Chapter 41: Historical Influence

Year 3086 A.F. (After Freedom)

61st day of the Wood Phase (1st Earth Quarter)

From what I could see, the city’s structure had survived the fire quite admirably, but then again, with wood being so much more expensive here, most of the city seemed to be made of mud bricks. There was plenty of damage regardless, just not as much from the fire as there would have been if wood was a more common building material.

No, it seemed that just enough had burned to cause a panic and what happened after that had caused the real damage.

While not the tallest building, the top of the 3 floor building was high enough to let me get a general idea of how the poorer section of the city had faired. I would have preferred a taller building, but those were almost always reinforced by magic wards. Anything taller than 4 floors usually indicated someone rich enough to buy magic protection and buildings like the prison tower I escaped the other day even required it to be structurally sound.

I quickly climbed down from the side of the building before someone saw me. I was pleasantly surprised that the building supported my weight without much groaning, but it was one of the nicer buildings, being made of some sort of brick.

Although not in my best state because of a recent lack of food, I was still far heavier than most people would assume by my appearance. If someone saw me right then, they would likely say I was a 13 year old boy. That I was currently female was a fact I had both logical and emotional reasons to keep hidden.

To that extent, my usual clothes hid most of my well defined muscles only added to the illusion… not that I had those clothes on me, escaping from prison in the night soil cart meant I had to settle for whatever I for the short time that shops were still open.

My current robe would attract the attention of anyone with sharp enough eyes as I practically had to sew it on the run. My fingers, like the rest of me, were far more capable than the average person, but even I had my limits.

If someone saw me naked they would be shocked at the well-defined muscles that were now showing. Previously I had managed to cultivate a small amount of fat to make them less obvious, but not eating as well as I should have for a few days had quickly turned my unnaturally high metabolism against me.

Something to work on when I was not hiding from guards, but for now I needed to find some place safe to hide.

The guards had closed down the entire city when I escaped, but the odds of them keeping it locked down for much longer were between slim and none. In fact there was already the occasional runner moving through the streets was proof. The night soil men would undoubtedly be allowed back to work soon and after that it would only be a matter of time.

I moved over to the next street and moved as quietly as possible as I watched out for any curious spectators. Before I got too far though I once again picked up the sound of boots marching in step from around the corner. It only took a moment to find an alley and duck into it as I waited for them to pass.

Normally the guards would never go to such extremes to catch a criminal, but magic criminals always warranted a different response, even when they did not escape prisons specifically designed to make them harmless. Honestly, that was probably the main reason that they were chasing me, instead of some perverted blackmailer that they thought I killed… though that would change if they realized that I killed that high lady as well.

I shook my head, it was a sad waste of life that should have been easy to avoid, but I had told her as much at the time. Bella thought that I should have made a more sincere effort, however I viewed the Guilt as a much higher judge than her in such situations.

If the Guilt did not affect me, than I was not responsible for the person’s death… with the possible exception of when I had killed in a dungeon, an event I still had not fully figured out.

Bella was getting angry at that thought process though so I thought about something else. Specifically, about how I had just been thinking about going to try and help others for little to no personal gain. I appreciated the way Bella’s influence had practically ripped open my thought processes to let me see more options, but I needed my more selfish and paranoid mindset right now and her oddly strong sense of righteousness could be dangerous.

Angry Bella turned into annoyed Bella and I decided to prioritize my thoughts. Since we were still getting used to our current situation it could only help keep us moving. First, we had to survive and organize our escape from the city. Then I had to seriously consider what to do with the information I currently had.

With the Pervert’s notes on… wait, what was his name? Pervert… Perverted- Bella, did you burn his name out of my head when we were merging? I felt something like a shameless shrug from the other occupant of my head.

While technically the youngest daughter from the newly elevated house of Corpus, I tried to avoid using the name Bella with others. Though it was technically our name, our identity was somewhat more complicated and even I would feel bad if our actions affected the rest of the House.

Stella or even my ‘real’ name DeMorte were our more common aliases, but we could change our appearance fairly easily so I was less worried about that and more worried about people finding out that we were, more or less, two people in one body.

On one hand, there was DeMorte, the murderous bandit who had somehow managed to create his own little kingdom while derailing the games of a group of traveling gods called the Nalks. He myself and I had been reincarnated in a new world at their whims to let them have a rematch after I ruined their last ‘game.’ The problem being that, seemingly just to screw with me, they dumped yours truly in the body of a little girl named Bella.

For all practical purposes, I was that same DeMorte, the murdering, thieving graveborn, until this morning when Bella and I had, more or less, merged. Now… well, I would still call myself DeMorte if asked, but that felt wrong.

I had trouble thinking about why, but it was fairly reasonable to assume that it was related to my incomplete merge with Bella.

Simply put, despite ‘merging’ our consciousness, we were still slightly separate from each other. This let us share our ideas without needing to think about it, but kept our minds from totally fusing. As it stood, keeping secrets appeared to be impossible so I was at least certain that she was not planning on betraying me and equally importantly, I had a feeling that there would be a specific benefit from being separated.

