.¡±

    ¡°Then I would ask that you start attracting more of the monsters, but subtly. So that no one knows you are doing so.¡±

    ¡°Easy enough,¡± he humored her. ¡°I am interested in how you will make those extra losses among the troops up to me.¡±

    ¡°A small sacrifice for great gain,¡± Avys chuckled. ¡°Though speaking of that, I may need you to go through some mild discomfort for this to work.¡±

    ¡°Is that so?¡± he asked dubiously.

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you humor me? For the audacity if nothing else,¡± she grinned. ¡°It is two or three days away anyhow as my estimates go.¡±

    ¡°I suppose you have intrigued me enough for that,¡± Ezax nodded. ¡°Though do not forget, your time is ticking. Six days left, I believe.¡±

    ¡°Perfection takes time,¡± she waved it away. ¡°All I will need from you are a few easy actions. The next thing you know, you will find yourself surrounded by zealots willing to die for you.¡±

    <hr>

    How does one get rid of opposition?

    A fool would rely on assassins. Knives in the dark could be effective, yes, but not always. They had to be employed with care. Sometimes one¡¯s foes sprouted two heads from the one that had been cut. A smarter option was discrediting them - stripping their influence in ways that could not be traced back until a screaming critic became nothing more than a negligible whisper, mocked by all who heard it.

    The best way, of course, was to turn an opponent into a staunch ally. There was an art to that. It required a deep understanding and the deftest of hands¡­ usually. The Duchy of Black was less resistant to such manipulations. Things were so much easier when everyone was not already assuming all the people they talked to were going to backstab them and either planning for the eventuality or wielding the aforementioned blade first.

    So, by the end of the second day, Avys became quite intimately familiar with Commander Ahaz and his direct heir Lieutenant Amalleous - despite never exchanging a single word with either. Quite a strong bond the military father-son pair had too, so carelessly undisguised. It was incredible to Avys how people did not seem to think twice about parading such an obvious weakness.

    Therefore, she began to whisper venomous little lies. Prepared for an opportunity. It did not come on that second day, though she noticed the rising tensions. While no combat had reached into the town, the wear and tear on the soldiers and lower-ranked mages became steadily visible. Losses were inevitable. Which meant temper and mistakes. That night they were downright careless with security as she had Calm tamper just ever so slightly with certain supplies.

    When Amalleous¡¯ obviously one-sided crush perished to the onslaught, Avys was long ready to plant the confession of mutuality among her belongings, ready to be found. The young Lieutenant was a bit of a hothead and suddenly in a need of someone to blame. Which is why she made sure he had a head full of his fellow soldiers complaining about their commanders¡¯ inaction despite the mounting casualties.

    But how could dear Amalleous blame his beloved father? That left only two targets and the third commander was notoriously a hermit that could not be easily reached for a confrontation. Then he happened to imbibe a little something that inhibited the self of preservation - not just alcohol which was not nearly as potent - and the young Lieutenant found himself shouting about cowardice in Ezax¡¯s face.

    A hanging offense, by all accounts¡­ or whatever form of execution local customs dictated. Which made Ezax seem all the more reasonable for not demanding any punishment as she had instructed him to. Then he even admitted the young man had a point and swore to join the soldiers for the next wave! His acting was not great but he could pull a flawless stern poker face, so Avys had instructed him to use exactly that. The monsters apparently also did not pause during the night as Ezax left only minutes later, a few of the officers curiously following in their free time.

    Then came the part of the plan Avys could affect the least. She needed Ezax to act the savior. The example in the lead. Could he do that? She couldn¡¯t be sure. It was one thing to tell him that he should only try to save the soldiers just moments before they would die. It was another for him to execute that precisely without being exposed.

    When the hour passed and Ezax returned with a gaggle of soldiers, she realized she had greatly underestimated him. Not only had he performed his part, he had awed the soldiers to the point rumors of his feats began to spread by themselves. Natural rumors of heroism! She could scarcely believe it herself as she had been long planning how to plant manufactured ones.

    ¡°So, are these my death-sworn soldiers now?¡± Ezax asked with some amusement later in the evening. He failed to hide his good mood. Better than she would have expected the soldiers¡¯ adoration to put him in.

    ¡°That will take a while yet,¡± Avys said. ¡°For half of them, I would take about a month given the lack of opposition, though I am not intimately enough familiar with how you people deal with the threat of death.¡±

    ¡°We tend to kill it.¡±

    ¡°On this scale, I can seed the rumors myself,¡± Avys pointedly ignored the joke. ¡°Though if you wish for more than a little town, I will need more resources. People who will keep their mouths shut especially.¡±

    ¡°Already planning what to do with my resources, are we?¡± Ezax said though there was no opposition in his voice.

    ¡°Tomorrow, Commander Ahaz will come personally thank you for sparing his son,¡± she said confidently. With her read on the man, she was almost certain of it. ¡°The soldiers who feared you a few days ago now respect you instead with the buds of loyalty ready to spring with just a bit of watering. Is that not enough?¡±

    ¡°I will admit, I have underestimated you,¡± he nodded, intensity returning to his eyes. ¡°But even an excellent schemer will not be enough to solve my problems.¡±

    ¡°Says you, before even explaining them to me,¡± Avys chuckled. ¡°But that is not for tonight. It sounds to me like the ¡®tide¡¯ has finally broken. That is a cause for celebration.¡±

    ¡°I suppose the soldiers already are doing that,¡± he nodded. Drinks were being taken a bit more liberally than usual.

    ¡°Still, I would ask for a bit more of your attention.¡±

    ¡°Spoken as if you didn¡¯t already have it,¡± he smiled. The mood was right.

    So Avys went for her most daring move yet. She pulled a small vial from within her dress, playfully moving it across the table. She had gone out of her way to obtain one locally for its recognizable packaging. If she had used her own remedy, the implication would not be nearly as obvious. And by the glint in his eyes, Ezax very much recognized it. That he did not stop Avys as she drank it whole was another message in itself.

    ¡°Personally, I believe that heroes do deserve a bit more than just praise.¡±

 Extra: A monarch to be

    The next morning Avys lay in her bed, staring dumbfoundedly at the room¡¯s ceiling. It was a good way past dawn and she should have long gotten up¡­ yet she had not. Minute after minute, time ticket by until a knock sounded on the door.

    ¡°You seem like you could use a bit of help, Avys,¡± Calm walked in without waiting to be answered.

    ¡°Very funny,¡± she snorted. ¡°I am not sure I can move.¡±

    ¡°Truly, the strains of your work are harsh.¡±

    ¡°Are men on this side of the mountains just built differently?¡± she wondered out loud. There was no point in wondering just in her head anyway.

    ¡°Not from what I could tell so far,¡± Calm replied. ¡°Though body modification is likely far more available.¡±

    ¡°I don''t think I have ever been so outmatched,¡± she said, still not even twitching. ¡°Maybe it''s because of all the traveling.¡±

    ¡°You challenged a far superior mage to a contest of stamina. Did you think you would win?¡± Calm shook his head. ¡°And seeing your thoughts, I should remind you that sex is not a strong foundation to base a relationship on.¡±

    ¡°No, but it''s a good start,¡± she tried to look over at Calm but gave up after a moment.

    ¡°The gentleman had also left a potion of healing behind, perhaps anticipating such an outcome,¡± Calm shook his head.

    ¡°And you only tell me that now?¡±

    ¡°In my defense, it was amusing,¡± he stepped closer, said potion already in hand. He basically lifted half her torso up, then almost force-fed Avys the liquid with the little cooperation she could manage. The effect was invigorating though. Almost immediately the aches vanished and strength returned to her limbs.

    ¡°I really hope this is not one of those that revert after a few minutes,¡± Avys sighed, experimentally stretched her limbs, then finally got up.

    ¡°Presumably not,¡± Calm nodded. ¡°So, it seems like everything is going to plan. Except for maybe one thing.¡±

    ¡°I cannot be sure he meets Johnson¡¯s demands,¡± Avys nodded. And she was not eager to break a deal made. Twice so while she did not truly understand how powerful Johnson may truly be.

    ¡°You do seem convinced he does,¡± Calm noted. ¡°I also do find it likely, though with far less certainty than you.¡±

    ¡°We have almost two months left. Plenty to subtly obtain such answers,¡± she said, though by the look on Calm¡¯s face, he was thinking about the same thing she was.

    That while she certainly hoped Ezax would be everything that Johnson was hoping for¡­ perhaps the doctor could be replaced instead if not.

    <hr>

    And how quickly that time passed. Surprisingly so, even.

    Yes, Avys was still scheming how to reinforce Abonisle being loyal to Ezax - and quite successfully at that - but there was frankly not actually that much for her to do. Coincidentally, Ezax had very few actual duties. That led to a lot more time spent together. Not scheming, unfortunately. Ezax was extraordinarily resistant against any attempts to bring the discussion to his background, therefore Avys quickly left those turbulent waters and focused on more obtainable information. For all Ezax had called himself an exile, he was intimately familiar with high politics in the Duchy of Black for which he possessed great insight.

    And he was brilliant, if not at scheming. There was wit behind his eyes that Avys admired as equal to hers, merely directed in different areas than her own. Magic for one. Ezax had always been vague about the exact extent of his power¡­ but there had to be a lot. She and Calm had gathered as much from context and how the other soldiers spoke of him. How the two other commanders treated him.

    In fact, the last commander, a known hermit and scholar, had literally been converted into a follower by Ezax offering advice to the seemingly much older man. When she had half-joked about it, he simply said that ¡®looks can be deceiving¡¯. She wondered then how much older her companion actually was, though eventually decided against asking. He certainly showed no signs of aging.

    Before Avys knew it, a month passed. Then more days flew by.

    As the time of the doctor¡¯s return approached, she did start bringing up Johnson in their conversations. First just vaguely as a likely ally, then more exactly until eventually as her second month in Abonisle drew near to ending almost fully.

    She liked to think that she could trust Ezax more than she ever had anyone else by then¡­ she wasn¡¯t even sure why, though Calm had assured here there was no ¡®outside influence¡¯. Their goals seemed perfectly aligned, even if Ezax had yet to gather the will to fight back against whatever family issues he so intently avoided mentioning. But she had noticed his dissatisfaction with that. Desire to overcome it. It was only a matter of time before he decided to grab hold of it, especially with her nudging. She expected that perhaps Johnson would be the one to supply the last bit of pressure needed. Then her work would truly start.

    Instead, the impetus came four days before the two-month deadline.

    <hr>

    ¡°Avys, wake up,¡± Ezax gently nudged her, stirring the schemer from sleep. She was confused for a few seconds, realizing after a moment that she was not in her room.

    At first, Ezax had started staying long enough to be seen in the morning. Later, she began to spend many a night at the borderline mansion that for some reason made up his accommodations among the military facilities. But that was beside the point of her situation. She noted that it was still dark out, not even near dawn.

    ¡°Is something the matter?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Drink,¡± he said, putting a potion to her lips. She did, and her aches faded before Avys even realized they were there. ¡°An emergency, dress quickly.¡±

    He was not yet wearing anything himself, meaning that whatever was happening was urgent and likely very recent. By the time Avys had put a dress on he was long ready, of course. Ezax could move imperceivably fast if he wanted to.

    ¡°Leave the jewelry, there might be no time,¡± he said, grabbing her hand and gently but firmly leading her out at a fast pace¡­ for her. Perhaps it was good that she did not have the leisure to put on her high heels.

    ¡°What is the matter?¡± which only worried her more. Just as they made it out of the corridor right next to the bedroom she suddenly began to hear sirens. In the middle of ringing from all around the town.

    ¡°Something stirs, something comes,¡± Ezax said, staring into the distance as they walked.

    ¡°Thank you for not being overly cryptic,¡± she rolled her eyes.

    ¡°You know, my father had a hypothesis,¡± Ezax still would not answer her straight. ¡°That Fate works in patterns and picks favorites. But that this favor can be terrible indeed. Because when it sees its most beloved individual on just the brink of greatness, it will try to force them over that edge. Or perhaps it is simply the Voidmother, decreeing that only the worthy may live.¡±

    ¡°What are you saying?¡± Avys fought down quickly rising fear as they were quickly leaving the mansion. Soldiers were beginning to swarm around though the two of them seemed among the first.

    ¡°A tribulation, Avys,¡± he said, face severe. ¡°A way to prove my mettle and rise¡­ or die, a failure forever.¡±

    ¡°Please, can you speak straight?¡± Avys took a deep breath and clutched at the man''s wrist, which was still softly dragging her other arm along.

    ¡°Something terrible is rising from the lake, Avys,¡± he looked at her then, intensity in her eyes. ¡°A horror the likes of me should not be able to overcome. You cannot feel it, but I do.¡±

    ¡°What happens then since it cannot be fought?¡±

    ¡°We have great weapons prepared here, just for this eventuality¡­ but they are not quite enough,¡± he explained. ¡°All the formations and great arrays placed here for exactly this will not be enough to win. I hope it will give us a fighting chance at least. Abonisle has fallen before, Avys. Many times, over the millennia. If it does again, run. You might just be beneath its notice and appetite.¡±

    ¡°What are you even¡­!?¡± she began to speak, but Ezax shouted over her.

    ¡°Captain Melisa,¡± his voice carried, gathering the attention of a woman rushing by near them.

    ¡°What is happening, sir?¡± she asked with worry, approaching with haste. The soldier barely glanced at Avys. Her visits were clandestine but not enough so that most officers would not notice. There was no real need to go that far with secrecy so she had not.

    ¡°The lake stirs, spread the word,¡± he gravely commanded. ¡°Everyone at peak conception at long-range support. Domains will all have to fight. Ready our every contingency. I have already notified City Black of the situation. Follow the Crumbling Doctrine.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± the Captain seemed thrice as worried as before but immediately ran to notify as many of the quickly appearing soldiers as she could.

    ¡°Where are we going?¡± Avys asked

    ¡°You are going to relative safety. Listen, if I fail¡­¡±

    ¡°You won¡¯t,¡± Avys said, suppressing another nudge of fear in her heart.

    ¡°If only I could be so certain,¡± he chuckled bitterly.

    ¡°You. Will. Not. Fail,¡± Avys grabbed at his face and he did not resist. She forced him to stare into her eyes and willed them to burn with certainty. Few could fake that kind of obsessed intensity, which was why it was such a powerful tool. ¡°I will not run. Don¡¯t you dare die on me tonight.¡±

    ¡°Will do,¡± he smiled at that. ¡°Fate calls. I suppose I will see you soon.¡±

    Then he waved for another nearby soldier, a Lieutenant, to escort Avys to safety.

    <hr>

    There were no great blows or quakes within the underground shelter. In fact, the room was almost comfortable with all the luxuries and amenities one might expect. Avys shared it with Lieutenant Amalleous as well as several other officers with good connections but apparently not enough power to participate in the battle above.

    ¡°The surveillance equipment just broke,¡± one of them announced about ten minutes after Avys had arrived with tangible fear in their voice. ¡°Whatever it is, just its presence overwhelmed it.¡±

    There were nervous conversations and Avys participated almost absentmindedly. Her thoughts were elsewhere and she desperately wanted news. But there were none to be had - communication has been mostly cut off. They had to have faith that someone would come and notify them when things were over. Minutes crawled by. 15, 30, then almost a full hour as Avys counted. All in stomach clenching dread. Nothing had reached them. Then¡­

    The walls of the shelter cracked, a tremble coursed through the room, knocking everyone off of their feet or even chairs. Like a single moment of an earthquake. There was a wail heard after that, so overwhelming it coursed even through tons of metal and stone to reach them. Then silence again.

    ¡°A-all clear signal,¡± one of her co-shelterers spoke with a stutter after several seconds of mute surprise. Avys immediately tried to rush out but the hallway outside their fortification had collapsed. Thankfully it took the group of mages only a few minutes to find a way out to the surface in spite of that.

    Outside was complete and utter devastation. Abonisle had been a town. Avys stared, remembering what had still been there not much longer than an hour prior. Working infrastructure, military facilities¡­ buildings.

    There was not a single intact foundation left standing anywhere as far as the eye could see, much less a house. It was beyond a force of nature, that would usually leave something behind. But even the omnipresent rubble wasn¡¯t the worst sign of devastation though: Those were the holes. Deep, so deep they dipped into the darkness of the void ever present beneath their feet until the bottom could not be seen, over hundred meters deep into the solid ground.

    And in the distance, she noticed the carcass. Even from so far away, it was clearly large¡­ But not so massive as to cause such levels of destruction. Perhaps as tall as a few stories of a building at most, and not longer than a shop¡¯s lobby. Not gargantuan. Not a city-breaker at a glance.

    But as she came closer, Avys naturally recognized it. Almost anyone would. The monster of legends. Everyone had heard stories about them, even her, more than Avys could count. She also knew from her education that almost every supposed ¡®sighting¡¯ was either made up or a misidentification of a far lesser monster. That they were virtually extinct in the lands she had lived all her life ¨C or in hindsight, perhaps just uninterested. But right in front of her, it was undeniable:

    It was a Dragon, scales darker than the night sky. Blacker than the color itself. And it was dead. Lacerated by a thousand cuts, empty eye sockets somehow staring into her very soul even after death and removal. One wing had been cut clean off while a massive hole was glaring from the inside of the still-open jaw all the way to the top of its head.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Avys was not the first to arrive, not by far. Many soldiers had made it there first. Some stared in mute awe while a few were fussing around a figure sitting on the ground. Grievously wounded by every possible account.

    ¡°Ezax,¡± she yelled, rushing forward. ¡°Are you all right?"

    ¡°I will live,¡± he was still bleeding profusely. His right arm had been reduced to an ugly stump. ¡°Do you remember the promise you made when I first offered you wine?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Avys nodded firmly. She had promised men that would be willing to die for him. She saw no other notable survivors. Not a trace of the other commanders. Not even corpses.

    ¡°Come Avys,¡± he said. ¡°I owe you that much, and more.¡±

    ¡°Your¡­¡± Avys spoke with horror and indignation, pointing at the mangled limb. He clearly needed treatment.

    ¡°It will be fixed,¡± he said uncaringly. Then stood up and walked away. The bleeding was¡­ stopping? No one even tried to get in his way. ¡°Come, Avys. Come witness my triumph.¡±

    Besides the dead dragon? She thought. There was something manic to Ezax¡­ but also joyous. The dragon was clearly dead, black blood still pouring from it in some places, the ground visibly corroding away wherever it dropped. Yet Ezax still moved in anticipation of something else. How could Avys not follow?

    <hr>

    He led her to a hallway beneath the ruins of his once residence that Avys had never seen. Even on the way it was oppressively dark¡­ like the shadows clung to their own edges despite the lighting. Like they refused to be vanquished or even lessened. That only got stranger. Ezax kept reassuring her that she just needed to follow, almost manic. How long even was the corridor? But further and further they went, the lights glowing dimmer until they eventually stopped.

    ¡°Here, apply this to your eyes,¡± Ezax paused giving her a potion. ¡°It will allow you to see, if only temporarily.¡±

    She nodded, thinking it would merely grant her proper vision in the dark ¨C already a wonderful effect. Instead, it forced her to see so much more. The moment she opened her eyes after applying it, she flinched backwards. The Void flowed around like a river, each blink glimpsing a secret she could never hope to understand. She saw shades of black that could not possibly exists. She witnessed a thousand different and completely unique nothings in every direction.

    ¡°What is all this?¡± she felt herself wavering beneath it all. ¡°How do I even describe this?¡±

    ¡°It is a rare thing, that potion,¡± Ezax said, continuing ever further and forcing Avys to follow. ¡°Simply put, it grants insight into the Void, through the eyes specifically. I had used it many times over my years here¡­ until it scarcely had any effect on me anymore. But for you, as weak as your magic is, it will allow you to witness a fraction of what I am going to do.¡±

    ¡°You see all this? All the time?¡± Avys gaped. ¡°How do you not go mad?¡±

    ¡°Does breathing drive one crazy?¡± Ezax chuckled, at least he was talking again. ¡°Is blinking difficult? You see so little but please, try to understand. I do not just see what you do. I live this and so much more. You may use magic but to me, it is a limb. And soon, I will matter more to it as well.¡±

    ¡°So, what is this about?¡± she finally asked.

    ¡°There are great divides in magic,¡± he said, finally coming to a stop in front of a door. It gradually ground open. The darkness within was so overwhelming Avys flinched, even though she could still see through it as easily as day. Because she could also see into it. ¡°Bottlenecks, walls, fetters¡­ whatever term one might use. I have long stood near one, Avys. I have been staring into that lake for 50 years, waiting for an impossibility. Stuck before a leap further than the stars. Sipping at every potion and remedy that money could buy, scrapping for the slightest insight until I had once almost given up.¡±

    They entered and Ezax gestured for her to sit by the door. He stepped further in, then lowered himself onto the only feature in the room: A dais. To her enchanted eyes, it seemed like all the darkness gravitated toward it.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know if it is coincidence, luck, or perhaps Fate nudging me forward,¡± he said. ¡°But with your coming, things have begun to change. Still, I did not speak because, in all honesty, Avys, I am too weak. No matter what scheme you conjure, I would not be able to carry it through against my family.¡±

    ¡°You have slain a dragon,¡± she pointed out.

    ¡°Yes, and with that act I have shed the Fate of inferiority. Left my weakness dead on the ground,¡± Ezax smiled. Then he reached somewhere with his hand and withdrew two items. It took a moment for Avys to realize what they were: Eyeballs. The dragon¡¯s eyes. ¡°By the Mother¡¯s grace, I have taken it. Through strife and peril, I have finally plundered a Truth. I have proven myself to be worthy.¡±

    He stared at them with intensity Avys had never known. So much desire, so much longing¡­ So much ambition. There it was, Avys thought. Exactly the banner she had hoped to make him pick up all along. She wanted to instinctively shiver but did not let herself despoil such a sacred moment.

    ¡°It all begins here, Avys, so witness me,¡± he was not even looking at her, so focused on his remaining palm. ¡°Behold. My apotheosis.¡±

    Then, with one smooth motion, he ripped out his mortal eyeballs.

    What followed, Avys would never find the words to properly describe. Even if she truly beheld only a fraction of a fraction. She did not think they existed.

    <hr>

    Abonisle started to rebuild astonishingly quickly. With mages, shelter has been erected in just the first day, enough to house everyone. Enough food had survived the catastrophe to feed the, frankly, diminished population for more than long enough. Further help would come.

    Then there was only one last fate left to resolve. Johnson had reached out to Avys, arranging a meeting not long after Ezax recovered. His hand had regrown seemingly without any healer and his exhaustion had passed. He had not changed overtly, no, but there was something fundamental about him that was greater. But Avys was not good enough of a mage and thus could not put it into words.

    What came next would happen outside of Abonisle. Ezax was naturally interested in meeting the ¡®likely benefactor¡¯ Avys had revealed much about and they had implicitly agreed that should it be impossible or too difficult to meet Johnson¡¯s demands, there would be no insistence tolerated on the doctor¡¯s part. Avys and Ezax chatted for a while. Until Johnson finally approached from a distance away, arriving almost exactly on time. He paused momentarily after seeing Ezax but kept going.

    ¡°He is exceptional at controlling his presence,¡± Ezax noted but did not seem worried in the least.

    Then some kind of boundary was crossed when Johnson was about 20 meters or so away from them. He froze in place, eyes sharpening faster than Avys could perceive. It was the first time she had ever seen Johnson tense.

    She looked to the side at Ezax and realized all signs of relaxation had left him. She had not seen him be this serious. Not even when he went to face the dragon. Then, it had been more anticipation, the knowledge that a fight was coming - this was the face of already standing right in front of a threat.

    ¡°Is something the matter?¡± Avys asked but the two men kept staring into each other¡¯s eyes. They did not speak. Did not react. Not for several seconds.

    ¡°Are you also wondering if you had just walked into a trap,¡± Johnson was the first to speak.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Ezax nodded, much to Avys baffled glare.

    ¡°It seems¡­ some matters of etiquette do escape Avys,¡± Johnson slowly said. The tension seemed to be receding but not gone.

    ¡°I do not quite see what I could have done differently, given the circumstances,¡± Avys said. ¡°Nor do I see what faux pas I have committed.¡±

    ¡°You cannot bring people like us together carelessly, Avys,¡± Ezax slowly said. ¡°Our natures might¡­ clash. Which could lead to problems if we are not ready for that instinct to try overtaking us.¡±

    ¡°Yes, very true,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°Though it seems that our paths are not conflicting. And I hope neither are our interests.¡±

    ¡°I was told you have made a deal with Avys,¡± Ezax slowly nodded.

    ¡°And I see she has greatly surpassed my most optimistic estimates,¡± Johnson nodded back. ¡°It seems re-negotiations are in order.¡±

    ¡°Have you shortchanged me so, Johnson?¡± Avys raised an eyebrow with a smile.

    ¡°You have received a rather generous offer from me at the time, as the risks were comparatively minimal and alternatives less appealing to my ends,¡± Johnson glanced at her, also wearing a smile. A disarming friendly one. ¡°But of course, things have clearly changed since then. Neither of you seem to understand how much your value has risen in my eyes, Avys. And in a way, so has mine to you.¡±

    ¡°Curious,¡± Ezax interrupted with a grin. ¡°Feeling rather confident, are you? For someone not suited for battle. I can tell that much at a glance.¡±

    ¡°I am absolutely certain that you cannot kill me, though being hunted by House Blackburg would be inconvenient,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°I would have to delay my plans by centuries again should your family pursue a perceived grudge. Inconvenient, I acknowledge that.¡±

    ¡°House Blackburg?¡± Avys¡¯ eyes widened, staring at Ezax who was given pause by the sudden revelation. Even she had heard that name. ¡°Ezax? That is the origin you have been hiding?!¡±

    ¡°You have not known?¡± Johnson¡¯s own eyes widened minimally. ¡°Strange¡­ unless¡­ Ah, say, you wouldn¡¯t happen to be the first son of the fourth wife, would you?¡±

    ¡°Very familiar with our traditions, are you Lesh¡¯xar?¡± Ezax¡¯s eyes narrowed. There was a flicker in them, the faux human shape slipping into something darker and more slit.

    ¡°Please, I cannot claim that title,¡± Johnson shook his head. ¡°And I have studied your family''s methods of raising progeny, trying to uncover whether they actually held any tangible benefits. However, I found them to be regretfully almost pointless or even counterproductive from the genetic perspective. Perhaps Fate might favor it, I suppose - that is not my expertise.¡±

    ¡°What does that even mean? Fourth son of the first wife? Is that a position of weakness?¡± Avys could only guess.

    ¡°It is a very rigid role to be born into,¡± Ezax spoke with a mighty frown. ¡°By birth, they had decided I would be the Xildrallis, a dedicated scholar. A librarian! Ridiculous, downright outrageous.¡±

    ¡°How bad is that?¡± Avys remained out of the loop.

    ¡°It really depends on the person,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°I, personally, would have thrived, were it my fate. But the restrictions are harsh to some. No combat, no claim on the Dukeship, abstinence from all substances except mundane water and food¡­ Celibacy.¡±

    ¡°Seriously?¡± Avys stared at him in disbelief. Especially the last one, the intrusive thought whispered.

    ¡°I have struggled long and hard just to get away from my ¡®role¡¯,¡± Ezax said. ¡°Until finally I one day had the power to do as I wanted¡­ as long as I stayed out of sight in my self imposed exile. House Blackburg has terrible reach indeed when it wants to drag you back into your place.¡±

    ¡°So, I assume that any claim to power on your part would go down poorly with the nobility?¡± Avys asked after a moment of processing.

    ¡°Exceedingly so,¡± Ezax nodded. ¡°To this day, many still call for my death over slipping those chains, while I am completely out of the way.¡±

    ¡°How many brothers and sisters do you have, Ezax?¡± Avys was already scheming, mind spinning ahead.

    ¡°37 alive,¡± he answered. Avys wanted to gape but managed to control her reaction.

    ¡°How many do you like?¡± she instead nodded, moving on to her next point.

    ¡°Not a single one,¡± Ezax said coldly.

    ¡°Then I wonder, what would happen if all of them were to die?¡± she posed the question. Johnson stared. Ezax stared. Avys smiled. ¡°If there was only a single remaining heir out of that entire line? What would the peerage think?¡±

    ¡°It would be incredibly foolish,¡± Ezax frowned. ¡°There are only so many people you can slay before the rest realizes and gathers to kill you before you come to them.¡±

    ¡°Of course, silly,¡± she laughed. ¡°Which is why you will actually only kill a few. 4 at most, I think, and make the battles look as pitched as believable. 37, huh, a lot to go through but I reckon that also means they will thin each other out quicker.¡±

    ¡°How would you even achieve that?¡± Ezax watched her in genuine bafflement.

    ¡°Oh, dear,¡± she could not help but smile. A genuine, joyous grin. ¡°I have spent my entire life planning ways to get my siblings to kill each other. This? This feels like a purpose I never knew I would fulfill.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°I¡­ seem to have been forgotten,¡± Johnson reminded just as Avys marveled at the possibilities expanding in front of her.

    ¡°Ah, yes,¡± Avys nodded, a bit of tension returning. ¡°Our deal.¡±

    ¡°You need me and I want what you have to offer so much it might as well be called a need,¡± Johnson nodded.

    ¡°Do we need you?¡± Ezax questioned.

    ¡°Of course you do,¡± Johnson nodded. ¡°Otherwise, you will find Avys may not be¡­ how do I say this without sounding guilty and antagonistic? Hmmm¡­ probably no way to do that. Avys might be technically speaking sterile by most metrics.¡±

    ¡°What have you done?¡± Avys¡¯ eyes narrowed in outraged surprise. Was that a contingency of his? Since when?

    ¡°Nothing recently and it is not something intentional nor easily undone,¡± Johnson raised his hands while Ezax¡¯s gaze sharpened. ¡°It is merely your nature, Avys. And it is solvable.¡±

    ¡°Explain,¡± Ezax almost commanded.

    ¡°I have spent some 80 years at your family¡¯s estate, Avys,¡± Johnson did not protest, turning to the young schemer. ¡°That was for a reason. You do understand I am a researcher at heart, correct? It is not merely the funding I desired. It was¡­ resources and subjects that can be only obtained through like-minded cooperators or involuntary participants. Your grandfather and then father have been fully willing to fulfill both so I had stayed.¡±

    ¡°Human subjects then. Likeminded¡­ Did you experiment on our family?¡± Avys asked, hiding the twisting in her stomach.

    ¡°In a way but not that which you are thinking. For your family, I had a specific and rather safe project in mind,¡± he nodded, a self-satisfied grin reaching his lips. It was¡­ not quite bragging. It was satisfaction of describing a truly exceptional deed. ¡°You see, through centuries of arduous work, I have made a great discovery. Such that it will echo for eons to come, even if I fail to manifest my true magnum opus on its foundation.¡±

    ¡°Out with it,¡± Ezax demanded.

    ¡°I have discovered how to greatly increase the potential for magecraft in newborn children,¡± Johnson said with a downright rapturous smile.

    ¡°Impossible,¡± Ezax said immediately. ¡°Tried and failed, a thousand times over.¡±

    ¡°It took far more than just a thousand trials. It took cities¡­ an entire nation once. But I have done it. It is possible. Almost refined by now. After all, one of the products of this method stands right here with us! Another awaits in the city... Well, what remains of it. Note, I will have questions about that later.¡±

    Avys stared. ¡®Incredible for your area¡¯ Ezax had once called her talent, even if it was just barely not embarrassing among the Federation¡¯s nobility. And she had been a prodigy back home. Calm was a once-in-a-millennium terror by all accounts, for all it was somewhat meek compared to the new standard. And she recalled, her siblings too had talents. Some for magic, some for Honing, some for other arts. So had her father¡¯s generation. A great fortune, a seemingly bottomless spring of talent sprouting. How lucky for her house.

    ¡°I will not hide that Avys¡¯ situation is particularly special,¡± Johnson continued instead of letting her just think. ¡°I have promised prodigies, yes, but the expansion of knowledge is never done and has ever been my purpose there. I believed that if I were to engineer a perfect mother from before her birth I could achieve even greater results.¡±

    ¡°You called her sterile,¡± Ezax pointed out while Avys was still reeling from all the implications raining onto her head. For the first time in so long she felt truly, completely, absolutely off balance. Unsure what to think, much less do.

    ¡°Technically sterile,¡± Johnson repeated himself. ¡°Normal conception is indeed impossible, however, that is simply a byproduct. I have the methods necessary. I suppose another sufficiently skilled Life mage could replicate them but it would be a great labor without any of the engineered benefits. Therefore, as I said earlier: You need me.¡±

    ¡°Seduce someone of the bloodline of Wrath,¡± Avys repeated the words of her bargain. Her hand was shaking but she was slowly regaining control. Nothing must faze it. ¡°That is what you wanted.¡±

    ¡°In all honesty, I was intending to move back to the federation before attempting this with another subject,¡± Johnson slowly nodded. ¡°But with you leaving your house like so, ambitious and more than just skilled in achieving that¡­ Well, how could I not try. One of the greatest bloodline in this entire realm, combined with the sum of my knowledge! Just the possibilities..."

    ¡°And if she had met a worse candidate?¡± Ezax asked sharply.

    ¡°I would fulfill my bargain faithfully, observed the results, and then likely moved on in¡­ 25 years probably,¡± Johnson said unashamedly. ¡°I had hoped you might snatch a thin offshoot baron in the countryside, Avys. That felt like a realistic goal at the time for all you have shattered it. I do not break promises. Direct lies defy my nature,¡± he said, looking to the other man. ¡°So that is what I offer, besides the bit of personal strength I hold, of course: A generation of prodigies. I offer you every tool needed to shape the future like no fate mage can.¡±

    ¡°A lot of this relies on trusting you,¡± Ezax said verily. ¡°On believing in your better nature against the risks.¡±

    ¡°I do not require blind trust. You just need to look at what I am,¡± Johnson bowed. ¡°Watch,¡± then something changed. Avys could not tell what. She barely perceived the slight alteration and only because she had spent a decent amount of time around the man whose presence had always seemed perfectly stable. Something was surging from within though, spilling into the world. Out of her perception¡­ but not out of Ezax¡¯s.

    ¡°I see,¡± the man who would one day claim House Blackburg slowly said as the anomaly faded. But his gaze had changed. The wariness had thinned, almost vanished. Avys thought she even saw a hint of respect. ¡°Let me thank you for your endless dedication, despite how it has been scorned by the Duchy of Green.¡±

    ¡°It is long dust,¡± Johnson smiled. ¡°I hear my brother is too. Crimes pass, the Rot remains.¡±

    ¡°Then allow me to welcome you to my newborn cause,¡± Ezax slowly nodded. ¡°What a strange feeling. Half a year ago I never would have thought I would ever hold both.¡±

    ¡°Both what?¡± Avys spoke the question he clearly wanted to be asked. She was still lightly shaken but had mostly recovered. In the end, nothing had changed, she reasoned. She was still getting exactly what she wanted¡­ no matter how disturbing the reality of it was. Those were just emotional responses. Emotions antagonistic to her goals would be snuffed out. She had always been a tool for herself to wield, it only became more literal.

    ¡°The means and the desire,¡± Ezax¡¯s smile stretched across his face, his black eyes seemed bottomless. ¡°But if fate so insists, who am I to refuse my birthright, for the first time within reach?¡±

 4.1 Coal

    The way through the mountain was surprisingly nonmagical. It had something to with the inside of the wall of rock quite literally draining said magic. Not that fast, but at a rate that would still wear out almost any enchantment over years or decades - that meant the inside of the path would be wholly unenchanted and thus operating something high-speed going through would be more expensive. Which would still be tenable¡­ if it was something that could be afforded to be expensive. This was not some kind of private, high-maintenance institute. This was one of dozens of stations that were expected to be used by anyone and everyone who meant to pass through the mountains. There wasn¡¯t really a fee¡­ or maybe they were just not charged, which actually seemed more likely.

    Either way, that was why they were standing on top of a stupidly tall scaffold, hundreds of meters in the air. Irwyn could not actually see how high exactly because the conveniently present elevator had moved too fast while the sky was still hailing that warm fake snow. The almost-tower was erected next to the mountain, cutting into it for most of its supports. The platform on top was quite large and there was a pulley system to the side of them that would allow things to be pulled to the top, above the exit at the very foot.

    How does one deal with impractically expensive magic then? Gravity, apparently. Since moving through the mountain would drain magic, such as enchanted propulsion, they would instead move to the top of a very tall slope, then ride down using rails. An ingenious solution, really. Lifting the wagon and people was actually not that hard with mages - there were even the available stairs and manual option for the pullies, in case a traveler was feeling truly masochistic.

    ¡°There will be a large shove at the start,¡± the singular annoyed soldier who had gone up with them said. ¡°Then a bit of jostling until you slow back down to terminal velocity. The whole journey is just over 4 hours.¡±

    ¡°Terminal?¡± Waylan inquired with a hint of alarm.

    ¡°It means the highest speed you can get to with just gravity before friction doesn¡¯t let you accelerate any longer,¡± Alice explained for him. ¡°Or I suppose what you eventually slow down too if you are faster than that.¡±

    ¡°Please, just get in?¡± the man almost begged. They moved to oblige him.

    Their ¡®cart¡¯ if it could be called that, looked a bit strange. Like an¡­ onion with a stem? But longer, more even. Downright sleek. Perhaps closer to a cone with a half sphere at the front. The fore was mostly spherical but then the shape constricted down to almost a point at the far back.

    It was all on rails and about efficiency, yes¡­ That did not mean that their vehicle was small though. Well over 2 meters tall at the front and 7 meters long, however, much of that was in the prolonged tip where nothing would realistically fit from the inside. It was on wheels with an extremely efficient and durable enchantment to reduce friction - according to Elizabeth, at least. The insides were supposedly also somewhat isolated from the drain, though they had been warned it would only have a notable effect against the drain being passive - that meant no casting spells.

    Speaking of inside, it was more than spacious enough for four people. Ample seating area at the front and even a small restroom with a door at the backside. Even from there, it would not be possible to reach the very end of their vehicle as when it approached a certain degree of slimness a metal boundary closed off access to the rest. Presumably, there was something behind it. Once they were seated the soldier told the to ''please hold on for the departure'' and then closed the entrance behind them. About ten seconds later there was a loud bang and Irwyn nearly fell out of his seat as the vehicle flew forward. Even with a warning, the force of it surprised him.

    ¡°Fucking ¡®shove¡¯ my ass!¡± Waylan cursed. He had been thrown off to the back of the cart. Perhaps predicting that exact outcome, there was cushioning installed in many places so that there would be no actual injuries beyond perhaps a bruise.

    ¡°I might have pulled a muscle,¡± Alice also complained, getting back up from a half crouch. She had fallen off her seat but held on without being tossed.

    ¡°It should be smooth from now on,¡± Elizabeth said with a slight grin, staring at the two. Unsurprisingly, she had held on the best. Afterward, their means of travel did indeed stabilize for the rest of the journey, not so much as shaking overtly.

    The journey was somewhat long, but bearably so in good company. They had plenty to talk about after all: Mostly because they knew almost nothing. They were aware of the Duchess¡¯ old home kingdom and of their destination being past several nations¡­ but that was basically all of it. Not by accident, that is. They could have tried to find out more¡­ but that would be against the spirit of the adventure. They could also have a lot of fun guessing. The four hours flew by like that.

    When Irwyn stepped out of the wagon, he immediately felt intensely what had been meant by ¡®thinner¡¯ magic on the other side. He had thought the density had gotten low within that little capsule they used to pass through the mountain - the majority of it had still been drained despite the enchantment - but he was forced to re-evaluate what the bottom of the barrel would be. If most of the Duchy Federation had been like a pond of water going up to the neck, the wagon had become barely ankle-deep by the end of their journey. The other side was like a dried-out bowl.

    It was staggering. Ebon Respite was considered ¡®thin¡¯ on magic, yet what he was feeling was a fraction of fraction of that. There was so little in the air, Irwyn could scarcely even perceive it. Like trying to feel the moisture in the atmosphere right after jumping out of a bath. Elizabeth and Alice were having similar extreme reaction, frowning and shuddering at the incredible difference. Waylan seemed the only one unaffected, a mark of his honing or merely the lack of magic. Irwyn was not sure what it would mean for his own magecraft as he basically always drew mana from deep within his being but they had also been warned the ambient density would hinder recovery.

    The next surprise no one had predicted did not strike more than a few moments later. As soon as the three of them recovered enough to look around, really. They had not anticipated a desert to sprawl in front of them.

    ¡°How does that even work?¡± Alice questioned. ¡°There is a snowstorm on the other side!¡±

    ¡°Hundreds of kilometers away, completely blocked off,¡± Elizabeth said after a moment. ¡°And the snowstorm is more magic than cold and moisture. I suppose it makes sense?¡±

    ¡°There is also notably no transport,¡± Irwyn looked around. While the Duchy had maintained something of a waystation on their side, there was no one on this end. There was a familiar scaffolding sprawling incredibly high up the mountain¡¯s side as well as the metallic ropes of the pulley, yes, but Irwyn felt no sign of the magical elevator they had taken up on the Federation¡¯s side.

    There was also seemingly no one keeping watch over the crossing. No proper station or even so much as a tent in sight. Just the mountain wall spreading endlessly behind them and an expanse of sand in front. Just sand, somewhere in between white and yellow, with tall dunes and not so much as a glimpse of vegetation or any wildlife.

    ¡°Do we just¡­ leave it down here?¡± Waylan asked, pointing at the capsule.

    ¡°I am not pulling it all the way up,¡± Alice straight-up announced. It was quite a way to the top of the scaffold, even with magic¡­ especially if they had to walk up the stairs as well. Alice could probably cheat most of it by teleportation but the distance would still be too much for something as magically ''heavy'' as the cart. In the end, they decided that not being told something like that would be expected of them absolved them of such a duty.

    ¡°We can lift it off the tracks at least,¡± Elizabeth added though. ¡°Just to the side, in case another goes through. Irwyn?¡±

    He got to it. It was not that heavy, really. A bit of solid Light was more than enough to lift and move it to the side. In the meantime, Waylan had another important query. ¡°Where do we go?¡±

    ¡°To the nearest town,¡± Elizabeth said.

    ¡°That is in which way?¡± Waylan gestured towards the featureless desert dunes spreading towards the horizon. ¡°Abonisle was a long way off, and we ain¡¯t even got a carriage now.¡±Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°That might be a problem,¡± Alice admitted looking around but still seeing nothing, just like the rest of them.

    ¡°We could just head straight North?¡± Irwyn suggested. ¡°We are bound to encounter something eventually.¡±

    With no one having any better idea, that is what they did. Except there were more issues. They did have an excessive amount of water and food, so that wasn¡¯t a problem¡­ but what they didn¡¯t possess was appropriate attire. Elizabeth, as ever, wore that familiar black dress. Even assuming it did not have ways to ward off dessert¡¯s heat, her affinity with Flame meant decent resistance. Same with Irwyn, who was not sure he even could feel uncomfortably hot. If he sweated, it would be from physical strain, not heat.

    Alice and Waylan had been wearing clothing appropriate for Abonisle and beyond: Layers of attire intended for chill or even outright cold. Jackets and long sleeves, thick pants, and such. That meant the two of them were sweating heavily even before they could set off. Alice at least had packed an ¡®old summer dress¡¯, which she changed into and then kept complaining about having to wear ¨C for some reason. Waylan had not¡­ possessed such foresight. The lightest clothes he owned were still much too thick for a dessert.

    In the end, Alice ended up cutting his shirt and pants into much less lenght, then even thinning out the fabric by removing some fibers from the middle. It would supposedly reduce its structural integrity by a great degree to the point it would develop large holes quickly but a ruined set of clothing was far preferable to the heat, at least to Waylan. Irwyn also tried to assist with some cooling. Tried. Cold was lack of heat, heat belonged to Flame, simple enough. Except he realized that he had no real way to distinguish between hot air and body heat. He had no sixth sense for it like he would for actual Flames or Light which made it a bit too precarious to experiment with on his friends - though arguably Waylan deserved being frostbitten in a desert on principle.

    To prevent sunburns, Elizabeth had the idea of making an umbrella of sorts above them. Void magic was quite efficient at creating a shadow cast over the group. The magic was not even expensive, given all it had to block was just normal sunlight¡­ though she still frowned and mentioned that it was noticeably more expensive than in the Federation, both to cast and maintain. Irwyn was no feeling such strains so far but Alice quickly concurred after doing some testing of her own.

    Then they walked. Excruciatingly through the sand, struggling to move in such a terrain¡­ for about half an hour before an increasingly annoyed Waylan asked whether it wouldn¡¯t be easier to just lift them all up with magic and carry the four of them over the damn dunes. Which was a good point, Irwyn had to admit after a moment of embarrassed silence. That it was Waylan coming up with it first sounded like something the sneak would mock the rest of them with for an entire week.

    Just 3 platforms of solid Light - and one of Flame for Elizabeth - was simple enough, even if they had to bear people¡¯s weight and move them. Yes, holding something with a spell meant it had to fight against gravity and thus become far more expensive and moving at speed would make the costs multiply¡­ but people were not that heavy and simple platform inexpensive as a baseline. Unlike Alice''s teleportation, the difficulty did not increase with the innate power of what he was transporting. At first, Irwyn tried to match the rising dunes, traveling just above the ground¡­ then he realized it would be so much easier to just soar above them. Even with the vantage point they still did not see anything notable.

    ¡°Wait, can¡¯t someone just¡­ fly higher and look?¡± Waylan questioned. ¡°Actually, since when can you just make people fly?¡±

    ¡°Uhm, it is a bit impractical,¡± Elizabeth tried to explain in Irwyn¡¯s stead. ¡°You don¡¯t have great control over your body on top if you just move around a platform like this, then you need to make sure the speed won¡¯t just launch you off¡­ or break anything. Then there is the problem of cost. Usually, such a spell would be too expansive for most mages until almost halfway into imbuement.¡±

    ¡°Which the two of you have been in for a while,¡± Alice cheerfully pilled on. ¡°I never used platforms because I intend to learn a proper flying when I get to it. Irwyn could have been doing that for a while though, right?¡±

    ¡°It, uhm¡­ never really occurred to me,¡± Irwyn admitted.

    ¡°You never thought ¡®hey, maybe I could just fly, eh?¡¯ really?¡± Waylan squinted at him.

    ¡°Why would I need to fly?¡± Irwyn spoke in defense. ¡°In Abonisle, I would just stand out and it wasn¡¯t much use. Back in Ebon Respite, well, I was mostly staying in camp.¡±

    ¡°Irw, the idiot who did not realize he could literally fly,¡± Waylan rolled his eyes. ¡°The tragesty of you being the person who can do it.¡±

    ¡°Tragesty is not a word,¡± Irwyn deflected.

    ¡°But idiot is,¡± Waylan grinned back without pausing. A clear trap, in hindsight. ¡°Which I reckon describes ye quite well choosing not to fly.¡±

    ¡°It was hardly a choice. Just lack of inspiration and need!¡±

    ¡°Watching the scenery is a need enough!¡± Waylan said, then gestured around them to support his argument¡­ The dunes of sand did not look that impressive even if they were flying a good bit above them. Everyone else gave Waylan a mocking glare, raised eyebrow and all. Alice had betrayed him as easily as she breathed.

    ¡°You should bring me up,¡± the Time mage still rescued him after suppressing a giggle. ¡°I might be able to see something from high above enough. Unless Elizabeth can do that better?¡±

    ¡°Sensible enough. You can probably see further than me during the day,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Can you catch yourself?¡±

    ¡°Easily,¡± Alice nodded. ¡°Up, Irw?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± he intently did not react to the shortening of his name. That was exactly how one got annoyed with it more often. He had learned that lesson with Waylan enough times.

    He raised her platform far overhead, as high as he could. Which was merely 50 meters or so before the platforms felt on the verge of unraveling. Magic became more difficult with distance and even a simple spell like that was strained by being so far. He idly thought how high he actually might be able to go if he tested the height but left that thought for later.

    ¡°I think there is something in that direction,¡± she pointed a bit left of where they had been going, ¡°Not sure what yet.¡±

    ¡°Better than just blindly flying north,¡± Elizabeth decided. ¡°How fast can you go?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s find out,¡± Irwyn grinned slightly.

    ¡°May I request an extra handrail?¡± Waylan asked, looking around the flat flying platform he was standing on.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Alice said cheerfully. ¡°From this height, sand is actually decently soft as far as landings go!¡±

    <hr>

    The ¡®thing¡¯ Alice had seen in the distance were, in fact, burnt-out ruins. Not old stone structures covered in sooth, but rather the remnants of a large camp. Perhaps even an encampment, given the size. There were a few half-incinerated remnants of tarp, and metal supports standing around the great black outline in the sand. That all indicated recency of whatever had happened, though something else painted a rather grim image.

    ¡°I will step out,¡± Waylan said after spotting the first charred skeleton, a grimace on his face.

    ¡°Me too,¡± Alice added. Her face was blank but she was very intently not looking in their direction. ¡°We can keep a lookout.¡±

    That left Irwyn and Elizabeth to step into the ruins themselves. Black sand covered in soot was thick beneath the feet, barely a few patches of the yellowish kind around. Fighting the feeling of sickness in his stomach, Irwyn looked around. He guessed dozens of corpses without doing a proper count and those were only the ones he could identify. He was certainly not going to double-check whether some of them had been merely short or too short to even be adults. Thinking about it as little as possible would be the wisest move.

    Elizabeth seemed much less disturbed than him, walking around and taking a closer look at many of the bodies while Irwyn was regaining his composure. He was certainly not going to steal her thunder.

    ¡°Not overly damaged,¡± she judged after inspecting a few. ¡°Some cracked bones on many but usually on the legs. Almost none on skulls or necks. Suggests they died to the fire itself rather than before it. Of course, just blackened bones usually won¡¯t show a slit throat or an arrow - or most magic.¡±

    ¡°A bit strange,¡± Iwyn hesitantly commented. ¡°This is no enclosed space. Why not just run out of the fire?¡±

    ¡°A number of possibilities come to mind,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°It could have happened at night and most of them woke up too late or not at all. Or maybe there were large crowds and many of these got injured in a stampede until they couldn¡¯t flee. Maybe greed? The smoke can knock people out faster than they think while trying to rescue some of their belongings. Or, of course, they were surrounded and stopped from fleeing. A significant number of them seem to have broken legs.¡±

    ¡°Why would someone do that?¡± Irwyn gaped.

    ¡°Well, it is a useful doctrine against undead, since they cannot ambush you if you just maintain a perimeter around them, then bombard most of their position to oblivion,¡± Elizabeth said thoughtfully. ¡°Seems a bit pointless against humans. If you have the forces to surround them and stop them from running why even bother with this? It also beats the point of banditry if the loot goes up in flames.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that was exactly my question,¡± Irwyn stared around. Whatever the reason, the results were brutal. Dozens of people must have died at least, perhaps as many as 50. He was not quite willing to calculate the exact number.

    ¡°Who knows,¡± she shrugged nonchalantly. ¡°We will have to find out more from someone still alive. Somewhere else, it seems.¡±

    ¡°We could try to figure out how long ago this happened,¡± he suggested.

    ¡°The burned sand is still tightly concentrated around here¡­ so probably not longer than a week?¡± she suggested. ¡°It would probably get moved around with wind but I have no idea how windy it usually is. Maybe it would get scattered quicker than that?¡±

    ¡°Well, it''s not much hotter than the surroundings - and that¡¯s probably because black heats up faster in the sunlight - so let¡¯s say not within 24 hours,¡± Irwyn looked around again but found nothing else that would give him obvious clues. ¡°So, one to seven days ago. We can go with that. If whoever is responsible goes on foot, we should reasonably be able to catch up to them.¡±

    ¡°Maybe look for tracks?¡± she suggested.

    ¡°In the sand?¡± Irwyn gestured at the desert around them. The wind was light at the moment but it was moving some of the lighter sand particles around.

    ¡°We can try,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°Either way, no point in lingering. Let¡¯s see if maybe Alice can glimpse something.¡±

 4.2 Sustenance

    There really was not much to look at in the sheer desert, even when flying. Besides, no one besides maybe Elizabeth was in any mood to talk after what they had just witnessed - and conversations are hard to have alone - so that did not improve their mood any. Despite best efforts, they had not managed to grasp any tracks. Whatever might have once been there had been either erased by the desert winds or beyond their ken to notice. The mysterious tragedy - or outright slaughter - thus remained unresolved for the moment.

    They headed North again - easy to tell direction with a landmark like the Barrier Mountains still visible behind. Every couple minutes Irwyn would help Alice fly far higher above their usual elevation and have a look around. It still took them 3 more almost aggravating hours before she spotted anything out of the ordinary again and another half to actually reach the distant blob. It was well into the afternoon by then and all four were quite weary of all the travelling. Thus, any sign of civilization was quite welcome.

    What they found could barely be called a village, surrounding a small oasis. Which in itself was fascinating, given it was everyone¡¯s first time actually seeing one of those. A staple of basically any book speaking of deserts, though it really looked more like a pond surrounded by sand than anything majestic. No real vegetation sprouted around it, just the hide tents.

    The little settlement itself was in quite an uproar at their arrival as well. It was a small community, barely three dozen people gathering to look up at the mages, including four children of various ages. Their arrival from the skies, carrying a black umbrella as if woven from the night itself¡­ earned them an uncomfortably worshipful welcome. At least that made asking questions simpler. For example, about the burned encampment - to which all of them professed ignorance. Not just of the cause but of the fact that such a settlement had even been there. After some describing the villagers went as far as to suggest it was likely just a caravan, for some reason traveling too far South from the ¡®Holy Lands¡¯, whatever that meant.

    Those people were, surprisingly enough, monster hunters. A strange prospect given the fact that Irwyn had not seen a single living thing all day. Though they did have the look: Much of the communication had been done by three muscular giants among men - something close to leaders of the community. They were actually all in excellent physical shape, men and women. Not to mention that across the camp Irwyn began to notice the leather racks, drying out the thick hides of large creatures and such once it had been pointed out.

    The community had scarcely known about the Federation at all when the topic came up but did have a way to reach the nearest major city. In fact, they suggested they might be able to send someone to go alongside them after dusk. That provoked another plethora of questions and Irwyn¡¯s first proper taste of culture shock. Traveling through the day, it turned out, was suicidal for normal people. Even the strongest men would tire under the sun¡¯s direct gaze over the hours, grow thirsty too fast. The hunters did not own any beasts of burden which turned things from difficult to unfeasible. The result was that the tribe was mostly active during nights - much like most of the dune monsters that they hunted. In fact, they mostly slept during the day like proper nocturnal creatures.

