Chapter 83: Malevolent Emergency

Subject: Inis Location: Arlcada - Blightbane Guild - Guild Hall

Inis was retrieving her belongings from the restroom when she heard the sound of heavy boots pounding in the hall. Shouting filled the air, and then there was the sound of a partially muffled order over the clamor.

"Crescent Squad, cull the malevolent!"

Boots pounded in the other direction. Someone entered the restroom.

"Anchor Squad, assist with the evacuation!"

More boots sounded their exit, but Inis was more concerned with the familiar voice calling out to her from the other side of the curtain.

"Inistra... You in there?"

Her heart sank before she could place the voice.

"Come on, now. I saw you go in. No one knows I'm here."

Inis flung open the curtain and a stranger looked back at the door, confirmed no one was looking, and stepped inside. She closed the curtain.

"I thought... But your voice..."

"You thought right. It's me, your newest confident: Fragmata. Did you think an illusionist like me couldn't pull something like this off? I'm offended."

Before her stood an innocent-faced redhead with curly locks tied back in a bun. She was dressed as a seeker Midknight, perfectly so, but Inis felt only bitter about it. If this was an illusion, it meant the Hexknight was tremendously more competent at spellcasting than she was, having woven this disguise in less than a day. Inis's own disguise had taken many days of planning, grueling work, and a whole lot of coin.

I'm exhausted, and all my ugly emotions are leaking out.

"You're thinking something mean, aren't you? Well we don't have time for that. Your wagon is waiting, so we need to get you out of here. But you're in luck. This chaos will help you get away. Maybe even conceal that you were ever here."

Together, they left the Guild hall, keeping out of the way of the seekers and guild staff running about. Inis's eyes lingered on the anguished faces entering the Guild.

Outside, there were rows of wounded lined up for treatment before they could be moved to more permanent accommodations.

"If this is luck, I'd hate to see misfortune."

"Be careful, you might just get what you ask for someday. But this is strange. They're coming from that festerfont you were living near. Weren't you hunting there?"

Legitimate concern. This Hexknight cared more about random seekers than she did about her "own kind", the government elite.

"I hunted it dry, seemed like. And now it's full of malevolent?"

Fragma tilted her head in thought.

"That normal?"

Oh, of course she wouldn't know the answer to that. It was easy to forget that most people didn't know a lick about the Blight.

"Not to my knowledge. I don't normally stay too long, but this would go against the very purpose of culling a festerfont's blightbeasts."

Even the Champions weren't returning unscathed. They didn't need emergency treatment, but Inis, Fragma, the Guild, and everyone else could plainly see their morale had been thrashed. It was a procession of the beleaguered.

"Well, maybe I'll look into it while you're gone. I figured you'd be more... you know... trashed, but you don't seem to be carrying much. Anticipating that, I hired someone to drive you outta here. Did you even make it out with anything? I don't blame you for giving up and turning back. Half expected that alarm to be for you."

"I didn't give up and I didn't 'physically take' anything," she tapped her head. "It's all up here."

The disguised Hexknight looked at her quizzically, still leading Inis to wherever the driver was waiting. Inis chuckled softly. She was warming up to this violent oddball.

She's still extremely dangerous, a voice inside warned her. Well, not so much a voice as a feeling.

"I used Memory Trace, but now I'm going to have to write everything down. Unfortunately, it looks like most of it will go to waste. The reason I'm little worse for wear is that those potions concocted by your chemist were more useful than I thought they'd be. Kept me from draining myself dry again."

It was Fragma's turn to laugh. She stepped into an empty side-street and traced a golden pattern in the air. An object in her pocket glowed blue in pulsing resonance with her eyes. She was looking for something, but there was nothing there but a wall.

Then, in one heavy motion she drew a purple cloth bag from an empty space in the air. She handed the bag to Inis, who slid it over her shoulder, too stunned to refuse.

"He knew you'd dip too deep into the veritable arcane well, and need a crutch while you learned to control yourself. This gift comes with a warning: 'don't rely too heavily on borrowed energy or it will burn you in the end.'"

"Noted," Inis answered. "Tell him thanks for me. I've no intention of overusing this gift."

Then, she thought of a way she could pay back her benefactor.

"There's a woman here in the city who sells rare arcane goods. She isn't affiliated with Shroud, but she occasionally does business with the Guild."

Inis shared the name of the women who'd so generously sold her the spellbook that sourced her most recent crime. She did feel bad about involving this stranger, but it was a test of the Hexknight's intentions. If she ever returned to the city, she would check up on the both of them.

"What are you saying really?"

"Who knows? Maybe Lucrue needs a place to sells some of his excess potions? This woman knows the value of goods like that. She won't try to insult you, and she has no unfavorable loyalties, but I'm sure you'll want to confirm all that for yourself. Feel free to test her all you want."

Again, Inis felt a small pang of guilt. Barely noticeable.

"I'll take your referral to heart, thank you for your consideration," Fragma laughed.

She didn't know what to make of Inis's words. The walked in neutral silence for a short while.

"We're here," Fragma announced, gesturing to a man waiting by Inis's mechanical wagon.

"Mertalo?!" Inis exclaimed, seeing the face of the man who'd brought her to this city, post memory scar.

"Seeker girl!" Mertalo greeted. "Seems you've been busy since you got here."

"You two know each other?" Fragma asked.

Mertalo looked at the disguised Hexknight, none the wiser.

"Am I taking the both of you?"

Fragma giggled and shook her head. Inis answered in the negative.

"She'd just as well be rid of me, but I've no intention of overstaying my welcome. I have business here, and my knights would be utterly lost without me."

"Knights?" Mertalo asked. "Did she just say--"

"You don't want to know," Inis interrupted.

He stroked his chin.

"Don't need to tell me twice. Get in, boss. Ride's paid through to wherever in Pulse you want to go from here."

"Is that so..." Inis asked, but Fragma had already vanished, without so much as a goodbye.

She got in, looking behind her to find none of her belongings blatantly absent or tampered with among the lot.

"Where we headed?"

"Maliscade. I heard a silly rumor about a flashy idiot. I want to see if it's true."

"Say no more. I knew this journey would be interesting. You haven't disappointed me yet."

She immediately opened the bag of potions and downed one, savory the sweet flavor, so unlike a blightseed. Then, Inis retrieved an inkwell and a tied stack of expensive paper from her belongings. She dipped an even more expensive pen in ink and triggered a Keen Recall of the memories tagged by her Memory Trace spell.

"I'll need silence for a while. It will be a period of heavy concentration."

"Say no more, seeker friend."