Ar'Kendrithyst

The attack came three hours after raining on the farms, when Erick was in the middle of sorting out the pots and pans in the kitchen. Silverite, Merit, and Ramizi had left the front lawn hours ago. Erick had dismissed the [Cascade Imaging] orb in the sky right after they left.

The attack was a ball of stone that crashed down from the sky, from maybe half a mile up. It was a rudimentary strike, and yet it landed with all the force of five tons of stone at terminal velocity. Stone, crashing from above, did a lot less damage than Erick would have thought.

Even with all that physical force, that boulder did not crack the dense air covering the roof of Erick’s house. Erick had no idea how much damage had actually been done to his [Prismatic Ward], though 15,000 seemed like a good, reasonable estimate, out of the 78,000 total. The air was airy-er, if that made any sense; it certainly didn’t make that much sense to Erick.

Teressa’s Mana Sense, honed by days and weeks spent inside the [Prismatic Ward], was able to give a much more solid number based on the known total number and the density she was seeing; she guessed 16,000 damage. Erick had been close! [Prismatic Ward] certainly lived up to its reputation as the best Solid Ward in the Script.

The response from Spur was like an ant hive kicked. Guards took to roofs and walls around the Human District. Poi got ten messages all at once from Merit, Silverite, and a host of other people. Someone even cast another shield over the top of the house. This second shield was only a thin, deflective barrier made of shimmering light that hung over the top of the house and stayed there for a while, but it was a defensive measure Erick had never seen before. He learned later that the shield was the effect of one of the Headmaster’s Elites, on scene and staying in the Mage Trio’s house, just next door.

But, unfortunately, the attacker was nowhere to be found. A pair of [Witness]es performed in the sky at the point of appearance of the boulder, one [Witness] performed by Felair and the other by one of the Headmaster’s Elites, turned up nothing. A [Teleport Object] effect brought the boulder into position; gravity sent it on the rest of its journey. The attacker was nowhere to be found.

Erick was still going to try to find them, though.

But while [Cascade Imaging] turned up a plethora of DNA on the pieces of the boulder, Erick had no way of discerning what the DNA was from, but the boulder was obviously not a natural boulder. The outside was too smooth. A [Mend] even turned the boulder back into a perfect sphere. Every single piece of it had some sort of DNA, too, but all of that DNA was contained inside the stone. Erick soon discovered the reason for this when he found an intact chitinous brown section of hard flesh in the rock; it was a piece of one of the many worms that lived right outside of Spur’s walls.

Erick turned the rock to sand, looking to get out every bit of biological material out of the stone. Using [Distill]ed water, [Watershape], and [Stoneshape], he succeeded in separating out everything non-stone, from the stone, somewhat. Another [Distill] on the muddy water earned himself a jumble of dried brown bits.

When he channeled mana through [Cascade Imaging] into his hand, into the brown bits, the map turned very, very blue, and instantly burned out. He must have been scanning for ‘every single item that matched the sample in his hands’, or something. Erick tried again, this time focusing, specifically, on the lump of biomass in his hands, and to any specific connection it might have out there in the wider world. He was not matching for species, here; he was matching for individuals.

It took him three times to get it right, and he wasn’t exactly sure what he did differently in the last attempt, but the whole map did not light up blue; the map stayed white, except for the blue spot directly below the orb, in the center of the map, in Erick’s hands.

The orb for the spell was currently high above the house, scanning an area of a hundred kilometers in every direction, while Erick tried to figure out what he was doing. As the afternoon sun dipped down, he realized he would never find the target at this distance.

Erick recast the orb higher with the help of Ophiel, placing the orb three kilometers into the sky, aiming to scan a full one thousand and ten kilometer radius. Wherever the boulder had come from, it had likely come from somewhere in that radius. 1000 kilometers was the maximum distance for most [Teleport]-like effects, after all.

He had another method for further mapping if this method proved to be unworkable. That method would involve ten Ophiel each casting [Cascade Imaging] a smaller area, each of them far enough away from each other that their orbs didn’t interfere with one another.

At the three kilometer height, the map that appeared in the front yard with its single blue central dot, was a hazy, insubstantial thing. It took an hour for an image to resolve; mostly, the land was just flat, though Ar’Kendrithyst was a funky looking wound on the surface of that map, just south of Erick’s position.

Just to test and make sure he could actually detect that far, he searched for himself, then blipped out to the Thousand Kilometer Ring. Looking through Ophiel’s eyes in Spur, his dot appeared on the sands, just at the edge of the map, well before the map fully stabilized. It seemed that the larger the DNA target, the easier the search.

