178, 2/2

Erick stepped onto the grounds in front of Archmage’s Rest. Since it was ‘night’, the replica of the Wizard’s Tower had once again vanished behind illusions, replaced by a small mansion that was not a tenth the true size of the building it pretended to be. One of the main doors to that mansion was shut, but the other was open, spilling yellow light out into the nighttime air of Vibrant Falls.

A few guards hidden behind illusions noticed Erick. Telepathic lines connected them to each other, and also to other people, elsewhere. They tensed upon seeing Erick, and upon seeing Ophiel. Normally, they would have relaxed almost just as fast, but not this time.

Erick was right to be concerned that they would think him responsible for Kydyr’s death. That’s why he insisted on being involved, at least for now. Undoubtedly there would come a point where Riivo or Kromolok would tell him in no uncertain terms to stay away from the investigation, but for now, Erick would remain and he would help, where he could—

Kromolok and Tasar stepped out of the t-station. The Inquisitor looked almost normal; he was very good at hiding his emotions, and dealing with tragedy. Erick suspected that the man always saw danger everywhere, and he was only truly happy when he was pleasantly surprised that he had been proven wrong. Tasar, though, was not used to death and murder, even though she had likely seen a lot of it in her long life; she looked crushed, and barely able to hide it.

Kromolok said, “Riivo and a few others are already down—”

Sitnakov stepped out of the t-station right behind Kromolok and Tasar. He looked ready to kill someone and was barely hiding it. He stared at Erick, saying, “Archmage Kydyr’s death was recorded as true not one minute after you reported—”

Tasar collapsed to her knees, dropping her staff. Dark green tears flowed down her face as she sobbed.

Sitnakov continued, “You, Archmage Flatt, are to be with us every step of the way, to Image and to answer questions as requested.”

Erick stood surprised. Dead a minute after Erick reported it?

What the fuck?

But all Erick said into the emotionally tense situation was, “Of course I will cooperate.”

Sitnakov lightly glared, then judged Erick’s words as true and promptly ignored him. He stepped to Tasar and held down a hand. “Time to work, Tasar.”

Tasar breathed deep twice, taking Sitnakov’s hand on the second breath. “Okay. Yes. Okay… Okay.”

Kromolok continued, “Riivo and the others are down by Kydyr’s property. Let us relocate.”

– – – –

Erick stepped down onto stone that had been whole and covered in moss not an hour ago.

Now, there was a large central crater, and a thousand smaller ones. Debris was everywhere. The view was worse from the ground. The smaller craters were larger than they had appeared to be. The destruction was worse, with much of the land scoured of moss. Rubbled walls, filled with platinum runic webs, littered the land.

And the manasphere was nothing more than static; whoever had been here had scrubbed the overt evidence away.

Sitnakov, Tasar, and Kromolok had stepped onto the ground near to Erick. Tasar breathed out, staring across the land at the floating [Force Cage] which held Kydyr’s head. Sitnakov scowled at the sight, but he was not distracted by the destruction; he zeroed in on the other people nearby.

A hundred meters away, under a dome of gentle light, Riivo stood at the edge, staring at the destruction all around. Behind him stood Aisha and a few other wrought who Erick identified as guards or other middle management mages at the Rest. The Prognosticator stood ramrod straight, her head tilted back, her eyes glowing with iridescence.

Erick was the only non-wrought in the area.

Kromolok walked toward Riivo.

Erick followed after him, with Sitnakov rapidly stepping to Erick’s side, to glance down at him. Erick looked up at the black metal, orcol-shaped man. He started the interrogation so that Sitnakov didn’t have to, saying, “I imagine that this sort of thing doesn’t happen often.”

“No, it does not. And then tens of people that you knew for hundreds of years are suddenly dead.” Sitnakov almost said something, but he switched, and said something else, “It hits some of us harder than others.”

Erick glanced back at Tasar. The green-black woman had sat down upon the stone as she stared out at the crater. Erick turned back to Sitnakov. “Did you know Kydyr?”

