116

“So. Violet.” Erick calmed the rage crawling over his mind, and said, “Someone tried to extort some things from me and then kill not only me, but also the kid they used to give me the message, and you. What’s the usual outcome of something like this? Is there a procedure, or other such necessary steps to take, going forward?”

Violet waved her hand out, scattering away glowing shards of light that fell to the ground like concentrated acid, boring holes where they touched stone. A few sparks touched her clothes, but failed to do more than reveal the dark skin underneath her dark garments. All in all, her capture and destruction of the spell aimed at her produced minimal collateral damage.

The light missiles that tried to strike Erick, and the kid three streets over, had been splashed around the whole area, cutting holes into walls and streets. Erick still felt a little twinge of guilt that he hadn’t thought to minimize that splash. He hadn’t even known that the spells would splash, but he could take that into account next time someone fired magic at him.

Violet composed herself and spoke with a professional tone, “Politics comes first. How you go about handling this attempt on your life and your sovereignty, and if you ask for help from others, will either endear you or damn you in the eyes of the Clergy and the populace. Melemizargo is all about personal strength helping to strengthen those around you, so you must protect yourself and your own, for you are the only power you can count on when the horde is beating down the doors.”

“I imagined that’s how it would be.” Erick said, “Thank you, Violet. I will begin doing that right now.”

Erick had some experience with tracking people down and the various ways the people of Veird did such a thing. But the first thing he did was have a nearby Ophiel release a [Mending Aura] into the surrounding space, removing the holes in the ground, repairing the nearby windows, and mending Violet’s clothes for her. Queen would appreciate that, and being a good guest seemed like a good idea, even though he hated the idea of playing nice with Shades.

He pointed in the direction where the kid was, saying to Violet, “The pawn is over there. I am going to ask him some questions.” And then he took a light step, and was there.

Beside a building and street that had turned to swiss cheese, was a kid, wrapped in light; trapped and also protected by Ophiel’s sunform. He had been terrified, and according to everything Erick saw with his multiple eyesights, and according to the tears still rolling down the kid’s face, he was still terrified, but he was holding it together. The kid was in his late teens. Human. He wore decent clothes, but nothing special. He stood tall, putting on a brave face.

Erick asked, “Hello. It seems you were involved in something you wished not to be a part of. Do I have that correct?”

The kid was brave, Erick had to give him that. He stood tall and unflinching, and said, “Yes, sir.”

Erick nodded, then said, “This was a big part of your life, I’m sure, but it will be a very small part of mine, for I do not take kindly to the kinds of threats I heard from the people who used you to get to me. The spell I took off of you looked very similar to a [Force Bomb], so I’m positive you were meant to die; possibly so that I wouldn’t be able to ask you questions. The missile was the backup plan.”

Erick didn’t mention how there were a hundred other ways to go about this that might not leave much of a trace, but a theoretical [Conjure Force Elemental], or a one-off [Familiar], or a letter, or any of those, would likely have not have seemed like a real threat. So they sent this kid to die, to prove a point to Erick.

That was their second mistake. The first was threatening him and his family at all.

Erick asked, “What would you like to happen to the people who did this to you?”

Erick watched as the kid’s tattered soul solidified; like a storm-tossed sea turning calm.

Violet stepped to the street ahead of Erick, nodded at him, and turned, to take a stance in the middle of the road, to watch as the three other people in sight either walked, ran, or politely scrambled to leave the location any way they could.

With dried tears, the kid said to Erick, “I would like the people who did this to me to die.”

Erick was under no illusions as to what the vagaries of life demanded of him, at this juncture, in this place, if he was to keep any semblance of peace in his own life, going forward. If he didn’t do what was necessary, then others would take advantage of him, as the people behind this attack had tried to do.

So Erick said, “Then tell me everything you know, and I will see justice done.”

The kid started talking.

Near as Erick could tell, the kid, who was named Lerreg, did not lie. Erick did not move him from that spot on the sidewalk, but he did have some Ophiel summon some chairs, as he surrounded the area with a [Visual Disruption Ward], and an [Audio Disruption Ward]. With those two spells cast, the land around Erick and Lerreg became a jumble of small noises and impressionist, Picasso-like blobs.

Erick… did not like that effect.

After forty five seconds passed, with Lerreg speaking the whole time, Erick asking questions, and also casting spells in the appropriate locations through his Ophiel, decided that the multiple casts it took to put up both the Visual and Audio disruptions took too long. On a whim, he decided to combine the separate effects into a new spell, where light and sound and information came in just fine, but where information exited the space in a twisted jumble, allowing no proper sight or sounds to escape to the outside. A blue box appeared.

Erick canceled the initial [Disruption Ward]s.

From the outside, Erick appeared to have turned his part of the world into a jumbled rainbow. From the inside, everything turned crystal-clear. A slight crystalline structure to the air, about four meters out from him and Lerreg, was the only indication of any nearby magic.

Lerreg looked to the crystalline air.

“I just made a new spell; don’t worry about the change.” Erick said, “No one can see us or hear us. So. As you were saying? Rivals in the Arcanaeum?”

Lerreg remembered where he was, and who he was talking to. His eyes went wide, as he began talking again, and Erick recast some [Cascade Imaging]s in other locations in the Arcanaeum District, only thirty kilometers away.