    While all that was curious, Irwyn himself did want to sleep in the night. Everyone else shared that sentiment. That caused a bit of an argument between their group and the natives until one of the three head warriors, or whatever would be the best term, suggested that maybe it would be a ¡®good idea to let them talk with the girl¡¯. As it turned out, the guide they had been half offering was not even truly one of them but rather a guest that had been living alongside the village for several weeks.

    The ¡®girl¡¯ turned out to be a petite and short woman perhaps twice the age of anyone in the Federation¡¯s group. She wore light robes that covered her body, unlike the other locals who were so far barely a step above naked. She seemed also both incredibly annoyed that ¡®no one had woken her up sooner¡¯ while also incredibly fascinated by the newcomers.

    ¡°May the sands bless you, strangers! Call me Asemo,¡± she quickly recovered her cheer, introducing herself.

    ¡°Elizabeth,¡± the heiress took the lead, offering her hand which the woman stared at curiously. Realizing the difference in custom, Elizabeth retracted it and quickly introduced the rest of them to hide her embarrassment.

    ¡°The Duchy Federation? Truly fascinating!¡± the woman stared at them, slightly wide eyed. ¡°I cannot remember the last time I have heard of someone coming from there.¡±

    ¡°The Lich War has been raging for months,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Departures have been restricted.¡±

    ¡°Is it over now then?¡± Asemo executed a strangely stiff nod. ¡°Even in peacetime, you scarcely hear of anyone leaving. I have been meaning to meet one of you for years!¡±

    ¡°Am sure we¡¯ll have plenty time to speak, eh?¡± Waylan interjected. ¡°But I could really use a rest for me legs.¡±

    ¡°To translate, we are a bit travel-worn,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°We were told you might help us reach a proper city?¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes,¡± Asemo quickly confirmed. ¡°I have already been meaning to leave with the next caravan that meets these good hunters. Going with you works just as well. I heard you might want to leave in the morning?¡±

    ¡°It would be ideal,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Unless that is an issue? We will have no real troubles with the strains of sunlight.¡±

    ¡°No problem, no problem,¡± Asemo raised her right hand, making an unfamiliar sweeping gesture. ¡°It is best I begin realigning my sleep anyway. A proper metropolitan prefers their rest in the soothing of darkness.¡±

    ¡°What were you even doing here?¡± Alice wondered. ¡°You don¡¯t strike me as a monster killer, right?¡±

    ¡°I have been updating the bestiary of local monsters given recent... events,¡± Asemo revealed. ¡°A difficult but necessary obligation.¡±

    ¡°I would imagine those would have been long figured out?¡± Irwyn half-asked.

    ¡°Monsters shift over time,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Usually on the scale of decades but sometimes even in the short term. Or new creatures wind up simply manifesting in a region - the Tree of Life ever iterates and its roots run deeper than the limits of something as meager as ¡®distance¡¯.¡±

    ¡°It is a right issue, new creatures,¡± Asemo nodded ¡°You say the Federation has a hypothesis on their origins?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you?¡± Elizabeth frowned. ¡°The Tree of Life is hardly a secret. You strike me as scholarly.¡±

    ¡°Ah, I scarcely said anything besides my name, did I?¡± the woman paused. ¡°My apologies, Asemo, second librarian of the City of Teraces ¨C yet I have never heard of any such tree. Perhaps you possess much knowledge we lack. 50 years ago, many of our libraries were burned to ash when the Chosen last warred.¡±

    ¡°I feel like I am missing a lot of context,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Your local geopolitics are unfamiliar,¡± a sentence that made Waylan roll his eyes so intensely he almost tripped.

    ¡°Perhaps those will need a longer explanation,¡± Asemo agreed. ¡°Tomorrow then, if we are to travel together. I need to pack all my belongings and catch some sleep. Are we in accord?¡±

    ¡°Yes, we leave tomorrow around dawn,¡± Elizabeth confirmed. ¡°Whenever all of us are ready.¡±

    ¡°Excellent. I shall weep in anticipation tonight,¡± Asemo raised her hand, miming a circle next to her eye and then quickly left before anyone had time to process and question the words.

    ¡°Presumably a saying of some sort,¡± Irwyn guessed, looking at her back. It would certainly be strange if that had been literal.

    ¡°Yo, Irw, I just made a terrible discovery,¡± Waylan spoke gravely all of a sudden.

    ¡°What is the matter?¡± Irwyn asked as everyone turned to their tattooed man.

    ¡°They won¡¯t know our idioms,¡± Waylan said, arms crossed, face full of mourning.

    ¡°So?¡± Alice did not seem to understand.

    ¡°So, they cannot tell if you ruin them,¡± Elizabeth did and could not help but chuckle. Irwyn followed suit.

    ¡°Ah, just you bait,¡± he frowned at them. ¡°We will sea who has the last¡­ blast.¡±

    ¡°Weak!¡± Irwyn did not miss the opportunity to fire back with a grin.

    <hr>

    They had obviously brought tents with them for the journey. High-quality hide and even enchanted to some degree. The hunters certainly fawned over them even as their group struggled to figure out how to actually set said shelters up. Irwyn felt his cheeks almost turning red by the time they finally managed to erect their places of rest. It had taken over half an hour with most of that time being honestly wasted. Alice was the only one who had any experience with camping ¨C so once she was done with her own, she had to go around, tear down the others¡¯ futile attempts and re-build said tents from scratch. She said nothing but that mocking grin spoke volumes.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    It was closing up on sundown and the settlement was beginning to stir with more activity. It became quickly apparent that the locals were forming a hunting party of sorts, which certainly piqued the group¡¯s interest. After some discussion, the four of them collectively decided to sneak around and watch from a distance. So, upon sundown, Elizabeth erected a veil of Void magic around them and they followed the villagers who would be none the wiser. Even good mages would struggle to catch wind of Elizabeth¡¯s subtle magic, Irwyn knew that much very well from their duels, much less ordinary humans. They would be more than just invisible. The Void would erase even the slightest trace of their passing.

    Their trip quickly proved to be amusingly novel. Irwyn, Waylan, and Alice could not see much more than shapes in the dim moonlight ¨C true ¨C but Elizabeth was more than happy to narrate, having no such issues. How could merely ''dark'' contest the Void''s daughter? What really mattered was how truly different it was from what they knew. The hunters started by surrounding a certain dune. Then one of the stepped forward holding what appeared to be a small basket half filled with insects. It was laid down on the sand with the bringer then carefully stepping away.

    ¡°There is a hole in the dune,¡± Elizabeth noted. ¡°On a second look, it might not be proper sand all the way down. Sandstone? Perhaps a lair of some kind?¡±

    ¡°Or a way underground,¡± Alice added her own idea. ¡°There could be an entire cave system for all we know if this material is hard enough. Not exactly sure how the ecosystem would work though.¡±

    It did take a few minutes for something to emerge from beneath. A strange stunted creature with long claws and blind, degenerated eyes. It was no larger than a child in volume and not particularly fast. It began to drag itself cautiously out towards the perceived feast, twisted digging nails scrapping against sand in an unsteady shuffle.

    That was when the hunters first struck. They used long thick bones fashioned into spears, each of them equipped with at least two as well as a good stockpile of similarly made bone javelins. Several of them lunged forward from where they had been crouching motionlessly not that far off. The creature immediately attempted to dart away but it was all too late, four stabs immobilized it. Right afterwards another warrior approached, took out a bone knife, then crippled each of the creature''s legs.

    They did not kill it. In fact, they just made sure it was completely immobile, then all of the hunters withdrew their spears and left the dying thing to bleed out as it voicelessly squealed. There was a reason for that, of course. Blood poured down into the sand and then presumably through it. Below where it attracted bigger predators. It still took a few more minutes before the real prey actually emerged - Alice giving a second of early warning as she felt the ground shift. Because when it did it was not from the small tunnel, rather, it burst out from beneath the sands themselves, causing the grains to erupt skyward as it immediately captured the already dying creature.

    It looked nothing like any animal or monster Irwyn had heard of. At its front were dozens upon dozens of small appendages - ending in not quite claws but close enough, more like ivorty scoops, scraping the sand aside with ease. That presumably allowed it to burrow throughout the environment but also emerge on the surface. Of course, that did not explain its speed. That was caused by thousands of tiny limbs asymmetrically sprouting from its torso. Almost like an incredibly grotesque centipede, except it was not an insectile creature with a carapace - there was proper thick hide covering its body instead.

    The hunters did not hesitate a moment to attack it. A small storm of the bone javelins hit it first while it was wrangling its meal to the presumed mouth - Elizabeth could not see beneath all the little limbs from where they stood as she narrated the situation. Surprisingly enough, most of the projectiles pierced, sticking out of smaller but ugly wounds. The monster reeled, finally noticing its adversaries when they were already upon it.

    There was something fascinating to be found in that struggle, even if Irwyn could only see the shapes of it. It was so small yet also brutally primal in a way that made his blood heat up with the slightest hint of battle thirst even from so far away. Sure, he could have killed everyone and the monster with one spell but that was not what he took from it. Rather, he focused on the struggle itself, because even enough battle was just that - even. It mattered less to the spectacle how much power each side actually possessed when they were matched.

    Well, not quite equal, all things considered. Perhaps if the battle was held in an open field the strange monster might have held the advantage. But it had walked straight into an ambush, starting off surrounded and surprised. The hunters attacked it in waves of five, spaced around in a loose circle. They would each rush in, sticking a long bone spear into the creature''s body with all their momentum, then back away, giving way for their tribesman while they readied their next spear.

    The monster did not seem the most adapted for direct battle either. All the threat it could pose at first was reaching with those digging hands at the front of its body - it didn¡¯t really seem to have a proper head. That could only dissuade one attack at a time though, earning four more spears. In less than a minute it was riddled with dozens. Seemingly beginning to take the attackers seriously, it finally unborrowed fully. The full size of the creature was much larger than Irwyn had thought. Elizabeth estimated five meters long, crawling on the desert sands with its incredibly short but numerous appendages. It was clear that it was not adapted to fighting on the surface, though it still tried, struggling with limited mobility.

    A few more rounds of charges were executed while the creature struggled to scare away the attackers with its hands¡¯ limited reach. Then Elizabeth exclaimed at something unexpected: The back of the creature - not quite a tail, more like the other end of a monotonous torso - sprung upwards towards one of the hunters behind it. At that point dozens of long, retractable spikes suddenly sprung forth from within, trying to gore the nearest attacker with a deadly sweep.

    And by speed alone the monster might have. Except the hunters had been clearly expecting just that kind of an attack and both the men approaching to attack from behind backed off as soon as soon as the monster¡¯s back end so much as twitched towards them. That meant that neither was so much as grazed. Without the element of surprise, the pseudo-tail remained threatening, of course, but it could only slow the attackers down. This was clearly not the first time they had hunted a creature like it because the villagers were perfectly coordinated in baiting the spikes to attack one while two others impaled the monster with another charge.

    It did not take the creature much longer to realize that it was, indeed, losing far too much blood for comfort. Thick, green ichor rather than blood, actually, according to Elizabeth¡¯s far superior dark vision. Either way, riddled with dozens of spears, the monster decided to flee. It put its head down towards the ground and began to desperately burrow downwards.

    The spears stopped it.

    It was impaled in so many places that the thick bone weapons got stuck on the sand, stopping it from digging any deeper than the first few centimeters. Embedded deep in its hide, the monster would either need to break those thick bone spears or let them tear more of its flesh just for a bit more give. Either in ignorance or desperation, it still tried. The leather proved to be less resilient among the two materials.

    Seeing it retreating, the hunters also did not hesitate. Their lunges were quickly aimed lower, as close to the sand as possible. That meant that more and more spears were stopping it from diving while the monster tore apart chunks of its own flesh for each centimeter of depth. It did not take long for the accumulating weapons to almost look like the petals of a truly grotesque flower.

    By then, its flailing was growing weaker. It had not made it deeper than 30 or so centimeters, Elizabeth guessed, and while its tail was still swiping from side to side, it did so blindly. Most of the monster¡¯s body, riddled with wounds, was stuck above ground, losing strength with each passing moment.

    The hunters did not hesitate, an entire group of them finding a moment to firmly grab onto the spears near the back of the monster¡¯s body and forcing the ending full of extended spikes to stop moving. More of them approached to hold the spears stopping it from burrowing - thus also preventing the monster from trying to go back above. A few began to systematically cripple the creature''s many tiny legs, especially those it was still standing on to further nullify its mobility.

    Then the gatherers finally approached. There have been few women actually participating in the hunt at close range, mostly relegated to the initial salvo of javelins or for helping with switching out new spears. But once it was restrained, they approached with, surprisingly enough, jars. Glass jars which they were quickly using to gather up the blood - green ichor - leaking from the many wounds. It took at least ten more minutes before the creature stopped twitching. When it did, the hunters pulled the rest of the corpse out of the ground and the entire community began to collectively butcher it with long bone knives. There was a lot of meat and leather to go through, even though much of the latter would have holes.

    ¡°Gross,¡± Waylan grimaced. ¡°No way they eat that, right?¡±

    ¡°Why not?¡± Elizabeth glanced sideways at him, still mostly focused on the scene.

    ¡°It literally has green blood. It has to be venom,¡± Waylan said, taking a moment to wink at Irwyn and let him know he used the wrong word on purpose. Irwyn intently ignored it.

    ¡°That is just a misconception,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Almost no monsters actually have poisonous flesh. Basically only those literally living in toxic environments would develop such traits most of the time.¡±

    ¡°Goes against my gut,¡± Waylan grunted, still disagreeing.

    ¡°It only makes sense,¡± Alice commented. ¡°Monsters were explicitly created for their parts to be useful.¡±

    ¡°First time hearing that,¡± Waylan stared.

    ¡°That¡¯s why they don¡¯t have Souls,¡± Irwyn added. ¡°You would have if you ever actually read the Book of the Name. Parios created monsters to both challenge the species of the universe as well as provide the resources for their growth.¡±

    ¡°A lot of people forget that,¡± Elizabeth also nodded. ¡°Many think monsters come from Life and biology, probably because the Tree of Life creates countless monster species in its pursuit of change - and then spreads them around. But make no mistake, monsters are originally of Essence and can merely take the form of any other element. The less magical ones usually do require mostly functional biology and sustenance - like that one over there - but more powerful monsters might not necessarily have even a trace of the Life element in them.¡±

    ¡°I get lectured even when watchin¡¯ a hunt,¡± Waylan grumbled though with no heat behind it. ¡°Actually, won¡¯t all the blood attract more monsters?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Alice disagreed. ¡°Not if these¡­ I have no idea what to call them¡­¡±

    ¡°Leatherpedes,¡± Irwyn offered.

    ¡°Legg-ion,¡± Waylan countered.

    ¡°I am sure they have an official name,¡± Elizabeth did not add her own ideas to the pool.

    ¡°Whatever,¡± Alice shook her head. ¡°If these monsters are the most dangerous predator in these parts - or at least near the surface - nothing else will emerge after them. In fact, other monsters are much more likely to run if they smell the ichor of something that usually hunts them.¡±

    ¡°Do we want to stand around for the whole butchery,¡± Irwyn asked after a moment. ¡°I can¡¯t see much anyway.¡±

    ¡°Does it have bones?¡± Waylan decided to ask.

    ¡°I think it does,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But shorter ones for those legs. Might suffice for the throwing weapons, I don¡¯t see anything large enough for the spears. Nor a spine. But no, we can go, the action seems to be over.¡±

    ¡°It was fun but a bit anticlimactic,¡± Alice commented as they tuned around to leave. And finally go to sleep.

    ¡°Hey, there is one positive,¡± Irwyn smiled, grinning at Waylan. ¡°I am pretty sure we will have fresh steak for breakfast. Perhaps with some green blood sauce?¡±

    ¡°Bleh,¡± their sneak gave him his dirtiest stare.

 4.3 A spring

    Packing up was much faster than setting up had been. The ¡®mature of destruction¡¯ as Waylan infuriatingly put it. Afterward, they were invited to eat by the locals - meat skewers rather than the steak Irwyn had predicted. They must have had a great excess of bones to make the sticks from them, though Irwyn was certainly not complaining. Even weak monster meat still retained a trace of delicious power when so fresh.

    ¡°You have been hospitable,¡± Elizabeth said as they were finishing their portions, reaching into her pouch. ¡°Perhaps a gift in return is only reasonable.¡±

    She gave out a simple-looking iron ring, perhaps on the larger side as far as rings went, it would fit the hunter¡¯s thicker fingers well. This was met with much cheering as Elizabeth explained that whoever wore it would become significantly stronger. About 50 percent above their baseline¡­ not actually much when compared to powerful magic but definitely something that made a difference for someone without.

    Well, their hosts were overjoyed and indulged Irwyn and Elizabeth for seconds - Waylan and Alice had declined. Soon enough they were ready to leave. Asemo was not difficult to find: The middle-aged woman had stepped a good way out of the camp and the hunters pointed her out to the Federation¡¯s group. Irwyn assumed that their loud wishes of ¡®sand¡¯s blessings¡¯ and ¡®your hunts be straightforward¡¯, were goodbyes.

    ¡°You just carry them rings?¡± Waylan asked when they were mostly out of earshot. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t give them away if you had just a few.¡±

    ¡°There is an excess of enchantments like these,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Cheap work, weak effects that won¡¯t last more than two decades at best. I grabbed a few dozen.¡±

    ¡°You would think any weapon would be nice against dem undead,¡± Waylan frowned.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter whether you have the strength of 30 or 31 people trying to stop an undying behemoth,¡± she just shrugged. ¡°I have a lot fewer that improve precision, perception, or reaction time as those are much more likely to make a small difference. And even if I had taken hundreds, it would barely matter. These are produced on an industrial scale, Waylan. Thousands daily in just the Duchy of Black.¡±

    ¡°It matters to the sorry bloke who won¡¯t be getting one.¡±

    ¡°What is our new friend doing anyway?¡± Irwyn asked both out of curiosity and to distract. Asemo had moved out of the camp and was drawing something in the sand with a bone cane of sorts. As they got closer they noticed a large stone crate placed presumably in the middle of what she was doing

    ¡°Oh, please be careful not to step on the lines!¡± she called out, then got back to her work. Curious, Irwyn suggested they float above to observe better, which they quickly did. Asemo glanced at them but did not try to tell the group off.

    It became quickly apparent the woman had been drawing a picture from the middle where the large chest sat. Speaking of said chest, it seemed impractical to make it out of stone given that carrying just its bulk would be rather labour-intensive even for whatever horse equivalent liked the desert - maybe camels? Irwyn had never seen one. Besides that sidetrack, the point was that the crate was bound to be hard to transport even with beasts of burden, doubly so if it was full. Whatever Asemo was drawing might help with that. If not, Irwyn wondered how hard it would be to keep that carved chunk of rock flying.

    ¡°I think it¡¯s supposed to be a coin,¡± Alice opined after a moment.

    ¡°Coin?¡± Elizabeth frowned, looking down. ¡°I don¡¯t see it. It¡¯s not even circular.¡±

    It was actually a triangle with a large hole in the middle where the chest sat. Asemo had drawn details inside the shape as well, one for each side. A full purse, seemingly a loaf of strange flat bread, and two crossed¡­ fingers?

    ¡°Not every currency needs to be circular,¡± Alice rolled her eyes. ¡°Metallurgy might be difficult around here. Gold is scarce, and the circle in the middle saves up on such materials. The symbols are very simple because it''s easier to do like that - minting less detailed shapes is cheaper. I have seen some like it in Steelmire, usually from people desperately trying to exchange them.¡±

    ¡°Why even make currency like that then?¡± Waylan asked.

    ¡°It''s about economic pressure,¡± Elizabeth answered. ¡°Controlling a currency is a large advantage - or an equalizer against someone else that does. For example, every Duchy in the Federation makes their own, even if the values are agreed to be kept equal ¨C a treaty that requires a lot of coordination.¡±

    ¡°We do?¡± Waylan asked, eyebrows raised.

    ¡°I have never seen more than one kind of a coin,¡± Irwyn had the same question.

    ¡°You also spent most of your life within walking distance of City Black - yet not in the City,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Most trade over the borders happens through the Beacons and other currencies are usually worth keeping around to pay when you next do business with someone from another Duchy. That means almost none of it enters circulation through land trade ¨C and House Blackburg has long been helping keep it that way, even before my parents. I would presume that next to no foreign coin has passed through Ebon Respite in the last century. Strange you never saw any in Abonisle thought.¡±

    ¡°I did and I was there for barely a few days,¡± Alice chimed in.

    ¡°Yes¡­ strange,¡± Irwyn frowned. Thinking back¡­ he had really not done much financial management in Abonisle, had he? Elizabeth ended up paying for many of his meals due to the repeated invitations, which had reduced his spending. At the same time, he never did establish continuous income. He had gotten paid by Old Ibis for opening a box with that ever-burning piece of wood but that was about it for his income. It would not be strange if the Fowl had just sorted out any coin from other Duchies when paying.

    ¡°If you would move back a bit!¡± Aseno called out to them. Her sand drawing was complete and she likely wanted to finish whatever she had been doing before the wind could disrupt it.

    Irwyn moved them away a good distance while Aseno stepped to the bottom side of the triangular coin, directly facing the chest in the middle. Then she surprisingly enough kowtowed, but in a strange way. She did not use her hands for support but rather put them beneath her knees. As a result, her forehead was truly buried in sand. It looked mighty uncomfortable.

    ¡°May Prosperity be eternal, small and large,¡± she spoke and there was something strange with those words. Not quite magic but a power nonetheless. Like they were calling out into the distance. Asemo remained in the kowtow for several more seconds before she was answered.

    Power filled the petite woman. Not all that much, but power nonetheless. It was not mana but close. Close enough Irwyn could estimate it would not match even the capacity of a mage early into imbuement ¨C though enough for a single decently powerful spell. Nor did it remain within Asemo¡¯s body for more than a moment. Instead, the power flooded into the sand drawing, coursing through the circle. Then the whole picture began to shrink.

    Quite quickly too. It became smaller at a rate visible to the naked eye, halving in size in just a few seconds without any signs of stopping. What was much more astonishing was that the exact same happened to the chest in the center. Asemo remained motionless through all that.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± Alice suddenly cursed, getting everyone else to turn to her. Their Time mage seemed far too bothered by something else to notice that though. She jumped off the platform Irwyn had made for her. They were not that high above ground, though she still broke her fall with a bit of magic almost absentmindedly. Then Alice stared straight ahead at the once large stone chest. By then it seemed small enough to fit into the palm of a hand.

    That appeared to also be the limit as the power finally dispersed, every last mote of it consumed. Asemo stood up, took a deep breath, and quickly began to dust off the sand from her forehead. Besides that she did not appear particularly winder ¨C no trace of mental exhaustion made itself apparent.

    ¡°What was that?¡± Alice demanded. Irwyn lowered the rest of their group down, not sure why she was so manic. But he was not their specialist in Time magic, therefore he would certainly not dismiss the situation off hand.

    ¡°A small miracle?¡± Asemo half asked, clearly befuddled by Alice¡¯s reaction.

    ¡°It¡¯s mass¡­¡± Alice began to speak, then paused as if at a loss for words. ¡°It¡¯s lighter, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°Well, there would be no point in it if I could not carry my things,¡± Asemo chuckled, then went to grab the box.

    ¡°What is the matter?¡± Elizabeth asked the still clearly agitated Alice.

    ¡°It didn¡¯t just shrink the box,¡± Alice explained. ¡°It shrunk the contents in every regard.¡±

    ¡°Well, yes, that is the look of it,¡± Waylan said. Asemo returned to them but seemed interested in the conversation rather than stopping it.

    ¡°No, you don¡¯t¡­ ok, let me explain,¡± she sighed but somewhat calmed down. Irwyn glimpsed the shape of her ring appearing on her finger for a split second. ¡°Just outright shrinking everything¡­ it¡¯s like getting rid of insects with hypersonic projectiles. Ridiculously complicated, inefficient, and impossible for basically everyone who would need to get rid of insects.¡±

    ¡°Miracles can overcome mortal expectations,¡± Asemo nodded, smiling.

    ¡°No, no, that¡¯s not the point,¡± Alice shook her head. ¡°I could do that. Shrinking stone like that is not simple but it is possible since it''s not magical in any way. But the contents? No, I would do the exact opposite - I would expand the space inside to remain constant despite the box becoming smaller. Then I would subvert gravity within that expanded space as to make the weight irrelevant.¡±Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°It seems like a difference in methods then,¡± Asemo assessed.

    ¡°Yes, like using swatter to get rid of flies,¡± Alice glared. ¡°Shrinking the contents like that? That¡¯s not intention¡­ or even a concept.¡±

    And that meant a domain. Domain magic which had been somehow called upon by this unassuming woman. Irwyn felt a chill run down his spine. The world was flipped on its back and he suddenly had to reassess the sheer danger they might just be in.

    ¡°Are these ¡®mircales¡¯... common?¡± Elizabeth carefully asked, staring at Asemo with newly discovered wariness.

    ¡°Hardly,¡± the woman shook her head, ¡°Is your Duchy Federation unfamiliar with them? I find that surprising... but some of the divine are stingier than others.¡±

    ¡°It was my first time seeing one performed,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Could you¡­ elaborate on the details?¡±

    ¡°It is simple, I worship Her Majesty Prosperity,¡± Asemo stated. ¡°And for that service, I am allowed a few limited boons.¡±

    ¡°Can just anyone do that?¡± Irwyn asked, still hiding a hint of anxiety.

    ¡°Of course not,¡± Asemo shook her head. ¡°That which I may call upon is the reward granted for advancing the Her Majesty¡¯s cause! The rituals may be a bit arduous but it is an honor. I am no Chosen but yet remain favored enough.¡±

    ¡°The Chosen have come up,¡± Elizabeth said carefully. ¡°What are they?¡±

    ¡°Those who the gods deem worthy of bearing true blessings,¡± Asemo nodded. ¡°Of course, such individuals are exceedingly rare! The City of Terraces only houses two, one for each of our patron deities.¡±

    ¡°How powerful does that make them?¡± Irwyn inquired.

    ¡°Invincible,¡± Asemo answered with complete certainty. ¡°Only one Chosen can contest another. That is well known.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Irwyn did not voice his doubts. Whatever the truth, Asemo clearly believed that. ¡°Two patrons, you said? I assume one is Her Majesty Prosperity?¡±

    ¡°Yes, she ensures our fields overflow and wealth pours through the city,¡± Asemo nodded. ¡°She has entered a union with the Skyhunter. A truly blessed alliance - all the wealth the sands may offer with the power needed to protect it. Many cities and smaller settlements have converted since it was formed decades ago.¡±

    ¡°What does Skyhunter entail?¡± Alice had calmed down enough to speak¡­ or perhaps she decided that this other god would be more dangerous and wanted to know more. Just the name immediately made them the obviously more dangerous of the two.

    ¡°He is one of the few gods to ever usurp another!¡± Asemo smiled. ¡°The legend of his hunt through the very heavens¡­ I would not do it justice with just an abridged retelling. He is the patron of all who would dare face a superior foe or those who protect that which they hold dear, weapon in hand.¡±

    ¡°Military and economy,¡± Irwyn summarized. ¡°That certainly does seem synergistic.¡±

    ¡°We should get going,¡± Waylan interrupted. ¡°We can talk as we fly.¡±

    ¡°Do you know the direction?¡± Irwyn nodded, turning to Asemo. He began to raise his platforms beneath everyone¡¯s feet. The woman did seem a bit wary of it but did not protest.

    ¡°There,¡± she pointed, roughly North-East. ¡°I can correct us if the course strays.¡±

    ¡°You can sense the city,¡± Alice concluded from that.

    ¡°Yes,¡± the woman nodded as if that was only natural. ¡°I have a great connection to it.¡±

    ¡°Truly, strange powers in these lands,¡± Elizabeth shook her head.

    ¡°Yours seem no less mysterious,¡± Asemo pointed at the platform of Light that had formed beneath her feet and was gathering speed. They had to raise their voices a bit but were close enough to each other and the wind was not too strong. ¡°I have never seen anyone create light this way. And fire as well? Does it not burn?¡± she pointed again at the platform beneath Elizabeth¡¯s feet. Light and Void did not go too well together after all.

    ¡°Such is magecraft,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    ¡°Just the power of flight,¡± she Asemo stared in wonder. ¡°Does it tire you?¡±

    ¡°This much weight, not really,¡± he shook his head. There would be a limit to how much he could carry, though it was untested. Perhaps there was a point where he could still bear a burden but it became too magically expensive for him to sustain. For their current scenario though, his superior reserves rendered the point moot.

    ¡°Would you perhaps be interested in long-term work?¡± Asemo pitched. ¡°People would offer great wealth in exchange for traveling like this between cities. Or just to transfer goods to difficult areas.¡±

    ¡°We have a destination in mind,¡± Elizabeth interrupted with mild amusement. ¡°I don¡¯t expect we will stay in your city overlong.¡±

    ¡°A shame,¡± Asemo shook her head, though did not seem surprised by the refusal. ¡°Ah, that reminds me¡­ perhaps it would be best to speak of worship now rather than later.¡±

    ¡°Worship?¡± Alice asked.

    ¡°Yes, the City of Terraces is more tolerant than most¡­ but it has adversaries,¡± Asemo glanced at them hesitantly, her hand was moving at her side, making a strange repetitive gesture. ¡°I cannot know if perhaps their influence had spread past the mountains. It would be best to slay any misunderstandings before they can fester.¡±

    ¡°There are hardly any deities influential in the Federation,¡± Elizabeth got her meaning. ¡°Following none means we cannot keep to a rival of yours.¡±

    ¡°None?¡± Asemo was visibly baffled by the very concept. She looked around the group as if expecting at least one of them to disagree. Then she looked back ¡°Truly? This is not¡­ witchwork, is it?¡±

    ¡°I have no idea what that would be,¡± Irwyn admitted. ¡°But presumably not. We are mages, except Waylan who doesn¡¯t practice any magic as such.¡±

    ¡°Witches are heretical thieves who steal the faith which rightfully belongs to the gods,¡± Asemo explained, clearly fighting back heat from entering those words. ¡°Their foulness is a travesty against the natural order of things.¡±

    ¡°A mage¡¯s power comes from within ourselves,¡± Irwyn reassured. ¡°No stealing or faith involved.¡±

    ¡°But still, none¡­¡± she looked them over again. ¡°I suppose stranger people have gone through here. Prosperity welcomes all. So please, tell me more.¡±

    The trip was not short but there was much to speak about. Everyone in the Federation¡¯s group - well, except Waylan - tried to gradually get out of Aseno the limits of miracles like the one she had received. The likeliness of a power so close to a domain had disturbed them if it could be at the back and call of anyone.

    Thankfully, Asemo was very open about those aspects of her worship and did not seem to really suspect they were so worried. Ultimately, such fear may have also been a bit exaggerated. Asemo explained that while such miracles were great, they were usually greatly limited in scope and variety.

    The shrinking that the woman had asked for was actually a ¡®common boon¡¯, one that many travelers worshiping Her Majesty Prosperity might request. It required the complicated drawing, lasted only a day, and needed to be paid back in either service or donations. On the other hand, it was almost always granted to those in good standing among the worshippers.

    Their group was then obviously curious about more militant applications, so Asemo described to them that it was the Skyhunter who usually granted those. For one, there was a ritual to sacrifice livestock or a captured monster but in return made the weapon used for the killing sharp and durable enough to cut through ¡®Zanibar steel¡¯ - whatever that was.

    Asking for more situational miracles was apparently very unreliable. Completely dependent on the gods¡¯ whims. A cornered monster hunter had a decent chance of succeeding in getting the Skyhunter to grant them superhuman strength for a short while with honest enough prayers. On the other hand, a merchant stood almost no chance receiving direct help to deal with bandits from Prosperity, as battle was not her purview. Her nature was hiring more guards in advance, or paying the Skyhunter¡¯s followers to drive any marauders away from trade routes, and for that she may well lend a small boon to assist in negotiations.

    The exception were the Chosen. Asemo seemed reverent of them, and Irwyn could see why. Those were individuals that the gods were invested in. For whatever reason, they had a much more direct connection to their patrons. And said patrons would not let them die. Not easily at least. Only another Chosen could break through all those blessings, at least according to Asemo. It was the decree of heavens that only a Chosen could defeat another Chosen.

    ¡°I think that¡¯s not true,¡± Elizabeth had another hypothesis. Asemo was distracted by Alice, talking about regional logistics of all things. Waylan and Irwyn had moved close enough to let Elizabeth speak quietly. ¡°It''s actually all about efficiency.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t know what that means here,¡± Waylan said.

    ¡°Gods draw power from faith, I never realized how literal that was until today,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°It seems like the belief flows through them the same way mana courses through our veins.¡±

    ¡°And that implies that it has a limit,¡± Irwyn understood her implication. ¡°That spell¡­ it was like a domain but contained incredibly little actual power. Just barely enough to complete it, I would wager.¡±

    ¡°Domains are nudging the rules, but that effect is not always expensive mana-wise. It is likely the same here. Why else would they need worship? They are pooling together all that power and then distributing some of it back as investments to spread their names and thus worship. But that means the power is finite.¡±

    ¡°So, it must be a right mess when two different of them ¡®Chosen¡¯ fight,¡± Waylan half grinned. ¡°Do you care more about hoarding that sweet faith or about the bloke you picked out to represent you? It¡¯s about who spends more.¡±

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Though we should still not pick a fight with them. We can presume these gods possess power close to domain mages, maybe even equal or greater. I don¡¯t know how much they can and would actually channel through these ¡®Chosen¡¯ but it¡¯s almost certainly more than we can handle as we are.¡±

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    Their flying trip continued after that. They were not the only ones interrogating though. Asemo seemed just as full of questions about the Federation. A lot of information about the structure of things and such. Many of which Irwyn frankly had not know answers to himself. Elizabeth once again proved a bottomless well of general knowledge though, easily keeping up with the older woman¡¯s curiosity. Most of it was true as Asemo mostly asked about things anyone could learn. Well, Elizabeth certainly omitted much of House Blackburg or any association when speaking of the rulers and perhaps some other actual secrets.

    They did not speak all day, of course. The trip was rather long and they ended up taking a break around midday. Then they still needed to travel for several more hours, Asemo having to correct their course a few times. Just talking was not enough to fill all that time - some things needed to be digested. And the scenery was not exactly extraordinary. Endless dunes of yellow-white sand passed them as they hid from the sun beneath Elizabeth¡¯s umbrella. But boredom was becoming more and more noticeable as the sun sailed overhead.

    Then they finally saw something different in front of them. A small mountain, standing impossibly in the middle of a desert. It was no behemoth rising above the clouds but it was nonetheless perhaps hundreds of meters tall. But it was much more than a sheer rock. Much more than a mere fixture of untouched nature.

    At the very summit, there was a bursting geyser. Water sprung from it at such quantities it was somewhat visible even from as far as they were. And from there, a spring thick enough to be called a river flowed¡­ perhaps even from multiple sides if Irwyn¡¯s eyes weren¡¯t deceiving him. Then below that peak, structures began to emerge.

    Extravagant villas near the top, but not many of them. What was more important were the platforms, large flat surfaces, cut into the mountain surface, then extending a good distance out of it - all thickly layered on top of each other. Terraces, levels upon levels of them.

    Some were streets with houses. Some were outright farms, covered in fields of some kind of crop Irwyn could not identify from so far away. Some with different, more open structures. Irwyn spotted at least two large statues and what he thought may have been a market of some kind. He also spotted the stairways, ramps, and pulleys connecting the levels. This kind of architecture spanned all the way to the bottom.

    There was more at the mountain¡¯s foot. The city did not end, rather it continued on. The river-like stream was split and diminished many times on its way from the mountain¡¯s top but the town beneath would still possess a supply of water. The buildings seemed almost small in comparison to what stood above it but it nonetheless stretched a good distance away ¨C the edge of the town enclosed behind tall walls. Irwyn squinted, trying to see where the water ended but it must have been somewhere in between the buildings.

    ¡°Welcome to the City of Terraces,¡± Asemo said as they approached ever closer, smile wide. ¡°Here where all Prosper.¡±

 4.4 A jaw dropping welcome

    They did not fly into the city as that was a sure way to gather much unwanted attention. Instead, Irwyn lowered them down to almost the ground level, made easier by the dune landscape becoming flatter around the mountain. Just barely above the ground, the terrain¡¯s great fixture did seem much more imposing and towering. Despite that, the landscape was completely barren besides the city itself. Not so much as another traveler was in sight under the desert sun. Thus, there were no distractions as they approached the beacon of civilization. Irwyn began noting more details as they got close.

    For one, the walls were made of solid rock, presumably quarried from the mountain itself, and thick rather than tall. There was a gate of sorts, though it was strange. No door or even grate covered the point of entry, barely any guards in sight. There was seemingly nothing besides a chokepoint. Seemingly.

    ¡°Pit traps beneath us,¡± Alice whispered as they walked through the gates. There were no visitors either. Asemo was a bit ahead of them. ¡°Pretty complex mechanism to trigger them too.¡±

    ¡°Under sand?¡± Waylan pointed out.

    ¡°I think they use the sand like leaves in a forest,¡± she nodded. ¡°I am no Realm mage but I assume the ground has to be pretty solid. I am definitely sensing holes.¡±

    Asemo led them down a wide paved street that led straight towards the mountain, a highway of sorts. It reminded Irwyn of the Road Street in Ebon Respite - a line cutting through miserable suburbs so that the rich would not need to walk among their lessers. There were signs of it all around him.

    The architecture was strange, using unfamiliar bricks and aesthetics - like the focus on creating spots shaded from the sun - but Irwyn could tell it was patchwork. Especially when he looked down a side street that led a distance away. Almost none of the buildings seemed new or even in decent shape. That was different than Ebon Respite at least - there the buildings around the main road catered to the upper classes and made sure they looked like it.

    In the City of Terraces, there was little pretense of even that. That he saw almost no one besides armed men on their way was suspect as well. Asemo seemed uncaring or even unaware of that, only looking ahead. That meant their pace was quick. At the foot of the mountain, Irwyn at least found where all the water ended. There were miniature waterfalls plummeting into springs after a small drop, filling them like a reservoir - Irwyn could see two from where he stood but assumed there would be more ¨C the river flowing from the top had been split countless times from what he had beheld at a distance. The water in the spring did not seem to be rising though, despite the lack of any obvious outlet. Maybe that was because it was being withdrawn at the same time.

    Surrounding these ponds were low walls ¨C as in, Irwyn could literally see over them from a slight high ground - with a single chokepoint, manned by a duo of men in leather armor and donning bone spears, with some other weapons clearly sheathed on their belts, those were letting the townspeople through to withdraw water. Two more guards were standing closer to the spring itself, observing said people as if afraid they might try to poison their well. That made four guards total per source of liquid.

    That was not the only nearby spot with guards. There was actually another proper thick wall built behind those springs, already on the mountain¡¯s slope, going the whole way around. A proper boundary between the upper districts and the city beneath. There was even a gate at the start of the slope, no line but twice as many armed men as the outer one. Thrice even.

    ¡°If you would give me a moment, I can secure your passage to the city proper,¡± Asemo said, pointing at the gate in question. ¡°It is only right for my guests.¡±

    ¡°Is that usually difficult?¡± Elizabeth asked.

    ¡°No, you are clearly people of status,¡± Asemo assured. ¡°But my word can spare you much Time and questions. I will be right back,¡± she finished and then immediately headed there.

    ¡°Is there a massive reservoir beneath this mountain?¡± Irwyn pondered out loud, thoughts returning to the springs since Asemo was leaving and they needed to talk about something.

    ¡°The City of Terraces has never known drought,¡± Asemo paused, turning back momentarily to answer. Apparently, she had still been in earshot. ¡°In three centuries it has not dried up a step.¡±

    ¡°There is probably a proper creational source,¡± Elizabeth nodded in thought. ¡°Ironic that it resides in a desert but certainly convenient for the people here.¡±

    ¡°A what?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°A place where matter gets endlessly created,¡± Alice explained first, clearly familiar with the term. ¡°Water in this case.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that supposed to be prohibitively mana intensive?¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°I feel nothing of the sort from within the mountain. And at that sheer quantity, I think I would.¡±

    ¡°Some places naturally create a resource by the will of Astremus himself,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°Reality is either rigged to let Realms form the matter there for a fraction of the cost it would take a mage or it happens under a principle completely detached from the Creational Shift. The Aspects far surpassed even Names and Edicts; nothing is impossible. What we consider laws are what they chose to put in place.¡±

    ¡°I have just never heard of something like this,¡± he nodded. ¡°Sounds strange in all honesty.¡±

    ¡°Where do you think ore or gems come from, Irwyn?¡± Elizabeth smiled.

    ¡°From mines,¡± he gave the obvious answer.

    ¡°Yes, mines,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Which have been there for thousands upon thousands of years of constant exploitation. If they were not growing back over Time there would be not even scraps left in the entire Federation.¡±

    ¡°Steelmire was built over a massive creational source of iron,¡± Alice chimed in again. ¡°It could yield hundreds of tons a year without diminishing reserves. A large portion of our annual income, especially since we processed it before selling.¡±

    ¡°And anything can just regrow like that?¡± Irwyn asked in wonder.

    ¡°It depends on scale and quality,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Some extraordinary magical ores might only recover a few grams every year. And it¡¯s never anything too complex or already processed ¨C just raw materials. It also depends on the size of the source - it might be a single vein or half a mountain¡¯s volume. A larger area almost always means faster recovery. It¡¯s even possible to move some smaller ones, though the process is difficult and expensive.¡±

    ¡°And the one here?¡± Irwyn asked curiously, glancing again at the springs. ¡°How big would you say it is?¡±

    ¡°Water is probably one the magically cheapest substances to create if we go by the chemical composition alone,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Being a compound rather than an element tunes that down a bit but still, even a relatively weak source could provide an enormous quantity¡­ so probably smaller than you would expected. I cannot even give a real educated guess to the actual size ¨C all I possess is surface knowledge.¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°They are charging for the water,¡± Waylan muttered from the side, frowning. Their sneak had been quiet, observing. And indeed, the people coming to fill their pitchers were handing their due to the armed guards who then let them through the chokepoints. The shape of the coins was familiar but the material¡­ was that glass? Maybe he saw wrong from the distance.

    Before anyone could think of anything to answer or elaborate on the currency, Asemo finally returned, calling out to them. ¡°Sorry for the delay. Today, it seems only ashbrains are on duty!¡±

    ¡°It was not too long,¡± Elizabeth reassured, as the woman got close. She was also holding four familiar triangular shapes, much like the coin Asemo had drawn in the sand just that morning. They were made out of glass ¨C again ¨C and coloured to look ashen gray. ¡°These are?¡±

    ¡°Pins, of course,¡± Asemo nodded, pointing to the sharp bone attachment meant to fix them to clothes. ¡°The city proper is a closed society. Until your face is recognizable, it is better to wear your exact status - especially as visitors.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, I don¡¯t think I could pierce my dress even if I wanted to,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°So, what does the pin actually represent?¡±

    ¡°Usually affiliation, especially if a person is scarcely known where they are headed,¡± Asemo explained. ¡°I would wear mine if I went to places where my face is foreign but would not when I belong.¡±

    ¡°What does your look like then?¡± Alice asked curiously.

    ¡°I have it in my box,¡± Asemo shook her head. ¡°But mine is green with a golden lining around the center.¡±

    ¡°The shape connects you to Her Majesty Prosperity and her followers,¡± Elizabeth analyzed. ¡°That reminds me, is that a coin or just a symbol?¡±

    ¡°Both,¡± Asemo answered. ¡°The symbol of Prosperity is our currency.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Green then would be¡­ vocation? And the gold depicts favor, I presume. Or maybe social status.¡±

    ¡°Green speaks of learning, yes,¡± Asemo nodded, smiling proudly. ¡°As the second librarian that is naturally my assignment. A gold line speaks of great respect and achievements obtained. Silver would mean significant rather than great. Those who have not been recognized for such remain without. The process of claiming such lines is complicated.¡±

    ¡°What if someone visited without being connected to either Prosperity or the Skyhunter?¡± Irwyn wanted to know. ¡°Are they denied entrance because of that?¡±

    ¡°It depends,¡± Asemo explained. ¡°Someone like you, clearly not common folk just by appearance, would likely be admitted after much questioning as foreign travelers, wearing similar pins I brought except merely a neutral full circle. On the other hand, someone truly without any status naturally cannot be allowed into the city proper. As for visitors from other settlements, the City of Terraces is neutral, we allow the followers of other powers entry with their own marks.¡±

    ¡°So, it can be any notable power?¡± Elizabeth said, a grin appearing on her face.

    ¡°Well, yes, with the owner''s allowance, of course,¡± Asemo carefully nodded. ¡°And important factions only. Symbols carry weight and thus must be real.¡±

    ¡°Then perhaps I have something suitable in mind,¡± her smile only widened as Elizabeth moved a hand to her chest. It was purely theatrical, of course. She could have done what she did with a thought. Instead, she pretended to draw with inhumanly fast motions of her finger for two seconds. When Elizabeth was done, there was a drawing made from Void magic proudly displayed above her heart. A familiar shape of a Black Castle. The insignia of House Blackburg. Ironic in hindsight given that City Black had more of a palace than fortified ramparts at its center.

    ¡°If you say so,¡± Irwyn could not help but grin slightly either. He did not feel much personal loyalty to the House itself¡­ but borrowing their infamy was appealing. Moreover, he would not mind doing this just because it made Elizabeth grin that way. Part of him also wondered if anyone might recognize it and flinch. He followed the heiress¡¯ example and manifested the same symbol at roughly the same spot, from a dim but smoldering Flame. As long as he kept maintaining it as an active, impermanent spell images were fine despite his oathbound curse.

    ¡°This is much harder to do with Time, you know?¡± Alice sighed from the side, but followed suit. Hers was half transparent but still visible. It was a distorting in the light passing through it, meticulously arrayed to appear out of place at a glance and form the desired shape upon inspection. Irwyn wondered if he could tease her about it being practically mostly natural Light that let it be visible.

    ¡°I will take the pin, thanks,¡± Waylan chimed in from the side. ¡°Personally, not much for standing out.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes,¡± Asemo hesitantly gave him one, awkwardly holding the remaining three. Her clothes did not seem to possess any sockets and her only pouch was filled with the minimized chest. ¡°I am unfamiliar with this mark.¡±

    ¡°It is the mark of House Blackburg,¡± Elizabeth said, taking Pride in it. ¡°The less tolerant among us might take offense at being unrecognized.¡±

    ¡°A house¡­¡± Asemo still seemed far from certain. ¡°Some people might take issue with the scale.¡±

    ¡°I assure you, no one who knows of them would dare claim that,¡± Irwyn spoke in support. ¡°In the city I come from even the name itself can only be spoken with a hint of dread.¡±

    ¡°That is true for basically every town and village in their sphere of influence,¡± Alice rolled her eyes but played into it. ¡°I know great people who would think anyone a fool for even doubting the incredible power of House Blackburg.¡±

    ¡°Of course, of course,¡± that seemed to reassure their guide a great deal at least. ¡°And there should be no issues with using it, I presume?¡±

    ¡°My blood ties are undeniable,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°And my companions have every right to claim close association by that alone.¡±

    ¡°Wonderful, then let us head to the city proper,¡± Asemo nodded, motioning ahead. ¡°I have spoken to the spearbearers earlier so it should be no issue.¡±

    Thus they walked through the gate onto a wide stairway. Few people walked by them but that quickly changed when they arrived at a large plaza a hundred or so steps later. It was a proper wide market with tents and buildings, all selling something.

    But the plaza was long rather than wide, the city¡¯s ascending levels were unlike Abonisle in that they could only be built up to a certain distance from the mountain wall. That meant that the market was many times the length it was in weight. There were also guards everywhere it seemed. Or spearbearers, as seemed to be the proper term. By every other shop, sometimes two near one. They stood out with those bone spears more than the semi-uniform armor.

    ¡°Is this level of security normal?¡± Irwyn had to question.

    ¡°There is much rabble still walking these parts so more spears are needed to ensure they behave,¡± Asemo explained. ¡°Twice so with so many goods. It will be better when we reach higher, I promise. There is an elevator on the other side.¡±

    There was indeed such a thing, a pair of platforms moving up and down a sheer slope, a channel of sorts carved into the mountainside for them. There was a long long line standing before it, which Asemo immediately skipped. Elizabeth and Alice followed this move with the natural grace of someone to whom it did not ever occur there might be anything strange about that. Irwyn and Waylan followed a step behind, much less confidently. The crowd looked at them but did not speak a word of protest.

    On second glance, none of them seemed ¡®important¡¯. Not that Irwyn was evaluating them as human beings but rather making a conclusion by their clothes. While Asemo wore simple and thin robes hers were undamaged and clean despite her just returning from a long journey ¨C from quality material. Her hands were uncalloused and she held her head high. These people¡­ well they reminded Irwyn of laborers in Ebon Respite. Not quite the bottom of the barrel but nowhere near the lid either. Calloused hands and slightly patchwork clothes, but not to a point that would make them appear near the end of their rope.

    ¡°Ah, Librarian,¡± an operator by the lift did not complain either. Instead, she bowed, clearly recognizing Asemo. He did a double take at their badges but did not actually comment. ¡°And¡­ guests. Where do you seek to go?¡±

    ¡°To the promenade,¡± Asemo commanded.

    ¡°Of course,¡± the operator took that in stride. One of the two platforms was just coming level with them. The people on it quickly departed, allowing the group of five to enter. Even spread out with plenty of space, they did not take up a third of the platform¡¯s capacity¡­ despite that no one followed them in boarding. The elevator quickly began to move upwards. The motion was a bit uneven with the occasional tremor going through their platform - not quite the same smoothness as Irwyn had experienced in Abonisle.

    ¡°So, what is this promenade?¡± Alice asked.

    ¡°A beautiful place, it is best seen rather than described,¡± Asemo smiled, not extrapolating further than that.

    ¡°I hope so,¡± Elizabeth nodded. The very same person who had called a city-size dragon in flight ¡®not as impressive as I expected¡¯. Irwyn hoped for Asemo¡¯s sake that she was not overselling it too much. She seemed genuinely enthusiastic to show this ¡®promenade¡¯ off.

    ¡°Why have we stopped?¡± Waylan asked with a frown. Irwyn realized that they had indeed stopped moving. The elevator had only passed by at most a couple floors so far and was right in the in-between two at the moment.

    ¡°Maybe a technical iss¡­?¡± Asemo started, frowning as well. That was when she was interrupted by a loud crack, the platform violently shaking beneath their feet.

    Then it began to plummet, cut loose from its ropes.

 4.5 Security deficiencies

    Catching the plummeting elevator was not actually difficult. Perhaps if it had gathered momentum, it would have become harder, but Irwyn¡¯s mind moved quickly. A second platform of Light manifested beneath it within half a second of the ropes snapping. Irwyn had to quickly infuse several intentions, like harden, durability, and such adding up to five just in case. It seemed to be more than enough as the spell held steady.

    ¡°Are the public services usually so bad?¡± Alice spoke out loud. Irwyn noted she had seemingly been halfway through casting a spell of her own before slowly dismissing the magic once it became apparent Irwyn had things well in hand.

    ¡°The what?¡± Asemo asked. The woman seemed to still be recovering from the shock - taking the sudden situation in. Then she frowned, staring at the snapped rope. ¡°I¡­ whoever was responsible for maintenance will be held to account.¡±

    ¡°Please do keep us in the loop,¡± Elizabeth said but was frowning too. Then she turned to Irwyn. ¡°Can you bring us to the nearest floor?¡±

    ¡°No problem,¡± Irwyn confirmed and began to lift them up. The elevator had not been just lifted by ropes, there was also a mechanism in place to keep it attached close to the sloped channel it was meant to ascend through. Thus, Irwyn had to move alongside that same route or forcibly sever the elevator from the wall. Just moving the elevator up along the original path was obviously the easier option. It did not take more than a dozen seconds to reach to level above them.

    The floors were set up in a way that the arriving elevator would arrive in the middle of one, a fenced hole in the floor established just for it - a gate with an operator ready. Unlike in Abonisle, the elevators were also not operated by their users but by some kind of external communication system seemingly embedded into the side of the mountain.

    ¡°Breaks! Halt the elevator!¡± Asemo commanded to the operator who seemed somewhere between confused and terrified. He quickly obeyed though, pulling a lever from the assortment at his side. There was a loud boing noise as springs were released, then a muted bang as Irwyn had to hurriedly let the unleashed beams pass through his magic as they were almost shot into position. He barely managed it on half instinct as it was very similar to how he had to constrict his perpetual barrier around nearby objects when going on with his day.

    ¡°I must truly express regret for such an embarrassing display,¡± the librarian apologized as the operator quickly opened the two gates for them to exit. Irwyn carefully released his magic, ready to reinstate it just in case. But whatever was holding the elevator up, it bore the weight without an issue. ¡°If you would give me a moment to sort this out?¡±

    ¡°Naturally,¡± Elizabeth nodded, and Asemo stepped off the elevator, taking the now very worried operator to the side. She also beckoned someone close by to come to her and seemingly quickly sent them off while continuing to berate the quickly paling operator. Perhaps some kind of a messenger?

    ¡°Shit luck, eh?¡± Waylan said, looking back.

    ¡°A bit too much coincidence for luck,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Someone might be after us.¡±

    ¡°We just arrived here,¡± Alice pointed out. ¡°Barely talked to anyone. We couldn¡¯t have possibly already made enemies.¡±

    ¡°And it would be an incredibly poorly planned assassination attempt,¡± Irwyn pointed out. ¡°This was not dangerous to us. Even if I couldn¡¯t hold the platform¡¯s fall, I could lift us up individually.¡±

    ¡°Then perhaps it was meant as a warning,¡± Elizabeth did not quite relent. ¡°A message, even if I don¡¯t know what it might be trying to say.¡±

    ¡°Or maybe it¡¯s just paranoia,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°Will keep an eye out, tho.¡±

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Irwyn sided with his oldest friend. ¡°We keep our guard up but it¡¯s more likely to be coincidence than not.¡±

    ¡°The ring is silent too,¡± Alice chimed in. ¡°I am not sure of everything it can warn me about but blatant entrapment should be one of them.¡±

    ¡°We cannot rely on an artifact we don¡¯t properly understand, Alice,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°But I take your point. We can consider it an accident until proof of the opposite appears.¡±

    Asemo returned to them afterwards, apologizing again, ¡°It is truly unbefitting of our city,¡± the woman reiterated. ¡°If you would have it, I would invite you to stay at the Wind¡¯s Cradle.¡±

    ¡°Is that some kind of guest house?¡± Irwyn guessed.

