UNIVERSITY OF RAKAVDON INCIDENT REPORT - SUBMITTED FOR ANALYSIS AND ARCHIVATION

INSTIGATOR: Rogue mage Korentis Tal-Venant. Two likely accomplices (see appendix I for available information about the subjects).

AGENTS INVOLVED: Sgt.Rfl. Gehat Andreach, Pr.Bl. Cerical Villerani, Pr.Sup. Sorivel Erusiani

CASUALTIES: None

OUTCOME: Rogue mage escaped capture. Sensitive item (relic) briefly removed from custody, found shortly later.

EVENTS: See detailed description with timeline in appendix II.

ASSESSMENT: ThauCon agents reacted adequately, spotting the rogue mage despite the lack of triggered alarms. Despite identifying the threat, agents were briefly confused by the instigator's mind-altering power, allowing xir escape.

It is likely that the instigator failed to achieve xir aims, since the single item xe subtracted from the vault, a minor relic, was found abandoned within the premise.

RECOMMENDATIONS: A region-level search order for Mage Korentis should be issued. Silver helmets highly recommended for any operatives likely to meet xem.

If the systematic protection of Precursor-related sites will continue, the Agency should request - via intervention of the Alliance governance bodies if necessary - easier access to data possessed by educational and research institutions, to facilitate identification of infiltrators.

MINORITY REPORT: Lt. Sareas requested the following to be put on record: the ThauCon teams deployed to the University did not act in a fully professional or procedurally optimal manner. The two teams assigned to guard duty swapped one agent without notifying command, and should be reprimanded. He also notes that according to Doctrine, a full team should be equipped to deal with a single first-level mage.

Lt. Sareas also wishes to point out that this was ultimately a consequence of assigning two inexperienced teams to the operation, which, according to him, should not have happened.

The rest of this commission disagrees with the relevance of said objections. The change in team formation was of no consequence to the incident, and it is understood that the Agency currently lacks the experienced personnel to deploy in lower-priority areas.

Signed

Cpt. Veirres Orral-Sano

Lt. Comarch Vereit

Lt. Sareas Travart

Investigator Malartis Sen-Travart

Well, fuck Sareas, as usual.

Even if what grates most is the nagging feeling he’s right. The Captain painted our actions in the most flattering light, probably to avoid attracting attention to the terrible condition of her base.

But we could have caught Korentis.

Liar or no, xe’s not that powerful, xir theta signal peaked at 1.6. And xe sucks at keeping a low profile. Yes, we’re an inexperienced team - but if we can’t capture such an easy target, how can we deal with the Hidden Factions? How can we stop the storm, if Za Ruik and his old, but formidable companions can’t?

No one expects fresh recruits, sent to a third tier base, to achieve much. But we just wasted our first chance to prove everyone wrong.

I grit my teeth and go back to sifting the data Aeniki sent us.

This isn’t over. Korentis failed to the key, even if I'm not sure that's our merit. Xe escaped us, and that makes me mad personally, but looking at the bigger picture, xe doesn’t matter - xe’s a pawn, new to xir powers. It might actually end up helping us, if through xem, we can find the real players involved. Had we caught Korentis, they’d send someone else, someone we know nothing about.

What if they send someone completely new anyway? It’s possible. Aeniki is on the watch for other infiltrators, too. But Liars are the perfect infiltrators, and they’re rare. Since it’s clear that the factions have a hard time sending their agents into Rakavdon, I’m convinced Korentis will try again.

How to find xem, though? Easy, in principle: I must understand what relic xe’s actually looking for. That’s the real target anyway - the mysterious Key. It can’t be the spinning top xe took for the Vault, or xe wouldn’t have abandoned it. So, what was xe truly doing?

And Aeniki provided us with fifteen hours of footage, from the University, metro system and other public places - all she could find about Korentis in the day before xe entered the Vault. In most of the footage, xe’s under the guise of xir student alias, Tharvais.

It’s infuriating to look at the mage take notes, chat with real students and eat grilled grasshoppers without a care in the world. I’d kill to read xir tablet or hear what xe’s saying, but the resolution isn’t good enough to read the notes and there’s no sound.

Investigations, of course, didn’t bother to interview the students who interacted with Korentis.

