072, 1/2

Blood and viscera burned on the orange stone all around Erick’s house. Vast crescents of flat land had been turned into rippling, blackened glass, while a breeze flowed through the broken city wall to the north. Ash blew on that wind, like a barely-there snow.

Erick and Jane’s house was perfectly okay; floating ash parted around the dense air surrounding the house like a gently denied intruder. The Mage Trio’s house had not fared so well. As Erick stood atop his tower and Kiri puked over the side again, he stared at the Oceanside Mage’s house. Cold ran up his spine.

A broken blue [Ward] hung haphazard around that three story, towered house, like hexagons of shattered ice. The windows of the house were broken, while the yard was charred and blackened. With a quick [Hunter’s Instincts]-powered look around, Erick saw that the rest of the city around the Human District was minimally on fire; people were already coming out of stone houses to put out the small flames here and there. But the Mage Trio’s house was not on fire at all. The house stood there like the remains of Erick’s gardens; inert, unburning.

Had everything already burned away inside the Mage Trio’s house?

Mog blipped grey, back down to the ground beside the door to Erick’s house. Kiri washed thick air across the top of the tower, catching Erick in her own [Cleanse]. The bad taste in his own mouth vanished, but he was barely paying attention to details like that. He was listening all around. Right now, Silverite, Poi, Jane, and Mog, were all inside of his own house; they were all okay. Maybe Ramizi, Eduard, and Maia were, too?

With a quick thought, Erick sent an Ophiel blipping toward the Mage Trio’s house. He rode his [Familiar]s sight, through the charred doorway, into the broken front room, and further, quick as Ophiel could fly.

Couches and beds were ash. Alchemy ingredients were blackened, or on fire. The kitchen was a wreck. A greenhouse attached to the north side of the house was broken; glass and twisted metal scattered everywhere, while the garden itself was full of burning couatl meat and ash. He had only explored for a minute, but it did not look good. Erick came back to himself, but he urged Ophiel to continue his search for people inside the house. Ophiel wasn’t quite smart enough to know them as the ‘Mage Trio’; not yet, anywa—

Why was Erick searching for them manually? He was inside his [Ward]. Any telepathic backlash damage done to him would be heavily mitigated. Erick recalled Ophiel and opened a [Telepathy] line to all three of them.

‘Ramizi? Maia? Eduard? Are you all safe?’

Moments ticked by.

Silverite sent, ‘You okay?’

Erick was startled for a moment, but he sent back, ‘Yeah. Kiri and I are good. But the Mage Trio’s—’

‘We’re all good. Busy. Talk to you later,’ came Ramizi’s response.

Erick continued to send to Silverite, ‘Never mind; they’re good, too.’

‘I already talked to them.’ She sent back, ‘It’s time for all of us to talk about Spur joining the hunt for Messalina.’

Erick stood on top of his mage tower, looking out at the burning Human District. Barely five minutes had passed since the fight ended, but it felt like a week. He sent, ‘Okay. Give me a few minutes out here.’

‘Sure.’

– – – –

Quick as the fight ended, the reconstruction efforts began. Guards in silver armor walked out of the city, into the Human District. Three here, two there. They worked in groups, and they worked fast. Body parts were gathered together and set to [Cleansing Fire]. Blood and ash were simply [Cleanse]d. Broken walls were moved back into positions. The land was turned back to normal stone.

By the time Erick touched down in front of his house, one of the guards out of a group of three came over to him. A yellowscale guard in silver armor offered to help Erick put his own property back to rights, but Erick told them he could take care of it all himself, later. The dragonkin just nodded, then went on with her job.

Erick repaired the worst of the damage around his house, like the garden that had been turned to ash and then blasted away, leaving a great big hole in the front yard, and a bit around the back near the compost pile that had been blasted away. Erick had failed to fully enclose the house in his [Prismatic Ward], and parts of the building had holes in walls. So with [Stoneshape] and after dismissing the scattered dense airs surrounding the estate, Erick went about casting [Prismatic Ward] properly, this time.

His house was definitely larger than a normal ‘large-sized’, though, so with 5100 mana total, and after Clarity, he had to spend 50 for the base spell and 250 for a Total Mana Shaping, leaving him with 4800 mana left for Variable costs. But he didn’t want to be at 0 mana, so he threw 4600 into the shield. Clarity doubled the power of that 4600 mana, though. The final result was a [Solid Ward] worth just over 55,000 points of damage.