Still, we would need more time to determine if the whole thing would work well in the long run. If it did not… well I got the feeling that divorcing myself from Bella would be both painful and complex to say the least.

Bella was also watching my actions and forming her own opinions, judging me and if she thought that I needed to be stopped, she would. I did not know exactly what she would, or could, do if she found my actions unforgivable, but it would likely kill us both and the fact that she was prepared for that, while I was not, was worrying.

Point in fact, there were currently two very different memories of the same Pervert that jumped to mind when I thought of it.

In one, he was a reasonable man who knew his fetishes and did not feel the need to hide them, instead allowing others to bargain knowing what he really wanted. That he was a blackmailer was a point that did matter as he was smart enough to know not to push things too far, again making him fairly reasonable and someone I could deal with.

In the other, he was scum of the city, a hedonistic fool that enjoyed forcing others to submit to his will. He was also an insufferable, perverted, blackmailing, rapist who practically prided himself on his animalistic lusts that reduced other people to simple slabs of meat for his own pleasure. Scum of the human species.

The difference between the two points of view made me dizzy for a moment. When in the ovals had she gotten that judgmental?

A new memory assaulted my mind, this time of a cold, arrogant, voice calmly assessing and dismissing the worth of others around him. Especially those annoyingly self-righteous mercenaries called ‘adventurers’ who-

I shook my head and quietly groaned. Those were going to take getting used to.

In the meantime, I checked Bella’s thoughts and confirmed that she at least understood why I always judged others. Bella did not like it, but people, as a rule, were dangerous unknowns and while most would not have a reason to harm me, such reasons were easy to create.

That said, I had been far too arrogant lately. I always said that pride was like a fine cloak, one that you had to be able to cast away when it became inconvenient to your survival. For someone without any type of support, any allies to help them, I had been stupid enough to think that my previous life’s experience would be enough to protect me.

Working alone took away the danger of being betrayed, but that meant that I was that much more vulnerable… In the end, I had a simple choice, chance being betrayed or chance that I could fight off large groups by myself. Given where trusting only myself had gotten me, it looked like I needed to find a few allies.

Besides I was used to having those close to me try and kill me.

Bella sent me the mental equivalent of a disappointed sigh and I ignored both her and a brief memory of dying at the hands of my own son.

Regardless of the world or situation, the starting point for my plans never changed, survive and collect information.

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I only allowed myself a slight sigh in response to Bella’s newest demand before deciding not to waste any more time.

Squatting, I touched both of the unconscious fools and used my ‘mana roots’ spell, as I briefly told Bella not to brag about her role in creating one of the most useful spells that I knew.

The 2 fools on the ground looked like street toughs, or something along those lines, and had forfeited their lives when they attacked me, before I realized that they were not mages or guards and therefore not a threat. In fact, they were something far more useful to me and I decided to put the question of why they were here aside as I looked over my new rations.

Since the Guilt would affect me anytime I actually killed or directly ordered the death of another I was just planning to take a limb and use it as mana roots to break them down. The spell worked disturbingly fast to break down and absorb essentials like fat in a raw form that the spell then helped me absorb directly through my skin. While I usually just did this through my hands I could also absorb things through my mouth, which was more efficient at the cost of being more disgusting. In the end just eating food was usually the best option, but mana roots was easily my most used spell.

Although disgustingly close by societal standards, it was not cannibalism and made almost everything organic into a possible emergency food source. Although not as energy efficient as simply eating food normally the speed of mana root’s absorption was fairly fast and could actually avoid the problem of spoiled or unpalatable food. In fact, I had been carefully killing and absorbing rats as I moved across the city to help maintain my body.

I had been obligated to eat raw rat a few times in my previous life to survive and calling it was a stoning unpleasant experience was an understatement.

As long as the animals were dead, or at least not a part of anything living, it was a quick process, but Bella had objected to the amputation. She had insisted that we not leave the fools crippled, despite their trespass against us. I disagreed with her reasoning that lacking any of their limbs would guarantee their death in the near future, but I realized that for the simple limitation of time, she was basically correct.

If I cast a spell to clean or cauterize the wounds that my amputation would cause, any mage with a strong third eye would likely see it. While closing the wound with magic would take more energy than I would be able to absorb from them without endangering their lives.

Since a mage’s third eye, or mage sight as some called it, could see spells that were cast regardless of what direction they were looking, I had to use direct physical contact to hide the spell. Though able to even see through buildings, to a limited degree, the mages who were out looking for me would be unable to ‘see’ my magic as long as it did not pass through the open air.

That said, all mages could also feel where magic had been manipulated, which meant that I was effectively leaving proof of where I had been. Though there was nothing to be done about that as I had knocked the fools out with a simple spell when they ambushed me, so the trail was already laid.