“Not personally.” Sitnakov said, “I worked with him many times, before his self-seclusion. I understand he was trying to teach you runic web security.”

“He succeeded in teaching me runic web security.” Erick said, “I’ve never worked in Illusion before, but I gained all the spells and the knowledge to put them into a web. I’m sure I’ll go over the whole experience in detail for Kromolok, if he hasn’t already taken that from me, but the short version is this: The lessons were supposed to last for a week, but some oddities happened today and Kydyr told me that today would be the last day. He said we were never going to meet again, but this was not what I thought he meant. I think… I’m not sure what to think.” He asked, “How did you know he was truly dead? I see that skull in that [Force Cage] and I’m still not sure it isn’t a lie. How do you know he died after I reported this?”

Sitnakov said, “State secrets. Kydyr is dead, though; I can assure you that much. He went into seclusion for a reason, but as of right now, we don’t know if that reason finally caught up to him, or not.”

That brought Erick up short. He almost spoke up, continuing the conversation, but he knew he would have to repeat a lot of what he had to say multiple times if he said it now, so he remained silent.

They were almost to Riivo, anyway. The old iron man stood under his dome of light, alongside Aisha. He watched as the three of them approached, his eyes lightly boring into Erick, but pulling back before he gave away all of his inner suspicions. And then the man seemed to break in small ways. His shoulders sagged. His face wrinkled downward.

He wasn’t suspicious of Erick at all. He was simply mad that…

That Erick hadn’t prevented this?

Kromolok reached the dome of light first. His words spread out in the mist, and in the light, “It wasn’t Erick.” He looked to Riivo, saying, “You were the last one to have contact. Kydyr died about twelve minutes after reporting to you what happened at Erick’s lesson.” While Riivo stood straighter, Erick felt like some breach of trust had occurred, and Kromolok said to everyone, “Now let us get down to it, for at the end of this we will either have captured and killed a fae —which I do not believe is what happened here— or we will have found and ended a mirage dragon, which is almost as good.” He added, “Or, there might be another explanation, but I doubt it.”

The fae? But also:

A mirage dragon. Not ‘the’ mirage dragon. Erick had been right. The mirage dragon that attacked him at Holorulo was part of a family; they were not a singular entity like the Dragon Stalkers had claimed.

Several parts of the day fell into a harsh, new light, and Erick felt his stomach cramp as he wondered if this was somehow his fault. It had to have been, right? He cast that Fae spell inside Kydyr’s house, and the man was obviously hiding from the fae, and…

No.

This wasn’t his fault.

This was the fault of whoever did this.

Other people had other angry, silent reactions. Sitnakov glared at nothing in particular. Riivo frowned. The guards around them stood fractionally more stiff—

Aisha came back out of her [Witness] trance, glanced around, and said, “The manasphere is mostly scrubbed clean, but I have been able to catch glimpses. Someone walked through the mist about 25 minutes ago. Five minutes after that came the first silent blast of Illusion through the mists, tearing through the left side of Kydyr’s house. Kydyr remained—” She looked to Erick, and to the others, as if asking permission.

Kromolok said, “Erick is participating in this investigation and he already knows Kydyr’s most publicly known secret. Let us act with haste, please; if we are fast enough we might be able to catch them.”

Aisha continued, “Kydyr remained in owl shifter form for the majority of the battle, targeting the blank space in the manasphere. Every spell Kydyr used on the target was then used against him, indicating that the assailant was likely a Copy Mage, or very ready to make themselves look like a Copy Mage. After three such mirrored exchanges the assailant got the better of Kydyr and Kydyr was forced to reveal his draconic self. Kydyr struck with all of his force, and the assailant absorbed that power, then shot it back at Kydyr, creating the crater at the center of the area. The battle proceeded to a series of shadow games after that, with both of them attacking whenever the other made their location known. Kydyr used some obscure Fae Magic spellwork to try and end it, but the assailant copied that spell and then it all goes fuzzy. Too much magic.”

