I approach the shack, making as little noise as possible because I still want to see if she'll try something in the short amount of time it'll take me to reach the door. She still doesn't move but, getting closer, I notice that her eyes are kind of lost in the distance so she might be using a construct.
I send a small trickle of flow out underground, making it pass beneath the floorboards until it sits directly under Aisha. I slowly direct the energy to rise up to her shackles, she shouldn't notice as long as she doesn't look down and doesn't have any of her own energy inside the shackles.
It's difficult to make minute changes when there is so much matter as my symbiont's sense has a lot more difficulty providing details but I manage. The small strand of flow filters inside the shackles, finding no sign of her energy.
I pull the energy back and walk inside. Aisha perks up, looking at me with a small smile on both her faces. I put the stuff I brought back down on the dusty table, apart from the food and blankets which I deposit on top of the pot so they don't get dirty. I walk up to Aisha and kneel next to her. I take hold of her shackles and test the strength of the chains.
“I didn't try anything.” She tells me.
“Hm.” I reply noncommittally.
I take all of my flow out of my reserve. As I do, I try to figure out where the energy is coming from but it simply coalesces in my body from thin fog to a raging stream. I set that question aside and expel the black-gold energy.
My flow is distinctively more golden than it has been, even a couple of days ago, it seems like people are sending me their energy. It makes me feel odd, like the weight on my shoulders shifted a little from the necessity to see this through to a responsibility towards the people of Caeviel.
It's odd though, if people swore their regeneration over to me, then what name did they use? And it works at such a large distance. It seems like the ceremony during which peasantry take an oath towards their liege isn't actually needed, it has more to do with ensuring that peasants use the correct binding words.
And the formality of the kneeling must also implant a subconscious feeling of inferiority. I shake my head and focus on Aisha, she's watching the flow I've gathered around me like an aura.
“Just checking.” I tell her.
I expand the energy and spread it out like a fog, I infiltrate every corner of the shack and then push further as I don't detect any humans within a dozen meters of us. There is a family of six having a meal inside their small house about fifteen meters away, four children.
I detect no sign of a construct in the sphere that my flow occupies, I think it's more reliable to do this than to use my symbiont's sense as it isn't perfect. I expand my energy to fifteen meters.
As I find not a single hint that Aisha did something, I recover the flow and direct it back inside my reserve. The energy gathers into my torso where it fully dissipates, some of it faded as soon as it entered my limbs though.
“Do you really need to keep that illusion on?” I ask.
“It's a habit by now.” She shrugs. “It's not that much of an effort to maintain. I don't mind if Tsek sees me, but I don't want anyone else to so I have to keep it active by default since there's no way to tell for sure when people spy on us.”
“I don't get it, you're one of the Emperor's Shades, what could anyone dare to do to you even if they knew?” I question.
I can figure out a dozen things they could do with that knowledge but I still ask because I don't quite believe her excuses for not intervening in Idali's favor. She throws a quick glance down at her shackles so I unlock them.
“I could be used to feed the Emperor misinformation.” She tells me, rubbing her wrists. “Or get stabbed in the back when I go buy my morning bread.” She adds with a grimace.
I nod to acknowledge I heard her answer and stand up to start dusting the table. Aisha comes over and helps out, taking care of the chairs which she sets in front of the stove. Settle down, extending my hands towards the fire. She settles down next to me just as a cool draft blows into the shack.
“You could have picked a place without a hole in the roof.” Aisha comments, shivering.
“We have blankets.” I reply.
“You didn't think it through, did you?” She teases.
“It's hard to keep track of everything.” I answer awkwardly. “I picked it because there's no direct line of sight to it from the most traveled street and no one cares about this part of the slums, even those who live here since this block is too poor that even the most desperate won't think there's anything worth stealing.”
“It does look the part.” Aisha agrees with a little smile. “We could fix that hole with that piece of tarp you've got for your scimitar.”
“I still need it.” I reply. Mostly because I don't want to be seen with it when I go make my preparations.
“What for? It's not like you can bring it inside the institute.” She notes.
“No, but I can leave it close-by for when we get out.” I lie.
“And you want people to think it's just a tool if see you with it or spot it lingering around.” Aisha nods.
“We've got the afternoon and the entire day tomorrow, I can go buy a hammer and some nails.” I suggest.
“That won't stop melted snow from leaking in, you should buy a small piece of tarp too.” She tells me.
“Sounds like a plan.” I say enthusiastically. “Let's go.”
“In this weather?” She asks, trembling.
“Ah, one second.” I say.
I reach out to my cloak and shake it until it unravels and the runic shackles I stuffed inside fall out. I then hand it over to Aisha who wraps it tightly around her shoulders. I throw a few more wooden debris in the stove and add a bit of energy to the fire construct.
“You weren't born in the north, were you?” I question.
“Nope, was spawned in southern of Mirus.” She tells me.
“Spawned?” I repeat, laughing.
“From cunning darkness!” She exclaims playfully.
“Right.” I drawl.