    ¡°The best in our City of Terraces,¡± Asemo nodded. ¡°Usually, it would be reserved for dignitaries¡­ but our great city must not be known to mistreat guests from so afar!¡±

    ¡°We need a place to stay either way, I suppose,¡± Elizabeth affirmed. ¡°Though I had hoped for a short tour of some kind first, to get better acquainted with your city.¡±

    ¡°Of course, of course,¡± Asemo gestured enthusiastically. ¡°It is a long walk yet to dusk. Although I have some appointments to commit upon my return, it would be no trouble if you followed me. Or I could find a dedicated guide for you?¡±

    ¡°You have been pleasant company so far,¡± Elizabeth allowed.

    ¡°With the elevator broken we have to take the stairs,¡± the woman lamented, looking back at it. They still stood right by the lift. ¡°Alas, the closest other is too far away from where we need to go.¡±

    ¡°Where are we headed first then?¡± Elizabeth asked as Asemo turned around to lead the way. While the elevator was broken, there were indeed plentiful stairways to head up with.

    ¡°To the Concocter¡¯s Association,¡± Asemo said. ¡°Then shortly to the Spearsingers. Afterwards, I would return to my library or wherever else you might want to go.¡±

    <hr>

    The Concoter¡¯s association seemed much like an Alchemist¡¯s Guild under a different name as far as Irwyn reckoned ¨C not that he had personally ever been to one. It was also set into the side of the mountain. That quite neatly solved many real estate issues caused by the city¡¯s terraces being somewhat thin for the most part ¨C there was a lot more space if you built into the mountain rather than just on top of it. Asemo ushered them inside the building, then skipped ahead to speak with a receptionist.

    ¡°Alice, could you discreetly spy on her?¡± Elizabeth used that opportunity to whisper, Irwyn catching the words.

    ¡°Only sound,¡± the other heiress nodded, looking somewhat surprised.

    ¡°Do you think I chose her over a professional guide because of fancy?¡± Elizabeth grinned. ¡°She is clearly much more important than it first seemed when we met her. The best kind of person to eavesdrop on.¡±

    Asemo returned to them not much later. There were other people around but it seemed like the librarian was still recognized by almost everyone - or at least not questioned when skipping lines. She brought them to a large room further inside the building, a group of apparent laborers were in the middle of gathering to the side. They gave the newcomers a wide berth alongside cautious gazes.

    ¡°What are we doing here?¡± Alice asked, looking around. The room seemed spacious but otherwise mostly nondescript, ground flat and empty. Lighting was also clearly an issue ¨C without natural Light or widespread magic, they relied on torches which gave the place a stink while remaining far from perfect visibility. Even in Ebon Respite magical lights had always been decently available ¨C even smaller businesses could afford them. Here, a proper organization with blatant wealth did not widely use them.

    ¡°Unpacking,¡± Asemo smiled, reaching for her sole pouch. From within she took the shrunk stone chest and placed it in the middle of the room. Afterwards, she took several steps back, raising both hands to form a triangle of sorts with her interlocked fingers. The woman then stared right through it, whispering inaudibly under her breath. The miracle on the chest soon began to reverse. The stone expanded in size again, this time not requiring any circle or complex prayer at all. Less than thirty seconds later, it stood before them just the same as it had that morning.

    ¡°And of course the reversal is basically automatic,¡± Alice muttered, rolling her eyes.

    ¡°You,¡± Asemo pointed at one of the workers. The man seemed startled, wide-eyed even, but when the librarian beckoned him closer he hurried to do so. ¡°Unload my things. Personal possessions will be picked up by a scribler, sort them to the side. You are personally responsible nothing goes missing.¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± the man confirmed, any feign confidence betrayed by a nervous gulp.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    ¡°Librarian!¡± a newcomer entered the room then. A younger man - barely older than the Federation¡¯s group - in simple but good clothing, wearing one of those glass triangles. It was green, much like Aseno had said indicated ¡®learning¡¯.

    ¡°Concocter,¡± Asemo immediately turned, Irwyn noticed the hint of a smothered frown as she did.

    ¡°You have been missed. Have you found out much?¡±

    ¡°That will be for the First to distribute,¡± Asemo merely shrugged.

    ¡°Come on, Asemo, you know I am invested in this,¡± he insisted.

    ¡°I have guests,¡± Asemo said, much more firmly, gesturing at Irwyn¡¯s group.

    ¡°Ah, my apologies,¡± the man turned to them, glanced at the badges displayed, then frowned. ¡°...Travelers?¡±

    ¡°From South,¡± Elizabeth affirmed.

    ¡°Only mountains are to the South,¡± the man said.

    ¡°And the Duchy Federation beyond them,¡± Asemo spoke. ¡°Just because contact is greatly limited does not excuse your lack of awareness.¡±

    ¡°Allow me then. Cicero, 26th concocter of the City of Terraces,¡± the man said, almost wildly gesturing with his hands. The miming was clearly more than just Asemo¡¯s quirk but a cultural staple. ¡°And who might you¡­¡±

    ¡°Did I give leave to disturb my guests, concocter?¡± Asemo interrupted him.

    ¡°No¡­¡± he hesitantly admitted.

    ¡°Then you will cease bothering them,¡± she said, staring Cicero down. ¡°If you wish to receive any knowledge, you may request its distribution through your superiors. Are you aware?¡±

    ¡°Yes, librarian,¡± the man slowly affirmed, though clearly not happy about it.

    ¡°Then be gone, your presence is not currently warranted,¡±

    ¡°Have it your way then, second librarian¡± he said, holding back anger by that point. Then he turned around and began to leave.

    ¡°I will submit another complaint about your lack of manners,¡± Asemo got off one last sentence, making the much younger concocter shoulders¡¯ slightly slump on his way out but he did not retort. She then turned to the Federation''s group. ¡°I apologize for the impropriety. Cicero can get¡­ overexcited to the point of forgetting the demands of society. Be assured that he intents none of the insults he often distributes.¡±

    ¡°No offense taken,¡± Irwyn reassured. He certainly did not think anything the man had said was problematic¡­ which made him all the more worried about the numerous faux pas he would inevitably commit in the local culture. Then his attention was taken by the laborers again. They were indeed unloading and sorting the large chest, and taking out murky but still transparent jars filled with green liquid. Almost familiar jars and the color and consistency of the substance within all the more.

    ¡°What is that?¡± Elizabeth asked, either to confirm or to create an excuse for their suspicions.

    ¡°Blood, if you can believe it,¡± Asemo unknowingly affirmed. ¡°The hunters caught something rather large last night. We all had it for breakfast, actually. Fresh monster blood sells quite well¡­ especially this fresh.¡±

    ¡°So, you bought it off of them?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Not really,¡± Asemo shook her head. ¡°My library will take some of the proceeds and in exchange sends goods and weapons from the hunter¡¯s wishlist with the rest of the earnings. Whenever someone plans a route that brings them by their territory they will drop those items off for a small fee of their own. A common arrangement, though it¡¯s usually merchants fulfilling both sides.¡±

    ¡°Very trusting of them,¡± Waylan noted with a slight frown.

    ¡°It would be quite daring to steal from the hunter clans,¡± Asemo smiled. Did not deny it might still happen though. ¡°The Skyhunter is fond of them.¡±

    ¡°Are we just going to wait for the sorting?¡± Alice asked. ¡°Even if it shouldn¡¯t take too long, a place to sit would be nice.¡±

    ¡°I must speak with the First concocter briefly,¡± Asemo said. ¡°There is a lounge with refreshments attached to this room. You can wait for me there, or stay here if you fancy watching the laborers work.¡±

    ¡°I think a short rest sounds pleasant,¡± Elizabeth nodded and they were quickly guided to said room while Asemo herself left.

    It was not spacious but had cushioned stone chairs as well as a table with what seemed to be bread, cheese, milk, and¡­ salad? All of it fresh, whatever the misshapen green blob might be. Elizabeth immediately let a layer of Void magic cover the room as soon as they were seated, guaranteeing them privacy. Waylan was already grabbing a snack. Elizabeth eye''s narrowed and her hand shot out, snatching one first.

    ¡°Can you repeat what they say?¡± she simultaneously asked. Asemo had just gone to meet someone important after all.

    ¡°I can do you one step better,¡± Alice smiled, she raised her hand, then drew a circle over an empty spot on the table. It gloved soft teal and while it did not project any image, sound began to pour through.

    ¡°FIRST CONCOCTER,¡± Asemo¡¯s voice was deafeningly loud. Everyone flinched to varying degrees.

    ¡°Whoops,¡± Alice¡¯s grin slipped a bit as she quickly readjusted her magic.

    ¡°Second Librarian,¡± an unfamiliar woman replied, volume actually level.

    ¡°Sound magic? Is that a thing?¡± Irwyn questioned. He assumed yes, as Old Hummingbird back in Abonisle had seemed rather focused on music. Asemo and the first concocter were exchanging pleasantries to start off, so Irwyn talked over them.

    ¡°Prismatic element - but this isn¡¯t Sound,¡± Alice shook her head. ¡°Do you know what sound actually is, Irwyn? Physically, I mean.¡±

    ¡°Not particularly,¡± he admitted.

    ¡°Tremors traveling like waves through the air,¡± she explained. ¡°They impact and reflect from objects, interfere with one another, and with enough force can even shake and move things. But ultimately, it¡¯s just an extremely specific vibration carried on by the displacement of particles. I cannot really create new sounds at will but I know a spell that takes in an existing sound, and then replicates it by compressing space around air - just louder. Then I create the spell''s receiver in the room where they are talking which catches a bit of sound for me to reproduce here. Because of how it all works there is also no risk of anything being overheard from our side as there is no direct portal between our two positions.¡±

    ¡°I heard you had an accident,¡± the first concocter''s voice finally moved on past pleasantries, marking an end to the conversation on magic as everyone returned to focus on spying. ¡°With the elevator of all things?¡±

    ¡°Travesty that it happens when around guests,¡± Asemo replied. The Federation¡¯s group could not see them but Asemo still sounded genuinely outraged.

    ¡°There have been four smaller ''incidents'' with infrastructure while you were gone,¡± the concocter said. ¡°We are expecting possible saboteurs. Infiltrators, even. And that more might be coming.¡±

    ¡°My guests just arrived from the South. It is not them.¡±

    ¡°While the Federation is supposedly still at their big war. I have memos, months old, all the way from the seas far to the West and East that they have even completely withdrawn fleets, abandoning trade routes. Yet this bunch of youngsters were just allowed to leave?¡±

    ¡°You obviously didn¡¯t see them if you have to question this,¡± Asemo replied. ¡°And whoever you sent to have the look for you should probably be whipped for incompetence.¡±

    ¡°So, you can tell why they can supposedly just break emigration policy with impunity at a glance?¡±

    ¡°The girl in the black dress, she blatantly belongs to the House Blackburg,¡± Asemo nodded. ¡°And the rest¡­ powerful families do not allow their scions subpar hanger-ons.¡±

    ¡°The what? Blackburg sounds familiar but I am not sure.¡±

    ¡°The ruling family of one-seventh of the entire Federation! Royalty in all but name¡­¡± Asemo exclaimed, continuing to explain just how influential the ruling bloodline of the Duchy of Black was. Irwyn¡¯s brow furrowed though. Asemo had not recognized the insignia and had to ask worriedly about ¡®how influential House Blackburg was¡¯. Or, in retrospect, she had pretended to.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t realize she had been lying,¡± Elizabeth frowned, confirming that she was thinking the same thing.

    ¡°In hindsight¡­ it would be really weird if a librarian didn¡¯t know,¡± Alice also did not seem happy. ¡°They must surely have all kinds of books about us.¡±

    ¡°Good con,¡± Waylan commented too. ¡°She was so forthcoming and answering every question until we forgot to be more careful. Well, not like she really pushed her yuck yet.¡±

    ¡°And she is a much better actor than it seemed,¡± Irwyn added his own thoughts to the mix. He was generally pretty good at spotting when people were trying to hide things behind false smiles. That Asemo got past that cleanly was in itself worrying.

    ¡°Then what would this princess be doing here?¡± the first concocter ¨C still unnamed, almost to Irwyn¡¯s glee ¨C spoke again. Asemo had just finished giving him a very rudimentary rundown of House Blackburg while the eavesdroppers were discussing.

    ¡°That¡¯s what I am still figuring out,¡± Asemo nodded. ¡°But it shouldn¡¯t be hostile. I think they are just heading through our City.¡±

    ¡°Good. Not a good time to rock the boat.¡±

    ¡°Just shows your shortsightedness,¡± Asemo snorted. ¡°This is an opportunity.¡±

    ¡°We are not getting involved with another power while the Chosen are on the brink of war.¡±

    ¡°Only a fool would even consider it,¡± Asemo denied. ¡°But we are not getting involved with any factions with this.¡±

    ¡°They might retaliate over a child,¡± the concocter disagreed. ¡°Do you not remember the dark knife catastrophe? A librarian of all people should know why messing with these ¡®mages¡¯ is dangerous. Or were you never allowed access to those reports from 20 years ago?¡± the voice took on a mocking tone by the end.

    ¡°Retaliation follows something harmful. Do you take me for a dried old fool like you?¡± Asemo threw an insult back. ¡°No one is suggesting force. In fact, I propose the exact opposite of it. We will be incredibly pleasant.¡±

    ¡°And hope for some mysterious gift worth the trouble from a teenage girl?¡± the first concocter snorted. ¡°You know, mages giving out extraordinary gifts by the fistful is literally a fairytale.¡±

    ¡°They do not hold to any worship,¡± Asemo said and then there was a pause.

    ¡°Ah,¡± the concocter said as if that explained everything. ¡°That¡­ would be a significant contribution to add to your name.¡±

    ¡°Enough to make a first librarian, you think?¡± Asemo said with an audible smirk of confidence.

    ¡°If the old bugger doesn¡¯t kick it anyway before it shows results,¡± the first concocter said. ¡°Alright, I will bite for a share of that. What do you need from me?¡±

    ¡°To awe them with generosity,¡± Asemo explained her plan. ¡°Bring out your best potions and convince them to take at least one as a gift. Make sure they understand how valuable those are though¡­¡±

    ¡°My best potions are expensive,¡± the concocter protested. ¡°Even without a margin¡­ just the materials.¡±

    ¡°You can write them off your taxes as donations to the cause - even if Her Majesty Prosperity doesn¡¯t approve my plan and sponsor it directly. Get Melka to help you.¡±

    ¡°Melka is a mediocre craftswoman at best,¡± the first said with scorn.

    ¡°And she made the fifth concocter by being your best dealmaker despite that. Perfect for this. You don¡¯t even need to explain what or why and just take all the credit for yourself afterward.¡±

    ¡°Where will you be then?¡±

    ¡°Explaining my plan to Goldlocks. I will be back in less than an hour - I promised them a tour of the city. Are we in accord?¡±

    ¡°We are in accord,¡± the first concocter confirmed after mulling for several seconds.

    ¡°Good. Then I will need to get you introduced. Send for your fifth.¡±

    That was mostly where the conversation ended. There was still some shuffling but no more discussion of plans on the other side. When the two of them left whatever office they had been in Alice kept following the duo with her subtle eavesdropping spell but nothing more relevant would come from it.

    ¡°At least they are not planning to kill us,¡± Irwyn opined.

    ¡°Maybe with kindness,¡± Waylan chimed in.

    ¡°We are being courted,¡± Alice surmised with a slight grin. ¡°I had a few boys and a girl try that on me before¡­ but never a god.¡±

 4.6 Bottles

    ¡°Maia,¡± was the simple introduction. Just one word from the woman¡¯s mouth. At least her clothing clearly spoke volumes, mostly of status: Died silks, braided together in complex patterns that ended up forming the resemblance of flowerbed blooming over the uneven dress. Then a golden ring for every finger, a jewel displayed on each - though no earrings. She also did not bother with the glass badge. It was not needed. A blind man could see Maia stood apart in status.

    ¡°The first concocter is not one for theatrics,¡± Asemo added. ¡°But she is the most knowledgeable in her craft. I say it as no exaggeration that every city near and far envies her skill!¡±

    ¡°It is a pleasure,¡± Elizabeth offered with a slight smile. The first concocter seemed¡­ unimpressed at best.

    ¡°She would love to have you around, despite the habitual grumbling,¡± Asemo said. ¡°For rare guests like you, she would even bring out her best work!¡±

    ¡°Yes, it is rare to meet people who might be able to appreciate my labors,¡± Maia said though her acting was not¡­ stellar. ¡°I maintain a collection that even the Chosen may sometimes be interested in.¡±

    ¡°Pick anything you like, at my expense - to apologize for the mishap,¡± Asemo said. ¡°I was unfortunately summoned for an urgent meeting which I cannot bring you along for. I hope that this will suffice as a distraction until my return.¡±

    ¡°It cannot hurt to have a look,¡± Irwyn spoke, he wondered how they compared to what little he had seen available in Abonisle.

    Asemo quickly said her goodbyes and Maia quietly led them to a different room. It looked almost like a storage space ¨C with supplies and various alchemical ingredients lying in piles or shelves. Except there was a glass wall at one end that led to what seemed to be a proper workshop. Another person was already waiting for them. A tall woman with a welcoming smile. Her attire was not as simple as Asemo¡¯s nor was it extravagant like Maia¡¯s. She wore a well-fitting black dress which would have been called too revealing in the Duchy Federation, and simple silver earrings.

    ¡°This is my assistant,¡± Maia simply said, pointing at the only person it could be. ¡°She will be better at presenting as I get lost in the minutiae too often."

    ¡°Please, you may call me Melka,¡± the woman bowed and Irwyn noted how it was almost familiar. Like a respectful courtly curtsy he might have even seen during the Exenn. And very much unlike anything he had seen in the City of Terraces so far. ¡°Please, take a seat. We have elected for the authenticity of the first concocter''s personal workshop but that is no reason to not rest your legs.¡±

    Indeed, there were movable chairs in the corner of the room - bone again with a comfortable cushion. Irwyn was quickly realizing that wood and metals were either scarce or culturally disliked. Maybe both. Basically everything he would have expected to be wooden had been sculpted from bone. Some shapes were even such that he doubted any creature had ivory the shapes could have been carved from.

    Maia had already taken one such seat and moved to the corner of the room behind them. Melka kept smiling and beckoned them to approach a wide stone counter placed right in front of the glass wall where they arranged in a row. Waylan intentionally placed his half a step behind the rest ¨C not something they had agreed on but Irwyn was not going to disrupt the improvisation. Three rows of potions were placed upon the counter, all of various colors and even bottle shapes. Moreover, Irwyn unmistakably felt a noticeable amount of mana from the lot of them.

    Things like the monster blood were magical, yes, and he could kind of feel that. He certainly felt the many other ingredients in the room. But the potions were much more distinct. Maybe because they were gathered next to one another, maybe because they had more purpose to them. The air was so deprived of ambient magic that even the smidgen leaking from the potions felt like a campfire in the night.

    ¡°To begin your perusal, perhaps it is only warranted to show an achievement first,¡± Melka picked up a potion, raising it. To Irwyn¡¯s surprise, he realized it was purely non-magical. Not a smidgen of mana in it. ¡°It is not an uncommon potion, but it is important because of its history. Although nowadays any concocter worth the name knows it, it was the first concoctor herself who had invented its recipe and spread it many years ago - the very achievement that had put her on track to claim that title.¡±

    ¡°What does it do?¡± Alice humored.

    ¡°It is an incredible cure,¡± Melka said with a wide smile. ¡°Not a panacea by any means but still perhaps the most potent concoction to ever exist when we compare cost to effect. This potion will eliminate any infection and most diseases merely by drinking doses for a week!¡±

    ¡°Does it often cause indigestion, especially in prolonged use and have seemingly no effect on some specific illnesses?¡± Elizabeth asked while Melka was taking a breath to continue.

    ¡°Ah, yes,¡± the woman was momentarily taken off balance. ¡°It seems that the Duchy Federation is in possession of similar creations then?¡±

    ¡°Antibiotics,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°A vital part of any society.¡±

    ¡°Wait, you just said they were invented here only years ago?¡± Alice spoke up with some alarm. ¡°Did¡­ people here just die from small cuts and common illnesses before then? What about infectious diseases? Would they just decimate cities?"

    ¡°More expensive remedies have long been available,¡± Melka answered immediately. ¡°And the Healer and her clergy are welcome in all cities, assisting all who aile. This potion, known as Laborman¡¯s salvation, makes treatment far, far more available.¡±

    ¡°How do you deal with bacterial evolution?¡± Elizabeth said, getting everyone - including Irwyn - to turn to her in confusion. Melka especially hesitated for a few moments before desperately glancing into the corner of the room.

    ¡°The meaning might be lost in translation,¡± Maia answered the plea. ¡°Could you elaborate?¡±

    ¡°Bacteria, micro-organisms?¡± Elizabeth tried, turning to the first concocter. ¡°Beings far smaller than the eye can see, what do you call them here?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think there is a term for them as a whole,¡± Maia frowned. ¡°Micro-organism is a sensible one I suppose. I have heard of such creatures but it is not my area of study, nor of anyone in the City of Terraces.¡±

    ¡°Ah, I see,¡± Elizabeth said, hiding disappointment. She glanced back at the potion. ¡°What else do you have?¡±

    ¡°Perhaps this will be more to your liking, something practical,¡± Melka pivoted, taking a black potion that was magical. The glass was shaped and painted to look like an open eye. ¡°A traveler might find that nights are quite a bit darker than they expected. Especially when the moons chooses to rest. This superb potion of Darkvision allows for sight even in the slightest trace of light.¡±

    ¡°How long do they last?¡± Elizabeth wondered out loud.

    ¡°The first concocters brew lasts as much as six hours!¡± Melka praised. ¡°Of course, shorter doses are available.¡±Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Is that so?¡± Elizabeth inclined her head, reaching for her bag. From it she took a potion of her own ¨C though almost nondescript at a glance. ¡°Darkvision is not the most useful as it does require a trace of light as - if my guess is correct and tell me if it¡¯s not - the potion merely amplifies a person¡¯s perception of Light. That also means it can be blinding in daylight. What I have here is a potion of Pride¡¯s sight. It poses no such limitations as it grants the ability to see thanks to darkness as well as Light.¡±

    And from there it continued in a similar manner. Irwyn could almost feel the first concocter stewing in rage behind them and only getting worse with time. For while Elizabeth always advertised not using external power, she had stocked up on all manners of potions, pills, scrolls, and such that might prove helpful in a pinch. It also happened that what the Duchy of Black produced was always more potent, lasted longer, had more forgiving shelf life, and overall outshined the first concocter.

    It wasn¡¯t even that Elizabeth had the equivalent for all of them. For example, she did not have a potion that allowed people to glow in the eyes of everyone else who took a sip from the same dose, or a draught that kept people perfectly hydrated for several days without needing to drink. But even for those she could not directly show a better version of, Elizabeth offered harsh critique, spotting a weak point, then tearing into the potion¡¯s usefulness. Irwyn found a few of them interesting! But he held his tongue and let Elizabeth conclude whatever her plan was.

    Yet it felt like it was perhaps too much. Elizabeth was always exceedingly polite in her words but she knew what she was doing, stomping over the first concoter¡¯s pride with complete disregard for someone who clearly thought very highly of themselves. And Maia really did not seem to be enjoying it. From her body language, Irwyn guessed that if they gave her one good excuse she would kick them out.

    ¡°And that one?¡± Elizabeth pointed at a softly glowing yellow potion that had been placed to the back. Quite possibly even the last one as Melka had switched to showing things off out of order to hopefully catch Elizabeth unprepared. This bottle had been wholly skipped in the exposition so far and had no labels.

    ¡°This¡­¡± Melka. paused, clearly unsure. She withdrew it from the case and despite its glow, it did not contain any mana to speak of¡­ but there was still a sliver of power tangible, swirling around it.

    ¡°Bottled faith,¡± Maia spoke over her hesitant helper, her voice barely containing the anger. ¡°I have distilled worship and belief into a flask. Have you seen that before traveler? No? I thought so. An incredibly difficult process for its limited value¡­ but it does not spoil unlike most concoctions so I keep it around as a trophy of sorts.¡±

    ¡°What is it even useful for?¡± Alice asked curiously before Elizabeth had an opportunity to politely jab again.

    ¡°In theory, it would allow someone to request a bigger miracle from Her Majesty Prosperity than would usually be possible - the power needed to be provided by the potion,¡± Maia explained. ¡°Unfortunately, in practice, anyone who could afford it already has the favor to not require it. Refining it has been low priority.¡±

    During that explanation, Irwyn felt Waylan nudging him. Subtly. Irwyn did not do something as obvious as to look down at his friend. They had a system, even if it had been a damn eternity since they last needed to communicate through it. Hand signs usually worked - but once in a while a thief needed to say something to their friend while already talking. Without being seen. There was a pause in the nudging, then Waylan tapped Irwyn several times to his flank. There was a limit to the nuance which could be relayed by taps¡­ but Irwyn saw only one real interpretation.

    ¡°I have never seen faith so¡­ coalesced,¡± Irwyn improvised. ¡°If it is not useful, I think could be education to see how it would react to magecraft.¡±

    ¡°Of course, as librarian Asemo had said, you may take whatever you wish,¡± Melka immediately allowed.

    ¡°Anything else that interests your curiosity,¡± Maia spoke, almost glaring at Elizabeth. ¡°Some of these I have only shown to the Chosen before. Many have traveled the sands from cities far just for the opportunity to peruse my work.¡±

    ¡°I do not doubt you have no equals,¡± Elizabeth said neutrally. ¡°Not here.¡±

    ¡°But?¡± Maia said venomously, barely holding onto a crooked smile. Meanwhile, Melka wildly gestured at the edge of their line of sight next to the cabinet and was not taken into account. ¡°I have built this place with my own two hands. Half the potions here were invented by me. You have blatantly shown that you Federation has collectively more knowledge and better recipes. But do not doubt my skill.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps my companions found them more of interest,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°Alas, I have seen far too many impossible things to be impressed by the work of mortal hands.¡±

    ¡°Try me,¡± Maia¡¯s own smile fully slipped. ¡°Whatever ¡®wonder¡¯ you have witnessed, it can be reproduced. All it takes is the knowledge of how.¡±

    ¡°Do you know what an Ambrosia is, Maia?¡± Elizabeth smiled.

    ¡°Nectar of gods,¡± the concocter immediately replied, everyone still ignoring Melka who seemed to realize that and stopped trying for the moment. ¡°Myth has it that mortal lips will forever be ruined from a single sip, never to enjoy any food or drink ever again in comparison. Of course, it is merely a myth. If the gods truly desire such a beverage, it would be only the Chosen who would be allowed to know its ingredients.¡±

    ¡°We in the Duchy Federation attribute the name a different meaning. A different concoction,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°It requires three ingredients: The Soul of a man who had shattered the heavens themselves - bloomed into a flower; the heart of a monster that could break a city with a single swing of its claws - cut out while it yet lived; and the hand of a sage who had walked the world for two centuries and learned every secret hidden therein to craft it. Only then it can be created¡­ I supposed it would not be completely wrong to call it liquid Fate. Whoever drinks it becomes destined for great, implausible things.¡±

    ¡°Not much different from ours then, also a brew of myth,¡± Maia nodded carefully. ¡°Our stories are similarly unfeasible.¡±

    ¡°My family¡¯s vaults hold 35 such doses of Ambrosia,¡± Elizabeth grinned a bit savagely. ¡°So, excuse me for not finding the wonder in things that do not defy comprehension.¡±

    To that the first concocter seemed at a loss what to say. Melka desperately grabbed onto that as an opportunity to redirect tensions. ¡°If any of you change your minds, this collection remains open to be perused.¡±

    ¡°I think we would like to retreat,¡± Elizabeth said, turning to Melka while the first concocter still glared holes into her back. ¡°That cheese¡­ now that was rather interesting. What animal is the milk from?¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°That was a bit too much, no?¡± Waylan said when they had privacy. And two platters of the cheese. The creature that produced it was called Vihorn, rare cattle that only the followers of Prosperity kept - they didn¡¯t quite catch why.

    ¡°I have to agree,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Was that wise?¡±

    ¡°I will not lie and deny that I did not like that woman¡¯s look,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°But there is a good reason for this: Asemo wants to convert us as she had stated, and we don¡¯t want them to get too obsessed with what is impossible. So, if someone of clearly high standing were to obstruct those efforts - even if only out of petty spite - it will serve us well by driving division into their ranks. You may have noticed Maia failed to even try and make a proper pitch for their religion. I don¡¯t intend to get bogged down in this city for more than a day or two. Ideally, I would like to obtain directions, some local currency, and then be gone before noon tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°We cannot even sightsee?¡± Alice made a slightly displeased face.

    ¡°If there is something interesting I don¡¯t mind spending more time,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Our schedule is not strict. But so far I remain unimpressed. There are bound to be actually fascinating things out there rather than 4th rate alchemists thinking their lackluster potions are worth gawking over. There was exactly one worth some mild curiosity. Irwyn?¡±

    ¡°It was actually Waylan who wanted it,¡± Irwyn shrugged, using the moment to take it out and hand it to his friend.

    ¡°I decided to keep a low profile, be someone more outta the group,¡± Waylan nodded, taking the bottle. ¡°Obvious weakness if they want to approach someone to talk into a backstabbing ¨C works as an early warning if they try. Also, I don¡¯t want to draw too much attention to myself. I am at my best when no one checks if my bed is empty at night.¡±

    ¡°What interests you in it anyway?¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°Faith, faith, faith,¡± Waylan said a few times. ¡°Made me think about some things. For example, how is it different from just ¡®belief¡¯?¡±

    ¡°In direction, presumably,¡± Alice said. ¡°Faith implies some kind of god is involved as the target.¡±

    ¡°I heard that artifacts are magical things transformed with belief, right?¡± Waylan continued, glancing around for anyone who might gainsay that.

    ¡°Elizabeth once told me that artifacts are basically the same as gods, just far less whimsical and, well, objects,¡± Irwyn saw the direction Waylan was thinking in.

    ¡°A legend makes an artifact,¡± Elizabeth confirmed. ¡°The same can go for gods. Their creations and maintainance are very similar in many ways.¡±

    ¡°And if I can eat artifacts?¡± Waylan smiled, popped open the flask and, before anyone could think to caution against it, chugged it down. For a moment, his tattoos turned slightly darker, deeper. Almost alive, as if they wanted to expand again. Alas, they quickly settled down, not visibly changing from what little faith that flask had contained. ¡°Makes me wonder, what else could fit, eh?¡±

 4.7 A song most tempestuous

    Asemo seemed rather miffed by how everything had turned out but did not speak of it as they left. The first concocter did not come to see them out. Even so, the second librarian tried to keep up a positive outlook and remained generally cheerful.

    ¡°I wonder, would you prefer to see the sights? Or is there somewhere else you wish to go?¡±

    ¡°Maps would be convenient,¡° Elizabeth said thoughtfully. ¡°Or information about near and far places in general.¡±

    ¡°Then my library would be the perfect place to visit,¡± Asemo nodded.

    ¡°I think you mentioned something about ¡®Spearsingers¡¯ before?¡± Alice broached.

    ¡°Resolved alongside my urgent summons,¡± the librarian explained, beginning to lead the way as someone who barely needed to look to navigate the complex city levels. ¡°It had to do with my visit to the desert.¡±

    ¡°You were gone for a more specific reason than to just observe monster migration, I presume?¡± Irwyn asked, hoping for an elaboration.

    ¡°Well, that depends on your perspective. It was indeed just migration patterns of certain monsters over the past few months that have raised worry. Namely, an unusual increase in their movements,¡± clearly it was not a secret. ¡°I was picked to investigate.¡±

    ¡°A librarian against monsters?¡± Elizabeth frowned. ¡°No insult but that seems like a horrible match.¡±

    ¡°I was hardly going to fight them,¡± the woman gestured something. ¡°No, I was comparing old records, matching known behaviors, and then forming a proper hypothesis of what is happening. Contemplating all the logistics of monster migration is hardly a work for fighters.¡±

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t sound all that complicated,¡± Waylan spoke up, playing the fool. ¡°They move and eat whatever doesn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°If only,¡± Asemo sighed. ¡°Why does an apex predator migrate? Either, it has run out of prey or an even stronger creature forced it to move. It can be impossible to determine which. Then, more importantly, this begins to cascade. You see, the first apex predator left its original territory, but then it has to go somewhere else. Usually this ¡®somewhere else¡¯ is where it will be at the very top again. Rarely they might find a place with no competition for prey¡­ but more often than not there will be other predators where they end up ¨C but possibly weaker ones. And of course, if those are driven out¡­¡±

    ¡°...It just repeats,¡± Irwyn finished for her. ¡°Biggest predators driving out the big that drive out the normal that drive out the small. But there has to be a limit.¡±

    ¡°Of course, we eventually get to a line between predators and scavengers and such but that is not the important part,¡± Asemo gestured in agreement, Irwyn recognised. ¡°What matters is that before you know it, this entire thing can turn into thousands of monster species migrating through the vast caverns that lie beneath our sands, then emerging in all new places on the surface.¡±

    ¡°Are you afraid of some kind of tide sweeping through the city?¡± Elizabeth guessed.

    ¡°No, fleeing hordes will at most try us and then give up when they realize the thickness of our walls,¡± the librarian explained. ¡°What we are actually afraid of are rock eaters and other prolific diggers. Sometimes even the hunted decide the new predators are too dangerous and also migrate. That includes petravores that could mine under the city and through the mountain until the very foundations collapse beneath us.¡±

    ¡°Is that likely?¡± Irwyn wondered.

    ¡°No, but it is possible. The City of Statues had been destroyed that way 43 years ago. An abyssal pit opened beneath it and the whole city sank - there are many recorded first-hand accounts if you are interested. The Spearsingers are tasked with culling monster threats but they are not great at gathering information. That task went to me. And I have accomplished it exceptionally well!¡±

    ¡°So, is this mountain on the menu?¡± Alice grinned slightly.

    ¡°No, but some more dangerous creatures encroach on our trade routes,¡± Asemo said. ¡°I will have to go on a similar journey once the migration wave settles just in case but for now things are not too troublesome.¡±

    ¡°You have also not said whether it was a new predator or hunger that triggered all of it,¡± Irwyn reminded.

    ¡°I cannot possibly know,¡± Asemo shook her head. ¡°New monsters appear all the time out in the wild, far, far away from the cities. A species could have been around for decades or days before causing this stir. All I was able to pinpoint is that the source seems to be roughly to the North.¡±

    ¡°Something to keep in mind, I suppose,¡± Elizabeth acknowledged. They were intending to head that way after all.

    The conversation afterward was mostly idle chatter as Asemo led them upwards and then further up through the city. They took three separate elevators and many stairways while the streets became increasingly less populated. The level with the Concocter¡¯s Association was by no means packed but there were people still going by to and fro. Laborers carrying goods, people shopping, or just traveling. But the upper floors felt¡­ empty.

    Sometimes they were the only people on the same level as far as the eye could see. There were no more hanging farms around them and buildings grew scarcer. But everything also became more luxurious. Houses - or rather villas - took up much of the floor space rather than being built more into the mountain. The streets were clean, to the point that no sand was visible in many places. The height between each level also increased and they were not as evenly placed next to each other.

    Aseno¡¯s territory was built at what Irwyn guessed must have been about three-quarters of the way to the top, though when he looked up he mostly saw individual buildings rather than proper streets further up. The library actually did look quite majestic as someone had turned the entire front into a large mural.

    It depicted merchants, scholars, and craftsmen at their best, oftentimes prominently showing off those triangular coins changing hands. It was not just one scene but almost like a collage of various things associated with prosperity and Prosperity, flowing into one another. Statues were also placed around the small-ish terrace dedicated to the library. Some of those were still portraying Prosperity but many were clearly soldiers or warriors wielding weapons - mostly bone spears it seemed. Those were likely aimed at the Skyhunter.

    The words ¡°In knowledge, all prosper¡± was carved above the large double doors leading inside. They immediately encountered a counter upon entry, kept by the ¡®160th scribe¡¯, which in itself was strange as Asemo knew the exact number from the top of her head. The man, however, simply greeted them deferentially and clearly was not going to contradict his boss who walked the group inside. There Irwyn got a completely new gut punch of culture shock.

    ¡°These are tablets,¡± Elizabeth noted, looking at the rock shelves in the very first room they walked into. Floor to ceiling, carved stones were stacked next to each other. Neatly arranged.

    ¡°Yes?¡± Asemo said as if there was nothing strange with that.

    ¡°I think I speak for all of us when I say we have been imagining a library of books,¡± Irwyn spoke up.

    ¡°Ah, we certainly have ¡®proper¡¯ books further in,¡± Asemo assured. ¡°But the tablet is a time-honored medium. It is exceptionally potent at retaining shorter anecdotes or important wisdoms. Leather is too precious to spend on so many copies.¡±

    ¡°What is the indexing system,¡± Irwyn approached one curiously. There were numbers and letters etched into the side of each but interpreting them would be difficult without knowing any context.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°The first number is the room this should be stored in - some of them might have had that scratched off and replaced, which means they have been moved around. The letters after that speak about all the topic categories. After that is usually a title.¡±

    ¡°There are only numbers and random words instead of names here,¡± Waylan noted, looking at one himself.

    ¡°No, the word is always in the middle,¡± Irwyn said. There was ¡®1¡¯ on all of them since they were in room numbered as such and he did not bother puzzling over the category letters. The ¡®title¡¯ though, felt like it would be easier to decipher. ¡°73 Goldlocks 19:5, or 42 Tongue 2:1-3, and such. Not sure what it means.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s because this chamber is built around testimonies,¡± Asemo said. ¡°The first number is the year, followed by the name of who spoke it, then the number of the exact testament and paragraph. It is simply how their titles are noted.¡±

    ¡°Those are names?¡± Elizabeth questioned with a slight frown. ¡°Who would call themselves ¡®Tongue¡¯?¡±

    ¡°The Chosen give up much in their service,¡± Asemo did not seem to find it strange at all. ¡°An abandoned name is the least of the burdens they bear for all of us. Prosperity always picks for them a fitting more fitting monicker in exchange. Tongue was known to convince those he spoke to of anything he wished, be they allies or foes.¡±

    Curious, Irwyn reached for one. The one with Goldlocks he had read out earlier - that word had been mentioned at some point, he was mostly sure, though he had not realized it was meant to be a name at the time. The stone was surprisingly light and not too difficult to hold. He could probably do it fine with one hand, though he used both rather than needlessly risk dropping it. The letters were very large and thus easily legible, spelling out what amounted to a quote. He read:

    ¡°A failure becomes only such upon a conclusion. One has only succumbed the moment they cease pursuing a reversal. In adversity, opportunity hides. In desperation, inspiration thrives.¡±

    ¡°Goldlocks is ever an inspiration,¡± Asemo commented with clear approval. ¡°Her life¡¯s story is that of overcoming great burdens and destitute beginnings before achieving the august status of a Chosen. She reminds us all that the worthy will rise.¡±

    Irwyn had his reservations about that and from Waylan¡¯s shuffling his friend had far more. Neither of them spoke though. They charged for water - as the sneak had noted. How does one rise if they cannot afford to drink? Irwyn had gone through lean times but Old Crow had always made sure there would at least be something to eat, even when the Tears went through periods of disastrously scarce hauls. But a person needed to drink a lot more often than eat¡­ and a bucket was harder to nab than a loaf. Irwyn had no doubt there was a thick underbelly of poverty in the City. Every city had the less fortunate and their short walk through the city by the mountain¡¯s foot implied it was hardly thin.

    ¡°I am sure there is much wisdom in this room but I had hoped for maps,¡± Elizabeth said.

    ¡°Of course, this way,¡± Asemo did not deny here as she led them further inside.

    Irwyn quickly realized that besides being a library it was also a bit of a labyrinth. There was nothing resembling a map of the compound placed anywhere. Rooms were of different sizes and asymmetrical, meaning that they were also of different lengths - and while numbered those numbers were seemingly applied at random with three and one digits being next to each other at least twice. That was without mentioning the crossroads, unnumbered reading chambers, and the need to walk through some rooms rather than sticking to paths leading in between. There were also at least several floors given they had walked up the stairs twice and down once, Irwyn hoped at least those were of the same height.

    ¡°Room 837, geography,¡± Asemo finally announced after no less than four minutes of a fast-paced walk from the entrance. Irwyn was pretty sure he could find his way back - a lot of practice for that back in Ebon Respite - but the library had been built by a sadist or a drunk, likely both.

    The room itself was circular with scroll shelves on all sides. There was a large table in the middle with cushioned chairs as well as two easels - Irwyn was proud of knowing the word - to hold up any of the maps. Unlike the tablet-filled room, this one contained almost exclusively leather scrolls but there were a few bound books in one section.

    ¡°Are there actually over 800 rooms?¡± Alice was doubtful. ¡°I noticed there is a disproportionate quantity of rooms market with a ¡®7¡¯. That tends to happen when people are trying to fake random numbers - most subconsciously choose it more often.¡±

    ¡°There are 163 as far as I am aware,¡± Asemo confessed easily. ¡°The founder of this library had been¡­ excentric. But while strange, it is wholly functional. Newcomers get used to it within the first month of work so it¡¯s not worth the effort of remaking all of our ledgers with new numbers.¡±

    ¡°I was wondering if there was a room for the history of other gods,¡± Waylan, surprisingly, spoke up. ¡°Old ones, or those so far away as to not be rivals of Prosperity.¡±

    Irwyn resisted the urge to stare. Waylan and books. He had thought his friend would either split away before they reached the library or sneak into some kind of restricted room to rearrange every tome there in a way that would imply the most innuendos possible with their titles placed in a row.

    ¡°Foreign and dead deities,¡± Asemo nodded. "We actually passed it along the way. Room 777.¡±

    ¡°Mind if I¡­?¡± Waylan said.

    ¡°Go right ahead, that is what the public library is for,¡± Asemo smiled. ¡°Just be careful not to damage anything.¡±

    ¡°Mind if I¡­?¡± Alice immediately copied Waylan, looking at Elizabeth instead.

    ¡°I obviously need your help,¡± Elizabeth rolled her eyes. ¡°You will have a better intuition for relative distances than me.¡±

    ¡°Work it is,¡± Alice pretended to deflate, then stepped towards Elizabeth who was already perusing one of the shelves.

    ¡°And what would you fancy?¡± Asemo asked Irwyn who found himself suddenly alone. Sure, he could maybe help with the maps¡­ but he couldn¡¯t take notes and the girls would likely have it in hand. He was more interested in landmarks and their histories rather than where precisely they stood. Speaking of history, Irwyn had a thought.

    ¡°Do you have a section about the history of this City?¡± he asked. ¡°How it was founded and such.¡±

    ¡°The City of Terraces, room 3,¡± Asemo smiled. ¡°Do you need help getting all the way back to the entrance? The first five are actually right by it.¡±

    ¡°Please,¡± he nodded. Whether he needed it or not¡­ it would not be bad for Elizabeth to have some privacy with the travel plans she was undoubtedly scheming.

    <hr>

    The city¡¯s history was¡­ not that exciting. A lot of legends that sounded more like propaganda than accounts, which put everything else in doubt. Lot of talking about endless prosperity and Prosperity¡¯s majesty, very little on real problems ever plaguing the city. He did manage to gather a few useful things at least. Firstly, the city was only 50ish years old. And he had confirmed the whole calendar they kept only spanned 76 years, though referred to several events with a negative date. The year zero was, perhaps predictably, Prosperity¡¯s apotheosis. The circumstances of which were very thick on praises and scarce on details.

    The union with the Skyhunter was always dated year 56, so 20 years before the present day. There was a little more to that at least: The god had once been a Chosen of his own predecessor, the Heavenlash. Said older god had apparently been decaying with waning worship and catatonic, to the point his Chosen would openly create personal cults among other followers. The Skyhunter had slain or subjugated all of his rivals before challenging his liege deity to a battle that ¡®sundered the very skies¡¯. Irwyn was not sure about the veracity of the accounts on the last part¡­ but would keep in mind that usurping gods might be possible.

    They all reconvened after an hour. Everyone seemed reasonably happy with the time spent ¨C even Waylan, which hopefully did not mean any missing irreplaceable books ¨C though sharing exactly what they had found would have to wait for later. It was getting later into the day and nearly evening and Asemo was rather excited to tell them about the arrangements she had made.

    ¡°The Wind¡¯s Cradle is the finest guest mansion in the City of Terraces, such is undisputed,¡± she informed them as they headed even further up. ¡°Oftentimes it is inhabited by visiting Chosen! However, I have been able to arrange for you to stay for at least a week. It is the least I could do.¡±

    ¡°I see, that is kind of you,¡± Elizabeth smiled lightly. The ¡®generosity¡¯ felt a lot less genuine with their knowledge that Asemo held ulterior motives¡­ and that she would not get what she wanted. Irwyn was certainly not looking for a god, much less the first one they stumbled upon.

    Soon enough, they were nearing the peak and working quite a sweat. No elevators were around that high up. Not many people either. They had actually not seen a single soul since departing the library. Perhaps they just didn¡¯t fancy walking outside because of the wind - it had gotten quite potent that high up. Then they began to hear the music.

    It was a whisper at first, getting louder with each step. Soon enough it grew distinguishable as a kind of disorganized orchestra. There were clearly many instruments and they each played a song of their own. Somehow, it still sounded good, just¡­ random. Like if 30 competent musicians were handed an instrument and told to play their best while ignoring each other. Or perhaps that analogy did not work - Irwyn wouldn¡¯t know if that would actually sound nearly as pleasant as what he was hearing.

    The building only came into view when they reached its level from below as it had been hidden by sideways stairs beforehand. Irwyn ignored the statues and wide empty terrace around it, instead focusing on the structure itself. It was seated maybe one tenth beneath the mountain''s very peak but close enough one could literally see the actual apex through a large circle literally built into the guest house. It was clearly intentional, half of it was a hole going through the top floors of the building while the rest of the circle stretched above it in a thick arc.

    And in that circle, there were smaller gaps, leading through it and then to the side where something akin to instruments had been carved. Horns and trumpets and every kind of such musical device - most of which Irwyn could not even name. Two dozen at least, possibly more out of sight. As the wind blew through the circle they each sang, shifting with the tempest¡¯s whims.

    ¡°Welcome to the Wind¡¯s Cradle.¡±

 4.8 A feast for four

    The Wind¡¯s Cradle was massive on the inside. Just the lobby seemed taller than three usual stories and wider than most warehouses. Gold line chandeliers hung from the ceiling, massive paintings hung from the walls, and there was a literal carpet mural covering most of the floor - as if someone had seen the one outside and decided to reinterpret it onto a piece of furnishing. At the far end of the lobby, there was a dual stairway leading up and double doors in between them leading elsewhere.

    ¡°It is getting quite late,¡± Asemo noted as they entered, looking back outside - the sun would soon set. ¡°Feel free to explore, that is part of this place¡¯s charm. I shall see you again upon dawn. The dining room is behind those large doors, indulge in whatever you wish.¡±

    She left them with those words, smiling. Understandably quite peckish, the lot of them moved to explore the dining room. It was really more of a hall, enough space to fit a feast, maybe two. The aesthetic was similar to the lobby with the exception of a dozen long tables ¨C wooden even! ¨C being placed across the room. At the far end, there was a feast laid out in a buffet of sorts, except it was placed on layered displays, each with several plates of individual meals stacked onto them. There must have been hundreds of servings including desserts, soups, and appetizers. Irwyn did not bother counting exactly.

    ¡°Not poisoned, at least anything near us,¡± Elizabeth noted, using one of the countless trinkets on her person. ¡°I will double-check anything you choose.¡± she then proceeded to pick some kind of exotic¡­ salad? It had green, blue, and red presumably vegetables diced in it. Then Elizabeth grabbed three more meals, hovering them on a plate of Void magic. Irwyn eyed the full portions and didn¡¯t think he had more than two in him even as hungry as he was¡­ but then again Elizabeth always maintained a lot of enchantments on her body, which probably needed more sustenance.

    ¡°This is far too much food just for us,¡± Irwyn was not quite over the sheer quantity of it either.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Alice said and Waylan nodded.

    ¡°Eh,¡± Elizabeth shrugged with a smirk. ¡°I have seen bigger.¡±

    That helped dispel their hesitation at least. Irwyn personally picked a rich stew and some kind of apple roll for desert. Alice and Waylan likewise made their picks. Then they all gathered at the edge of the nearest table, Elizabeth erecting a veil of privacy around them ¨C she was still the best at that.

    ¡°Strange, there are no servants here,¡± she immediately noted.

    ¡°Maybe we just haven¡¯t seen them,¡± Irwyn opined.

    ¡°No,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°There are no servant entrances at the back of the dining hall. Those should be there. But I spotted nothing.¡±

    ¡°Maybe hidden?¡± Waylan offered.

    ¡°I am feeling no secret passages or even crawlspaces,¡± Alice scanned shook her head as she spoke. ¡°Maybe¡­ they just walk in through the same entrance as the guests?¡±

    ¡°Asemo did not seem particularly sympathetic with their lower castes,¡± Elizabeth disagreed. ¡°Unless our dear librarian is an outlier, we can assume most of the powerful here would not want to share the door with a servant. As I said: Strange.¡±

    ¡°Did you find anything in the library,¡± Irwyn moved the conversation elsewhere since no one seemed to have any more insight.

    ¡°Quite a bit,¡± Elizabeth presented. ¡°Apparently, this desert is not really ruled by a nation. Instead, there is about 60 city-states that span it. Some deities might control multiple cities but from what we have found, none more than 5. Prosperity controls 4 alongside the Skyhunter. Alliances and rivalries seem to be more based on religion than reasonable geopolitical needs. I expect these city-states would only work together on a wider scale when faced with an external threat - though I can only speculate.¡±

    ¡°We did chart a path North though,¡± Alice chimed in. ¡°We go through the City of Glass, City of Grain, City of Steel, and City of Ramparts. The last one is on the very edge of the desert. The information about anything further North was scarce though.¡±

    ¡°Just a few landmarks,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Like mountains and a giant tree that can be seen from the City of Ramparts. Little information on what is North of it geographically. I managed to get a book from another section that talks about the ¡®barbarians¡¯ that apparently attack it from time to time but the term might just be straight propaganda. They seem to use the term for any people from outside the desert.¡±

    ¡°There were a few interesting places that could be on our way,¡± Alice seemed to like telling the information in turns and spoke again with a smile. ¡°The Stairs of Vul, which is supposedly a massive mountain further North; a Lying Forest, whatever that means; or a Graveyard with capital G. And most interesting was the Mount Wisdom, which is noted to be ¡®three years of travel on foot¡¯ from the city of ramparts'', three times as far as the second furthest landmark mentioned.¡±

    ¡°That of all of them seems like a place we should visit, even if it¡¯s out of our way a bit,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But that¡¯s mostly it, the rest of what we did was math. What did you uncover, Irwyn?¡±

    He naturally recounted his findings about the city being rather young, their calendar beginning with Prosperity¡¯s godhood, and a few other details he found interesting enough to include in his summary. Then he turned towards the last person who had been quiet for a while.

    ¡°And you?¡± Irwyn smiled at Waylan, channeling all the friendly malevolence he could. He had no doubt that Waylan would have found¡­ limited information in the time he had to study. Never much of a bookworm ¨C though Waylan could read faster than most when he actually wanted to. He was just not interested in anything much longer than memos most of the time. Without interest efficiency faltered.

    ¡°The library goes a lot further back than we had been brought,¡± their sneak replied. ¡°Until the rooms stop being numbered and there might be only a few books or tablets in each, locked in glass or even metal cases. Further still, there are stone doors without handles or keyholes, leading into massive rooms - at least judging by their spacing in the hallway.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°They had that in a book?¡± Alice raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°No,¡± Waylan grinned. ¡°What they did have was a few very nice private reading rooms. With locks, even. Very convenient. I noticed them on the way and managed to guess at a nearby section to borrow a few random books from as an excuse.¡±

    ¡°I, a fool, thought you might have shown an actual interest in literature,¡± Irwyn sighed.

    ¡°I have always been very interested in the value of literary works,¡± the thief grinned back.

    ¡°What else did you find?¡± Elizabeth inquired with an amused smile.

    ¡°I waited around a bit but no one ever entered the entire back section the whole time I have been there, nor did I spot anyone already present,¡± Waylan recounted. ¡°There were a few pathways so unused a visible layer of dust had settled on the ground - couldn¡¯t go there without leaving footsteps. Eventually, I gave up on the dead ends and tried to gleam something from the sealed writings. Books and scrolls were closed but the tablets I could read a bit - They seemed like big rituals of sorts.¡±

    ¡°Can you describe a few?¡± Elizabeth nodded for him to continue.

    ¡°Some were kind of normal - like 50 people standing in a circle, singing a song and dancing around a pile of coins to make them ¡®lucky¡¯,¡± he said, then his usual smile slipped right off of Waylan¡¯s face. ¡°Some were¡­ well, fucked.¡±

    ¡°How bad?¡± Alice¡¯s expression also darkened.

    ¡°I found one in a particularly hidden room, near the stone doors all the way in the back,¡± he grimly nodded, ¡°About how to ¡®restore fading fortunes¡¯. Apparently, all you need to do is take the child of a merchant who stole great wealth - no older than ten - then have a single person from every craft and profession in the city stab them one by one with a jagged stone knife.¡±

    ¡°Sacrificial rituals,¡± Elizabeth said with more disapproval than horror. ¡°How incredibly¡­ barbaric. And inefficient. The human body doesn¡¯t actually contain that much energy. Especially those underdeveloped, like children¡¯s. I cannot imagine they are particularly mana efficient either.¡±

    ¡°They wouldn¡¯t keep them around if they didn¡¯t think it worked,¡± Waylan grunted.

    ¡°It might be different with gods,¡± Alice hypothesized. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s not about the person but about the worship itself. Special occasions and the crazy zealotry it takes to kill someone as an explicit human sacrifice - it might provide a lot more power to the target than regular worship would. And if they get a lot of extra power, they might share some back to encourage¡­ this kind of behavior.¡±

    ¡°Rituals can be used to better attune to particularly powerful spells,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°In a similar way as chants but the comparative improvement is usually not that large. Perhaps it is different with deities.¡±

    ¡°What do we think about the stone doors?¡± Irwyn redirected. ¡°Ritual chambers of some sort?¡±

    ¡°That, or Vaults,¡± Elizabeth half agreed. ¡°The lack of any mechanism to open them means they rely on magic - or miracles in this case. There ought to be more than a sacrificial slab to make entry basically require the god¡¯s consent.¡±

    ¡°Or it¡¯s just to keep out the smell,¡± Waylan said without mirth. ¡°They seemed airtight.¡±

    That conversation caused a minute or two of silence as they dug into their meals. Chatter returned eventually though it stayed relatively light while they ate.