Lerreg had spoken of a normal enough life living in the Brightwater District, primarily over in Truedark Arcanaeum’s surrounding towns. He had graduated from gradeschool this year, and was scouting departments at Truedark for further education, and visiting various thesis presentations, when he was picked up somewhere around the marine biology department.

Truedark Arcanaeum’s District was a beautiful land of rolling green mountains and valleys, along with floating mountains made of crystal and castle, scattered over a 30 kilometer arc of Brightwater’s western coast, and about 400 square kilometers of mountainous green land beyond that coast. All of the Arcanaeum District was still a good twenty kilometers below the roof of the Brightwater District, but it seemed rather densely populated.

Those floating islands were rather impressive. There were at least ten of them, with some that looked like multiple mountains stacked atop each other, while some of the floating mountains were barely lifted from land below. There must have been some Underworld gravity fuckery happening to keep those mountains in the air, but if it was magic keeping them aloft, then that magic was massively impressive. After all, enchanted items were not permanent, so if magical items were keeping those mountains aloft, it had to be artifact-level enchantments. All of the various enchanting knowledge Erick had ever read percolated in his mind as he looked upon the glowing castles in the sky, and watched the various platforms floating up and down from those castles, carrying people to wherever they needed to be.

It was all quite impressive.

And Erick had already scanned the whole place. He found Lerregs’ DNA in multiple locations. Investigating those locations was as easy as splitting his focus several ways, and flashing out [Lodestar] empowered Imagings wherever necessary. While Erick followed faint blue markings and investigated denser blue areas, Lerreg spoke of his last memories, which were only an hour old. Finding the scene of that crime was just a matter of following the blue. Erick, or rather Ophiel, ended up at a rather clean location on the intersection of an outdoor walkway, near a bench where Lerreg said he had sat down while reading a book, before a thesis presentation was set to begin in a few hours.

Erick did not have [Witness] yet, but after telling Lerreg to quiet while he concentrated, and then one minute later, Erick saw those who had taken Lerreg. Looking back a few hours wasn’t that difficult, it seemed. Erick found Lerreg sitting on the bench, reading, when the kidnapping occurred.

Two rapid blurs of invisible movement, layered in dense, obscuring magics, grabbed Lerreg. There was a scuffle that was little more than a beat down against Lerreg, and then he, too, was surrounded by obscuring magics and taken away.

Erick turned to the left while he was watching, and at the edge of his mana sense, saw Phagar watching the scene play out, too. The God of the End and Time angled his head, as if asking if Erick wanted help. Erick politely declined. Phagar smiled, nodded, then vanished into the timestream.

Erick watched the scene play out a few times, then he said, “Looks like you didn’t manage to get any hits in yourself. That would have made this easier.” There wasn’t any blood on the scene, for it had been [Cleanse]d away, but if Lerreg had managed to score a swipe or something on his attacker, Erick could have searched the cleaned spots on the ground for further DNA. As it was, the only DNA down there were the remnants of Lerreg’s DNA.

With embarrassment flushing his face, Lerreg said, “Apologies, sir… That’s. That’s never been— I will have to take some classes for such instruction.” He added, “I know who it was, though. Like I said. It was Toff and Hutt. They have dealings with the White Market. Whatever happened to me has to be connected to them. The White Market had to be involved. They’re the only ones stupid enough to do something like this because they’re the only ones that still exist.”

“Yes yes.” Erick said, “I heard that. But I’m going off what I’m seeing. Not what you think happened.” And there was no theoretical ‘Toff and Hutt’ DNA to follow. “Besides, you were thrown into Clergy business—” He paused. “Ah. I should have considered this. But is the Clergy connected to crime inside Brightwater District?”

The kid paled again, as if realizing where he was, again. With a soft voice, he said, “No. They’re not. The… The White Market operates outside of the Clergy. That’s what makes it ‘white’, by definition… It operates outside of the Clergy, as far as I know— But! I don’t… I don’t really know… all that much.”

“White Market? As opposed to the Black Market?” Erick said, “If you’re speaking of what I think you’re speaking of, usually those terms are used in the opposite way.”

Steeling himself, the kid said, “The Clergy controls the Black Markets. The White Market is controlled by others. That’s… That’s why they’re separate things. There’s some grey… Some mixing, sure. But the sides don’t usually mix for too long before White turns Black or gets eradicated.”

“What else can you tell me about this ‘Market’ business?”

“The… The Black Markets are open to all and provide stability around the Brightwater. We call them the Black Market, but they’re the government, and the Clergy puts governors in charge of each one. The governors oversee the day-to-day stuff, like skyroad building and keeping the markets open… And… And all the city stuff.” Lerreg rapidly said, “The White Markets are the crime, and I never had no dealings with any of them, but…” He seemed to deflate a little, saying, “But I think my life is already forfeit. You don’t… You don’t go against the powers around here unless you have power, and I was at the bottom.” He rapidly added, “But I was getting there! Into power, I mean! I just needed to not get… troubled… I was going to be a part of the Marine Department! For studying ocean life and making more life to put into those oceans!” He paused, then said, “Others want… other stuff. So they go to the White Markets to try and break from the Lesser Way. Might makes right, after all.”

“Explain the Lesser Way.”

“Oh. Uh.” Lerreg said, “Restoring complexity to the world’s ecosystems to what they used to be before the Sundering, in order to break the chains of this world by overloading the Script, or possibly killing the caretakers of the Script.” He added, “Uh. It’s… It’s a good path. Beats dying to the Higher Calling— That’s directly fighting the good fight against the Wrought and others. Uh. Other people call the Shadow War or Open War other things, but that’s what I was taught to call them. Uh. Sir.”

