Chapter 79: Screams for Silence
"You look tired," Dawn observed one morning, glancing up from a complex blueprint.
Lea had stopped by to deliver a report about potential security threats during wartime. She'd left out the part about her nightly vigilante activities.
"War keeps everyone busy.", Lea replied neutrally, keeping her surface thoughts carefully blank.
Dawn's workshop had changed dramatically since her Fifth Step ascension. Now, with the power of Creation and maybe a bit of power from the Divine Throne, there are drones in the form of bugs flying about assisting her.
The princess herself looked different, too. The mark of someone who'd touched divinity and survived, who'd partially merged with the Chalk Princess's empty Divine Throne.
"The Church of Progress is finally taking shape...", Dawn said, gesturing vaguely at papers scattered across her desk, "Merging the Cult and MSSH is like herding cats, but we're getting there. And the military keeps requesting modifications to the communication network."
She looked up, studying Lea with sharp eyes, "But you're not here to talk about my problems. What's going on?"
For a moment, Lea considered telling her. About the Conductor, the ritual, the criminal network she'd been dismantling piece by piece every night. But Dawn was already stretched thin. Unifying two fractious religious organizations while her country was at war. The last thing she needed was another crisis.
"Nothing I can't handle.", Lea said finally.
Dawn's expression suggested she didn't believe that for a second, "You know, being Fifth Step doesn't make me less your friend. If something's wrong—"
"It's fine, really...", Lea interrupted gently, "The war has everyone on edge, more crime in the streets."
Dawn studied her for a long moment, then sighed, "Fine. Keep your secrets. Just... be careful, okay? You've been different since you hit Fourth Step. More distant. Like you're somewhere else even when you're standing right here."
Lea felt the black scales at her collar itch. Her golden eyes caught the lamplight strangely. The mirror world whispered at the edge of her consciousness, always inviting her to slip sideways into reflection.
"I'm still me.", she said, though even she wasn't entirely sure that was true anymore.
"Are you?" Dawn set down her tools. "Because the Lea I knew would tell me when something was bothering her."
Lea opened her mouth, then closed it. Dawn had a point.
But Dawn was a demigod now, partially merged with a Divine Throne, wrestling with the responsibilities of founding an entire church while her kingdom fought for survival. She had enough to worry about.
"I promise I'm handling it," Lea said quietly. "And if I need help, you'll be the first person I ask."
Dawn held her gaze for a moment longer, then nodded reluctantly, "Alright. But that's a promise, Lea. Don't make me regret trusting you."
As Lea left the workshop, she could feel Dawn's concerned gaze on her back. The princess was too perceptive, too intelligent not to notice something was wrong.
But some battles had to be fought alone.
That night, Lea found her biggest lead yet.
A nervous man in expensive clothes, meeting with three rough-looking Pathstriders in an abandoned theater. She slipped into the mirror world behind the backstage, watching the reversed scene with perfect clarity.
"—final shipment...", the well-dressed man was saying, "Ten more by tomorrow night. That's all the Conductor requested."
"Ten people?", one of the thugs asked.
"Vessels. Call them vessels. The Conductor is particular about language."
Ten more victims. Ten more lives that would be consumed by whatever twisted ritual was being prepared.
Lea withdrew from the mirror world and emerged onto the stage, Hastur manifesting in her hand as Cursed Constructs writhed around her like living armor.
Four faces turned toward her, expressions ranging from shock to fear.
"Evening.", Lea said pleasantly, "Let's talk about your employer."
The well-dressed man bolted immediately, surprising speed for someone in formal shoes. The three thugs spread out, blade, brass knuckles wrapped in red light, and what looked like a garrote made of solidified sound.
Professionals. Third Step, judging by the quality of their manifestations.
Good.
Lea's enhanced cognition kicked into overdrive, calculating trajectories and responses faster than thought. Her Cursed Constructs erupted like a dozen black serpents, intercepting the blade and knuckles simultaneously.
The garrote wielder tried to flank her, but they were too slow for her unconscious mind.
She used Shadow Sneak, becoming shadow and reappearing behind him. Hastur's blade pressed against his throat.
