126, 1/2

Dinner turned to drinking, which immediately became stories of the past, and of what had happened between then and now. Erick knew that everyone here who was not Teressa and Arathani were quickly headed into ‘third wheel’ territory. But, to Teressa and her auntie’s credit, they did not make him, or Poi, or Kiri, or Jane, feel unwelcome.

As the sky outside turned to night, Erick stepped up from the table during a lull between stories, and said, “Arathani, Yogdrick. Thank you for the wonderful—”

“You can’t go yet!” Arathani leapt up from her seat, saying, “I have cookies in the back! Dessert!”

Arathani did not wait for an answer, or recognition, as she tore off into the back room. She did that a lot. She had a nice, tough attitude, and Erick liked that about her. He smiled as Arathani came back with a giant basket filled with enough cookies to choke a small dragon, or at least several orcols. She set the basket on a separate dining room table, saying, “Berry and oat! I made a batch for the school for tomorrow, but you can take some. Take a dozen! I’ll get you a to-go plate.”

As others moved to get going, Teressa rose from her seat, too—

Erick said, “You can stay, Teressa. Spend the night if you wish?”

“Yes!” Arathani put a hand on Teressa’s shoulder, firmly planting the younger woman back onto her seat, saying, “We’ll have her back to you tomorrow safe as antirhine!”

“Auntie.” Teressa began protesting, “Sir. I do not have to stay—”

“You can, though.” Erick put on a false bossy facade, saying, “But I’ll expect you back tomorrow morning, soon as you’re able.”

“Please?” Arathani asked Teressa. “We got a nice room right upstairs for guests, and we’ve got a lot to talk about.” She teared up, saying, “You’ve been gone for so long and we had that awful fight—” She shook her head. “Please stay, Teressa.”

Teressa said, “Sure. Of course I’ll stay. Thanks for having me, Auntie.”

Erick said a few more goodbyes, then left, trailing three of his four people and carrying a plate of cookies.

Teressa and her Auntie would end up talking long into the night.

– – – –

Teressa walked in as Erick set out breakfast.

“Hey there!” Erick said, “Welcome back!”

Teressa smiled softly, and said, “Good to be back. She’s invited us all to dinner again. This time she promises it will be something special… And I promised her that I would tell you that, but we don’t have to go.”

Jane said, “I liked her food.”

“I liked it too, and we got time for this sort of thing. I haven’t heard back from O’kabil or that Chieftain about anything.” Erick said, “So we’ll go back to Arathani’s, unless you would rather go yourself, without us. That is perfectly fine, too. Family is important, after all.”

Teressa said, “Then let’s go back there for dinner.”

Erick nodded, saying, “Then we will! But other than that, you all do whatever you want to do. I’m going to actually, truly try to stay in today. Get some work done.” He added, “Record players won’t make themselves, after all!”

– – – –

Two hours later, Erick sat before Chieftain Wyrmrest and the man in charge of the Special Forces of Treehome. While the first was an orcol man of poise and strength, the second was an orcol man of blood-red plate armor and a no-nonsense face with quite a few scars. More scars than Erick had ever seen on an orcol, too. Of course, ‘more than he had ever seen’ also meant ‘one or two’, in the case of orcols, but this dude was scarred up like any human or incani Juggernaut you’d find in Spur’s Adventuring District at any time of the day.

Hollowsaur didn’t count for Erick’s idea of ‘orcols with scars’.

Peron introduced the scarred man, saying, “Archmage Erick Flatt, I would like you to meet Warchief Koropo Ikabobbi, leader of the Special Forces of Treehome, and the man who has been fighting the cultist menace for years.”

Erick said, “Nice to meet you, Koropo. Please call me Erick.”

Koropo paused in surprise, much like how a rock could be surprised, then spoke in a particularly deep voice, saying, “Informal, then. Erick. I heard you had some conditions for your support. What are they?”

