Hark stood in front of the Specker family multi-colored coats store, in downo street, in Pirun. There wasn’t anything particularly remarkable about the Specker family multi-colored coats store, except for the fact that just about three hundred meters up above the store, the massive floating structure that carried Lord Dipol’s house hung in the sky.

It was already sundown and downo street was spectacularly busy, Hark was well hidden amidst the hustle and bustle of the street as people bought and sold various clothing items. Various magical lamps, extremely bright, were starting to get lit by shop owners. Hark walked around the back of the store discreetly, it was sandwiched by two other clothing stores, so he had to go around them. Once at the back of the store, he noticed the various boxes of unopened wares as well as a couple of refuse bags, Hark noticed the pungent smell of spoiled food mixed with urine. He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

“Bloody merchants.” He commented, blocking his nose and with his sleeve. He noticed the back door and two back windows, then he hid behind two stacked boxes so he wouldn’t be noticed even if someone came behind.

He produced a long yarn, just about long enough to reach the underbelly of Lord Dipol's floater. Unwinding part of it, he held one end and invoked a spell, causing it to float in mid-air unsupported.

Another spell sent the tip shooting upward into the sky, the yarn unwinding as it raced toward its target. After about a minute, the tip struck the rock and stopped, creating a taut line extending from the floater down to Hark.

He invoked two more spells, one spell that made the string stronger so it wouldn’t break under his weight, and an invisibility spell. He watched his world go completely black as the light bent around him. Now blinded, he grabbed on to the yarn and gave it a few tugs, then yanked himself upward using speed.

Even with the speed, it took him a full minute to haul himself up the yarn to the bottom of the floater. He invoked a hooking spell to attach himself to the bottom of the floater. Then he damped out the invisibility. Squinting as his eye adjusted to the lights coming from below.

Still latched on to the underbelly, he decided to walk upside down instead of crawling. His shirt fell to his armpit level and the blood rushed to his head, causing a single vein to slightly pop up on his forehead while the strong winds swayed his body around. He walked to the edge of the floater and moved to a crawling position. He crawled over the edge and peeked over into the grounds. He saw a large party Lord Dipol was holding on his compound outside, he quickly put his head down, and crawled around on the underside of the floater to the back of the house.

He peeked and saw two servants working there. More manageable, he jumped up into the garden, scaling the balustrade while neither of them were looking.

Crouching, he walked quickly towards the house, hiding behind ledges, posts and other structures. The back porch was well lit with magical lamps, he quickly invoked a spell to make one of them blink, drawing the attention of the servants working there, while they went towards the blinking light, he slipped in behind them into the house.

Coming in from the back, he found himself in a long passageway with a door on the other end, and multiple doors lining the way; there was a staircase to the right, no doubt leading up to Lord Dipol’s inner quarters. The man had made his job easy, by hosting a party outside, his house was essentially free real estate for Hark to search.

He ran up the stairs lightfooted and found his way into the master bedroom. He went through papers, most of them were documents, random letters and political messaging. Boring.

He looked under the bed, some people hid important things under their beds, nothing, the ceiling seemed fine, He checked the other rooms, narrowly missing the gaze of two servants that walked past.

“Someone ought to invent an invisibility spell that doesn’t make you blind.” he thought to himself for the hundredth time as he slipped into Lord Dipol’s study. Now, studies were hard, there was usually a lot of useful information in a Noble’s study, but there was also usually a lot of information in general, in this case, Lord Dipol had invested in hundreds of books that now lined the drawers of multiple shelves. There were even more books on the large table in the center of the room, and more on the chair behind it; opened books. Was Lord Dipol just reading multiple books at once? A book worm with a particularly bad case of Tsundoku? He glanced at one of the books… It was a treatise on chemistry. Hark knew the exact book, He’d studied it one time but had dropped it due to boredom.

He looked at the other books and quickly realized a pattern; These were all chemistry books. Was Lord Dipol a chemistry nerd? And these were new books too. He glanced through the books on the shelf, history books, some on literature, a few on astronomy… In fact of all the books in the study, the only chemistry books were the new, opened books that littered the table and the chair.

“Is this fool trying to study arcanite himself?” Hark thought. Maybe the response back then was a canned, rehearsed response and Lord Dipol was planning to get rid of arcanite himself. He fired up his wave link.

“Hello Lakan,” He began. “Any update?”

“Just got off a wave from Regar.” Lakan responded over the wave. “He found a recipe for immortality, using arcanite, at a Noble’s house.”

Hark laughed. “A what?”

“Well it was labeled a recipe for immortality. Whether it is one remains to be seen.” Lakan replied over the phone.

Lakan had snuck into the house of the loud widowed Noble that had given them a lot of trouble, Lady Merek. He hadn’t found anything.

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“Lady Merek isn’t much of an intellectual, I’m afraid.” He told Hark over the wave link. She doesn’t even have a study room.”

“Maybe her husband had one?” Hark asked.

“I’m a bit familiar with Pirun Architecture. There’s supposed to be a study room to the left of the master bedroom in floor plans like this.” Lakan replied. “Here it’s just a huge closet filled with clothes.”