This kid believed everything he said. Erick was sure that soul shenanigans or mind fuckery could be going on to make Lerreg believe what he believed, but the much more simple explanation, and what matched the turmoil of the kid’s soul and the micro and macro expressions on his face and body, and all of his words and how he said them, was that Lerreg was raised to believe that the world was a prison, and it was his job to break that prison however he could. Not everyone could stand up and wield the sword, but a lot of people were needed to make the swords and keep the bases operational while others wielded those weapons, or, in Lerreg’s case, created the traps to send out into the world.

While Lerreg spoke, Erick had tracked down what was likely all of Lerreg’s locations, or rather, wherever there were large accumulations of the kid’s DNA. Students and people in armor watched as Ophiel fluttered around various places, and conjured various imagings, but Ophiel was never interrupted or stopped.

Back in the Palace District, Erick held up lightform images of the places Ophiel discovered as belonging to Lerreg, to have them confirmed as such by Lerreg. There was the crime scene of his kidnapping in the floating marine biology castle. There was a room in an apartment building in the mountain town below the marine biology castle, along with a few other nearby places with heavy amounts of Lerreg’s DNA. A bakery, which Lerreg confirmed as his day job. A house in another village on the other side of the mountain; his parent’s home. A second, third, and fourth room at his apartment building; the rooms of friends and his girlfriend’s room. Classrooms on the floating mountain. Bathrooms on the floating mountain. Lerreg reported getting beaten up and pissing blood a few times in the past year, which likely meant ‘a great deal more than a few times’, because Lerreg lied slightly about that answer. So Erick almost didn’t pursue the DNA he found in the sewer system.

But then… Most DNA dies in the sewer, and there was a space in the sewers that held Lerreg’s DNA on the walls, instead of in the muck. And that was odd.

Quite a lot of DNA, in an area that was recently [Cleanse]d.

A quick check through time, and the same invisible people appeared, along with a surgery chair, or a massage chair or something, and another man. He was tall, with black hair and black eyes, and skinny, and wearing dark robes. The blobs strapped an unconscious, nude Lerreg onto the surgery chair, setting his face into a cushioned ring, while exposing his back and spreading his legs and arms to the side. The man yelled for the blobs to move away while he went to work. The blobs obliged. And then the man began cutting, and spending so much mana that the image of his work was erased from the manasphere.

Lerreg had spoken of other possible conspirators that he heard of in the most general, vaguest sorts of ways, while Erick had forayed into the past. This was obviously such a conspirator.

And wow! Had this guy done a number on Lerreg’s bones! Oh, wow.

That was a lot of deep surgery.

Concerning surgery.

Erick took another look at Lerreg, honing in on the boy with a great deal more than 75% of his newfound Perception and mana sense. It wasn’t long till he saw something troubling. Lerreg’s spine was a wreck. Erick had gotten rid of the interior spell with his earlier [Dispel], and everything seemed to be intact, but something was wrong. Lerreg sat straight, and yet, his bones had hairline cracks, and some were missing much of their interiors. A layman-guess had Erick thinking this kid was suffering from some advanced stage of osteoporosis, but even an amateur could see that the bones were hollow, and bleeding. And broken, in some spaces. As the kid shifted in his chair yet again, Lerreg’s entire lower spine seemed less like bone and more like sawdust held up by a memory of what it once was. And yet, the kid wasn’t showing any obvious signs of pain; not even when he started to bleed out of an opened wound on his back.

Erick sniffed the air, and smelled blood.

Lerreg flinched.

Erick looked to Lerreg, asking, “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yes, sir.” Lerreg sat straighter, cracking more unseen, and unfelt bones. “Much better, now that you’re going to get your revenge! It’s only proper that I help you if I can.”

An Ophiel was already retrieving Erick’s rod of [Greater Treat Wounds]. The rod dropped into Erick’s hand, as he sent Ophiel over to Violet to say a few more words, while he said to the kid, “What I am seeing inside of you tells me that you should be feeling a great deal of pain. Are you sure you’re okay?”

Lerreg rapidly looked left and right, and for the first time, appeared nervous.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Erick said, “But your bones are breaking.”

Lerreg laughed nervously. “Uh? I’m fine, sir?”

Erick looked to the right. Violet had done her job. Quilatalap stepped through the edge of the [Privacy Ward], and looked at the kid. The kid, for his part, went wide-eyed upon seeing the black-armored Caretaker. He tried to leap off of his seat, probably in some attempt to kowtow to Quilatalap. But Larreg squawked as his legs broke out from under him and his arm broke as he moved. Erick caught him in a bed of hard light that he tried to make as soft as possible. A bone cracked.

With his head supported and his body failing, Larreg spoke through a broken jaw, asking, “Whas appenthing to ee?”

Quilatalap rapidly said to Erick, “That rod won’t work.” He spoke softly to the kid, “Don’t struggle. Let me help.”

The archlich touched the kid’s face. Bones snapped, then settled. A spine appeared out of rubble, then came together and healed. Arms reset. A jaw realigned. Blood spurted everywhere, but then flowed back into Larreg’s body. Nerves regrew, and the kid released a tiny scream, but he then locked down to a whisper.