“I won’t track down simple cultists. I will track down murderers, Hunters, and terrorists. Anyone who has taken a life in service to Melemizargo qualifies to be hunted, but I’d like you to be sparing with your targets, if you can.” Erick thought for a second, then, deciding that his words had been good enough, said, “That’s about it.” He gestured to Poi, standing behind him, adding, “And my guard and friend, Poi Fulisade, will be verifying the truth of your words, and any questions I have regarding any of the paperwork. Broadly speaking, I have no reason not to trust your word that the people you seek are dangerous killers, so please don’t give me a reason to not trust you.”

Peron said nothing and gave none of his emotions or biases away as he watched the conversation between Erick and Koropo.

Koropo said, “If I catch cultists in my net they will be tried and found guilty of consorting with The Enemy. The usual punishment for that is execution. If you want to take them off of my hands, then I’ll give them to you, but I will not go easy on the enablers of the Hunters, murderers, and terrorists.”

Erick blanked for a minute, then said, “No. I want you to let them be. Just don’t prosecute them.” He added, “This should not be a hard thing to compromise on.”

“If you don’t want them, then why should I have to deal with them? Don’t you have a city full of cultists?” Koropo said, “If they’re too dangerous for you, then we should just kill them and be done with it, and when we do catch them and we do kill them, I won’t have you gainsaying me in my decisions about my city.”

“Ah. So you don’t want my help at all.” Erick stood up, getting ready to leave, saying, “Sorry we couldn’t come to an arrangement.”

“I apologize for my dutiful Special Forces.” Peron stood, saying, “Please sit back down, Erick, and let us continue these discussions.”

Erick turned to Poi. “Is he actually apologizing, or is he playing ‘good cop bad cop’ with Koropo, just to see how far they can push me?” He turned back to the orcols, saying, “Because at the first sign that my wishes aren’t being upheld, then I am gone, and I will not be persuaded by Peron trying to placate me when you, Koropo, go ‘off all on your own’ and kill some stupid, idiot cultists who don’t know any better. If that is indeed what you’re both planning on doing.”

While Peron’s face remained the same mask as ever, Koropo’s scarred visage gained a hard-edged smile. Poi did not need to answer; Erick gained everything he needed to know right then. Peron was the actual bad cop, here, while Koropo was only pretending to be the bad cop at Peron’s behest, because, at the end of the day, Peron was the boss and Koropo was the underling.

Poi remained silent.

Koropo stood, and continued to play his part, saying, “I can respect you for murdering the Shades and turning the survivors into soul-slaved helpers, but this is how they get you, Erick. You’re doing what every single cult leader has ever done, just on a much larger scale.

“The leaders start the initiates off small, having them give gifts in the shadows to the Darkness. Then it’s compassion. Then comes a feeling of belonging. Then comes the request that the initiate prove their worth to the cult, and I’m not just speaking of Melemizargo’s Cult. This is how they all work. The people on top draw the people on the bottom into their webs of lies and comfort, and the people in bottom thus draw even more people in, and the cycle continues.

“All of the people in these cults are all part of the problem. Even if we cut the heads off of the wyrm, they always grow back, because that’s what tumors do when you only cut out the parts that are causing direct harm. For that’s what the Cult of Melemizargo does. It stays dormant for years. And then all of a sudden, there’s a crisis manufactured by the people in charge, usually when they find an initiate willing to kill to solve their problems. One problematic person becomes two, becomes five, and then you’ve got a string of murders on your hands, and too many murderers covering for each other.

“So your insistence that we ‘leave the simple Cultists alone’ is asking for us to leave the wyrm alone while it regrows its teeth.” Koropo said, “I will not do this, and if you won’t help clear out the entire cult, then I don’t need your shitty help, because as soon as we move on them with your kind of power, they’ll activate every single dormant member, instructing them all to kill as much as they can, to take out as many leaders and key people as they can before we can pin them to the wall.” Koropo said, “It’s happened before, and it will happen again.”

Silence descended upon the room.

No one spoke.

Erick glanced to Poi.

Poi said, “Warchief Ikabobbi believes what he is saying, and the event that he is referring to is the Insurrection of 1406, thirty years ago, when a string of massacres inside Treehome was found out to be the result of Cultists.”