"Don't...", she advised.
The other two hesitated, clearly reassessing the situation.
"You're making a mistake!!", the blade-wielder said, his surface thoughts screaming panic while his voice stayed controlled. "The Conductor has protection— high-level protection!!"
"I don't care.", Lea's golden eyes gleamed; she has way better protection in the form of a Hero and the royal family, "You're going to tell me everything about this ritual, or I'm going to put you to sleep and take the information myself. Your choice."
Their surface thoughts chose violence before their bodies did.
It was a short fight.
Lea's Hexes caught two of them mid-attack, sleep curses perfected from her Fourth Step ritual. The third managed to resist long enough for her to manifest a golden Judgement blade pinning him to the wall through his shoulder.
Then she put him to sleep, too.
Lea knelt beside each of them in turn, using Dream Eater to devour their thoughts.
What she found made her blood run cold.
The ritual for the Fourth Step of Scream was about forcing an ascension through mass sacrifice, using the terror and psychic agony of dozens of victims to create enough "scream energy" to breach the Fourth Step... And the Conductor wasn't alone. There were three of them, all Third Step Scream Pathstriders, pooling their power for a shared ascension attempt.
'Where sound dies.'
The phrase kept appearing in their unconscious memories, always with the same image, a massive underground chamber, walls lined with sound-dampening material, dozens of victims chained to pillars arranged in a specific geometric pattern.
The acoustic resonance would be perfect for amplifying the Scream, turning individual terror into a tsunami of psychic force powerful enough to punch through to Fourth Step, or kill everyone involved trying.
Lea pulled back, breathing hard. Three Pathstriders are attempting a joint ascension, using dozens of innocent people as fuel.
This wasn't madness. This was desperation.
And she'd found a location in one man's deepest memories... The old Opera House, three levels below ground. Where Renar's first acoustic experiments were conducted.
It had been closed decades ago after a structural collapse killed half the workers during construction. Now it sat empty, slowly sinking into the earth.
Perfect for a hidden ritual...
Lea withdrew from their minds, leaving all three unconscious. She also tracked down the well-dressed man and put him to sleep in an alley two blocks away.
His memories revealed he was just a middleman, hiring kidnappers and coordinating logistics. She left him with vague, guilt-ridden dreams that would make him confess to everything once he woke.
=0=0=
Back in her room at the castle, Lea stared at her notes by candlelight.
Three Third Step Scream Pathstriders. Dozens of victims. A ritual that could kill everyone involved if it went wrong, and would definitely kill the victims even if it went right.
She should report this. To IS7, to someone with resources and authority.
But the ritual was happening tomorrow night. And the authorities would need time to mobilize, to gather Pathstriders strong enough to counter three Third Step practitioners, to plan an assault on an underground location they'd have to locate first.
Time the victims didn't have.
Besides, Lea was Fourth Step. She'd put over a hundred thousand people to sleep simultaneously for her ascension ritual. She'd survived the mirror world and faced the faceless demon of the Law of Unconscious itself. Three desperate Third Step Pathstriders, even working together, shouldn't be beyond her capabilities.
She could ask Dawn for help.
But Dawn was drowning in responsibilities, unifying a church, supporting a war effort. She barely slept anymore, pouring all her energy into inventions that could save Ryteline soldiers' lives.
Lea couldn't add another burden to her friend's shoulders. Not when she could handle this herself.
She pulled out her mask, studying its ever-changing expression in the flickering light. The white ceramic gleamed, darkness staring back at her.
When had she become this person? The one who hunted criminals alone in the night, who dove into people's minds and extracted their secrets, who seriously considered assaulting a ritual site solo?
The world is about to change... Lady Keter had said during their last meeting... To live or to die depends on what you do. To become pioneers of a new world, or to become footnotes in history...
Lea set the mask down.
Tomorrow night, she would stop this ritual. Save those victims. And if the Conductors wanted to ascend to Fourth Step so badly, she'd show them what a Fourth Step Pathstrider could do.
The Avenger was going hunting.
And this time, the prey would never see her coming.