34 - An enemy unseen

I fear the rot within us more than I fear any external threat.

We can fight demons and rogue mages. For all the terrible power of the Returned, we killed the Black Liar and - again and again - sent the Exiled back to the Moon.

Our enemies call us weak, but the truth is, the Council was never defeated on the field.

Internal enemies aren’t a new thing, of course. We always had spies and traitors.

But I feel something has changed through these two decades of peace. I can’t find proof of a conspiracy, but subtle hints are everywhere. Orders go missing. There are inconsistencies in reports. Little things, always, each one easily explained away.

Is my mind finally slipping, the Else feeding my paranoia?

Or do I glimpse something truly terrible?

* Dalvis Erran, High Councilor for Security, private letter to High Councilor Seronek

Investigation fails to pick up Korentis’ trail, and more surprisingly, so does Aeniki.

The only upside is that the University suspended all excavations and sealed the Relic Vault for the time being. Which means we’re relieved from guard duty and can return to normal shifts.

So, the evening after the whole mess, I spar with Althea to work off some tension.

“Demon’s shit, Cerical,” she snaps, after I throw her on the mat a little too hard. “If you can’t fight properly, there are other stress-relieving activities we could do. Just saying.”

She gets up, wincing, and I feel a pang of guilt. Even if knowing her, she’s not even annoyed because I hurt her, but because it’s bad form in martial arts.

“Sorry, sorry,” I say. “And for, uh, other activities, I’m not sure I’m in the mood. I still feel…”

It’s hard to explain. I still feel Korentis words worming in my mind, making the whole world change. The awful sensation of knowing something important is wrong, but being unable to understand what.

“The Path of Lies sucks, I know,” Althea says, mollified. “We train against it and… ugh.” She leans her back against a wall and grins.“But you know what would distract you from it. Some pleasant, physically intensive activity.”

“Abyss, someone woke up horny today,” I say, possibly a little snappier than I meant. “I’d usually appreciate that. But right now, I…”

I can’t find the right words. I feel vulnerable already, the idea of taking off my clothes sickens me. I still feel Korentis’ presence in my brain, and even if it doesn’t make sense, if Althea touched me, they would mix up, xe would contaminate her in some way, and I’d never feel safe with her again.

“Sorry,” Althea says, suddenly serious, “I didn’t mean to be pushy, really, it was a bad joke. Forget about it. You can keep using me as a punching bag and pretend I’m Korentis, if that’s what you need.”

“You know what would make me feel better?” I ask.

“Stabbing Korentis with a silver sword?” She suggests.

I laugh, despite myself. “Yeah, that would be great. But until we find xem, I’d settle for some answers.”

Althea makes an exaggerated sigh. “Ah, the intelligence officer, acting all vulnerable to mollify me before an interrogation. So, what do you want to know? Shoot.”

“What is Korentis doing?” I ask, straight away. “What was the point of going into the relic vault? Is xe working for a faction? The Council must know something, don’t you get some kind of update? And as an aside - how good is Jaeleri, really? Is he just an asshole, or should we worry that he’s an actual traitor?”

To my surprise, instead of being stunned by my barrage of questions, she looks away. Wait, she actually has some secret information from the Council? Really, I couldn’t picture a more perfect girlfriend.

“I had the same questions,” she says. “If the Council knows some big secret, they didn’t pass me the note. But… I talked with my mentor, sometimes we meet through the Else for a chat. I’m pretty sure she knows something we don’t.”

“Wait, you’re in contact with the Glass Tower?” I ask, surprised.

She shrugs. “It’s not like they’re ancient mystics on a mountain, you know? You can get pizza delivered there. Anyway, yeah, I talk with Master Raiel sometimes. I wanted to call her after our meeting with Za Ruik to try and make some sense of his prophecies, but the Else is really messed up, been that way for days now. An Else-Storm is coming for sure.”

This is wonderful - another potential source for corroborating Za Ruik and Quicksilver’s words, one with access to wildly different information channels. Abyss, I’m developing a network.

“So, what did she say?” I ask.