Hark laughed.

“Yeah,” Lakan continued awkwardly. “Tonight was a bust for me, and I don’t have any interest in sticking around to eavesdrop. What about you?”

“Lord Dipol is having a party outside right now.” Hark said. “I basically have the house to myself.”

“I envy you.” Lakan said. “Lady Merek keeps darting from room to room with a large bottle of wine. She keeps drinking it and ranting about how it’s all over and ruined.”

“What’s over?” Hark asked.

“Hell if I know… And no, don’t ask me to stick around and find out.” Lakan replied. “This whole house stinks, her husband has been dead for years, you’d think she’d have cleaned up by---”

Lakan suddenly paused.

“Lakan?” Hark asked over the phone, a short moment of silence passed before Lakan replied.

“She just entered the room I was in. Had to leave.” he said.

“How are you hiding?” Hark asked.

“I’m crawling on the ceiling.” Lakan replied. “My neck is killing me. Any update from you? Besides the large party.”

“I’m in Lord Dipol’s study, he seems to have taken a liking to chemistry. The thing is, all these chemistry books all have an entry on arcanite but none of them are open to that section.” Hark said.

“Maybe he’s not familiar with chemistry and he wants to start at the beginning and read up to the arcanite section?”

“Perhaps.” Hark replied. “I’ll have to wait for them to finish their party, then spy on Dipol.”

“Okay, good luck.” Lakan said, then he damped out the wave link. He crawled, upside down, on the ceiling, towards the window, he pushed the glass window aside, then got out of the house, going directly to the roof. Using the speed, he latched on, landed on the roof and was shocked to come face to face with a servant boy who was sitting on the roof.

Both of them stared at each other in shock for a few seconds… then the boy asked… “Who are you?”

“What are you doing here?” Lakan asked in return, recognizing the boy as one of Lady Merek’s staff, he decided to play his tough guy act.

“I asked first!” the boy exclaimed in a loud whisper. Lakan hesitated, then composed himself.

“I don’t have to answer you at all.” He said. Raising an eyebrow. “I already know you’re not supposed to be here. You talk or I let the whole house know you’re here.”

“Won’t they know you’re here too?” the boy asked, calling his bluff.

“Listen here kid,” Lakan exclaimed. “I’m an elite warrior mage. If I don’t want to be found, I won’t be.”

“Hey you can’t intimidate me!” the boy protested. “King Ganz got rid of all the warrior mages.”

“And where is Ganz now huh? Smarty pants?” Lakan asked. “Now start talking before I throw you downstairs.”

“Okay, okay! listen, I came here for some alone time okay?” The boy exclaimed, caving in. “Lady Merek has gone crazy.”

“How so?” Lakan asked. He personally wasn’t willing to deal with Lady Merek, but if he could get information from her servants, he would take it.

“She said she’s been found by Aku’anda. She say’s she’s going to lose it.” The boy said.

“Lose What?” Lakan asked.

“Aren’t you from Aku’anda?” The boy asked.

“Hey! Focus, I’m the one asking questions.” Lakan replied. The boy made a sour face.

“Look, I don’t know, Some foreign mages apparently came here this morning and ever since they left she’s not been the same.” The boy said. “She first tried to keep her composure but she wasn’t very good at it, and then she broke down at lunch and started crying. Then she drank two bottles of wine and has become unbearable ever since.”

“Okay but do you know why she’s upset?” Lakan asked.

“Mister, I have no clue. I came up here to get away from her,” The boy snapped.

“Hey, be polite!” Lakan cautioned. Then he removed a few Jowons and gave them to the boy.

“Here, buy yourself some stuff.”

The boy took a look at the notes… then back at Lakan.

“This isn’t money.” He said, confused. Lakan looked at him in confusion, then he realized he had given the boy Aku’andan currency. He hurriedly snatched it out of the boy’s hand and handed him some Pikas and told him to leave the roof.

Then he waved to Hark.

“Unfortunately, I may have to spy on Lady Merek.” Lakan said over the link. “I just met one of her servants, Our visit seems to have shaken her up.”

“I think I know why.” Hark replied. “Wave to Regar.”

But he didn’t need to, As soon as he damped the wave, Regar’s wave came. He accepted and Regar’s voice came up.

“I cracked the code, Lakan.” Regar said. “I just got off a wave link with Hark where I told him, these Nobles were told Arcanite would take away their magic. Ganz told them he has control over arcanite, that he could make it take away their ‘soul’, which apparently controls their ability to do magic, and that if they told anyone about it or sought help, or tried to undermine his rule in anyway, he would trigger it.”

There was a brief silence before Lakan laughed. “What? That’s ridiculous. They think Arcanite can take someone’s magic away?” He asked.

“Yep.” Regar said. “This Noble kept copious amounts of notes, and it’s all here.”

“...is that possible?” Lakan asked, almost entirely sure it wasn’t.

“...I don’t know, Lakan,” Regar replied. “With Ganz, anything is possible.