Erick was surprised that Aisha was able to get anything out of the static manasphere at all, let alone as much as she had.

Sitnakov turned to face the crater. “Was it a mirage dragon?”

“That or the other thing; It would have to be, I assume.” Riivo sighed. “They finally got him.”

Kromolok said, “Possibly not.”

“The other possibilities are vanishingly small, Kromolok,” Riivo said, keeping his annoyance barely in check.

Sitnakov asked, “Who else could it be?”

Tasar had pulled herself up and come over to the group a little bit ago, to arrive somewhere in the middle of Aisha’s explanation. She said, “It had to be someone who was watching and waiting, and something odd likely happened with Erick’s lessons that caused a vulnerability.”

Erick felt his stomach cramp again, and there was no way to hide the guilt he felt inside.

Kromolok asked, “Erick? Please explain how Kydyr made himself vulnerable.”

Tasar tensed, and then relaxed, as though of course Erick had done something he hadn’t intended to do.

Erick looked away from Tasar and said, “I dug too deep with Illusion Magic, made and cast [Fairy Item], and shattered Kydyr’s [Fairy House] runic web. Everything stood exposed for about 30 minutes until he was able to repair it all. That happened rather early today, and I stayed for another several hours after that, making runic webs. Nothing else happened except for getting food from other places through Ophiel.” Erick said, “I asked Kydyr if he wanted me to stay longer. I asked him… I was only gone for an hour and I came back to check on him, but…” Erick’s voice trailed off.

Ah.

This was hitting him pretty hard, then? Yes, it appeared that way. He hadn’t noticed it that much until now, as his throat closed on him and his words couldn’t form.

Riivo frowned at the crater, saying, “He was always a stubborn… wonderful student, and colleague.”

Tasar argued, “A single Fae Spell should not have broken Kydyr’s [Fairy House].”

“Erick is not lying.” Kromolok said, “That is exactly what happened. Kydyr had likely missed—”

“Kydyr did not miss anything in his runework, Kromolok. Kydyr’s work was always immaculate.” Tasar gained a dark tone, saying, “This was just the Worldly Path.”

Erick felt anger rise within. His throat relaxed and he spat, “I asked if I should stay! To help him move, or whatever he needed! I asked if he wanted to live by Yggdrasil! I tried to help—”

Tasar practically exploded, “I’m not blaming you!” She turned and yelled at the misty, shadowy world all around them, “I’m blaming the Dark! I’m blaming his literal [Gate]keeping that prevents us from moving forward without his approval! I’m blaming the dragons who are always a part of the Worldly Path, because that’s what the Dark demands! I lay the blame upon those who hope for the destruction of everything I have ever cared about! The blame belongs to that which is Evil, which uses good people to make the world just that much more Dark, because that is all the Dark is capable of understanding! Death and Destruction and Darkness!”

No one spoke, because every single person went on high alert, staring at the world outside of the dim brightness of the lightdome, waiting for the Dark to attack; for Tasar’s call out to bring forth claws and fangs from the shadows.

But nothing happened.

Melemizargo was not there in the shadows, or in the gloom.

Tasar breathed deep. “I… I should not have spoken so openly.” She clenched her teeth, then said, “I just… Don’t understand how Kydyr could have been taken by a single mirage dragon? It wasn’t the matriarch, was it?”

Kromolok said, “Again, it could have been anything. Focusing on the most likely possibility is good, but might ultimately be harmful.”

Aisha looked from Kromolok to Tasar, and answered, “The attacker remained in humanoid form the whole time, even when Kydyr changed to his draconic form, so likely not the matriarch, or any other dragon. A dragon wouldn’t have been able to resist challenging another dragon in proper form, even if Kydyr’s Dragon Essence was Sealed.”

Sitnakov asked, “Could it have been the fae, herself?”

“Well…” Aisha said, “Inconclusive. High possibility, though.”

Tasar said, “But… His protections. There were a hundred redundancies. So how could? Even if Erick broke the initial web it should have still had a lot of protections, right?” She looked to Erick. “Right?”