After two hours, I’ve found nothing useful, and I’m sick of watching Korentis attend class and walk through corridors from slightly different angles. I know boredom leads to distraction and mistakes, so I rub my eyes, go back to the master folder, and look for anything different. I open the MISC folder and open the first of a handful of videos.

It’s the grainy, badly angled video from the Vault itself. Investigations showed it to us during a meeting, and it’s useless, but at least it’s not Korentis scribbling on xir tablet.

Once again, I look at the mage walking up to the stupid spinning top relic, fiddle a bit to open it, and then put the spinner away in a case. Xe handles it carefully, but xe doesn’t stop to look at it, xe doesn’t hold it like something truly important. I’m more and more convinced xe only used it as an excuse to enter the vault.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I look as xe leaves… wait.

Xe doesn’t leave immediately. Xe briefly walks in the wrong direction, then xe frowns, turns on xir heels and walks back to the door. It looks like a moment of confusion, nothing more, but I didn’t notice it when we watched the video - the idiots from Investigations just cut the video and said xe left without touching anything after that.

Yeah, xe didn’t touch anything. But I watch again, trying to follow Korentis’ eyes as much as the resolution allows.

Xe stops for a moment before turning back, and xe looks at a specific relic case. Xe tries to look casual, but it’s not even a good attempt - after all, if I hadn’t challenged xem, no one would ever have watched this recording.

“Aeniki,” I say, opening a channel - she likes neuralink messages better, but excitement burns through my veins, “how much data can you access about the Vault’s contents? I think something there got Korentis’ interested.”

***

“So, vital question,” Kaelich asks, serious, as we make our way to a restaurant, “after we’re done with the spy shit, are we going to play Xenowatch? There’s a new mission where you shoot tentacle monsters in a space station, everyone says it’s amazing!”

“I’ve been seeing monsters out of the corner of my eyes for days,” Althea says, snappy, “and the tentacle ones are the least disturbing.”

I bite my tongue not to ask questions - she told me, repeatedly and seriously, that we should talk about demons as little as possible. But sometimes she just drops this stuff and it’s maddening.

“Well, we can find something else, then,” Kaelich says, deflated, “We can do a detective sim, so I can watch you being smart.”

“You got me wrong,” Althea says, “I can’t wait to shoot a few tentacle monsters. I wish I could do that with… well, with things best not spoken about. But I won’t play healer this time. I’ve checked the hero list, and there’s a a hot girl with a rocket launcher - she’s mine.”

“Heavenly Gunner protect us, I’ll play the healer, so for once we’ll have someone who occasionally heals. Also,” Sorivel says, making the sign of the officers with more zeal than usual, “for being things best not spoken about, you mention them twice a week at least.”

“I know,” Althea says, throwing her arms up in frustration, “but do you know how hard it is not to… ugh. Let’s change topic to something harmless. How is our treason going, Cerical?”

“Once again, It’s not treason,” I say. “I’d never attempt any proper treason with any of you, you’re all far too talkative. It’s a… discussion about our covert information-gathering activity. Aeniki and I found something interesting.”

“Really?” Kaelich asks, loud as usual, “so, we know who Malartis is talking to? Where Korentis lives?”

I look around us - we’re walking in the winding stone alleys of the city center, and anyone could overhear us. I meant to reach the restaurant and pick a spot isolated from other patrons, before talking business.

But on the other hand, it’s a cold, sleety Landay evening, there’s hardly anyone around. And dubiously legal spy algorithms are probably a safer topic than demons.

“Nothing that good,” I say, “but we might know what xe’s looking for. Xe stopped to check a specific relic, in the vault. Interestingly, that same relic - the Twisting Tetrahedron - was removed for further analysis by a professor, two months ago. And Aeniki found out that a third party attempted to delete the relative log entry from the university’s database.”

“Not a very good attempt, I gather,” Sorivel says, “Aeniki may be an infosec genius, but she couldn’t find a record if it had been properly deleted.”

I nod. “She agrees. Whoever tried to hide the record was no expert at all – they basically only hid it only from the university interface. Like trying to hide a house by covering the street sign.”

