228, 2/2

Erick had no idea why it was called an ‘embassy’, since ‘embassy’ implied a place that allowed an above-the-board connection to a foreign power, and these ‘embassies’ were all from other kingdoms in the Greensoil Republic. Granted, the Republic was very large, and all the various kingdoms inside the Republic were sort-of like foreign powers, but not really. Not since the unification of the Republic hundreds of years ago, under the Viridian Throne. Candlepoint had a real embassy to the south, along with a bunch of other places, like Stratagold and Oceanside. That Odaali had an embassy as well… Just didn’t sit well with Erick.

It was a cultural thing, Erick supposed. A holdover from before the Republic was the Republic.

The Odaali Embassy in Greendale was a palatial, white-walled extravagance of a business-center-within-a-city, located northwest of the heart of Greendale, between a residential district filled with truly nice homes, and a business district filled with tall buildings and various eateries. The white walls of the embassy reminded Erick of the white walls of Odaali; those tall edifices of power that were one of the main reasons that it had been targeted by the Halls of the Dead for their daydropper experiment. The walls of the actual city had allowed the carbon dioxide buildup to rise to suddenly lethal levels, but those walls had been changed since then, to allow heavy atmosphere to slide out of the walls, to prevent suffocation by carbon dioxide bombing. All of the actual walled cities of Greensoil, the main kingdom cities, had been adjusted in the same ways.

The walls of this ‘embassy’ had vents in them, too, which were guarded by quite a lot of spellwork and hidden from direct sight, at the bottom of decorative pillar carvings and other decorative reliefs. Those vents were security issues that didn’t used to exist, but now they did, because the theoretical alternative was worse. No one was getting into the embassy through those holes in security, though, for those guarding spells were labeled as ‘lethal’ and protected by the node network.

The entire land of Greendale, from the overly-protected ‘embassies’ to the open streets and sewers and sky, was filled with invisible spellwork that kept all sorts of potential problems to a minimum. Without a Domain, being here was like being in Songli, where the Void Song kept magic to a minimum, and order above all.

Erick didn’t feel much of a strain for he had Domains of all kinds. Poi looked uncomfortable, though, but that was probably due more toward having to keep up his [Don’t Know Me] aura all this time. The ‘embassy’ and the streets were rather busy, with carts and carriages and lots of people rushing to and fro, all over the place. Poi had actually needed to walk behind Erick for a little while to avoid all the humans from running into him.

Because it was all humans here, this close to the city center.

Erick said, “We’ll drop the act inside as soon as we find someone to tell.”

Poi smiled a little. “Thank you.”

As Erick joined the traffic heading into the ‘embassy’, he said, “You were okay with trying the subterfuge-thing for a little while, with a caveat that we’d drop it if it proved necessary. But what part proved necessary?”

‘Everything,’ Poi sent.

Poi looked at the guards standing in the recess of the walls, on both sides of the gate. The guards wore white armor and had a professional look to them, but they mostly pretended to pay attention to the crowds; the spellwork people had to walk through to get into the ‘embassy’ would alert them if anything truly awful was getting through, like spells ready to be exploded as soon as they got inside. There were too many variables to exploit in such a system for any sort of generalized scan to be foolproof, and Erick and Poi were exploiting some of those vulnerabilities right now.

But just like they were noticed at the pub-carriage station, they were noticed here by the absence of a manasphere imprint. This was, unfortunately, necessary.

If Erick hadn’t been erasing his presence, then they would have been noticed for his Elemental Illusion-based [Illusionary Soul] [Personal Ward], that hid his core from anyone’s casual mana sense. The security here was almost as modern as the security over at Candlepoint, which was expected, because Candlepoint had exported a lot of its security measures to other nations, along with the node network and Gate Network. But what was different was that the security here was a great deal more hands-on.

They didn’t need to do that back in Candlepoint.

Back in Candlepoint, almost anything could be undone if it needed to be undone, because Erick could get personally involved, or, in a few cases, Quilatalap could do something. The Church of Phagar stepped in when necessary, too, and for everything else, they had Benevolence guiding the hands of the upper echelons of the guard, to ensure nothing bad happened in the first place. Some people called that tyranny, but the average person just got a normal life, without needing to worry about existential threats all the time.