Dense, pleasant air soaked out across stone and windows. The spell extended up several meters into the air on both mage towers, giving him ample space to stand protected, if he wished, while leaving the exterior doors covered only halfway through the wood. If some unpermitted person wanted to knock on the doors, they could. Everything else was fully covered by [Prismatic Ward].

The fight with the Flare Couatl was twenty minutes ago, and it still didn’t feel real.

Erick went into the sunroom. Silverite sat on a chair in the sunroom with several lines of thought radiating from her head. Her eyes were closed, but she knew he was in the room. Erick went to the window, and waited. He watched the Human District, and waited.

Across the way, the yellowscale guard spoke to Eduard in the lawn front of the Mage Trio’s house. Erick guessed she was offering Eduard help, too. Eduard waved her off as he pointed backward. Ramizi floated in the air around their southern, broken mage tower, shaping stone back into position. Maia briefly appeared behind a broken upstairs window, before thick air spilled out from that window. The yellowscale guard nodded, then walked away. Eduard continued walking toward Erick’s house.

Erick occasionally ran [Hunter’s Instincts], just so he could be aware of his surroundings. The battle was over, but it certainly didn’t feel over. It felt like it was just beginning; the Flare Couatl finally attacking Spur was just the opening act.

As he looked out the window, he paused in thought, as he watched the happenings around the only other house in the Human District. Usually this view was blocked by the garden, but that was gone; turned to dead dirt and blown-away sand. Erick had seeds for everything he had grown, while all of his fruits and vegetables and grains were already a part of the farms to the west. Recovering from this blow would be as hard as asking for some clippings from the farmers out west of the city.

But that was a conversation for another day.

Erick turned to the only other person in the room, saying, “Eduard is on his way over. Just him.”

Silverite opened her eyes. The lines of thought around her silver head gradually winked out, as she said, “Good.” She tilted her head left, saying, “Mog is coming back.”

No one had really said anything around Erick after the fight ended. Poi was sleeping off his own magic in his room. Jane was watching over him with her [Greater Treat Wounds]. Kiri made herself scarce for some reason.

Erick wasn’t quite sure why no one was talking to him. Were they mad at him? He felt guilty of something. He wasn’t sure what, but he knew he had done something wrong.

He asked, “Silverite? Is the number of people saved by the Flare Couatl higher than the number he killed?”

“Yes,” Silverite said, emphatically. “He was a power hungry killer in the end, but he also killed over three thousand hunters, at least. Maybe a lot more. Your decision to let him run free for a while was the correct one, based on pure math.” She added, “Sometimes it’s hard to make that sort of decision, but you gave me a good reason to follow your lead, and I took it. But now we have to take a harder stance.”

Erick slowly nodded. He still didn’t feel right, or good, but at least Silverite’s words were… something. Had he really made the right call back then? Maybe he had? Was he really okay with this sort of hard math that Silverite spoke of? It’s not like the extra monsters Eduard warned about ever materialized. According to everything that happened, letting the Flare Couatl run around had been the right choice…

… Except for that part at the end.

Erick spoke for purely his own benefit, to make it all seem more real, “You have to strike a balance between letting the monster-eating monsters roam, and killing what needs to be killed.”

Silverite said, “Don’t go getting a hero complex on me, Erick. You’re not expected to kill everything that threatens this city; you were just the easiest option for the last two months.” She said, “Besides, I am the one that decided that Spur would not hunt Messalina. Not you.”

Erick smiled.

A knock came from the front door.

Erick gave Eduard [Prismatic Ward] permissions. He almost walked out of the sunroom to get the door, but he heard another move faster.

Kiri said, “I’ll get it.”

Erick spoke out into the hallway, “I already gave him permission.”

Erick sat down in the sunroom, across from Silverite, as Eduard walked into the house. Kiri guided the Ice Mage from Oceanside into the sunroom. As soon as she deposited Eduard into the doorway of the sunroom, she took off, eager to get gone; Erick would need to ask her later what that was all about.

Erick said, “Come on in, Eduard.”

Eduard wore pale blue [Conjure Armor] clothes, with an armored section over his chest. He asked Erick, “Are you here to help round up Messalina?”

“… I don’t know yet.”