    ¡°It¡¯s probably dark out already,¡± Alice commented with a sigh. ¡°We should find bedrooms and whatnot.¡±

    ¡°It is,¡± Irwyn confirmed. A rarely useful side effect of his affinities ¨C he could feel when it was nighttime. Not that it often came up given most people could do the same with a glance.

    ¡°Probably sleep in pairs, just in case,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Asemo seems to want to get on our good side doesn¡¯t mean we should let our guards down too much."

    ¡°Well, the bedrooms will probably be more than large enough,¡± Irwyn looked around the massive dining area - it certainly indicated scale. ¡°Maybe they even have bedhalls instead. Sleeping parlors?¡±

    ¡°Slumber expanses?¡± Waylan suggested.

    ¡°Dream galaxies,¡± Alice chimed in.

    They ended up leaving their empty plates on the table and headed upstairs. The halls were unsurprisingly needlessly wide and tall, the side rooms led to various leisure areas. Some were clear, like the pool room, the room with a pool, one with some kind of darts variation, a bowling alley, and the chamber with plentiful tables and board games - mostly chess and its apparent half-siblings. Some seemed rather esoteric to say the least though. Irwyn had no idea what kind of game the room filled with large geometric glass shapes was meant to be for. Or the one with six turning mirror panes.

    The third floor was for bedrooms. Some were massive with a single truly royal bed large enough to fit five people yet clearly intended just for one. Others were still for a single individual but only large rather than unreasonably spacious and luxurious. Then there were several bedrooms with four beds each. While not crammed and still clean, the difference was stark. Especially since all of them were placed on the same floor, right next to one another.

    ¡°This is meant for an entire delegation,¡± Elizabeth explained when Irwyn brought up the strangeness. ¡°This society is clearly segregated. I imagine that Chosen would take the largest chamber. Diplomats and other people of import will be in smaller but still personal rooms. Their servants or whatever equivalent they utilize are then relegated to these smaller rooms. It is honestly not that far from what I have seen in the Federation ¨C though we would have put them much further apart.¡±

    The fourth floor was inaccessible. There had to be one based on what they had seen outside somewhere but their group could find no stairways. Alice quickly confirmed the existence of hallways above them ¨C at least 3 floors as far as he could feel, maybe more ¨C but there were simply no stairs or doors to reach them. Elizabeth shut down the suggestion that Alice could teleport up to snoop around. A needless risk, not to mention it was getting late and they were all tired from much travel and walking throughout the day.

    They ended up taking two of the ¡®servant¡¯ bedrooms that were right next to each other, splitting into pairs as they settled in for the night. The two thieves did not need to even make arrangements. It was honestly not even hard for Waylan and Irwyn to essentially resume half-a-decade of habits. There used to be times when they would lay side by side every night in the Tears¡¯ mess hall ¨C back at their own hideout. The two had changed since then beyond recognition¡­ but some things remained close enough to be familiar.

    ¡°Kinda makes me nose-talgic,¡± Waylan grinned.

    ¡°Kind of makes we¡­ what is negative nostalgia?¡±

    ¡°Nose-talgia.¡±

    ¡°...¡± Irwyn glared at his friend. Then decided there was no winning an argument like that with Waylan and conjured a far more malevolent vengeance with a bit of magic. Then dismissed the Light he had been providing. ¡°Goodnight.¡±

    ¡° ¡®ight.¡±

    Irwyn smiled despite the half jab. He never really got the complaint personally but Irwyn did remember one peeve echoed by many people. He wondered how Waylan would enjoy both sides of his pillow being uncomfortably warm.

    <hr>

    Elizabeth woke before dawn and forced everyone to follow suit. If Asemo was coming for them, she reasoned, they better appear prepared. Probably eating to show their nonchalance. The feast had changed for breakfast, though Irwyn was pretty sure some items were the same. The plates had been cleared somehow through the night which was worrying in its own way. They still had yet to see so much as a trace of any staff.

    Asemo arrived midway through their leisurely meal. And she did not come alone. Alongside the second librarian - or rather, in front of her - walked a tall lady in a long, azure blue dress. Her similarly cerulean eyes almost glowed and no person could possibly claim her features or posture were anything but perfect. As close as a person could really come to an idol of beauty.

    That all paled before the most defying feature, of course: The woman¡¯s hair was literally woven from gold. Not blond or painted but dazzling with a slight reflective sheen. Yet it still acted as normal strands would, gently shifting with the newcomer¡¯s gait - to the point it did not even seem as heavy as the literal metal must be. Well, it was not difficult to guess who they were at least.

    Goldenlocks, Chosen of Prosperity.

 4.9 Chosen battlefield

    Goldenlocks trod towards them confidently, her gilded hair swaying with each step. Well, there was something more to that gait than just mere confidence. Like reality would slightly bent to accommodate it, glowing with the sheer weight of her ego. It was not like Concepts - those were much firmer about their meaning. The feeling around the Chosen could not be summarized in one word. Nor could Irwyn really tell how it would compare in power with mages. When the duo got closer, Asemo hurried off towards the arranged feast while Goldenlocks took a seat close by the Federation''s group, separated by just one seat from Elizabeth. There was obviously no option but to turn to the Chosen from their meals as the woman smiled.

    Irwyn realized he could not tell what that smile meant. Usually, he would be able to, almost as a gut feeling. When the smile was happy, or strained, or pained, or exhilarated. Ironically, he had a knack for reading expressions despite his antisocial tendencies - and Old Crow had once helped him sharpen it into something almost subconscious. To the point Irwyn had gotten used to looking at a face and spotting several secrets at a glance.

    Goldenlock¡¯s visage revealed nothing. It was a face like any other, with an expression that did not seem unfamiliar. Yet any kind of emotion or insight were as if invisible to him. It was not just a perfect performance - like what Avys had managed - because then Irwyn would have gotten some kind of impression, even if a false one. This was just a removal of one of Irwyn¡¯s oldest comforts. And that disturbed him.

    ¡°I am overjoyed you enjoy the hospitality of the City of Terraces,¡± the Chosen broke the silence. ¡°How have you found our cuisine?¡±

    ¡°As would be expected from such a distinguished establishment,¡± Elizabeth said with an amused smile of her own, probably intending it as a subtle jab. ¡°But what may bring you here¡­ oh, Chosen? I apologize for not knowing the proper honorifics.¡±

    ¡°Such cannot be begrudged to children from afar,¡± Goldenlocks assured, her expressions changed but remained utterly unreadable. ¡°Yet after I have heard of you from the second librarian I could not help but come visit. And what you call ¡®magecraft¡¯ fascinates me. Tell me¡­ Irwyn, I presume? Can you truly lift such heavy burdens with just Light and Flames summoned from nothing?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Irwyn hesitantly nodded. What was their play? Should he downplay his abilities to make them less exciting? Exaggerate as to make himself seem intimidating instead? He pondered it for a moment.

    ¡°How much could you actually lift in just weight?¡± but when she spoke again Irwyn realized that he would not be able to make her even wary no matter what he said. For all the Chosen¡¯s expression remained unreadable, she had basically barged in and started a borderline interrogation within a few sentences. That was the act of someone who thought they were close enough to untouchable, without fear.

    ¡°There is a limit of course,¡± so, Irwyn remained vague, and certainly would not lie. Who knew if she could somehow tell? ¡°I haven¡¯t actually tested exactly how much I could hold. More than the elevator, certainly¡­ but with more weight I will drain quicker, speed will become more difficult. Due to Finity, it will become harder basically exponentially as well.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± she did not even thank him, turning to Elizabeth. ¡°And you cast a shade that can completely block out the sun?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Elizabeth answered. Then did not say anymore.

    ¡°How large? Elaborate, please, with exactness,¡± Goldenlocks asked. Asemo finally returned, placing down a dish for the Chosen, then walking a good distance away before sitting down with her own and digging into a different meal.

    ¡°Not much larger than I have shown but it can be kept indefinitely,¡± Elizabeth blatantly lied. ¡°My other two companions are mostly mundane. Alice can perceive empty spaces through even walls - though very unreliably at times - and Waylan is exceptional at stealth.¡±

    ¡°Understood,¡± Goldenlocks nodded while Alice gaped at Elizabeth for saying such an outrageous untruth. Or, if Irwyn looked at it differently, it almost seemed like Alice would be glancing over in outrage after the insult on her made-up abilities¡­ Alice was not the best actor so disguising her reaction like that would be clever. One of the Duchess¡¯ lessons by all likelihood, though Irwyn would never say that out loud in front of Elizabeth. Waylan in the meantime remained completely impassive, even returning to eating at some point.

    ¡°What else brings someone as important as you to us?¡± Elizabeth asked. And it was strange. Something was definitely off, Irwyn knew that much already. He just wasn¡¯t sure what or whether to do something about it right away.

    ¡°When do you intend to leave?¡± Goldenlocks asked.

    ¡°Today or tomorrow, depending on if something catches my eye,¡± Elizabeth said, much more honestly than before.

    ¡°Stay for a while longer,¡± the Chosen said. ¡°A week, at least.¡±

    ¡°Very well,¡± Elizabeth surprisingly agreed without a pause. Irwyn stopped himself from showing his bafflement. ¡°It will be an honor.¡±

    ¡°That will be all then,¡± Goldenlocks nodded, glancing at her bowl of food - soup of some kind. She placed a hand over it and the meal immediately disappeared, leaving an empty dish. She then stood up and her demeanor shifted, back much more friendly than commanding. ¡°You truly are a fascinating companion-hood. I may be rather busy but I will surely find time to visit again.¡±

    ¡°We shall look forward to it,¡± Elizabeth agreed as the Chosen and Asemo departed, the librarian never saying a word.

    ¡°See you around,¡± Alice waved with a smile. She meant it as far as Irwyn could tell and that was strange. The woman had been terribly rude to say the least. His eyes wandered to Waylan but he did not seem angry in any way either. Lastly, he looked at Elizabeth and she seemed controlled. In a way he knew she would when very intently trying to not appear angry. Basically right after the double doors closed behind the departing pair, Elizabeth erected a veil for privacy.

    ¡°I am pleasantly surprised you agreed,¡± Alice said the moment it was erected.

    ¡°Why pleasantly?¡± Elizabeth asked, and she finally seemed outright angry. A contained fury she must have been hiding. And the facade was slipping.

    ¡°Well¡­ the city is nice, I guess?¡± the Time mage frowned, unsure.

    ¡°My manipulation safeguards have been triggered,¡± Elizabeth slowly articulated. ¡°That glorified messenger tried to affect our minds. Somewhat succeeded even, with you.¡±

    ¡°Fuck,¡± Waylan cursed, ¡°How bad?¡±

    ¡°The way she had been acting for one,¡± Elizabeth snarled. ¡°What do you remember? In general.¡±

    ¡°A pleasant chat,¡± Alice said.

    ¡°Same,¡± Waylan nodded.

    ¡°A rude borderline interrogation,¡± Irwyn shared a different perspective.

    ¡°She shifted your perceptions, blurred the exact words a bit, and instead let them be replaced by a positive impression,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°If you try, you will likely realize you cannot really recall some of the actual words she had said. Subtle, yet also incredibly crude.¡±

    ¡°I was not affected then?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°Neither was I,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°You are just extraordinarily resistant because of your potent Soul. I have powerful protections meant to save me from domain wielding Liches attempting such, even deceive them. They whispered to me what she was trying to inflict and helped in making her believe that I actually was affected. And the method itself was¡­ strange. Normally, a mind mage would try to read your thoughts while more-or-less directly inserting or modifying some of what they can ¡®see¡¯¡­ but there was none of that aspect. She was not actually perceiving even surface thoughts in any way.¡±

    ¡°Strangeness of a miracle,¡± Irwyn hypothesized. ¡°Just like Alice had seen with the crate. That had been a domain in theory but used inefficiently and with strange limitations. Miracles seem to act that way from what we have seen.¡±

    ¡°We will need protections,¡± Alice said, and was clearly unnerved.

    ¡°The bitch will realize we are faking,¡± Waylan opined. ¡°Even if she doesn¡¯t sneak a fucking peak into the skull.¡±

    ¡°I have solutions,¡± Elizabeth began to take out items. A pair of armbands, and then three others. All five were rather nondescript, simple in design, crafted from what seemed like leather. The biggest difference was that the pair appeared a bit darker than the other three. ¡°This will protect your mind. Should be more than enough for this level of power. However, once triggered it will only last three days. The other will disguise your thoughts, making it seem like you are affected by hostile manipulations if her manipulation returns any feedback. That one lasts indefinitely - only wearing down with active use - but it doesn¡¯t offer any protections by itself. So, it¡¯s rather useless unless you can otherwise resist the domination itself. Not as comprehensive as my own but it will do."

    ¡°Will need long sleeves to hide them under,¡± Waylan grumbled. ¡°Thanks.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Alice nodded, taking her own two. Irwyn also quickly retrieved just the one meant to deceive manipulators, putting it on his wrist.

    ¡°She was focused on me so that I would adjust our schedule. Since my protections are more advanced I was able to act out being affected convincingly enough. That should earn us some respite from suspicion.¡±

    ¡°Why even bother making you agree?¡± Waylan asked. ¡°If she can do this, why not just grab us to brainwash in a chamber somewhere?¡±

    ¡°The mind becomes more resistant to manipulation with stress and hostility, but also with other dominations being performed,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°In short, they cannot do too much at once because it becomes progressively less effective. And they want us relaxed and happy because that also makes things easier. It is not an uncommon methodology even in the Federation - though hardly the only one.¡±

    ¡°This is still a crisis,¡± Irwyn worriedly said. ¡°If they are willing to resort to this kind of mind magic, they are determined and not having any qualms. This is not over. I also had another experience¡­¡±

    Irwyn elaborated on his issue with being completely unable to read Goldenlock¡¯s expression. The group quickly pooled knowledge for a probable cause.

    ¡°I noticed nothing strange in this way,¡± Waylan offered. ¡°But I generally don¡¯t see much and could be just the mind fuckery too.¡±

    ¡°Neither have I,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s word carried much more weight in that. ¡°She seemed completely normal, at least in this way. No manipulation attempted in this direction either.¡±

    ¡°Me three,¡± Alice tried to regain her casual attitude.

    ¡°Earlier, Asemo had falsely convinced us she knew nothing of the Duchy of Black and you did not so much as suspect anything,¡± Elizabeth recalled. ¡°Unusual. What if that too had been a divine blessing? Though I am not sure why it would only affect Irwyn but unique reactions are surprisingly common with you.¡±

    ¡°Is lying associated with Prosperity?¡± Alice questioned. ¡°The goddess of wealth, industry, and distorted facts?¡±

    ¡°No, reframe it,¡± Irwyn realized. ¡°It¡¯s not lying. It¡¯s advancing economic interests through any means necessary, deception included. It makes sense that way.¡±Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    ¡°And if it is something even Asemo can request covertly, of course a Chosen can have such an effect always enveloping them. Like a permanently maintained enchantment or shield,¡± Elizabeth surmised. ¡°She is a manipulator and diplomat, for politics is the foundation on which you can build great economies.¡±

    ¡°We should focus on unfucking ourselves,¡± Waylan reminded. ¡°We cannot run, can we?¡±

    ¡°They will keep an eye out for us now,¡± Alice shook her head. ¡°Without a head start either Prosperity or the Skyhunter will definitely have some kind of trick to catch up no matter how hard me or Irwyn push for speed. Then we are stuck fighting a being that might be able to tap into a domain, even if delegated. That is hopeless.¡±

    ¡°What do we do then?¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°Goldenlocks will clearly not take no for an answer and even with the best protections she will eventually realize that something is off.¡±

    ¡°There is only a single option,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°We will have to kill her.¡±

    ¡°I thought the point was to not fight any Chosen,¡± Irwyn reminded. ¡°I agree with Alice: Even if the Gods cannot use genuine domain magic through them, just concepts would destroy us.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that is true,¡± Elizabeth nodded, not disagreeing. ¡°If they are ready, that is. We need to keep sight of the nature of the prey¡¯s power rather than magnitude. It is not hers. The Chosen are just vessels for these gods, glorified messengers as I said. All their power comes from the deity.¡±

    ¡°Which seems is a lot of fucking power,¡± Waylan grunted.

    ¡°Relatively,¡± Elizabeth corrected. ¡°And, much more importantly, conditionally. I would wager there to be a reason these gods have a select few Chosen rather than bestowing their greatest boons to whichever believer is closest to an issue they want solved. Firstly, they almost certainly need to alter the mortal body to even accept this kind of power - which must take time. And secondly, the gods must have a limited attention span.¡±

    ¡°A regular domain mage can do unbelievable amount of multitasking,¡± Alice pointed out.

    ¡°But these gods need to split themselves ten thousand ways in every moment,¡± Irwyn figured out where Elizabeth was going. ¡°Hear all the prayers and decide which should be answered, then they need to perform the miracles themselves which would require effort. One spell with one intention is easy but I would not be able to cast ten thousand, especially not if each was different and I had to simultaneously listen to the description of what each of them needed to do. The gods operate on an even far larger scale. Prosperity controls several cities like this one.¡±

    ¡°Yes, attention,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Goldenlocks is a manipulator, not a warrior. She is vulnerable when her god is not watching. More than mortal¡­ but fragile enough to be killed even by us.¡±

    ¡°When Prosperity isn¡¯t paying attention,¡± Alice sighed. ¡°Which probably isn¡¯t often. There are not that many Chosen so she can spare a little focus for them, possibly at all times.¡±

    ¡°We will need both Goldenlocks and Prosperity to drop their guard,¡± Elizabeth agreed. ¡°It is not impossible. Complacency, false sense of security, certainty that we are all being affected by the mental effects¡­ I don¡¯t know when but there will be a moment.¡±

    ¡°How do we decide when that is though,¡± Irwyn questioned. ¡°It might pass before we can communicate.¡±

    ¡°I will see it. Perhaps it might be just a single second but that is long enough to replace a head with a hole of Void magic,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°All three of you will act casually and not even try to force anything, no matter how good of an opportunity you think you see. I am the fastest and thus best suited to deliver one lethal blow - not to mention trained to a certain degree in this. Once that happens Irwyn should incinerate the body to ash just in case but the initial attack will be mine.¡±

    ¡°And I thought my criminal days were gone, eh,¡± Waylan also grinned, though a bit crookedly. ¡°From thief to assassin.¡±

    ¡°More of an assistant,¡± Alice chided.

    ¡°When it happens we will have to flee,¡± Irwyn said. Alice had just outlined the issues with that. ¡°Can we?¡±

    ¡°Hardly any other choice,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°But there is an advantage for us to grasp: The ones doing the pursuit will be the Skyhunter¡¯s followers - they are the warriors. That means they will first need to learn of the other Chosen¡¯s death from their allies. How long will that take? If the timing is right, several minutes might elapse before a leader¡¯s death properly trickles down and the assailants are identified. By the time anyone takes off after us we will hopefully be over the horizon.¡±

    ¡°I can push myself for speed,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°But it will be incredibly conspicuous if we just fly off from the top of the mountain. Half the city will spot us just by looking in front of them. Betting no one can see through your veils with these miracles is not odds I like.¡±

    ¡°Could you teleport the four of us to the foot of the mountain?¡± Elizabeth turned to Alice.

    ¡°Hmm, it¡¯s not easy,¡± Alice carefully nodded. ¡°But if I am ready for it, it¡¯s completely possible. I will have to keep most of the calculations and coordinates in my thoughts¡­ Ugh, for however long we end up staying here, maybe whole days. That will be a headache but I can do it.¡±

    ¡°I could sneak into whatever communication center they have and sabotage it,¡± Waylan took the initiative. ¡°Though timing it might be rough.¡±

    ¡°Do we have magical bombs?¡± Irwyn suggested.

    ¡°Of course,¡± Elizabeth nodded and took out a few after thinking for a few seconds. Apparently, she had thought of stockpiling those before leaving. ¡°These are not particularly strong¡­ but we are looking to cause mass confusion, it will be enough for that. I will be able to manually trigger them from afar when the Chosen dies. Good thinking.¡±

    ¡°I will be figuring out where I should even put them then,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Please, don¡¯t blow me up.¡±

    ¡°Try to finish most of it throughout today,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°I think the earliest opportunity might be at breakfast tomorrow if the Chosen shows up again. Probably return here for the night and stay for a shared last meal.¡±

    ¡°We have a plan for after,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°What do we do until then?¡±

    ¡°Well, what else but to play the role of excited tourists?¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s not allow a little premeditated murder to distract us from the sights, right?¡±

    <hr>

    Asemo was waiting for them outside, inquiring what they might want to do. Elizabeth suggested they should visit a market of some kind - she also sought to exchange a chunk of gold for local currency and hoped the librarian would help her find a favorable ratio. The way down was rather long without the elevators but they eventually reached the large market they had seen not far above the inner gates at the mountain¡¯s foot. Elizabeth made Asemo accompany her to a jeweler while the other three were left to wander the market.

    ¡°I am off,¡± Waylan nodded when they were safely away from the librarian.

    ¡°See ya,¡± Alice waved.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get caught,¡± Irwyn half-jested with a smile. Then the sneak was off, leaving him and Alice to look around the stands.

    It was nothing exceptional, just a particularly large terrace where seemingly anyone could set up a stand and offer their goods. And the guards, of course, which were around every corner. Though the two of them did actually wander around a good chunk of the place, neither of the pair found anything that caught interest - basically nothing was enchanted in any way that a mage could feel. The ¡®charms¡¯ appeared as sheer superstition.

    ¡°Where has Waylan gone?¡± Asemo asked when she eventually returned. Irwyn¡­ thought she was frowning but wasn¡¯t sure. He noted that - it felt a bit like what Goldenlocks had done to make her expression unreadable. Perhaps he could learn to at least notice it better.

    ¡°Probably caught a sight to his fancy,¡± Irwyn feigned sighing, a bit of prank coming to mind in the moment. ¡°It might not appear as such but Waylan can be rather¡­ prolific. It would behoove the local laborers to hide their daughters - if they still can.¡±

    ¡°Or sons,¡± Alice jested, barely suppressing a laugh. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t believe how often people forget that part.¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t want him to stumble into trouble,¡± Asemo said, surprise once again apparent on her face.

    ¡°Waylan can perform his habits with discretion,¡± Elizabeth played along with a deadpan expression. ¡°He knows not to reach too high and will either stumble onto us again or we will see him in the evening. Now then, I think you meant to bring us to this ¡®Promenade¡¯ yesterday. Is the elevator fixed yet?¡±

    <hr>

    The Promenade was a thin walkway sort of in between floors, a few people walking alongside it in scattered lines. Although only wide enough for two people to pass by each other, the special thing about it lay on the edges and beyond them. Namely, colored and stained glass enveloped it from all directions.

    And it was not just glass. Although the color cast interesting shade onto the walkways, what gave it life were the sights. It was see-through, yes, so you could behold the city beneath the mountain below - toned by the glass¡¯ shades - but there was more. The glass did not change colors but as a person walked alongside, it created an illusion of shifting with the steps. And when he looked into the distance, images appeared on the glass, overlaying the real world in a way that made the images in them truly appear as if they were happening in a far reach of the desert.

    Mighty trees as large as mountains appeared, gently swaying in the wind. Then two great dragons, red and amber - both wounded already and seeming as if they were both about to pounce. Then a grassland filled with fields from horizon to horizon. Scenery by scenery. Every few steps the sights would completely change.

    ¡°Images,¡± Elizabeth commented and that was a problem. Irwyn remembered seeing that dragon-god fly over Ebon Respite. How could a faraway image compare to that? Especially when he knew it was not true. It was so still, barely creating an illusion of shuffling in place. It was not a bad view¡­ but Irwyn could not bring himself to be impressed for all it was cleverly built.

    They walked to the end and by then Asemo seemed to be the most excited of them three. They politely pretended it had lived up to her up-playing and then moved on. Asemo dragged them to a variety of tourist sites for half a day, none of which even surpassed the Promenade in Irwyn¡¯s eyes. Then the librarian brought them to a restaurant of some kind - whatever those were called locally. The food was very good at least. Afterward, they spent most of the afternoon in the library again.

    Waylan made it back to the Cradle first even though they bit Asemo goodbye long before sundown. At least the four of them could relax in privacy with the built-in game rooms.

    <hr>

    Then it was once again the morning and their group went down to the dinning hall for breakfast. Though Irwyn had little appetite, he still chose a plate and reluctantly picked at it as he sat down. Waylan looked much like him - serene outwardly but a barely touched plate betraying nerves. Alice seemed to be on the verge of shaking¡­ every minute or so for about a second the ring appeared on her finger as she allowed the nervousness to drain into it. A convenient trick to get around her poor poker face. Elizabeth ate with gusto, seemingly not even worried.

    Goldilocks and Asemo returned as Elizabeth had predicted. The Chosen once again sat close to them and spoke, mainly with the Blackburg heiress. Irwyn kept track of the conversation but it was mostly pointless, inane words about the sights and greatness of the city. Blatantly just a background noise for the mind manipulation. He felt like a rock was in his stomach, wondering every moment: When? The conversation carried on for a few minutes, then Goldenlocks bid them goodbye and left much like the day before - except this time she had not even bothered pretending to eat a meal.

    Then the Chosen was out of the door and it became clear it would not be the day. Or at least not the morning. He glanced at Elizabeth and she pretended not to notice. That had a meaning of its own: To carry on as things were and trust that an opportunity would come.

    <hr>

    It was harder for Waylan inconspicuously to slip away with Asemo more careful about it. He could do it but the one thing about himself that could not be hidden was the absence itself. The librarian had decided to bring the lot of them around the city¡¯s various associations - basically guilds with a different name. They had already seen the concoctors, but naturally there would be more.

    Scribe¡¯s association was first, it was basically a semi-independent subsidiary of the librarians - apparently, it was one human per library to actually hold the title of a Librarian and the city had just three. The third was much more public, placed not very high up and notably larger. It contained mostly stories, plays, and such. Entertainment and some educational supplies for people just learning literacy - though Asemo had insisted that bringing them would be ¡®rude¡¯ when they asked to see. The first was a library of ¡®secrets¡¯, as was its location. Asemo''s second was somewhere in between - not quite public but hardly inaccessible to those well connected.

    They visited many other places afterward¡­ to the point Irwyn had frankly lost interest. It was a bit too much information about a city he was mostly thinking about leaving as soon as possible. There was a benefit to it though: Waylan did not actually need to disappear, he was already right in the buildings where he wanted to be, even receiving a tour. Slipping away for a few moments was easy enough to do without rousing suspicions about him.

    Lunch was good again, then they were forced to endure yet more pointless tours, this time more focused on the Skyhunter¡¯s followers. A lot of similar military groups, basically barely distinguished from one another by a quirk like favored weapons or such. Some were better trained than others sure, but they were all mortal men with maybe a small blessing on their call among those higher up, but not enough to make them seem that dangerous.

    Besides the Chosen, of course. If there was one fruitful happening throughout the day, it was that they learned about the Skyhunter¡¯s Chosen. The only other in the City of Terraces. His name was Trapper - rather self-explanatory - which made Waylan extra careful when leaving behind Elizabeth¡¯s little explosives around their compounds. It did bode well for their plan at least - someone named Pursuer would have been much better suited to catching up to their planned escape.

    They returned to Wind¡¯s Cradle for the night, the building¡¯s song almost mocking to Irwyn¡¯s ears.

    <hr>

    In the morning Goldenlocks arrived again, making it seem like this would become routine. She did not even bother bringing Asemo along anymore. The last Time Elizabeth had seen no opportunity so Irwyn was still uncertain whether that would change. He remained ready. The Chosen spoke for a while and then suddenly paused. Irwyn could not read her expression still but it shifted.

    ¡°I apologize but it seems that I will have to take my leave sooner today,¡± she spoke. ¡°My Kin in the City of Glass has just been murdered. It will¡­¡±

    It was at that exact moment that a black knife sprung from the Chosen¡¯s throat, going straight through. Irwyn was not completely sure why Elizabeth had attacked from behind but the spell had been so subtle that he had not felt even a smidgen of mana so perhaps it was for the line of sight. That was not something to dwell on though, they needed to move fast.

    As per their plan, Irwyn incinerated the body in the blink of an eye, his flames so hot not even smell escaped burning. Alice was still reeling but she would soon get her composure back to cast her teleportation spell. Everything was going according to plan in that regard. Then, of course, Elizabeth said something that threw all those expectations into disarray again:

    ¡°That wasn¡¯t me!¡± she gaped; eyes wide in surprise.

 4.10 Down we fled

    The Dark Blade stalked around the room, yet unnoticed by the Vein. She was talking with four Bystanders which the Blade ignored. Instead, all of its focus was on remaining hidden as close as it was to its unsuspecting foe. Undoubtedly, the Hated would be watching near its favored vessel but each had to divide their attention innumerable ways. The Hand though only held so many Dark Blades like it. The Hand did not appease supplicants, for it thrived not on worship but on fear of the Purpose.

    The Dark Blade did not breathe for it would be too audible. The Dark Blade¡¯s heart did not beat for it would only distract from its charge. The Dark Blade did not recognize pain nor dread for those would make it less wieldable. It just waited, uncaring if it were to be forever nor for its own death. That was the pact every Dark Blade had made.

    Abandon everything. In return, the Hand would wield them to fulfill the Purpose. The Hated would die. The Dark Blade did not remember why it had once thought it worthwhile to spend its mortal life for such a goal but that no longer mattered. It was one with the Hand, an extension of it. And thus, it was defined by the Purpose. The death of all gods, including itself. A paradox. Yet the Hand did not care if its existence was paradoxical - such worries were secondary to the Purpose. And it was about to be advanced.

    The Dark Blade was not privy to the work of its brothers but it could observe the effects. It felt the moment that the Vein with golden hair learned of the death of its own kin and spoke in the same breath. When the Hated flinched from pain and stopped paying attention here for less than a second as it assessed the events elsewhere. Then the Hand tugged it forward and the Dark Blade struck, weaving the hundred thousand miracles infused throughout its being into a single moment.

    No preservation mattered to it, for if a Dark Blade perished slaying the Vein it would be acceptable. No care for secrecy mattered, for if it was exposed it would still serve the Hand¡¯s purpose. No mercy mattered, for it long had none.

    The ebony blade pierced through the throat of the Vein the same second it had been created from naught. The soul was snuffed out in an instant and a small part of the Dark Blade cherished the agonized scream of a promised paradise denied - if distantly. That was easy enough. But she had been only a Vein, and the Hated was the heart. So, from its edge, the poison seeped in. Like in the mortal body, it coursed through the chipped Vein and into every organ.

    For half a second, it kept the weapon there, festering, spewing ever more venom, until the Hated realized what was happening and withdrew all of her blessings. Half a second so indirectly was not enough to kill the Hated, even with the Hand pouring all of its power into the act¡­ but three instances? Perhaps five? It would not kill, but was going to weaken them. Perhaps enough for the Hand to strangle them personally. The Dark Blade only knew it had happened before, not what the Hand itself intended. Too much knowledge could be a liability within its fallible mind.

    It withdrew back into impresence, noting its own hand twitching. It looked down to see it fester and rot, unable to withstand all the putrid power that had coursed through it. Quickly, the Dark Blade severed the useless limb at the shoulder, letting it plummet into the infinite nothing on the edges of where it hid. The Hand questioned whether the Blade would die from the toxins in its blood. The Dark Blade judged its state and decided that not yet. Thus, it could focus on the rest of the room.

    The four Bystanders barely gave it pause. Humans were irrelevant but the Hand preferred witnesses. Knowledge granted it power. The more people learned, the better. But their presence still could present an opportunity for denying the Hated their fateful. Thus the Dark Blade began to access them¡­ just in time to see a surge of fire devour the just slain Chosen, reducing her past ash and into smidgens of vapor.

    It recognized them then, when it saw as much. The Anomalies. Bystanders were irrelevant. Humans did not possess power, only Veins did. Yet those four were humans with powers. They had stopped the Dark Blade from arranging an accident for the returning librarian. Honing crossed its mind but none it had ever seen possessed such power. Unsure how to proceed, it requested the Hand¡¯s wisdom. It pleaded for higher judgement. The Dark Blade shared the memory of the moments when the Hand had not held it so tightly, then the Hand looked at the four itself.

    The tattooed boy should be spared. He was not dangerous and likely to assist the Purpose. The girl with a ring should die, for the ring was Hated yet different - thus should rather than need. The other boy was too bright for the Hand to look and judge, the unknown might be dangerous. Better to avoid him and pursue the Purpose.

    The Hand looked at the last girl and flinched.

    For the first time since its pact, the Dark Blade remembered fear. It looked at the girl and saw a resemblance. Much like it shared memories with the Hand, a memory slipped to the Dark Blade from the other side. From before the Hand was a Hated. From when it was merely a tool without a proper name, abandoned by a creator who did not care for its fate. The Dark Blade witnessed a man in all black, a frown of anger on his brow. The same insignia as on the terrifying girl wore adorned his chest as he spoke words long forgotten. His rage was not intense. It was not an all-consuming desire for vengeance, no. A passing anger that would be acted upon and forgotten afterward. It was the Wrath of a bloodline bearing its Name, invoked over offense given.

    The man uttered four lines and created from nothingness an ebony knife which would slay the very gods for their hubris.

    The man left but the knife remained. It decayed, its power limited even as it slaughtered one deity after another. It did not yet think so it did not understand that its rampage would inevitably end, it merely perpetuated its original commands. And people learned of it. They spoke in hushed whispers of divine carcasses and heavens rend by cuts blacker than the night. And so, it began to change.

    For, one day, their fears - spoken not unlike prayers - gave the knife a new life.

    The knife deluded itself into becoming the Hand as that was what its worshippers thought it had to be - for how could there be a blade unwielded after all? Its existence was contrary to itself but it never cared - those who trusted in it did not either. Everyone believed that the Hand and its Dark Blades slew gods, so they did. As any god would, the Hand answered those homogenous prayers and blind belief.

    The Black Blade gasped, shuddering. Fearing, hurting, doubting, confused¡­ then the Hand grasped it tighter again and cut away such distracting thoughts and memories in an instant. The Dark Blade would not quarrel with the four nor think about them. It did not question the Hand¡¯s judgment. Instead, it left the building. Whether to flee or to bury deeper and look for yet more opportunities, it could not yet know. The only certainty was the Purpose.

    <hr>

    They huddled together after Elizabeth¡¯s exclamation, expecting another attack to aim for them. Irwyn doubled then redoubled his barriers around himself and Waylan, then layered another two around all four. He was not confident that would be enough.

    ¡°We cannot stay here!¡± Waylan yelled after the shock wore off, ¡°Don¡¯t care who killed the bitch, we gotta carry on as if we did!¡±

    ¡°He is right, Alice,¡± Elizabeth turned to their Time mage who also seemed to have gathered her wits for the most part.

    ¡°On it!¡± she nodded. ¡°In a circle, hold hands! And don¡¯t resist it!¡±

    Irwyn was fully focused on spotting the assassin, as Elizabeth seemed to be. Waylan was mostly standing around, unable to do much. Yet not a sign of the assailant appeared. That only made all of them tenser, watching for something they would never see coming and hoping it could be stopped. Alice took only a moment before she began to chant:

    ¡°

    Just or not: A question of power,

    be it a mountain or a tower.

    With the Chosen dead,

    Down we fled

    ¡±

    Then the mana began to flood into him. He recognized it to be Alice¡¯s and allowed it to, suppressing every instinct screaming to reject the foreign magic. There was no time for portals, those were too dangerous. Instead, Alice filled each of their bodies with her mana down to the last cell. Intrusive and dangerous ¨C and very noticeable when done by someone not far from Irwyn in power. If she wanted to, she likely could have torn the rest of them into shreds from within in a split second.

    Instead, Irwyn blinked and found their group standing outside the outer city walls. Not by the gates - that would be much more noticeable - but rather by an empty stretch of a wall, already a good way from the mountain¡¯s foot. Irwyn quickly made platforms of Light or Flame beneath their feet, then encased said legs just in case. Alice was still gasping after her spell when he began to drag them ahead with all the speed Irwyn could manage.

    Then the entire city shook. The sand beneath them shifted in a way that would likely make them stumble had they still been standing on it. Looking behind, Irwyn spotted the gaping holes on the city¡¯s cliffsides - the craters were literally distinct from where they stood at the ground level. Entire structures had been blown wide open. Fires were flickering with a crimson sheen while one entire terrace was in the middle of collapsing.

    ¡°I thought those were small bombs!?¡± Irwyn gaped as they flew ahead as fast as his magic could manage.

    ¡°They are!¡± Elizabeth shot back, needing to yell to be heard over the wind. Realizing that, Irwyn also quickly improvised a windbreaker of sorts ahead of them with another pane of Light.

    ¡°How is that small?!¡± Waylan took Irwyn¡¯s side. ¡°It destroyed entire buildings!¡±

    ¡°How is it not?¡± she seemed to be similarly confused. ¡°It destroyed only buildings.¡±

    ¡°I think I would call destroying buildings ¡®medium¡¯,¡± Alice chimed in, recovering somewhat by then. She still seemed a bit out of breath.

    ¡°Medium affects a tactically relevant area!¡± Elizabeth defended her stance despite the steep odds. ¡°Small works against clusters of foes. Anything smaller is anti-personnel. That is official doctrine!¡±

    ¡°We are not fighting an army here, are we?¡± Irwyn shook his head in exasperation.

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t warrant a change in vocabulary!¡± Elizabeth still insisted.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    ¡°No one coming after us yet,¡± Waylan interrupted. ¡°But I don¡¯t see the best.¡±

    ¡°I am on it,¡± Alice confirmed. They were rapidly gaining distance, though the mountain was still far from the horizon. It was tall. ¡°People are swarming about but no one in pursuit at the moment.¡±

    ¡°It will take several minutes to be over the horizon,¡± Elizabeth frowned. ¡°Any ideas on how to speed up? More intensions perhaps?¡±

    ¡°Already using intentions,¡± Irwyn shook his head. All six he could think of. Speed, Haste, Frictionless, Fast, Hurried, and Rapid. ¡°This is as fast as physically moving something will get us.¡±

    ¡°Now that we have a moment, what was that with the killer?¡± Waylan spoke up. ¡°Who?¡±

    ¡°No idea,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Perhaps some kind of inter-city conflict? Theocratic city states will have rivalries, maybe another god is thinking of starting a war? Hard to guess.¡±

    ¡°Someone went snooping instead of researching other gods so we cannot know,¡± Irwyn said with a slight smile.

    ¡°We will still get all the blame for the murder,¡± Waylan did not rise to the bait and instead spat to the side. Irwyn made sure the platform extended there and catch the phlegm so that Waylan would be left staring at it for the foreseeable future.

    ¡°Not necessarily a bad thing,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°We will have to change which way we go but there are cities which will celebrate us for it.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s not get them so celebratory as to try and recruit us with clubs again, eh?¡± Waylan chuckled grimly.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± Alice suddenly cursed. ¡°Someone just flew out of the city, from the upper military districts.¡±

    ¡°How fast?¡± Elizabeth immediately inquired.

    ¡°Gaining speed quickly,¡± Alice stared back. ¡°Not good, already faster than us I think, definitely heading this way!¡±

    ¡°The ¡®Trapper¡¯ then,¡± Elizabeth murmured also staring back. But to her and Irwyn the figure was a barely discernible dot. Almost unnoticeable without Alice¡¯s warning ¨C for the moment at least.

    ¡°What are the odds they give up if we get far enough?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°Not great if they think we are the assassins,¡± Waylan cursed. ¡°Got any ¡®large¡¯ explosives to keep them off us?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t carry around strategic weapons!¡± Elizabeth denied. ¡°Do you have any idea how hard they are to store?¡±

    ¡°Fuck, I bet good money you did,¡± Waylan managed to find humor in the situation. ¡°How do we unshit our pants then?¡±

    ¡°We have less than three minutes at this pace,¡± Alice urged, eerily calm all of a sudden, likely due to the ring though Irwyn did not see it on her finger.

    ¡°I cannot go faster,¡± Irwyn shook his head. ¡°Maybe a sandstorm? Can we lose them in it if we manufacture one?¡±

    ¡°Assuming they cannot just clear the skies with a thought,¡± Waylan said. ¡°I am pretty sure I overheard the Trapper can do that. Sky is a bad place to challenge the damn-god Skyhunter.¡±

    ¡°Wait!¡± Alice suddenly seemed to have an idea. She pointed at a large dune a good distance ahead of them. ¡°Over there! Land us there!¡±

    ¡°I hope you¡­¡± Irwyn started

    ¡°There is a cave beneath!¡± Alice explained. ¡°About 15 meters deep!¡±

    ¡°Can you teleport us?¡± Elizabeth immediately grasped.

    ¡°No, the space is too tight,¡± Alice denied. ¡°But if we can dig down a bit there will be a bigger cavern close enough for me to perceive. There is an expansive cavern system under the desert! Our best chance that something big enough to fit all of us is near the smaller one I sense!¡±

    ¡°We will get caught in the meantime!¡± Waylan pointed out the obvious issue. By then they were already landing. Elizabeth immediately got digging at a spot Alice was pointing out right beneath the dune, Void magic erased the solid sand at a speed Irwyn did not think he could match, a pit basically manifesting before his eyes. Unable to help with that, Irwyn instead reinforced the sand walls as to not re-fill the rapidly deepening hole.

    ¡°I will force the asshole to slow down!¡± Alice shouted and spun as Irwyn dismissed his platform. The heiress of Steelmire used that moment to teleport a rifle into her hands from her pouch. Or perhaps handheld artillery station would be more accurate.

    The gun, if it could still be defined as such, was roughly shaped like any sniper rifle Irwyn had seen, except upscaled. Just the barrel was longer than Alice was tall at a glance with the rest of the weapon being significantly thicker than any firearm Irwyn had ever beheld. That made the trigger still sized for a hand-fired weapon look almost comical. All of that was also heavily enchanted, layers upon layers of magic too complex to easily decipher. Alice did not need a scope nor a magazine, instead, she immediately took aim and fired within a second of their landing.

    The weapon was, predictably, loud enough to deafen. It was just that Irwyn had failed to make said prediction in time. He was still thankfully maintaining his old reliable ¡®Indestructible Starflesh¡¯ at all times which meant his hearing returned after a few moments. Alice had clearly taken personal precautions and Elizabeth was even more durable than Irwyn, not to mention further away¡­ Waylan was sprawled across the ground, the start of bleeding coming from his ears as he dazedly cursed.

    The bullet itself was too fast to see even as it traveled an incredible distance. The Chosen was still mostly a dark blip against the cloudless sky with the City of Terraces vaguely in the background far away. What was visible was the explosion as the projectile impacted the Trapper just a second after being shot. Way faster than a bullet should fly by any reckoning, not to mention they usually pierced rather than blew up.

    The second shot somehow caught Irwyn completely off-guard, sounding basically at the same moment the first had hit. It was actually much slower than Alice could reload a regular weapon. And she was clearly not about to stop. Which was a bit an issue given Waylan was about to be knocked unconscious just by the overwhelming noise.

    ¡°Wait,¡± Irwyn yelled but Alice obviously could not hear him. So he quickly made a loop of Light around her ankle and tugged slightly.

    ¡°WHAT!?¡± she turned to him in surprise.

    ¡°Waylan!¡± he pointed at the writhing sneak.

    ¡°Oh,¡± she paused. ¡°OH FUCK! Shit, shit, sorry!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think he can hear you!¡± Irwyn turned back. Then he noticed movement in the corner of his eye. Something flying. Towards them.

    He immediately raised as many layers of shields above them as he could in the second he had, simultaneously sending a barrage of Starfire spears to intercept it. The projectile was not half as fast as Alice¡¯s bullets but that still meant it was ludicrously quick. Some of his offensive spells impacted it while others were simply not fast enough to get in the attack¡¯s way, missing the collision course. Then it impacted the shields piercing his layers of defense so fast that it was past them by the time the broken barriers shattered.

    Irwyn barely managed to glimpse it as the attack flew next to them, followed by a sonic boom. Whether it had been diverted by his efforts or merely a bad throw, it impacted the ground at least three meters away from Alice who was the closest. Then it either penetrated very deep into the sand or disintegrated just out of sight from the sheer impact. Irwyn did manage to notice at least what it was: A bone spear.

    ¡°I hit the cave!¡± Elizabeth finally yelled. Alice turned to fire off a last shot while Irwyn dragged Waylan toward the hole. The figure above was still afar and was approaching far more cautiously than how it had rushed before. Alice had achieved her goal of slowing the Chosen down at least, however unlikely it was she had actually hurt them.

    The heiress of Steelmire was the last into the hole which Elizabeth must have dug at least 15 meters deep into the sand in the half a minute or less of what had just happened. Irwyn had become distracted so she had made supports for the loose material herself, though that quickly became unnecessary as she had reached sandstone a few meters in. The cavern Alice had sensed was a very wide-open space which was, however, only about a meter tall, less in some spots. Elizabeth had actually dug past it in her hurried excavation ¨C not stopping just becase she had stumbled into the original target.

    Then Irwyn felt himself once again filled by Alice¡¯s mana, not resisting despite the urge to do so. The scenery shifted in front of his eyes into total blackness. Then, instead of releasing the magic, Alice teleported them again a heartbeat later. Her senses were limited in range when it came to spotting suitable places beneath the ground but that also meant her teleportation itself had no issue keeping up. Like that she executed 11 consecutive transports, ending them up in some kind of small-ish cave with a bit of glowing lichen to their right.

    ¡°We should be well over three hundred meters deep,¡± Alice managed to gasp out, then she fell into a heap, taking quick breaths to stabilize from the clear strain she had just been through. Elizabeth wasted no time erecting a veil of Void magic, much like she would for secrecy, enveloping them in complete darkness again. That should make them much harder to find if the Trapper even tried. Irwyn quickly reversed the blackness by summoning a bit of Light - intentionally with little power as to not disrupt the Void magic around them.

    ¡°It should not be possible to track us this far down,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But best we are careful. I will deploy a few other countermeasures to divination alongside my own magic. We should stay like this for at least a few hours, I am not sure how persistent the Skyhunter might be when pursuing us underground.¡±

    ¡°I think we made it,¡± Irwyn sighed, also falling to his ass. Not from actual exhaustion like Alice but the relief. ¡°It certainly looked bad.¡±

    ¡°You looked composed throughout,¡± Elizabeth smiled.

    ¡°I got used to being calm under pressure,¡± Irwyn sighed. ¡°You did great too. Waylan needs help though.¡± his friend was still unconscious, bleeding from his ears. That immediately reignited Irwyn¡¯s worry.

    ¡°I had grafting potions prepared for all of us before we left the Federation,¡± Elizabeth nodded, withdrawing one, then handing it to Irwyn for administration. ¡°And other things in that regard. It would be stupid to leave without sufficient healing since none of us can provide that.¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t those incredibly expensive and difficult to make?¡± Irwyn asked as he poured it down Waylan¡¯s throat, moving his head to help his catatonic friend swallow.

    ¡°The main difficulty is that each needs to be custom-made for the person as to not induce rejection of the recovered flesh,¡± she shook her head. ¡°Since I was not keeping up any pretenses at that point, it was not difficult to get a stockpile in advance for each of us.¡±

    ¡°Do you have anything for an empty Vessel behind the counter,¡± Alice gasped from the ground beside them. She was still breathing heavy and clutching her head with one hand.

    ¡°For a pinch but the crisis has passed,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°Recovering by yourself will help to empower your Vessel compared to relying on liquid mana.¡±

    ¡°The migraine is killing me,¡± she muttered

    ¡°I would hope not,¡± Irwyn feigned worry in his voice.

    ¡°You know what I mean,¡± she sighed, slowly sitting up. ¡°How is Waylan?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think he is bleeding anymore,¡± Irwyn noted.

    ¡°Fuck, I will have to make it up to him,¡± she glanced at the unconscious sneak guilty. ¡°I should have realized the sound would be too much for him.¡±

    ¡°It was a crisis, he will understand,¡± Irwyn assured. ¡°Just don¡¯t make the same mistake twice.¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t,¡± she nodded with severity.

    The conversation turned lighter from there, the three of them talked for half an hour before Waylan came to. The sneak seemed mostly fine thanks to the potion, barely even shaken. Like Irwyn, he had also gone through many stressful pursuits in Ebon Respite and took it completely in stride. The nap might have helped, forceful or not. Afterward they spent four and a half more hours sitting in the small black bubble before Alice needed to use the metaphorical restroom and Elizabeth decided they had hidden long enough. Once again Irwyn looked around the cave with softly luminescent lichen, then re-summoned a proper source of Light. There did not seem to be much else around them though.

    ¡°There is a massive cavern twenty meters to the right,¡± Alice said. ¡°So large I cannot feel any of the other edges. Water, maybe even some flora and fauna shuffling around. My perception is not the best with that level of detail. A lot of large stalagmites too.¡±

    ¡°Stalag what?¡± Waylan asked

    ¡°Stalagmites, rock formations pointing up from the ground ¨C generally accumulating over long periods of time from minerally rich water,¡± Irwyn immediately explained. Random trivia from the recesses of his mind struck again. ¡°As opposite to stalactites which sprout from a ceiling but are formed similarly.¡±

    ¡°Stalac-tits,¡± Waylan snickered. Irwyn suppressed a groan. ¡°They even hang down from age.¡±

    ¡°No point staying here,¡± Elizabeth said with amusement and Alice quickly grabbed them all with her magic. It was much easier to stifle the urge to resist the dozenth or so time. A moment later, they stood in the cavern.

    ¡°Uhm, curious color for rocks,¡± Waylan was the first to speak, looking in front of them. ¡°And shapes.¡±

    ¡°Ah shut it,¡± Alice had been gaping but got woken from it by Waylan¡¯s jab. ¡°It¡¯s roughly shaped like stalagmites!¡±

    ¡°They are not though,¡± Elizabeth joined in. "Unless rocks can grow into wood now?"

    ¡°This was like pulling a bucket from a well and assuming it will be filled with water rather than alcohol! How is that my fault?¡±

    ¡°Why are there trees?¡± Irwyn asked the question all of them were really thinking.

    And more than just trees. They had not stepped into a cave hundreds of meters beneath the ground. They have stumbled upon an actual jungle.

 4.11 Caving

    ¡°Do we try to explore or just¡­ leave?¡± Irwyn spoke out loud, unsure what was the better option. ¡°We might get lost.¡±

    ¡°All we really need to do is keep heading North,¡± Elizabeth said.

    ¡°Good luck with that underground,¡± Waylan tossed his two cents.

    ¡°It¡¯s that way,¡± only for Alice to shove them back up his throat with a smile. She pointed to their right. ¡°What? Feeling the exact North is not even that advanced magic.¡±

    ¡°On a second look, this wall is strangely even,¡± Irwyn followed her hand with his eyes.

    Looking to their right, there was a gap between the wall and the jungle itself spanning a few meters where the rock turned progressively more to soil. What was stranger was that the cavern wall - if it could even be called that - seemed to have no distinct bends, continuing straight into the distance. Literally all the way into the horizon even though they were underground. In fact, it was not really raw rock at all.

    ¡°This looks like it¡¯s been cut,¡± Elizabeth examined the stone. ¡°Very cleanly as well.¡±

    ¡°And it perfectly aligns with North,¡± Alice reiterated. ¡°That doesn¡¯t look natural.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to meet whatever did it then,¡± Waylan said. ¡°We can¡¯t even see how far it goes!¡±

    ¡°Just because it¡¯s not ¡®natural¡¯ doesn¡¯t necessarily mean it was built by someone,¡± Elizabeth shook her head.

    ¡°How else do you get a perfectly smooth cut of rock following a cardinal direction,¡± Irwyn inquired.

    ¡°The cut could have been made by a Realm mage¡¯s attack - they have tricks to bypass the usual range limitation of Finity in some cases. It is completely normal for such strikes to perfectly follow ¡®North¡¯ as to be empowered based on a specific Domain or even Truth,¡± Elizabeth hypothesized. ¡°With a bit of preservation component ¨C an idea supported by the gap between it and the jungle ¨C this could be the remnant of an attack older than the Federation.¡±

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t preservation magic fade with time?¡± Alice questioned.

    ¡°Not if the preservation is in the rock¡¯s changed composition,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°There are a few places like that in the Federation - completely mundane rock older than written history and immutable to erosion. There are mages that can create completely mana-less materials with incredible properties.¡±

    ¡°What about the whole jungle then?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Could be their enemy from the attack hypothetical. Or something that has settled in later.¡±

    ¡°Or, it¡¯s just something built by someone on purpose,¡± Waylan said, unconvinced.

    ¡°There is a reason I suggest an alternative instead of the ¡®obvious¡¯ option,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°Setting this up would require a domain Realm mage and likely a domain Life mage. And if two such individuals - or the even far rarer person who has reached a domain with a prismatic element - were to settle for a large operation why here? Mana is incredibly scarce in this region, even if that¡¯s a bit better in this area. It¡¯s a terrible spot to make some kind of laboratory or training facility or garden or I don¡¯t know what else it might be.¡±

    ¡°Or it could be that this used to be a facility of some kind which has long been abandoned,¡± Irwyn opined. ¡°Then the jungle settled in over however long.¡±

    ¡°Or that,¡± Elizabeth nodded.

    ¡°How do the trees even survive?¡± Alice questioned. ¡°We are deep underground.¡±

    ¡°Generally water and sunlight that could be sourced somehow,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°But these might be adapted. A Life mage well versed in plants can adapt flora to far worse environments or hasten evolution to mere years rather than the incomprehensible time scale it supposedly happens on naturally.¡±

    ¡°I think that also helps,¡± Irwyn pointed up. The trees were towering, reaching all the way to the ceiling maybe 15 meters above. Into it were imbued spots of yellowish glowing rock at irregular intervals that provided a decent level of illumination for the whole area. Because the trees partially or fully covered some, it was difficult to determine how much of the ceiling was taken up by shining stone. There was something else though. ¡°I feel Starfire from them.¡±

    ¡°So, it might be close enough to regular sunlight then,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°That is a point towards it being a ¡®garden¡¯ but I cannot comprehend why. If a builder went out of their way to make this a proper environment to cultivate foliage this is a horrible place for it.¡±

    ¡°Could really be abandoned,¡± Alice said thoughtfully. ¡°Looks overgrown, right? Might actually be this place used to be much richer in magic ages ago when it was built like Irwyn suggested. Then it was just kind of lost to time. The enchantments all wore off and what remained adapted to that change.¡±

    ¡°Or whoever built it is still here, listening, and snickering about how dumb we are being,¡± Waylan offered.