All they had in Greensoil was actual tyranny; actual people on the ground, investigating every possible problem and keeping tabs on every possible person of power, at all times. Most of the time they tried to be nice about their tyranny, but things could always turn bad fast.

A woman guard in a professional dress stepped away from the side of the building inside the embassy, smiling professionally and motioning for Erick to come with her. She was calm and easygoing, for the moment, for there was a crowd, and no one wanted to make a scene.

Poi sent an entire information packet, because there wasn’t time enough to actually talk, ‘Their security is heightened for a lot of reasons. Some people are thinking about the Storm Prophecy over in Storm’s Edge as the reason for extra shifts, but no one in our current area knows exactly why they’ve been asked to go on high alert. Some think that something is going to happen in two days at Shadow’s Feast. Those inquisitors back at the station were on us like that because of Destiny’s direct actions, yes, but also because they’ve been waiting for something to happen, and they were expecting Quiet War events because there’s been a recent rash of demonic killings inside the city.’

Erick stepped toward the woman guard, outwardly projecting calm, but inside, he was not. He sent a quick message back to Poi, ‘Are you breaking Mind Mage information protocols?’

Poi sent another information packet between one step and the next, ‘Yes, because people have been tracking us in the sky and on the ground ever since we started asking around about Denutha Odaari. You stepped into something big here, Erick, and the only reason you haven’t been assaulted by an elite team is because I have been telling people that you’re cleared for duty from Candlepoint. We’re well past this incognito thing you wished to do. No one knows who you are right now, but I can’t stop them forever. Sorry about that; I know you wanted to be unseen.’

Erick hadn’t felt any menace coming from the guards he had noticed trailing them…

Ah.

This reminded Erick of a talk with Kirginatharp a while ago. To Kirginatharp, the world seemed even smaller these days than it usually did. You couldn’t go anywhere and just be someone new. That was a sentiment shared by many immortals the world over.

Erick finally got within a step of the woman guard with the polite smile—

She gestured to the side, toward a door into a building that was lightly [Ward]ed. “Could you join me inside for a small discussion, sir?”

Erick went right in, saying, “Sure thing.”

Poi slipped in behind Erick, doing his best not to be noticed until he needed to be noticed.

The woman paused for a moment at Erick’s easy acquiescence, her smile almost faltering, but then she perked up and followed Erick inside. Then she closed the door behind her. Erick walked down a short hallway, into a larger, very solid room, with a closed door leading off into the deeper parts of the embassy.

This room could be turned into a deathtrap if needed, but Erick wasn’t worried.

The woman acted unworried, too, as she pleasantly stepped into the room with Erick and shut the door behind her. There was a click. The woman said, “While it is legal to walk around purposefully disturbing the manasphere so that you cannot be [Witness]ed, it is a bad look for a foreigner. Especially one who asks around the courthouse about a known demon sympathizer. The only reason that you haven’t been detained before now is because you decided to walk right into our trap, and because the Mind Mages are telling us to leave you alone. But the Mind Mages are a foreign power, too. So why don’t you tell us who you are, and if we don’t like your answers, we’ll get some better answers out of you under some light jail time.”

Erick decided to say, “Apologies, miss. My visit here has gotten away from me in a way I did not expect.” Erick said, “I’m here from Candlepoint to see to it that Denutha Odaari gets her day in court, or gets executed, or gets transformed through [Reincarnation] and a [Blessing of Empathy], because Atunir has requested something to finally happen in that regard. She’s fine with whatever outcome, but she wants the outcome done, because she wants to close that Kill and Exterminate Quest she issued over a decade ago. That can be the public answer, if you wish it to be. I have a better answer for more private locations.”

The woman listened, her breath slowing down as the gravity of the situation took hold. This strange man standing before her didn’t appear to be a malcontent, and he had a truly good reason for being here, if his story was true. She wasn’t ready to believe just like that, though. To her credit, the woman did not balk, and she did not call Erick a liar right then and there, though he could tell she wanted to. Instead, she asked, “Do you have proof?”

“A lot, yes.” Erick said, “But I ask you: how big of an event do you want this to be? Candlepoint is willing to let this be quiet, or loud, depending on how much I reveal to you and yours.”