Althea shrugs. “Not much. Like, she’s all cryptic and mysterious, you’d love that, but I just ignore her hints and wait until she gets frustrated and tells me stuff outright. I don’t like guessing, it’s a waste of time. Time I could use for sparring, or having sex. But I know speculation is your kink, so I’ll indulge you, because I’m putting effort in this relationship.”

She puts her arm around my shoulders, stands on her tiptoes to reach me, and whispers into my ear. Lady of Life, a beautiful girl is whispering to me speculation about dangerous secrets. I wouldn’t say it’s a kink, but it sure feels good, and I’m getting goosebumps.

“I can tell you that she expected an Else-Storm, same as Za Ruik,” Althea says, her breath tickling my ears. “And that she worries about the reason the Syndicates formed the cartel. She said it was never about power, or money, or territory. The Cartel was created for some specific goal - something the Syndicates believe they can reach only together. Or, I’m starting to think, something they hope to find.”

My eyes widen in shock. This kind of speculation is not new to me - I’ve read every theory about why three Syndicates that fought for decades suddenly formed an alliance. But I firmly believed it was because they found it easier to grab more power and money this way. But what if I was wrong. They’re fighting against the Faceless over Precursor ruins - could any relic be so important, multiple factions would go to war over it?

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And could any such relic be in Rakavdon?

Althea moves away from me, and I have to suppress the urge to tell her not to, to keep whispering - and maybe massaging my shoulders as she does? It’d be nice.

“Now, I can tell you for sure that Korentis learned magic from a Council book, at first,” she goes on. “ Any other book would teach signature masking first of all. And when he robbed the jewelry, xe was sloppy, despite clearly having a strong magical talent. That’s probably because the book didn’t teach the Path of Lies, and xe had to guess from the Sight or Mind section.”

“At the university, though, Korentis was much better at magic. So xe got a new teacher, a new book, or both. We know xe was looking for the Art of the Veil, and maybe xe found it. But had xe joined the Hidden Schools, xe’d be safe in their fold-worlds. That’s the whole point of the Hidden. So, either someone else gave xem an incredibly valuable book, or someone else trained xem in magic.”

“You think xe joined the Syndicates?” I say. As if I could dislike xem any more..

Althea nods. “They’re looking for something. They want a presence in this city. And suddenly, a rogue mage gets a crash-course in advanced magic and tries to steal a relic. Adds up pretty neatly.”

I frown. “Wait,” I say. “it doesn’t track. The Syndicates don’t have much of a presence here yet, we know for a fact that their last attempt to establish a foothold went poorly. And beside that, a new member of the Syndicates stays hidden for a while - all three members of the Cartel like to do indoctrination, magically binding rituals, or other disturbing shit before sending out a new agent.”

Althea groans. “And that’s why I hate speculation. I gave it a good try, ok?”

“You still raised a valid point.” I say, feeling strangely proud. “Xe had a mentor, or a patron of some kind. But xe didn’t join the Hidden Schools, nor the Syndicates, I’m pretty sure of that. So, I think there are two possibilities. Either xe joined the Faceless Army, and was inducted very quickly, or xe’s still rogue. I think it’s the latter – xe’s working as a freelancer with the Kalestran and the photographer girl. Some rogues do that.”

“So,” Althea says, “you don’t think they’re stealing a relic for themselves?”

I nod. “I bet it’s a contract work,” I say. “Why would xe care that much about a minor relic in the Vault anyway? But that circles back to my first question - what was xe trying to steal, and why?”

Althea smiles. “I thought a lot about it, for once,” she says, looking smug, “because that’s the really weird part. There’s nothing really powerful in that vault. Any relic of meaningful power gets destroyed or shipped to the Glass Tower. So, why would anyone want a minor relic stolen? I might as well share my guesswork. See, those relics are useless for most mages, including Korentis. But a large faction could have some use for them.

“Maybe they think they can combine minor relics in some more powerful configuration –it’s been claimed several times since the Thaumocracy, but it’s not clear if anyone ever managed that for reals. Or they’re studying some specific magical effect, and they want a specific kind of relic to produce it reliably. Sometimes new spells were discovered studying relics that way. So xe went in, and probably stole the wrong relic because xe’s an idiot, or something like that.”

I nod. It almost makes sense. But there’s something frustratingly unsatisfying.