I finished absorbing as much as I reasonably could from their bodies and hid my magic trail as best as I could, even using a memory interference spell to ensure that I had a decent chance of slipping away.

Before I left though I paused long enough to give them both a small swell on the back of their heads and a raging headache that would wake them up soon. With any luck they would wake up, assume they had been ambushed and get moving to avoid the guards. Though they regrettably did not have anything worth stealing, which would take something away from the ‘robbers who were robbed’ narrative.

Bella started to raise a question in the back of my head before she seemed to answer it herself. I focused on putting some distance between the fools and myself before I concentrated on what she was curious about.

Her question and the answer were simple: how the stoning ovals did we use magic in a stationary manner for several minutes without attracting the attention of any of the roaming mages? The best answer either of us could come up with were that we were either lucky or the Nalk influence was at work.

If it was the former, it did not matter, but the latter would mean that the Nalks had deliberately left us an opening. That was a mixed comfort as having a god looking after you was nice, but that also meant that one or more of the traveling gods had taken a direct interest in our current situation.

Given that those same gods would be manipulating people and natural events to kill me within the next year or so, it was a somewhat chilling prologue of things to come. Not that the world-hopping Nalks were omniscient, I would never had gotten so far in my previous life if they could have seen me from the start, but I got the feeling they might be able to see anything they concentrated on.

That I knew for a fact that they had at least basic mind reading powers only made everything more complicated.

However, a better question was: did it matter right now?

I moved quickly, changing direction and heading to the richest part of the city. Though there were more guards this way, I had to make it appear that I was running errands for nobles, or whoever would… my robe would be an obstacle.

I only had a small amount of thread, so I quickly gave up on the idea of sewing and burned a series of runes into the inside of my robes. Unfortunately, this immediately attracted the wrong type of attention and I felt magic flare nearby in response.

I got back to running, though this time I had a series of runes helping me out along the way. Specifically, I burned a series of runes that would muffle sound, make my robe harder to pay attention to, and make me easier to ignore.

Since runes were just passive, if complex, symbols that channeled ambient mana around me into their specific symbol’s magic. If I burned a rune of strength into the robe, the robe would become stronger where that rune effected it, while a rune of silence muffled noise.

It was a fair bit past noon by the time I managed to dodge all of the guards, mages, and dispel most of the burnt smell from my robes as I made my way, first to the noble quarter, and then to the Histone’s library.

At 4 floors tall and made of stone so well-worked that it was hard for even my eyes to spot where the stones came together, the place stood out to even non-mages.

For mages, the subtle thumping of mana, as the building seemed to breathe it in and out was normally only a slight distraction. Now however, the wards around the library seemed to be fully active and the mana around it actively flowed in the building as if driven by a light, but sustained, wind.

It would likely be an interesting effect to watch, if someone could actually see it, but even mages could not see mana itself as it was naturally invisible. We could feel it in the air and if someone or something touched that mana, if they manipulated it, we could see their touch as various colors with our third eye, but that was all. Runic magic was also invisible.

For example, I had to refrain from using too much magic to change my appearance as it would leave a residue or sorts that would naturally need to fade over time. There were a few ways to hide or speed up the process, but not enough to make a reasonable difference as those processes usually involved using more magic, which naturally left its own imprint.

Even illusion magic fell into this trap, though it left very few traces of being used. That said, when noticed it was also easily broken, so I did not want to chance it.

To counter these disadvantages, I used a spell to change my physical appearance while traveling through the city. My hair, already cut fairly short, was now practically shaved and I went ahead and physically morphed my face, skin tone, and muscle build instead.

I did not use illusion magic, I manipulated my body in a way that only specialist mages with decades of knowledge could do. Naturally I had some limited experience from my previous life, but everyone was looking for a resourceful little girl, maybe 15 years old, who would never have such abilities.

Of course if they decided to stop me as ask for identification anyway… well that was what the runes were for. That and the slightly hurried manner in which I trotted out from the noble quarter and towards the library.

Cannibalizing myself or others just to survive the few more days in the back streets before slipping out of the city did not appeal to either Bella or myself.

Despite the powerful wards of the library itself, which made it harder to feel individual mages, I found 2 mages nearby. They were either protecting or watching the Histone library, depending on who you asked.

It was amazing how dangerous a group who impartially recorded history and shared basic knowledge freely could be. According to their own records, the Histones had caused the downfall of a kingdom no less than 4 times by the actions they took in defense of their allegedly impartial way of life.

Currently, each official Histone library was treated like a religious temple. It was in effect, a sanctuary that only the truly greed or stupid would violate. As well as the first building to be surrounded when a criminal was on the run.

If the Histones declared sanctuary, only the king or one of his direct governors could contest it, legally speaking. Though it seemed unlikely that the guards around the library would appreciate that unless the wards were used. A well warded building like the library could hold off a dozen mages for days.