Erick felt himself go a little pale, then mentally reminded himself that he didn’t always know everything, and that this wasn’t Earth. Erick’s experience with the Cult was not everyone’s experience with the Cult. He sat back down, saying, “Fine. Let’s talk.”

Koropo and Peron sat back down.

Erick said, “My initial statement stands, but there is an amendment: If they start doing what you say, then I will help you eliminate them all. If they do not activate their sleeper agents, if they do not start killing indiscriminately, then I want you to leave them alone. I will leave it up to you to proceed however you wish in order to enable a quick kill on whichever targets you desire, without alerting too many to what is going on, but, if possible, I ask you to detain and then release whoever you capture who is not directly responsible for some atrocity.”

Koropo said, “There will be collateral damage, no matter how much my people would wish to avoid such. I need to know that you’re in this till it’s over, no matter what happens, otherwise you’re a liability I won’t risk. I won’t risk stirring the dragon’s nest with a partner that is going to [Teleport] out at the first sign of trouble.”

“I’m taking a risk here, too, Koropo.” Erick said, “If you aren’t willing to take a risk that I’ll leave as soon as I see you harming innocents, then maybe you’re right. We shouldn’t be doing this at all.”

While Koropo slightly narrowed his eyes, in what had to be either a practiced or naturally perfect manner, Erick waited. He had given his line-in-the-sand, knowing that it would be tested, going forward. He hoped his morality wouldn’t be tested too harshly.

Another silence stretched through the meeting room.

Koropo said, “What do you need to find people?”

“… Are we going to do this, then? Will you abide by my rules? Both in spirit and to the letter?”

“Fine, dammit.” Koropo laid a gauntleted fist on the table right as Peron’s mask slipped, and the Chieftain’s anger briefly showed to the world. Koropo tapped the wood with a thick, armored finger, saying, “But listen to me when I say that stepping out halfway will be worse than doing nothing. Listen when I say that collateral damage is expected. We fully expect a large-scale retaliation, and we will be preparing some specific countermeasures to counteract that, but— Gods dammit, I’m usually the one telling my hothead subordinates not to get carried away.” He took away his hand, adding, “I haven’t been on this side of the table in forty years.” He stared Erick right in the eyes, saying, “I need you to go the distance with us. The Cult of Melemizargo must be eradicated from Treehome and the surrounding lands. Roots and all. I can’t have you getting scared halfway through. And I mean that.”

Erick softly asked, “What sort of large-scale retaliation?”

Koropo sat back in his chair, saying, “Archmage Syllea’s brother, Omaz, is one of the Cult leaders, so. Something on that level, and Syllea will likely get involved, too. Do you know Omaz? Anything about him?”

“No…” Keeping the sudden horror out of his voice, Erick said, “I met him once. But. No. I don’t know the man. At all.”

Koropo said, “He’s picked up some tricks from his sister over the many years. She’s got that famous [Starlight Fall] magic. He’s got it, too.” He whipped out a blue box and gave it to Erick. “According to Syllea, this one is Omaz’s version. It’s a pale imitation of the original, but it’s still an existential threat.”

It was almost the same spell that Syllea had shared with him way back when. He looked at that one, now, and saw that they were pretty similar.

Erick mumbled, “Syllea is better than her brother, but…”

“But ‘countless’ stars is still ‘countless’,” Koropo said.

Erick asked, “How many is ‘countless’, anyway?”

Peron said, “About three million, over a ten kilometer diameter space. Normal [Dispel]s are useless. You need a [Chaining Dispel] to counter those magics.”

Dawning horror turned into something darker, as Erick realized what sort of ‘Cultists’ he was going up against. At least when he had been in Shadow’s Feast, no one could escape the Feast Barrier, and he didn’t have to worry about hostages and collateral damage. But this? This was worrying.