“… If you could remain here, please. Someone will be with you shortly.”

– – – –

Erick and Poi waited five minutes before someone showed.

The man wore white robes, and had a weasel on his shoulder. He seemed about as polite as the woman who had come before, as he laid out, “I hear you’re a liaison from Candlepoint, here about getting The Traitor’s court case up and running. If that is true, then you’re about to wake up a nightmare that we’ve been wishing to put into the grave for a long time, so we might be able to be friends. If that is a lie, then the best case scenario is we kick you out of Greendale rather violently. I’m Heron Bellwood; one of the archmages here at Odaali Embassy. You gotta appease me first before I can let you see anyone in charge.”

Erick nodded. “Shall you do the Privacy spellwork, or should I?”

“I’ll do that,” Heron said, and suddenly the room was cut off from the rest of the world. “Good enough?”

“Sure,” Erick said, transforming into the Apparent King, with his crown of black horns. Ophiel revealed himself on Erick’s shoulder, and Poi pulled back his Unknowing. For further proof, Erick put a small [Gate] in the air to the side of the room, that linked to the other side of the room. “Again, I apologize for coming into this situation like this. Apparently you can’t go traipsing around incognito in the heart of Greendale. Who knew!”

Heron’s eyes were wide as moons as he was suddenly unsure of his entire life. The weasel on his shoulder had a much more instinctual reaction; the little guy gave a tiny screech and then dashed into Heron’s robes, trying to hide.

Erick let the man have a moment.

Heron glanced at Poi, and then back to Erick. “… I’m not sure what to make of this, other than to say that… Uh. Yes. I suppose… It’s time for the Ambassador to hear of this— And then… Eventually others.”

“Cyril too, I suspect?” Erick asked. “I haven’t seen him in years. I didn’t know that Odaali was actually aiming for Denutha’s head, either, or else I would have approached this situation differently. Sorry about getting your security team so wound up. If there is some way for me to make it up to you, please let me know.”

Heron rapidly said, “No trouble! No trouble! Whatever you want to do is—” Heron felt he had a fantastic idea, so he offered, “If you want to keep this ‘Ashes’ persona, it might be a good thing.” He rapidly explained, “We want The Traitor to die, but we also want to know all of her reasons for becoming a traitor and aligning with the Halls of the Dead and with the Incani Menace, but the crown won’t allow us to get her into a courtroom so we can truly expose her evil to the world. We don’t want a summary execution, or for her to be hidden away for the rest of her life. We want justice… But if The Wizard gets involved then it’ll be a summary execution or… Whatever you wanted.” Heron added, “Actually. We would prefer that The Wizard wasn’t involved at all, but I’m not sure how to otherwise get anything moving on the Odaari case.”

Erick nodded, as he transformed back into Ashes. “I understand; you don’t want foreign powers acting inside your jurisdictions. This was also my reasoning for coming in disguise, until I got here, to this point.”

Heron was gradually becoming a nervous wreck as he began to truly realize that he was standing in the same room as the Apparent King. With a practiced sort of ease that was breaking as the moments ticked on, Heron said, “Yes, yes. Thank you for understanding— but of course you understand. That’s what they all say about you— Ah! I’m blabbering. Ah. I shouldn’t have said—” Heron shut himself up.

Sweat began to pour.

Erick calmly asked, “So who would I talk to about getting Denutha Odaari’s trial up and running?”

Heron blanked for a moment, the surreality of the situation finally getting to him. And then his anxiety passed. He was the archmage of the Odaali Embassy, and he knew how to talk to nobles, and so he did just that, but with some changes. “I can put in a word for you with command, back in Odaali proper. I assume that King Cyril Odaali will wish to speak with you personally. It might take some time to get all the paperwork lined up to issue another demand to the Viridian Throne to get that trial started, but you should speak to Odaali about this.” And then he bowed almost all the way to the floor, saying, “I will ensure that you have no more trouble as ‘Ashes Woodfield’ while you are here.”

Heron paused, halfway bowed, as he looked through the [Gate], and saw his own back.

Erick dismissed the [Gate]s hanging to the sides of the room, saying, “That’s acceptable.”