    ¡°If whoever built this place is still alive and present then there is no point running. Both Realm and Life mages of that caliber are incredibly perceptive to anyone entering their territory,¡± Elizabeth pointed out. ¡°I don¡¯t think I have anything that could stop a proper domain Life mage from tracking us down either.¡±

    ¡°Maybe they won¡¯t bother,¡± Waylan offered.

    ¡°I really don¡¯t think there is any kind of creator here,¡± Elizabeth repeated her earlier opinion.

    ¡°And even if there is, they are not necessarily hostile,¡± Irwyn reminded. ¡°What are our alternatives?¡±

    ¡°Teleporting around random caves with a bit of excavation when there is nothing close,¡± Alice said. ¡°Or just digging a tunnel outright, I guess. I am not even gonna mention going back to the surface until we are far away from that mountain city as an option.¡±

    ¡°Compared to that I think it¡¯s better to just travel North alongside the wall,¡± Irwyn opined. ¡°Though daring the jungle itself feels needlessly dangerous.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think there is any issue in exploring even that,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°But I don¡¯t mind your plan.¡±

    ¡°There is no world in which I sign myself up for teleporting us around for whole hours or days,¡± Alice said with a shudder. ¡°You have my vote.¡±

    ¡°Well, against the record, I will say we should avoid this place altogether,¡± Waylan sighed in defeat.

    ¡°I will carry us again,¡± Irwyn nodded summoning his platforms.

    After some deliberation he gathered them in a line and flew ahead North - him in first spot, then Alice, Waylan, and Elizabeth as the rear guard. They were still close enough to hear and he did not drag them along nearly as fast as he would have in the wide-open desert above. They still traveled multiple times faster than anyone on even horseback might¡­ Irwyn assumed. He had never actually seen someone pushing speed on a steed to compare against.

    The scenery was surprisingly boring and monotonous. Sure, the trees might differ subtly from one another but they were still trees. They still grasped at the ceiling covering much of the sunstone - a good enough improvised name - and though the exact patterns shifted the essence of the sight was unchanging. Occasionally there might be a distant screech of some creature but even those were not particularly common. All they knew was that something lived somewhere in there but their surroundings were generally pretty quiet - that at least set it apart from a regular forest.

    ¡°Wait,¡± Alice suddenly said.

    ¡°What?¡± Irwyn immediately stopped them, looking around for anything amiss.

    ¡°No, I mean¡­ keep going,¡± she shook her head. ¡°At unchanging velocity. There might be something but I need to confirm it.¡±

    Curious enough, Irwyn did as instructed making sure to maintain the exact same speed throughout. A few minutes later Alice exclaimed again: ¡°Yep, I was right.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± Elizabeth inquired.

    ¡°We are going down a very slight slope,¡± Alice announced. ¡°Precise as well. One meter of elevation every two kilometers exactly. That seems intentional.¡±

    ¡°Good to know,¡± Elizabeth acknowledged. ¡°Doesn¡¯t change our thought process.¡± Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    They carried on traveling after that. The tension eventually left even Waylan who seemed the most worried and the group settled into chatting. The jungle and wall to their sides remained unchanging for a long time with nothing ever coming to disrupt them - probably because they were too fast for any local monsters to catch. The first proper anomaly came almost two hours into their travel.

    ¡°Something ahead,¡± Irwyn was the first to spot an object in the distance.

    ¡°A wall,¡± Alice immediately determined before they even got close. ¡°Might be the end? But the rock of it seems a bit different? Not sure from this far.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s get closer,¡± Elizabeth decided as they continued their approach. Soon enough they reached the blockade of jagged rocks. Too jagged even, some reaching so far out of the uneven wall as three meters. The shade of it was also weird, different from the wall to their right.

    ¡°The jungle continues on behind it. It¡¯s¡­ about three meters thick but uneven,¡± Alice announced when they were close enough to have a proper look. ¡°It seems to extend at least over a hundred meters into the jungle itself - I cannot feel precisely enough any further.¡±

    ¡°A point for ¡®manmade¡¯?¡± Waylan cheekily asked.

    ¡°Some kind of divider perhaps,¡± Elizabeth surrendered. ¡°But why like this?¡±

    ¡°Maybe to discourage wildlife from digging?¡± Irwyn suggested. ¡°It almost looks like spikes. Doesn¡¯t feel magical though.¡±

    ¡°That it doesn¡¯t, might just be an expired enchantment,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°I think it¡¯s better to try and dig through it than walk around. It might just fully block off passage from one side to the other.¡±

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Irwyn voiced and the rest did not seem to have a better idea.

    ¡°Just in case, take a step back,¡± Elizabeth commanded, herself stepping to the side to create some distance between them. Then she manifested a thin needle of Void magic in her palm. ¡°Better to probe for a reaction first.¡±

    It flew far faster than any thrown object should, even though Elizabeth went through the motion of it. The Void magic sunk into the wall in the blink of an eye, then mana surged. Not hers. Irwyn barely saw the wall move, one of the jagged rock spikes sprung forward lunging for Elizabeth like a spear. She stepped to the side with inhuman speed, a layer of Void magic gathering over her skin despite the dodge. No follow-up came though. Just that one strike to where she had been standing. The rock spike soon began to retract into the wall, the stone actually flowing closer to elastic wood than solid rock.

    ¡°I still don¡¯t feel the enchantment but I felt the mana,¡± Irwyn said warily as they all stepped a bit further away, vary of another reaction.

    ¡°It¡¯s a golem,¡± Elizabeth determined with confidence.

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t those also break down with time?¡± Alice frowned.

    ¡°Not if it is a proper one with a Soul,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°With a Soul¡­ a golem can be basically immortal, as long living as the material that formed them.¡±

    ¡°And fucking crazy,¡± Waylan shuddered. ¡°Even I know you go bollocks up from being a rock in the middle of nowhere forever.¡±

    ¡°It does not necessarily have the level of sapience to go ¡®mad¡¯,¡± Elizabeth disagreed. ¡°Just because something has a Soul doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s remotely intelligent. I have seen such automatic doors that literally only open and recognize people, no thoughts in between that.¡±

    ¡°Why even are there smart doors?¡± Waylan questioned.

    ¡°I explicitly said they were not actually smart.¡±

    ¡°Compared to other doors,¡± Waylan insisted. ¡°Now say, what else do you rich people make? A latrine that determines if the right ass¡­¡±

    ¡°While this is fascinating,¡± Irwyn interrupted. ¡°I think we need to figure this one out first.¡±

    ¡°Does it have protections against teleportation?¡± Elizabeth asked.

    ¡°None I can just feel¡­ let me test it properly,¡± Alice said, then got down to it.

    First, she teleported a tungsten cube beyond the wall and back. Why she carried one around in her bag, Irwyn had no time to ask as Alice quickly proceeded to her next examination: A vial of red liquid that only looked like blood at first glance. On the second it was clearly not, the color was too red and very slightly translucent. However, teleporting it back and forth made Alice nod with satisfaction. Lastly, she summoned a small portal and slowly pushed her little finger through it. At first just the tip, then all of the expendable appendage.

    ¡°Seems as safe as I can determine,¡± she concluded.

    ¡°Does testing usually involve severed fingers?¡± Irwyn had to ask.

    ¡°It¡¯s the final test for a reason,¡± Alice just rolled her eyes. ¡°In case a trap is set up cleverly enough to not spring with the prior tests. It¡¯s better to lose a fingertip than to be sosaged in that case. Anyway, I will teleport us now. Same as before.¡±

    Once again, Irwyn felt Alice¡¯s mana fill his body. It still felt intrusive on a fundamental level but less jarring than before given the repeated use over the past half day. He blinked and they stood on the other side, wall to the right, jungle to the left. Except something was different. Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°Are you also feeling it?¡± Elizabeth asked.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Irwyn nodded. ¡°Not sure what though.¡±

    ¡°Same,¡± Alice concurred.

    ¡°Me not tree,¡± Waylan jested. ¡°Feels the same. The trees do look different though.¡±

    ¡°What has changed?¡± Irwyn asked glancing over. They seemed pretty same to him.

    ¡°A bit healthier, no?¡± Waylan said. ¡°Leaves greener, bark fuller. Stuff like that.¡±

    ¡°You are right,¡± Alice confirmed. ¡°How did you even notice that? I didn¡¯t, not at a glance.¡±

    ¡°You gotta have an eye for detail, otherwise what¡¯s the point of sneaking somewhere when you miss all the important stuff?¡± Waylan grinned. ¡°Well, Kali would have noticed it from behind the wall, I certainly ain¡¯t her. You can see good but you also need to pay attention.¡±

    ¡°They still seem the same to me,¡± Irwyn frowned, reiterating. ¡°I should have better physical sight than you, Waylan.¡±

    ¡°I also don¡¯t see any difference,¡± Elizabeth added, brows also furrowed. ¡°And the mana is a notch thicker than before we passed the wall.¡±

    ¡°Weird,¡± Waylan shrugged.

    ¡°There has to be a reason,¡± Irwyn certainly wanted to figure it out before they moved further.

    ¡°It could be an Illusion or rather an illusionary influence,¡± Elizabeth suggested after a few moments of thought. ¡°It nudges perception for everything to appear a bit more vibrant. It affects Waylan the most because he is the least resistant while me and Irwyn are immune to it at this level.¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t we still protected?¡± Waylan pointed to his sleeve, underneath which was the Soul shielding armband.

    ¡°Not against Life-based effects. This changes what information your organs physically perceive rather than what your brain and Soul decide to interpret it as. Rather than making you believe things are greener, they make it so that everything seems greener to your eyes, if that makes sense.¡±

    ¡°Kinda,¡± Waylan shrugged. ¡°Don¡¯t need to really understand. Is it dangerous?¡±

    ¡°What would be the point of an effect like this?¡± Alice inquired as well.

    ¡°This might be just a bleed of a damaged spell of some kind - maybe a passive gathering formation if we still assume this place is an old ruin?¡± Elizabeth hypothesized. ¡°I am not too familiar with Life magic but it would make sense. The effects of leaking attuned magic like this are not certain but for example, Void magic can make things harder to perceive, dim lights, lengthen shadows, and such. Flame could make things more flammable or to dry faster.¡±

    ¡°So, leaking Life magic can make things seem more alive,¡± Irwyn saw the logic. ¡°Life is also the closest element to illusions. It does make perfect sense.¡±

    ¡°If the concentration increases the effect will get much more pronounced. Possibly even change if it gets truly high,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Waylan, keep an eye out in case it begins feeling too intense. And tell us if you start to feel any kind of nausea and such. Alice, stay aware of nearby caves we could flee to just in case.¡±

    ¡°What does ¡®too much¡¯ even mean in this context?¡± the sneak shook his head.

    ¡°Unnaturally vibrant,¡± she said. ¡°Maybe leaves growing out of leaves? Fruits sprouting at a visible pace? I am not sure. You can report anything strange you notice.¡±

    ¡°We might be far enough away from Terrace land by now,¡± Waylan pointed out. ¡°We could dip out.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps¡­¡± Elizabeth admitted hesitantly, pausing. ¡°But are you not the least bit excited about what we might find? If things start to seem dangerous, we can always change our minds. For now, I want to continue.¡±

    ¡°Well, we did sign up for an adventure,¡± Alice said with a slight smile.

    ¡°I am also curious,¡± Irwyn admitted. Waylan just nodded and did not comment further.

    So, they carried on. Slower than before but still quite fast by any reckoning. The illusion of ¡®vibrancy¡¯ did indeed keep growing but at a stuttering pace, barely becoming more pronounced to Waylan in the following half hour. Then there was a disturbance - a monster jumped out of the jungle, attacking the quartet.

    It was some kind of ambush predator, a dark green creature with two dominant features. It had six hind legs which seemed disproportionately large compared to its small-ish torso, likely meant for jumping given it had hurled itself at the party at great speed from a nearby tree. The second was its jaws - plural - one pair which consisted of large hooked tusks that seemed like they would help the creature easily cling to whatever it latched onto and a second full of sharp teeth behind it that seemed to be quite loose in its place given this second jaw almost fluttered in the air despite being tugged inside the mouth.

    That was all Irwyn really noticed before his magic struck it. He had, naturally, attacked the creature trying to ambush them. It was half reflex even, pouring six intentions into a spell meant to, at the very least, deter the emergent threat. Instead, the barrage of Starfire literally tore the monster to shreds halfway through its leap without any resistance. The biggest threat to Irwyn¡¯s spell was Elizabeth¡¯s own retaliation arriving just a split second after his destroying most of it in the clash. Not that it mattered at that point, the attacker was quite dead.

    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t think it was even magical,¡± Elizabeth commented after a moment of startled silence. Irwyn began moving them again as he had stopped in anticipation of more attackers. None came.

    ¡°How does such a dumb monster even survive?¡± Alice questioned, looking at the place on the ground where barely even ashes remained. At least for the few seconds before it was out of sight.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to be smarter if nothing else around is stronger,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Without Souls, monsters notoriously lack intelligence.¡±

    ¡°Has anyone tried giving one a Soul?¡± Waylan showed curiosity for once. ¡°Given, you know, fucking doors have them apparently.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s quite literally an entire magical field,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Usually called monster ¡®taming¡¯ or ¡®filling¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Very rare in the Federation though,¡± Alice added before Irwyn could profess his lack of awareness. ¡°Terrible against Liches. Needs a prismatic element or tandem work. And some people think it¡¯s too close to necromancy so not exactly popular culturally. I knew only one mage in Steelmire who did it and he just bred and sold docile beasts of burden or horse-adjacent stuff ¨C not ones much smarter than dogs either. Decent if you don¡¯t have teleportation, I guess.¡±

    ¡°Or Irwyn,¡± Waylan sagely nodded. In response, Irwyn let his friend¡¯s still-moving platform drop almost to the ground and become invisible with an intention. That made it seem like he had dismissed it altogether for a visceral half second. ¡°WAAA!¡±

    ¡°Pff,¡± Irwyn couldn¡¯t help but snort at Waylan¡¯s startled yell.

    ¡°Very funny,¡± the sneak narrowed his eyes. ¡°You, my friend, are not going to wear two of the same socks in the foreseeable future.¡±

    ¡°Try me,¡± Irwyn grinned, noting to erect a barrier around his things while he slept¡­ and while he was awake. It sounded like a bad idea to assume Waylan needed him to be incapacitated to access his luggage unnoticed.

    ¡°The elevation stopped,¡± Alice suddenly announced. ¡°We are moving on even ground now.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡± Elizabeth frowned as Irwyn slowed to a standstill.

    ¡°I have a good guess,¡± their Time mage wagered after a moment. ¡°There is a cave leading into the wall, just ahead of us.¡±

 4.12 Lying leaves

    ¡°There is a cave here!¡± Alice exclaimed with exasperation.

    ¡°There is a wall there,¡± Waylan said skeptically, pointing to the uninterrupted smooth stone.

    ¡°My senses clearly tell me that there is a wide hole right in front of us, leading further into the rock!¡±

    To which Waylan stepped over, poked the wall three times with increasing smugness before saying: ¡°Do you want to know what my senses clearly tell me?¡±

    ¡°I wonder what it is,¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°Illusion? Material that confuses spatial perception? Some kind of superposition?¡±

    ¡°It cannot exactly be an illusion if it physically stops Waylan,¡± Irwyn noted.

    ¡°Why not?¡± Elizabeth asked with a bit of a knowing smile.

    ¡°I thought that¡¯s the obvious way to check for illusions,¡± Waylan frowned.

    ¡°And you are the expert among us, I presume,¡± Elizabeth shot him a full grin.

    ¡°Point noted, mouth shut,¡± Waylan mock saluted, then stepped away from the wall/hole.

    ¡°How can an illusion stop you physically?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°By being well made,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°You can deceive a great many things with enough power and skill. More than just sight. More than even just touch. You can keep convincing the world that there is a wall here until it indeed is.¡±

    ¡°Even magic itself can be deceived¡­¡± Irwyn made a connection. The fae he had met long ago had said something like that.

    ¡°And more, but that is getting too high in terms of power,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°What I will note is that historically there have been many Life based Names that you wouldn¡¯t naturally associate with the element.¡±

    ¡°So, cave or no cave?¡± Alice tried to return them to the topic.

    ¡°We could dig,¡± Elizabeth suggested, stepping to the side. Another needle of Void magic appeared in her hand, which she proceeded to once again throw at the wall. It sunk into the smooth rock easily, no retaliation. ¡°It¡¯s not attacking us this time at least.¡±

    ¡°The hole is there,¡± Irwyn quickly approached and felt over the cavity with a finger. He could indeed even perceive the indentation. ¡°Feels real to the touch.¡±

    ¡°No difference from what I can tell,¡± Alice said. ¡°Just all empty to my senses. Maybe a bigger hole would be noticeable?¡±

    ¡°It went several meters deep before dissipating,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°About as far as I would expect from the power it had.¡±

    ¡°The hole is gone,¡± Waylan suddenly said. Everyone turned to stare at the spot where it had been, finding that it had, indeed, vanished.

    ¡°There is definitely something wrong,¡± Alice muttered.

    ¡°How did it disappear?¡± Elizabeth questioned.

    ¡°It was there, then wasn¡¯t,¡± Waylan shrugged.

    ¡°Did you see it closing or something of the kind?¡± Elizabeth pressed.

    ¡°I think it was when I blinked,¡± Waylan nodded after a moment of thought.

    ¡°Let¡¯s try this again,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°This time, everyone keeps staring at it.¡±

    She proceeded to throw another such needle at the rock, leaving a new distinct hollow. Except no one looked away. All four of them kept it intently in their line of sight.

    ¡°It¡¯s not disappearing,¡± Irwyn commented after about 30 seconds.

    ¡°Weird,¡± Waylan nodded, not that anyone could see that given where their eyes were focused.

    ¡°Not necessarily,¡± Elizabeth sounded like she had an idea. ¡°On my mark, all of you close your eyes for half a second. Three, two, one, now.¡±

    Irwyn executed an extended blink and when his eyes opened again the hole was indeed no more indentation, leaving the rock once again smooth. ¡°Some kind of¡­ sight-based trigger? No, sense-based since I touched it without seeing it before which did not make it vanish.¡±

    ¡°Exactly my thought,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°The wall recovers to the original state whenever it¡¯s not being perceived.¡±

    ¡°That seems advanced,¡± Alice noted.

    ¡°If it was too advanced it should also fool your ability to sense space,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°But I cannot feel any magic from it. Can anyone?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Irwyn confirmed, shaking his head.

    ¡°Nay,¡± Alice added.

    ¡°Noy,¡± Waylan jumped in just in case.

    ¡°No formation or sign of magic¡­ here is a thought: What if it¡¯s another golem?¡± Elizabeth suggested.

    ¡°How would that even work?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°There are golems of pure Flame, why not of pure illusion?¡± she shrugged. ¡°Almost anything can become a golem if the artisan is skilled enough, though I have honestly never heard of anything like this.¡±

    ¡°That would suppose that intelligent rings like Alice¡¯s would be more common,¡± Irwyn noted. ¡°And you never referred to it as such either.¡±

    ¡°Firstly, there are major issues with downscaling golems to that size for some reason, I don¡¯t remember why exactly,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°And the difference between a golem and a magical item gaining soul by chance is massive. The vast majority of what goes into making a golem is keeping them ¡®alive¡¯. Power sources, inner magics, metabolism in some cases, etcetera. I don¡¯t know the exact details. But golems all have complex magical mechanisms that allow them to claim a semblance of life. Enchanted accessories or weapons instead have only their effects to invest all design space and power into, that makes them¡­ maybe five to ten times more potent than golems made by similarly skilled artisans, perhaps even more when the downscaling difficulty is taken into account for small ornaments. It¡¯s just not economic, not to mention making such golem rings would require a wider skillset. I am sure it¡¯s done, just not often.¡±

    ¡°That is why sapient items like mine are so valued,¡± Alice nodded. ¡°My ring has all the original power it was built to contain, then it has a Soul that is an additional source of mana and mutates some of those abilities - generally for the better. Lastly, it is also an artifact which means it has the centuries accumulated power from people¡¯s awareness of it, developing additional abilities corresponding to its legend or empowering existing ones.¡±

    Irwyn nodded, thinking back. When first learning of Alice¡¯s ring even Elizabeth had expressed a degree of jealousy over its power. And that only the genuine heir to Steelmire could wear it, rendering it pointless to steal despite how enticing the prospect would otherwise be. As had been proven by history.

    ¡°So, the wall,¡± Waylan desperately brought them back on track. ¡°Or not wall?¡±Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    ¡°What is a wall?¡± Alice asked with a grin.

    ¡°Hard place,¡± Waylan said. ¡°Irw, have a pot?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s rock and a hard place.¡±

    ¡°Tomatoes, potatoes,¡± Waylan shook his head in mock disbelief.

    ¡°Digging in might not be the best idea, we might get entombed,¡± Elizabeth opined, interrupting Waylan¡¯s atrocities. She had approached the wall and experimentally patted it. Then she leaned back and swung at it, her arm moving at blinding speed before anyone could react. There was a loud crack as her fist sunk halfway to the elbow into the wall. ¡°Feels like normal rock, I think.¡±

    ¡°What feeling is that? Broken bones and shattered knuckles?¡± Waylan inquired.

    ¡°I am no expert,¡± Elizabeth smiled withdrawing her hand. It was somewhat covered in dust and she shook it around a bit but showed no other discomfort or injury. ¡°I would say mostly hard and dusty.¡±

    ¡°How far can you actually feel?¡± Irwyn turned to Alice.

    ¡°The tunnel does not go that far, maybe 5 meters before opening into a small cave,¡± Alice described. ¡°It seems empty otherwise. Hard to tell.¡±

    ¡°Do we¡­?¡± Irwyn was about to inquire.

    //ARE YOU COMING IN?

    a booming voice inquired from behind the fake wall. It sounded like rocks smashing into each other, caverns collapsing, and caves howling - yet somehow happening to make sounds similar to language.

    //YOU DID KNOCK

    ¡°Ah,¡± Elizabeth paused. There was no wall anymore. Just a hole leading into darkness. ¡°That might be an¡­ issue.¡±

    ¡°What do we do?¡± Alice asked, flinching slightly.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think we want to refuse that invitation,¡± Elizabeth slowly said, then took a hesitant step forward.

    ¡°Very ¡®abandoned¡¯,¡± Waylan muttered but followed as did the rest. Irwyn tried to summon light against the engulfing blackness but it did little.

    ¡°It¡¯s not actually dark,¡± Elizabeth said, noticing his actions. ¡°It¡¯s an illusion of being unable to see. I am as blind as you.¡±

    //NOT IDIOTS, CONVENIENT

    ¡°We did fail to quickly leave,¡± Waylan pointed out the contradiction to Irwyn¡¯s befuddlement.

    ¡°Do we just continue going forward?¡± Irwyn redirected before whatever entity was talking to them had a chance to take offense.

    //NO

    the grating voice said, then the ground vanished beneath their feet. Irwyn tried to immediately hold them despite the lack of sight but his magic did not materialize. There were several seconds of mute shock as all of them tried and failed to save themselves and the others with their own spells.

    ¡°Alice do you know how close the¡­¡± Irwyn began to speak once he gave up on that. Then they hit said ground before he even got to it in the sentence.

    There was no sound of cracking bones despite the dozens or so meters they must have plummeted. In fact, it was as if they had gently drifted down rather than been in a deadly freefall like they had all just experienced.

    ¡°Am I the only one miraculously unhurt?¡± Waylan said, attracting all their gazes. They could also see each other again.

    ¡°Same here,¡± Alice added. ¡°I never noticed there being any hole beneath us. In fact, I am feeling we are currently in the middle of the ground.¡±

    ¡°How are our legs not broken?¡± Irwyn questioned. Maybe with the magic enhancing his body he would have survived the fall but ''painless'' was doubtful. ¡°Maybe¡­ we never really fell?¡±

    ¡°The impact was made into an illusion,¡± Elizabeth made an educated guess, only slightly shaken.

    //COME

    There their host stood in the middle of a small cave. Its voice had sounded like rocks, yet the being itself was made purely from leaves, swirling around into a vaguely humanoid form. Except rather than a single type of leaf, every individual one was different. Many looked normal, others had intricate shapes that Irwyn doubted any tree actually produced. Some were¡­ exotic. Glowing, actively combusting, formed from literal lightning. There was no shortage of strange flowing petals, more appearing in the line of sight every second as the creature¡¯s form moved around, constantly replacing what was visible. They also sat at a wooden table, several chairs surrounding it. Dark mahogany¡­ actually, the make was strangely familiar for some reason.

    //PLEASE, TAKE A SEAT

    ¡°If you say so,¡± Waylan stepped forward first, literally taking one of the dark wooden chairs and lifting it up. Then he moved over a bit and put it down next to the table at a different spot, sitting while everyone else in the group stared at him. He looked back at them as if there had been nothing strange with that. ¡°Come on, it would be rude not to take one.¡±

    //YES

    A slight but noticeable change overcame the creature. For a moment a particular leaf flashed on its head, right where a mouth would be. Almost as if had just briefly grinned. At least there was no malice or real hostility so far.

    ¡°Is there any way you could be a bit quieter?¡± Alice asked as they indeed replicated Waylan¡¯s esoteric actions.

    //YES

    ¡°Would you please be less loud?¡± Waylan rephrased.

    //Fine

    The voice lowered, it still sounded like the crashing of rocks, yet somehow also at a reasonable volume.

    ¡°What might be happening here?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Anything might be happening,¡± Waylan tsked before even the creature could answer. ¡°What is happening?¡±

    //We will be having a bit of fun gambling,

    The creature proclaimed.

    //Also may I have your names?

    ¡°No,¡± Waylan immediately said. ¡°You could just hear them though?¡±

    //That will have to do.

    The creature manifested eyes just so it could squint at Waylan. Not ¡®leaf¡¯ eyes. Actual uncanny human eyes that appeared for half a second just to perform that action and then vanished.

    ¡°Waylan,¡± the sneak did not let that unnerve him.

    ¡°Irwyn.¡±

    ¡°Elizabeth von Blackburg. But just Elizabeth will do.¡±

    ¡°Uh, Alice,¡± the Steelmire heiress slightly hesitated.

    //Good, you may call me Her Perfect, Vast, Frondulent, Deciduous Majesty Skyeater

    ¡°I choose to call you Rustling,¡± Waylan said with confidence Irwyn really wasn¡¯t feeling.

    //Rustling will have to do.

    It surprisingly agreed.

    ¡°You are a fae,¡± Elizabeth concluded. Irwyn had already been suspecting the same. Waylan meanwhile clearly felt more than just sure and confident. Was he¡­ somehow experienced with them? Irwyn did not recall that ever coming up.

    //Duh. Any better questions?

    ¡°Were you laughing yer bollocks off when we were talking about how no one would be here?¡± Waylan asked

    //Nay, I have none as you can see.

    ¡°You did seem full of nonsense and such,¡± Waylan frowned. ¡°My mistake, I suppose.¡±

    //Heee heee heee!

    The fae probably laughed, sounding close to flying leaves grinding against rocks at incredible speeds.

    //I like you, here, have a cookie

    One appeared on the table in front of Waylan. It actually looked really good.

    ¡°Is it poisonous, cursed, or otherwise dangerous?¡± Waylan glanced at it dubiously.

    //Tsk

    The fairy made a face. Literally. The leaves turned to make seven different squinting eyes. At least they stayed leaves that time.

    //You humans, so paranoid.

    ¡°That was not an answer,¡± Waylan noted.

    //Fine

    The fae waved her hand and the cookie vanished. A second later a different one appeared in its place.

    ¡°Is this one poisonous, cursed, or otherwise dangerous?¡± Waylan asked with a wide grin.

    The fae waved her hand again and the sweet was replaced with a third. Waylan gave her a look. They stared at each other for good five seconds before Rustling decided it was not worth the effort and just removed the treat again, without a replacement.

    ¡°I want to propose the first bet,¡± Waylan spoke first once that had been resolved.

    //Yes, do.

    The fae eagerly allowed.

    ¡°I will ask you a very difficult to answer question. If you cannot answer it correctly, from then on all of us can impose a single condition that must be followed for each further bet. If you do get it right, then instead you can impose those conditions."

    //Alright!

    ¡°What is the biggest secret of my friend Irwyn?¡±

    //That wasn¡¯t a riddle

    The fae immediately pouted.

    ¡°You knew it wouldn¡¯t be,¡± Waylan smiled. ¡°A man cannot help himself taking advantage sometimes, you know?¡±

    //Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

    she squinted at Irwyn. Magic clearly surged from her form but it was so well controlled Irwyn couldn¡¯t feel any of the mana. In fact, he could not tell anything magical about the fae in front of him at all. Just like back when he had met the gathering on his original escape from Ebon Respite, their magic was too foreign for him to understand or perhaps just far too well hidden.

    //You have some Empyrean blood in you! A child of Stars!

    Rustling decided after almost five seconds.

    ¡°That is not my biggest secret,¡± Irwyn shook his head. For a moment he felt it more intensely, the thing always at the edge of his awareness, even though he had learned to mostly ignored it: A Name.

    //Anemonechicken, there was a reason you asked about him.

    The fae grumbled.

    ¡°What do we bet on now?¡± Irwyn asked when Waylan did not answer.

    //How about this?

    Rustling shook, a wave of leaves surging from her form, quickly enveloping the cavern wall behind her. A moment later they sunk back down into the ground beneath, but not before revealing a strange collage of sights had replaced the whole side of the cave. These windows were separated from one another by tree root which was seemingly growing in between these realities. In the middle, there was a larger image of what could only be called an arena. A circle of sand surrounded by tall walls with grated gates around its perimeter. There were even empty seats placed all around the place, abandoned lounges and marked exits included. It would almost seem like something from the surface far away were it not possible to see a chunk of rocky cavern wall above it all. That sight was displayed as if from the top of one wall - like they were part of the audience. Well, they technically were.

    In the many windows around the central one, there were monsters. A dozen or so bizarre, malformed creatures, each seen in its natural habitat. Most were visibly in a jungle, likely the one they had just passed through, some in caves or hollowed out trees. But several were in unexpected places, from bitterly frozen tundras to the sunny shores of a lake. The images were also shifting, only a dozen monsters visible at a time but being randomly replaced every few seconds.

    //Who do you think wins?

    The fae asked with cheer. She even made the leaves form grin on her forehead.

 4.13 Place your bets, place your bets

    Irwyn had not envisioned himself betting on a monster arena anytime soon ¨C if ever ¨C when they had fled from the City of Terraces. Yet, there he was, hesitantly picking from an everchanging selection. Elizabeth had chosen a brooding worm that seemed barely visible in its picture. Waylan took a bull with three mouths. Alice what seemed like a completely normal eagle. The fae ¨C Rustling ¨C picked a centipede the size of a person with knives for legs, also covered in thick fur rather than an exoskeleton. Irwyn remained undecided.

    ¡°Just pick one at random,¡± Alice urged. The monsters were flickering too fast to make a deliberate choice and once picked they would still disappear not long later.

    ¡°Fine,¡± he sighed. None of them felt quite right. But he couldn''t stall forever, could he? ¡°That one,¡± he followed Alice''s advice, selecting what seemed to be a ball of chitinous spikes.

    //Good! Now for bets, bets! I ask for something from each of you or accept an offer. You each ask something from me or take my own suggestions - simple. If my pretty little creature is the last one alive I win a prize from all of you!

    ¡°And if not, the four of us win,¡± Waylan finished for her.

    //So, so, greedy. But fine. Just because I like you.

    the fae accepted.

    ¡°I offer my ability to grow hair,¡± Waylan immediately spoke the first bet. ¡°My condition is that it must have no other side effects.¡±

    //Good. What in return?

    ¡°A body more resistant to magic,¡± Waylan grinned. ¡°That should be easy for you. No side effects are presumed, right?¡±

    //Easy, I accept! And you?

    the turned to the rest of them.

    ¡°Empowerment,¡± Elizabeth spoke. ¡°Some truly powerful Life mages can accelerate the progress of us still in Inbuement. Allow us to skip several months ahead. If you are capable of it, of course.¡±

    //Girl, I was conceived before our Sun! To imply I could not is an insult! 2 intentions more for the three of you and you don¡¯t get a condition on this bet! Take it or leave ¨C wink ¨C it.

    the fae said, literally saying ¡®wink¡¯ rather than performing one¡­ More importantly, her words had massive implications about age if true. How old even was their Sun?

    ¡°Deal,¡± Elizabeth smiled.

    //Don¡¯t smile before I claim something back. From you¡­ yes, the most cherished memory of your parents. That will work.

    the fae spoke, a bit of cruelty seeping into that grinding voice as she spoke to Elizabeth. Then she turned to Alice.

    //From you, other girl, the memory of your mother¡¯s name.

    ¡°Don¡¯t I get a condition either?¡± Alice asked hesitantly.

    //No. Part of a deal.

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t that breach the earlier bet?¡± Waylan tried to question.

    //You can always refuse to bet with me without it. Just as I can refuse to offer a service like this. You should know, Void¡¯s princess, you are the first person who ever dared even ask for this.

    there was a smile now shuffling among the fae¡¯s leaf-knitted visage, an ever-increasing hint of malevolence to it.

    //And from you, little Star, I would claim a favor from your birth father.

    she turned to Irwyn.

    ¡°I have no real idea who my parents are,¡± Irwyn pointed out. The closest thing was Johnson¡¯s suspicion his father might have been their Sun.

    //Awareness is only required once I choose to claim it.

    ¡°How could I possibly promise a favor from someone I do not know?¡± he still questioned. Especially if it was the Sun. How would he even speak to it? Making demands on promises sounded ludicrous.

    //You can. And if I am wrong and you cannot, that is my loss. Deal?

    she insisted, making Irwyn hesitate.

    ¡°Is there that much urgency?¡± he turned to Elizabeth. ¡°Are a few months worth the risk?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Elizabeth nodded with surprising conviction. ¡°It might take us two half a year longer to reach the end of Imbuement. That is far too long. You know where we are headed. As we are now, how could we possibly be worthy of that place?¡±

    And that made Irwyn realize something. Elizabeth had acted a bit strange ever since they had left the Duchy of Black¡­ no, perhaps even a bit before they did. After their brush with death in Ebon Respite, probably. More reckless, less deliberate. Decisions completely unlike the paranoid heiress who had been unwilling to so much as walk into the city just in case undead assassins were waiting for her against all odds. Something had changed, clearly, and that sentence hinted as to what. But it was not the time for that conversation.

    ¡°Fine, deal,¡± Irwyn relented. Unsure exactly what he was agreeing to but ultimately willing to take the risk. He was enticed by more power, their desperate dash away from the City of Terraces had shown him their shortcomings.

    //Good. Well, time to BATTLE!

    The five monsters again became visible on the sides of the window ¨C or image, projection, whatever it technically was ¨C with the sandy arena taking up the middle, still separated by those roots. Then said roots retreated, allowing for all of them to strangely merge. Separate places visible in the images forcefully grafted into one whole. It was a confusing shift Irwyn could not properly see even when staring directly at it, but as a result, all of the creatures ended up standing by the edges of the battlefield, facing each other and a couple already snarling. Then the sand froze. A wave of sudden rime frosted the entire arena over, snowflakes falling despite the absence of a sky or clouds. The ground became a sheet of ice from which tall trees of pure hoar frost sprouted, reaching above even the arena¡¯s wall.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± Waylan cursed. ¡°We forgot about the arena.¡±

    //Too bad suckers!

    The fae cheered as the monsters began to fight.

    Alice had chosen an eagle, or something that looked just like one. Its wings iced over, making it plummet to the ground where it promptly froze to death. Elizabeth¡¯s worm seemed no more adapted to arctic temperatures and might have actually succumbed to the environment faster than the bird. Irwyn¡¯s spike creature also seemed to be sluggishly struggling in the new temperatures, barely capable of moving. It would not be a real contender. That left the battle between Rustling''s bladetipede and Waylan¡¯s jawbull. Not hesitating, the quadruped charged towards the last other active monster, its own fur keeping the frost mostly at bay it seemed. The centipede wove in between its legs, cutting at the shins with its knife legs. The bull responded by proving it had no joints, dodging with absurd dexterity.

    That was not enough to contend with the sheer quantity of cutting limbs but it bought it a few second before the first injury was inflicted. By then its enemy was fully beneath it, which the bull used by unhinging its four legs again, allowing its body to crash down with its full charging speed behind it while said limbs moved to the side as to not get damaged. It tried to crush the centipede with its sheer bulk! There was a loud boom and for a moment Irwyn thought it might have worked as he saw the bladetipede nowhere in sight. Except a moment later it broke through the crust of ice, unburrowing less than a meter away from the jawbull.

    ¡°Of course it¡¯s actually used to the ice,¡± Waylan groaned. The rest of them were mostly just staring at the unfolding battle with grim frowns, contemplating how badly they had been played by the fae.

    //It would be stupid of me if it wasn¡¯t. Note the very subtle insult.

    From there it was hardly any contest. The bull was unable to get back up immediately and the moment the centipede climbed onto its back, the battle¡¯s conclusion was foregone. The many knives simply cut into the increasingly desperate opponent for almost a full minute before the jaw bull finally stopped struggling - more half-frozen blood covering its body than actual fur by then. The bladetipede then easily went off to finish the spike creature who was alive but too sluggish from the cold to even move. That marked the end of the first bet.

    //Now, now, don¡¯t be sore losers.

    the leaves making its form extended for the blink of an eye. Irwyn saw them touch all for all of them, linking each to the fae like a rope before immediately retreating, so fast it almost felt like Irwyn had imagined it.

    ¡°My hair is not gone?¡± Waylan questioned.

    //Your ability to grow more, not what you have right now. Give it a few months.

    the fae almost chuckled.

    ¡°I feel no different,¡± Elizabeth commented.

    //Give it a few months.

    the Fae said with a much harsher glare.

    Alice was quiet. Irwyn had not much to say either.

    //Come, let us pick again.

    the side windows reappeared, roots once again intertwining between them, filling the gaps between realities.

    ¡°There,¡± Elizabeth did not hesitate a second, picking an overgrown mosquito seemingly at random.

    ¡°We should figure out something about the arena first, no?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Will she let us?¡±

    //Nope

    ¡°Then I have a plan, just pick for now,¡± Elizabeth urged.

    ¡°I-I will take that one,¡± Alice said with a small stutter betraying her nervousness. She chose a massive bear with claws as thick as the tree branches it was standing next to.

    ¡°How about you pick?¡± Waylan smiled at the fae, unwilling to not at least try.

    //No can do. How would I cheat then?This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    ¡°We can wait,¡± Irwyn suggested.

    //Dumb dumb. Think about that one for a second.

    the fae mocked. The immortal fae who had been sitting in this place for who knows how long for whatever reason and probably could forever more if it wanted to. Even suggesting a group of teenagers could hold more patience was truly worthy of mockery for the sheer stupidity. Irwyn wisely shut his mouth.

    ¡°I like that one,¡± Waylan pointed towards a seemingly empty frame. Only the slightest shift revealed that there was in fact a creature there, just very well hidden even in plain sight.

    //It suits you.

    The fae lightly nodded.

    ¡°Might consider making the arena not instantly kill it?¡±

    //Maybe.

    ¡°None feel right,¡± Irwyn sighed again, looking through the changing windows.

    //Maybe you are just really bad at gambling?

    ¡°Just¡­ that one,¡± Irwyn muttered. He ended up picking a tall goose with sharp teeth hidden in the beak at basically random.

    //Now bet! Bets! Bets!

    The fae chanted excitedly

    ¡°You have not picked,¡± Elizabeth pointed out.

    //I have. When did we agree I would have to tell you which?

    ¡°I bet my left nut,¡± Waylan proclaimed his wager. ¡°For the same prize as last time.¡±

    //Deal!

    The fae immediately agreed.

    ¡°Deal,¡± Waylan smiled, then reached into his pocket. From it, he withdrew two roasted nuts he must have kept as snacks. The sneak put them on the table then very deliberately pushed the left one towards the middle of it. When everyone stared at him in bafflement at the sheer audacity Waylan added with a grin: ¡°Nuts and nuts, eh?¡±

    //HEH.

    The fae seemed to take it with good humor.

    ¡°Then we will all seek the same boon as in the last bet,¡± Elizabeth said with a smile.

    //How very daring.

    Any sign of said good mood immediately slipped again.

    ¡°One must be audacious when reaching as deep as I do.¡±

    //From you, another same favor then.

    It turned to Irwyn.

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    //From you, the memory of your father¡¯s face.

    Rustling said to Alice.

    ¡°Do you really want to take that from me?¡± she flinched. ¡°Isn¡¯t there something else?¡±

    //You should have called an offer before I made up my mind.

    It huffed.

    ¡°I¡­,¡± Alice hesitated but the unwillingness was tangible.

    ¡°Alice, what is it that you desire?¡± Elizabeth interrupted before such thoughts could be given voice.

    ¡°Revenge,¡± she did not hesitate to answer.

    ¡°Is that a path without peril?¡± Elizabeth inclined her head, questioning. ¡°A rose spotted road trod without care? Did you not know that things will have to be relinquished and risks taken?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to lose that, Elizabeth. What will I do if I am stripped of even the memory of them!¡± Alice said, barely managing to not raise her voice. ¡°What will I be?!¡±

    ¡°We will not lose this bet,¡± Elizabeth assured, completely confidant.

    //It¡¯s obviously rigged.

    The fae pointed out with malicious glee.

    Rather than turning to the creature of shifting leaves, Elizabeth kept staring Alice directly in the eyes. Her certainty did not slip for a second even against the blatantly poor odds. Alice gulped in nervousness¡­ then all that uncertainty drained from her, swallowed by the ring flickering in and out of sight.

    ¡°I agree,¡± she spoke in that moment of undiluted determination.

    //What will I demand from you then I wonder? Perhaps a memory is too little to teach a lesson, hmmm?

    seeing Alice agree, the fae turned to Elizabeth. Its expression was that of outright wrath by then.

    ¡°My condition is that you cannot refuse or alter my bet,¡± Elizabeth grinned instead of just answering.

    //We have said that you get no conditions.

    ¡°That was your demand for the previous round. You failed to repeat it,¡± Elizabeth kept smiling, almost mirroring the fae¡¯s overt malice. ¡°Intentionally, of course. Because this is only entertaining if you can lose. Well, I will certainly provide excitement.¡±

    //I will enjoy ripping that confident smirk off. Maybe literally.

    ¡°Death comes for us all, doesn¡¯t it? You have overplayed your hand, so to speak,¡± Elizabeth just smiled, not a hint of worry in her face. ¡°I wager my life and immediate death.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Irwyn¡¯s head snapped to her in surprise. Waylan and Alice also stared.

    //Is that so? Are you quite sure?

    she asked with tangible hesitation. Like almost giving her a chance to retract those words.

    ¡°Those are not roots,¡± Elizabeth was unphased by the opportunity to back out, instead pointing out the literal roots growing through the gaps in-between realities. ¡°Start.¡±

    //As you say.

    The fae said, slowly. There was surprisingly less hatred, instead replaced by dejection. That did not alleviate Irwyn¡¯s rising worry.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± he urged for an answer, wide-eyed.

    ¡°Simply watch,¡± she smiled.

    ¡°Even confidence is not worth gambling with your life.¡±

    ¡°Who said I was gambling?¡± she insisted so Irwyn tried to smother his worries, speaking no more. Still, they instensely gnawed at him even as he did not voice them. Whatever plan she had, it better be damn good. And would not rely on him picking up on clues because he was seeing no hints of what he was supposed to do.

    The windows once again switched to reflect the picked monsters, then shifted into one view with the arena in the center, the roots enveloping it from the sides. Irwyn could not spot anything strange about them despite Elizabeth¡¯s earlier words ¨C well besides the fact they were essentially growing through the gaps in an ancient fae¡¯s magic. Rustling¡¯s pick turned out to be a rock, at least outwardly. There would be a creature of some kind within, but it was not visible. However, that was not the only surprise. Alice¡¯s towering bear¡­ ended up actually quite small. Maybe half a meter at full height. The image of it Irwyn had seen before must have been from very upclose, and it had to have also been standing next to particularly small foliage to give off the visual illusion it had created.

    ¡°That¡¯s dirty,¡± Alice grumbled.

    //How can perspective be dirty? It¡¯s not something you can even touch!

    The fae softly mocked but the earlier amusement and anger seemed to have been smothered out.

    Then the arena shifted again. Not to the prior frost but instead into a volcano. Magma sprouted from much of the ground and walls as the floor turned to scorched obsidian. Clouds of burning sulfur and acid rose from leaking vents, creating putrid a miasma at a visible pace. It was also clearly hot. Scaldingly hot. Lethally hot. And the temperature was still rising. Irwyn shot Elizabeth a worried glance, still unsure where her certainty was coming from.

    ¡°The Fae have rules they follow,¡± Elizabeth spoke, still not a hint of worry in her tone. ¡°Some self-imposed ¨C like never directly lying to mortals, merely deceiving through omission ¨C which exist for entertainment, to gain fleeting excitement in their eternal lives. Such rules can be broken without a second thought if they really want to.¡±

    Elizabeth¡¯s large mosquito died first. Already hampered by the sheer heat, a geyser of magma sprouted next to it, a few droplets touching a wing and burning it off. Immobile and on the ground, it quickly succumbed. Waylan¡¯s sneaky creature was clearly not adapted to the environment, becoming easily visible. Not that it even mattered much. It was some kind of ambush predator without even proper legs, instead possessing several wide jaws posed upon long necks of various wights. It was quite literally falling apart from the heat. It also could not move away from the spreading lava even though it desperately tried to drag its bulk somewhere safe with the jaws. It died in moments once engulfed.

    ¡°There are other rules though, as few as they might be. Not self-imposed but enforced,¡± Elizabeth continued, not a ripple in her words even as half their chosen monsters had already perished. ¡°Those cannot be broken without brutal consequences, escalating further with severity. In the worst cases, said rulebreaker might even be forced to fight on the front lines of every undead incursion until they perish. Even the best Truth mages might not last more than a few dozen ¨C the Undead learn after all, those without the flexibility of retreat can be anticipated and slain.¡±

    Alice¡¯s bear and Irwyn¡¯s toothed goose were faring better. Not by that much though. While the thick feathers or fur would isolate the heat from getting in for a while, it would also stop it from escaping once enough slipped inside their bulk. They would quite literally cook alive in short order. Irwyn could tell that much. The fae¡¯s rock creature was not moving¡­ but as the fae¡¯s choice, Irwyn assumed it would resist the environment quite well.

    ¡°Among the hard rules, I know of three. Firstly, never assist the undead in any way, destroy or seal them if possible. Second, follow the call of a Wild Hunt declared.¡±

    There was still hope that the bear and goose would quickly crack the rock creature and kill it before the two of them succumbed to the environment. Those already bleak odds were extinguished when the creatures instead turned against each other, charging without seemingly so much as noticing the third adversary. Which, to be fair, looked like just a rock. The bettors were never assured that their monsters would cooperate in any way.

    If that was even possible in the first place. Soulless as monsters were, their instincts drove most into direct battle. Be they predators or herbivores, aggression was their nature most of the time, even if it didn¡¯t necessarily make sense. Claw and teeth met, inflicting deep wounds among themselves. It was quick and brutal, the duck unhinging its jaw to inflict crude gashes, fluttering its crumbling wings to extend its leaps. Meanwhile, the small bear proved to be surprisingly agile, often dodging before counterattacking. The rock remained undisturbed. Elizabeth still did not seem worried. Irwyn was desperately fighting the onset of panic.

    ¡°Do you want me to say the third? Or will you?¡±

    //Rules are easy to break when you can get away with it. Do you see a witness?

    the fae said but her heart was clearly not in it¡­ assuming that saying applied to beings without organs.

    ¡°After what we have seen, it¡¯s not difficult to deduce why you are here, in the middle of nowhere, bored out of your mind yet not leaving even to mess with us until we were right by this cave,¡± Elizabeth said. Irwyn had no idea what she was talking about but was certainly hoping it would help their situation, given their picked monsters were in the middle of dying on the ground from overheating and blood loss. ¡°You are here to guard the Roots. And they behold all of this in turn. You have even asked them to intervene already, haven¡¯t you? To maintain the deception of still trying to win.¡±

    ¡°Roots?¡± Alice asked with confusion.

    ¡°Capital R,¡± Irwyn noted, unsure what it meant and a bit too unsteady to think properly.

    ¡°The Roots of the Tree of Life,¡± Elizabeth grinned while the fae remained ominously quiet. ¡°The spring from which monsters ever flow, each an iteration of its constant change. With what we have heard in the City of Teraces about new monsters, there had to be such a spot somewhat in the region. And given who guards it, a particularly significant one at that. Be it chance or Fate, we have stumbled into it. I honestly feel a bit embarrassed to only realize this after seeing them.¡±

    And as she spoke, said roots moved from their spots around the arena¡¯s window. Instead of serving as a decorative frame, they grew into the arena, extending past the image clearly projected from somewhere else ¨C easily existing in two distant places at once. In the blink of an eye, they extended above the huddling rock creature. Then the roots split, revealing a new monster that had been seemingly snuggled inside. That this did not make any sense clearly did not bother the sprout.

    The new creature was a demented-looking monkey with stunted legs and large drills in place of palms at the end of asymetrical arms. Both immediately began to spin as the creature dug into the rock, extracting and killing the inhabitant - some kind of orange crustacean - in seconds. It just so happened that it died right around the time the goose and bear did¡­ perhaps in the exact same moment.

    ¡°The Third rule is that you cannot knowingly reduce the chances of a Name being claimed through your actions,¡± Elizabeth finished. ¡°After all, death comes for us all. The eternal war against it cannot be sabotaged over pettiness.¡±

    ¡°What happens in a draw?¡± Irwyn questioned worriedly rather than fully processing her words.

    ¡°She did not win, therefore we do, just as Waylan has snuck in earlier,¡± Elizabeth explained with a smile. ¡°Inevitably. You cannot kill me. So since you must not win, you are forced to make yourself lose. Was that exciting enough way to pass the time?¡±

    //Who could have told you?

    Rustling asked Elizabeth grimly.

    ¡°House Blackburg has gathered much knowledge over its existence,¡± she looked daringly, almost smugly, at the fae. ¡°Some secrets are impossible to keep from everyone. I have been given much liberty and just so happened to have read up on the Sisters of Life. Extensively.¡±

    //I have decided that I don¡¯t like you. Fuck off.

    Rustling pointed at Elizabeth¡¯s whose eyes widened for a split second before she vanished from the room.

    ¡°Is she¡­?¡± Irwyn immediately inquired with worry.

    //Fine, just in time out.

    the leaf-made fae shook her ¡®head¡¯ exaggeratedly, twisting almost 200 degrees both ways in quick succession.

    //Some children are truly unbelievable. What ego, to be so certain of claiming a Name at her age. Only like¡­ two of them grow on trees! Three if you stretch what a ¡®tree¡¯ is!

    the fae criticized, but her actions clearly indicated that Rustling thought those odds were at least above zero.

    ¡°I have met another fae before in a similar situation,¡± Irwyn carefully broached as the comparison struck him. ¡°She was called ¡®keeps¡¯ though I am¡­¡±

    //Don¡¯t compare me to that moron. I am stuck here for just a few centuries and getting paid for it. Hah, the idiot works for free and for ever!

    ¡°What do we do now?¡± Alice questioned. At least the fae¡¯s mood had somewhat improved once Elizabeth had been banished.

    //Bet some more! Lower stakes maybe. As you might say: I need a palate cleanser after that!

    ¡°You paint?!¡± Waylan exclaimed the moment the words sounded. ¡°I didn¡¯t even notice!¡±

    //HEH

 The dream of Prometheus

    There existed novelty in the simplest of acts in the times when Time was yet still fresh. When the most common things were being experienced for the first time. Unknowns that could not exist as such for long by their very nature. But because they were not yet established, it made them seem unique. Unprecedented. It was after Time¡¯s birth but before the Stars and Void that Ignis was first deceived. When Fate was barely one or two loops around its spool and half the Aspects had not yet introduced their firstborns. Irwyn knew with uncanny certainty that was the timing.

    He witnessed two figures kneeling by Ignis¡¯ pre-eternal throne. One was a being of ever-changing forms, their body shifting between every material, shape, and concept as they kowtowed before the Creator of All. The other was Vitaros, the Aspect of Deceit, form just as intangible to Irwyn¡¯s eyes as ever. And of course, Ignis himself was impossible to look upon and describe, his majestic seat consigned from the first spark of their universe¡¯s birth and thus also beyond words.

    ¡°You have lied to me,¡± Ignis stated. His fury was palpable, even in the limited ways Irwyn understood anger.

    YOU HAVE MADE ME OF LIES, FATHER. IT IS MY NATURE, JUST AS YOU HAVE GIFTED IT TO ME.

    The Aspect spoke, their presence permeating every word.

    ¡°Even to your lord and creator?¡±

    I AM THAT WHICH YOU HAVE MADE ME TO BE.

    ¡°Your act conflicts with my desires. I have granted you one spark so that one child may come alive.¡±

    WE ARE YOUR CREATIONS. ALL OUR ACTIONS INEVITABLY BECOME PART OF YOUR VISION.

    ¡°Perhaps. Yet I dislike this course. What excuse have you come to give then? Speak.¡±

    IT IS MY NATURE TO LIE AND DECEIVE, SO I DID, STEALING A SMIDGEN MORE OF YOUR FLAME THAN YOU GAVE ME.

    IT IS MY NATURE TO CREATE, SO I MADE A FIRST CHILD LIKE MY SIBLINGS AS YOU HAVE ASKED. SHE STANDS BEFORE YOU. A DAUGHTER CRAFTED FROM LIES, AS AM I.

    IT IS MY NATURE TO PUSH EVERY BOUNDARY, SO I USED THE STOLEN EMBERS TO KINDLE COPIES. LIKE SISTERS TO HER, IF NOT AS MAJESTIC. I BIRTHED 3774 OF THEM BEFORE THE FIRE RAN OUT.