Koropo said, “Syllea gave me a breakdown of her brother’s capabilities when he proved himself a traitor. Pretty much the only spells he has are Star-based, so we don’t have to worry too much about Blood or Soul magic, but the fucking traitor probably hid that stuff from her. You see it all the time with these types. They lead double lives in the shadows, practicing ritual murder and conspiring in ways that any normal person would never consider doing. As for what Syllea knew, Omaz is at least level 75, and he certainly has Intelligence. Syllea clocked her brother at a max of 36,000 mana, or 150 Willpower, but that could be a screen, too. If he gets the chance to retaliate, then he would certainly put on some temporary Stat Rings to boost his Willpower higher. That much mana in a mage would normally be a limiting factor, even if it is rather high, but with his Intelligence, we have no doubt that he can cast his [Starlight Fall] at least ten times in a row, and still have mana left to escape.”

A lot of things stuck out in that little bit of information, but what Erick focused on, was asking, “How are you able to wear casters out?” He clarified, “I mean: You speak of how many times he can cast his spells, and I think you’re vastly underestimating the value of Intelligence, but I have literally never seen a long fight. Everything is always over within minutes, if not faster. Do you plan on winning by wearing out the opposition? Is that a real win condition? How do you do that and not just kill them, accidentally or otherwise?”

Peron couldn’t help but smile, it seemed. “Not everyone’s magic is as strong as an archmage’s.”

“Ah.” Erick said, “Well. Yes. My experience with fighting is not normal. I accept that. But you can still Critical someone by hitting them in the head.”

Peron nodded, accepting Erick’s words as they were.

Koropo said, “We have a lot of experience taking down strong targets while minimizing casualties. The problems arise when people outside of the targets get wind of what we’re doing to their friends. They start shit where we can’t see them, and where we’re not prepared. Which is what will happen if we do this wrong.” Koropo asked, “But is the question you’re asking about taking down targets without killing them?”

“Yes. How do you do that?”

Koropo nodded, then said, “Most of the people in my Special Units have vetted experience with Blood Magic and Soul Magic, and most of them are Mage Hunters, but we also have a few Warrior Hunters for the less usual targets.” Koropo said, “I’m a Witch Hunter myself. All of us have high-rate [Mana Drain Wards] which we can latch onto various targets we’re actively fighting. We even have several people with [Curse of Locality], to prevent [Teleport], as well as counterspellers to prevent the use of magic. But our best offense, is to take people out before they realize they’re in a fight. We don’t like long fights, either, for when that happens, something has gone wrong. But if we do end up in a long fight, we’re always at an advantage because our Drain spells not only deny the targets many of their resources, but we take those resources for ourselves. That is what Mage Hunters do.”

Koropo’s words were a shock to Erick’s mind. How could he have forgotten about [Drain Ward]? The rate it drained was rather slow, but there had to be some way to make it drain faster!

[Drain Ward] was an inherent part of [Ward]’s big blue box, and Erick had somehow forgotten about that when it came time to think of ways to incapacitate a person without killing them. He had certainly remembered the Drain part of [Ward] when he was making [Ward Destruction], though!

And then there was the Class itself.

Erick recalled all of what he had heard of Mage Hunters. The first time he heard about them was back when he was wondering about ways to take mana from someone else, for his own use, and for ways to give his own mana to another person. Kiri suggested Mage Hunter as the Class that took mana from a target, then she told him that Font was the Class that gave mana to another person.

He had heard about Mage Hunters again, when he was asking around how to figure out the [Polymorph] problem; how to track a person through the vagaries of [Polymorph]. Even [Cascade Imaging] didn’t break that absolute protection provided by [Polymorph]’s lifestyle shift. [Cascade Imaging] sidestepped that problem by being able to track shed DNA, and that stuff got around, especially if the [Polymorph] target didn’t take special steps to clean themselves between shifts.

Erick sighed to himself, as he considered making a Health and Mana [Drain Ooze] to complement his Counterspelling [Blood Ooze]. Such a spell would go well with his eventual [Anesthesia] Particle Spell. Maybe a few Wind spells just to tie it all together. Bloody Wind spells, too.

… He could pretend to be a Mage Hunter, when he was out in the world, going incognito. That actually seemed really good.

He wasn’t out to lie about his life going forward. He wasn’t seeking a new identity. Just something that he could don when traveling through, like, Nergal and the Underworld and Nelboor and… And pretty much anywhere except for Treehome. He had already fucked up his chances to be incognito in this city, even if it was rather large.