Erick blipped back to Spur before Poi could send him a perturbed message at being left behind.

Erick renewed the map to search for the other parts of the worms that might have been caught by the boulder maker. Four hours and many renewing casts later, the map was still running; still scanning the land, searching for a wormy match. Maybe whoever had attacked with the stone had cut a worm in half. Maybe, the other half was still out there, waiting to be discovered.

That was the idea, anyway.

And so, the map continued to run. Merit and Silverite and the Mage Trio were done with what they needed to do, hours ago. None of them seemed to think it was possible for Erick to actually find what he was looking for. There were methods to find out where the launch point had come from, and all the rest of that, of course, but those methods required boots on the ground and a lot more effort than the Guard was able to provide right now. They were still in the middle of all the other leads and people Erick had scanned for when he first arrived back in Spur.

Merit was quick to add that it was amazing that his scanning spell could do what it had done, but for attacks like what had happened, when the attacker could literally be anyone, and anywhere in a thousand kilometers. In cases like this, the Guard usually kept a look out while they got on with their lives. She wasn’t going to stand in his way of continuing the search without the Guard’s direct assistance, though.

“I mean it, now,” Merit said. “Good luck finding them and more power to you. This is literally the best blood tracking spell I have ever seen. I hope to call upon you again for further lawfully signed warrants and searches, if I may. But be careful about this spell. Blood magic is illegal, and this certainly qualifies.”

Erick almost wanted to say that this wasn’t ‘blood magic’, but he didn’t want to talk about DNA. “… I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, Merit.”

“Thank you, Erick.” She added, “I mean that, too.”

As the sun dipped down in the west over the city, the map still glowed on the front yard, and the orb still flickered high, high in the sky. It looked like the first star out at night. Hours had passed since Erick had started the scan, looking for the other halves of the worm bits locked in the stone. So far, nothing happened.

And then something changed.

A blue speck appeared on the flat, white map, far to the east of the searching zone and a little bit north, almost 900 kilometers away. It was a faint dot. It was a barely-there blueness on the white expanse, like the spell wasn’t quite sure what it was seeing.

It was enough to warrant a full response from Spur.

Spur’s [Witness]er Felair and a few escorts went out to the spot indicated, as night closed around the world.

An hour later, Silverite called Erick to the Courthouse.

- - - -

Erick was the second to the last one to arrive. Poi was the last to arrive, and only because he walked in after Erick.

In the same conference room as before, with a slight change in personnel and stars hanging in the sky outside the windows, Silverite had gathered the heads of Spur, and a few others. Adventurer Guildmaster Mog, Mage Guildmaster Sirocco Zago, Guardmaster Merit, and Mayor Silverite sat on one side of the table. Eduard, Ramizi, and Tyli, the red incani that Erick had met the other day that guarded his house, sat on the other side. Erick smiled to see the woman; she nodded at Erick. Tyli’s presence was a pleasant surprise.

But the actual surprise of the room was a pixie. She was five inches tall, maybe, but her wings were foot long sparkling dragonfly wings that dwarfed their owner. She sat on a chair on top of the table, at the head of the table near Silverite, looking prim and proper in a white dress, like a tiny brown human woman ready for church on Sunday. She wore a white flower upside down for a hat, while her brown hair was done up in solid curls.

Everyone was already talking as Erick walked into the door. Mog gestured to the seat beside her. Erick sat down, taking his position at the end of the line. Silverite was all the way down the line, next to the pixie.

Zago said, “You had no right to come into my classrooms and take Miss Eris like you did! You scared the children. Now I have to deal with a dozen angry parents—”

Silverite stepped in, “While your concern is a large one, Guildmaster, surely you see the prudence in taking such quick steps—”

Zago’s eyes glittered with anger, as her violet face flushed darker. “I do not! So what if she was wormed! I could have taken her myself and in a much nicer manner if I had been included in your little roundup! The danger you all uncovered when you first got here has passed. It is far past time to return to normalcy, Mayor.”

Silverite looked like she wanted to sigh, but she was too professional right now to let that happen. She simply said, “Agreed.” She turned to the Headmaster’s people, explaining, “We all got a little over excited about the possibilities yesterday.”

Eduard said, “I apologize, Guildmaster Zago, but we got the go ahead from Merit, so we took the target. I went through the proper channels—”

Silverite frowned.

Eduard continued, “—I am all for cooperation, but a decision was made and then followed through, and I will not apologize for doing the right thing. This is Spur, Guildmaster. It is not some coddled little town in the Republic, where the nobility dances around each other while monsters crawl at the walls. Violence happens here. There was even a goldscale kid who cheered that your teacher blasted us away, so don’t come at me like this was somehow traumatizing. Please. We are above petty squabbling.”