Aisha winks at me, I roll my eyes at her but don't press her on the choice of word, it seems like she said that to misdirect from the subject of her mother but it ironically brought my attention to it when I likely wouldn't have noticed anything.
We make our way out together. I feel rather enthusiastic about this task since it is very unlikely it'll end in betrayal. Aisha pulls my cloak's hood fully over her head. Probably because of her short hair don't offer much protection against the intensifying cold wind, she cut them to disguise herself.
“So, how confident are you?” Aisha asks.
“I have no clue.” I reply honestly. “There are objectives I'm pretty sure I'll achieve, others I don't know enough to venture a guess, and quite a few that can go either way.”
“Like what?” She questions.
“Like you.” I reply flatly. “You could turn on me for some unforeseen reason.”
“True.” She agrees with a grimace. “But unlikely, Cecil would never let it go if I did that.”
“You planned to hand me over to the institute like a bone to a dog to begin with.” I coldly remind her.
“It's not like I knew how bad Suxen was, I had only met her a few times.” Aisha protests.
“Oh yeah? How did she treat Cetyz then?” I challenge her.
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“I... That's diff...” She pauses, her eyes quickly glancing at my symbiont. “It probably doesn't look different to you but I wouldn't have left you to rot there.”
“Yea, because that woman is so reasonable she would have just let me and Cetyz go.” I say sarcastically. Dissing the Director actually helps alleviate the fear I feel towards her.
“Cenwalh would have, he's ambitious but not suicidal.” Aisha tells me. “And not too bad in bed.” She mutters.
“Do you try to sleep with everyone you run into?” I ask, baffled.
“Part of the day job.” She says with a grin. “But it's not really part of my real job, it just helps and I enjoy it. Two stones for one bird.”
“I don't think that's the saying.” I comment, shaking my head but smiling in spite of myself. “And I can kind of hear an innuendo in there, please don't explain.”
“Fine, I won't.” Aisha grins. “Tell me whatever you can about the problems you see coming.”
“Well, there's Suxen and her Numbers, I won't know for sure if I can beat them until I face them.” I pause to gather my thoughts. “Then there's Cetyz, I don't know what state she'll be in and if I'll be able to get her out of Meiridin. Then there's the rest of the institute's... researchers which I don't know anything about. Then there's...”
“Hold up!” Aisha stops me. “The researchers aren't going to fight you, they're not the kind of people to put their lives on the line, you can scare them off. Cetyz is a lot tougher than you seem to think, it takes a lot more to truly kill a Princess than it does to incapacitate them so she won't be accidentally dying if you're a bit forceful when you try to wake her up. And... um, what else was there?”
“The Numbers since I know I can get out of the city if Cetyz is conscious, if not then I have contingencies in mind.” I tell her.
“Well, the fighting is your area of expertise.” She shrugs. “But if I can discreetly help, I will.”
“Discreetly?” I ask.
“Or less so, I guess I tend to go with sneaky.” Aisha says with a corner smile. “This is why I don't trust you.” I groan.
“Yet, you depend on me to disable Suxen's defenses.” She comments.
“Not entirely.” I lie as I won't be depending on her at all. “There won't be any disruption constructs so I'll be able to use my own flow.”
“That's not enough to beat her. But then again, your suicidal threats are plenty enough to keep me focused on pulling us through this, I really don't want to see you die.” Aisha tells me with a serious expression. Vikiana's right, the Shade thinks she's the one who'll make this work.
“But you're fine with watching me get cut up.” I note.
“Suxen knows what she's doing, your life wasn't at risk and if it was I would have handled it.” She protests.
Aisha's sense of empathy seems to be... skewed. Or she's really good at rationalizing. I sigh and decide to cut this conversation short before I reveal something that'll clue her into my plan.
“So, hammer and nails.” She says.
“And tarp.” I add.
I lead us to a marketplace where I remember seeing a general store. The owner is a muscular man, odd for his occupation, with a tiny beard which looks like it was trimmed just this morning.
He is more than welcoming, a bit too much actually as he cannot seem to stop chattering about the weather, the war, his son who just got accepted as an apprentice. The owner even goes through his shelves to pick up what we need and cuts a square of tarred canvas that'll fit the hole instead of making us pay for the whole thing.
We chat with him for a while but take our leave as he's a bit overwhelming and we aren't learning anything new. I carry the hammer, nails, and piece of tarp on the way back to let Aisha stretch her legs since she spent most of the last month shackled without the opportunity to get much exercise except when we met Suxen.
Aisha actually didn't complain much at all overall, I had a harder time locked up on the ship than she did and I spent less time in that cell. I suppose it helps that I didn't torture her or threaten her life... much.
“So, about those loose flow formulas...” I start. “Do you just throw segments together until something sticks?” I'm rather certain that I've been told that you're a lot more likely to die while trying that than to make a construct.
“No, no.” She laughs. “That would be pretty dangerous, it's actually how someone found out that it's possible to breach flow containment.”
“Oh. How do you do that?” I ask.
“You don't.” Aisha tells me firmly. “The explosion would kill you and anyone in a ten-meter radius at most.”