The kid healed in a way that Erick would have considered a miracle at one point in time, but magic existed, and Quilatalap had 3000 years of experience. With a gesture, Quilatalap lifted Lerreg from Erick’s light, then set the kid back on his chair, where Lerreg huffed out blood, groaned a lot, then composed himself to the best of his ability. Ten seconds of gasping later, Larreg looked no worse for wear than he had in the beginning of the interview.

Erick had mixed feelings about Larreg’s ability to keep calm in the face of overwhelming danger and power. It had to be a cultural thing. But maybe it was a Blood Magic or Soul Magic thing, too. Erick did not doubt that the Shades would magically experiment on their populace like that.

Quilatalap asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Very well, sir.” Lerreg said, “Thank you, very much, Caretaker, sir.”

Quilatalap asked Erick, “You good?”

“Yes. Thanks. I wasn’t sure if healing him would have killed him, or not. That looked nasty.”

Quilatalap smiled. “That was a correct guess; whatever you tore out of him left his soul in tatters and his body weak as a newborn’s. The standard [Greater Treat Wounds] would have filled him with unchecked growth and killed him outright.” He asked, “You got your mana sense, then?”

“Yes.” Erick gazed upon Quilatalap’s soul, and saw a true abyss; a maw with teeth around the edges, poised to strike at any who dared to get too close. He looked away from that pit of darkness, then said, “A few different Sights already unlocked.”

“Good. Buy all of them, if you want, but we can talk more about all of that later.” He asked, “So what are you going to do with the kid?”

Erick said, “I’ve got the guy that messed up Lerreg in my view, and unless there is more to this, then I might be done in minutes. Then I’d like to see your Armory presentation.”

Quilatalap gave a small ‘hmmmm,’ then asked, “Whatever happened, failed to happen?”

“There were some threats made to my family that have yet to be resolved to my satisfaction.”

“Ah. Not over yet.” Quilatalap stood for a second, then said, “I’ve no doubt whatever happened will require poking around in the territory of the Clergy, but when you find a solid lead, you might want to warn someone before you take action.”

Erick glanced through Ophiel, to a nicely appointed private office room in a tower in a floating castle, where windows showed the green vistas outside, and let light into the room, to land upon a large wooden desk and its current occupant. A tall, thin man sat behind that desk, frowning down at a tiny Ophiel, as Ophiel hopped across the wooden surface, chirping as he poked at an inkwell, upturning the small glass, spilling dark ink across what appeared to be paperwork and student tests. Ophiel dipped a feather into the ink spill, and finding that interesting, he splashed his whole wing into the puddle. He chirped in happy violins as black blots went flying. Then he began truly playing.

Professor Illipine Grouser remained stoic; silently watching the whole time.

Erick said to Quilatalap, “So… I guess I will find Farix, then.”

Quilatalap startled. “Farix?” He glanced at Larreg, then said, “Ohhhh. He’s an arcanaeum student. Ah. Well. I’m not getting involved. Good luck with this.”

“Thanks, Quilatalap.”

Quilatalap stepped away, vanishing back to wherever he was to continue to do whatever it was he was doing.

Erick said to Larreg, “You can stay here for a minute or ten. I’ll be right back.”

“Of course, sir!” Larreg said, “My life is yours to do with what you will.”

Erick frowned, then he stepped away, too.

– – – –

At a ‘presentation’ zone that was more ‘desks and bureaucrats’ than any sort of magic, and rather large for a presentation zone, he found the formerly naked bartender, the Professor of Truedark Arcanaeum, wearing robes and working paperwork, while assistants did the same at other desks. A long line of students stood upon the white line leading into the presentation space, while those who had already gone in and got done with whatever it was they did in there, walked out the other side, some with paperwork, some with empty hands and disappointment in their eyes.

Erick walked past the line, directly up to the Professor.

The blue incani saw him coming, and with bright white eyes, and a smile, greeted, “Hello, Erick!” He waved away a female student who was with him, saying, “Yeah, yeah; you can attempt to join the manaminer division. Shoo, before I change my mind.”

The woman gripped papers tight against her chest as she bowed several times, backing away as she left as fast as she could. While that was happening, a white-skinned woman incani stepped out of the shadows, to Farix’s right. Farix glanced at the new woman, then immediately eyed Erick, and then the white incani. A telepathic line connected the woman to the Shade. The Shade sat a bit straighter.

Farix narrowed his eyes at Erick.

Erick stepped to the other side of the Shade’s desk, and said, “One of your professors was involved in trying to kill me.”

Farix frowned, deeply. He asked, “Why come to me about this? Kill the man and be done with it. Professor Grouser’s career is over, as of this moment.”

Paperwork stopped. Eyes wandered over to Erick and Farix. Some students started writing much faster. One male orcol sitting behind one of the desks, wearing professor robes, turned from forest green to seafoam green around the face.

Erick noticed the orcol’s reaction. He pointed out the man. “What’s his deal with Grouser?”

Farix sighed, glancing over to the orcol. “Grouser is a professor of the osteomantic arts. The pale fellow is named Curook. He has been Grouser’s rival for a good five years, in the same field of study.” Farix eyed the orcol, and the orcol paled a bit further. Farix turned back to Erick, and declared, “Whatever happened to you didn’t involve Curook. The guy can’t lie to save his life.”

Erick said, “I don’t want to jump to a hasty conclusion and operate in your territory without you knowing, but the people who Grouser worked with have talked about harming my family. I am going to solve this problem,” He kept the edge mostly out of his voice, as he said, “But is there anything you wish to tell me, first?”

