Scarlett frowned.
Her gaze lifted to the vast expanse of blue sky above, the sun’s bright rays blinding as they filtered through a few wispy clouds. It was hard to believe all of this wasn’t real, but going by what The Gentleman told her, it had to be fake one way or another. Interstitial spaces usually weren’t as big as they appeared to be.
Not that she was entirely sure if she could consider this an interstitial space. The Gentleman had described it as a crossroads between realms — a nexus of possibilities and potentialities. How the scene before her fit that lofty description was beyond her understanding. Still, as far as she knew, the man wasn’t one to lie.
Then again, he wasn’t exactly reliable either. It was hard to trust someone whose motives and limits were a mystery. He often acted as if some unseen force barred him from fully involving himself in worldly matters, but it was clear things weren’t that simple. Not only had he admitted to revealing Rosa’s existence to the Blazes, but he had also seemingly considered helping Rosa back in Bridgespell when Scarlett had asked him to.
If that wasn’t involvement, what was?
Frankly, it annoyed her. If it weren’t for the fact that she knew he wasn’t outright hostile—and that he had helped her before, granting her access to Freymeadow and aiding her preparations for entering Beld Thylelion—she wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with him. If there was one thing her dealings with him had taught her, it was that he was an unpredictable factor disguised as an inconsequential presence.
One of these days, she really needed to get to the bottom of what truly guided his actions. His cryptic comment about Empress ‘joining his delusion’ had stuck with her. What exactly had he meant by that? Nothing she knew about him—either from her encounters or from the game—offered a clear explanation that fit.
After a few minutes of sitting in silence, listening to the faint, unfamiliar calls of a bird hiding somewhere nearby, Scarlett sighed softly and stood. She scanned the courtyard, her eyes lingering on the overgrown walkways and greenery, before retracing her steps along the same path she’d come from.
The Gentleman hadn’t told her how to leave this place, which she assumed meant such knowledge wasn’t necessary.
At the end of the courtyard, she paused, narrowing her eyes as she looked at the passage she was sure she had exited with Empress earlier. It had changed. Before, the hallway had been old and worn, its carpets frayed and the air heavy. Now, the carpets were plush, the walls immaculate, and the atmosphere somehow lighter.
She glanced back at the courtyard, only to find that it, too, had transformed. Gone were the overgrown walkways and the lone willow tree at its center. In their place was a pristine expanse of stone columns and statues, lined up in neat, gleaming rows.
…Shifting environments weren’t exactly new to Scarlett at this point, but she wondered what it meant in this place specifically.
Her gaze stayed on the new courtyard for a few moments before she turned back to the altered passageway. Whatever was going on here, she wasn’t going to figure it out alone. The mystery would have to wait for another time.
She stepped into the hallway, glancing right and left as she considered her next move. After a brief deliberation, she turned left, heading back the way she had come. The corridors ahead reflected the new pristine setting, their labyrinthine layout unchanged but more polished.
Eventually, she stopped, her attention caught by a door to her right. She studied it for a few seconds. It was the first she had seen since entering this place. Did that signify something?
Stepping closer, she reached for the handle. As the door opened, she found herself peering into a room shrouded in a peculiar haze. The shapes inside were indistinct, mere shadows of people, as though viewed through a veil of smoke or mist.
She hesitated, looking to her right and left, then returned her focus to the doorway. Was this supposed to be her way out?
…She had changed her mind. It would have been great if The Gentleman could have left her with slightly clearer instructions.
After weighing her options for a while, Scarlett finally decided to take the plunge. She took a deep breath, preparing herself, and stepped forward, passing through the shroud. In an instant, the world around her shifted.
Suddenly, she was in a wide chamber, the doorway behind her gone as though it had never existed. The disorienting sensation made her wobbly briefly before she steadied herself.
The atmosphere in the room practically buzzed with tension. In front of her, a group of stern-faced individuals stood gathered around a long, rectangular table carved from rich, dark wood. Its surface was dominated by an intricate map of the Graenal Empire, with cities, rivers, and fortresses meticulously marked.
Scarlett’s eyes moved over the people. Some wore sleek, dark tunics overlaid with flowing mantles adorned with golden clasps that seemed to denote some sort of rank. Others were clad in the heavy armor or uniforms of imperial officers or knights, swords at their hips and insignias on their chests. Low murmurs filled the room, people whispering and gesturing in hushed discussions too quiet for her to catch.
Was she back in another memory, then? That certainly seemed to be the case. This looked to be some sort of high-level military gathering, with representatives from various imperial factions present.