“At most? Not at least?” I question, a bit confused.
“That's about the point at which the explosion runs out because it's slower to spread than the rate at which flow dissipates. The energy required to expand the explosion radius increases exponentially and it becomes unrealistic to push it beyond ten meters.” Aisha explains. “The issue with this is that the one who causes the explosion inevitably dies in the resulting flow breach because it's too complicated to do from afar. As far as I know, there is no safe way to use this and the Emperor has declared research on the subject blasphemous. That doesn't make it illegal but it does make it forbidden if you're funded by the Empire.”
“Wise of our Emperor, if he forbid it, I have no doubt Nobility would have continued in secret and caused some kind of disaster.” I nod. “And it does seem blasphemous.”
“To go back to your earlier question.” She skips over a puddle of half-melted snow. “Throwing segments together would be like trying to solve an equation by testing one number at a time for each variable, with the possibility that each attempt to activate the construct will end up with it blowing up in your face.” I throw her a blank stare. “Or trying to build a house from the top down without a blueprint.” She adds.
“Ah.” I chuckle. “Not a good idea.”
“The University's flow engineering department experiments with unstructured flow to find what you can do with it, like making sparks or moving air or making a material sturdier. From there, they build around it, adding segments like scaffolding until they have a construct that imitates the process that unstructured flow goes through to produce the intended effect.” She explains.
“So I could theoretically do it myself.” I comment.
“Well, there is some danger involved. The engineering department has been rebuilt a few times over the centuries because bad things happen when you don't know what you're doing.” She tells me, shaking her head. “There is an entire wing that's closed off because people grow tumors if they spend too long in it.”
“Scary.” I say.
“Well, yea.” She agrees. “It's not as bad as I'm making it but it is risky.”
“Noted.” I say. “Why is Suxen so dead-set against this that she's here instead of at the University? It seems like, crazy as she is, she has the skills to be respected in there.”
“Well, like I said. She thinks, and I agree, that they're skipping steps without taking the time to study what flow is doing. She got into her spat with her old teachers years ago when she tried to explain to them that it would benefit the Empire if engineering stuck to improving the constructs we have and building new ones from concepts we have a firm understanding of rather than pushing ahead without looking back.” Aisha tells me.
“It would have prevented a whole lot of harm if that woman was under our Emperor's watchful eye rather than out here, without any moral guidelines to follow.” I note somberly.
“I don't disagree.” She says with a frown. “Cenwalh crossed many lines by letting her do as she wishes, either he didn't know or he didn't care.”
As we cross into the slums, I think back to our earlier conversation. Aisha changed the subject with a remark about the King's performance in bed. She was probably trying not to linger on the fact that she planned to use me like a pawn, likely realizing that even if I believed that she didn't intend to abandon me, it wouldn't have improved my opinion of her methods.
We take a turn at the alley leading to the small shack. There are a few people with their flaps open but no real clear sight of the door or the roof so I jump up to grab the roof and climb to up on it. The edge is slightly damp making my knees a bit wet.
Aisha simply reaches up and takes hold on the edge, pulling herself to my side with some difficulty. I'm definitely tall enough to reach too but my way was easier.
I hand her the tarp so she can lay it over the hole and hold it in place while I hammer the nails into each corner. I take care not to hit too hard as the wooden rooftop isn't the sturdiest, especially while the two of us are weighing down on it.
I hand her the nails so she can place them on the rim while I hammer them in. It takes us barely five minutes to finish. I hop off the roof as it looks too slippery for my liking.
Aisha starts sitting down, placing one hand on the edge, likely planning to leaning forward and slide off. Crack. A tiny piece of the roof breaks when she puts her full weight down on her hand and she slips off.
“Aaah!” She exclaims.
I reach up and catch her by the waist. She blinks and takes a deep breath before locking eyes with me. I return a flat glare, suspecting that it wasn't entirely an accident. The Shade isn't so scatter-headed that she wouldn't have seen this coming and she isn't clumsy either.
“Hello there.” She whispers.
“Did you do that on purpose.” I accuse her.
“A bit.” Aisha says with a mischievous grin.
I let her go all at once and take a step back. She adroitly lands on her feet, like a feline. I glance down, the worn pavement seems just as slippery as the wooden roof. Aisha winks and heads inside.
As my eyes home in on her backside, I notice a slight tremble in her walk, making me second-guess my conclusion as is the usual with her. She could be faking fright or have lied to conceal the fact that she slipped up.
Or her shaking could be because wanted to get close to seduce me but once my left hand touched her, she remembered how much of a monster I am. I groan and walk inside behind her.
I feel the pull to get back at her for this regardless of what actually happened. Except, I can't trust that desire as it originates from my loneliness rearing its head once more.
I decide to turn my back on her and settle at the stove to make dinner. I refuse to engage with her during the entire meal. I take away the energy she's regenerated during the day and put her back into her shackles as soon as she's finished her bowl.
Before going to sleep, I inject enough flow into the runic shackles that they'll stay activated through the night and throw her a blanket before wrapping myself into another and settle down in a chair, placing my feet on the table.
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