Zago sat serenely, as she said, “I demand to be included in events like this when my Guild is concerned. I overlooked the vast majority of the Headmaster’s transgressions when you Elites first started showing up and started taking people down in the middle of the streets, but we are past the initial worries. We are once more on solid ground, thanks to you, of course, but also because of this new Particle magic that seems to be able to [Scan] for a thousand kilometers! So!” Zago said, “This is a very simple request. Now say that you will include me on all further actions that include the Mage Guild, and then when the time comes, do, and we can move on.”

Merit spoke up, “Come on now, Sirocco—”

Zago whipped to face Merit, starring daggers at the guardmaster. She was obviously mad at the Guardmaster, too, but Zago said nothing to demonstrate her anger; not here, where Zago was clearly in an ‘us versus them’ mentality, and everyone from Oceanside was a ‘them’.

Ramizi said, “I was at Silverite’s side. The operation was executed well, and with Merit’s aid. I will not have our forces be blamed for somehow overstepping our bounds with displays of unwarranted violence. We have gotten along well, and the danger is fully revealed, so please let us forget this transgression, and move on.” He turned to Silverite, saying, “Mayor. This is an unproductive use of our time.”

Zago demanded, “Why wasn’t I included?”

Mog said, “They left me out of it too, when they came for Draz. Just let it be, Zago. We’re in the home stretch.”

Zago held her lips tightly shut. She glared. Then she said, “Fine.” She added, “I can agree that our time is better spent moving forward.” She leaned forward and nodded to Erick, saying, “Now that Erick is here, I am ready to continue, anyway.” She added, “That is a remarkable spell. I would love to know how it works, sometime.”

Silverite spoke up, “There will be no discussion of magical theory at this table unless it is kept tactical.”

Zago muttered, “Fine.”

Silverite continued, “We have a report to receive from a trusted source, based upon Archmage Flatt’s intelligence gathered after the attack on his house.” She spoke to the pixie, then to the room. “This is Fillarina. Since her presence has been uncovered, she has decided to step out into the light to take a more active role going forward. She has been a long standing asset to Spur, so keep that in mind before you ask any unwarranted questions.” She nodded to the pixie. “Fillarina, you have our attention.”

Everyone on Eduard’s side of the table turned sterner, almost. They were clearly uneasy with the pixie, but trying to get over that emotion. The people on Silverite’s side of the room were interested, but relaxed; there was no anger on this side of the room, maybe because they all already knew Fillarina. For his part, Erick had no idea what was happening, but he was very eager to hear from an actual pixie. He certainly hadn’t met one of them before.

Fillarina nodded to Silverite, as she stood from her chair. She spoke with a clear voice, “Felair should have been the one to disseminate this report, but I was there when it happened. He is not okay, but he will recover. Four other people were not so lucky. The spot uncovered by [Cascade Imaging] was a trap. We were prepared for this, but not well enough.”

Erick’s pulse quickened as he listened. He had sent people to their deaths.

“[Incineration Bolts] took down three of our people right away. Felair and two others managed to take clipping blows. I eliminated five threats as soon as I saw our people were unprepared. I emptied the hideout, eliminating the threat. When the fight was over, Felair insisted on casting a [Witness] as quick as he could. I applied first aid, then went and helped those I could. When I came back, he had discovered that people claiming to be of the Cinnabar Hand had been there not an hour ago.

“They were worried about this new [Cascade Imaging] and the degree with which it had been used to empty Spur of many different threats. But they had become tired of waiting for a response from Archmage Flatt, so they left. Before that, one of them laid on a [Scry] bed while the other two protected that one person from the other five people in the base. In Felair’s [Witness], he saw between nine and eleven people total.

“Felair imagined that the Hand was [Scry]ing Spur, watching for a response. There was some hostility between the residents of the base and the three who were supposedly of the Hand.” Fillarina turned to Merit, saying, “Through seeing the subvocalizations of one of the residents of the base when they were telepathically talking to the Hand, the Hand claimed that you captured three of their people in today’s raids. The Hand themselves gave no secrets away, but the people at the listening post were not the Hand.”

Merit’s face broke into a harsh smile. She said, “We captured ten people today, each wanted for smaller crimes. I have executed none. Yet.” She asked, “I suppose I will have to wait to speak to Felair to get the full description of who they might have been talking of?”

