It took most of an hour, promises of various smaller favors, and a blood pact that Jair would return to reclaim their ancestral artifact, but they returned to the Nuprima platform for the return trip with Lorsit in tow.
Even with that, it left them to wait another hour before the final evening shipment, since Tolue wasn’t high on anyone’s priority list. They had to really rush to get back to a Veor passage on time. Silvas - one of Veor’s twin trade cities, and an intercontinental manufacturing powerhouse - would have a dozen different reserved Nuprima passage timeslots. Including the very last Almas departure of the day.
Ran, Jair, and Lorsit caught that final Silvas departure, though it ran their considerable spending money nearly entirely dry in the process.
From there, local transit to Astralla City was entirely routine.
Ran found a place for Lorsit to spend the week leading up to the planned break-in, and he and Jair returned to the Institute in time for dinner.
“So, how’d you like our whirlwind tour of the system?” Jair stole a glance at his friend between bites.
Ran nodded, a sort of half smile playing across his lips. “I had fun. A lot of fun, really. I almost wish it could be Terlunia every day, now.”
“So do most kids,” Jair pointed out, grinning.
Ran huffed a semi-laugh, but his tone remained contemplative. “You… really do know a lot about everything.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll catch up pretty soon.”
“No, it’s not… I’m not worried, but I…” he set aside his utensils with careful precision. “You weren’t lying, were you?”
“I don’t generally lie unless the truth won’t suffice. I certainly wouldn’t lie to you.”
“No, I don’t mean me, I mean…” he waved a hand. “Lorsit. Yast. The aviankin on the floating mountain. You’ve made a lot of promises today. How many of them do you intend to keep?”
So that’s what was bothering him.
“All of them.” Jair spoke with clear conviction, banishing any hint of levity.
“Why now?”
“Assuming you don’t have other plans, we are setting out on a decade-long effort to entirely change the fate of the planet. Sometimes that will require deception, murder, and betrayal of trust, but honest exchange to mutual benefit is more often the ideal route. Causes fewest potential problems in future, as well, and we’re going to be playing the long game here.”
“Yet a few hours ago you would have gladly taken someone’s knowledge and offered them nothing in return?”
“Knowledge does no one any harm for us to have obtained it without their knowing.”
“Except when it manipulates them.”
“No. That is an action I could take, and no fault of the information itself. I could know how to destroy your family’s finances entirely, know the exact phrases to whisper to the perfect individuals to bring the Serin name to ruin and disgrace. So long as I take no such action, my knowing it is harmless. I am the one who’s capable of manipulation, not knowledge in and of itself.”
Ran shifted uncomfortably. “Is that something you know? How to ruin us?”
“Of course. I know how to ruin half the families in the city. Mainly not the ones I want to, unfortunately. Turns out, the people who know they have something to hide do a lot better job of hiding it than the ones who think themselves secure and faultless. But that’s beside the point. There are people who I will actively exploit, but Lorsit and Yast are both reliable, respectable, and helping them aligns well with my own goals. The stormkin would be dangerous enemies to provoke even without having laid claim to their ancestral blessings. To renege on my commitments to them would be beyond idiotic.”
The next several days passed with their usual mundanity. Jair and Ran did their exercises, Ran worked on his imprints, Jair worked on solidifying his manabody - greatly helped along by the Nuprima exposure.
That gave them time to work out the last few details in their plan.
* * *
STEAL AUTHORIZATION TOKEN. One very important missing piece in their preparation.
Jair tapped their half-completed plan diagram with his pointer stick. "This one's going to be tricky. Larenok's paranoia makes him a difficult adversary at the best of times. He carries the token on his person at all times, as far as I’ve been able to discern. There’s no way to overpower him inside the Institute, not without already being able to bring in outside help. Which, if we could do that, we wouldn’t need to bother with him at all.”
“He doesn’t live on-site, though, so we should be able to ambush him out in the city. Maybe even lure him away into a vulnerable location?"
"That would be ideal, sure, but do you know of any way to convince him to lower his guard? Any of the plans I can think of that could possibly entice him would be tied directly to your family's money, and it would be a bad idea to establish any link whatsoever between us and the break-in."
"Won't it become obvious pretty quickly? If you're planning to run away and start showing off a crazy overpowered soulsword, rumors will get back."
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
"I could change my name, I suppose... but, nah. Let them come. If they think it's worth hunting me down for a bound soulsword that I couldn't possibly have upgraded that quickly, then they're grasping at smoke. By the time they catch up to us, I'll be fully capable of defending myself. No more of this schoolyard vulnerability nonsense.."
Jair's hand automatically reached for his other to begin tracing his spells, and he forcefully restrained himself. He hadn't realized how deeply ingrained his habits of constantly reinforcing his pathways were until he had to hold himself back every time.
"So, Larenok. What are his strengths and weaknesses? He's overly cautious, overly paranoid, and incredibly greedy. Half his imprints are for detection and protection of his person, plus a dozen constructs on his person."
Personal constructs were something Jair considered highly wasteful to rely on, but even if they were incredibly mana expensive they had their uses. Ten spells and four augments wasn't enough to cover every possible situation.
"He doesn't have anything on the level of Absorb and Reflect, but there's some solid impact and deflection resistances in there. His Starshield is second to none, so mental attacks won't be an option."
