“Your turn, tell me your boons,” Krahe prompted. “Just the effects, no need to list the names.”
“Surely, you have more than one boon.”
“Of course, but I suspect you have already figured them out. My other boons grant me a Kenoma Pocket, play havoc with appraisal magic, and facilitate my unique abilities pertaining to harnessing anathema and tolerating Isotope,” Krahe said, purposely leaving out most of the actual details and completely leaving out Chernobog’s Mystic Wisdom.
A confused question came from Casus: “Isotope?”
“Anathemic remnants. I found it easier to assign a one-word name to it.”
“Ah. That is a good name for it. I’ve always found it strange that it is so often simply called anathema or anathemic remnants. Even the specific names it has are merely local slang. Bane Soot or just Soot is the most common one I’ve heard of.”
“C’mon, your boons,” she reiterated, continuing to read the Xaugeth Ecyclopedia. “I wager most of them are something to do with Mamon Couplers.”
Casus nodded.
“As the Foreman mentioned, I possess a Boon which forcibly raises my compatibility with any Mamon Coupler. Another guarantees the presence of an arm-mounted weapon, nearly always a long, slender blade, as you have seen. My Mamon Knight transformations are abnormally durable, scaling with my Durability attribute, and I can push them to perform well beyond their normal specifications for short periods of time. I derive minor benefits from any Coupler I am wearing even if I am not transformed, and lastly, I can make use of Catalysts that would normally only be usable by a specific person, for any reason. However, there are… Side effects. Surely you noticed the change to my personality when I donned the mantle of Silberblut - that is the side effect. The “true” user’s personality bleeds into mine.”
“Can’t say I’m even a bit surprised about those. Well, I guess I’ll have to look into Eidolons before I can make any use of them. Does the Church have exclusive tomes on these subjects, or should I just visit a library?”
“I do not know. Apostles do gain access to some restricted sections of church libraries, however.”
“Figured as much, I’ll look in the Central Temple first, then...”
“You would want the Temple of Records, instead. It is not difficult to find, the building stands adjacent to the Central Temple.”
Despite saying as much, Krahe remained as she was, on the sofa, for the next hour and a half, reading. Casus, true to his habits, also took to reading after ensuring his Mamon Couplers were all in a good condition and storing them away elsewhere in the safehouse. Then, eventually, she rose up, and looking out the window, stretched in place, and Casus beheld the gruesome manner in which the Liminal Coil protruded out of her back, creating an unsettling shape even through her biosuit. Despite having seen many grafts, something about that particular sight made a shiver run down the banisher’s back. Right then, taking the remaining Class 1 suppressant pills with her, she was off.
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Krahe, first of all, bought a pair of tight leather pants and a button-up shirt, getting them adjusted on the spot to better fit her. She also bound her hair into a ponytail to disrupt anyone that might be looking for her based on a description. Even small changes such as these could have a tremendous effect. Thereafter, she made her way to a place where she could have breakfast and listen in on people’s morning conversations. She constantly kept an eye out and moved in such a way as to make less of a target out of herself; this didn’t mean scurrying through side alleys alone, as she didn’t know the city well enough to make that the optimal strategy, but rather using crowds and open spaces to vanish in plain sight. Even if an assassin were to see her, most professionals would try to avoid collateral damage. She was fairly confident that if she kept an eye out, she could dive or skim before an assassin’s shot could reach her, even if it was the same individual as before. No attempt on her life was made, nor did she feel any hostile intent; all she felt were wandering eyes crawling upon her back, as her shirt was half-transparent, and her biosuit’s colour made it shine through all the more. She wagered, though, that it was more the gruesome shape of her spine than the biosuit. Eyes upon her left arm were, of course, a foregone conclusion. So long as she didn’t move it much it wasn’t too much of a stare-magnet.
The place she ended up at was neither seedy, nor squeaky clean. It was a happy medium between the two, with good food and drinks at a reasonable price, singled-off stalls, and staff that acted as invisible as the likes of Imraal. It was the sort of eatery she would have considered a really great place to eat and ask about local goings-on back home. In Audunpoint, it was one among many, easily found if one knew how to look.
One of the first things she learned in the course of her investigation was that there was a standing order to all Hashem Family members to report her location and to kill her if the opportunity presented itself, but to not actively go out of their way to come after her - specifically in that wording. From what intel she managed to gather, the higher-ups were effectively treating her as an enemy gang member, rather than a priority target.
She was perfectly content to reciprocate this treatment until she determined why an attempt had been made on her life. It was possible, likely even, that a higher-up in the Hashem Family had hired the killer. They were the only ones who had a motive. Krahe had another coffee with her proper breakfast, finding this one to taste completely different from what Casus brewed; it was silky and buttery, without an iota of sugar, pushing notes of caramel into her nostrils. Her breakfast, rather than anything salty or meaty, was a nougat-like candy with whole pistachios inside, apparently a timeless classic eaten all throughout the Afshani Sultanate and beyond. She banished the cloying sweetness with a kind of baked biscuit made with pork rinds that were ground up into the dough, with the rendered pork fat used as a leavener.