Heron snapped to attention then tried to relax as he dismissed the Privacy all around. He almost said something, but other people were watching from outside the space, and he wasn’t quite sure how to play this off without sounding compromised. Heron decided to say, “Looks like we need to kick this concern up the chain of command.”

And then he left as fast as he could, running right into the other guards who were watching now that the Privacy was down. Rapid [Telepathy] passed between them, with disbelief and distrust briefly flashing on the faces of the others, but as Heron sent to them, they started to believe whatever it was he was sending them. Erick wasn’t privy to those specific conversations for all the people here had necklaces on that obscured their throats with Privacy spellwork, to prevent spying on their words.

‘Well they’re going to be a while,’ Erick sent to Poi, ‘And I get the impression that you’re going to trigger that clause about leaving early.’

‘… I never really like lying, and this feels like lying to me. I will stick around, though, because when you go into that dungeon someone has to be ready to move in and tell you to come out in case of emergency. But I would rather not do this subterfuge at all; not when there’s the Storm Prophecy happening.’

‘House Benevolence is riled up more than I know, eh?’

‘Not more than you know, but more than you’re willing to personally placate.’ Poi sent, ‘22.5 million people are expected to need to move in the next 4 to 6 months, and House Benevolence is working overtime to try and figure out the nature of the Prophesied Storm.’

‘Ah… I’m sure we’ll figure it out.’

‘You already know what it will be; It’s Yggdrasil, and his unsealing. It has to be.’

Erick shook his head. ‘If that is the problem then the ‘storm’ would happen in a lot of places besides the Archipelago. Yggdrasil is planted on the far western end, at New Towery, but if he were the cause of the ‘storm’, then there would be similar ‘storms’ prophesied here at Candlepoint, and Stratagold, and elsewhere. The ‘storm’ is not Yggdrasil.’

‘… Hopefully.’

Now it was Erick’s turn to give Poi a Look. ‘I know you don’t like adventure a whole lot, and this land is rather tense and racist, and you don’t want to walk around Unnoticeable all the time. Plenty of reasons for you to not want to be here and I didn’t expect any of that, and that’s my fault. I expected us to walk up, and for me to talk to some people and reveal myself, and then for us to go off to the dungeon, and yes, that is happening… But I get it, Poi. I can have Ophiel wait outside the dungeon if you need to get me a message.’

Poi banished his tension as much as he could. ‘Nope. You can’t get rid of me that easily. I’m staying. I might even join you on the first floor of the Gem Dungeon. And besides that, Odaali is a lot better than Greendale; it’ll be a lot better over there.’

Erick felt a bubble of mirth rising within. ‘Good. Glad to have you aboard.’ Erick turned his attention back to the guards mana sensing them through the walls, and to Heron, currently lambasting a pair of coworkers who looked —by their clothes— to be just as important as the archmage. ‘Looks like their argument is finally settling down.’

‘I’ll stay Unknowable until we get to Odaali.’

‘I like that better than [Don’t Know Me]. ‘Unknowable’.’

‘The skill has many names. Who’s to know which one is more correct?’

Erick chuckled at that—

And then he prepared to speak to whoever it was Heron was bringing with him, back to the room.

Events proceeded rather rapidly from there.

– – – –

“And you’re sure that this is only a request for Odaari to stand trial?” King Cyril of Odaali asked, for the second time.

Yetta Wheat, the Champion of Atunir asked, “It’s not about the Storm Prophecy?”

Erick said, “I even checked the Benevolent Sky five minutes ago, before I got here. The sky is clear; nothing is happening in Greensoil. There is no need to be worried about anything. This is why I came as ‘Ashes’; and not as myself. If something was truly wrong, then I would tell you.”

Yetta looked to Poi, asking, “Is that true?”

As Erick chuckled, taken aback by Yetta’s need to verify through multiple sources—

Poi easily said, “As far as we understand, Atunir wants the Kill and Exterminate Quest to be closed. However that happens is fine with her. I’ll be staying here to help with those needs, as the contact between Odaali and House Benevolence, and as a personal show of the force of this demand without Erick needing to be involved himself. Erick will be occupied elsewhere.”

Erick and Poi had decided that on their own not too long ago, and both of them were happy with that arrangement. Poi didn’t want to go die in the dungeon, and Erick didn’t want to see that happen. Erick was rather certain that he could protect himself from anything that a dungeon could throw at him, but he was less sure about protecting others.