Farix said, “The only one who can leave Kendrithyst while the Shadow’s Feast barrier is active is Tania, but if she’s involved in this thing happening to you then you’re fucked either way.” He spoke a bit softer, saying, “I don’t know what happened to you, but threats and such happen all the time to people like me and you. Grouser and others should have known not to deal in unapproved… Whatever it was he did. What did he do?”

“Cast some bone spells on a kid who was thrown at me in order to extort some Stat rings.”

Farix snorted. “Oh yeah. That shouldn’t have been done. Kill him. Make an example. You probably need to make more examples, large examples, so this doesn’t happen to you again. Doesn’t matter to me, just don’t go blowing up mountains if you can help it. I know you can be a lot sneakier than that.” He asked, “Is that all? Or…” He smiled, tugging at the collar of his robe, revealing blue skin underneath. “Would you like to talk about nicer things, in a nicer setting?”

“Maybe some other time.”

Farix shrugged. “Very well.” He lifted a hand, and gestured to the side, past Erick, calling out, “Next!” When the next in line, a tall woman, failed to come forward and mostly just stood there, staring at Erick, who failed to move, and then at Farix, and then back to Erick, Farix said, “Stop staring at the Fire of the Age and get your ass up here. He and I are done.” The woman quickly moved, as Farix added, “Your application better be fucking STUNNING, Meponoria.”

The woman whispered, “Yes sir, sorry sir, yes sir.”

Erick didn’t like being dismissed like that, but he understood the need to establish power.

Had this had all happened because Erick hadn’t yet established power? Eh. Erick had thought he was rather useful for hunting down all those Hunters that tried to attack him back when Carodogh was around. And killing literally millions of Ballooning Spiders and Crystal Mimics and such.

But people were people, and someone always had more stupidity, insanity, and power, than was good for them.

Erick rejoined Lerreg, while also setting down for a remote talk with Professor Grouser.

– – – –

While all that was happening, Ophiel plundered some academic records while others looked on, and then took a trip to some dorm rooms. Erick had found Toff and Hutt.

Or, at least, their final resting space. [Cascade Imaging] had led Erick to an area a dozen meters across, on the side of a grassy mountain, chock full of scattered bits of DNA. A check through the past didn’t reveal their final fate, for someone had used a great deal of magic in the area, erasing most of the recent past.

But Erick could still make out the exploding skulls and guts, cast through the air, all falling to a flaming end. It had to be a [Cleansing Flame], too, for Erick only found some dried blood, far from the scene, and a single, clean toenail, in the middle of it all.

– – – –

Erick watched as Ophiel played around in the black ink and Illipine Grouser wrote on a small, nearby table, outside of the splash zone. With a bit of control, Ophiel hovered into the air, and Erick saw what the man was working on. It was a will, or as they called them on Veird: Final Affairs. The man stopped writing his will when he recognized that Ophiel’s behavior had changed.

Erick opened with, “I would have figured a man who does what you did would have already sorted his Final Affairs.”

With calm ease, the man said, “My current Final Affairs is two years old. This one might not be admissible in court, but it will at least let others know how a few new things are to be distributed.” He asked, “Will you allow me the option of taking my own life, after I have finished this paperwork, sir?”

“If you give me a full and complete accounting of what happened, your involvement, and whoever else was involved, then I won’t touch you.”

Grouser paused. He breathed in. He said, “It was my plan to extort you for your new rings. News of these true All-Stat rings has gotten around rather quickly, and I knew I needed them, so I scrounged up the necessary resources as fast as I could, and attempted to go about my day as normal to throw off any suspicion. It seems I was exceedingly mistaken about your tracking and sleuthing capabilities, and for that, I will pay the price of my failure with my death.”

Erick watched the man lie to Ophiel’s face, then said, “200-plus Perception along with mana sense and all this new Intelligence says you’re lying.” He hadn’t just been eyeing Grouser, though. “I can also see into the various hidden compartments in the walls around here, as well as the magics you have that are attempting to conceal all those places, but I have no doubt that the more important items are somewhere else entirely. But there is one thing here, of note: You got a little painting of a son and a wife that you keep in your desk drawer, which I can see even through the enchantments guarding your desk. That new paperwork that you were working on tells me their names: Illipine, which comes from you, I assume, and Margareete. I am guessing that by lying to me, you’re trying to protect them. Do they need rescuing before you’re willing to talk?”

Erick didn’t mention that all of that was rather transparent. This guy knew what he was doing. By writing a Final Affairs in front of Ophiel, Grouser clued Erick into his family, and his concerns, and what was most likely being threatened to force Grouser’s compliance.

Grouser calmly said, “My life is forfeit, sir.”

“Are you choosing to ignore my offer of assistance with whatever problems forced this foolishness upon you?”

“My life is forfeit.”

“… I repeat: are you forgoing my assistance with this problem? I found you rather fast. I can find the others just as fast. In fact, I have just now found your own son and wife.”

Grouser’s whole body flinched.

Erick continued, “And I have found the four people watching them. I am now fully investigating the threat.”

In a mountainside city, three kilometers away from their little meeting, in a little playground outside of a house, in a row of houses beside a lake, a woman pushed a boy on a swing set. The boy was somewhere around eight years old; he giggled as the woman pushed him higher. The woman had to be in her forties. She played at being happy, but she knew something was wrong. She eyed the lake, and a small rowboat upon those waters.