Naturally there was no reasonable way to sneak up into the building, but my body was not normal and I could stretch the definition of reasonable fairly far in a normal situation. If I was right about the Nalks watching over me than this would be easy…

And surprisingly, I did not bring down any curses or bad luck on myself with my auspicious thought. I literally just ignored the guards and trotted up to the door to the library before knocking on it.

While we were waiting though Bella and I agreed to never get in this type of situation again. Stones, even I was not usualy this baise about walking into a heavily guarded area – ESPECIALLY when the guards were looking for me!

Stones, maybe I was being manipulated by the Nalks too? No, better to push such thoughts off until later.

A young man, an aide of some sort answered the door and quickly took listened to my mentally rehearsed message. His response caught me off guard though, after I mentioned that my statement would involve Soul Mages he instantly seemed to lose interest. “One moment please, Newsman Asat, there is someone here to make a declaration. He says that is involves-”

The sound was suddenly cut off and I realized that a ward was likely interfering.

Asat though? What were the odd that it was the same one who visited Bella village north of Entrials all those years ago?

Wait, given how today has been going- yup, it was him. The same Asat that I met all those years ago in another kingdom was here in front of me. Nalk Ex Spatico at work, I was sure now.

The Histone Newsman was tall, but paler than I remembered, not from the news I was here to deliver though, he just looked like he had not gotten enough sun recently. His robes were much more formal than mine, but were still plain with no obvious runes that I could see. “Please come in.” His smile was polite and much more restrained than it had been back when we first met.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

He guided me inside the absurd existence that was a public library. Four floors of books above us and likely one or two hidden below, with the beds, I assumed. There was also a pair of spiral staircases to travel between floors and a room set off to the side, which he immediately guided me to.

“No one will bother us in here, but I would like to dispense with pleasantries if you do not mind?” Asat talked fairly quickly, but did pause to let me answer.

“If I did, would it make a difference?” I refrained from using magic as I sat down in a nice looking chair. Fighting inside someone else’s wards was usually the height of stupidity, unless you knew how to fool them.

“Yes, I would offer you something to drink and then listen to your story before shuffling you out without saying any more than I needed to. Which will likely make it look like I am not taking you seriously.” He gave me a look that clearly indicated this would indeed be the case.

I blinked. That seemed a bit… short. “By all means then, please forget the pleasantries if it means we can speak in earnest.”

“Good and just so you know it is quite out of fashion to try and receive sanctuary from us. We have been very good at keeping our neutrality in this part of the world for many years now. If you are wanted for a crime you would be better off seeking at a church as the only thing we help you with is getting a fair trial.”

I did not outwardly react, but my mind started racing. Was he just covering all possibilities or did he somehow recognize me? I felt a tried voice telling me not to mind it and Bella immediately start keeping her metaphysically pointed ears on alert.

“That is a bit of a pain to explain.” I took a deep breath to organize my thought and Asat waited patiently. “I would like my following statement to be recorded in its entirety and made available five days from now.”

Asat kept a blank look on his face as he nodded. “Is it about the soul mages chasing you?”

I felt an involuntary twitch and let my voice come out as cold as ice. “Soul Magic is not something you joke about Newsman.” I leaned forward, “I would like to make my statement now.”

Asat pulled out a scroll and a type of magic pen I knew would not run out of ink anytime soon.

The Histones... They were occasionally called history cultists by others because of their dedication that venerated the preservation of history. I could understand it to a certain extent, since I could literally see it from Bella's perspective, but even she found them odd.

Over 3000 years ago humanity had been Enslaved by powerful magic creatures called the Elves until they discover the dreadful power of the Soul Mages. The undead armies and willingly sacrificed human masses had driven the Elves back and won the freedom of the species. Although there were said to be part-Elven decedents, it was, as far as I could tell, only a stigma against the humans with pointed ears. In the centuries following Soul Mages showed the cost of their power as they went insane and tried to enslave humanity again, causing a age of division and striff, which lead to the creation of the Histones.

After that, the Histones basically spent the next 2 millennium getting people to let them stay neutral while they tried to make sure some record of the past survived in records. I had a working relation with both some of the Histones here and the ones in Zootrofi, the Kingdom where Bella was born, though I did not see the boy I delt with a few days ago. That said, I still trusted them more than almost anyone in the city... with only the possible exception of the few girls who I had played around with while infiltrating the Sisterhood of Hoh.

Young love was stupid and I would have considered going back to hide with some of them in the Sisterhood's temple if not for the mistaken rumor that I had killed the 'Pervert' after he pushed me for sexual favors... Well, the rumors said more than push, but that was something the Histones could help with too.

After all, what good was recording history if you did not teach it to anyone? They hated rumor mongers who tried to use them, but for what I saw? As both a confession who I was and a chance to record my account of events? No, given who they were I was fairly safe. 

The chances that they would violate their version of neutrality? That they would betray me and capture me to hand me over to the ... well yesterday's DeMorte would have lived off rats in the streets for a few more days. Today, I was taking a risk, but it was a fairly small one... Plus, if they did the surprising thing and captured me with their wards... I would wait for the right time and kill everyone who got in my way.