If this was indeed another memory, then there should be…
Her eyes moved to the far side of the table, landing on two familiar faces. There, standing behind a bald man with a long, neatly trimmed beard, were Arlene and Delmont Hartford. Both were older than in the previous memory she’d seen. Delmont looked to be a few years older than Scarlett herself, maybe in his early thirties, his face having lost some of its youthful softness with shadows of stubble along his jawline. Arlene, while still not quite the same as the woman and teacher Scarlett was familiar with from Freymeadow, now carried herself with an air of sharpness, her smooth raven-black hair pulled tightly back.
Both wore the same mantles as the man standing before them, their clasps suggesting they were of high rank. Did both serve in the imperial army, then? In the mage corps, perhaps?
Scarlett scanned the rest of the room, gaze searching the faces of those gathered, trying to piece together the context. What was this scene? Was there any particular reason this was the first place she found herself after stepping through that door and—presumably—leaving whatever that previous place had been?
Her attention shifted to the individuals closest to her. She stood near the entrance, and to her left, a man and a young woman in crisp, unadorned uniforms stood at the ready. They looked like they might have been adjutants or aides. Was that the ‘role’ she filled here as well?
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Her gaze dropped briefly to her left hand, where the [Hartford Garnet Ring] gleamed faintly. A faint frown tugged at her lips. Would Arlene and Delmont recognise her? Even if they didn’t, it wasn’t impossible for them to notice the ring, just as Liane had. Scarlett didn’t want a repeat of last time, especially in a setting like this. A stranger causing a scene in the middle of a military gathering would definitely have some sort of consequence.
But removing the ring didn’t sit right with her either. She was pretty sure it was the reason she had ended up in that other memory with the younger Scarlett. Taking it off now might mean losing the chance to learn more about the original’s past.
Her thoughts were interrupted as a deep, commanding voice cut through the murmur of conversation. The room fell quiet instantly, and all eyes turned towards a tall, broad-shouldered man at the head of the table. His uniform, finely tailored and adorned with gold epaulets, exuded authority. Several scars etched across his face, and one eye, milky white, surveyed the assembly with piercing focus.
Was this the Imperial General of this time?
“I trust you’ve all received the reports by now,” the man began, his voice slow and steady.
“We have,” replied a grim-faced man standing near the center of the table, “though I’m not sure I’m supposed to believe them.”
The general met the man’s gaze for a moment before nodding to an adjutant at his side. The adjutant raised his hands, a soft hum of magic filling the room as a faint shimmer rippled along the walls. A privacy barrier?
“It is, unfortunately, exactly as you’ve been told,” the general said, gesturing towards the map on the table. Scarlett’s eyes followed the motion, her brow creasing as she studied the map closely for the first time. It was somewhat different from what she would have expected.
She knew the empire hadn’t always been as big as it was, but still, weren’t these borders smaller than they should be? The eastern frontier, according to this map, stopped just beyond Bridgespell and Silverborough. Entire regions were missing — vast parts of the Faywild Basin, the cities of Farmire, Faybarrow, Darkshore, and Wildscar. Of course, Wildscar was a relatively new fortress city, so that wasn’t odd, but nearly a third of the empire’s current holdings weren’t represented here.
That didn’t quite fit what Scarlett remembered reading in the history books.
The general tapped a spot on the map between Silverborough and Bridgespell, where a small city was marked. “Summerbourne has vanished.”
A ripple of unease passed through the room.
“I’m sorry, but that’s preposterous,” someone said. “How does an entire city disappear? Summerbourne houses what — Ten thousand people? Gone without any warning? How does that even happen?”
“We’ve asked ourselves the same question,” the general replied, a harsh certainty in his tone. “But our investigations confirm it. The city no longer exists.”
The bald man standing before Arlene and Delmont took one step forward, his voice low and dangerous as he leaned over the map. “When you say ‘no longer exists’, are you suggesting it was destroyed beyond recognition? Leveled to rubble?”
The general shook his head. “No. It’s as though the city never existed at all. There’s no trace — no ruins, no debris, no signs of life. It has simply vanished from the face of the world.”
Scarlett’s frown deepened. That sounded disturbingly familiar.
A heavy silence blanketed the room until one officer spoke. “Do we know who’s responsible? The Tribe of Sin?”
The general gave a curt nod. “That is our leading theory.”
Dark expressions spread among the gathered officials. Scarlett’s gaze flicked to Arlene. Her face was impassive, but the sharp glint in her eyes betrayed anger. She stood rigidly, her attention locked on the map.