“That is what Atunir has told me, too… I just needed to hear it from the Wizard on scene, too.” Yetta solidified her stance. “We will be glad to have you here, Poi; the kids love you.”

The four of them were in a Private space off to the side of Odaali Castle’s throne room. The sun was beginning to set over the high white walls of Kingdom Odaali outside, but there were no windows in this Private space to allow such a sight. It had taken Erick a little while to get to this meeting, and caused ‘Ashes’ true nature to be revealed to a few people in charge over at the Odaali Embassy in Greendale, but they had told Erick that they would keep his alternate persona in confidence. A lot more people knew about him visiting Odaali itself, however, because Erick was currently the Apparent King, and this was now an official meeting of nations.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The Viridian Throne would probably get involved later, but for now, this was simply House Benevolence interacting with Odaali.

Yetta and Cyril were both rather nervous and cautious at the beginning of this meeting, but Erick knew them both rather well, and he had even been a guest at their wedding, years ago. Cyril was no longer the crown prince, of blonde hair and pale, skinny features, who had been the Warder at Yetta’s side when they challenged Ar’Kendrithyst, to kill Shade Planter. He was thicker, for his current duties were much more political than of an adventuring nature. Yetta was still a strong woman of dark skin and heavy braids, who worked with swords and shields every day that she wasn’t harvesting fields. Her eyes were still filled with the same bright yellow flames of divine fire, too.

Erick knew both of them well. He had only really visited once before, to see Yetta’s twin children crawl across the floor, and eat a celebratory meal with their little family, as an honored guest, but he checked in on them with Ophiel every now and then. From what Erick could not help but mana sense, Yetta was again pregnant with twins.

Cyril sighed a little, and then laughed. “Then this is good news, yes?”

“As good of news as you being pregnant again, Yetta.” Erick said, “Congratulations.”

Cyril smiled brightly—

Yetta’s cheeks heated a little, and then she put on a frown and tried to be serious with Erick, “Atunir has always told me that she wants this Denutha problem solved, however it can be solved, but the Viridian Throne always runs us around, never giving proper respect to the lives that were lost in the Daydropper disaster. Why has she involved you, though? That was never part of her guidance to me.”

Erick said, “I want something from her, and she wants to help me, so she’s giving me some minor tasks, and this is one of them. The other one is to go into the Gem Dungeon and check out the place as a normal delver, to check out her ideas for a Second Script.” He looked to Poi. “We might be going into at least the first floor together, after I check out the place myself, but Poi will be staying here as a representative of House Benevolence, for the Odaari case.”

Poi nodded.

Yetta’s shoulders relaxed. “Ahh. I see.”

Cyril turned almost jubilant. “That’s perfect, then! I’ll file a formal grievance and you can sign that paperwork, and maybe in two weeks we can even have a court date. They’re not going to do anything until the Feast is over and the Triumph of Light is one big vacation for everyone, but after that…” He smiled, saying, “Now, with you pressuring them, they might actually do something.”

Erick was only really confused about one thing, about this whole process so far, and so he said, “Last time this came up, Greendale tried to curry favor with me by offering me Denutha’s head, but I turned them down, saying she should have her day in court and be done with it one way or another. I never checked up on that, and never had the inclination to revisit this issue at all. But if you two had needed help to make this happen, then you could have asked me.”

Cyril smiled a little, his voice tainted with the barest bit of sarcasm as he said, “The Viridian King expressly told us not to get you involved with Odaari, for according to Grand King Darundi Raivo, this whole Odaari situation was his to command and control, and all that nonsense. But since you came to us, that’s different.”

Yetta was eager to move the conversation along, since nothing was exploding and nothing was happening right now, so she said, “That’s all for the paper shapers to figure out now, and I’m hungry.” She asked Erick and Poi, “Have you two eaten yet? We were about to sit down to dinner.” She said to Erick, “And the kids would love for Ophiel to play with them. Ritta asked for a stuffed Ophiel doll last Triumph and she got several.”

Ophiel perked up on Erick’s shoulder, turning to him with all of his eyes. “I play?”

Erick chuckled. “Go find Ritta and Trudy. We’re staying for dinner.”