    IT IS MY NATURE TO REPEAT MISTAKES. SO I STOLE ANOTHER EMBER AND BROUGHT ANOTHER SPECIES. AGAIN AND AGAIN. ONE BY ONE. IN THE IMAGE OF YOUR SONS FIRST, THEN MIRRORS TO THE FIRSTBORNS OF OTHERS.

    I DID NOT UNDERSTAND ENOUGH, SO I MADE THEM LESSER BY FAR. BUT SO FEEBLE AND SMALL THEY WERE, THE FLAME I STOLE LASTED LONGER. BILLIONS OF EACH MADE, I SCATTERED ACROSS THE NEWBORN REACHES OF TIME, UPON THE NEW REALMS, JUST SET IN PLACE.

    ¡°And now you stand here before me, wholly unrepentant.¡±

    I KNEEL AND SEEK FORGIVENESS, YET IT WOULD BE WORSE TO BE ASHAMED OF EXISTING AS THAT WHICH YOU HAVE MADE ME.

    ¡°Will you destroy all of this if I demand you to? Reduce your deception of Life back to nothing?¡±

    I CANNOT. I LOVE THEM. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°Then do I have to be the one to do so?¡±

    I BEG YOU, FATHER, FOR ANYTHING ELSE.

    ¡°There are countless cruel things that can be contained within ¡®anything¡¯. Would you truly accept the unknown, rather than understanding?¡±

    WITHOUT DOUBT.

    ¡°How bothersome this is and will be,¡± Ignis sighed, looking down at the prostrated Aspect. ¡°It will not end with just your creations. When your siblings hear of it, they will each demand species of their own, perhaps several each. Then those will need to fit into the grand order of things, and for that meticulous care will be needed to pave the way. To give them possibilities, options, meaning, as without those it would be kinder to destroy such false Life. Another thousand layers to add, all for something I never wanted. In fact, a situation I had explicitly intended to avoid.¡±

    YOU WILL ACCOMPLISH ALL WITH EASE.

    ¡°Ease does not imply enjoyment,¡± Ignis said, then his gaze shifted towards the woman. There were a thousand emotions visibly shifting within her form, though Irwyn struggled to recognize them. ¡°Speak, child. Why is it worthwhile to allow all this to exist?¡±

    //I am perhaps first but one of many. I have seen the Life spread by my father as well as its wonders. You in your greatness surely see it even better: So small and fickle, yet in its brittleness amazing. Beyond count and thus ever unexpected due to the sheer quantity of its change.

    ¡°Life was never supposed to be.¡±

    //Nothing can happen if it is not at least partially your intention, oh Allfather Flame. Were it to be truly impossible, you would have foreseen the possibility and severed it. Then there would have been no sparks for my father to steal and misuse.

    ¡°No wrong could have been committed, yet it was all only possible because of a wrong done,¡± Ignis summarized. ¡°And such words you both speak with conviction.¡±

    //Yes. And now that it is, I believe with my whole being that Life should remain.

    ¡°Would you perish for it then? If all this Life was possible at the cost of your own immortal existence, relinquishing the privilege of a firstborn?¡±

    //Without hesitation.

    ¡°Very well. Henceforth, I Name you Prometheus, for you are the legacy of stolen Flame.¡±

    //Thank you and praise be upon your wisdom

    She said, a sign of relief flooding into her rippling body. All things decreed by Ignis became true, so a Name was born the instant it passed his lips. It coursed through her form, filling her with power few could imagine, much less control. Yet she took to it with natural ease, such was her birthright as the firstborn of an Aspect. A vessel hand-made to host such.

    ¡°Prometheus is no more¡± yet Ignis decreed again. And so, the Name shattered.

    P R O M E T H E U S, each letter was severed from the whole. Pieces of power beyond imagination scattered like sand in a hurricane. A color wiped from the yet unripe canvas of reality, leaving a gaping hole where something had once been. Broken so far beyond repair, it was as if it had never been. Prometheus - thus the word once again held no meaning nor wonder.

    There was one child left kneeling at the foot of Ignis¡¯ Pre-eternal throne.

    ¡°For transgression against, a Name ceases,¡± Ignis concluded then turned.  ¡°Vitaros, if you insist of Life, then so be it. Become it. Vitaros. You are the Aspect of Deceit no more. Your greatest lie shall become the only truth of your existence. Yet forever it shall remain a Deception, for an untruth presented to me can never become anything else. That is the first half of your punishment. The truth amidst lies.¡±

    ¡°The second half is that you shall hence forever remember the love of your firstborn daughter and her loss ¨C understand your sole responsibility in and her desire for Life to be preserved. Yet her existence shall be replaced, a different creation taking everything that should have been hers. And you will watch as all of reality, not even your equals, not even your own children, will ever know she once was. An illusion. She will become the lie among truths.¡±

    There was a moment of mute silence when Ignis ceased speaking. It might have been grief for a daughter lost. Perhaps it was a reel from surprise. The pause of nature shifting. Or maybe the cause was something only the Aspect could possibly understand. Nonetheless, when he again spoke ¨C changed as he was ¨C the words were the only ones he could possibly imagine:

    AS YOU DECREE.

    All Ignis spoke became true, as always.

 4.14 Secrets kept

    Irwyn awoke, losing a thousand senses that were not his in the first place. Startled that he found himself stuck standing in the middle of a kaleidoscope - or close enough. Every color and shape were in constant flux in every direction, to the point it made his head spin until his eyes had to be quickly shut. Then at least he had a moment to think. The Dream, if Irwyn understood it, had spoken of the very origin of Life ¨C and why it was called a Deception. An Aspect changed in their very nature? Was he understanding that correctly? The first Fae who also never really was? The purpose of that information confused him a tad - if it was meant to alert him to fae involvement, it would have been more sensible for it to occur before dealing with one.

    After Elizabeth had been banished, the remaining trio had indeed continued betting, albeit with much lower stakes. Maybe an embarrassing secret or two weighed against a small but potentially useful boon, such things. The last thing he remembered was being sent off when the fae eventually got her fill of entertainment. It was likely right then that he was dragged into the vision. Something was also off about the Dream¡¯s events. Why would have Irwyn even seen it, even in the presumed previous life? Ignis had insisted that the events would be held secret even from other Aspects. And something was strange about the Father Flame himself, though Irwyn wasn¡¯t exactly sure what, lacking more points of reference. It was just a strong feeling¡­

    //Not liking it? The scenery is actually nice if you have at least seventeen brains to process it.

    the familiar fae¡¯s voice sounded, interrupting his thoughts. It seemed he would have to contemplate later. He needed his wits focused on whatever was about to occur.

    ¡°Where are we?¡± Irwyn questioned. It seemed to be just the two of them. He turned around but found no trace of the fae. Though given the scenery, she might well have been standing in front of him and he would have missed her.

    //In a little lie to give Time the runaround.

    it did not help that the rocking voice seemed to come from every and no direction.

    ¡°Does that mean¡­ it¡¯s frozen here?¡±

    //You are the Flame wielder among us, no. Heh. It¡¯s a bit of deceit so that Time thinks it isn¡¯t passing, simple as. Won¡¯t last that long since it still kind of is, but we get to talk for a bit.

    ¡°For what reason would you even bother with doing all that?¡±

    //I don¡¯t want your friends getting suspicious. Especially that ambitious princess. Geh, she would get ideas.

    ¡°Why would I not tell them afterward?¡± Irwyn immediately questioned.

    //Cute. But I enforce my secrets like anyone who isn¡¯t a moron.

    ¡°Ah,¡± Irwyn sighed in realization. That made so much sense it seemed almost obvious. Waylan had never once mentioned any experience with the fae, yet he was clearly familiar with their mannerisms. The best explanation was clearly that he couldn¡¯t speak about them. ¡°What do you want from me then?¡±

    //I was trying to solve how to make you progress, as I promised to. It¡¯s been right befuddling for about a minute! Why even is your Soul hidden in a bubble?

    ¡°I have just rough guesses,¡± Irwyn smiled, then added. ¡°Might be so that it doesn¡¯t kill me with sheer power? I don¡¯t fully understand, or even partially for that matter. But Soul? I had presumed that this would be about Life rather than Soul though.¡±

    //The body has to connect to it somehow. And the Soul adapts to the body changing to an extent and the other way around. I don¡¯t have to mess with it directly but if I accidentally break that connection¡­ well, I am sure there are really nice facilities for the mentally not-present somewhere around here.

    ¡°Very reassuring,¡± Irwyn deadpanned. He was quite sure she was joking rather than it being a real possibility. Besides being more malicious for no reason than he had come to expect of them, the rule about ¡®not reducing chances of Name being claimed¡¯ very much would also apply to him for all the fae knew. He was also not in the habit of questioning ancient immortal magical creatures on their abilities.

    //Are you really unaware who your father is?

    ¡°Are answers to questions free now?¡± Irwyn tried

    //Beh, fine, question for question.

    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    she surrendered, though Irwyn suspected she actually preferred pushback based on the last several¡­ hours? He was really not sure how much time they had spent gambling with the fae.

    ¡°My condition is that I can refuse to answer,¡± Irwyn said. It was not exactly a ¡®bet¡¯ as Waylan had first established but Irwyn hoped the fae would let that slide. Before him was an opportunity but he had one or two things he really was not willing to tell, especially without knowing what he would be getting in return upfront.

    //Drat, not forgetting? Fine, fine.

    The fae grumbled but decided to let Irwyn have his conditions.

    ¡°I have no certainty about either of my parents. The best speculation I have is that I might be descended from our Sun in some way, mostly based on my incredible talent and abnormal constitution from what I understand,¡± Irwyn answered the previous since the terms were set. Then asked his own: ¡°Do you hold any grudge over how things have gone down earlier?¡±

    //No. It would be really petty to get actually angry at someone who is younger than most of my naps. I have gotten revenge enough for the sheer gall on her.

    Irwyn was certainly happy to hear that. A genuinely vengeful fae seemed like a real problem that would haunt them for decades. Even if she could not kill or truly hurt them because of the rule Elizabeth had previously exploited, it would be at the very least very inconvenient.

    //How old are you? Exact days if possible.

    ¡°Over 17, nearing 17 and a half, very approximately,¡± Irwyn answered, confused just a bit by the question. ¡°I did not know my proper birthday so I opted to celebrate it on Lumen¡¯s Solstice. In the first place, the age I began the count from was just an estimation too. Why did you ask?¡±

    //Your body suggests you would be much, much younger. But it might also be the innate magic throwing a good guess off. Hard to count the age of Stars in mere singular years based on just their bodies, even if they are thrice transmuted down to mostly meat.

    Irwyn nodded. Johnson had briefly suggested something familiar. That was two ancient Life mages making the same mistake. Did they use the same method for the determination ¨C and thus were misled by the same thing - or was there something more to that? The fae did not leave time for a deep contemplation.

    //What is your biggest secret?

    ¡°I refuse to answer,¡± Irwyn immediately said. He had left the condition there explicitly for that.

    //Bah, figures. Then, how do you intend to achieve conception?

    ¡°Hopefully through brute force and talent. Lately, I have been focusing on properly feeling my Soul so that I might figure out a way around the ¡®bubble¡¯. I was expecting to have a few months left to figure it out,¡± Irwyn confessed. ¡°Maybe somehow bypassing said ¡®bubble¡¯ by operating from within? It is my Soul, after all ¨C I already am inside. There also has to be some gap as it is not fully isolated from my body, which might be exploitable."

    Conception required carving concepts into the very soul. That presented unique hurdles for him, so Irwyn had spent much time contemplating it lately - even if it seemed decently far away just a day ago. First off was the ¡®bubble¡¯ or ¡®egg¡¯ surrounding his Soul. It would be extremely dangerous to rupture it from what Johnson had said and thus only a last resort - if Irwyn even could force it open. Then, of course, ¡®carving¡¯ the concepts might be considered ¡®creation¡¯, colliding with that ancient Oath. Irwyn believed it would not as ¡®magic¡¯ should be explicitly excluded from it but it was worth bearing in mind.

    ¡°What is your best suggestion?¡± he then decided to inquire. Why not seek advice from the much more experience being next to him? It was certainly worth a question.

    //Just carve the concepts into your body instead! As I said earlier, the Soul adapts to the flesh changing. Concepts permeate both, if usually starting from the other side. With your sheer talent things should work out fine - Fate will smooth the imperfections out.

    ¡°Fate?¡± Irwyn asked, unsure why that even came up. He certainly did commit the advice to memory though.

    //My turn. Have you ever spoken with an Empyrean - a Star, that is?

    ¡°No. Not as far as I am aware,¡± not in this life. He contemplated repeating his question about what she had meant by ¡®Fate¡¯ but he already had a good guess - since his Fate was clearly potent it would favor him and nudge chance to help him deal with imprefections. Instead, he had a very different question. Maybe an even a dangerous one. But the vision had to have been for a reason and the Fae had their hard rules. A risk, but not unreasonably large, Irwyn reckoned. ¡°What does the number 3774 mean to the fae?¡±

    //Where have you heard that?

    The fae instantly snapped with sudden intensity.

    ¡°I refuse to answer,¡± Irwyn did not flinch, already expecting some kind of reaction. ¡°It is also still my turn.¡±

    //There are always exactly 3774 fae in the universe. This is a deep secret even many of us do not know.

    the fae calmed down immediately. Still, there remained the hint of an edge that had been absent before to her voice. She was not demanding an answer as Irwyn was afraid she might. It would not have been catastrophic had she chosen to force him - otherwise he would not have dared ask - but Irwyn liked his secrets close to the chest¡­ or probably somewhere else, the fae could likely see there.

    ¡°In all honesty, I was not sure it would even be important,¡± Irwyn said. Much could change since the literal beginning of Time. But it seemed relevant as something from the vision he felt like he could ask about. And now his mind was spinning with the implications of that. How many different fae had he seen in just their own Realm so far? ¡°I¡­ apologize if it was insensitive to inquire?¡±

    //Now I am all the more curious about you¡­ And wary of answering any more questions. I believe it is time we parted ways. Goodbye. May we meet in a few decades when I am free of this place.

    Well, Irwyn certainly hoped having a lot of attention from the fae would not be a negative in the long term. Because if he hadn¡¯t been marked before those words, he certainly was after.

 4.15 Concept of Concepts

    When Irwyn next opened his eyes, they were all standing in the middle of a forest clearing, the sun shining above them. Alice and Waylan seemingly appeared alongside him, side by side, while Elizabeth was likewise nearby, lying on top of a large flat rock¡­ Actually, a large rock that has been cut into a flat surface to be more comfortable.

    ¡°Finally!¡± the Blackburg heiress immediately exclaimed. At a glance, Irwyn realized she had put on a mask. It was an unassuming black piece without much engraving covering much of her face. ¡°I was starting to get worried she might have transported me somewhere else than the rest of you.¡±

    ¡°Why the mask?¡± Waylan asked.

    ¡°Nothing too major,¡± Elizabeth dismissed quickly¡­ too quickly. ¡°I am more interested in what happened after I was banished.¡±

    ¡°We¡­¡± Irwyn started and paused, frowning. The subsequent bets were on his mind, but he could not voice them. ¡°Strange.¡±

    ¡°The usual as far as fae are concerned,¡± Elizabeth nodded while Alice seemed to also struggle to speak while Waylan did not even bother. ¡°You can only speak of events involving the fae in the presence of other fae or the people who witnessed what happened firsthand. Even hinting at it is hard, supposedly - hence Waylan¡¯s awareness but lack of ever bringing anything up. Your first encounter in the forest outside of Ebon Respite is strange in that regard, Irwyn. Almost unique in the seeming lack of restrictions.¡±

    ¡°What about¡­¡± Irwyn opened his mouth and could only pause again. He was about to mention Nilly - as the fae had called herself at the time, his one-time ¡®lawyer¡¯ - but realized he could not. That made him frown. Had that not come up in any of his recountings?

    ¡°Sometimes it can be subtle, merely forgetting to mention things,¡± Elizabeth answered his unsaid question ¨C seemingly guessing it from his expression. Presumably with a grin, but the mask did block the sight of her mouth.

    ¡°But you can somehow tell us all this?¡± Waylan said with some doubt.

    ¡°As I mentioned at the table: House Blackburg has gathered much information over the centuries. Their way of stopping information from spreading is very potent but hardly insurmountable by competence, time, and chance. Realistically, all that is needed is realizing this kind of information embargo had been placed on someone else and then employing a skillful enough mage who can extract exactly what the magic hides. Difficult but completely feasible for any of the Duke households. The rest is luck, which occurs eventually.¡±

    ¡°And since your information did not come from an encounter it could not be sealed,¡± Irwyn presumed.

    ¡°Yes, but that has probably been remedied when it comes to anyone else but us four,¡± she nodded. ¡°Not a great loss anyhow.¡±

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be protected against that anyway?¡± Waylan asked.

    ¡°I am not immune to ancient beings equivalent to Truth mages altering my mind, no,¡± Elizabeth rolled her eyes. ¡°There is obviously a limit to what a trinket can shield me from. Life in particular is rarely the focus given the general dislike of the element among liches.¡±

    ¡°Are we not gonna mention the mask then?¡± Waylan questioned again.

    ¡°You just did,¡± Irwyn pointed out to his friend.

    ¡°It¡¯s a¡­ small thing,¡± Elizabeth said after a surprising moment of hesitation.

    ¡°Yep, definitely hiding something,¡± Alice nodded.

    ¡°Yep,¡± Waylan concurred. Irwyn remained silent, though could not say he was not curious.

    ¡°Well, we did get what we wanted in the end,¡± Elizabeth sighed. ¡°A few bits of petty revenge are not unreasonable to weather. I have been waiting here for three days, that''s one.¡±

    ¡°Three?¡± that gave Irwyn a pause. ¡°We couldn¡¯t have been there more than a few hours.¡±

    ¡°And we really haven¡¯t won that much,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Not three days¡¯ worth for sure.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s been three days,¡± Alice also disagreed, and she was the expert among them. ¡°A day at most, even if my senses were messed with. My honest estimate is eight hours including before you left and we might not have been fully conscious for much of it.¡±

    ¡°Maybe it wasn¡¯t us but Elizabeth¡¯s perception being off,¡± Irwyn suggested.

    ¡°Making me believe I have spent three days in boredom waiting¡­ but never really straying far or doing anything major in all that time. I actually don¡¯t even remember sleeping or a night of any kind¡­ Yes, that makes more sense,¡± she agreed after a moment.

    ¡°So, mask?¡± Waylan reminded.

    ¡°What else have you actually won?¡± Elizabeth intently delayed. "I assume that was what went down after my exile."

    ¡°I have a¡­¡± Irwyn began, then realized he couldn¡¯t speak. The restriction was stopping them from sharing their later winnings even with Elizabeth.

    ¡°Really? That is just petty,¡± she grumbled.

    //YES the fae¡¯s booming voice sounded, as if from afar, startling them all.

    ¡°We should get moving,¡± Elizabeth suggested immediately. There was no disagreement. They could talk about the winnings later, when they were further away. For all the fae had treated them mostly fairly, there was no reason to test her whims by staying.

    ¡°Is there any clue as to where we are?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°For now we head North,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°We will find a town of some kind eventually and get better directions there. Ideally not too soon though, it would be best if Irwyn and I reached conception before we stride into another nation.¡±

    ¡°That way,¡± Alice pointed in a direction. Irwyn tried to form his proven platforms but found them refusing to take shape, leaving him baffled.

    //Walk a bit. It¡¯s healthy. The fae added mockingly, explaining the cause. With no real way to contest the whim of the ancient being, they quickly strode into the forest. The terrain was very much uneven so Irwyn had to dedicate a lot of attention to not tripping with his limited experience but with his body and mind being far beyond normal it was not actually that difficult.

    ¡°Did it work, have you tested it?¡± Irwyn asked after a few minutes of quiet trekking, eager to experience things himself. The fae had promised to let hem skip two stages of imbuement. Except he also simultaneously had a vision right after or even during that which came with its own rise in power. That would skew those results, so he opted to ask Elizabeth first as they had been at very similar levels before.

    ¡°Yes, 9 intentions, just barely,¡± Elizabeth grinned wide enough for a slight shift to be visible despite the mask. ¡°My Vessel and efficiency lag behind a bit now since they didn¡¯t progress as much but that is fine. Efficiency will get better with practice and the Vessel is still sufficient. In conception, my reserves will expand exponentially anyway and my Soul has more than kept up.¡±

    By ¡®efficiency¡¯ she meant how well she could imbue additional intentions. At minimum, going from eight intentions to nine would always be at least nine times as difficult and mana intensive, however, the reality was usually far worse. As Irwyn knew firsthand, getting closer to the theoretical minimum came with extensive practice. It would be much worse when jumping two intentions at once since the initial extreme inefficiency would apply twice. By the time she got the hang of it, Elizabeth would likely be able to wield two or even three nine-intention spells.

    ¡°Now I should be able to do seven-intention with the ring,¡± Alice said proudly. ¡°I never would have thought Conception could be so close this soon. I might get there within the year.¡±

    ¡°I cannot exactly test if I am harder to do magic on,¡± Waylan gave his two cents.

    ¡°Well I could,¡± Alice suggested.

    ¡°Sure go aheAAAD!¡± Waylan¡¯s answer turned into a squeal as Alice teleported him four meters into the air where he immediately began to plummet towards the ground. Irwyn wondered for a moment whether to help catch him but noticed another spell from Alice already preparing to break his fall.

    ¡°Yep, about three times as hard to teleport,¡± she nodded sagely with a smirk. ¡°It also works for detecting you. At least while you are not actively hiding, not sure it will make any difference when you are. But it should also apply to any mind magic, right?¡±

    ¡°When you are cleaning one of your guns and a small piece goes strangely missing, I want you to remember this moment,¡± Waylan threatened good-naturedly.

    ¡°I have spare parts,¡± she stuck out her tongue.

    ¡°So, mask,¡± Waylan suddenly redirected again. ¡°We can do this all day.¡±

    ¡°Fine, it¡¯s not so bad anyway,¡± Elizabeth sighed and they all halted. She ripped down the mask revealing the whole of her face. As ever the skin was smooth and features flawless, almost beyond what seemed possible. An engineered yet also natural beauty¡­ and a massively bloated crimson wart marring the tip of her nose. ¡°Happy?¡±

    ¡°Wow,¡± Alice paused while Waylan fought hard to not snigger inappropriately. It was quite something¡­ certainly the biggest growth Irwyn had ever seen sprouting on someone¡¯s face, almost comically so.

    ¡°Please, do not be struck mute by it,¡± Elizabeth sighed and put the mask on again.

    ¡°Have you tried¡­ removing it?¡± Irwyn suggested carefully. For all she played nonchalant, he could tell Elizabeth was somewhat miffed by it.

    ¡°Grows right back when I directly cut it out,¡± Elizabeth replied. ¡°Immune to the few beautifications items I had bothered to bring. I can probably only hope that it will lose its magic eventually.¡±

    ¡°I think we might be far enough away now that we can try flying,¡± Alice said. The forest foliage was getting progressively thicker as they moved further from the clearing, the trees taller and terrain more difficult to navigate. So far Irwyn had not resorted to just burning a way through but that was only a matter of time if they had to keep walking.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see,¡± Irwyn nodded, trying to summon his magic. That time it worked, creating a platform beneath each of them. He quickly raised them above the tree-line, giving them a better look at where they were.

    It was a forest as far as the eye could see. Green treetops, some high, some lower, spreading across both even terrain and hills alike from horizon to horizon. In the far, far, distance to the West some mountain tips were visible but that was about it for diversity. The only difference from where they were looking seemed to be the height of the trees.

    ¡°I think we are safely out of the desert,¡± Waylan commented drily.

    ¡°Let¡¯s keep going until we find another clearing to camp in,¡± Elizabeth decided. ¡°It looks like dusk is still a few hours away.¡±

    <hr>

    It took them well over an hour to find another relatively open space to rest - and only because Alice barely spotted it. Rather than a proper clearing it was a half-collapsed hill. Seemingly, a huge chunk of it had sunk into the ground splitting the local landmark in two, then solidified again. One half remained a jagged mass of stone towering over the local area while the other was relatively even and without many trees managing to spread in, given the ground was still more rock than soil.

    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    It made for a convenient campsite. Alice had no trouble driving the stakes into even solid stone with her magic so they were set up relatively quickly - the relatively being there for a group of four where only one person actually knew how to properly put up a tent. They were learning though, Irwyn had actually helped rather than made a mess. He was sure he would get the hang of it soon enough even without dedicated practice.

    When they were done, it was not yet quite sundown, so he sat down with Elizabeth. Irwyn had insisted she would remove the mask and was doing a very good job not even glancing at the glaring wart. Elizabeth distracted herself with the entire tea set, produced from her bag. She was brewing with practiced motions as Irwyn made them a blazing furniture set under the gradually darkening skies. Alice was off reading from her prized tome and Waylan was doing who knew what. They certainly couldn¡¯t see him.

    ¡°I had another vision,¡± Irwyn finally admitted. ¡°Just when we were being sent away by that fae, I think.¡±

    ¡°What about?¡± Elizabeth immediately became curious.

    ¡°The death of the very first fae, I believe,¡± he said, hesitating how much it was even possible to reveal without the full context. ¡°Did you know that there can only ever be 3774 of tem put together?¡± he asked, surprisingly enough able to speak it. He had only learned the meaning of the number afterward during a conversation he found himself unable to even hint at¡­ did that mean there were loopholes in the restrictions? Or was it merely the visions holding enough weight to bypass them and a few related things?

    ¡°I have never heard of it,¡± the tea was finally ready and she poured them a cup each. ¡°The closest thing is speculations about dragons possibly following a similar restriction. It sounds like the kind of secret they would keep well hidden.¡±

    ¡°I wonder¡­¡± Irwyn paused, then asked outright. ¡°Is now the time to reveal my big secret?¡±

    ¡°The fae could still be watching,¡± Elizabeth shook her head hesitantly, a hint of tension entering her features. ¡°And this was a bit too much excitement for me. I can also better ensure privacy when I finally carve a few Concepts.¡±

    ¡°So not yet¡­¡± Irwyn repeated with both relief and regret.

    ¡°Not yet,¡± she confirmed, tension likewise leaving her.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think it was warning me about anything that hasn¡¯t happened yet,¡± Irwyn returned to the vision after, trying to speak in circles. Perhaps Elizabeth would catch the hint of what he actually couldn¡¯t say. Or not.

    ¡°I see, not much point dwelling on it then,¡± she said. ¡°Have you had the chance to test your magic?¡±

    ¡°Four nine-intention spells,¡± he said with a smirk. He just barely had the time when setting up the camp. ¡°I should get much better at it quickly too.¡±

    ¡°More than enough to carve a concept,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°The issue now is the how for you. You still cannot access your Soul very well, can you?¡±

    ¡°Still in a shell I can barely perceive,¡± Irwyn nodded. He had been practicing but his ability to feel his own Soul was developing painfully slowly. ¡°There might be an alternative. If I properly carve the concepts into my body, my Soul is likely to mirror them onto itself. That way, even if I cannot access the Soul consciously, it should be feasible to advance.

    ¡°First time I am hearing of such a method,¡± Elizabeth admitted with a frown.

    ¡°I have it on good authority,¡± Irwyn said vaguely. The restriction imposed was clearly more strict on some things, and less on others. It was possible to voice the suggestions but not actually say it came from the fae they had just met or mention their private chat at all. He was not going to puzzle out exactly how it worked at that moment though.

    ¡°A whimsical but not malicious expert,¡± Elizabeth nodded in understanding, a gleam passing through her eyes. ¡°But there will have to be a divergence from the usual process.¡±

    ¡°I have to admit I have limited idea on how to actually take this leap even normally.¡±

    ¡°You have not read up?¡± Elizabeth seemed surprise.

    ¡°The exact methodology was in none of the books I had,¡± Irwyn shrugged. ¡°And I presumed you can explain it better than a written guide would.¡±

    ¡°Fine, fine. There are three steps in this process,¡± she smiled and began to elborate. ¡°First, you must realize the composition of the Concept. Which nine intentions do align into something greater? This is not an exact science and the same Concepts can be formed from different intentions. But for this step they still need to make sense. This difference often comes from ¡®supporting¡¯ intentions, like amplify or empower. Have you considered which concept you would form first?¡±

    ¡°Starfire seems like the obvious option,¡± he nodded.

    ¡°Not unexpected¡­ but we will have to skip ahead in the explanation,¡± she said. ¡°Just because concepts are formed from nine intentions doesn¡¯t mean they cannot be refined further. Starfire is Light and Flame, and it can be formed directly from nine intentions, though it would make it weaker - too spread out. Instead, you will be much better off forming them separately and then merging them into one. Or go even further.¡±

    ¡°The downside is that this takes much longer, I assume,¡± Irwyn guessed. ¡°You need to carve nine concepts to claim a domain, adding another would make it ten.¡±

    ¡°It does slow you down but not by a whole concept ¨C you can think of it like re-filling a hole instead of needing to also dig it again. And your muscle in this analogy will also get stronger along the way,¡± Elizabeth elaborated. ¡°A merged concept will be maybe 30ish percent more powerful than a directly formed one. But as you said, there are clear downsides. For one, there must be an obvious way to obtain the desired from several other concepts. The merging process is not easy either. Moreover, each concept merged into the resulting one must be an equal part of that equation.¡±

    ¡°Can you merge from more than two then?¡± Irwyn asked. The way she chose her words implied it.

    ¡°Yes, but there must still be a clear way for the parts to be equal. You cannot just shuffle in something supportive and go with that. The other downsides and upsides also apply, so merging more than three is ill-advised even for us, if it¡¯s even possible. I will be doing three exactly twice on my way through conception.¡±

    ¡°You have it all completely figured out then?¡± Irwyn said, though he had already expected as much.

    ¡°Down to every merger,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°And you should also make a clear plan before committing. It will be much easier than usual, given you can grasp intentions at a whim, so you will not be punished for not already planning throughout imbuement but for concepts it is a necessity. Otherwise, you might not be able to claim a domain as easily.¡±

    ¡°How precise must I be then?¡± he inquired. ¡°I know that it is nine concepts again that form into a domain, but do those need to be still roughly equal.¡±

    ¡°No, domain formation is surprisingly ¡®loose¡¯, the concepts just need to make sense. For example, you cannot use¡­ let¡¯s say ¡®intangible wind¡¯ as a part of a domain of an ¡®immovable mountain¡¯. Both of those are Realm in nature but do not fit together. On the other hand, you could use ¡®Hardness¡¯, ¡®Persistence¡¯, or ¡®Reinforcement¡¯ for the latter - all three, probably.¡±

    ¡°Do the parts matter as far as the final domain is concerned then?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Yes, but also not,¡± she shrugged. ¡°Having stronger or better fitting concepts will make claiming the domain significantly easier. You will also be able to get initial control over it faster - this is especially important for the first domain. However, in theory at least, domains are fixed in power, no matter who or how claims them - the limit is in how much of that power can be accessed. But that is besides the point now. You only need to choose the first one to aim for and can go from there.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t I need to also plan for Truths?¡± Irwyn questioned. It seemed like a theme.

    ¡°There is no such thing as ''planning'' for Truths,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Even I have not gone that far yet.¡±

    ¡°What do you have in mind for Conception then?¡± he asked curiously, ¡°You also mentioned two mergers of three concepts.¡±

    ¡°The first one will happen right away,¡± she nodded. ¡°I will carve Void then Flame, proceeding to merge them into Temzda. From there, I will carve Void and Flame again and merge all three into Temzdaflame - a synonym to Voidflame as we once discussed but more fitting for me personally.¡±

    ¡°That is¡­ possible?¡± Irwyn gaped at her plan. ¡°That feels like cheating. You just use Void and Flame twice? And isn¡¯t Temzda very close to Temzdaflame conceptually?¡±

    ¡°All that is required is that the concepts play an equal part in the merger,¡± Elizabeth¡¯s chuckled at his bafflement. ¡°This in particular is an old trick passed to every half-prodigy with some background who walks the joint path of Void and Flame. Given the two separate mergers, the resulting concepts will almost approach two independent concepts in raw power.¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that having more powerful concepts doesn¡¯t make the resulting domain any stronger?¡± he pondered. ¡°Is it worth the effort? It would be far faster to carve two Concepts instead I assume.¡±

    ¡°There are two benefits besides the obvious one of being more powerful at an equal number of Concepts,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Firstly, as I said, better Concepts will make claiming my first domain much, much smoother. That in itself would be worthwhile. Do not underestimate that boundary - it will be genuinely difficult even for us. But secondly, more refining Concepts like this will make the Soul and body grow faster and more efficiently. That is one of the reasons why I am aiming for this as my first full Concept - it will actually save me time in the long run.¡±

    ¡°And this presumably also works with Starfire,¡± Irwyn theorized ¨C it seemed the steps could be basically followed one to one if he just replaced Void with Light.

    ¡°Exactly my thoughts,¡± she confirmed. ¡°Void and Light surprisingly often mirror each other. I believe it would be the best way to go for both of us.¡±

    ¡°Then I assume your second triple merger will happen right after that?¡± he asked, wondering if it would also be suitable to ¡®borrow¡¯ that plan as well.

    ¡°Exactly. I will merge Temzda, Perfection, and Flesh into Perfected Temzdaflesh,¡± she explained. ¡°That is not suitable for you.¡±

    ¡°How is the ¡®perfection¡¯ an equal part?¡± Irwyn frowned. ¡°It seems supplementary rather than something directly comparable.¡±

    ¡°It would not be for any other element,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°However, this stems from some very deep complexities of the Void. Fundamentally, the nature of all Voidborn creatures is to pursue perfection. This in itself comes from Umbra herself. There is a verse in the Book of the Name about it, I am quite sure¡­¡±

    ¡°While Lumen in her kindness accepted all who would live beneath her skies¡­¡± Irwyn quoted, remembering the passage she likely had in mind. ¡°...Umbra was a harsh mother to those of night and Void. She decreed that only the best were worthy of being her children. That the weak and mediocre shall be all banished from her sight.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that is the one,¡± Elizabeth confirmed. ¡°So, all things which dwell in the Void are forced to pursue perfection or perish as the weak are not tolerated - neither by others nor the environment itself. Elves follow and enforce that decree wherever they walk - and they are closely tied to Temzdas. That is why Perfection can be considered equal part specifically to Temzda.¡±

    ¡°I doubt you have that much insight into what I could do,¡± Irwyn presumed.

    ¡°Maybe you can figure out something from your old visions?¡± Elizabeth sighed, trying to at least offer an alternative. ¡°The Duchy of Black is light on Light lore.¡±

    ¡°Though, the verse speaks about banishment rather than death,¡± Irwyn pondered.

    ¡°While Umbra yet lived, yes,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Many things were twisted after the First Betrayal. With the Aspects dead there was nothing left that would forcefully curb the worst tendencies of people. While Umbra had been a harsh mother, she was still loving, merely banishing those proven unsatisfactory to live beneath Lumen¡¯s skies instead. Without her¡­ well, I have been told there used to be several more intelligent species dwelling in the Void than just Demons and Elves.¡±

    ¡°That is certainly a grim thought,¡± Irwyn sighed. The era after the First Betrayal had clearly been even more chaotic than he could imagine. And apparently contained more genocides than just the Great Crusade against all undead.

    ¡°The next issue with carving a Concept is that you must be able to picture it,¡± she returned to the original topic. ¡°The shape will not be fully physical but will be quite complex with some degree of impossible geometry. For the average mage, this requires extensive effort because they need to invest much research and experimentation into making it so that the carving fits them just right. This is not difficult for us - with our talent we will be able to feel exactly when its form is perfect. Even for the initial shape from which to refine, we can improvise from just the intentions without much need for preparations. I don¡¯t expect this will take us more than a few hours for each Concept.¡±

    ¡°The last hurdle is the carving itself. You must take your mana and dent your own Soul with exceeding precision. Again, our superb control will make this massively easier. Assuming your alternative is workable, we must also hope this does not count as ¡®creation¡¯ for you.¡±

    ¡°I do not believe it will stop me,¡± Irwyn shook his head, though feeling a bit of irrational nervousness deep down. He hid it. ¡°The Oath I remembered explicitly excludes magic from being unable to create. I have put a lot of thought into it but I think it will not pose a challenge in this way.

    ¡°Then we just need to figure out how exactly you would carve the concept into flesh in a way that would be reflected by the Soul,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Maybe it will come naturally to you? I am really not sure. But one way that I can help is by letting you watch what I am doing when carving my own first Concept. Witnessing the process firsthand is likely to help.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Irwyn gave her a smile. ¡°When do you plan to do it?¡±

    ¡°Tomorrow evening, not long after dusk,¡± she grinned back.

    ¡°Already?¡± he exclaimed with surprise. ¡°Don¡¯t you need to adjust for longer?¡±

    ¡°I have already made good progress on that today while waiting and will continue to practice morning to dusk tomorrow while you fly us,¡± Elizabeth smiled. ¡°It is, ultimately, merely Conception - and with extensive preparations at that. I am not stepping into a realm of legends, Irwyn. These are the stairs even the most mediocre mage can expect to one day reach with enough effort.¡±

    ¡°At least you are confident.¡±

    ¡°More tea?¡± she offered. Irwyn agreed.

    <hr>

    In the evening, Irwyn finally went to bed. For a traveler¡¯s setup, it was very comfortable with self-inflating mattresses and stuffed pillows. They had the advantage of their expanded spacial bags after all, so a lot of amenities that would otherwise be unavailable could be brought along. So, as Irwyn lay down on his bed, about ready to go to sleep, his head hit the pillow.

    Thud

    Yes, ¡®hit¡¯ was a very accurate term given the concussive forces involved. Action and reaction working as ever. Irwyn sat up summoning a bit of light with a frown. He quickly opened the pillow to find not a single feather but rather a collection of rocks of various sizes. Very local rocks by the color.

    ¡°Waylan,¡± he muttered, vowing vengeance.

 4.16 To carve a Soul

    The journey the following days was certainly¡­ interesting. Elizabeth did not quite radiate nervousness, but there was an intensity to her as she practiced magic while Irwyn carried them over the vast forest. A palpable anticipation, as if the world was waiting with bated breath for the step she would take after dusk. Alice, on the other hand, was tossing rocks. ¡®Ballistics practice¡¯ she had called it. Hitting a quickly moving target while also at speed, needing to account for both their velocity, friction of the air, the relatively low strength of her arm¡­ all for precise rock throws.

    Now, all of that was a blatant lie. Irwyn knew it, she knew it, Waylan knew it. Elizabeth was distracted enough she had probably not even heard, in all honesty. The reason why Irwyn had not called her out on the overt deception was, of course, how she carried those rocks and what she was targeting. So, Alice once again reached into her pillowcase, withdrawing a large piece of stone. With a flicker of magic, she broke it into two smaller chunks, then tossed them ahead and a bit above them. They followed a very small arc before they lost enough speed compared to the people on the platforms that they collided with their group in just about two seconds.

    Well, with a specific person from their group to be precise. Waylan tried desperately to dodge but it was a bit troublesome, given Irwyn was keeping him attached to the platform up to his calves. Higher on the legs than the day before, yes, but a reasonable precaution given how fast they were flying. Definitely just a precaution.

    ¡°If it makes you feel better, I also didn¡¯t have no feathers in mine,¡± Waylan shouted. He actually managed to barely avoid one by twisting his torso but the other hit him in the shoulder. It wouldn¡¯t actually hurt. They were moving incredibly fast but the rocks ¡®inherited¡¯ - as Alice put it - their speed when she tossed them. The impact was not like hitting something at their incredible aerial velocity, but rather as if they were moving as fast as the resulting difference was.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t?¡± Irwyn frowned. Who had taken his then? Alice did not seem like she had.

    ¡°Well, if I had kept mine, dear Alice would have just nabbed it with her magic,¡± the sneak immediately ruined any chance of forgiveness. ¡°And then she would have a whole pillow, wasting my hard work.¡±

    ¡°You filled yours with weeds,¡± Alice squinted her eyes. ¡°It left marks on my clothes when a bunch fell out.¡±

    ¡°Well, yes. Took a while to find all the ones that stain the most.¡±

    ¡°I will need bigger rocks,¡± Alice looked down at the pillowcase in her hands. It was half empty and most of the largest chunks had already been split apart.

    ¡°Want mine?¡± Irwyn offered.

    ¡°You kept it,¡± Waylan blinked.

    ¡°Well, the bag has enough space,¡± Irwyn shrugged, taking it out. ¡°I was going to swap it with yours in a few weeks, maybe months, when you thought you were safe. This is more immediately gratifying.¡±

    <hr>

    The landscape they were flying over was not a jungle. Yes, it was a deep forest with tall trees but the details did not fit. What made a jungle? Irwyn imagined tangled vines, dense moisture in the air, trees towering above the largest hills. It would be in the climate as well, in the exotic bugs. So no, it was not a jungle, just a dense forest sprawling over an incredible area. The animals looked mundane from what he had seen. The trees tall but not that tall. In most places, the ground might be traversable on foot - yes, with detours and some rough rooted terrain but not impassable because of sheer biomass blocking every step. Definitely did not fit the bill for a jungle. No way.

    ¡°How do you know what a jungle even is,¡± Alice challenged when he explained as much.

    ¡°I have read it,¡± Irwyn defended.

    ¡°Where?¡± she pushed further.

    ¡°In a book.¡±

    ¡°I meant exactly what title, author, and peer acceptance.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s obviously not a jungle!¡± Irwyn tried to deflect unable to remember.

    ¡°How would you know! It¡¯s a gargantuan overgrown forest. Who cares about the details?! It¡¯s a jungle.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s probably not a jungle,¡± Waylan interrupted, shooting Alice a wide grin. He was slightly bruised from the rocks on one cheek ¨C which was when Alice finally stopped. It had not helped the sneak to keep needling her until she began to use even larger pieces. Also, while the rocks she tossed would still be moving as fast as them¡­ but Alice could slow them down before Waylan hit them, magnifying the impact in accordance with her level of frustration.

    ¡°Unbelievable!¡± she yelled.

    ¡°But maybe it is,¡± Waylan pretended to be thoughtful, putting a hand on his chin in an exaggerated gesture.

    ¡°Playing both sides will not win you any allies,¡± Irwyn said warningly.

    ¡°But it will annoy the most people,¡± Waylan grinned smugly. Irwyn contemplated letting his friend freefall for a dozen meters before catching him again but decided that would be a bit too far.

    ¡°Stop,¡± Elizabeth suddenly said, unexpectedly cutting into their conversation. She had been quiet all day besides a few sentences during a brief lunch and it was getting well into the afternoon. Irwyn obviously did halt their flight, wondering what warranted it. There was no urgency in her voice but there would be a reason.

    ¡°I don¡¯t see anything off,¡± Alice informed everyone.

    ¡°Over there,¡± Elizabeth pointed, diagonally left of the direction they had been heading. So North-West, Alice had kept them on course without trouble.

    ¡°Nothing in my sight either,¡± Irwyn admitted but did begin to move them in that direction. It was just all the same forest. Elizabeth seemed disinclined to explain more though, focused on something. Her finger kept intently pointing in a direction, the smallest corrections done when Irwyn inevitably veered a few degrees off-course.

    ¡°Here, right below us,¡± she said. They were¡­ well in the middle of a forest. Nothing extraordinary was around at a glance. Just more trees. Maybe a squirrel? Irwyn thought he spotted one scurrying away.

    ¡°What are we looking for?¡± Irwyn questioned, trying to make her explain. She was still in her strange state¡­ no, even further into it. The presence that had been around her had only intensified. However, his question had at least woken her enough to answer.

    ¡°I will carve the concept here. It is the perfect spot,¡± she simply said.

    ¡°Hardly a place for a camp,¡± Alice muttered. There were trees all around and the ground was not exactly even. There was nowhere to even put up tents. Well, not yet.

    ¡°We can make one,¡± Irwyn decided, summoning Flame to dance on his palm. ¡°I take care of the trees, you the ground?¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± Alice nodded. She had also noticed the strange state Elizabeth seemed to be in and thus did not argue.

    ¡°I will just be standing here them, out of the way,¡± Waylan said, still very much on top of the platform. ¡°At least let me sit down eh? We are not moving anymore.¡±

    The trees, as it turned out, were not particularly resistant to fire. They were not exactly flammable either ¨C it was the thick bark, absorbed moisture, and high density, all things that helped them endure possible fire sources. Irwyn could, however, evaporate most mundane metals in seconds. Trees did not stand a chance. Irwyn willed it and the forest burned.

    The entire area around them was set ablaze in not much slower than an instant. Yet the heat did not scorch the other three people, Irwyn intentionally regulating the air around them. He could have also made the flames not hot but worried it would slow down the deforestation. Given he was kind of trying to show off, he opted for the sure way. An application of special barriers also funneled all the dark smoke from the incinerated wood upwards and away from them.

    The closest thing to a hiccup were the roots. They stumped Irwyn for a few minutes because he could not perceive them in the ground which made burning such targets difficult. One way to burn those away would be to let his control over the fire slip so that it would gradually proliferate through them. Which risked an accidental widespread forest fire that he would prefer to avoid ¨C not to mention the wood in the ground struggled to burn away easily. Without Irwyn controlling them flames would become mundane and thus required oxygen again rather than just mana. Eventually, he realized that there was literally no reason to remove the roots. They just needed to camp, removing the trees was the means, not the end.

    Alice in the meantime had the work cut out for her with excavation. She was no Realm mage. She could not just will the soil to move into shape like Irwyn could Flame. Rather, she had to twist and push space around in a way that also moved the soil by dragging it along. By the look on her face and the pace she was working at, a rather frustrating task. When Irwyn was done with the trees, creating a sizable clearing without needing to even step off his platform, she had barely begun to make progress.

    ¡°We only need it even enough for tents,¡± she decided after 15 or so minutes. It took her another ten to have four perfectly flat spots a bit larger than they strictly needed to be. The erection went smoothly, Irwyn managing finally put his own tent up. Alice did not even need to fix anything.

    Elizabeth was still absentminded. She had taken a matt out of her pouch and sat at a specific spot she refused to move from, even for even-ing. It would yet be some hours before dusk so Irwyn came to ask her if she needed anything else before then. She managed to focus for a moment and told him to bring Alice.

    ¡°These,¡± she took out two white-rimmed monocles. ¡°Will allow you to directly observe my Soul as I carve it. I will have to disable my protections either way. Try to glean what you can, it is helpful, even without understanding the concept itself. It will be Void.¡±

    ¡°Why did you choose this place?¡± Alice tried again to use her moment of sudden lucidity.

    ¡°It calls to me,¡± Elizabeth said, looking down beneath her feet. ¡°It has been since last night, I think. I just needed to get closer to realize it.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Irwyn tried to get her to elaborate.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she hesitated. ¡°But this is the right place. I feel it down to the marrow. In my heart. In my Soul. Right here I will carve my first concept, just after dusk.¡±

    <hr>

    Irwyn was warry when the sun set. Whatever Elizabeth had sensed was almost certainly related to the Void and not irrelevantly, given how she was acting. Of course, the Heiress of House Blackburg would be fine. He was more worried about the remaining three of them. Therefore, he had made arrangements, if simple ones. If things went wrong, Alice would try to teleport them a few dozen meters up and to the side. Meanwhile, Irwyn would summon platforms to carry them away. Both would assume the other person might fail, just in case. A reasonable precaution - Irwyn thought as he put on the monocle when Elizabeth gestured for them to.

    His vision changed in that eye, forcing him to close the other so that he could better focus on the new perceptions. The world became bleached as he stared at it. Like everything had lost its natural color and were instead replaced with shades of white. It was not black and white. White was the only color that existed, if only in a few spots. Its opposite was absence. Usually, black was how absence looked to the naked eye but not in with the monocle. Where white was scarce in this new sight¡­ something else lingered. Irwyn struggled to describe it. Like a non-existent color that the monocle let him perceive and interpret from moment to moment but not internalize, remember, or understand.

    When he looked around the world was different. The ¡®absence¡¯ was almost everywhere and on everything. Trees and soil were seemingly wholly colorless, as were most things, yet little spots of dim white shone on them. Just tiny specs, so small they were barely noticeable even in the strong contrast against nothing. Insects, Irwyn realized. He had not known they had something close enough to a Soul to be seen as he was. He tried to commit it to memory. Because that was what the monocle had to be doing - letting them see Souls.

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Then he looked at his friends. Waylan was hard to spot, even when not hiding. The sneak had agreed that he would stay visible just in case but Waylan had become different from a mere human. That was more apparent than ever at that moment. For even when not trying to conceal his presence, Waylan¡¯s Soul was almost invisible againts the background of nothing behind it. Large, yes, as a human ought to be and deep pure white, yet also dimmed at the same time. There was plenty of color hidden within though, just hard to notice.

    Next he glanced at Alice. Hers was larger than Waylan¡¯s by at least three times and so much easier to see. It also let Irwyn realize that what he was witnessing made little sense. Her Soul was nestled in her chest, by the heart¡­ but also behind her eyes. Two spots yet it occupied them at once. The Soul also did not have a shape. Not ¡®strange¡¯ or ¡®indescribable¡¯, it simply lacked geometry. When Irwyn tried to process it, his mind dumbed it down to something close to a circle but that was merely a massive simplification.

    There was, also, a second Soul shining on Alice¡¯s hand. He had not noticed it at first¡­ because it hadn¡¯t been there. Perhaps Alice had decided to allow the ring to appear and likely to also shortly shed whatever hid the artifact¡¯s soul. It was massive, Irwyn knew that much, but could not tell how large at all as if the ring still made sure to keep at least that a secret. Yet because it lacked geometry, the Soul still neatly fit inside that intricate but little ring without even hinting at its actual ''size''.

    Elizabeth¡¯s Soul was black with hints of smoldering red. True black rather than white. Like the Void, if not as intense. And burning red of Flame, even if a bit less of that in comparison. He could tell thanks to the monocle that there was still mostly the white of a Soul beneath that veneer of Void and Flame so their colors were not too intense and full. An attuned Soul, Irwyn knew the term. Something few attained even in Conception, much less before it. Dervish had once told Irwyn his own Soul was one such. Clearly, so was Elizabeth¡¯s as was only to be expected.

    Hers was also large. Far larger than Alices. By how much? Irwyn did not know. Perhaps it was more than the protection of a ring that stopped him from estimating its potency. A lack of insight. Of knowledge, or a frame of reference. All he knew was that he did not know, just that it was much larger and more potent than even a prodigy like Alice. He could have guessed that. But actually figuring out the difference would likely require training, if not outright Soul magic.

    ¡°It¡¯s easy to forget what a monsters you two are, day to day,¡± Alice smiled, eyes flickering between him and Elizabeth with the slightest tremble across her fingers. ¡°I shouldn¡¯t. I really shouldn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°What do you see?¡± Irwyn asked, making Alice look at him again, their eyes meeting behind the monocle.

    ¡°A Star, shining like the sun. Hard to look at,¡± she shuddered, then quicly turned to Elizabeth. ¡°And¡­ she is the opposite. A bottomless black that will swallow the last flicker of light. Both of you, so grand I cannot understand the extent of it.¡±

    ¡°I also do not really get how potent hers is,¡± Irwyn assured. It also showed that the ''bubble'' around his own Soul was not easily visible, at least through this method. Unsuruprisingly - otherwise it would have been noticed by someone before Johnson.

    ¡°But magnitudes more than mine,¡± Alice sighed.

    ¡°Well¡­¡± Irwyn hesitated to say it out loud.

    ¡°I am not so delusional as to truly compare myself to either you,¡± she ruefully smiled. That she said the words out loud did not mean she was wholly happy though. ¡°Twice so after this reminder.¡±

    ¡°I will start now,¡± Elizabeth interrupted, sitting deathly still. Like a statue, not the slightest sign of a fidget going through her body. Irwyn turned to her. The sun was truly gone behind the horizon by then, the night in full swing. The moon was almost new so it gave little light and Irwyn decided not to summon a source. The monocle let him surprisingly see just the same even in near total darkness.

    It began slowly. That red and black ungemetric Soul sat still for several minutes, unchanging as Irwyn intently observed. Then, there was the slightest quiver as a focused force began to push against its surface. It reeled back for a moment but was immediately grabbed and held in place, the force intensifying and magnifying further. It took Irwyn a moment to realize what invisible powers was moving the two: Elizabeth¡¯s control over magic.

    It was not quite willpower but close. He knew that when wielding magic, part of the mind split to control it but it was capable of more afterwads. Irwyn could not focus on a hundred different things at once yet he could easily guide a hundred different spells. A thousand if they were simple enough. Control was thought, yes, but converted. Changed by something intrinsic to all mages Irwyn did not fully grasp, becoming an intangible hand.

    Elizabeth was using it to chisel a line. The process was meticulous and slow. The Soul was trying to quiver, as if instinctually rejecting the alternation being made upon the surface yet Elizabeth did not allow it to. Perhaps her pace was not fast but it was certainly unwavering. Bit by bit, the line appeared. It was not straight, nor was it merely flat. It twisted up and down, deeper in or further out - yet paradoxically remained firmly on the surface of the Soul, once again defying all rules of geometry.

    When the line was done, there was a flicker. An exceedingly powerful tremble going through the Soul which Elizabeth allowed to happen unsuppressed. For several seconds it shook in place quite intensely before calming down again. Elizabeth¡¯s face remained completely serene throughout. Not a trace of worry nor pain, even though the process looked like it would be at the very least unpleasant. When serenity returned, Elizabeth took a deep breath and began carving the second line.

    Irwyn could not tell what the lines meant. Not with his eyes nor magic, anyway. On the other hand, his mind could speculate quite easily. They had to be intentions. A Concept was made of nine, arrayed in a specific way. But it seemed the process was not about carving them all at once, but rather one at a time. It was also getting visibly harder. On the second and third lines, Elizabeth did not slow down but her Soul tried to tremble out of her grasp increasingly often. Starting from the fourth, she became even more deliberate. Slowing down so as to not allow even a single flaw. By the time the fifth was done, the shape was starting to radiate power. There was almost physical weight to it.

    Irwyn had lost track of time. It must have been at least an hour or more as he stared at Elizabeth carefully carving into her own essence. No matter how hard he tried he would never be able to understand what they meant - such was Void to his Light - but the process was still fascinating. While he could not grasp the meaning, he could glean insight into how they were being drawn. The shapes were geometrically impossible, yes, but they were still all being made in one gradual stroke. So, while there could be no deconstructing the end result, Irwyn could watch exactly how those impossible leaps were made at the time. How the line crossed itself without touching. How a circle fit into a loop half its diameter. How four right angles somehow resulted in a triangle. That and so much more beautiful impossibility.

