Chapter 92: Fallout

I didn’t regret declining the communications upgrade a while back, but at the same time, I’d be lying if I claimed that resulting inefficiencies never got on my nerves. Having to parrot back Pumpkin’s report to the peanut gallery meant it took at least twice as long, and there was always the risk of the resulting message getting distorted along the way. Probably not with a single middle man, admittedly, especially one with a memory as good as mine, but the Telephone game existed for a reason, and was a clear and ever present threat when managing any sizable organisation. Language is tricky like that, all it takes is a single misunderstanding, and suddenly an entire night is wasted cleaning the office and cooking the books, all because some moron texted ‘Police visiting tomorrow, heads up’ without clarifying that his dog was named Police. Still, I persevered, because this information was important for keeping myself alive, if nothing else.

“Gods above.”

It was admittedly interesting to watch Kyle turn progressively paler as my retelling went on. He was already naturally fair, but he resembled a ghost by the time I reached the cave, and near the end he pulled out a flask from parts unknown, one that reeked of ethanol even with the lid closed tight. It probably wasn’t the best idea, getting drunk with an unknown threat on the horizon, but there were also far worse coping mechanisms, so I begrudgingly let him be.

“The Changer of Ways? Where have I heard that name before?”

Amelia took my ill tidings a lot more calmly, which was to be expected given she was half a kingdom away, and thus very unlikely to be harmed by it, whatever the outcome for the rest of us. Her voice remained level through, though I could hear a faint crackling now, coming through the connection to her summon, one that persisted even after she stopped speaking.

“Found it,” Amelia declared after a few minutes of silence, precipitated by a loud thud.

It wasn’t crackling at all, I belatedly realised, by the sound of hundreds of pages turning in unison. I’d heard small bursts like it before, when attending my final exams, but they were largely one off events: either the entire cohort opening their test papers at the start of the timer, or closing them when time ran out. Such a sustained rhythm, to my ears, suggested that pages had never stopped turning throughout that entire sequence; the fact that Amelia was able to find anything useful from it indicated access to a private library at minimum, alongside a rather terrifying ability to process information.

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“It’s no deity I’ve ever heard of,” I replied blandly, my total disinterest in such matters showing through.

I’d still grab a System upgrade from its church, given the chance, but I was in no hurry to commit any to anything deeper than a transactional relationship with the powers above, much like I had in my previous life. It was more efficient that way, and probably safer to boot, given the substantial power they possessed in this new world.

“Don’t mention it, literally. Speaking that name alone is grounds for detention and interrogation if heard by the wrong ears, and that’s just in peacetime. After what you uncovered tonight, that’s probably going to be upgraded to a summary execution.”

“Is it going to be another war?” Kyle interjected, somehow finding the time between gulps of hard spirits. “Just like my master spoke of, when I was barely a man.”

“How do you figure?” I asked, furrowing my brows, because that seemed like a rather extreme tangent to head down. “Granted, a hidden cult of Changelings was never going to be a good thing, but Pumpkin found and disrupted the ritual before it could finish. Shouldn’t that be the end of it, minus a bit of cleaning up by the city guards?”

“If a plot like this happened almost anywhere else, I’d agree with you,” Amelia sighed, dashing my hopes that this was a one and done. “But it didn’t, it just had to happen in Heaven’s Reach, one of the two terminus points of the Wall, one of the two largest, most vital fortifications for maintaining the entire structure. There are forts scattered along the entire length, responsible for their local zone of control, but none are comparable in scale to the endpoints. They can handle themselves, but when a sustained assault pushes the limits of a garrison, those endpoints are where fresh reinforcements come from; whichever one is closer to the point in question. The point I’m emphasizing is that Heaven’s Reach isn’t a military base, it’s the military base responsible for half the Wall. What happens here dictates the policy and posture of the entire region, do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I think so,” I agreed, a familiar sinking feeling making itself known down below. “If and when we report what happened, news will go out to everybody that matters about large scale Changeling infiltration. It might already have spread, depending on how well connected Pumpkin’s friend is with the top brass. Once that happens, security will be heightened everywhere, making any repeats of tonight much harder to pull off. The Changelings must know this, so the only reason they’d be so brazen about grabbing sacrifices…”

“Is because stealth no longer matters to them,” Kyle concluded, shaking his now empty flask.

When it failed to produce any more rotgut, he pressed it between his fingers and crushed it, tossing the remnants into the empty cell for someone else to deal with. Let it be known that recycling was not a priority in a militarised medieval kingdom, not in the slightest. As the metal fragments bounced around, it brought to mind the noise I’d heard on Pumpkin’s end of the call. I’d thought it just a local scuffle at the time, but in light of this new information?

“Say, you don’t think…”

The entire prison shuddered, nearly throwing me to the floor as screams filled the air above.

“Never mind.”