Jair had in fact copied that imprint directly from Larenok in the first place. His current version was practically unchanged; a few superficial adjustments to link it with Skyskin so they could share space without clashing and that was all.
"Aw, and here I was hoping for a chance to show off my new hypnosis power." Ran fake-pouted.
“Hah, not going to happen. Larenok makes the king’s security look basic.”
“Can we set an ambush at his house?”
“Sure. We’ll just need to find someone willing to take on one of the most notoriously well-connected people in Veor…” Jair trailed off as something occurred to him. He glanced up at the lunar calendar, a smile growing across his face. “You know, that could actually work. We do have a Dark Night between now and then.”
Concerned, Ran asked, “What does that have to do with it?”
"We'll need some serious firepower if we're going to take down Larenok in his own house. Local Veor mercenaries are few, low level, and likely to be untrustworthy. Ghost moon freelancers, though? I know plenty of options who’d be discreet and feel no particular loyalty to Astralla, the Institute, or any individuals therein.”
* * *
"You want to stay home this time?" Jair asked as he collected his things for the upcoming recruitment trip. "I know your last ghost moon experience wasn't exactly ideal."
"No, I'm coming." Ran fastened his sword to his belt. "I won't let them scare me away, and I know what to expect this time. If anyone tries to mess with us, I'll fight back. Not going to stand there like a scared kid this time."
"Good man. We probably won't be in danger of the same thing happening, though... those specific individuals are unlikely to still be hanging around at this time."
"Still, yet..." Ran shook his head. "Things really are hard to discuss when time is looping around on itself."
"Whatever the words for it, you know what I mean."
Ran nodded.
They had to take a sand-shark again, which Jair hesitated to commit to, but Ran stubbornly threw himself into the challenge with as much enthusiasm as any research project they'd undertaken in the past.
Having accepted the time travel thing now, he seemed determined to make the most of it. He wasn't going to let anything hold him back, especially not his own fears.
Jair admired that. He kind of missed being able to do that, having fears still to throw himself against. Losing Ran, being unable to save anyone, had been the last great barrier that held him to his relentless crusade, and now he had moved past it into... something new. Chaotic.
He wasn't sure yet where he'd land. He did feel somewhat adrift without his long-held anchor, but the anticipation of teaching Ran everything he could was a solid substitute.
He almost wished this could be their first life. That he could have been young and new to it all at the same time, discovering together rather than standing apart as the knower, but he wouldn't give up the power that came from everything he'd experienced. Not for anything.
He'd use it to protect and guide Ran, and then once the two of them defeated the ultimate end and emerged into the true afterward they could discover something truly new together.
In the meantime, he smiled and chatted and slid into old patterns of happy children playing at being adults, of students planning capers under the noses of their teachers, and let the weight of the future slide away.
They arrived at the oasis, Jair convinced the guards to let them in - with the help of a bit of Ran's money - and they joined the current group assembling on the underground lunar platform.
"Last chance to back out?" Jair asked, obligatorily.
Ran didn't hesitate. "No."
They arrived at the Zelura arrival platform without incident. Ran looked around at the buildings with the same look of curiosity as before, though his gaze wandered more freely, instead of snagging on one thing. He stared up at the dome for a time, frowning as though trying to puzzle out how it was constructed. His eyes kept flicking back to their fellow travelers, to anyone approaching from the opposite direction, to the dark alleys that could conceal anyone or anything.
Good. As much as he'd have preferred a world in which Ran never needed to learn to be on his guard constantly, it was better to be prepared than walk through life oblivious.
The Recruitment Office for Mercenary Affairs provided the kind of discreet and immediate contact with anyone you wanted at the usual rate of 'too much for you to afford unless you already know you can afford it'.
Ran grumbled a bit about this part, since they'd already used everything his father had willingly approved for them to spend, and they'd begun to go over into 'taking loans', but the Serin name was good for something at least.
"Don't worry, we'll more than make it back with those investments. Right now we just need to get Maelstrom, then we can stop spending anything at all as long as you want."
"I don't mind about the money, really. I just feel strange about it."
"Just another purchase, nothing to feel strange about."
"But it's hiring thugs to beat someone up in his own house."
“It’ll be fine.” Jair looked over the available lists. “Oh, ho… look who’s up for grabs today?”
Pleasantly surprised, he picked out a particular pair of names he recognized and requested a meeting. Scanning the rest of the list, he found a third who, though not essential on this task, would be a valuable addition for another reason.
An hour later, he, Ran, and the three strangers sat in the usual conference room beneath the Association headquarters.
"We need someone who's good at destabilizing personal protective wards, and someone who can knock out a target in under a minute once his shields are down."
The duo to the left, a pair who came as a package deal, nodded in agreement. "We can cover that."
"I'm an expert in protection," said the third, not wanting to be left out. "I know how to hold a front and not let anyone else get hurt."
Jair made a show of skepticism. "How does that work? From what I see of your spell loadout, you’re mainly going for mental defence. Wouldn’t you be highly vulnerable to a direct attack?"
The man, lean despite his broad build, crossed his arms and grinned. "You want to have a go? I'm happy to back up my words."
"Alright. Ran? You're the one with the sword." Jair sidled past Ran, adding so the others wouldn’t overhear, “You’re going to want this one. Be ready.”
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