“Yes.” Fillarina said, “The healing required to keep him alive was extensive, and his condition was exacerbated by his unwillingness to seek help right away. He will be asleep for a few more hours, at least. You might get more out of him, but I doubt it. According to what Felair told me, there was a great deal of hostility between the two groups, mainly in regard to how the Hunter community and the Hand are dealing with each other in the face of people hunting them from all sides.

“The Hand is organized, but running. The Hunters are unorganized. There has been some chatter about the Hand dropping a lot of their requirements for joining, though. So we might see a lot of untrained people organized into a big force, soon enough.

Fillarina continued, “As for the reason they decided to test Archmage Flatt’s defenses, we are not quite sure, though it would be simple to lay the reasoning for this at the rumors that Archmage Flatt has somehow learned to see through [Polymorph]. That reasoning might even be correct.”

Erick said, “I haven’t, though!”

Silverite said, “That might not matter, in the end.” She said, “Continue, Fillarina.”

Fillarina nodded, “There’s not much left. The base was well appointed, but it was clearly a hunter listening post of some kind, with chairs designed for extended [Scry]ing and coded missives hiding in the walls. It was not a Hand hideout, but it might have been getting turned into one. Also, the defenders were half consumed with destroying everything they could, while they were also holding us off long enough for a few of them to escape.”

Eduard said, “Our people would like the location of this listening post.”

“And you will have it, as soon as we’re done here, and we’re almost done.” Silverite spoke, “People died to bring us this vital intelligence, and to warn us that we have three Cinnabar Hand in custody as a result of the day’s events, though that might be a ruse of some sort; we will find out. The attack on Archmage Flatt’s residence is a part of this, but as to what part, we do not know. I am of the opinion that the simplest answer here in the correct one. They are scared, and they are willing to go to war because of this.” She said, “I want everyone here to do their part to discover what happened today with the pixies in town, the hidden dream worms, the potential Hand in custody, and the attack on Archmage Flatt’s house.”

“Pardon me.” Tyli spoke, “The Headmaster wishes to express that the boulder was obviously just a test of Archmage Flatt’s capability to track a person. The next time they attack it will not be a part of any test.” Tyli turned to Erick, and said, “Allying with Messalina’s crusade to kill the Hand would be a fool’s choice, for it might very well be that this sideways attack is actually from that cursed woman, and she is trying to get you to run to her for support.” She sat straight, speaking to everyone, as she said, “That is all.”

Silverite acknowledged the Headmaster’s sentiments with, “We will be exploring all options.” She spoke to the room, “Our Sin Seeker thought that they divined the truth of our ne'er-do-wells in custody, but we will be going over them all again. Some of them might be Hand, or not, but all of them are worthy of Exile. If we cannot divine the truth, I might just exile all of them, anyway. If the Headmaster wishes to bring in his own Sin Seeker, we would welcome the second opinion.”

Tyli said, “He does, and he will. Our Seeker will be arriving in three hours, to participate in any way they can.”

Silverite said, “Acceptable. Thank you.” She continued, “With Archmage Flatt’s ability to [Scan] for biological markers all the way out to the Thousand Kilometer Ring, events are likely to get very difficult, very fast. We need the threat of the Hand and Messalina to end, soon, because the Dead City is changing. We suspect we have months until Ar’Kendrithyst makes their move, but I doubt that timeline.” She turned to Erick. “We have pieces of cloud giants for you to track, if that would work. Is there anything else you think you might need?”

Erick said, “I can [Scan] for active magic, too. But—”

Zago exclaimed, “Holy fucking shit!”

Mog laughed loud. Ramizi and Eduard both said something to each other, while Tyli frowned.

Silverite noticed, “Mage Tyli?”

Erick saw the problem, and quickly said, “Only if I have that magic, myself, is what I was trying to say. I don’t have [Force Trap], and I guess that Mage Tyli’s concern is because I wasn’t able to find her [Stone Trap]s she used to defend my house on Oceanside. I don’t have a lot of the other magics some of you might have.” He added, “This inability to work with magic you don’t have seems to be a running theme.”

Tyli smiled faintly, saying, “Ah. So that was the trouble.”

Zago chuckled, then said, “Much more reasonable! This is a known nuance of the Script.”

Mog smiled. She asked, “Then we need to authorize some illegal spells, don’t we?”

“Done.” Silverite said, “Authorized and witnessed by all of you fine people here.” She said, “[Invisibility] and [Force Trap] are permissible for now. [Induce Emotion] would be a good way for you to end a fight without needing to kill someone, too. This is also authorized. You’re going to need to get a teacher to unlock that mind magic, though.”

Erick bought the first two spells. He would ask Poi about [Induce Emotions], later.