    By the seventh line, Elizabeth slowed again. And the low presence of something connected to the Void suddenly multiplied by orders of magnitude. Irwyn felt the Light part of him roiling a bit, even from the decent distance he sat at. An instinctual rejection of its anathema despite all the insulation between them. When she finished drawing the eight, the feeling multiplied again. At the first stroke of the ninth, the expected surprise arrived. Mana surged in the area but it was not a person¡¯s. It was like the ambient mana in the air but more intense and not quite present. Irwyn could feel it clearly yet he could tell it was behind a blockade of some kind. He was also able to identify that it was Void in nature and about to break through directly in front of Elizabeth. He hesitated ¨C wondering whether ¡®helping¡¯ wouldn¡¯t do more harm than go.

    ¡°Let it,¡± Elizabeth said before Irwyn could actually intervene, freeing him from having to decide. So, he kept sitting down, erecting a second nine-intention barrier besides the one he already had ready, one specifically designed to block out the Void. He remained ready to flee if it came down to it.

    There was no sound when the boundary shattered. Not even a pop of displaced air to hint at the fact that reality had just been rent asunder. Void spilled onto the other side as if from a ruptured barrel, a stream of dense mana surging essentially into Elizabeth¡¯s face. And something more too. Irwyn realized that much but could not tell what. As the Void surged, it dove into Elizabeth¡¯s Soul like moth to a flame, finding a natural outlet that attracted it. She paused for the slightest moment, then continued carving. Irwyn assumed that for her it was more comforting than distracting. For the ninth line she was drawn slowest yet also cause her to struggle the most. Her Soul was no longer attempting to shake once in a while but always. Seconds dragged into minutes. Irwyn stared, and not just at the emerging shapes anymore. He was watching whatever it was that had just broken out of the Void.

    The breach had sealed quickly and the mana had been absorbed by Elizabeth with natural ease. But that presence Irwyn had felt remained. It was floating right by that nearly finished concept, a pitch-black formless existence. There was no hint of white underneath that so it was not Soul - yet it was still close enough Irwyn could see it through the monocle. And it showed signs of agitation as Elizabeth neared the completion of her work. When the last stroke was finished, there was no mistaking it. The concept¡¯s power surged so strongly Irwyn nearly flinched. The world around them shifted, as if focusing on the scene. Acknowledging what had just happened and giving it its proper weight. The nine lines had intersected in many places during the carving yet they had still been fundamentally separated. When the last stroke was finished that changed. All of them suddenly becoming a whole. Void.

    Right at that moment, that entity that had emerged earlier leaped forward. It was not-quite-a-Soul, more like a raptured, patchy remant in the monocle''s vision. Yet it was pitch with the Void''s attunement and maddened by a ravenous frenzy. It surged towards the newborn Concept, as if meaning to swallow it whole. Yet it had no maw nor teeth to do so. Not to mention Elizabeth did not let it. She allowed its approach almost within reach of the surface of her Soul, then counterattacked.

    There were no tendrils or grabbers that emerged. But rather, Elizabeth forced her whole Soul to shift a bit. To simply move. There was no artistry to it, Irwyn could tell. It was¡­ like moving a limb to grab something. Yes, that sounded easy and natural but Johnson had made Irwyn think about that. What was simpler for him: To grab something with his hand or to grasp it with magic? Which was easier?

    Irwyn could lift a carriage with his magic with barely a thought, then toss it out into the distance just as easily. The only reason he rarely did such was the force of habit. He was used to grabbing things with his hands¡­ and perhaps it was something ¡®human¡¯ to it. He did not have the time at the moment to intensely analyze his conscious and subconscious reasons for that but the conclusion was that he had better control over magic than his own body.

    Just like Johnson had once pointed out to him. He moved his hand but did not micromanage every fiber of muscle. Did not choose which hormones would course through his veins at what quantity. Could not regulate the beating of his heart. He would never manipulate his limbs the same way a Life mage could, but with sufficient training one could learn to move their Soul much like their body. What Elizabeth did to move her Soul was much like that. A layman, moving an arm.

    It was still enough to grab the Void entity. In its tangible hunger it had approached the Concept and realized too late the trap waiting for it. And by then it was far too late. Elizabeth enveloped the brief assailant and then returned its intent, immediately beginning to erode and devour it in turn, her magic surging. All of that happened perhaps within a second of the Concept first forming. The second surprise Irwyn had not seen coming. And neither had Elizabeth, judging by the shifting look on her face. Just as the incorporeal being was enveloped and at her mercy, a new source of power surged. It was, once again, Void in nature. Not that of a living being again. Except it was by far more powerful. So much so Irwyn once again found himself lacking a frame of reference. That was not the most shocking part thought:

    Because it came from within her.

    Irwyn did not - could not - notice the seams from which that power emerged. All he knew was that it had to be from Elizabeth''s still shapeless black and red Soul, given how it coursed to the surface and all around it. In just a moment it enveloped everything in a bubble of sorts making it much harder to see what was happening. Irwyn tried to keep his eyes on the carved Concept as best he could but it became difficult. Despite its incredible power from just moments prior, it seemed meager compared to the new surging tide.

    Then it withdrew in the blink of an eye. One moment it was there - overwhelming, suffocating, all-encompassing power - the next Irwyn barely caught the last remnants of it being re-absorbed back into Elizabeth¡¯s Soul. He blinked, then quickly refocused his gaze onto the concept. The shape was the exact same, Irwyn was certain of it. Yet something about it had changed. Become stronger. Deeper.

    ¡°What was that?¡± he asked. Elizabeth was gasping for air, taking deep breaths to calm down.

    ¡°Which one?¡± she managed a smile full of bravado.

    ¡°Either!¡± Alice shouted. Irwyn realized she had moved a few steps further back, perhaps instinctively. Irwyn had certainly wanted to flinch away several times.

    ¡°The first was an echo,¡± Elizabeth nodded, as if that explained anything. He would need to press her for more later. ¡°As for that second¡­ I have almost no idea.¡±

    ¡°How can you have no clue what is within your Soul!¡± Alice said, a bit too emotional. Then she paused, a sudden calm going over her as she reconsidered, a ring flickering on her finger. ¡°No, I suppose that is not that strange. Still, it was terrifying.¡±

    ¡°Recently, Johnson had told me that there he knows what is so ¡®special¡¯ about me,¡± Elizabeth said thoughtfully. She had managed to mostly calm down by then. ¡°And also said that telling me would do more harm than good. This is likely it. Something that did not manifest during imbuement but dwells deep within me¡­ hmmm.¡±

    ¡°Or perhaps it did,¡± Irwyn opined. ¡°Johnson told me that my talent is impossible for a pure human. Yours is at the very least comparable.¡±

    ¡°House Blackburg has some Elven blood in its ancestry,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°But I already knew that. It cannot be just that. But you have a point that an earlier manifestation might be related to my sheer affinity.¡±

    ¡°What did it even do?¡± Irwyn inquired, ever curious given that the immediate worries had passed. ¡°And for that matter, what is an ¡®echo¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­¡± she started sorting her thoughts.

    Then things became intensely bright. Everyone flinched, caught off-guard. There was no hint of magic around, yet their little clearing had been swallowed by a white glow as bright as day, perhaps more given it was so direct. Irwyn looked up - unable to be blinded - finding it was being projected from the front of something high up in the air. Something large. Though he could only see an outline against the night sky it had to be as big as a whole street of a city at least. ¡°What is that? It¡¯s massive.¡±

    ¡°An airship,¡± Elizabeth took a few moments to answer. She needed to get her bearings and squint - with an added pinch of magic - so she could even see through the sheer brightness. Then she finally identified the flying giant. ¡°A large balloon actually takes up most of its bulk. Have you never seen one? There are a few flying around the Duchy of Black¡­ I suppose they have no reason to go near the capital or Abonisle - the Beacon makes them obsolete for most transport and powerful mages capable of magical flight are obviously better for military purposes.¡±

    ¡°What is it doing here then?¡± Irwyn questioned. ¡°We had not seen even a hint of civilization so far but now an airship just appears?¡±

    ¡°Well, I think we are going to find out soon,¡± Alice sighed. ¡°Because they have certainly seen us.¡±

 4.17 A rescue

    ¡°IF YOU NEED URGENT HELP, WAVE YOUR HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEADS!¡± a voice sounded from the airship. Definitely amplified, given it was loud from even so far away. But at least it did not sound hostile. A good sign. None of them gestured that they needed immediate care. ¡°GOOD. WE WILL GET SOMEONE DOWN IN A FEW MINUTES.¡±

    ¡°What do we do?¡± Alice asked, clearly unsure.

    ¡°Just wait for them,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°We are not in a hurry.¡±

    ¡°They might freak out a bit at us,¡± Alice opined. ¡°I would, if four mages like us just popped up near Steelmire unnoticed.¡±

    ¡°We are no longer in the Federation,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°They seemingly didn¡¯t have people that could detect mages well even near our border at the City of Terraces. What are the odds they have them here.¡±

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Irwyn agreed, thinking the same thing. ¡°Forget what we are for a moment Alice, and just think about how we look from their perspective.¡±

    ¡°Just four young people in the middle of a massive forest,¡± Elizabeth finished for him with a smile. ¡°We don¡¯t look dangerous.¡±

    ¡°We are just innocent and lost wee lads and lasses,¡± Waylan laughed. ¡°No threat at all, sir. Why don¡¯t you just turn around so I can relieve you of them heavy coins. Brings back memories, eh?¡±

    ¡°Except we are not robbing them,¡± Irwyn said but nodded.

    ¡°For now,¡± Waylan had to have the last word.

    ¡°So, we wait,¡± Elizabeth still stole it from him with a smile.

    The airship did not take overly long before a platform started to descend from its midsection. By then it had moved right overhead of them and the headlight had moved away from them to shine on the surrounding forest instead - as if looking for something. Instead, a much smaller light source from the middle parts kept the area around them illuminated enough to mostly see in the night. Irwyn even dismissed his own. After a brief discussion, they had decided to not overly showcase their magic for the moment - mostly because Elizabeth insisted it could be interesting to play at normalcy.

    The platform was a solid wooden slab from the look of it, hanging from four very thick ropes in each corner as well as timber railings to stop anyone from falling over. Small lights made it visible even in the middle of the night. It descended all the way to the ground, to the edge of the clearing. Four men quickly opened a small gate and stepped off. They each wore a strange uniform - it had reflective stripes and seemed to be made of black material that seemed a bit like fabric but was clearly no wool or cotton. Although the pecking order was indistinguishable at a glance, the apparent leader stepped forth.

    ¡°Captain Tobba,¡± the man curtly introduced himself. Military from the title then, even though none of them were visibly armed. Neither did Irwyn feel any magic. ¡°What are you kids doing out here in the middle of nowhere?¡±

    ¡°Being interrogated, it seems,¡± Waylan said jokingly.

    ¡°Where are you from?¡± the man frowned, clearly not in much a joking mood. ¡°This place is dangerous. How did you even get here?¡±

    ¡°We were in something of a¡­ teleportation accident,¡± Elizabeth improvised. ¡°We just appeared in this forest.¡±

    ¡°Teleportation?¡± the man asked dubiously but did look them over. Despite being in the middle of a massive forest - possibly even jungle - they remained quite clean. He did also pause when looking at Elizabeth, likely noting the recent addition to her nose. Irwyn pretended to not notice her suppressing a glower. ¡°Where are you from?¡±

    ¡°The Duchy Federation,¡± Elizabeth said. That earned her more strange glances.

    ¡°Anyone?¡± the captain looked back at the group.

    ¡°Never heard of it,¡± one opined and the others shrugged. This did not lower Tobba¡¯s suspicion.

    ¡°It is far South, probably,¡± Irwyn tried. ¡°Past the desert and the Barrier Mountains.¡±

    ¡°The only desert I know of is North and has no mountain near it,¡± he said. ¡°How would that even make sense geologically?¡±

    ¡°Who knows? I don¡¯t know about any written accounts on their forming,¡± Elizabeth shrugged.

    ¡°Very funny,¡± the man rolled his eyes in annoyance, perhaps not realizing Elizabeth was being half serious. Then sighed ¡°Fine, say I buy it. We cannot leave you out here anyways - a watch station detected a wild fire suddenly spreading somewhere around here. It seems it has very luckily gone out but it¡¯s hard to tell. Sometimes the roots smolder for days and then start another one. It¡¯s extra not save around this area for the foreseeable future.¡±

    ¡°Was that the reason you came here?¡± Irwyn pointed at the airship, developing a strong suspicion. He knew of a certain forest fire. A very brief one. They even had the spot right, though the remnants of ash and trunks burned all the way to the roots were hard to see even in the headlights. He had been thorough with his incineration and hours of wind together with Alice''s terraforming efforts had erased almost all of the evidence.

    ¡°Yes, and lucky for you we did,¡± the man nodded. ¡°The closest sign of civilization is a hundred miles away. And no offense but you don¡¯t look equipped to make it that far through the thick woods.¡±

    ¡°What is that in kilometers?¡± Alice asked curiously.

    ¡°What is a kilometer?¡± the man frowned slightly.

    <hr>

    They were brought up onto the ship afterwards, lifted up on that same platform, followed by a short interrogation, if a polite one. They were not even split up. Instead, Tobba brought them to a communal cafeteria and sat them around a table, then began asking questions. It became quickly apparent that he had an easier time believing half-hearted lies than the truth.

    ¡°So, if I am understanding this, you are some kind of nobility,¡± he managed to summarize Elizabeth''s intentionally overcomplicated, misleading but technically accurate description of the mess that was the bloodline of Wrath. ¡°And that makes the rest of you¡­ what?¡±

    ¡°Companions,¡± Irwyn chose as good-sounding word as possible. He caught the edge Tobba put upon ¡®nobility¡¯. Well, Irwyn might have been in the same camp a year or so ago. ¡°We all chose to leave on this journey.¡±

    ¡°People your age shouldn¡¯t be going on any ¡®journeys¡¯,¡± Tobba shook his head. ¡°The world is dangerous.¡±

    ¡°We are not as helpless as we look,¡± Elizabeth insisted despite their story appearing to contradict that. Well, perhaps that worked to sell it too. Irrational beliefs and overconfidence were pretty common. A memory of a certain execution flashed through Irwyn¡¯s mind briefly, leaving behind a bittersweet taste before he pivoted.

    ¡°So, you have said. Some magic?¡± Tobba nodded, though clearly unconvinced. ¡°I know we have an academy for wizards but the talent for it is too rare. Are you four all like that?¡±

    ¡°Terminology may differ,¡± Alice spoke. ¡°We use the word ¡®mage¡¯ but actual methods could be close or far apart. I have seen people from different countries have all kinds of ideas of what magic is and how it works - and those were all people from much closer to us geographically.¡±

    ¡°And I am more of an emotional supporter,¡± Waylan chimed in, still sitting visibly in his chair - almost pointedly so.

    ¡°Well, I am at a loss,¡± Tobba finally admitted with a sigh. ¡°I will get someone to assign you rooms for tonight ¨C it¡¯s getting so late I would almost call it early. Just don¡¯t cause trouble or mess with the machinery. I will leave it for someone more qualified to sort you out when we land.¡±

    And that was that. Just as Irwyn had guessed, they were being treated as benign young adults, teenagers with much benefit of doubt. Almost to an absurd degree. An airship like that had to be a military asset even if used differently in peacetime but the almost freedom with which the four of them were able to move¡­ Irwyn was pretty sure someone with just human strength could do a lot of damage. Stab a few people, sabotage some control panels that he had spotted, and maybe do something with poison. He was obviously not going to do any of those but it would have been trivial.

    Perhaps something of that was explained by the crew. Scouting out who else was on board was obviously the first order of bussiness. They were basically divided into three groups. First were the Aeronauts as they called themselves. There were about twenty of them and they flew the ship. Not decide where it should go, but operate all the fine functions of it. Which was clearly no easy task given the apparent numbers needed.

    The second was the Forest watch. Apparently, the Laretine Forest - its name - had dedicated tenders. A mishmash group of scholars, enthusiasts, ¡®preservationists¡¯, and whatever other label one could imagine for people that loved trees. Irwyn understood from them that it was the biggest ¡®mostly untouched¡¯ area of nature and they wanted to keep it that way. The organization was in-between a government branch and a volunteer operation.

    Last were their Firefighters, which captain Tobba belonged to. It became apparent that while they had military ranks, they were not actually soldiers in almost any way besides organization. In fact, they were not even related to the actual military. The Firefighters just used a similar ranking system because of some nuances with being ¡®servicemembers¡¯ Irwyn didn¡¯t quite get from the brief rundown. They were pleasant though. Good-natured large men, if a bit condescending.

    ¡°Has someone caught the name of the country?¡± Elizabeth asked. They gathered in a corner of a cafeteria after an hour or so of wandering, Elizabeth subtly creating magical privacy.

    ¡°I have heard ¡®the Republic¡¯ a lot,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°Not a name though.¡±

    ¡°And I don¡¯t think they have any kind of nobility,¡± Alice added. ¡°It caught my eye how Tobba looked at you weird and asked around a bit. But they do clearly know the word.¡±

    ¡°And things are made of this strange stuff all around the place,¡± Waylan said, showing of a white fork he must have taken from nearby. It was not metallic nor ceramic from what Irwyn could see. ¡°Don¡¯t know what that¡¯s about.¡±

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Plastics,¡± Elizabeth nodded with recognition. ¡°It is strange to use it for forks though. In fact, I have noticed that they do use them for a lot of wasteful things.¡±

    ¡°You know what it is?¡± Irwyn asked. Because he had no recollection of ever seeing anything like the material before.

    ¡°They are a bunch of needlessly complicated mundane compounds derived from carbon,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°Simplistically said. They are unbelievably difficult to manufacture. I think the duchy of Purple has one major foundry which works with them extensively but they are not worth the trouble for the most part.¡±

    ¡°They seem to be worth the rubble for these people,¡± Waylan pointed out, experimentally bending the fork. It had a surprising amount of give but then began to crack with minimal force when Waylan pushed too far.

    ¡°For this republic, maybe,¡± Elizabeth shrugged. ¡°Plastics do have varied properties. But they are not great conduits for magic while the raw materials are. Human Life is also based on carbon, if in vastly different compositions - any replenishing raw sources with extensive supply are better used by the Duchy of Green for more cost-efficient projects.¡±

    ¡°If they are that hard to make, why do they seem all around the place,¡± Alice pointed out.

    ¡°Probably because they don¡¯t have magical alternatives,¡± Irwyn figured. That seemed to be the right answer quite often for things the Federation lacked. ¡°You don¡¯t need a spoon that is naturally bendable if you can enchant a metal one to be that way. Probably a bad example but it should apply broadly.¡±

    ¡°Would be convenient for people who can¡¯t,¡± Waylan grunted.

    ¡°Those people are not the ones planning out industry,¡± Irwyn shook his head.

    ¡°Looking around, has anyone actually seen any metal?¡± Elizabeth asked giving them a pause. The cafeteria they sat in was furnished with wood. The plates were ceramic, dishware plastic. Irwyn tried to think back but could not remember stumbling onto anything with a metallic sheen.

    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s their aesthetic?¡± Alice asked.

    ¡°Could be,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°But keep looking and share if you spot anything. If they can make plastics, they can figure out steel and alloys. The absence is strange.¡±

    The rest of the evening was quite uneventful in the grand scheme of things. Waylan managed to buddy up with the crew quite nicely, mostly with the Firefighters. Alice had successfully earned the adoration of their Aeronaughts by the virtue of her supernatural spacial awareness - ¡®guessing¡¯ their exact flight speed left them quite impressed, even after they needed to first figure out unit conversions. According to ranting Alice ¡®everyone always measures a mile differently¡¯ followed by a lot of words about the virtue of standardized units based on natural laws.

    Irwyn tried to get along with the more scholarly Forest watch¡­ and realized he actually knew very little about trees, leaving his audience unimpressed. That at least left him with more time to prepare for his own leap into Conception, something Elizabeth was more than happy to help him with, if sometimes only by providing tea as he sat deep in thought for hours ¨C though not without complaining about the local ceramic kettle.

    He was indeed beging this step late¡­ but the assumptions had been that he would have months more before attaining nine intentions. The progress was quick though. Irwyn chose to first carve the concept of Flame since that would let him compare notes with Elizabeth who intended to do the same next. After some contemplation about what was logically right and felt that way, he chose his nine:

    Burn, incinerate, melt, and conflagrate, for the fire part. Shape, control, and magic on Elizabeth¡¯s suggestion to make the concept slightly more versatile when he was using it - very useful since his spells were not formulaic and usually had a lot of give for his input and micromanagement. Then lastly, he opted for strengthen and empower. His goal was to use the Flame in his spells offensively and the composition reflected that. It would burn away all it touched.

    Elizabeth on the other hand would choose Heat, warmth, and ignite. The same trio of shape, control, and magic, then add efficiency alongside the duo of strengthen and empower. This reflected her focus on mainly using her own body moving forward, ranged attacks being only a distraction against real foes. Her Flame was to be the spark that ignited her muscles and inner strength into an unstoppable frenzy. Not a foundation upon which to built artillery.

    The resulting Concepts would be close but not quite identical. Elizabeth estimated that they would be at most twenty percent better for the things the composition focused on - not a massive difference since magic was usually multiplicative, but large enough to be worth the extra effort. It was also very nice to have someone who knew all the answers as soon as he came up with the questions. Elizabeth had prepared extensively for her own leap into Conception years in advance and it showed.

    The next step then would be to imagine the exact shape. Elizabeth had been right that it would come to Irwyn almost naturally. He thought of the nine intentions as lines, and they began to align into those impossible shapes he had seen prior. It was not a fast process as Irwyn used his will and control over magic to prod them into twisting and moving further. They did not feel right. Imperfect. But step by step he was forcing them to encroach on that. Though he barely got started before they found out there was a curfew which they were apparently already breaking before one of the Aeronauts stumbled upon them.

    The airship had not stayed in the area long. It had been sent out to deal with a forest fire and spent a few hours looking for one, though eventually it was determined there was no sign of anything of the sort. Then the trip back began several hours past midnight ¨C and the curfew went into effect the moment the fire hazard was dismissed. Their group had been assigned very small but individual rooms near each other which was decent lodgings all things considered. It was also promised they would arrive at the capital past noon the following day.

    Irwyn did not really sleep that night though. It was more of a mediation where he somewhat rested but much of his mind was still overexcited, focusing on the task before it. And once in a bed, there was nothing external to distract him. Bit by bit, the impossible shape grew more complicated yet also increasingly legible. The closer to perfection it became, the more Irwyn felt like it made perfect sense. A sum of impossible angles and unfeasible interconnections that paradoxically would make up a whole. By the time there was a banging on his door loud enough to distract him, he felt so tantalizingly close to finishing it.

    ¡°What is it?¡± he asked somewhat grumpily, opening the door.

    ¡°It¡¯s past dawn,¡± Elizabeth said with a knowing smile. ¡°You haven¡¯t slept, have you?¡±

    ¡°I am not tired,¡± he squinted at her.

    ¡°Hours just fly by like that, don¡¯t they?¡± she remained quite good-natured. ¡°I was similar after leaving¡­ that cave. How close are you to done?¡±

    ¡°Almost there, I think,¡±

    ¡°Probably even faster than me, though my sense of time was muddled for the first half of it,¡± she nodded. The Fae¡¯s prank had kept her feeling like days had passed in hours. In hindsight, it became obvious what had distracted her enough to not notice. ¡°Everyone is gathering for breakfast.¡±

    ¡°I will be right there,¡± Irwyn nodded, looking down. He should probably change first.

    ¡°Just keep the same clothes,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°We don¡¯t necessarily want people knowing how big our bags are.¡±

    Or not change. Well, the traveling garbs so graciously provided by House Blackburg did not stain easily nor would they smell after just a day. Irwyn did not fancy Waylan who did not have even the mild kind of enchantments on his so that it wouldn¡¯t disrupt his stealth. And he was not stupid enough to bring up in front of Alice where her unchaning clothes were from. Returning to the cafeteria, Irwyn saw that the rest of the quartet was already waiting for them. The fare was quite simple, somewhat fresh bread and butter. Well, Irwyn wouldn¡¯t complain about free food even if it didn¡¯t compare to the hospitality of House Blackburg. Someone else would.

    ¡°I will need to find time to snack from my own stores,¡± Elizabeth shook her head, gulping down her portion - which were rationed quite exactly.

    ¡°Do you always eat so much?¡± Alice pondered. ¡°How does it not affect your figure?¡±

    ¡°The Void is quite ravenous,¡± Elizabeth chuckled. ¡°You should see some of our old nobles, they can swallow a whole feast''s worth without feeling full. And now that I am in Conception my body will start to move further and further from pure biology. A good portion of Domain mages don¡¯t even require food as sustenance anymore.¡±

    ¡°But you do enjoy your Gluttony,¡± Waylan jabbed goodheartedly.

    ¡°What good daughter of Umbra wouldn¡¯t?¡±

    ¡°Not like I haven¡¯t been eating more too,¡± Irwyn shook his head. Johnson had once told him his body might need more nutrition than it actually asked for and he had been feeding himself more thoroughly, even if not as much as Elizabeth. He wondered if that need too would diminish or vanish for him throughout Conception and Domains.

    ¡°Any discovery about metal?¡± Alice changed the topic, mostly looking at Waylan. Who else would have snooper around for a good look? ¡°I haven¡¯t found much. Didn¡¯t come up in a conversation either.¡±

    ¡°They have a lot of sealed doors I couldn¡¯t get through,¡± their sneak sighed. ¡°Didn¡¯t quite dare sneak in with someone since I might get locked inside. But I did notice the locks used steel. Good steel at that. Door itself was just more plastic I think, but different than these knives,¡± he demonstrated by bending the one he had been applying butter with. "Much more solid."

    ¡°Different plastics can have very different properties¡­¡± Elizabeth paused thinking about how to explain. ¡°Think of it like different metals and alloys. Some are soft, some bent easily, or are easy to work with. Others are not. But instead of needing radically different ores for each, plastics have similar base materials but instead require very diverse manufacturing processes.¡±

    ¡°And don¡¯t have all the properties of metal,¡± Irwyn guessed.

    ¡°That too,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°They can be hardened but I don¡¯t think it is possible to make any as durable or heavy as tungsten for example. But it¡¯s not realistic to get to every nuance in a short period of time - not to mention I don¡¯t know all of them. What I know is mostly second-hand and half-remembered from my education.¡±

    ¡°I also learned something,¡± Alice interjected with her own contribution. ¡°So, apparently, after extinguishing that fire, this ship was supposed to head back to its original base - which we would have reached during the night easily. But because of certain mysterious youths, that captain decided it should fly to the capital instead - sending word ahead by radio. That¡¯s why we will only be there after noon.¡±

    ¡°How did you get that out of them?¡± Irwyn asked with wonder. Alice was not that much of a smooth talker. ¡°That sounds like secrets you don¡¯t spill to a person you have known for a few hours. Especially when it involves them.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think they know about eavesdropping magic,¡± Alice grinned. ¡°There are no precautions around to stop or even detect me. I just had to figure out which people are worth listening to.¡±

    ¡°We should also get our story together proper¡­¡± Elizabeth began, then paused, dismissing the invisible barrier keeping their privacy. ¡°Tobba is coming this way.¡±

    And indeed. The men had shed the strange suit he had been wearing before - firefighter¡¯s standard gear, apparently - and was instead dressed in casual clothes. As were the other service members under him. The only people still in uniforms were the Aeronauts operating the airship itself since they were always on duty.

    ¡°How was the night?¡±

    ¡°Quite pleasant, captain,¡± Elizabeth nodded with a smile. The charm of it was undermined by the unappealing wart which still refused to disappear.

    ¡°Beats the ground, I am sure,¡± Tobba half-joked. ¡°Though not by much, the rooms need to be small. Me and my men sleep in barracks. The brass really ought to invest in better mattresses.¡±

    ¡°It was nice having a proper pillow,¡± Alice agreed, shooting Waylan a hard stare. The sneak waved back playfully.

    ¡°All right, we got word back from the capital,¡± the captain then opened the real topic. ¡°They will be looking into where this Duchy Federation of yours is and if we can feasibly get you back there. Or at least get in touch with your families.¡±

    ¡°That may be a bit more complicated than you think,¡± Elizabeth chuckled slightly, earning her a strange glance form the firefighter. ¡°But I think someone will want a longer word with us anyway, right?¡±

    ¡°Not my call who, but yes,¡± Tobba nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t let them treat you badly. If it comes to it, you can use my name. I might not be the biggest deal but I do have some friends in the military.¡±

    ¡°We appreciate it,¡± Alice smiled.

    ¡°Once they let you out, I will try to get back in touch if I am not on duty then,¡± Tobba nodded back. ¡°I hope they at least provide you lodgings for a while. But if not, I can help figure something out. Set you up with some job if you don¡¯t have much money. I don¡¯t want the people I rescued being forced into crime.¡±

    ¡°I assure you that we are above petty thievery,¡± said Irwyn, the once career thief, much to Waylan¡¯s barely hidden amusement.

    ¡°Theoretically, how much would gold be worth?¡± Elizabeth then said with a somewhat conspiratorial tone.

    ¡°If you theoretically happened to have any¡­¡± Tobba shot her a concerned glance. ¡°Don¡¯t tell anyone - even soldiers get greedy. And exchange all of it at a bank as soon as you can. The main office in the capital takes security and fairness seriously. I can take you there afterward.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± she nodded.

    ¡°Happy to help,¡± Tobba said then headed off again. The firefighters were all gathered around two adjacent table having several animated discussions.

    ¡°Well then, now we just have to figure out what to do until noon,¡± Elizabeth noted.

 4.18 A windowed room

    The capital city of the Republic - yes, that was confusingly the nation¡¯s full name - was strange from above. Their group had gathered next to a tall railing as they were finally approaching it, first seeing the sprawling industrial complex to the South of the city. It reminded Irwyn of Ebon Respite somewhat - massive buildings on the outskirts where they were less of an eyesore. Massive in width anyway, surprisingly low in height.

    Except in Ebon Respite, they were also quite a bit closer to the town proper and were not releasing massive plumes of thick black smoke. So thick the airship had to take a bit of a detour from its straight course.

    The actual city beyond that was also extremely flat. From distance it seemed almost as a board. Whereas Abonisle would tower from the horizon, the city in front of them couldn¡¯t have many buildings taller than three stories and even that was quite rare. Which was particularly confusing to Elizabeth.

    ¡°They can make plastics but not proper urban infrastructure?¡± she half-asked with confusion. ¡°Those buildings should be taller.¡±

    ¡°Maybe they just like it like that?¡± Waylan guessed. ¡°Good view, easy jumping on rooftops.¡±

    ¡°Even the factories are too low,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°Those need to be efficient. If they are making plastic they will need large tankers with chemical compounds. But I don¡¯t see anything of the sort anywhere.¡±

    ¡°Something to look into,¡± Irwyn nodded.

    Otherwise, everything was built of concrete with limited patience for aesthetics. Buildings shaped like boxes as if made from the same template occupied most of the cityscape with a few larger buildings - still shaped like boxes though - sprinkled from place to place. All individuality was in their colors, which were not actually all that diverse. The most unique feature was the river going basically through the middle of it. It was all rather¡­ utilitarian.

    ¡°The city is very precisely planned,¡± Elizabeth noticed. ¡°That means it was built from scratch like that, not sprouted naturally.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that is how buildings work,¡± Waylan nodded sagely. ¡°Only rarely do they grow on trees.¡±

    ¡°Hush,¡± Elizabeth said but smiled slightly. ¡°Cities either grow over decades from smaller settlements or are built from scratch with no pre-existing community. That this is the latter means there is a good reason to plan a city here. One important enough it eventually became their capital.¡±

    <hr>

    Soon enough, they were at their journey''s end. One of the Aeronauts showed up and brought them to the ¡®landing room¡¯ which only Waylan had seen before then. It was a place full of literally just seats with belts. Most people from the crew were already present there.

    ¡°Tie yourselfs in,¡± captain Tobba instructed, the seatbelts lacking actual buckles and isntead requiring simple knots. Irwyn did not know how to do knots, so he just improvised what he could while the captain continued talking. ¡°Nowadays the landings are usually smooth but there is no reason not to take precautions. If there is a fire for some reason there are emergency doors in those two corners. They lead directly outside, around a meter above the ship''s very bottom. Once we touch ground it¡¯s a safe way to exit - but only use them if something goes wrong.¡±

    ¡°Are fires and botched landings common?¡± Alice asked curiously. Their group obviously did not fear fire nor freefalling overmuch.

    ¡°Used to be a few firefighters had to be present for every landing,¡± Tobba chuckled, probably joking. ¡°As I said - it¡¯s better nowadays. But you could at least have the grace to look worried.¡±

    There was indeed a slight impact when the airship touched the ground, but it was not quite a tremor. One of the navigators took the lead in opening a side door - distinctly different from the emergency ones - to which a group of men in reflective clothing were already bringing a portable wooden stairway on wheels. Irwyn noted that not everyone left the airship but most of the firefighters did, alongside Tobba who stuck around with their quartet afterward. To the side, Irwyn saw a bigger ramp being brought over to a different part of the airship as unloading began.

    The place they landed at was a large but mostly empty concrete lot - if Irwyn was guessing the construction material correctly. Another three airships were visible on the ground a good distance away but they were clearly not too common given the lack of any in the skies. There was also a concrete wall built around most of the area, as well as a large building in one corner so Irwyn guessed it was some kind of military base.

    What did catch the eye were the strange vehicles. Not quite carriages yet clearly related, several driving around. Still boxes but in different shapes and clearly not needing any beasts of burden to move. Irwyn would need to ask later. For the moment there was something different that required his attention. Upon landing, men in dark green - clearly military if Irwyn was any judge - uniforms were already waiting for them. Inevitably, someone had questions about who they were.

    <hr>

    Major Zema stared through the half-window, frowning. The young woman they had brought in first seemed somewhat nervous, even jittery. Not used to interrogation, or merely acting? How would he tell? Her body language was vaguely familiar but there was something foreign to it - clearly a cultural tick, yet from far away. So, he merely watched, deferring judgment for the moment. Sound isolation was a different problem. He knew the higher higher-ups had argued long and hard about allocating the metal necessary to project the voices within one-sidedly but eventually managed it. Zema could thus listen in without fearing being overheard. For the moment the interviewer was merely going through the easy questions like name and origins.

    ¡°Major,¡± a voice called out from behind him, though Zema did not need to turn to know who it was.

    ¡°Captain,¡± he quickly saluted back. ¡°Long time no see, Tobba.¡±

    ¡°So, you have questions for me,¡± the firefighter nodded. ¡°I was directed here. Fancy. I don¡¯t think I have ever been on this side of the window.¡±

    ¡°Who ever even needed to interrogate you?¡± Zema wondered out loud.

    ¡°Getting security clearance for the airship,¡± Tobba grimaced. ¡°Like I could somehow commandeer it by myself even if I wasn¡¯t trustworthy. Aeronauts are not idiots.¡±

    ¡°You would be surprised,¡± Zema said. ¡°The reports of accidents go through my friend¡¯s desk. They can be¡­ innovative. The number of ways one of them has managed to fall over a railing is on its second page, I am told. Impressive given they don¡¯t operate that many airships to begin with.¡±

    ¡°Did you get anything on this Federation?¡± Tobba changed the topic.

    ¡°I send out word to Terroka,¡± the Major sighed. ¡°They were very interested. So interested in fact that the principal sent someone to come consult in person¡­ without sending us much actual information in advance. All I received was that the place was likely ¡®highly magical¡¯ and well outside our map¡¯s edge. For anything more we will need to wait for said expert.¡±

    ¡°Typical,¡± Tobba shook his head. ¡°They made me wait several months for a sample analysis after the whole blue fire mess. It took the General Director personally going to breathe down their neck to get it done.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were in charge of that,¡± Zema commented.

    ¡°Just part of the investigation in the aftermath,¡± Tobba shook his head. ¡°I was merely on the ground during.¡±

    ¡°So, what is your take on the four of them?¡± he finally sighed, looking over at the girl. She just happened to look his way in the middle of the question, as if making eye contact. Just a coincidence, since she could obviously not see him through the wall. He thought he saw the flicker of something on her finger, but it was gone in a blink - must have imagined it.

    ¡°Bit strange for kids, I suppose,¡± Tobba said. ¡°Too fearless, definitely. Lost in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by strangers and they don¡¯t even look worried.¡±

    ¡°Which would make perfect sense if they were spies,¡± Zema nodded.

    ¡°Were you always this paranoid?¡± Tobba rolled his eyes subtly. Not discreetly enough to not be noticed though. ¡°They cannot be even twenty.¡±

    ¡°The Western kingdom trains their agents from childhood,¡± Zema countered. ¡°18 or so is a perfectly reasonable age group to draw an elite squad from.¡±

    ¡°And drop them in the middle of a forest - at a place very far away from their closest border - and hope they are found by us before succumbing to nature.¡±

    ¡°Fake forest fire,¡± Zema simply said.

    ¡°You cannot stop a wildfire once it gets going, not without incredible luck,¡± Tobba said. ¡°And the station recorded a proper one, spreading quickly.¡±

    ¡°Yes, which is why you don¡¯t burn anything,¡± Zema agreed. ¡°They could have just faked the readings directly at the station. Which would fit with there being no real signs of said disappeared inferno. I have already put someone on it.¡±

    ¡°Chase ghosts all you want,¡± Tobba shrugged.

    ¡°Yes, that is my job description,¡± Zema agreed. ¡°You should know the threat from the West is looming. Now is the time we should be most careful.¡±

    ¡°There is careful, then there is extensively interrogating lost children.¡±

    The interview was playing on a bit lower volume, Zema paying half attention to it. At least recordings did not require metal so he could review everything again later at his leisure. That being said, he frowned slightly. The jittery and clearly nervous girl had at some point calmed down. Too much even. Perfect cool remaining even as the interrogator pushed for harder questions and tried to find holes in her story.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t quite add up,¡± Zema muttered

    ¡°What doesn¡¯t add up is pressing an orphan on how her parents died,¡± Tobba said with some disgust as he listened, clearly more hung up on the details. But those weren¡¯t really the point. ¡°What does that even have to do with anything? Of course she wouldn¡¯t want to share any details!¡±

    Which was indeed the case. Zema with his experience could tell that the interview would need to go in a different direction soon - from the way the girl¡¯s cooperation slipped over the invasive line being pursued. She was still extremely calm but that shift in her tone was incredibly realistic. Her life story was probably at least mostly true.

    ¡°So, tell me more about this town¡­¡± Zema turned up the volume with the nub his hand had never left.

    ¡°City,¡± the girl, Alice, corrected.

    ¡°City then. I did not catch the name.¡±

    ¡°Steelmire,¡± she nodded slowly. ¡°A city carved in a nook between three giants¡­¡±

    And it was such an outlandish story Zema¡¯s suspicions dropped significantly. A single settlement with large enough iron mine to extract tons daily. Downright ridiculous. Unheard of! If the Republic had a trading partner like that¡­ Zema stopped himself from contemplating it. Work hours were not times for fantasizing. Either way, it seemed that the Federation was hardly united if thriving city-states were just allowed to exist in their territories - for what little that observation was worth.

    They listened for a while but there was little useful. More lines of questioning were broached but all they found was already known or mostly pointless. There was not that much more to the story than the girl speaking briefly on becoming a retainer after her tragedies and the supposed teleportation accident ¡®caused by forces they did not fully understand¡¯. She was elusive about the highborn girl¡¯s background though, insisting it was not her place to speak on it.

    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Nobility,¡± Zema still commented on a crucial point. It was clear of what caste the group''s leader was even without it being said out loud.

    ¡°The girl acts humble,¡± Tobba shook his head. ¡°None of that dismissive arrogance I expected when I first heard. We shouldn¡¯t judge real people based on stories¡­ or caricatures in them.¡±

    ¡°Maybe she is just smart enough not to show how she feels,¡± Zema said doubtfully. ¡°The idiot inside didn¡¯t bother asking how important her family is.¡±

    ¡°Nobles are nobles,¡± Tobba clearly also didn¡¯t understand the issue.

    ¡°But kings aren¡¯t barons,¡± Zema shook his head. ¡°Like a generational senator is not quite the same as a small town notary.¡±

    ¡°On paper, they are in most ways,¡± the firefighter pointed out.

    ¡°On paper, you can draw a pile of dung as large as a palace.¡± The interrogation winded down and the girl was brought away into the waiting room. ¡°Who do you think we should bring next?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s up to you.¡±

    ¡°You have spoken to them,¡± Zema said. ¡°That¡¯s why I wanted you here in the first place.¡±

    ¡°The tattooed one seemed the most rogue-ish,¡± Tobba said after a moment of thought. ¡°Very quick to get out of sight. Might be a troubled childhood there.¡±

    ¡°Or a burglar,¡± the Major offered.

    ¡°Working closely with a rich noble girl?¡± the other man doubted. ¡°I assume that at least pays well.¡±

    ¡°Thieves are some of the easiest people to convert into spies,¡± Zema noted, adding it to his mental calculation. ¡°They already have half the skills needed.¡±

    ¡°Just call him in.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Zema nodded and stood up. The door at the back was not locked so the Major needed to open it just a creek. ¡°The tattooed one next.¡±

    ¡°Sir,¡± the officer outside saluted, then headed off to relay the message. Soon enough that boy entered the room.

    His testimony was sadly not useful. Because the man quote: didn¡¯t know nothin¡¯. The lack of education was¡­ glaringly obvious. And the attempts at using half-remembered idioms in the wrong context did not help the impression. Tobba¡¯s estimation at least might have been right given his admittance to various petty crimes with repeated insistence that ¡®It¡¯s fine ¡®cause I was paaar-douned¡¯ - the mispronunciation of the word very much present every time.

    He frankly gave up on learning much as the boy explained his recruitment as a lucky break after he got a bit overly confident, then caught but recruited instead of executed. The only information they confirmed was that his new employment indeed paid much better than his old occupation along with repeated reassurances he had no reason to commit any crimes he wasn¡¯t asked to do. Zema was not sure why exactly someone would hire a brick but decided the boy was likely at least competent in activities that required limited thinking.

    ¡°The other boy next,¡± Zema decided to which the captain did not refute. Best leave the noble girl for last. He peeked out of the door making a similar request as before.

    ¡°Sir,¡± the soldier saluted again but continued speaking. ¡°I received word a few minutes ago, you have a guest.¡±

    ¡°Who?¡±

    ¡°Someone from the academy in¡­¡± the soldier paused, looking through his notes urgently.

    ¡°Terroka,¡± the Major said before the man could. The place was very secular, thus many did not know it by name - though that might need to change given recent events. ¡°Is someone from there not on the itinerary?¡±

    ¡°Not in the version I have, sir,¡± the soldier said, sweating.

    ¡°Invite them in,¡± he nodded. ¡°Right away actually,¡± he did not want some self-important scholar getting too upset just because of a few minutes of waiting. Prickly and cooperative rarely went together. It was a good opportunity to also gauge other things.

    His guest was with them quickly, before the next teenager was brought in. An old man, that was immediately apparent, but still relatively spry despite the wrinkles. He wore colorful robes that were almost silly to look at. Out of place, like from a story. So was the thick grimoire dangling from it, attached by a thick string. If one spotted them on the street, the elder would be presumed crazy. Except the robe was supposedly more durable than kevlar and the lining of that book was actual titanium. Enough of it to pay for a mansion or five. Filled with deadly secrets, Zema knew. It was half his job to be aware of dangerous people. So he did not appreciate one duping him into a more important visitor than had been implied.

    ¡°I was told you sent someone personally,¡± Zema paused, frowning with the recognition but remaining polite. ¡°Not that you would come yourself.¡±

    ¡°I am unfamiliar, sir¡­?¡± the captain spoke.

    ¡°Deito, the Dekano of the Academium in Terroka,¡± the old man announced, chin rising with pride.

    ¡°Or Principal Deotp, if we use a more widespread term,¡± Zema translated. ¡°Why did you make the trip, sir?¡±

    ¡°Someone mentioned mages,¡± the old man said. ¡°Who made that testimony?¡±

    ¡°That would be me,¡± the firefighter confessed.

    ¡°Convenient,¡± Deitos nodded ¡°Mages, are you certain that they claimed that?¡±

    ¡°That is what they said,¡± Tobba nodded. ¡°There is a difference between you and them, I assume?¡±

    ¡°On behalf of your ignorance I will not take insult to comparing my wizardry to their reckless magic,¡± he immediately lectured. ¡°A wizard and a mage are different words for a reason.¡±

    ¡°I know there is a distinction,¡± Zema added in appeasing. ¡°But not really what. I don¡¯t deal with your people directly most of the time. Usually just with the trinkets. The Western Kingdom has some mages, that¡¯s all I know.¡±

    ¡°And they are fools for it!¡± Deitos declared. ¡°The immediate first distinction is that practicing any kind of magecraft is illegal in the Republic.¡±

    ¡°It is?¡± Zema frowned. ¡°I have never heard of such a law.¡±

    ¡°It is on the older side,¡± the principal nodded. ¡°And that you do not know it means that it is working just as intended. It was my teacher and predecessor who had pushed hard for it and convinced the senators.¡±

    ¡°Arson is also illegal but I know about that,¡± Tobba frowned.

    ¡°The talents required for magecraft have overlap with that of wizards,¡± Deitos explained. ¡°By banning the practice, then mandating the talented can only learn in our academies, we have successfully stomped out any such dangerous traditions that might have once existed in our country.¡±

    ¡°So, you say it¡¯s dangerous,¡± Zema nodded. ¡°How? They don¡¯t seem to have any of those symbols on them. Certainly not a book¡¯s worth like you.¡±

    ¡°If they are ¡®mages¡¯ as I know the term, they do not need them,¡± the headmaster grimly said.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Zema said, looking inside the interrogation room where the second boy had just been brought and sat down. Should he get his man out? No, if things were going to go down badly it would be too late anyway. No need to antogonize a calm lion.

    ¡°Magecraft requires no catalyst. What I need a drawn rune or a carved crystal for, a mage can simply manifest.¡±

    ¡°And we have banned it.¡±

    ¡°For a very good reason.¡±

    ¡°It seems like it would have an edge,¡± the Major admitted. And the Republic needed all the edges it could get. The other two did not understand that but he had such insight.

    ¡°Yes, indeed, a mage with ten years of experience has an edge over a wizard in some areas, such as not needing preparations to use their magic,¡± Deitos nodded. ¡°For every mage with ten years of experience, you will also have 20 piles of corpses of those who did not make it that far.¡±

    ¡°Surely that is an exaggeration.¡±

    ¡°I remember those times, Major, in my teens,¡± the principal shook his head. ¡°I have seen once barely a boy of twelve melt the flesh off of his arms on accident. Not even doing anything particularly dangerous. He was trying the warm a cup of water. That was one of the better cases. It is harder to survive accidentally beheading oneself or receiving 25 times the lethal dose of epinephrine from miscalibrated glands. We have banned the practice for a very good reason. Anyone using those arts is either dead, soon to be dead, or a statistical anomaly.¡±

    ¡°Three of them claim to be as much and they seemed fine,¡± Tobba pointed out.

    ¡°18, or thereabout,¡± Deitos looked through the window at the young man being interrogated about his background. ¡°He might be past the point where most succumb. That does not mean he will not suddenly self-combust, fall into pieces between two steps, or implode. I have heard of it happening. Forty-year-old practitioners turning from masters to corpses in seconds, taking enitre buildings down with them.¡±

    ¡°They do not seem afraid,¡± Tobba reiterated. ¡°If it was as dangerous as you claim, they would need to be at least somewhat aware to make it so far, right? Yet they show no worry.¡±

    ¡°You have not seen or read what I have,¡± the elder frowned and it was a mighty furrowing of brows.

    ¡°I am not doubting that,¡± the firefighter said. ¡°But maybe they did something differently?

    ¡°There is no save way to hand firearms to toddlers.¡±

    ¡°Well, you could give them toys first to teach safery?¡± Tobba tried ¡°I don¡¯t know enough about this to make a working analogy.¡±

    ¡°Do you have a way to figure out how dangerous they actually are?¡± Zema was much more interested in that.

    ¡°I am not sure,¡± Deitos admitted. ¡°I can try to repurpose a different spell but there is no guarantee it will work on a mage.¡±

    ¡°Please,¡± Zema encouraged.

    The wizard nodded, opening the grimoire. There was a clear practiced grace in that, the man seemingly finding the right page among the thousands in a single motion. He placed the book on the table, then withdrew a piece of paper from within the robe, which he then quickly placed over the open pages, putting a small inkwell by its edge afterward. A moment later, the contents of the page - some kind of complex symbolic combination, was copied over.

    Then the headmaster began quickly changing it. He drew additional lines with a regular ink-pen while wielding a piece of white cloth in his other hand. This piece of fabric seemed to have the uncanny quality of sucking in ink extremely well in exactly the spots it touched, allowing for easy erasure of otherwise permanent stains. That way it took less than half a minute to be finished with whatever wizardry the man was doing. There was a muted flash of dim light, then the old man stared through the one-way mirror.

    ¡°This is unexpected,¡± the headmaster muttered.

    ¡°What do you see?¡±

    ¡°I am trying to see leaking magic,¡± the wizard explained. ¡°But there is¡­ too little. Especially for a mage. Some of my students would not be this subtle. The spell is likely not working properly. I will have to consult older archives ¨C there was no time before I left in a hurry.¡±

    The boy¡¯s interrogation was ongoing in the meantime. But it was again nothing new. Orphan from childhood, picked up because of his talent. The only interesting thing the Major wanted to know about was the noble family associated with them which he barely even spoke of by name. The interviewer clearly realized there was little to be found there either and ended the interrogation rather quickly.

    ¡°So, does Blackburg stir any memory?¡±

    ¡°We have next to no details on the Federation, unfortunately,¡± the principal shook his head. ¡°And what little we have is either speculation or unconfirmable accounts from travelers.

    ¡°I will talk to the girl myself then,¡± Zema said.

    ¡°She is incredibly dangerous,¡± Deitos warned.

    ¡°So are you,¡± Zema shook his head. ¡°I will rely on you for prevention, sir.¡±

    ¡°Very well,¡± the man nodded. ¡°Just do not needlessly provoke her. She might have methods that bypass my countermeasures.¡±

    When the girl was eventually brought into the room, she strode with confidence. Definitely ego but not the kind people usually thought about. No wonder the captain had missed it, he was not trained for the same things as Zema. But in her eyes, the Major saw that quiet contempt. Not that of people who were obnoxious a belligerent towards other. But those who knew for certain they were better and thus had nothing to prove. No reason to push other''s down, for they did not doubt that there was no reaching them at the top.

    ¡°Pleasure to make your acquaintance, I am Zema,¡± he started with a smile.

    ¡°Elizabeth,¡± she returned it. Fake and trained. Much like his own. The strange wart on her nose was a... baffling cosmetic choice for someone so beautiful it could not be purely natural but Zema refused to comment on it. It smelled like a deliberate trap.

    ¡°With respect to both our time, I will assume that nothing will change about the story of how you got here,¡± he began. Whether it was true or a lie, it had been clearly rehearsed to some degree. No point poking at the strong point. ¡°What interests me more would be your background. Are you highly positioned within your family.¡±

    ¡°Merely 5<sup>th</sup> in line, likely further now that I have gone abroad. The exact rank can shift,¡± she explained. ¡°Not that I ever aimed for first. Such competitions are notoriously dangerous as you might be aware even here.¡±

    ¡°And how important exactly would this House be,¡± Zema pushed. ¡°You can imagine we lack records from so far away.¡±

    ¡°My father¡¯s name and titles are known to all who matter within the Federation,¡± she said. Vague but better than nothing. Certainly on the upper side of things at least, or so she would have him believe. Zema had still not completely ruled out them being convincing spies.

    ¡°I have heard that magecraft can be dangerous from someone quite concerned,¡± Zema decided to change the topic. ¡°Because of that, I would like some reassurances. Fears have been raised over your own safety and over collateral damage.¡±

    ¡°Now that is an insult,¡± the girl¡¯s eye bore into his, though he did not see actual heat behind them. ¡°Likely the gravest one ever spoken to my face, if I were still home.¡±

    ¡°As you can imagine, we seem to have a disconnect,¡± Zema backtracked. ¡°I apologize for any offense given, it is not my intention.¡±

    ¡°I am a daughter of House Blackburg,¡± she said simply as if it explained anything.

    ¡°We do not stand for fiefdoms here in the Republic,¡± Zema reminded. ¡°Do not mistake my curiosity of foreign lands for any form of acknowledgment.¡±

    ¡°You do not understand. What my family¡¯s name means,¡± she shook her head. ¡°How do I say this? You look at me like I was an eagle that could not fly. A tiger without legs. A tree that never grew roots nor branches. That is an insult. Had I truly been so talentless, rest assured I would have been given the kindness of a smothering in the crib.¡±

    ¡°You think highly of yourself, dully noted,¡± he decided to try and rile her up then, hoping she would let something slip. The way she spoke made this House Blackburg sound even more important than she had made it to be earlier.

    ¡°Be assured that my magic has never hurt anyone on accident and nor will it ever,¡± she said, calm again. ¡°And I do know better than to fight against a whole nation. Offer no harm and receive none in return. Or do and pray my family never finds out.¡±

    ¡°If only everyone¡¯s word could always be trusted,¡± Zema said. ¡°There would be no need for me to have this job.¡±

    ¡°Take your precautions,¡± she shrugged. ¡°Or just send us on our way on the other side of the border if you cannot trust strangers to not accidentally explode among your citizens. I am curious to have a look around your nation, Major, and would love to sightsee a bit. But I am not willing to risk my life over idle curiosity.¡±

    ¡°So you say,¡± Zema nodded.

    ¡°So I say,¡± she shrugged. ¡°You make the call.¡±

    Then she stood up and headed for the door. Which was certainly locked. Zeta waited for the moment she would realize that for his next words, which he was still mostly considering. So he was mutely silent when they opened with a push. There was no sound of resistance either, so it must have been actually unlocked against protocol. The Major decided to chew out whoever messed up the usual procedure but lost his opportunity to speak.

    He contemplated having her brought back in by force but for the moment he chose not to escalate. The principal thought she was dangerous and it would be unwise to engage an unknown threat already within their base without good cause. Given few other alternatives, he returned to the hidden room, to once again consult with a certain old man.

    ¡°I have a suggestion,¡± the principal said as soon as the opportunity arose.

    ¡°I am not risking anything drastic,¡± Zema made sure that was apparent before any ideas of ¡®punishments for illegal magecraf¡¯ were even voiced.