Erick rapidly said, “Yes. It did. [Stoneshape] and [Scry] and a lot of other spells were still blocked. There were some redundancies… But the [Fairy House] broke. That did happen.” He added, “I asked him if Ophiel coming and going was a problem and he said it wasn’t but… Ophiel did hang out in the misty air. Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye was out here, too; he couldn’t get inside the house.”

Tasar said, “That shouldn’t have been a problem.”

“It’s possible that this is something new.” Kromolok said, “Some new mundane threat that followed Erick more than most.”

No one said anything to that.

Riivo spoke up, “Perhaps we should have been more circumspect… but to think that Kydyr would fall… It is like thinking that Veird would stop turning.”

“Everyone escapes the End until they cannot.” Sitnakov said, “This is no one’s fault but the killer’s.”

Tasar looked to Erick, and had another thought. “You know everything that we’re talking about, don’t you. Even ‘the fae, herself’.”

Erick nodded. “Yes. Everything here was hinted at rather recently, and from various sources.”

Tasar stared for a moment longer, then sadly nodded. She spoke like a person resigned, “If we get a chance to kill the fae then we should take it, because there is no way that we won’t meet her; not at this rate.”

“The whole Mirage Family should share her fate,” Sitnakov said. “So if you’re headed to Ar’Cosmos, I would be there to help end the continued injustice of their existence.”

Tasar briefly tensed, but then she nodded.

Erick stared at the tall man and decided that outright denial of his request to join his Worldly Path would not be the prudent response at this time. So he asked, “Can we talk about it later?”

Sitnakov did not smirk, but his body language said he believed he had already won. His actual words, though, were, “Of course. Later.”

And then Kromolok spoke, saying, “We will check all possibilities before we commit to another one of those disasters; this might not have been them, and it is important to get the correct enemy or else we leave behind problems for another day.”

No one had any problem with that.

Kormolok said to Erick, “Please check for spilled blood with an Imaging, catching the nearest ten kilometers if you can, for even if the assailant cleaned up their attack they could have missed something. If this is not the fae then it was an opportunistic strike of a different sort. The assailants might have been scoping out the area for months or years, for it’s also possible that this was a standard dragon hoard plundering. They could have been looking for a book, or for a collection of books, or for the runic web itself, for even with the erasing power of Illusion there is a distinct lack of platinum in the area, and it took 300 tons of the stuff to make the runic web inside Kydyr’s house.”

Erick was glad he asked for Kromolok’s participation. The man was good at this, because yes, there were many different possible explanations for what happened, and it was important not to jump to emotional conclusions. Tasar seemed to relax a bit while Sitnakov and Riivo set their sights on the destruction all around.

Riivo gestured to his people, saying, “Scout the perimeter.”

People started moving.

Kromolok said, “Erick. Please scan for platinum first. If it’s here then that cuts down on a lot of possible culprits. After that, please link with Aisha and scan for clues based on her ideas. She’s done things like this many times before.”

Erick nodded, saying, “Then it’s a platinum scan,” as an Ophiel high above cast a cascading star of light into the mist. The shadowed gloom all around took on a distinct shift toward light, as though it was suddenly day in Vibrant Falls. For kilometers around, Erick’s [Cascade Imaging] began to map the land in a 1-for-1 map. “Should take ten minutes to form a map and an image.”

The rubbled walls and several of the wrought were already beginning to shine blue.

Aisha, who was beginning to shimmer blue, said, “Then I will [Witness] again, trying to narrow down search zones.”

“Sitnakov, Riivo, Tasar. With me, please.” Kormolok stepped into the air, saying, “We will investigate the head and ensure there is no trap.”

Time passed faster as the investigation picked up steam.