Only five seconds passed in silence while Erick thought. He came back to the conversation, thinking of how Caizoa followed him through his lightstepping, and asked, “What about following people through a [Teleport]? Do you have some ways to do that?”

“Of course.” Koropo, straight-faced but with the barest hint of pride in his voice, said, “You don’t get to be Special Forces unless you have [Teleport Link] or some other niche spells or abilities. A full 25% of my people can do this.” He turned sterner, slightly, and said, “But that’s dangerous. We don’t do that on any but the highest value targets, and only if they’re fully debuffed. No telling where you might end up once that tether gets latched on. They drill a lot of lessons into us when we’re at the academy.”

“Do you have Mercy spells to incapacitate, too?”

Koropo nodded, saying, “And Draining Cuffs and a Tattooist for more permanent means of incapacitation.”

“Then…” Erick said, “We need a test run. I need to see how you work, and you need to see how I can help you. Name your time and place.”

Koropo said, “Now, and just down the hall. We have some targets outside of the Cultists that we would like gone, but which we haven’t been able to find. You get us close, and we can take it from there. I can promise you now that the targets I can put together in the next hour will not test your line in the sand at all, or else we have a much bigger problem on our hands than I thought.”

Erick said, “I may be a pacifist, Koropo, but even I know that some people don’t deserve multiple chances.” He added, “Our definitions of acceptable targets are likely more in line than you think.”

Koropo’s stoic face took on the tiniest smile, as he said, “We’ll see.”

Peron, however, was not happy at all, but he said nothing.

Erick had met with Koropo and Peron inside Wyrmrest’s home office, which was located on the other side of the Arbor from Syllea’s house. As their first meeting ended, Erick followed Koropo and Peron to the next room. They passed by a training yard next to Arbor Wyrmrest’s trunk. It looked rather similar to the space beside Syllea’s house, which was somewhere directly on the other side. Erick wondered if she knew that her Chieftain and Warchief were hunting her brother. He wondered if Syllea knew that he was helping Peron and Koropo to hunt for her brother.

There was some drama waiting to happen there, when she found out.

Would she want to go hunting for her brother, too? Or would she try to stay away? Ah… She probably felt really bad when it turned out Omaz was a traitor. Erick had a hard time imagining what he would do if any one of his people turned traitor, becoming a pawn of Melemizargo’s insanity.

Rats, or rather, Xendross Sands, as was his real name… He was the closest thing Erick had ever encountered to a traitor, and even that would be stretching the meaning of the term so far as to be untruthful. Rats leaving had hurt an awful lot, and that was probably nothing compared to losing a brother to the Darkness.

Koropo led the way into a large office, filled with wall space, mobile blackboards, corkboards, and several tables. The room was empty, and possibly recently cleaned, as evidenced by the order of it all. There was a place for everything and everything was in its place. It looked ready for work; for papers to be splashed and tacked up on a cork board, and for clues to be written on blackboards. A double stack of chairs rested in a corner, waiting to be spread around the room, while a glass dome in the ceiling let in scattered light, offering a great view of Wyrmrest, so high in the sky he seemed frozen in time. Erick strained for a moment to look for movement. Person-sized leaves rustled in the wind, kilometers above, as Starfruit gently glowed, even in the light of day.

Koropo spoke, and Erick’s attention came back to his surroundings. He said, “If this works, this room is our headquarters. I don’t want your map or that glowing ball over the space, unless we have to do that. I will need your Imaging off-site, and a recreation made here for us and Wyrmrest to see, but if you can’t do the recreation in addition to the map then I can have someone else make that. There’ll be some adjustments as we learn to work together, but as for our first target—” He lifted his head. A telepathic line of intent flowed from him, into the starlit manasphere. “I just got a call from one of our team leaders. She’ll be here soon. She’s been chasing this guy for years—”

The air blipped on the other side of the room, revealing a thin orcol woman with dark green skin, short black hair, and dark eyes. She wore ruddy leather armor. Real armor too. Not the conjured stuff.

Stolen novel; please report.

She put a fist over her chest, and bowed, saying, “Sir!”