Scarlett turned back to the map herself, studying it more carefully. She’d read that the empire expanded much of its territory during the reign of the early emperors, but this map was still outside of her expectations. The area east of the empire here wasn’t even marked as belonging to any rival kingdom or power — just a scattering of strategic symbols and positions, with no apparent cohesion.
She had never bothered thinking about it much before, but what exactly had been there before the empire claimed it?
…It was a somewhat sobering thought, but considering what she’d seen and heard, it almost seemed like the missing territory might have once belonged to the Tribe of Sin. As far as she knew, however, the Tribe’s heartlands were located elsewhere. She’d never encountered anything that suggested they had been settled in this region, beyond their scattered Enclaves.
“Do we have any idea how they did it?” one of the knights asked, arms crossed and a deep scowl on his face. Judging by his armor, he appeared to be a Solar Knight — perhaps even the order’s captain. “Not even our most powerful mages could erase a city of that size. How did the Tribe manage it?”
“We have some theories,” the general answered. “While we don’t fully understand the mechanism, we’ve confirmed that massive amounts of mana surged simultaneously from multiple locations—both within the Tribe’s heartlands and at several sites within the empire—around the time of the incident.”
His good eye swept over the room. “Many of you are familiar with the devices known as Sanctumbrums. Structures that exist within many of the Tribe’s settlements. These devices are unique in their capabilities — capabilities we still do not fully comprehend.”
Scarlett's lips pressed into a thin line. She had expected this. After hearing about the disappearance of Summerbourne, it wasn’t surprising that the Sanctumbrums would come up.
“We now believe this event is a previously unseen function of those devices,” the general continued, straightening. “This theory is supported by reports from Elystead Tower, where a Sanctumbrum has been under study for over a decade. That device exhibited an abnormal reaction and a significant mana surge at the time of the attack. This suggests that even without direct control, these Sanctumbrums can coordinate to produce catastrophic effects such as these.”
Scarlett’s eyes dropped to the map, taking note of several small marks spread across it. Were those the locations where there had been mana surges? There were dozens of them—maybe even over a hundred—but the placements seemed imprecise. One mark was on Freybrook, for example, and she doubted there was a Sanctumbrum inside the city itself.
Still, the fact that they had even this much to go off of was impressive. She had seen in the game what those things were capable of when linked together. She just didn’t think such an event would have occurred this early in the empire’s history.
“Are you suggesting we need to destroy all their Sanctumbrums?” an edged voice asked.
Scarlett looked up to see Arlene, the woman’s eyes fixed on the general.
The general met her gaze evenly. “Yes. We believe that’s the only way to prevent further attacks of this nature. We don’t know how many Sanctumbrums are required to produce this kind of devastation, nor why it’s only happening now, but there must be some limitation. We have already enlisted Arch Wizard Ustrum to develop a better method for locating the devices, though the success of this effort remains uncertain. Destroying them once found will also be a challenge.”
“I’ve dealt with Sanctumbrums before,” Arlene said bluntly. “They all have a melting point.”
“…Is that true?”
“Yes. That is why it would be best if we—”
“Hartford,” the bald man next to Arlene raised a hand, cutting her off. He gave her a pointed look before turning back to the general. “So, that’s our strategy? Find and eliminate the Sanctumbrums?”
“Precisely,” the general confirmed, shifting his focus. “While the loss of ten thousand lives is a tragedy beyond measure, we must consider ourselves fortunate that the target wasn’t the capital where His Majesty resides or another major city. We cannot allow the Tribe to unleash this kind of attack again. Their numbers have dwindled over the past twenty years, but with the threat this weapon poses and their superior logistical abilities, they are still far too dangerous to leave be.”
With a wave, the general motioned to one of his aides, who began distributing documents to the gathered officers. Scarlett let the murmur of further discussion fade into the background as she processed what she had heard. This glimpse into the empire’s past was fascinating, honestly. It seemed like there were pretty significant parts of the nation’s history that had been left deliberately ambiguous, such as precisely how problematic their conflict with the Tribe was at one point.
Her gaze wandered back to Arlene, whose face was set in a mask of focused determination as she considered the documents handed to her. It also felt somewhat strange seeing Arlene so resolute—even ruthless—about dealing with the Tribe. It wasn’t as if it didn’t fit with what Scarlett knew of her past, but it clashed with the image of the mentor she’d come to know.
“I much prefer this version of the woman,” a youthful voice said beside Scarlett.
She froze, her eyes slowly moving down to the source. There, standing next to her, was a young girl with dark-red hair, her expression unreadable as she watched Arlene with quiet interest. After a moment, the girl turned her head, looking up at Scarlett with striking amber eyes.
“Do you not agree?” she asked.