Book 5: Chapter 44
The hunt for the eldritch nanomachines spanned several days before Alahna started having people head off the island of Sel to broaden the search. With no known dopplegangers to test the blood Kay gave them with Purify Blood in it the people involved in the hunt were unable to know for sure if it would reveal any fakes. They resorted to the other option of making small cuts into people, which made those that were being investigated unhappy, but the attached healers sealed any injuries caused during questionings. Apparently several other criminal acts were uncovered and perpetrators arrested, but there were no nanomachine replacements discovered.
As hunters, trackers, and others with discovery, finding, or tracking Skills were able to make it to Sel from other islands, they were set up into teams and sent to scour everywhere. Teams were directed to cover areas that had been already covered using new Skills or methodologies to recheck over every inch of ground. Investigators that had already been used were sent outward in an expanding circle, covering areas measured in feet over the course of several hours, carefully checking over every inch of sea floor and beneath to make sure nothing was missed.
With the exception of a few trips to covertly check powerful adventurers that Alahna’s government didn’t want to offend, Kay was mostly left alone. The first two days he sat on edge in between hiding in shadows to drip blood on adventurers from a safe distance, waiting for the next shoe to drop. When that didn’t happen he slowly let himself relax, settling in to wait for a later occurrence. He spent a little time trying to figure out what was up with Miri, which continued to elude him since no one was being helpful, but most of his time was divided between working with the negotiating team he’d brought with him on the trip, who were creating and dealing with trade proposals with Alahna’s government, and training. His training heavily focused on Purify Blood. The part of it that allowed him to purge eldritch corruption had come straight from the System, and he had no idea if it could be taught. Many hours passed in both his suite and the training grounds with Kay trying to break down the Skill so he knew how to pass it on to others. He wanted the powerful weapon against the eldritch to be accessible to more than just him.
Eleniah worked with him on trying to figure out which parts of the Skill had the effect they did on eldritch corruption on some days, but she also spent a lot of time with Alahna when the queen wasn’t working. They apparently had the long talk about Alahna’s past behavior that they’d been planning and Eleniah had accepted her apology. After that they’d chatted and shared stories, getting to know one another again after so long apart. Kay was grateful that while Eleniah was definitely going to be visiting Alahna and the rest of her family much more often than she did in the past, she wasn’t going to be leaving him. Alahna made multiple comments about it, but it felt like she was joking to bleed off her actual desire for Eleniah to return permanently, rather than seriously trying to convince her.
“I wish I had a cellphone,” Kay muttered to himself. “Then I could ask Alice if that sword I made her was still working.”
“What’s that?” Eleniah asked him.
“Nothing, just complaining about how things could be better for me.” Kay dropped another sample of blood that he’d melded Purify Blood in to and dropped it in a container. With no eldritch subjects to test it on he was resorting to preparing for when a subject did appear, whether that was a vampyr, some nanomachines, or something else. The jars ended up in his Inventory, since it slowed down time inside. Time wasn’t perfectly stopped, not until he leveled up the Skill a lot more, but slower was better than the regular flow of time.
“Isn’t that true always? Something could always be better for everyone.”
“Sure, but I was whining about a specific thing I’d like improved right now. It isn’t going to happen though.”