Silverite said, “Whatever Erick chooses to do or not do does not matter. Spur has now been given reason to find and end Messalina’s involvement in the affairs of the Crystal Forest. To that end—” She paused. She looked to air, to her left.

The front door knocked again. Erick heard Kiri rush to open the door.

“That would be Mog.” Silverite said, “Please sit, Eduard. This discussion might take a while. I wish to know fully and completely what you know, so that we can end this threat.”

Eduard looked to Silverite, then to Erick, asking, “Why are we doing this here, if he’s not going to help?”

Erick said, “I said ‘I don’t know yet’. That means ‘I might help take her down’. It’s just— Where I came from, I used to work with the dregs of society. The people who were bad off and doing worse to others because of it. I helped people turn their lives around, Eduard. I made my community better for it, and though I failed a lot, I also succeeded a lot.” He added, “The point is, is that my metric for how that system would work on Veird is very, very messed up. I think I made a bad call before, and I would like to know more.”

Silverite continued to sit in her chair.

Eduard gave a quick nod then moved into the room. He sat down across from Silverite, next to Erick, on one of five chairs in the room, saying, “Okay.”

Mog appeared in the doorway, asking, “Did I miss anything yet?”

Erick smiled to see Mog.

“No.” Silverite said, “We were just about to start.”

Mog nodded to Erick as she took a chair next to Silverite.

Silverite began, “Do you know where she is?”

“No.” Eduard said, “We do know that she is not in the Underworld. The Headmaster’s [Eyes of the Goddess] would have told him if she was down there. So she is still somewhere on the surface. At this point, our best guess is that she’s discovered some new method of camouflage, or she might be hiding out in a Cloud Giant city. It is well within her power to be able to kill and re-soul Cloud Giants with people loyal to her.”

Silverite said, “I’m guessing more the latter than the former. But I don’t think she would kill and re-soul them. She’s worked with Cloud Giants before.”

Eduard sighed out in both relief and disgust, muttering, “Of course. The one place we can’t actually go, and she has a history with the Cloud Giants. Fuck.”

Mog asked, “Is the Headmaster’s [Scan] still reporting her as somewhere nearby?”

Eduard resumed his professional facade. He said, “There have been some slight fluctuations in location, but mostly, she hasn’t moved at all in the three months since she came to this land.”

“We put out those Cinnabar Hand corpses last month and she took them.” Silverite said, “Have you noticed anything since then?”

“No.” Eduard said, “We’ve gotten no new leads. Honestly, we’ve never had any good leads until now. She’s a phantom.”

“No new monsters on the level of the Flare Couatl, either.” Mog said, “That slew of monsters you promised from Messalina never materialized, Eduard.” She added, “The reports of hunters are way down, though.”

Silverite said, “I suspect that at least 90 percent of the true hunter population in the Crystal Forest is gone. I doubt this will last for long. Some new wayward is bound to step up into the positions vacated by the dead now that the Flare Couatl is no more.” She continued, “As for the Cinnabar Hand themselves, you might not know this, but we kept track of those bodies we left out. Using our own methods, we tracked down two major Cinnabar Hand strongholds that have been attacked and gutted. Historically, there have been as many as seven strongholds the size of Spur out there, but that was ages ago. The two strongholds attacked were each the size of a small village. Maybe 100 to 300 people each. But Messalina is still hunting. She’s still out there. She has not found the ones responsible for the death of her village.”

Eduard sat stunned. He said, “That’s a lot more than what I knew.”

“We are cooperating with you now, if you will cooperate with us.” Silverite said, “I have received word in the last ten minutes that Kel’Duresh and Frontier would also like to cooperate with your hunt. They have been moved by the Flare Couatl’s brazen attack on Spur. I suspect several other cities of the Forest might look to cooperate as well, but I cannot speak for the whole.” She added, “So. What can you tell us that we don’t already know? Perhaps with regard to what the Headmaster has already told you. Maybe he has a theory on what Messalina might do now that her major tool to hunt the hunters is gone.”

Eduard paused in thought. He began, “The Flare Couatl was a perfect hunter-hunter. If most of the hunters in the Crystal Forest are truly gone, as you and the Headmaster fully suspect, that just means Messalina will start using more nefarious searching patterns. Parasites to infiltrate the cities of the Crystal Forest. Spying monsters. People corrupted through promises of wealth and power to act on Messalina’s behalf.” He added, “Most of that has already happened.”