“But Za Ruik and your master spoke of something enormously important,” I say. “A key, Za Ruik said. That sounds like a physical object. What if it’s a relic? But… assuming there’s really something that important gathering dust at the University of Rakavdon, why hire a half-trained level one mage? The Cartel has a few archmages - if this is something so important it might be the very reason for their existence… why Korentis?”

Althea shrugs. “And that’s about the point I reached before giving up and playing Demon shooter VII with Kaelich.”

My heart beats faster. This is all speculative and confusing. But finally, I feel like I’m piecing together something about the situation in this Lords-forsaken city. I must discuss this with Quicksilver. Not only because I hope they’ll tell me more, but because putting together all the information I got, there’s some chance I’ll actually tell xem something they don’t know. And ThauCon Intelligence must take Rakavdon seriously.

“As for your last point - Jaeleri,” Althea says, dragging me out of my thoughts. Her voice is dripping with contempt “He sucks, and he pretends to suck even more. Officially, he’s level 1.1, which is about average for a mage that young - I’m amazing, but I’m the exception, and he’s eighteen. Yesterday he touched 1.3 according to the records - I can’t really judge power in the Path of Sight, it’s too weird. But it’s not that strange that he became stronger since leaving the academy, and he has no obligation to update his power in the records.

“That said,” she goes, crossing her arms in a tough girl way that is so adorable, “I think he made a real effort to downplay his skill. Again, I’m not the right person to judge a Seer, but he seems at least ok, and in the past he pretended to lack basic competence. So, I think he’s a lazy, lying piece of shit, but no worse than that. I don’t want to defend him, but… mages who go through re-ed have difficulties with magic. It’s a brutal way to teach control.”

“I should check with Za Ruik,” I say, “he’s a Seer too, if he’s lucid enough he could tell me more. Now, what do you think about the Fold-mine in…”

Althea throws her hands up. “Are you actually going to pester me for the whole evening? Really, can’t you go back to punching me?”

For a moment, I’m annoyed, but I bite my tongue. She is indulging me, and she had no obligation to. Like most of my colleagues, she doesn’t think proactively collecting information is part of our job.

So am I doing my job better than them? Or am I just pretending to be the intelligence agent I’m not?

“Oh, don’t look like that,” Althea says, hugging me in a way that makes my bones melt. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll tell you a secret. And then we go take a nice hot bath, and we don’t speak another work-related word until tomorrow.”

With the heat of her body against mine, the fear and revulsion from Korentis’ feels less pressing than it did a few minutes ago. Yeah, Althea is a mage, too, but her power is much less creepy, and I know she would never hurt me. I’m not comfortable with sex yet, but a relaxing bath sounds just right.

Also, a secret?

“Done,” I say, “you’re good at haggling.”

“I’m giving you two things you want, so shut up,” she says. “Anyway, it’s something else I learned… in a way best not spoken about. I don’t even know if the Agency knows.”

“Cut the foreplay,” I say, curiosity almost painful.

She grins, mischievous. “You’ll have to work on that impatience, especially in bed,” she says. “Anyway, the Faceless are definitely fighting the Syndicate Cartel. But they’re not their only concern. I… look, I suck at wording stuff carefully, so just don’t ask me how I know, because I can’t tell you. But I know a Faceless operative was in Rakavdon recently. And I know they were specifically worried about the White Lady.”

The White Lady. The leader of the most mysterious faction - I grew up believing she was a folk tale, just another incarnation of the Lady of Light. Only in recent years, Intelligence admitted that they’re confident she’s a real person, or a group.

“Wait, what if Korentis is working for her?” I ask.

Althea laughs. “And what if she’s going to attack Landfall with mind-controlled sharks? The fuck should I know? If anyone in the Council knows who she is and what she wants, they sure as the Abyss aren’t telling me.”

“But what…” I begin.

She raises a finger to my lips.

“You got your secret,” she says. “If you ask one more question, I’ll answer, but I’ll be really pissed and I’ll go out clubbing. And while I accepted an exclusive relationship because you’re boring, I can still have very dirty thoughts about other people.”

“Well,” I concede, “all that nice conspiracy talk made me feel better. You’re such a lovely intelligence asset.”

***