I felt Bella shudder at that, but she did not object, she wanted to live too. So we tried telling our story and trusting the Histones to be who we thought they were.

A half-an-hour later and Asat attitude had completely changed. He believed me and though I had left out several key details, it was now on record that the Sisterhood of Hoh who resided in the city scarified their dying members to power their all too powerful wards.

Part of me had wanted to lead an army in that place and drive an iron spike into the ward anchor the moment I discovered that they were practicing Soul magic. Their practice was vile and I hated it all the more for the light dabbling I did while I was younger and because of the Guilt itself, my eternal curse, was a form of it. In the end though, both Bella and I came to the decision that this would be more effective and efficient, especially given my current reputation.

One question of Asat's in particular caught me off guard. “What does Drasiedi have to do with this?”

I did not have to fake a confused face, “What does he have to do with anything? I saw the guy in a tournament and checked his wounds afterwards. They brought him in to see me at one point when I was in the tower.”

“He is also going to be executed as your accomplice the day after tomorrow

“That is a shame, I do not suppose you know any way to help him out? Besides turning myself in or something along those lines?”

Asat hesitated, “Would you mind if I disclosed part of your statement in advance?”

I thought about it for a moment, “Only on a person by person basis, some nobles can keep secrets, but they will have to believe it first. What they do when the statement become publicly assessable, I honestly do not care.”

“Very well, in that case we just need your magic signature, it will be confidential, but we will need it for our records.”

“Asat, there was something I meant to pick up while I am here. I believe you are holding it behind the front counter.” The histone looked confused for a moment, before I added “It is a large greyish cube, which, if you use magic on it, will reveal a pair or iron daggers and a small iron ball in the center.”

“I was wondering why we had that. Here,” he passed me a separate piece of paper and his magic pen before leaving the room. I took the opportunity to study the pen and how it worked as I wrote out a request in common tongue. He lugged the cube back in a minute later, clearly annoyed, but not overly challenged by its weight.

After he put the cube down on the table next to me, Asat raised an eyebrow at the paper when he saw what I had written on the paper. “That was meant to be for your signature. Now why do you want to know of some noble with a serious injury in the city with arguably the most advanced healing magic in the western continent?”

I smiled politely, “I want to know of a minor family who does not want themselves indebted to the Sisterhood for their ritual spells. Trust me Asat, they hardly seemed to know a tenth of what I do about the human body.” Stones I almost knew more about than them even before I died, though most of that knowledge was related to how to kill others.

“You think the talents you have made you that special? That no one who came before you could know what you do?”

I gave Asat a flat stare. “No, I am sure that there are others with an idea of what I know. People who have spent decades or even continued the work of previous generations. They could even have found out how to change things to a far greater degree than my own talents allow me.” I spoke the last part more for my own benefit than his. The idea of ‘super men’ was as old as time itself and I had little doubt that I would have to deal with them in the future. “The law of iron weighs all equally.”

“Pardon? What was that?”

I blinked and Bella gave her equivalent of a slap on the back of the head. I had spoken my last comment in my old world’s language. I waved Asat question away without worry, if anything it would just make me harder to identify. “It is nothing important, an old saying that does not translate without a story that I do not have time for.”

“Could you at least tell me the language? I am unfamiliar…” There was a slightly hungry look as Asat commented on that, it seemed appropriate given his profession.

I shook my head, I had relaxed too much since I started talking. The greatest danger was from something you were unprepared for and relaxing had a habit of undoing preparations. Bella quickly countered with the fact that we actually did need the moment of rest, but I ignored her. We could rest when we were out of the city. “The point is that I have a talent that I wish to use and the Histones make a habit of making lists of all sorts of different people.”

The histone tilted his head and studied me for a long moment. “I cannot say we keep track of that particular list, but many some here for such reasons, so I can at least tell you who recently arrived, which should help a great deal.”

A young man came up behind Asat and knocked on a metal bookshelf, before entering to stand beside him quietly. Asat gave him a quick glance before looking back at me. “Was there anything else beyond the signing?”

“Will the wards react to unknown magic?” I asked, patting the bone cube.

Asat did not physically, but I felt a pulse of magic come from him. I raised an eyebrow at that, I did not think he was a mage, which meant that he had been talking to be with a Ward Key in his pocket the whole time. I was supposed to be his guest, but he had been prepared to restrain me at a wrong word, “You have a moment.” He said simply.

I smiled and nodded respectfully at him before I let my magic flow into the cube. Wards had varying degrees of sensitivity, so it was better to be polite and safe than sorry.

Bella also took the opportunity to object to me respecting the man more for his precautions than his knowledge, but I could feel her acceptance that it was the same thing either of us would have done.

