Dianthus didn’t recognize Velvet at first.

Unless he used the spell to become unable to see the Escas true form, what he saw was always a monster, first and foremost.

Two piles of ink-stained books and single pages with multiple eyes, that’s how Velvet and Harlan looked to him. But it was the fact that both of them were knowledge mages that made the difference in their forms pop out more.

One of the monsters had teeth growing on the side. Sharp, animal-like, as if a beast was biting the pages from inside-out.

Even so, that wasn’t the thing that caught his attention, nor was the blood mixed with the ink.

No, the thing calling his attention the most was the eye, different from the knowledge Esca’s eyes, with a red iris situated just under a small green light.

A green light he harbored some disgust for. Lothrigern’s beacon.

Unfortunately for him, the instants he spent to look at all the things wrong with that monster were enough for Frenese to realize something was wrong, snitching to Velvet.

Devils were too perceptive of any emotional fluctuation. Even when sealed, Frenese noticed how his heart skipped a beat.

He might’ve been wrong about the reason for Dianthus to stare, but the end result was the same. Velvet got alerted, and she now knew that he had some way to detect devil’s deals.

And giving knowledge to a knowledge mage was a problem. Especially if the knowledge mage in question was a bomb just waiting to be set off.

Dianthus wanted nothing more than to sock Frenese at this moment. But first, he had to do damage control with Velvet, before she got the wrong idea.

So he did the shushing motion. And it worked. Then, he spoke to his mind companion.

“That red eye, is it another mark?”

“Of course it is.”

Forget socking Frenese, he was going to sock Velvet. “Why does she keep pulling up the… what did you call them?”

“Deriliam, Creators. Near omniscient, near omnipotent entities.”

“Don’t they have anything better to do than to follow a human?”

“Do you really think they are keeping close watch on her? If they do that, she’ll explode.”

“Then?”

The voice didn’t have time to answer him, since Velvet went next to him to talk.

“I didn’t know you had any interest in engraving. Is this what they call being a novelty seeker?”

Not the pot calling the kettle black.

Even so, he answered honestly. “Oh, I don’t have any. I was taking a stroll when an old woman started saying that she had a great, interesting class I had to try. She then brought me here. Didn’t know it was about engraving.”

He didn’t miss Velvet’s reaction, the way she twisted her smile, showing a bit of sharp teeth.

“Dianthus, did you get kidnapped?”

He almost snorted at that. It would be funny if Arhontissa allowed any mage from another continent to drag him anywhere.

“It happens sometimes. Must be fate.” He lied.

He was always being monitored. The only exceptions were the Opening, because the Mergifari prohibited official mages from entering and the point of entrance was random, preventing someone like Igern getting forcefully teamed up with him, and the times when he went to the bathroom.

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And he actually had to argue a lot to be allowed privacy there.

Arhontissa wasn't going to let him leave. The fact that the Chosen One was born on their side was a miracle.

A miracle they wouldn't lose no matter what.

Right now, an Arhontissian official mage was present in the room, monitoring him. Dianthus didn't see them, but he could hear their thoughts.

If the official mage who brought him here tried something, his monitor would step up instantly.

He had tried to get kidnapped sometimes, so he could guarantee how things would turn out.

No one ever made it. A shame, really.

“Fate, huh.” Velvet said, lost in thought.

So lost that Dianthus peeked at her thoughts. He didn’t exactly respect privacy, stopping caring about that long ago.

I wonder what my fate is… of course, with Lothrigern in the middle, any guess is as good as nothing.

Your fate is becoming a pipe bomb… Dianthus wanted to answer.

He also wanted to get more information, but he didn’t want to get his supervisor's attention on Velvet. That would endanger her.

And he didn’t know how Lothrigern would react to her being threatened.

A part of him wanted to find out, just out of curiosity, but another, the reasonable part, stopped him.

He had found out once, after all.

If he wanted to get information from Velvet, he needed to do so in a way his monitor didn’t suspect anything. He had the Frenese issue, and the second formation to discuss.

If Frenese hadn’t snitched like a sewer rat, he could ask Velvet how the issue with the devil’s book was going, but, since he did, asking that was akin to a threat.

Velvet didn’t know there was an official mage in the room, and he wanted to keep it that way. If he warned her, his monitor might suspect that he was planning something with a Charlampian mage.

“So,” He started. “What do you remember of the second formation? I’ve been researching the culprit.”

He didn’t need to specify. Velvet and him weren’t acquaintances, having only seen each other three or four times.

Velvet turned to him slowly. “Why? Are you bored?”

Dianthus squinted. However, Velvet’s thoughts didn’t give him an answer. “They erased all magic traces.”

“Is that so?” Now she was being smug, which made Dianthus want to be more smug than her.

“Yes, you might not have the importance of being allowed to check the place, but I do.”

“And you didn’t find anything? That’s so lame!” She snickered.

A human-demon hybrid baby… That was one of the things Velvet’s thoughts showed him.

“I know more than you.”

“I know who’s the culprit. Without needing to see the formation, or using magic.”

“Now you’re just empty bragging.” Dianthus said, just to regret it at the same instant.

Because she knew, dammit.

And teasing a knowledge mage about faking knowing something tended to make them talk.

“Sure?” Velvet grinned. “Who would try to harm the biggest Idir family, who is currently in a fight for the throne?”

“Think about the end goal, not the consequences. To official mages, novice mages being killed is nothing to worry about. But most of the novice mages killed were children of Idir mage families.”

She knew all of that from Kartal’s files. Vina and the majority of her companions were descendants of important Idir mages.

“Idir is in a civil war of sorts, and who wins the most by worsening it?”

Velvet fell silent after saying that. If Dianthus didn’t catch the meaning, he was simply too naive.

Luckily for him, he wasn’t. And the other thing he wasn’t was enamored to his continent. That’s why Velvet’s refusal to spell the answer worked with him.

Who won the most after the incident?

The answer was simple, Arhontissa.

The Machia was coming to a close, and, for it to end, a deity must die.

Mirel and Paraiso were impossible to approach, and so were their believers. That only left Arhontissa and Idir.

It was no wonder that the Mergifari stopped investigating. They simply collected the debt, not interested in meddling in the deities' affairs.

Both Arhontissa and Idir were allied to the Mergifari, and they sent more novice mages than the ones lost. Cutting ties for what was a political issue wasn’t in the Mergifari’s interests.

And war always made stronger mages.