The head remained a head until the [Force Cage] was broken, and the bismuth turned into a muddy rainbow liquid that Riivo caught in a bowl of Force. There was no explosion, or anything like that. Tasar picked through the books and named them as children’s stories, which seemed to point toward a fairy culprit. Erick’s Imaging eventually found an estimated 50% of the platinum that was in Kydyr’s runic web. Some platinum had melted into the crater walls and blackened beyond all recognition, but most of the platinum was scattered wide, like molten rain splashed away from the battlezone, to impact and lodge into the stone all around, like tiny silver stars barely noticed in the gloom. Much of the extra platinum could have gotten scattered to the underocean far below, but the current was too swift to make searching that space feasible for anyone without [Water Body].

Kromolok wasn’t 100% sure on the motivations for the attack, yet, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t greed related. This lowered the chance that this was dragon hunters going after a hoard by a fair amount.

Aisha found several locations to search for blood or other leavings from the battle, but grid searches and Erick’s Imaging failed to return any positive results for blood, or bone fragments, or any targeted biological material. Aisha revealed her ability to track based on mana signatures, but she had no way to impart this knowledge to Erick, and Imaging couldn’t find magic that Erick didn’t already personally know. Erick suggested that Kromolok could help bridge the gap in understanding, but that idea was shot down by both Kromolok and Aisha as infeasible.

Eventually, it was just the three of them standing beside the crater, trying new searches, but they had reached the end of the truly viable searches twenty minutes ago.

Erick said, “I can’t search for pure Elements, either; I’ve already tried that before.”

Aisha said, “You’re so good at finding people and tracking criminals, though. What makes this different?”

Erick had had a mind to ask for unfettered control of the investigation, but upon seeing how Riivo and a few others reacted to his presence at all, he had stopped himself from crossing that threshold; they did not want him involved, at all. Even this much was too much for many of the wrought all around.

Erick explained, “It’s about the physicality of it all. I can search for the markers in blood rather easily. We found all of Kydyr’s bismuth ‘blood’, after all, but… That’s more because it’s bismuth than because it’s blood.” The wrought name for ‘bismuth’ was actually ‘spectrasilver’, but Erick was calling it ‘bismuth’ in his head. “I know how fleshy biology works, but I honestly have no idea how wrought biology works on the deepest level. Or even the shallowest level, actually. But that’s just—” He asked both Kromolok and Aisha, “Do you want me to do this search like I normally would? I can certainly do this, but I was under the distinct impression that while killing monsters was fine, administering justice in wrought lands went against Stratagold’s desires.”

Aisha stood straighter. She was all for Erick’s involvement. She looked to Kromolok, saying, “I’ve gone as far as I can. The manasphere is too disturbed.”

Kromolok turned his gaze toward the crater. He stared for a moment. All around, various guards and soldiers and specialists were crawling all over the place, looking for any physical clues at all. Riivo led the search from the air, with Sitnakov hovering at his side like a silent monolith of a man, judging everything.

Kromolok gave a small sigh, then he said, “You are well and truly exonerated from Kydyr’s death, Erick, but you have reached the end of what we will allow you to do, so please return to Yggdrasil and leave the rest of the investigation to us.” To reiterate, he said, “Stratagold denies your request for full assistance with our justice system.”

Ah. So they went the other direction; kicking him out and away. Erick figured that this was a strong possibility, but at least they had let him help this far.

Aisha though, frowned. “You cannot be serious, Kromolok. Erick can do this much faster than—”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Kromolok said, “About two hours have passed since Kydyr’s murder. In this time, we have cleared two of the highest profile suspects of suspicion; Erick and Riivo were both kind enough to submit before they needed to be asked. We have already moved on to other methods of investigation, far outside of the area of the actual murder. As of ten minutes ago, and according to a letter sent to the White Palace, we now believe that this murder ties into the Amulet of Non-Presence that came out of Ar’Kendrithyst’s Armory this last year.”

So that was completely new information.

Erick felt left out of the loop, but this was by Stratagold’s design.

Aisha gasped. “The Letter Killer is a part of this!? Even more of a reason to keep Erick’s assistance! Catch that bastard, and quick!”