“Speak of the Darkness—” Koropo said, “Squad Leader Naervion. Meet Archmage Erick Flatt. Erick, meet Naervion.” Koropo indicated Poi, saying, “This is Erick’s Mind Mage oversight for this meeting. You will comply with a mental scan of whatever the Archmage wants, and answer all his questions as truthfully as you can, and he’ll be doing the searching. Is that clear?”

“Sir, yes sir. Thank you for this honor!” Naervion stood at attention, asking, “Where should I start?”

Erick asked, “Before that. Something else is bothering me. Why don’t the Arbors see the killers and such? They see everything, don’t they?”

Peron stepped into the conversation, saying, “They only see when they want to see, or when their attention is called. For the most part, all of these problems mostly happen outside of the Districts, in the nomadic parts of Treehome. These itinerant lands are the problem, as we find almost all of our targets out there. Don’t go blaming Wyrmrest for stuff that happens outside of his perusal.”

Koropo added, “Almost all the area you’re going to be searching, Archmage, is well outside of Treehome. From the Wyrmridge mountains to the deep Forest, to the coasts surrounding the Forests. These people might commit their crimes here, but they live elsewhere. Sometimes we manage to catch them when they show up here, but mostly, we find them in the itinerant lands.” He gestured back to Naervion.

Naervion waited for Erick to speak again.

“Well, okay then.” Erick stepped toward the woman, closing a little of the distance, and asked, “Who are we hunting, and why? If there’s gore or other horrors involved, just be up front about it. I’ve seen some shit so don’t worry about offending me.”

With utter professionalism, and relaxing only a little, Naervion began, “We call him the Flower Killer. He is one of the few who come in and kill directly under the Arbor’s boughs. He’s operated under the canopies of practically every single Arbor, too. He’s one of the more dangerous ones.”

Peron almost frowned, but he kept that under control.

Naervion gestured to a blackboard. “The paperwork is on the way, and should be here in minutes, but—” With great control she cast several images into the air, directly onto the slate. She explained what she had conjured, saying, “The corpse is always laid directly on the ground, in the sun. The chest is always methodically pried open, with the organs mostly intact, except for the heart. With the heart thus exposed, the Flower Killer then plants a Carmine Lily directly in the heart, and then [Grow]s it to full size, meaning a green stalk of about a meter long with a fist-sized brush-like flower on top. He has been doing this for the last twenty nine years, at least twice a year, and though the exact date changes, he always finds a victim during the Triumph of Light. The second one usually comes six or seven months later. Sometimes he drops two bodies at a time.” She added, “We haven’t found the victim for this Triumph yet, so we don’t think he’d killed yet.”

Erick looked toward Poi.

Poi nodded.

Erick turned back toward Naervion, asking, “How has your investigation gone so far?”

“I took up the cause when my previous Squad Leader was killed by the Flower Killer, years ago.” Naervion lost a bit more of her professionalism, growing angry for a brief moment, before stuffing that emotion down and away. She continued, “We’ve tried policing Carmine Lilies, but that was basically a fool’s errand. They’re—” She almost continued, but she instantly changed track, saying, “We’ve tried Seers. Blood Mages to track him down. Necromancers, in the rare case that the victim’s family has agreed to such a thing, in order to call back the dead and ask questions. Nothing has worked. The Flower Killer doesn’t stick to a single District. He doesn’t stick to a single type of victim. But we do know a few things about him. We know that he is a fantastic Polymage and that he routinely changes bodies, and that he is a remorseless killer.”

“How do you know he’s a ‘he’?”

“When we have had a necromancer call back the souls of the victims, we were able to ask enough to know that they were attacked by a man. Some have called the man tall, or fat, or short, or muscular, or skinny, with everything from brown hair to white to black. This is how we know— How we suspect, very strongly, that he is a Polymage.” She said, “But there’s no real way to verify that information. Our resident Necromancer was barely able to pull together that much, as the Flower Killer opens the target’s chest while they are alive, killing their target with horrific pain. It is a horrible way to go and leaves a lot of trauma on the soul.”

Erick nodded, then asked, “So why did you interrupt yourself regarding the Carmine Lilies?”