“You don’t know where the Delvers attacking Ravvenblaq came from?” said Lito. “It’s not a rival house?”

“They are unaffiliated with any known noble bloodlines.”

“More peasant Delvers?”

“It appears so.”

“That means this has been going on for some time,” said Lito, scratching his jaw. “The ability to circumvent the Creation Delve, that is.”

“Yes,” said Umi-Doo. “A proper gold-focused Delver will tackle one Delve a year with skill training in between. A particularly risk-tolerant and ambitious Delver, perhaps two a year.”

“That’s with full access to the existing Delver infrastructure in Hiward,” said Lito. “Trainers, mana weavers, alchemists, Delve analysts. If you were working outside of that…”

“Perhaps even longer, true. However, given that these individuals hold no titles of which we are aware, they would not suffer the delays caused by the duties of governance. Still, the attempt on Varrin was risky, but not hopeless. As for Xim and Nuralie here, given your own accounts of what transpired and Esquire Arlo’s personal observations, I suspect the level fifteen gold Littan was responsible for both of your abductions. She is likely a controller of some sort. As we all know, those abductions were successful, albeit temporarily. As for Arlo,” he raised his eyebrows at me. “One would think a five-person team of copper ones would be sufficient to capture a single inexperienced platinum one.”

“If they all came close to succeeding,” I said, “then why did you say they were poorly executed?”

Umi-Doo scratched at his chin with a furry, ebony-taloned finger.

“Because they failed!” he said. “Had they been successful, I would have cursed their nefarious cunning and begrudgingly praised their expert execution. As it sits, they are talentless curs with nothing to show for their efforts.”

“Oh.”

“I also suspect that the attempt on you, Arlo, was a last-minute consideration. Why send highly advanced Delvers against everyone but you? From what we’ve thus far extracted from the survivors of the Artemix group, they were hired only two weeks ago and the job was rushed. They were required to match their actions to a timeline that predated the mission itself, and that haste was their undoing which also exposed Demarsus, a.k.a. Typhoon. Which I must say, after hearing the particulars of the battle, Typhoon isn’t much of an alias. The man used the spell Gale. Might as well have been wearing a name tag.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” said Myria. We all nodded and mumbled in agreement.

“I’m not following some of this,” I said. “You’re talking like a plot’s been developing for a long time, but Xim, Varrin, and I didn’t know each other before the Creation Delve. That would also match the timeline of when Artemix was hired.”

"Certainly," said Umi-Doo. "While these aggressors would not have known who in particular may have ended up in Lord Varrin's party before entering the Creation Delve, the list of prospective Delvers is available through various channels, and keeping tabs on a hundred Creation Delve participants would be a trivial matter for large organizations, or those organizations with but a single specialized Delver in their employ. They would have known their habits, residences, where they'd be staying in Foundation after the Delve, etcetera. However, you, Arlo, came out of nowhere. You weren't on the list, until you suddenly were! This necessitated a different skillset to find and apprehend, since they were dealing with an unknown. Jayko, the one you left without legs, was a scryer. Artemix himself was some sort of social build, so the two of them were good at tracking targets and getting information. The rest of that team focused on lockdown and capture.”

“You’re still making a lot of wild assumptions,” said Lito.

“Yes, yes,” said Umi-Doo. “Everyone’s a skeptic. I literally have Information Synthesis as an intrinsic skill, you know. Along with Probability. Still, I see where you’re coming from. The reasoning for the abductions is murky, at best. Let’s consider Mr. Haskagander, the mysterious interloper in The Toxic Grotto, who was defeated by Varrin’s party, most of whom are here.

“Thankfully,” Umi-Doo continued, “the also mysterious Esquire Arlo was kind enough to bring us Haskagander’s head, along with a few coded bits of correspondence between Hognay and his taskmaster. Through a combination of magic and traditional investigative techniques, we identified several locations where Mr. Haskagander spent time prior to entering The Toxic Grotto.”

Several pinpricks appeared on the map.

“As you can see, Mr. Haskagander sojourned in the Eschen wastes north of Ayama.”

“Right where the mana eruption occurred,” said Lito.

“And also in western Timagrin.”

“Right where the special Delve was found,” said Lito.

“Prior to that, in the northern mountains of Ravvenblaq.”

“Right where that mystery Delve meeting place is said to be.”

“And a number of other locations across the world, including hotspots along the border of the Littan Empire and Eschendur. Mr. Haskagander was a bit of a globetrotter.”

“How does a level two set off a mana eruption that is severe enough to require three S-tier Delvers to mitigate?” asked Lito.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“It’s doubtful he did,” said Umi-Doo. “I expect he has accomplices, as evidenced by his communications, although there is little there to help identify anyone in particular. Nonetheless, I suspect many of them are significantly more powerful than he was, given the quality of individuals perpetrating these recent crimes.”

“What do I have to do with this?” Nuralie asked, speaking up for the first time.

“I believe your disappearance is meant to further inflame hostilities between Eschendur, the Littan Empire, and Hiward itself.”

Pause.

“I don’t think I’m that important.”