A man and another man sat on that rowboat, over a hundred meters away. One of them watched the woman. The other watched the waters around them, where other couples rowed out on the waters and at least appeared to be lovey-dovey with each other; these two men played at no such cover.

They also had some of Toff and Hutt’s DNA on them. [Cleanse] worked well, but it did not clean as well as people thought it cleaned.

Another pair of men were stationed on the road in front of the house, out of sight of the mother and son. If Erick didn’t have his new Stats and his new senses, he would have missed them entirely. One was surrounded by invisibility magics that were deeper than [Invisibility]. The other was sitting on a porch across the street, drinking tea and reading a book, looking for all the world, except to Erick, that he was just a normal guy, doing normal guy things.

If he didn’t have his new Stats, and his new mana sense, he also would have missed the bomb-like packets of mana in the necks of both the mother and son. They were much smaller than the spell Grouser had put on Lerreg, but the structure was certainly similar. Was the caster a student of Grouser’s?

Back in Grouser’s office, the man shot to his feet, scattering papers, yelling, “No! They have—”

“How much mana should I spend on a [Dispel] on those bombs in their necks?” Erick interrupted. He added, “No bonuses, now. Just straight-up costs, since I have a global cooldown on my own, personal [Dispel], and 20 seconds is more than enough time for the second one to trigger. Or. You could choose which one you want to live?”

Grouser’s face did a weird, jumble of things, where he was obviously thinking some deep, horrible thoughts. After a half a second of that, he practically shouted, “15,000 mana for each!”

Erick wrapped Grouser’s wife and son in Ophiel’s sunform, rapidly trapping them behind pretty lights. A second Ophiel joined the first. Two 15,000 mana [Dispel]s ripped from those two Ophiel, targeting the glowing packet of bomb-like mana at the base of the mother’s and son’s skulls. The spells broke apart.

Several things happened all at once, and Erick dealt with each in their own way.

Back in the office, Erick had Ophiel hold up a lightform image of the event. Grouser looked down upon his family as the kid looked to the sky, his giggles of laughter turning to wonder at the sparking air all around. The wife quickly stopped the swingset, her face suddenly switching from instant fear, to a calm mask. She took the kid into her arms, speaking happy words that failed to translate over the lightform image, but the kid was certainly giggling.

The invisible person in front of the house moved to cast a spell at the mother and son. A bolt of invisible light rocketed from the hidden space, right as an Ophiel descended on the hidden person, and engulfed them in a vise of forceful light. Whatever spell they cast didn’t matter, for Ophiel grabbed the mother and son and took them into the sky, leaving the Bolt behind.

The man across the street tried something, too, casting a larger spell at the rapidly escaping mother and son, but an Ophiel got him, trapping him much in the same way as Ophiel trapped the invisible person.

The men on the lake were already trapped, and out of range of the ability to do much. Erick told them to sit tight and they wouldn’t die today. They complied. Erick repeated this warning to all of the trapped people, and the only one who tried anything was the invisible guy, who Erick now saw was a woman. She splashed bright light into her cage, not managing to do much except catch herself in the corrosive fallout. Erick flexed the cage and saved the woman from most of her own stupidity, but not all.

Back in the office, a few spells triggered below Grouser’s office, doing massive damage to the stone all around the man, utterly demolishing the office and a good portion of the floor above and below. But Grouser was fine. Erick had already wrapped him in hard light the second his rescue began.

The mother and son were currently tearing across the sky, and while the kid screamed a little, it was nothing a [Stillness] couldn’t fix. The mother attempted to fix the rest, with calm words, though the kid just screamed louder, causing bright pops of white light to surround his head with every breath. It didn’t take long before the kid caught on to his screams causing the light. Then he started laughing again. The mother smiled.

And the wind whistled through the new hole in the tower, where Grouser’s office had been. It did not collapse. Erick held up the structure with bars of solid light so that it wouldn’t budge, and said, “I have successfully saved your family and you. I demand compliance to remove the threats made to my own people.”

Grouser said, “I need my family with me.”

“They are flying this way, right now. Your son has been very brave.”

“Don’t lie to me. He’s a coward,” Grouser said, without venom in his voice.

“Be that as it may—” Erick had Ophiel release a [Mending Aura], repairing the office back to whole while he spoke, “They are safe, and on their way. They should be here in a minute. If you wish to tell me something, now would be a good time, before they arrive and things get more complicated. You should know I already spoke to Farix. He has told me your career is over.”

The room came back together as flowing stone remade itself into walls, and growing desks, shelves, and books retook some of their former positions. A lot of books ended up on the ground, and a good portion of all of the stuff that had been in the room seemed missing. The lived-in tower space was more like a neglected storage room, now. It was a good thing Grouser was the only one in the tower, so aside from Ophiel and the ex-professor, no one had been in danger.

Erick asked about that, “Offices above and below, yet you were the only one in your office today?”

Grouser’s chair was missing from the repaired room, so he just stood there. “I told them to be elsewhere today. They smartly accepted. This sort of thing happens every so often. Caught between massive powers, that is.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. You’re a pretty massive power, too.” Erick asked, “How often do you do that full-bone explosion trap?”

“I am not a higher power.” Grouser seemed to hold back a tide of resentment, as he said, “I have been forced to do that several times by those who are truly powerful, including the one who I suspect wronged you.” He breathed in. He prepared himself.