“A common issue with magical terrorists,” Sorivel mumbles, making the officers’ sign again. “They don’t have many tech experts, since well, they can’t post a job ad. And their leaders are immortal abominations against creation - no offense, Althea - so they’re not exactly up to date with technology.”

“It’s not an offense, I’m not immortal. Yet,” says Althea, dreamy. She looks at her fingers, as if searching for the first gleam of disincarnation.

I don’t know how to feel at the idea that her body will start turning to Else-glass, probably in a few years. It’s disturbing, but she’s also kind of hot when she turns into green light.

How would else-glass feel against bare skin? Oh, come on, I shouldn’t even think about that.

“What does this relic do?” Kaelich asks. “And more to the point - where it is?”

“We don’t really know what it does,” I say. “It’s called the Twisting Tetrahedron. According to the university, it just spins and casts as strange shadow, which makes for an unusual paperweight, but if someone hired rogue mages to steal it, it must have more interesting properties. But the good news is, we know where it is - a lab owned by SilverEye. You know, the company who makes our theta scanners.”

Of course, I know what this relic does. Or what the Syndicates believe it might do, at least. Open the way to Selenopolis, and the Lords know what else. I’m aching to tell Quicksilver about it, but they haven’t contacted me yet. I should have insisted for a channel I can use to contact them.

“Wait, so the guys who make our scanners are part of some conspiracy, too?” Kaelich asks.

“You’re as dense as you’re cute, corporal,” Althea says, “if SilverEye currently has the relic, they can’t be on the same side as whoever hired Korentis, or they’d just hand it over. My bet is, some faction noticed something about the relic, and manipulated the professor to have it brought out of the Vault.”

I nod. “It could be. But if some magical factions wanted the relic, why deliver it to SilverEye? As far as we know, it wasn’t stolen, and their labs are probably more secure than the Vault. Maybe the professor xirself noticed something about the Tetrahedron, and legitimately wanted it analized by SilverEye. We checked, and the University does that regularly. I really wish we could question the professor without involving CivInt. Xe’s the same person who signed Korentis authorization to enter the relic vault, but I’m not sure that’s significant - xe’s the chair of Relic Studies, after all.”

“So…” Althea says, frowning, “I don’t understand shit anymore. Who’s working for whom? It looks like there are at least two groups interested in the relic. One who acted through the professor, one who hired Korentis. But who are they? And which of them employs Malartis?”

“I don’t know, we have a chance to mess with everyone’s plans,” I say, barely managing to contain my excitement, ”We don’t know who hired Korentis, or why they want that relic, but we know where the relic is. And they don’t know we know. So, Aeniki tapped into the building’s surveillance system - it’s a big skyscraper, and SilverEye is near the top floor. She installed customized software which looks for Korentis and xir associates.

“Apparently, there are algorithms that can see through disguising Lies quite reliably, if you’re searching for one specific person in one specific place. So, if Korentis and friends try to get the Tetrahedron, we’ll know. And Aeniki will fabricate a Concerned Citizen report, which I’ll immediately flag for attention, and we’ll show it to an officer. At that point, either they order us to deploy, or we’re sure they’re working against us.”

“Which officer?” Sorivel asks. “We don’t trust either of the lieutenants, and the captain is… less than a sterling officer, even assuming she’s on the good side.”

“I’d go straight to the captain,” I say. “She can’t flat-out ignore a report with footage of a known rogue mage. So, no point going through a lieutenant. If the Captain is not in the base when we need her, I’d go to Lieutenant Comarch. I’d leave Sareas as the last choice.”

“You think he’s crooked?” Althea asks.

“Honestly, I think he’s just an asshole,” I say, “but he always tries to micromanage or overrule everything we do. He’d waste precious time, and possibly stop the operation because it’s not his idea.”

“Hm,” Kaelich says, looking unhappy, “I guess it works. But if he’s on duty when we go to the captain, he won’t be happy – it’s not strictly a rule, but we’re expected to go through him before going to the captain. Also, do you have to look happy about going behind our superiors’ back?”

“I’d prefer to do everything by the book,” I say, “but either we stretch the rules, or we give up on catching those mages.”

I’m not even lying. I do like following the book. It’s just that the ThauCon Intelligence Guide to Fieldcraft is a much better book than the Agency’s Operational Handbook, so I’ll refer to that book.