“You represent twenty-five percent of Eschendur’s annual allotment of Creation Delve slots,” said Umi-Doo. “You are extremely valuable to your homeland. The Eschens have been petitioning fiercely for your return, while the Littans refuse to allow you passage through their blockade ‘without escort’. The Hiwardian government is growing weary of Litta’s position, especially given how crucial trade access to Eschunder is for Hiward’s magical economy. Your disappearance, especially if it was at the hands of a Littan Delver, would be a not-insignificant event. This would be further compounded if Hiward suspected Littan military involvement in an abduction carried out on Hiwardian soil.”

Nuralie went still for a long time. Umi-Doo watched her closely, while Xim and Myria looked on with concern. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Lito pulled out a smoke and was lighting it when Umi-Doo snapped his fingers and the cigarette blinked out of existence. Lito huffed before putting his silver cigarette case away.

“I… am not that important,” Nuralie said, but it sounded more like a plea than an assertion.

“So your theory is that there’s some sort of international conspiracy going on,” said Lito, “and Varrin is somehow in the middle of it all?”

“No. He’s swept up in it, as a single cog in larger machinations. I don’t want to overemphasize his importance, or the importance of our platinum guests here. To whoever is masterminding these events, that is. No offense, you three. I’m sure you are all very important to someone.”

I shrugged, though Umi-Doo’s attempt at being polite only made his words more cutting. Was there anyone that I was important to anymore? Nuralie looked relieved, if anything. Xim just smiled and nodded along.

Umi-Doo gestured at the map and several new areas highlighted across the continent.

“Right now we have the highest level of international Delver deployment in history,” he said. “The alleged discovery of several new special Delves has drawn in many powerful Delver parties in addition to the Ravvenblaqs. We have multiple groups monitoring the Littan blockade from the outer islands. We have deployments in south Timagrin responding to frightening intelligence coming out of Reimara concerning activities in Davah. That’s in addition to the normal movements of Delvers in search of whatever personal goals they have globally.”

“But why would someone be instigating this?” said Lito. “Most of these absences would be temporary. We may not have an explicit mass-recall procedure for Delvers, but the official groups working for Central can be brought back within a few weeks or less. The rest can be returned by decree of the king.”

“Assuming we had an emergency worth abandoning their respective missions for, yes,” said Umi-Doo. “As for the specific goal, I do not know. However, I have provided all of this scene-setting to impress upon you the seriousness with which I need you all to take the quest I am about to give you.”

“Quest?” said Xim, looking excited.

“Bit of an archaic term,” said Lito.

“I can’t order anyone here to do it, aside from Myria and Lito. There will also be rewards, and perhaps some violence and intrigue. I believe ‘quest’ is the appropriate word.”

“What is it?” said Xim, grinning. I’m not sure she’d sat in on the same meeting the rest of us just had.

“You need to figure out what the fuck is happening in that cave!” Umi-Doo gave a little hop as he said this. “If you’ll excuse my colorful language.”

“Oh! I was already planning to do that,” said Xim. “I have a holy quest.” She hugged my arm. “We both do!”

“Very good, very good.”

“Sure,” said Lito. “We were going to investigate the cave out in Ravvenblaq either way.” Myria nodded. “I was planning to put in the request after this meeting.”

“Consider it pre-approved then,” said Umi-Doo. Then he turned to Nuralie. “Will you go as well?”

Pause.

“Yes. I am curious. And you gave me this book.”

“Great! I’ll authorize the requisitions. Full access, whatever you all need."

“Can we take the dreadnought?” asked Myria, getting halfway out of her chair in excitement.

“Whatever you need within reason. You cannot take the dreadnought.”

“We never get the good stuff,” said Myria.

Lito squinted at her.

“It’s not even under Central’s authority," he said. "It’s military property.”

“A girl can dream.”

Lito frowned, but turned back to Umi-Doo.

“What other Delvers can we get? We have no idea what we’re walking into.”

“The Ravvenblaq Thundralkes and Varrin will meet you there. They are also bringing the Xor’Drels.”

“That still feels light, considering everything you’ve told us.”

“Two level twenty-one platinums, two level eighteen golds, two level ten golds, and four level one platinums,” said Umi-Doo. “Maybe not a heroic-level party, but nothing to scoff at. We don’t have many Delvers to spare at the moment. I can authorize funds for you to do some recruitment among private Delvers, but this quest needs to be carried out post-haste, so there isn’t a lot of time.”

“We might be able to pull in the triplets,” said Myria.

“They hate government work,” said Lito.

“But they love money!”

Lito groaned.

“That they do, Myria. Just… tell them to leave the wine at home.”

“There’s no way Ashe will agree to that.”

“Then ask them not to wear the same outfits, at least.”

“Afraid you’ll try and kiss the wrong one again?”

Lito sank low into his seat in response, then stared vacantly at the wall across from him.

Umi-Doo shook his head, then abruptly levitated out of the room, the double-doors opening and closing behind him on their own. The meeting was over, apparently.

“Am I missing something, or did all of that sound… underbaked?” I asked.

“Umi-Doo.” Lito said the name like a swear. “Get used to it.”

“We were all planning on going to the cave anyway,” I added. “He could have led with that.”

After a moment of uncomfortable silence where Lito pulled out a fresh smoke and another drop of water fell down from the fresh flower tucked behind my ear, Xim leaned over to me.

“So,” she said, “about that book…”