The cube liquefied and I stood up slowly as it flowed underneath my robe, reforming at even the most basic level as I used my mana to freely manipulate it. Of course the iron daggers I had hidden inside the cube interfered with my mana so I let the daggers and the pouch full of iron fillings fall out the bottom of the liquid bone.

It had taken years to develop the armor and in some ways it was still not finished. Bone was not as simple as most thought it was and I had to modify it to make the current effective and easily reparable armor that I was reforming. Though it would not stop magic, the stuff actually conducted spells fairly well, if I wore some iron over it, I would be well protected from both blade and direct magic.

Bella and I got sidetracked for a moment as we pondered if we could somehow finish that old plan of infusing the bone armor with iron.

“Interesting. Though if I did not know better I would say that you just wrapped yourself in a liquid version of human bone.” Asat the asshat ruined my musings as I finished recreating my bone armor.

I glared at him. “That comment will be off the written record I trust?” You had to use specific language with the history cult.

I got an unabashed smile in response. “All of our personal musings and observations are sealed for 50 years after our deaths, unless otherwise specified.”

I kept glaring at him for a moment longer before I gave in, it might interfere with my movements a few years from now, but if someone – if anyone – could figure out that my armor from that tidbit, than it would more likely be because of Nalk than Histone influence.

If they figured out that it was the first step towards the ‘biopuppet’ design in my head, than I was just going to give up and go find a small, out of the way, island to relax on for the next few decades.

Asat finally turned to address the young man, while I quietly hid away my daggers and morphed a small amount of bone armor to hold the pouch, with its important mithril coin hidden inside. The young man, who I noticed was the same one who answered the door earlier, was reporting that there were many figures moving about on the streets – many people who were definitely not guards.

That got my attention, massacres were great distractions after all- owowow- Bella!? That hurts! Ow! Enough already! Do not go and get so stoning angry over things I think or you will never be calm again. Besides if you are attacking me, who is watching for possible Nalk influence? We need to use this opportunity to try and learn to recognize it if we can.

Bella gave some mental grumbles, but kept on the lookout.

I opened and closed my jaw a few times as I tried to pop my ears, I had no idea what exactly she did just now, but it built up the pressure in my head, fast.

Asat, having seemingly forgotten about me, started following the young man, while not motioning me to do the same. Of course, since he had not told me to stay behind either, I followed.

We quickly went up the stairs and made our way to the third floor, which had a few Histones scribbling away furiously on papers, with one eye covered by some type of lens. I heard Asat say something about all of them being taken as he went over to a window, which promptly came to life and focused on

Unlike most others, it appeared that the histones had no shortage of magical devices, although why could only be guessed at. It may have been some noble tradition to try and bribe them quietly in the hopes of looking better in the future, but that was just speculation.

What was not speculation was the enlarged image of guards arguing with an expanding crowd in the streets. Apparently people were getting tired of staying cooped up.

More Nalk interference or natural human interaction? I asked Bella, who mentally shrugged. If I had to guess I would say the former, but the truth was that trying to spot the effects the Nalks had on the world was likely pointless. Even if I knew what to look for it would not change my reactions, just make me more wary of everything around me. Though that could help at times, it almost made me look even more paranoid when I saw through Bella’s eyes.

I waited a moment as they commented on how the crowd had been growing quickly for the last few minutes. “So, where do you think this is going?” I asked, reminding Asat and the other of my presence.

Asat looked back at me for a moment, “What do you mean?”

I blinked, seriously? The peasants were ignoring orders, most nobles only had 2 reactions to that: ignore it or destroy it and it did not look like this problem was about to go away. Still, I decided to answer his question with a response that seemed less eager for blood and more curious. “Do you think this is going to lead to violence?”

Nobles had this odd view that any disobedience was rebelling against their rule. Rebelling non-nobles, especially the peasant masses in this world, where their seemed to be a large surplus, needed to be put down as soon as possible. Even if you thought that your house was on fire and were going to be burned alive, that was no excuse to break the rules of a lock-down for something as trivial as one’s life.

Nobles were raised separately, told they were special, and almost always had a large amount of magic to show them how different, how superior, they were. It varied from kingdom to kingdom even in my old world, but it seemed to be even worse here as the stoning burnout epidemic took out so many of the normally lowest ranked mages.

Oh, there were a few nobles that I met over the decades who knew what they were doing and how to compromise to prevent bloodshed. However, the majority saw any disobedience as a challenge, or potential revolt. Apparently the nobles in this city, or the ones in charge of the guard at least, leaned more to the former, but it did leave me wondering how far they would let themselves be pushed.

Or I did until Asat rejected the idea. “Some places might be over eager to shed such blood, but the king appointed the commander of the guard himself and that same man is publicly committed to sparing as many lives as possible.”

“Publicly?”

“There were a few problems with the previous, because the guard were basically escorting and extorting the citizenry for anything they could. They were stopped fairly quickly, but only after some young man was attacked by the guard.” I raised an eyebrow, that did not really explain it. “He was a tax collector.” Ah. “Then the guard were obligated to collect the taxes instead and there was quite the resistance.”