And then he spoke of the White Market.

Three minutes later, for Erick had slowed down the mother and son’s flight as Grouser expounded on organized crime, Erick reunited the man with his family. After a short series of hugs between Grouser, his wife, and his son, Erick asked Margareete, the mother, about the White Market. She immediately began a tirade over the dealings their family has had to suffer from the White Market, and pointed Erick in several possible directions, and one really good one. Grouser agreed with Margareete’s thoughts.

Erick confirmed her words by visiting those places, and by asking the people he had trapped the same questions.

Those assassins weren’t going anywhere except where Erick put them. [Lodestar] was a Domain, after all, and Erick shut down every single spell they tried to do. The Librarian’s little white book was very helpful in this regard.

When Margareete was finished, and a few more concerns were answered, Erick asked the three of them, “Where will you go, now?”

Grouser hugged his wife and his son, saying, “Away from Kendrithyst as soon as the Feast barrier is down.”

Margareete spoke to Erick, “If you murder every high ranking member of the White Market then we might not have to leave Truedark Arcanaeum. Otherwise, we must go, and we must go now. We can survive in the Pillars of the Spire until the Feast is over, so that is a better answer of where we’ll be. Can you get us there? Somewhere in the middle of it all? We can find out if it’s safe to come back after you do whatever you wish to do. No need to bother yourself with that much, Archmage Flatt, sir.”

Erick said, “Sure.” With a slice of light against the outer wall of the room, a secure hold, and a push, the wall opened up like a swinging door. Air flowed in. “Let’s go.”

Margareete picked up her boy and nodded, as she held onto Grouser, and the thin man held onto her. Erick grabbed the three of them with solid light, and told them to sit, if they wished. They did so, like people trained to listen to others. Erick filed that thought away as he floated them out of the room, and then resealed the room behind them. Erick guided Ophiel out from the Arcanaeum District, and out across the Brightwater, to the land beyond the lake.

Erick turned his attention back to the people he had caught, and also back to himself. The people at Grouser’s house were still trapped, all together now. Erick threatened them with releasing them to Farix. He was hoping for a quick round of information gathering. Instead, the assassins seemed to die on the inside, going completely silent.

Ah. Well. Maybe Lerreg would be more helpful.

Lerreg sat across from Erick, waiting to be helpful.

Erick asked him a few questions, based on what he had found out from Grouser and Margareete.

Lerreg scrunched his face. “Uh. I don’t know any of those people. I mean… I know of the White Market. But… I don’t know anyone in it, or any of the people you mentioned. Oh! But Toff and Hutt are in it, right?”

“Yes. They were.”

A wild smile broke upon Lerreg’s face, before vanishing behind discipline. He said, “Oh.” He asked, “Did you clean that threat from the land?”

“… No. Others got to them, first.” Erick said, “This has become larger than I thought it would be. I expected some dumb shit Shade to try something well before I stepped into Ar’Kendrithyst, and I got that, but I didn’t expect to encounter more dumb shits in the shapes of people.”

Lerreg flinched.

Erick continued, “I expected this extortion attempt to require a simple fix. But it’s taking up more of my time than I would have liked.” Erick said, “I have much bigger things to deal with than this nonsense, Lerreg. If you’ve been holding back anything, let me know now.”

“No no! I would never hold anything back!”

Erick sighed.

He returned his attention back to the assassins currently held captive on the backyard lawn of Margareete’s house. They came around from their brief catatonia at being threatened with release to a Shade. Then they gave up a few names rather quickly. Tracking the DNA of the four of them brought Erick to a rather ornate house in the middle of an expensive part of Truedark Arcanaeum’s district. An expensive, well defended house, with guards everywhere, and with a name Erick had discovered several times already. The Rollini Family. The leaders of the White Market in the Arcanaeum District.

This discovery necessitated another trip to Farix.

So Erick stood in front of Farix’s temporary desk, again.

The Shade was not there.

The white-skinned incani had taken over for Farix. Erick asked her for directions to the Shade. He got them. So now, Erick stood at the dark gates to the temporary Dark Temple, south of the Palace District.

– – – –

Behind the open doors to the temple, Farix stood, speaking to Priestess, who floated nearby, her skeleton body was wrapped in dark cloth, while the white core in her ribcage glowed a soft white. They noticed Erick, as he stepped to the entrance.

Priestess waved him in, saying, “Welcome, Erick. I have just heard some interesting news. Come on in.”

Erick did so, walking inside, while Lerreg and Violet trailed behind.

Priestess gestured to the kid with Erick, “I assume this is the young man who almost blew up?”

Erick stepped toward Priestess and Farix, saying, “Yes.”

Priestess said to Lerreg, “Please stand on this side of the door, while the three of us speak.”

Lerreg immediately moved off to the side, followed closely by Violet.

Erick walked all the way to the Shades, stopping when he got near, asking, “So you’ve heard it all?”

“Not yet.” Farix said, “But I heard you uncovered some of the White Market in my lands. I have received reports of heavy activity, all around my lands, too. This is concerning, Erick. I do not appreciate this level of clandestine activity in my lands.”

Erick said, “Then it is a good thing I have come to you, isn’t it? I’ve already tracked down most of the people who tried to do me harm, but since impeding upon you is not something I wish to do without just cause, I have sought you out for the second time.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Does Grouser live?” Farix asked.

The Shade was obviously angry, but doing a great job of hiding that emotion. If he were in his shadowform, then Erick wouldn’t have caught any of those emotions at all.