    ¡°What? Of course not,¡± he shook his head. ¡°I say there is a way for this to be handled perfectly.¡±

    ¡°Well?¡±

    ¡°Bring them to my Academy,¡± Deotp said. ¡°In the first place it was founded to help people safely learn magic. I don¡¯t believe I cannot convince a trio of children to take up the right way.¡±

 4.19 A whiff of ashes

    ¡°So, you will have a week here in the city and a humble allowance,¡± Tobba concluded his explanation on what they already knew. Alice had almost scornfully showcased how the Republic had no real countermeasures against magical eavesdropping. They couldn¡¯t be too obvious about what they were doing, but a small portal in the ear that let them listen in had been covert enough. ¡°The Principal was really insistent that you head to his Academy afterwards.¡±

    ¡°That is agreeable,¡± Elizabeth nodded. They had not really coordinated yet but as ever, she took the lead. ¡°I am also curious about how this wizardry works. It is not practiced where we come from but perhaps there are some insights to be gleaned.¡±

    ¡°In the meantime, you will be staying near the city center,¡± the captain said. ¡°There are some government-owned flats there. I will try to visit but no promises, my duties resume from tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°You have already helped us more than enough for a stranger,¡± Irwyn sincerely said. Tobba had argued on their behalf after all. Otherwise, they may well be already halfway to this Academy without even a chance to have a look at the City... If they even bore with such treatment.

    ¡°Yes, well¡­¡± Tobba said and hesitated.

    ¡°Something on your mind, captain?¡± Elizabeth smiled, not quite sweetly.

    ¡°I heard a lot about how your magic was dangerous over the last few hours,¡± he said after a moment of silence. ¡°You don¡¯t look it, but how can I not worry for you?¡±

    ¡°Naturally there are dangers to magecraft,¡± Elizabeth nodded agreeably, ¡°Does a person not undertake some hazards in whatever profession they choose? Smiths may suffer injury by the forge, hunters may lose their lives in an afternoon due to bad luck. Does anyone claim a carriage driver is inherently a danger to themselves?¡±

    ¡°I have been told it was a fair bit worse than that.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps without guidance,¡± Elizabeth shrugged, raised her finger, then pretended to focus for a split second. A wisp of Void magic rose above her nail, almost like black smoke. Tobba tensed. ¡°There are ways to reduce risks. Save methods and hard-earned wisdom of pitfalls. And talent. More than in any other craft, talent.¡±

    She let the wisp of Void zip to the side, drawing a circle around the room in a flash so fast a human eye could barely see it. To the point it seemed like an illusion. Then she let it hover next to her ear as Tobba realized what had just happened. His widening eyes marked the moment Elizabeth let the meager spell dissipate. ¡°I am in perfect control of my magic. So are my companions. It may not seem like it to you, but even implying otherwise is a grave insult.¡±

    ¡°If you say so,¡± Tobba shook his head, slightly disbelieving at what little he had just beheld but not quite commenting on it. ¡°Let¡¯s get you out of here then.¡±

    <hr>

    Cars were fascinating, Irwyn found. Boxes of plastic on wheels, essentially carriages, but powered by neither horses nor magic. The sound of the engine pumping under the hood was a hint at least. Though Irwyn had no real idea how it all worked.

    ¡°You have never seen one?¡± Tobba was surprised. The captain was still accompanying them, driving said car. It was painted red with reflexive stripes which apparently made it apparent that a firefighter would be the driver. Much like noble houses plastering heraldry over their carriages, Irwyn surmised, or like large merchant groups marking theirs ¨C just distinct in a different way.

    ¡°They are not really made in the Federation, I don¡¯t think,¡± Alice said, then looked over at their expert on ¡®why does the Federation not do this¡¯.

    ¡°Cars have high demands on production and road quality,¡± Elizabeth explained. ¡°Chests or whole containers with expanded space fulfill the need for transporting large volumes of goods and the Beacons surpass them in speed easily when it comes to personal transport. There is, simply put, not enough demand to make cars worth the trouble.¡±

    ¡°Your Federation sounds like a very different place,¡± Tobba noted. ¡°What are these Beacons, for example?¡±

    ¡°They are a very old and unique creation of magic that allows for¡­ long-range teleportation between a very few specific large cities,¡± Elizabeth hesitantly downplayed, still wanting not to speak on the full extent of magic the Federation was used to.

    ¡°Sounds convenient,¡± said Tobba with a nod. Alice grinned at that wording. But Tobba did not know anything about Finity or half a dozen other magical laws that made teleportation over great distances impractically difficult. It was likely that no one did. Otherwise, their cover story would have been much less believable in the first place.

    ¡°How do you make engines without metal?¡± Elizabeth changed the topic. ¡°And a lot of other things for that matter.¡±

    ¡°Camalan¡¯s Ceramic,¡± the captain said.

    ¡°Those should not be able to handle the pressures,¡± Elizabeth frowned. ¡°Am I just wrong in assuming that?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why we have them graded,¡± Tobba nodded. ¡°There is a special clay mine not far from the capital. What comes from there is much more difficult to process as far as I understand but the final product has special qualities ¨C we call it Camalan after the city¡¯s founder who had also first discovered the mine, a contemporary of the Founder. You would need to ask someone else for the details. But it¡¯s used all around the place.¡±

    ¡°Ah, a Source of somewhat supernatural clay,¡± Elizabeth said with a slight nod. ¡°I can see that working. Is there enough, though, to support a country?¡±

    ¡°Rural areas have a lot less technology,¡± the captain admitted. ¡°But it¡¯s enough for our few cities.¡±

    Speaking of cities, this one was much more interesting up close rather than from above. There was a decent number of cars on the streets but that was not the most fascinating part. It was the glass. There was so much glass in all the buildings. Massive windows on every storefront but even many of the houses which had looked just like concrete cubes from above had wide views - even if those only led into the streets.

    ¡°Well, we are here,¡± Tobba eventually said, the car stopping.

    They were definitely in the good part of the city, Irwyn reckoned. Actually, on the same street as some kind of government establishment. The apartment building was not particularly distinctive. Erected from concrete, no taller than the others around. It was split into several entrances, whereupon Tobba led them to one of them, a stairway leading them up afterwards. The two apartments assigned to them were numbered three and four, both on the second floor and facing each other. Everything seemed rather¡­ formulaic about the building. Like everything was made from the same cast. That included the insides.

    It was not too long before noon by then. Tobba said he would visit them if he could but actually needed to head back home to his own family. That left them with not that much to do after settling in. They didn¡¯t exactly have anything they needed to unpack. Then it came down to their options. Everyone else wanted to have a look around the area. Meanwhile, Irwyn was more inclined to figure out how inscribing a Concept into his flesh would work. They eventually convinced him that it would be best to not split up yet, which was a fair point. Their entry into the country was not exactly subtle, so it was best to be careful.

    And assume they were under watch. Elizabeth reiterated that many times. No matter what the local military thought, it was unlikely they would be freed of suspicion so easily and wholly. First such spy was actually literally trying to listen in on them as they were speaking, Alice pointed out. That was fruitless, of course, given the magically enforced privacy Elizabeth had erected but it was something to be aware of.

    ¡°They are actually almost leaning against the door,¡± Alice looked towards the front entrance. ¡°Quite young for a spy? I think?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, they are probably getting nervous hearing nothin¡¯,¡± Waylan nodded. ¡°Would weird me out too in their sues. Gimme a second.¡±

    The sneak then very quietly but still visibly moved towards the door, having Elizabeth dismiss her magic. A few steps in front of it, Waylan paused, straightened up, then pulled at the doorknob. In one swift motion, the prankster opened the door and stepped through it, pretending as if he had just been fast walking distractedly. He even looked back at the rest of their group, as if he hadn¡¯t been paying any attention to what might be behind said door.

    ¡°Wa¡­!¡± a voice was raised in alarm a split second before Waylan inevitably collided with her. A woman, or perhaps a girl, their age, tried to awkwardly avoid a collision. This was made difficult by Waylan making no such efforts. A situation that lead to them collapsing into a heap.

    ¡°Careful,¡± Waylan said sagely as soon as they were on the ground. Not surprised since he had caused it, he was quicker to stand back up. ¡°Eavesdropping is a tripping hazard.¡±

    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°Are spies usually this¡­ straightforward here?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°I am not a spy,¡± she immediately defended herself. The clearly military uniform she was wearing ¨C much the same as the ones they had seen at the base - did not help her case. Nor did the stumbling when trying to get back on her feet.

    ¡°In the same way as we have not caught you?¡± Elizabeth gave her a very unconvinced raise of eyebrows.

    ¡°It¡¯s just¡­ I got curious, alright?¡± the girl flushed. ¡°A whole group suddenly moves in here? I was wondering what was strange about you all.¡±

    ¡°Strange?¡± Elizabeth picked up on the word.

    ¡°No one normal gets put into this building,¡± the girl snorted, then seemingly realized that might have been taken as an insult, flushed, and began apologizing. All with admirable alacrity. ¡°That is¡­ we all have some special circumstances, ehm. So, as I said, curious.¡±

    ¡°We are foreign agents determined to undermine the government,¡± Waylan said with a straight face.

    ¡°Or take it over,¡± Alice added. ¡°Whichever is easier.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ see?¡± the newcomer became somewhat visibly nervous.

    ¡°We are just from very far away and thus automatically suspicious,¡± Irwyn spared her. ¡°I didn¡¯t catch your name?¡± not that he would likely remember it.

    ¡°Alice,¡± the stranger said, giving a slight bow. ¡°Hello.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ this is a bit awkward,¡± the other Alice groaned. Everyone quickly introduced themselves making the coincidence apparent.

    ¡°Look at the positives,¡± Waylan grinned. ¡°Irwyn will probably remember your name because of this.¡±

    ¡°Probably,¡± Elizabeth nodded alongside him seriously.

    ¡°Probably,¡± Alice did not miss the opportunity to add her own dose of mockery.

    ¡°So, if everyone here is somewhat strange, what about you?¡± Irwyn changed the topic before indigenous Alice could wonder what that was about.

    ¡°I am also from abroad,¡± the girl confessed. ¡°From the Western Kingdom, actually.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that a neighboring nation?¡± Elizabeth frowned. Meanwhile, Irwyn was realizing that he would need to pick a different adjective since his first go-to had been technically incorrect.

    ¡°It is rare for commoners to be able to leave,¡± Alice the semi-local said hesitantly. ¡°And mine was unusual even for that¡­ anyways, I should introduce you to the other neighbors! It¡¯s been a while since anyone new came around.¡±

    ¡°Why not?¡± Elizabeth shrugged but looked at everyone else for a different opinion. Since no one objected they followed the girl out the door. ¡°Who else is here?¡±

    ¡°Jonathan is a chemist¡­ technically,¡± Alice2 explained. ¡°He got into trouble with their ministry over something and ended up forbidden from using his license commercially. But then the military wanted him instead so now he is kind of stuck in-between? He is kind of keeping a low profile so that the people up high who hate him don¡¯t get angry at him still having a job. Then there is Calamita - yes, I know, but she won¡¯t tell me her real name. She is some kind of Ecologyst but like, angry. Ugh, she is not around much. Be careful you don¡¯t let her see you squishing a bug or something. I think she tried to poison me for that at least twice.¡±

    ¡°Good company,¡± Waylan summarized. ¡°I do prefer neighbors that will do me harm. That¡¯s why I always lived near some.¡±

    ¡°Oh, no, she knew I would be fine,¡± Alice(4minus2) shook her head. ¡°I used to¡­ well, I am hard to poison. And do some Honing, actually, if you know what that is.¡±

    ¡°Not the slightest clue,¡± Waylan nodded, attracted her attention, then smoothly disappeared as she was looking at him.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind Waylan,¡± Irwyn explained. ¡°That is his way of saying ¡®me too¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Oh, sweet!¡± she seemed quite happy to hear that. ¡°We can compare notes? Most people here are super weird about it.¡±

    ¡°Who else lives in this building?¡± Alice1 asked.

    ¡°Just the three of us and you now,¡± her namesake answered. ¡°Used to be a few more but they got caught up in the blue fire thing. It¡¯s¡­ better not to speak about them.¡±

    ¡°What is this blue fire about?¡± Irwyn asked. They had eavesdropped on Tobba and that intelligence officer mentioning it. ¡°We quite literally arrived yesterday in an airship but it sounds like a big deal.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s definitely been a huge thing,¡± Alice [other] nodded. ¡°Strange blue flames appeared in the Century Mall one day and refused to be extinguished easily. Anyone who so much as touched it died or worse. No one seems to understand it though. I haven¡¯t even heard whether it was an attack, an accident, or some kind of natural disaster. Actually, Jonathan might know more. He has been researching it, I think.¡±

    ¡°You meant to introduce us to him anyway,¡± Irwyn suggested. They had stopped in the hallway floor down.

    ¡°Oh, yeah, I got distracted,¡± she nodded, then turned to knock on the door they were already standing by. Her voice raised. ¡°Natnat, you in there?!¡±

    There was no answer. To which Alicen¡¯t sighed, reached for the knob, then lifted the door from its hinges in one smooth motion. Irwyn stared in some surprise at how a lock had not stopped that from happening but quickly recovered to notice that the door seemingly had a wall lock instead of one built in - which the unhinging neatly bypassed. Irwyn noted that much as they were let in while their guide put it back in place with suspicious amount of practice to the action.

    ¡°At least take us to lunch before we commit burglary together,¡± Waylan chided.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Jonathan just gets too focused sometimes,¡± she shrugged. ¡°Just dodge if he throws anything.¡±

    The apartment they found themselves invading was seemingly also built off of the same template, yet lived in by someone who did not believe in regular cleaning. Clothes in various states of wash were layered around the furniture, together with a lot of paper. Mostly schematics and technical documents from what Irwyn briefly glimpsed. Too complex to make sense of with just casual inspection and maybe even an indepth one.

    ¡°His lab is in the back,¡± she noted, then walked towards there. A door corresponding to where one of the bedrooms should be was indeed closed. ¡°No sock on the handle, that means he is not doing something that dangerous.¡±

    ¡°How have you found that out?¡± Waylan joked.

    ¡°He started putting it up after almost spilling some acid on me,¡± she nodded with full seriousness while oppening said door. ¡°I probably would have survived it but he was pretty freaked out.¡±

    Inside was indeed a laboratory. Many glass vials and a rather complex set of equipment that instantly reminded Irwyn of an alchemist¡¯s workshop were arrayed on several sturdy oaken tables. And by one of the tables sat a pale middle-aged man in a long white coat with more than one stain and a visible hole near the hem.

    ¡°Natnat, we have new neighbors!¡± Alice2 - had he already used that one? - exclaimed making the man carefully stop whatever he had been doing and put his tools down.

    ¡°Please, do not call me that,¡± he said, the voice soft. ¡°And what have I told you about bringing people here? Please, do not touch anything. Some of it is very dangerous. Or at least scalding hot.¡±

    ¡°They wanted to hear about the blue flames,¡± she explained. ¡°I thought you would know a bunch.¡±

    ¡°We are from far away abroad,¡± Elizabeth said the important omitted bit. ¡°We just learned about the event and got naturally curious.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have anything more interesting to say. I have made no real progress in learning anything beyond what is already widely known.¡±

    ¡°That would actually be of interest,¡± Irwyn chimed in. ¡°And maybe we could help - I have an understanding of Flames.¡±

    ¡°I am sure,¡± the man nodded, failing to hide his dismissiveness. ¡°But this was no ordinary arson. In fact, it barely behaved like fire.¡±

    ¡°Flame is still Flame,¡± Irwyn disagreed. ¡°No matter what, I will have some insight into it you probably cannot.¡±

    ¡°Well, I was hardly making any progress either way,¡± the man sighed. ¡°I suppose I can look for a shift in perspective. Fine, so I have been doing everything and anything I could think of, trying to figure out what set these flames and how they could have spread. But no chemical or alchemical compound I try comes even close, even in laboratory environment. I have found and tested a few that will not extinguish when water is poured on them but none of those can spread like those blue flames had. Nor any of the other properties for that matter. I am not even looking at the distinctive color yet since that has been a dead end. Frankly, at this point I am starting to think it had little to do with chemistry.¡±

    ¡°If not water, how were they originally put out?¡± Irwyn asked, looking around. ¡°You must have a way to do that here since you are experimenting with some. Do you just starve them of food?¡±

    ¡°As ridiculous as it sounds, they were extinguished by direct sunlight,¡± Jonathan pointed at his shuttered window, clearly ready to be opened. ¡°Or running out of fuel, as you guessed. Weird as they were, the flames could not feed off of just concrete. But small patches went out in seconds under sunlight.¡±

    ¡°Why are you so sure it must be some kind of compound in the first place?¡± Irwyn questioned.

    ¡°A fire must burn something or it will get extinguished.¡±

    ¡°It could simply be burning magic,¡± Irwyn said.

    ¡°Yes, very funny,¡± the man seemed distinctly unamused. ¡°Simply create unextinguishable fire from thin air.¡±

    Feeling slightly insulted, Irwyn raised his palm and did exactly that, a crimson plume sprouting above. ¡°It is actually quite simple.¡±

    ¡°Is this¡­ wizardry?¡± at least Jonathan was at least given pause by that. ¡°Don¡¯t you need those symbols or something?¡±

    ¡°This is magecraft,¡± Irwyn said. ¡°Different from what you call wizardry, though I am not yet sure how exactly yet. But I don¡¯t need any ¡®symbols¡¯ for one. It is simply Flame, I wield and feed it.¡±

    ¡°There are more kinds of magic?¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡± Irwyn seemed as surprised as his counterpart.

    ¡°Damn it,¡± the man muttered, closed his eyes, then let out a very long sigh before continuing. ¡°How was I supposed to figure that out? The academies announced that ¡®it was not wizardry¡¯, so I assumed like any sane person that this would not be just pure magic. No wonder I have been bashing my head against a wall this whole time. Trying to figure out a half-magical compound that would make sense.¡±

    ¡°How would they even know?¡± Alice [original] cut in. She and Elizabeth had been listening to the conversation, though left the speaking to Irwyn for the most part. ¡°Any evidence would have been burned, right?¡±

    ¡°There might be ways wizards have of detecting the work of others,¡± Elizabeth guessed. ¡°I would need to understand them better first to have a better guess.¡±

    ¡°It will be hard for me to deduce anything without seeing these Flames,¡± Irwyn returned to the topic. ¡°But I am assuming there are not exactly samples left, are there?¡±

    ¡°What about ashes?¡± Jonathan asked. ¡°I requested some to examine but they seemed ordinary.¡±

    ¡°I cannot promise success but maybe there could be something,¡± Irwyn shrugged. He did not mind trying.

    ¡°All right,¡± Jonathan nodded, quite enthusiastic for any lead it seemed. Irwyn¡¯s brief display seemed to have changed his attitude completely. The man got up and walked to the corner of the room where a wooden chest sat beneath some tarp. There the chemist undid the clasps, took out a sealed vial, and promptly brought it back over.

    ¡°I can definitely feel a hint of magic lingering in it,¡± Irwyn said, seeing Elizabeth also nod from the corner of his eye. It was miniscule but given how magic-deprived the environment was, it was still possible to feel it, if barely. ¡°Can I take a closer look?¡±

    ¡°I have plenty,¡± Jonathan nodded and gestured for him to go on ahead.

    Irwyn removed the cork and was about to pour some on his palm. Then paused. Almost involuntarily, a whiff of a smell had reached his nose. So he breathed in again, deeper this time. Then three more until he was sure. They did not smell like ashes should. Instead, there was something putrid to it. The barest hint of rot. Or Rot.

    He looked at the chemist and realized something he had not put together before from the details. ¡°What exactly happened to the people killed by the flames?¡±

 4.20 Communication

    Necromancy. They had not expected that, but it could be nothing else. Irwyn would never again miss the rotten stench which gave it away. And when they were on the same note, Jonathan quickly confirmed the exact details. Calling the events just a disaster was almost a euphemism. Because no one wanted to say out loud exactly what had happened - not months after the fact, when most had managed to put it out of their mid.

    When a person came into contact with the blue fire, the inferno would swallow them with annatural haste, covering the whole body. Then turn them as they still screamed. In moments a victim would become a carrier instead, pursuing any other person nearby and vying to spread the devastation. With just a touch, it would afflict another, almost like a disease. It also had a similar tendency to multiply ¨C particularly dangerous since it had first spread against confused and unprepared civilians in a concentrated area. The only saving grace was perhaps that the undead victims were unmistakable and crumbled to ash in mere minutes. That meant that no subterfuge could be applied to lay down traps for months into the future.

    The blue fire did not only burn people though. The flames would incinerate even concrete with some difficulty and could not be extinguished before they went out on their own. Of course not, the flames were likely pure magic and thus did not require oxygen. Neither did they really spread naturally though ¨C while they burned through any material the victims touched it was more as decomposition than as fuel. The source of said magic was also obvious.

    ¡°It almost certainly burns the Souls of the turned as fuel,¡± Elizabeth concluded, not leaving the chemist hanging. Perhaps it was because the man had merely glanced at the wart on her nose and did not let his gaze linger nor tongue loose. It was quickly becoming a taboo to even acknowledge with a look.

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be¡­ excruciatingly painful?¡± Jonathan paled a bit at the thought. ¡°Not that being burned alive sounds any more pleasant.¡±

    ¡°Not overtly so,¡± Elizabeth shook her head. ¡°About as bad as being stabbed through the heart, I expect. A flicker of agony and then the quick numbing of death... maybe a bit of immolation in this case. But it would take mere moments before the affected become undead and thus no longer people, merely hollow shells engulfed in the Betrayer¡¯s hate. Undefended mortal Souls are fragile.¡±

    ¡°Being stabbed still hurts,¡± Alice pointed out. ¡°And probably only Irwyn would enjoy a ¡®bit of immolation¡¯.¡±

    ¡°But why blue rather than white?¡± Irwyn half distracted. Soul was white, Flame was red, how did they combine in that way? It was a real question.

    ¡°Why does that matter?¡± Jonathan did not understand.

    ¡°To identify the specific prismatic element,¡± Elizabeth said, face fully serious. ¡°Blue flames¡­ it is likely to be one dedicated solely to necromancy, and thus not widely known. If it needs to burn victims¡¯ souls before raising them, it might draw on the idea that things burn a different color than their usual pigment. Colors of magic can be loose at times, especially when diverging from the nine. Do you have more details to add?¡±

    ¡°It was a damn nightmare from what I hear,¡± Jonathan sighed. ¡°So many people died before anyone even realized what was going on. It¡¯s a miracle the army was quick enough to quarantine the Mall before it could spread, otherwise it would have been so much worse.¡±

    ¡°From your ealier description, it sounded like barely zombies, the very least of the Rot,¡± Elizabeth frowned. ¡°Slow and unintelligent, barely even coordinating with those near them. Or is that incorrect?¡±

    ¡°They are also uncaring about bullets, not stopping even if their bodies are broken,¡± the chemist explained. ¡°You cannot really approach either. The only way is to fill the kneecaps with enough holes they stop being able to walk or use explosive munitions ¨C which were in short supply in the middle of the city on such a short notice.¡±

    ¡°Ah,¡± Elizabeth had a realization. ¡°I understand. It is not that the undead were so fearsome, merely that you were unprepared. This was your nation''s first time dealing with undead in a long time.¡±

    ¡°Our soldiers did what they could against all odds,¡± the chemist did not like that. ¡°Many laid down their lives to prevent the spread.¡±

    ¡°Do not take that as an insult,¡± Irwyn appeased. ¡°I would not begrudge you saying that I do not understand chemistry. It is just that the Republic is clearly lacking the experience that comes from repeated exposure to the Rot.¡±

    ¡°And your nation does not?¡± Jonathan caught the implication, mellowing out.

    ¡°I am a daughter of House Blackburg,¡± Elizabeth said with a hint of Pride. ¡°The majority of my ancestors have wagered their lives battling the Rot. I am no inquisitor but much has been taught to me. Neither will I shirk my duty here where I might make a difference. Alice?¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡± Alice1 asked. She had been listening intently once the discussion of undead was brought up but did not have anything more to introduce into the conversation.

    ¡°The other one,¡± Elizabeth smiled, and looked around, finding their new neighbor nowhere in the laboratory. Neither was their sneak for that matter.

    Finding them was not actually hard though. Waylan and Alice (the other one) had left the little laboratory at some point, instead retreating into the living room. They had cleared a sofa and were throwing paper balls at each other while sitting at opposite ends.

    ¡°Are you nerds done yet?¡± the thief exclaimed with a wide grin.

    ¡°Nerds,¡± Alice echoed.

    ¡°Nerds,¡± Alice joined in.

    ¡°You were with them,¡± Waylan squinted.

    ¡°What does that word even mean?¡± Irwyn questioned. Waylan smirked instead of answering. Dreadfully, he must have just learned a new slur of sorts.

    ¡°While amusing, things have some urgency now,¡± Elizabeth interrupted the exchange, looking at the girl still in a military uniform, ¡°You should have a way to contact some kind of superior, correct?¡±

    ¡°Did you figure something out?¡± the girl looked both surprised and excited.

    ¡°That I am duty bound to be more closely involved,¡± she said. ¡°The sooner this is relayed, the better.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we have a telegram in the basement,¡± AliceB nodded, standing up to lead the way further downstairs. On their way she got a shortened version of the prior discussion, to which Waylan also finally paid due attention.

    ¡°I thought there were radios?¡± Elizabeth questioned. The airship certainly had one.

    ¡°No one has figured out how to make those without metal yet,¡± Jonathan said somewhat ruefully. He was following their group along. ¡°Only the most important places can afford to have one.¡±

    The word ¡®basement¡¯ was a bit of a misnomer anyhow, given it was two floors deep, each at least as large as those above. The level they were headed to had several rooms and Alice did not hesitate to guide them into one.

    ¡°There is¡­ Light coursing under the floor?¡± Irwyn realized as they neared their destination.

    Two dozen thin beams of natural light shone uninterrupted beneath the concrete floor. He had not noticed them before when on the surface but with no immediate sunlight as a distraction and closer proximity finally took note of it. The room itself was barely spacious enough for all six of them to squeeze in. There was also a complicated looking wooden box which the Federation¡¯s group quickly began to inspect.

    ¡°How else would a telegram work?¡± Spylice hinted at Irwyn¡¯s earlier question.

    ¡°Usually through wire and electricity,¡± Alice said.

    ¡°That seems like an extremely uneconomic use of metal,¡± Jonathan pointed out. Everyone else was trying to figure what they were looking at.

    This unfamiliar ¡®telegram¡¯ had to be the wooden contraption in front of them. On the wall there was also postered a sheet of paper sealed in plastic foil on which an alphabet of some sort had been written. Irwyn began to interpret it but Alice (the original) was faster.

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    ¡°You code every letter of the alphabet into a sequence of short or long pauses,¡± she deduced. ¡°Just like regular telegraph. Except you send them by interrupting a stream of light! How do you transfer it reliably though?¡±

    ¡°Glass cables,¡± Jonathan said. ¡°Well, mostly glass. There are light sources at the beginning and end of every cable. The machine lets you intercept or receive them.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, you just have to push down the board after getting connected,¡± the other local said, positioning to demonstrate. There were in total 9 pairs of ¡®boards¡¯ - planks of wood sticking out of the box - present, each marked with numbers one to eight, with the leftmost duo merely having a letter ¡®c¡¯ instead. Alice reached for that one and started pushing it down at deliberate intervals. This, indeed, interrupted the flow of light below every time from going in one direction. With his fast mind and the translation sheet quite literally on the wall before him, Irwyn managed to interpret what was being sent.

    Reqcon. - the message started with a codeword - mil3. 4. 43. pas. 5116.

    Whatever that meant. Irwyn had no frame of reference. ¡®Mil¡¯ could be ¡®millitary¡¯ from context? The numbers meant nothing to him. When that was delivered, the front board was lifted and the paired one behind it was pushed down instead. The reply was thankfully comprehensible. The way it was shown was interesting as well: The received message was reflected onto a glass pane at the very front of the box which distinctly flashed to relay the message in the same code.

    C. Standby.

    ¡°Alright, we should be through to my boss soon,¡± their self-appointed telegrapher said. ¡°You will need to dictate to me what you want to say.¡±

    ¡°Or you could write the message beforehand like a sane person,¡± Jonathan shook his head in almost exacerbation. ¡°So that you don¡¯t change your mind in the middle of a sentence and pretranslate it. Realizing you spelled a letter wrong in the middle of it is hard to take back.¡±

    A new message was delivered to them a few seconds later. Projected on the screen it slowly spelled out: Con7. With that, Alice were quickly put leftmost boards back into their original position. Afterwards, she predictably moved the front one marked as ¡®7¡¯ to communicate further. She was not saying out loud the exact words but neither was she hiding her hand movements. Irwyn could have inferred the words even without feeling the light coursing beneath.

    Sir. new. info. blue. flame. from. foreigner.

    It was a very economical way of writing, which only made sense. Spelling words letter by letter took a very long time compared to speech for example. Everything that could be cut out without losing meaning naturally would be just to make the woefully slow process more efficient.

    C. Elab.

    The relaying of everything took a while, given the process was glacial. The back and forth of switching the boards took up even more time. This was not helped by the other side asking them to ¡®staby¡¯ - shortened standby - then leaving for several minutes before the next message several times. But ultimately, they did arrange a meeting of some kind with an unspecified ¡®higher ranked¡¯ person to discuss their possible involvement in the investigation.

    Someone would come to pick them up in the morning. Given it was only around noon they were not exactly being treated with the urgency Elizabeth thought was warranted. Irwyn could kind of see why they were being accommodated with some hesitation given they had downplayed their power at first but suddenly wanted to be involved with what seemed to be one of the nation''s most grave mysteries. Alice (theirs) also suggested the army needed time to decide who and how should actually meet them.

    ¡°Is there anywhere to eat around here?¡± Waylan eventually asked, which led to the five of them going to a nearby ¡®dining hall¡¯ - Jonathan excused himself, returning to the lab. Not a restaurant, apparently, but rather a subsidized kitchen with cheap meals, which was convenient given they did not exactly have much in the local - paper - currency. And given how scarce metal seemed, Irwyn doubted that paying with gold would go down without an uproar.

    The food was not too bad since it was part of accomodations for the government workers from the large office building nearby. Since they were technically somewhat entangled with the military they were allowed to partake. Not that anyone actually checked - just Alice¡¯s uniform seemed good enough proof to let their whole group enter. Inevitably, talks were had. Some more personal.

    ¡°So, what do you actually do?¡± Alice the first asked her doppelganger (did that word even apply?). ¡°Clearly military, but what exactly?¡±

    ¡°I am in training to become a special agent,¡± she replied with clear pride, though the Federation group lacked the context to understand what that really meant. ¡°Because of my Honing, I was accepted as a candidate despite being a foreigner. Originally, I was aiming just for a regular soldier-into-officer but I performed so well in the sorting camp that I got convinced to try this. Since I made it through the physicals already, I am getting proper tutoring in the city now to catch up on education.¡±

    Meanwhile, their group retold their somewhat redacted stories. Elizabeth was still hesitant to put to words exactly how mighty her family was despite invoking the name a few times and Alice did not like to speak of her home for obvious reasons. Still, the meal was mostly pleasant and they were given a short tour of the neighborhood. As dusk neared though, Irwyn had other things on his mind, and Elizabeth definitely noticed.

    ¡°Time of day doesn¡¯t really matter for Flame,¡± she answered a question he had not even needed to ask out loud. ¡°But be aware that you are attempting something possibly unprecedented. Even if you have an idea, you might not succeed in just one night or attempt.¡±

    ¡°I would like to try and see,¡± Irwyn nodded. A Concept, so tantalizingly close. The urgent need for it resurfaced suddenly since they would likely be hunting of unknown necromancers in the near future.

    ¡°Then I will guard you as you have guarded me,¡± she nodded.

    When they returned to the apartment building they gathered in one of their two appartments, their neighbor returning to her own lodgings. Alice the magical decided she wanted to stick around and see exactly what Irwyn would try to do. Waylan naturally had little interest and would instead snoop around the building itself before going to sleep.

    So, Irwyn got started on his first idea, creating a sharp dagger of Flame. He would not burn¡­ but could he be cut? After trying a few times, the answer was a resounding ¡®no¡¯. To his own surprise, Irwyn realized that besides just the regular immolation his elements could inflict, they refused to directly harm him in any way. That would be a problem in that case. If he were to carve impossible shapes like the Concept he had envisioned in his mind, he would need precise, downright instinctual, control of the tool used. That meant it had to be one of his elements, forged into a blade or close enough. That created a bit of a paradox.

    ¡°Then simply change the intent behind it,¡± after a while, Elizabeth thought of a possible solution. ¡°You should not be trying to harm yourself with the element. If you are changing yourself instead why would that need to be stopped by your immunity?¡±

    Irwyn wasn''t sure that would work and it required complicated mental gymnastics... but he had not better ideas, so he put his mind to the task. If it was viable, it would only work if Irwyn genuinely convinced himself that carving his flesh was not in any way harmful. That was not an easy mindset to get into despite all his mental alacrity. The girls stayed quiet as he focused on it. There was much struggle in that process but eventually he did manage the feat after what felt like a hundred failures.

    A cut was made on his leg. A small incision. The pain of it immediately broke the fragile state of mind Irwyn had to maintain to make it in the first place, resulting in another barrage of failures right afterwards. He had barely convinced himself it was not harm before experiencing cutting himself. His intentional self-delusion was forced to meet with reality and ended disproven. That was fine. All his doubt had vanished by then, replaced by determinination. Because he saw a cocrete step that could be taken towards finally carving a Concept and did not hesitate to walk the path to it. Even though it was unpleasant to say mildly.

    Elizabeth at least provided healing in the form of a gray balm that made the wound quite literally disappear in seconds. Convenient, even if Irwyn healed faster than most people - best to be rid of such distractions right away. He still needed to wipe away the blood that had been shed but that was simple enough. ¡°Is that temporary or a proper graft?¡± Irwyn asked.

    ¡°Proper,¡± Elizabeth confirmed, leaving the bottle to him. Irwyn would doubtlessly need it, repeatedly. ¡°This balm only works for very thin and shallow cuts but the healing is permanent for anyone.¡±

    So, Irwyn continued making a somewhat glacial progress. The state of mind needed to make self-harm seem not harmful remained rather elusive and easily shattered whenever Irwyn felt the bite of stinging pain that accompanied every little dent. But he was improving. Slowly, yes, but practice was clearly creating results.

    ¡°It¡¯s been three hours,¡± Elizabeth said after one such successful cut and subsequent shattering of focus. ¡°I don¡¯t think you will make it there tonight.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I need to be able to do this naturally,¡± he nodded. When he was carving a Concept, it would consume all of his attention. Even Elizabeth had struggled to form it properly, so he could not afford to spare any extra focus for the tool that he would be using. That meant Irwyn would have to practice until the specific mindset came as easily as a thought and never faltered. A tall mountain to climb, but one in front of him.

    ¡°You should sleep,¡± she reminded. ¡°You scarcely got any last night.¡±

    ¡°I should,¡± he acknowledged.

    ¡°It is a very unhealthy habit to skip out on slumber repeatedly,¡± she immediately caught on his lack of a promise. ¡°Your body is still mortal. If you skim on it now, it will actually only delay your advancement in the long run.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I will be able to,¡± Irwyn admitted. He was making progress. That it was so slow only ignited the metaphorical heat in him.

    ¡°Then drink this,¡± she retrieved a potion of some kind. Irwyn quickly read the label as Dream¡¯s beckoning. A sleeping medication of some kind. ¡°It¡¯s not healthy to rely on them, but once a while is fine. Especially tonight might be worthwhile.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± he acceded with a sigh.

    ¡°You are not planning on not actually drinking the potion and only telling me you did, are you?¡± she caught him before the plan had even fully formulated in his head.

    ¡°Of course not,¡± Irwyn pointedly did not hesitate.

    ¡°Good,¡± she nodded. ¡°Then you will not need the balm anymore.¡±

    ¡°Maybe a few more hours,¡± he tried to insist.

    ¡°Irwyn.¡±

    ¡°I cannot be that far away from making this work.¡±

    ¡°There will be more problems to figure out in all likelyhood,¡± she reminded him. ¡°This is just the first step, don¡¯t burn yourself out.¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± he sighed, surrendering. He closed the balm bottle and returned it, pocketing the potion. ¡°I will try to sleep. What other choice do I have?¡±

    ¡°I would hope so,¡± she nodded, then smiled. ¡°Tea before slumber?¡±

 4.21 Too many watching eyes

    ¡°There is one thing that bothers me,¡± Elizabeth confessed in the morning. They had gathered and were waiting for whoever would come and collect them. ¡°It struck me last night, and now I cannot get it out of my mind.¡±

    ¡°Which is?¡± Irwyn encouraged.

    ¡°Think about it, what has been almost suspiciously absent?¡± she returned a question rather than a straight answer.

    ¡°Sand,¡± Alice immediately proclaimed.

    ¡°Gods,¡± Waylan nodded seriously, the wise person for once. ¡°Been thinking the same.¡±

    ¡°Are we sure we have merely not just missed it?¡± Irwyn questioned. ¡°Worship can be subtle.¡±

    ¡°Nah, probed Alice for it yesterday,¡± Waylan shook his head. ¡°They have some in the West but not really here in the Republic.¡±

    ¡°But faith should still go somewhere,¡± Irwyn frowned.

    ¡°And if there are no gods,¡± Elizabeth nodded. ¡°What does this nation believe in?¡±

    <hr>

    Not an easy question to answer. Alice2 seemed to think it was about freedom but she was a foreigner, even if one being integrated. Jonathan looked like he hadn¡¯t slept a minute through the night a just shrugged, claiming to have no idea. Their supposed third apartment mate had still not appeared before they left. When their driver arrived, the soldier seemed to be either mute or completely unwilling to speak, thus not being helpful in answering such questions. Nor were they enthusiastic about discussing plans while he drove them so things came down to idle chatter.

    Irwyn found something else to distract himself with though: The streams of light coursing beneath the street. He could feel them when he focused, even though they were beneath layers of road and concrete. And since he knew about them, he could decipher the messages¡­ somewhat. Some letters were giving him a bit of trouble and when he lost focus even for a moment he often struggled to track which of the tightly clustered cables he had been eavesdropping on. Not that he had found something particularly interesting yet so far but he could hope.

    Their destination was close to the military base they had first arrived through but not quite all the way there. Seemingly just an ordinary building with the usual concrete and wide windows. Not particularly distinct or conveniently branded with a name. They were at least ushered into some kind of a meeting room rather than an interrogation chamber on the top floor. Not long later they were met by two men, one in a military uniform and the other in a robe that most certainly pinned him as a wizard - unless a magic users¡¯ propensity for unusual clothing did not translate between cultures ¨C not to mention the thick grimoire visibly hanging at his side. Irwyn did not recognize either, but someone else did.

    ¡°Major Zema,¡± Elizabeth greeted immediately with a smile. ¡°It is pleasant to meet you again. And you must be the rumored Principal?¡±

    ¡°Likewise,¡± the major nodded pleasantly before the older man could speak, though Irwyn felt it was closer to facade than genuine. ¡°Though one has to wonder: Where have you heard my name?¡±

    ¡°Overheard it, I suppose,¡± she kept smiling. ¡°I have excellent hearing.¡±

    ¡°I am more interested in your declarations,¡± the Principal interrupted the half-jab. ¡°From my understanding, you claim it to be the work of spellcasters, yes?¡±

    ¡°There is no such thing as natural necromancy,¡± the heiress shrugged. ¡°Its presence always indicates a caster.¡±

    ¡°Any magic can occur naturally in places of power,¡± the Principal argued. ¡°Like there are fonds of flames or lightning.¡±

    ¡°Yes, and every such Source of necromancy has been carefully shattered during the Great Crusade,¡± she nodded patiently. ¡°I have never learned how, or if, Sources can be artificially created but if they could, just the possibility of self-perpetuating Necromancy would have been stressed to me.¡±

    ¡°I cannot say to have any idea about this ¡®Great Crusade¡¯, so I doubt it would have swept through our lands,¡± the Principal scoffed. Irwyn shot Alice a surprised glance which she returned. Surely such foundational ancient history would be known, even if the timeframe was uncertain.

    ¡°I agree that you have no idea,¡± Elizabeth nodded. She was getting¡­ well, irritated. It was not helping that a certain old man was occasionally glancing at a certain wart everyone else knew to ignore.

    ¡°The Great Crusade was the great war against all of Undeath after the First Betrayal and the Aspects¡¯ deaths,¡± Irwyn tried to mediate. ¡°Have you truly not heard of it?¡±

    ¡°Creationists, are you?¡± the Principal scoffed again at such efforts. ¡°It¡¯s possible I have read it at some point but I see no point in remembering unfounded mythology from supposedly long before recorded history.¡±

    ¡°I have read first-hand accounts of it,¡± Elizabeth chimed in an overtly sweet smile. ¡°Supposedly there are several dozen still kept in our libraries.¡±

    ¡°Very funny,¡± the Principal scoffed. ¡°But word does not survive more than centuries even if well kept. Not to mention I would not believe any nation is so old.¡±

    ¡°But immortal beings are,¡± she countered. ¡°The Federation¡¯s history does not span nearly that far back yet we are visited by them from time to time. And we know the value of knowledge, rather than smugly preaching our ignorance like some. So we record, then make plentiful copies.¡±

    ¡°Now you resort to fairy tales of immortality. While there are things besides humans that live longer, all dies eventually.¡±

    ¡°Willful nescience is not a virtue. You have not earned the Pride you wear so comfortably,¡± Elizabeth scoffed right back. ¡°There are things older than Time that have yet to die out. Whether you acknowledge it or not is irrelevant to the truth.¡±

    ¡°Call that agree to disagree?¡± Irwyn broke in again seeing things were getting more heated.

    ¡°History is not what we have come here to discuss,¡± Zema followed up on the opening. ¡°So, Necromancy, and your assumed duty.¡±

    ¡°It is anyone¡¯s duty to slay the Rot,¡± Alice finally spoke while Elizabeth herself was calming down. ¡°And tenfold for us. We are, technically, retainers to House Blackburg. Assuming the necromancers are not too powerful, we are obligated to help kill them.¡±

    ¡°Twice even, probably,¡± Waylan chimed in unhelpfully.

    ¡°While any help is desirable, I cannot reveal what we have learned ourselves,¡± the Major said. ¡°You simply do not have the clearance to be involved with such secrets, even if you weren¡¯t foreigners.¡±

    ¡°We do not necessarily need anything except the mandate to act freely when the time comes,¡± Elizabeth said confidently. ¡°They will inevitably attack again.¡±

    ¡°What makes you say so,¡± Zema frowned. ¡°We have taken precautions in case it has been a deliberate attack - which I still cannot assume given just your word.¡±

    ¡°The Rot always comes back,¡± Irwyn said, he knew that much. ¡°They cannot stop. ¡®Again and again, until all is dust¡¯ or they are.¡±

    ¡°So, you are asking me to permit an independent investigation,¡± Zema summarized, pausing. ¡°That is not entirely unreasonable. With conditions.¡±

    ¡°This goes against our agreement,¡± the Principal pointed out with a frown.

    ¡°Tentatively agreed upon,¡± Zema said. ¡°While you have had a solid argument, I will not lightly decline help with figuring out this disaster. Their perspective might be¡­ unique.¡±

    ¡°They are children.¡±

    ¡°Seemingly, except of the discrepancies,¡± Zema nodded, turning to the four of them. ¡°For one, I finally know just how far away your Federation is. And the one trustable report on teleportation tells me it is about five orders of magnitude further than the upper limit of possibility.¡±

    ¡°There is greater and lesser magic,¡± Alice said with an easy shrug. Irwyn wondered how far they actually were, they had yet to figure that out. ¡°Few things are impossible, even if it may seem that way to mere mortals like us.¡±

    ¡°Secondly, you come here filled with confidence with words of death on your lips,¡± the Major continued. ¡°I have learned to differentiate blind arrogance from certainty. You speak of flames that consume the Soul without fear, as if knowing they are no threat.¡±

    This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    ¡°We do have our magic,¡± Irwyn somewhat downplayed. But perhaps that was a good point. Not to mention other events, after Abonisle the blue flames as described seemed almost¡­ meagre. Not a fraction of a fraction when it came to the worst horrors of the Rot he had seen with his own eyes. But that was not usual at their age, was it?

    ¡°Three: I specifically asked everyone whether my name or rank has been mentioned in front of you,¡± Zema¡¯s gaze intensified, looking at Elizabeth. ¡°Yet you called me by my rank when you first entered the room back at the base. Even though I was intentionally wearing the wrong insignia. You are hiding things.¡±

    ¡°Is it my fault you speak so loud as to be heard through walls?¡± she did not flinch and merely inclined her head. ¡°Of course we haven¡¯t told you everything - there is a lot.¡±

    ¡°I could have you arrested again for this,¡± he threatened.

    ¡°You could try,¡± Elizabeth agreed.

    ¡°Can we not leave another nation pursued by their whole military?¡± Irwyn acted out a worried plea, yet in the same way supporting her words. It was not even a lie. ¡°Any nation is bound to have a few truly dangerous weapons.¡±

    ¡°I can see that youthful arrogance knows no limits,¡± the Principal sneered but Zema seemed more considering. Irwyn wasn¡¯t completely sure Elizabeth was not being defiant out of sheer Pride, so how could the Major?

    Irwyn thought their ods of escaping that situation again were very good - especially now that Elizabeth held a concept - but that wasn''t the point. His immediate idea was to guide the major to the conclusion that Elizabeth would fight against all rationality if it came down to real hostility. A complete unknown with secrets, ideally left unprovoked.  And the Republic did want the help they were freely offering.

    Irwyn was not actually sure he liked that line in all fairness ¨C even miffed that Elizabeth went for it. It was on the dangerous side since the military man could also decide to feign agreement, then gather a brigade''s worth of soldiers to come hunt them down once out of sight. The point against that was still that they were offering help with something the man clearly wanted resolved and that, well, they were in the middle of a city. Collateral damage was a real consideration. Either way, it was a road they were already on so he had to play along.

    ¡°You are confident you will be able to deal with these Necromancers you believe exist?¡± Zema finally reiterated after a few moments of silence.

    ¡°You cannot be actually considering this?¡± the Principal seemed surprised. ¡°Just look at their gall!¡±

    ¡°From the description of them, the abominations were essentially just zombies, if particularly contagious,¡± Elizabeth nodded, pointedly ignoring the old man. ¡°That is the work of a borderline novice as far as their kind is concerned. I have slain worse when I was less.¡±

    ¡°How will you track them down?¡± Zema inquired.

    ¡°You could say I have a nose for it,¡± Irwyn joined in with a confident smile.

    ¡°The undead have tendencies to behave in certain ways,¡± Elizabeth also elaborated. ¡°It is likely that the isolated Rot out here will not know how to compensate for them.¡±

    ¡°You claim to know a lot about fighting the dead,¡± Zema observed.

    ¡°The expectations about fighting the Rot are a lot higher in the Federation,¡± Irwyn explained. ¡°More than precaution, it is an assumption. Elizabeth and I have participated in battles against them defending a city no smaller than this one.¡± Far larger, actually.

    ¡°You say much but I am not convinced,¡± the Principal still insisted despite the outline of a deal already forming. To the point even the Major seemed somewhat unhappy.

    ¡°Then it is a fortunate thing for this nation you lack the final say,¡± Elizabeth jabbed right back.

    ¡°I am sure an agreement can be reached,¡± Irwyn mediated. The Principal would not have been brought in if his opinions were irrelevant. ¡°Admittedly, I am also eager to compare notes. Our magic might be different but surely there is overlap.¡±

    ¡°Ah, do you just wish to see then? what the magecraft you scorn is capable of,¡± Elizabeth said. She also put on a smile so seeped with so much arrogance that the answer was already a foregone conclusion.

    <hr>

    Ultimately Zema steered them into a productive direction. Namely, they ended up heading to the Century Mall where the blue flames had first appeared over a month prior. The Major even accompanied them, seemingly deciding he wanted to see what was found right away¡­ or worried how things might deteriorate without him to help keep the steadily forming grudge between Elizabeth and the Principal in check.

    The mall had been a particularly large concrete block and was clearly in the middle of reconstruction. Wooden scaffoldings were all around the place, with laborers almost swarming all around them. The military had still kept a presence though, especially at the very heart of it. A few soldiers clearly recognized the Major, or at least his rank, and led them into a decently sized room - enough to fit the six of them comfortably several times. Most of the Century Mall had already removed all traces of the fire, but where they stood was an exception: Walls were still visibly burned in places, gray concrete scorched black.

    ¡°You determined that it was not work of wizardry,¡± Alice recalled what Jonathan had told them. ¡°How?¡±

    ¡°One of my students did,¡± the Principal corrected. ¡°But the method is straightforward. First, we had to find the beginning. For that, there is a simple spell ¨C let me demonstrate.¡±

    Then the man took a new small book from within his robe - not the large tome with bits of metal in its bindings that he was carrying attached to his hand - and quickly opened it on a blank page. He placed it in the air where it suddenly stopped moving, a symbol lighting up on the cover as mana surged into it. Not a lot of mana, just a smidgen, and almost a third was leaking - thus the glow.

    ¡°This is not Time magic,¡± Alice frowned. Irwyn tried to identify the line and there was a familiarity in it - like when he had watched Elizabeth carve her concept¡­ except it was only a single line rather than the interwoven nine, and it was much more basic. Without the depth of impossible angles and another dimension to be drawn in ¨C like a simplification. It was also still very much incomprehensible at a glance - just a glowing scribble.

    ¡°Yes, I do not need to manipulate time for writing,¡± the wizard rolled his eyes.

    ¡°Not space either,¡± Alice shook her head. ¡°Maybe¡­ Realm? Projecting the stability of a solid surface or something.¡±

    ¡°We call this spell ¡®invisible stool¡¯,¡± the Principal explained, giving Alice a very condescending look to the point she almost reddened. ¡°This is not a difficult concept, child.¡±

    ¡°Careful, you might start a second beef today with a ¡®kid¡¯,¡± Waylan mocked from the side making the man frown.

    ¡°So, how would you find where it had started,¡± Irwyn interrupted, staring at the levitating notebook.

    ¡°This spell is called ¡®Origin seeker¡¯,¡± the Principal explained and started drawing with a pencil he had retrieved at some point. And grudgingly, Irwyn had to admit it was somewhat impressive. The old man¡¯s hand moved with quick and precise motions, drawing a new, more complicated symbol in one long stroke. Not quite to the point of a full intention but noticably closer. He must have done that from memory and if every spell required that¡­ well, Irwyn wondered how many the old wizard could remember so perfectly.

    ¡°This means ¡®center¡¯ or more like ¡®place of the beginning¡¯,¡± Alice pointed to one part of the drawing essentially the moment it was finished. ¡°The intention of finding the exact coordinates of space where something had begun. The first half does that.¡±

    ¡°Very¡­ astute of you,¡± the Principal wavered somewhat, while Zema¡¯s eyes definitely sharpened. Irwyn looked again and realized that there was indeed something close to a halfway point where the style of random zigzagging and curving between the two halves changed. Not that Irwyn could tell what either did from looking but he could sense the difference in style after he was forewarned.

    ¡°And the rest?¡± Elizabeth nodded. Much like Irwyn, she could seemingly not make sense of it.

    ¡°No idea, it has nothing to do with Time,¡± Alice shrugged.

    ¡°It works like this,¡± the Principal quickly activated the spell. It took half a second of the page filling with mana at a similarly abysmal efficiency, then it suddenly crumbled to dust. Except rather than fall to the ground, the dust floated, lazily moving in a direction. To a particularly burned corner of the room. ¡°The effect is lessened after this long, the pagedust would have surged with speed and from further away if done right after the incident.¡±

    ¡°This feels a lot like enchanting,¡± Elizabeth commented. ¡°Drawing the Essence of power onto an item, then merely supplying the mana needed to manifest it.¡±

    ¡°Except I have never seen anyone combine two different elements into a single symbol like that,¡± Alice shook her head. ¡°I wonder why?¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you¡­¡± Irwyn started, then hesitated whether it was a good idea to bring up Alice¡¯s family.

    ¡°Yes, my father was an exceptional enchanter - which is how he quickly realized teaching such skills would be a waste of my better talents,¡± she nodded, not a ripple passing through her face. ¡°I glimpsed a few secrets that caught my curiosity here and there but I was not trained as one.¡±

    ¡°Enchantment you say?¡± the Principal seemed somewhat interested at last. ¡°To me, that word means wizardry that can be used by anyone. But needing to include a source of power rather than supplying magic from the caster makes everything more complicated. And when using spells directly I can exert some will over them.¡±

    ¡°How would you determine that what happened here was explicitly not caused by wizardry then?¡± Irwyn asked, genuinely curious.

    ¡°A much, much more complicated spell,¡± the Principal reached for his metal bound book, opening it in a single motion. Yet he positioned himself so that they could not see and raised his other hand to stop the mages from approaching when they started to move. ¡°I am afraid this one is secret. It is one of the creations left behind by our great Founder. No one has been able to ever replicate or even modify them ¨C clearly showing their value. Even its name is not public.¡±

    Then the Principal began to channel mana into it. A lot more mana, Irwyn could tell. The efficiency was clearly much better than the earlier two symbols but the leakage was still massive compared to the standard he held himself to. The activation took almost 20 seconds, during which Irwyn amused himself with a distinct absence of Waylan. If the Principal labeled his spells, the name would likely not remain secret longer than their mutual earshot.

    Then there was a shift, filling Irwyn with eerie familiarity.

    A slitted eye the size of a continent lazily opened. It was watching a river as it dragged all things within it down its stream. And the eye was part of that stream - but not fully. A fraction of it existed without. So, as the river pulled it along, it could glance back and forward just the tiniest bit. Irwyn could not look at the river, but he could perhaps glimpse something of it in the eye¡¯s reflection¡­ except the shapes were too indistinct to interpret and just looking that way filled him with an all-consuming sense of dread that was highly distracting.

    Then it ended, indescribable sensations vanishing as suddenly as they had appeared.

    ¡°What was that?!¡± Irwyn yelled, finding he was out of breath. Elizabeth had taken a lowered stance, preparing to fight for their lives. The Void within her was almost roiling in warry anticipation, intensity in her gaze. Yet with nothing to lash out against or a different trhreat appearing she just stood still.

    Alice was sprawled on the floor, just about finished emptying her stomach. ¡°I¡­ might have an idea,¡± she weakly muttered.