I frowned. There must have been more to it than that, but I was more interested in getting out of the city than learning its history. What mattered most was that these guards seemed to have their hands full for the moment.

“That might be my cue to leave then.” I announced, taking note of how both the crowd and the guard were growing. “If you would be so kind as to get me that House name I asked for that is.”

“Corus, get me the list of current noble Houses in the city.” The aide scampered off before Asat made a surprising offer, “If you happened to stay until evening we would put you up for the night.” Asat offered. I was about to ask the catch when he revealed it himself, “Of course we would need to spend that time talking about things that I can formally enter for our records…”

I smiled and politely declined as we turned and walked back to the stairs.

“Not leaving in the night?” He asked quietly.

“That would look suspicious.” I pointed out.

That got a small smile. “Any last questions before you try and explain yourself to the guards?” He asked curiously.

I thought about it as we walked down the stairs, but I had so many other things to deal with at the moment the only question that jumped out at me was something random that Bella and I talked about a long time ago. “What do you know about avotatoes?”

He blinked at that. “They are a crop, are you looking for anything specific?” I gave him a polite smile and a silently prodding look. “They are the staple crop of the majority of the people in the central and eastern continents. They taste fairly good, although the number of different ways to cook them is depressingly limited.” Both Bella and I nodded agreement at that, while Asat paused to think, “beyond that they are rather unremarkable.”

I kept my face blank at that as the aide from earlier brought Asat a small book before moving in front of us to the doorway. “How about when we started farming them?”

Asat stopped and furrowed his brow, keeping silent for a few moment before he started walking again, speaking slowly. “Avotatoes have been farmed in one way or another since the oldest records, it is like asking when the cat or dog was domesticated.”

I had hoped that the Histones had something to back up my theory that they were an artificial crop, but it looked like that was not the case. If anyone created the super crop it would likely have been the elves, thought if that was indeed the case, it would be impossible to confirm.

“You are clearly not a cat person.” I said stiffly as we arrived at the front door, “or you would know that the word ‘domesticated’ need not apply.” The aide in front of us snorted as he started to open the door.

“Recorder Corus, since you understand our guest so well, you may take him to the Los manor.” Asat responded simply, cueing the same aide to start tripping over his own tongue for excuses as he opened the doors. “By the way,” a privacy ward sprung up around us, ensuring that no one outside would be able hear us, “I meant what I said before, whatever story you tell the guards is fine by me, but we will not lie for you. Regardless of what happens, we will remain neutral unless forced to be otherwise.” His face was deadly serious.

So we just had to bluff our way past guards looking specifically for us, then convince a noble family to trust that we were medically competent, and then see if we could not save Dras while we were at it. Guess it is just that time of year, I joked to Bella, who was much less amused.

“Death is not the end Histone, just another headache to be put off as long as possible. Everything else, I will deal with as it comes.”

Asat gave me a genuine smile, “Good luck, Bella.”

I blinked and gave him a questioning look. “Did you just call me Bella? If you have forgotten, you might want to consult your notes Newsman, I could have sworn I told you my name before.”

“Ah, I must be confusing you with someone else, my pardon,” Asat actually bowed.

“Bella is a girl’s name Ass-at, now I believe we have some explaining to do for the local guard?” Bella stopped doing mental somersaults and calmed down just enough to object to me calling him an asshat. In the meantime I mentally marked Asat as a possible Nalk player. I seriously needed to start gathering some allies, but first, I had guards to deal with.

I started walking away, passing through the ward just as Asat began to call after me, “What did you,-” but I was already walking out of the library. Misdirection and theatrics were my best friends at times and I had a tale to spin…

Fun day ahead.

*     *     *

Manor on the outskirts of the Tower Desert of the central continent:

Salos, cursed to himself and threw bad his fourth (or did those three he had earlier count too?) drink of the evening.

It was a bad idea to mix alcohol and magic, but he did not care, he was officially one of the greatest genius in his noble House’s long history and even he had no idea how to make this accursed spell practical!

What was worse, was the way it seemed to be dancing just outside his vision, like there was something keeping him from that grand, final instruction, which would make everything work.

“Whiro take you with a spade and bury you uncle.” He mumbled. Years. It had been 3 years since he had been given access to his thrice cursed, twice removed, singularly – eternally – damnable uncle’s notes. THREE years of being locked up in this accursed manor, sealed away from everything that mattered.

Oh sure, if he wanted whores, food, art, everything was provided for him and would continue to be after he finished the spell, but it was utterly infuriating. He made progress, but it was like he was a blind baby trying to crawl its way out of Elven woods!

In fact it was even more dangerous than that, as the spell he was working on could not only backfire and kill him like it did his uncle, but it was also so important to keep secret that the servants were all under magical contract enforcement!