“Him, his wife, and his kid, are all fine.” Erick asked, “I thought you would ask after the White Market?”

Farix went hopeful, then silent, and calculating. After a moment, he turned to Priestess, then to Erick, saying, “I want a privacy barrier for what comes next. Either you put up one, or I will.”

Priestess nodded her skeleton head, saying, “A good idea. I could put up one, or, if you are uncomfortable with that, you may, Erick?”

Erick had an Ophiel pop a [Privacy Ward] across the three of them, cutting out all exterior senses.

Priestess frowned, as she looked upon the crystalline air. “Audio and visual, but no [Scry] protection, or mana sense protection.”

Farix said, “It’s fine. If you could erase the mana signature later, Priestess?”

“I can, and will.”

Erick frowned at the Shades. “What other spells would you have combined with this?”

Priestess explained, “[Soul Sight], [Witness], and [Scry], but in reverse. This is a good base, though.”

“You can do that when there’s no larger concerns.” Farix seemed to relax, as he said, “Grouser is my old drinking buddy. I won’t have him murdered over a failed assassination against you. What do I need to do to get you to back off from him?”

“He’s fine. I won’t hold it against him, since he was forced into helping out the White Market in your lands.” Erick said, “But I want the people who plot to harm my family brought to a definitive end.”

Farix said, “No. The White Markets in my land are some of the best they’ve been in years. I don’t want you upsetting the balance. Let this go. Besides. Why are you asking for me to end the Rollini Family? You won’t kill them, and your family can protect itself. Jane is not going to die to those people.”

Erick threatened, “So you want me to carve their house from the land?”

“You’re not going to do shit, Erick.” Farix said, “I am glad you didn’t kill Grouser, but I have no obligation to do your dirty work for you, and besides! I wouldn’t want to! As I said, the Rollini family is rather good for the area. They provide what my governor cannot, in order to keep the rest of the people happier than they would be otherwise.”

Erick sighed.

Priestess spoke, “Every land has its illegal markets and powers, Erick. To eradicate one is to prepare the land for others to take root. To this end, it is good that you have not struck yet.” She turned to Farix. “But if he were to strike, what would you do?”

Farix rolled his eyes, “He won’t.”

“And why won’t he?” Priestess asked, sparing Erick the task of threatening deaf ears.

He liked her a little more because of that.

“There are kids in there, and the Rollini Family does whatever it takes to protect themselves, including using their kids as shields.” Farix said to Erick, “You’ve scouted the place. Do you see the kids?”

“I have seen the young ones inside the house and elsewhere nearby… I knew they were going to be a problem, but I did not expect them to be that sort of problem.” Erick frowned, every part of him jumbling with anger and other, less understandable emotions. “They… They use their kids as shields?”

Priestess stared down at Farix. If she would have had flesh and skin to her skull, Erick was certain he would be seeing a frown on her face. And then she spoke and made her displeasure felt, “Really, Farix. This is intolerable.”

Farix said, “They found out a personal weakness of mine! So what! A guy is exploiting it.” He nearly rounded on her, saying, “You want to go murder the hundreds of children they have in their power? Yeah. I didn’t think so. This is just a part of business as almost-usual.”

Priestess’s eyes turned to points of hard starlight, but she said nothing.

Erick stared at Farix, changing tactics, “I came to you because this is your land. To know that you were this complicit in the Rollini Family’s business of extortion? That is news, too. All of this is news, actually. All of this bodes badly for you, Farix.”

The Priestess continued to stare down at Farix.

Farix laughed. “Here’s some more news: I’m not willing to topple a stable power in my kingdom when someone else possibly worse might take their place.” He rolled his eyes, or at least Erick imagined he did; Farix’s eyes were nothing but pools of white. He said, “Destabilization kills just as much as an archmage attack.”

“Fair enough.” Erick said, “So I’m going to go in there, and extract some killers, and I want you to be okay with the outcome.”

“No.” Farix sighed. “Leave them alone. Your involvement will kill a hundred kids. I will take care of this for you. It will take time. You will owe me for this.”

Erick scoffed, then smiled. “I’m not going to owe you shit. Is this a test of how far I’m willing to go against one of you? Because if it is, I am not going to play nicely.”

He almost blurted out that when the entire Clergy went to war with itself, that every single person in the Brightwater District was likely going to die, anyway.

Farix eyed Erick. “I don’t police my people like some Mind Mage despot, and I don’t appreciate the implication that I do. What’s happening here, between me and you, is diplomacy. In diplomacy, you ask for something, something is given, and something is given back. You will owe me for this, one way or another.”

“It’s more like this: You remove this threat against me before I remove it myself. And then you will have to deal with your crooked house before gravity tears it down, and I won’t owe you shit.”

Farix warned, “You compare yourself to intractable gravity?”

Erick wanted to laugh, but he didn’t. Instead, he stared at Farix, pitying the man and hating him in equal measure, as he let loose a small secret, saying, “You have no idea of the inexorable forces arrayed against your house of cards, do you?”

Farix puffed up, almost going to say something.

But Priestess intervened. “Please, gentlemen! No need for that sort of anger. Everything was going well but we’ve all gotten a little heated. So let’s turn down the burner a bit. Farix is just defending his own. But. Erick. What you just said…” With a suddenly serious voice, she asked Erick, “I feel that you mean something deeper by that?”