Erick had heard about that amulet, at least. It was an artifact that let the wearer move and live without obeying the laws of physical space, or being subject to any magic they might encounter. With sudden clarity, Erick remembered Quilatalap talking about how the amulet was used to kill some high ranking politicians here, in Stratagold. He hadn’t heard anything about those murders while he was here, though. He had assumed that the killer had been caught, but apparently not. Apparently, the killer had been upgraded from simple killer, to a named serial murderer, too. A name that Erick hadn’t heard before now, despite how much recon he had done in the Underworld near Stratagold.

They must be keeping these murders quiet for some reason…

Possibly because, with a name like ‘the Letter Killer’, they were rather high profile, and the wrought were all about hiding and ending dangerous things without telling people about those dangerous things. Perhaps the rulers didn’t want their facade of power to look like it was challenged by an outside force? Whatever the case, Erick could certainly help… If they let him.

Kromolok said, “The decision has come from King Alfonin himself. Erick is to be excluded from further involvement with the Letter Killer.”

At the mention of King Alfonin, Aisha went silent; contemplative.

Erick tried to help anyway, saying, “I could help search for the amulet, if you would have my assistance. I was forced to attend the Armory Presentation at Last Shadow’s Feast. I think I set down an image of that amulet in my missive to the Mind Mages, so I know what to look for.”

Kromolok said, “Knowledge of the shape of the amulet to be found does not help, for the Gemslicers have already tried this. No; you are restricted from further involvement, Erick. Please dismiss your Imaging and return to Yggdrasil.”

Aisha said, “This is a mistake.”

Erick attacked the problem from a different angle. “Aren’t you ranked higher in your society than practically every other governing body, Kromolok? You might be stationed by Stratagold, but the Church of Rozeta is much larger than that.”

Their voices had carried in the misty light all around; their conversation was not private at all. Most people chose to perk an ear to listen while saying nothing. But Riivo, Sitnakov, and Tasar were all moving toward them.

Tasar moved faster than the rest, coming forward, her voice loud enough for all to hear, “I agree with Aisha. This is a mistake to sideline Erick. He will be involved whether you want him involved or not, and especially if this truly is the Letter Killer, and not a misdirection from the fae.”

Sintakov stepped onto the air at the edge of the crater, hovering like Tasar and Riivo. He chose to speak next, asking, “The letter is confirmed? Not a copyist?”

Kromolok said, “Confirmed. Made with paper and ink from the same type of tree that all the rest were made with. The growing location was found by the Gemslicers not half an hour ago, and it is in line with all the other growing locations. The handwriting is the same, and it was made without the maker getting anywhere near the paper, thus preventing [Object Reading] from picking anything out of the letter. The contents were of the usual sort.”

Erick knew he was poking his head into where he wasn’t wanted, but he had to know, “What was on the actual letter?”

From their reactions, Tasar, Aisha, and Riivo all either knew or had good guesses as to what the letter actually said, but none of them were willing to speak on that (possibly) open secret. Sitnakov knew the larger overview of what the letter said, and the large man’s disgust and resignation told a certain story about what was on that letter, but not the whole story. Kromolok knew exactly what was on the letter, for sure, but he gave nothing away.

Sitnakov spoke first, but not with an answer. He stated, “The decision to exclude you has been finalized. Please take down your spellwork and vacate the area.”

Tasar and Aisha refocused away from the ‘Letter Killer’ secrets and lightly judged Sitnakov an asshole, but they did not speak against him. Riivo withheld all emotions; he was thinking some important thoughts and Erick’s situation was not among them. Sitnakov didn’t seem happy to exclude Erick, but he wasn’t willing to go against his father. All of that seemed normal enough. What actually made Erick a bit mad, though, was that Kromolok was not willing to go against King Alfonin, either. Erick was pretty sure that as Inquisitor, Kromolok ranked above any single king of any single Geode.

But…

Erick decided to acquiesce. He dismissed his Imaging. Like the sun shutting off, the lower reaches of Vibrant Falls fell back into deep shadow. Erick said, “I will return to Yggdrasil. If you change your mind then you know where to find me. I wish you luck with finding this Letter Killer.”