Salos looked over at one of said servants, waiting obediently to pour his drink. The disgusting creature was a slave in every way that mattered. The thing, he refused to call it a human, still bore the scratches on its face from where Salos had gone into a fit of rage and broken a wine jug over its head to get some sort of reaction. The thing just asked if he would prefer it to clean up the mess or get another jug first.

He was alone, sealed away in a place so secretive that the slaves would kill the whores and burned the bodies within moments of Salos finishing.

Naturally the final spell would be worth it, assuming his family even let HIM live after he completed it.

“I am done for the evening.” The slave bowed and spoke it is gratingly monotone voice.

“Will you be needing anything else this evening Master?”

Salos opened his mouth to ask for a human with a soul, but they might bring him another whore and kill her after he told them no.

Instead he ignored the slave and went back to his room, the plush design and beautifully worked marble architecture doing nothing to make him feel better about the gilded prison the manor had turned into, the moment the promise of the spell design wore off.

His trip was a blur, partly because of the alcohol, but mostly because of how sick and tired he was of the place.

His room, just as disgustingly plush and clean as the rest of the house was, had a half dozen scantly dress slaves in front of it, who all kneeled simultaneously at his approach. “If there is anything you need master than-”

“SILENCE! I want silence you Whiro cursed slaves!” Salos screamed pointlessly at them, his patience having long since have run out for the evening. He stormed into his room and slammed the doors to the no doubt silently mouthed ‘yes Master’ from the slaves.

He knew screaming made no difference, the magic used on the slaves had rendered them little more than intelligent meat, but he did not care. Sleep would refresh him to that realization and let him go back to making the small improvements towards finishing the spell.

…That spell. It would be a year at the most, he was sure, before it was complete. Even if every single change he made was a failure, he would finish the spell in a year.

The applications, once he finally finished the compression dimensions and made the space clearly definable in the ether, would be nearly endless.

Pocket dimensions would change everything and the Histones would record him as their creator… provided he retained his sanity for another year that was.

“You have some security here Sal, it was a royal pain to get in.”

Salos turned around to find his old friend. “Jere.” He smiled for the first genuine time in a long while. “You have no idea how- who is she? Actually, that does not matter, I am just glad I have someone to talk to. This place seems designed to drive men mad.”

“I guessed that from the screaming.” The solidly built, but not especially tall man was sitting in the corner, practically merged into the shadows, but another, female shaped, figure was just visible in the shadows next to him. “How can you say something like that Sal?” His old mocking cadence brought back good memories. “This is my fiancé, the light of my life, and the most wonderful woman on the planet.”

“Keep going, you are still working off the stares you were giving those sluts outside.” A slightly chilly, but not outright cold, voice wafted from the female shape, still wrapped in darkness.

“Aww come on now dear, no need for that!” He pulled the shadow into his lap and to Salos’ surprise, the shadow clung to her, making her impossible to accurately describe as Jere proceed to tickle her.

“A master assassin is tickling his fiancé, who happens to be made of shadows, in my bedroom… Maybe I went mad a while back after all and just did not notice.” Salos shook his head and went to pour himself another drink when he noticed the bottle of purple liquid next to his bed. “You got it for me.”

“Yup,” Jere was behind him, “it was almost as hard as getting in here was. Almost. Thankfully one of the new Conbran Cardinals likes them old, so it was not too difficult to barrow her essence to steal the final ingredient. Ah! Though I should mention that your younger servants were a bit tougher and so we did make a little bit of a mess when we tested exiting the manor earlier.”

“They were dead the moment they accepted the magical obedience contracts.” Solis dismissed. “This will be my backup. When I finally finish that accursed spell-” He shut up before speaking of something he should not. “Thank you.”

“What are friends for? Just remember that you can only use the thing once, after that it will kill you.”

“I will… by the way, when did you two get together?”

“How do you not know that!? It was back before you went and secluded yourself-”

As the two old friend started arguing, they completely ignored the other two being in the room. Neither particularly minded though, as one was letting her future husband enjoy his play time and the other was a being of pure energy that neither the humans nor the manor’s extensive security systems could detect.

From above Leonardo, the Nalk in charge of managing the current Game, silently nodded to himself and looked over to DeMorte’s area to make sure those two young fools were helping him. They had gotten him arrested so they could deal his annoying manner of risk taking to get him out.

Two personalities mixing, melding, and playing the game in one body… DeMorte and Bella were actually becoming a decent wild-card in the Game, something to throw off players they came into contact with, while not likely to win the Game itself.

Since the two brash Nalks were not just doing, but slightly overdoing their new task to protect DeMorte in the city, Leo turned his attention to the forgotten continent.

Like the pocket dimension spell, it had to be properly managed so that it would not be fully ready until the proper time.

Afterwards, those particular bombs would cause enough trouble to make the Game more interesting without breaking it entirely, meaning that it would be nearly perfect.

The west would burn, the east would devour itself, the south would be marched over by countless different forces, and the central continent would practically implode as it tried to control and use the madness for its own gain.

It all started in less than a year now, he could hardly wait.