Erick listened in rapt attention.

Silverite said, “Are you speaking with the Headmaster right now?”

“Not right now.” Eduard said, “I just finished talking to him, though.”

Silverite asked, “Will he send more people here to help locate Messalina?”

“No.” Eduard said, “To put it bluntly, he doesn’t like that you let the Flare Couatl do what Messalina wanted. He will give you no more help than us.”

Erick watched, and listened, as they talked. Eduard was obviously holding back a vast amount of anger and pain, based on a tiny twitch in his left eye and his tense shoulders, but his voice was perfectly even.

Eduard said, “But we are not nothing. I would like access to the Cinnabar Hand sites that Messalina attacked.”

“And you shall have them. But if the Headmaster is unwilling to further support this endeavor, then I will be taking a smaller stance than I had initially planned.” Silverite said, “You may tell your Headmaster that until he decides to reconsider his stance, that I will not be placing a quest against Messalina. What Spur will be doing, however, is making smaller inquiries here and there, and taking smaller steps to narrow down on Messalina’s position. We will find her, and then we will inform you of her location. We will give you no assistance beyond this.”

Eduard calmly said, “The Flare Couatl attacked Spur, and this is all you will do.”

Silverite said. “She likely has a whole horde of monsters ready to loose upon her enemies, and my first responsibility is to defense and the people of Spur.”

Eduard said, “I will tell the Headmaster this, but I doubt he will be willing to change his stance.”

“I know how he is.” Silverite said, “I don’t expect anything to change, so I’m just telling you how it is.”

Erick joined the conversation with, “Why is she still here, in the Crystal Forest, anyway? I mean… I know why she’s here. But.” Erick continued, “This goes beyond ‘the Cinnabar Hand are here, so her quarry is here’. How is she so absolutely sure that they’re still here?”

Eduard frowned, silently.

Mog sat back in her chair, watching Eduard, saying, “I’ve been wondering that, too. If it was me who killed her people, I would have moved on. It’s been, what? Four months since her village was destroyed? But still, she is damn sure they’re still out there, isn’t she? She’s a soul stealing witch, but she’s not insane. So how does she know they’re here?”

Silverite said, “Eduard doesn’t know the answer to that. I doubt the Headmaster would have ever told him.”

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Eduard winced. He recovered. He shook his head, then came words, pouring out of him like water from a broken levee. “She parasitized us! Taunting us in our dreams all these past months, telling us how—” Eduard controlled himself. He breathed deep. He said, “She needs to die. I need to kill her. Please, Mayor. Silverite. Please help me more than you are. For the good of Spur if nothing else.”

About a dozen thoughts raced through Erick’s mind. First came the notion that ‘Messalina parasitized them! Fucking hell!’ but that was quickly replaced by other ideas. They had been parasitized, which meant that Messalina was fully capable of infiltrating Spur already, and had likely already done so. Which meant his own experience with her parasites were likely not a singular occurrence. But that was Mind Magic, right? What were the mind mages doing to combat Messalina?

Erick asked, “Is Messalina an accredited Mind Mage, working as a part of their society?”

Silverite shook her head, saying, “No. She doesn’t actually alter free will. Therefore, she is not a target for mental pacification.”

Eduard half-shouted, “She throws around dream worms like they’re letters! She invades minds, but no! That’s not good enough for the Mind Mages. I tried to get them involved, multiple times. They said no.”

Silverite took his outburst in stride, calmly saying, “Of course they said no.”

Eduard demanded, “Why is no one helping us to kill her? Even you won’t take a real stance against her, and she sent that Flare Couatl after Spur!”

“I will speak honestly and simply, Mage Rokva.” Silverite said, “No one wants to go out of their way to kill Messalina because she is an evil that does a lot of good.” Silverite said, “Killing the hunters of the Crystal Forest will save untold thousands of lives. Ten thousand. Twenty thousand. Maybe more. This is what Messalina usually does. This is who she usually is. Usually she restricts her methods to Nergal, but that changes every so often. This is one of those times, and unfortunately, her actions have aligned her against Spur.” She continued, “There is a cruel math to letting her run around, and most of us make this calculation, knowing the risks. The only power who truly wants Messalina dead and gone is the Headmaster.”