“Do you have lodgings arranged in the city?” Administrator Aulysse asked after she ran out of questions about Marke’s mysterious shadow man.

Zily nodded. “We will sleep in the military apartments nearby.”

Aulysse considered that for a moment. “Those are near enough, I suppose. We have a few bunks available for visiting researchers if our experiments or analysis run late into the night. I will pull a few key researchers and pause their projects where I can. We should all be ready by second hour tomorrow.” She said. Marke remembered to get his pen back right before he walked out the door.

Thanks to selling a few items to the general’s quartermaster, Marke had a large sum of money in a military-issue bank account so he asked Zily to take him to an “interesting” restaurant. Zily asked a few soldiers they passed at the military bank and got directions to a restaurant that specialized in… cats.

Marke and Kente were relieved to learn that the restaurant did not serve the cats as food, but had trained them to do tricks and carry orders on little notes. The cats weren’t exactly like cats from earth–they had extra-long tails and their eyes were all the color of gems, but they purred and chased bits of string all the same.

How’s the food? Kente asked.

Better than blood soda moonshine. Marke said as a joke. Actually, it’s a lot better than what we got at the fort. This stuff tastes like our memory of hummus. Marke scooped a few of the items into a provided flatbread and introduced elves to the concept of a mediterranean wrap. Zily looked mildly scandalized, but she caved to peer pressure when several other patrons tried it and approved.

—————

The next morning, Marke and Zily were led to a room on the second enclosed floor. Marke thought the room looked a bit like a laboratory, but he was distracted from that thought by the presence of Kara, Aulysse’s sister. Zily turned a glare on the administrator, who looked a little sheepish. Aulysse didn’t immediately back down, however. “I understand if you do not wish to work with her, but it doesn’t change the fact that she is brilliant and likely has relevant knowledge.” She said.

“It’s not a problem.” Marke said. Zily didn’t look convinced of that, but didn’t press the issue.

Aulysse introduced the other researchers–a man and two women. Jandar was an expert on necromancy, Saida had successfully communicated with several elemental magic creatures, and Nieven was an expert alchemist. Aulysse introduced her sister as an expert on “magical detection”. Marke nodded in greeting to each of them. Kara interrupted Aulysse’s “let’s all get started and learn together” speech at the first pause.

“Did the shadow creature allow you to resist our identify skills?” She asked. Her expression was grumpy but hadn’t changed since Marke walked in, so he tried not to be offended on behalf of Kente. The other researchers grimaced or otherwise looked uncomfortable. Aulysse just closed her eyes and breathed slowly.

Marke huffed a little bit but replied politely. “No. If we are successful in this research, however, I will give you a full explanation about how I did that.” Marke looked to Aulysse with his next statement. “If we are successful and if we are not slowed down by irrelevant discussion.”

Aulysse spoke over top of Kara. “Saida, how about you start with your questions?” She said loudly. She took Kara by the arm and dragged her into corner of the room to whisper furiously for several minutes.

Saida cleared her throat and gestured to a table. “Let’s all sit down to be more comfortable.” She said. Once seated, she flipped open a notebook. “Does the shadow entity originate in this plane of existence?” She asked.

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Marke blinked several times in surprise. “Um, no, he does not.” He said. He desperately wanted to ask about planes of existence, but he had just condemned off-topic discussion and didn’t want to be a hypocrite.

Saida made a note. “From what plane of existence does it originate?” She asked.

“I’m not familiar with those, I’m sorry.” Marke replied. He mentally crossed his fingers that they would have an on-topic discussion about planes of existence, but was disappointed that Saida moved on to her next question.

The researchers asked dozens and dozens of questions. Marke began to feel bad for Zily since she had nothing to contribute to the discussion. She patted him on the back when he implied that she could probably leave. “It is interesting for today.” She said. “Perhaps tomorrow I will find something else and let the six of you work unsupervised.” Zily and Marke laughed at the little joke.

Kara’s final question was more complicated that it first seemed. “Is he here right now?” She asked.

Marke hesitated, uncertain. “In one sense, yes. He can observe this room right now.” He nearly continued, but he realized there wasn’t much more he even knew.

Jandar continued that thread. “Is he observing this room through your senses, or his own?” He asked.

Marke shrugged a little. What do you think? He asked Kente.

It’s never been clear. Kente replied. Sometimes it seems like I’m using my own senses, but other times we’ve both been blinded or whatever.

“We are not sure.” Marke answered the elven man.

Jandar held his notebook upright and scribbled something. “Can he read what I just wrote?” He asked.

He wrote his own name. Kente said.

“Your name.” Marke said. “But, unfortunately, I could tell what you wrote, so the test is…” Marke tried to think if he could construct the word “Inconclusive”, but failed. “The test is not certain.” He finished.

Eyebrows raised on every face at the table except Kara, who seemed to have blocked out everything around her as she wrote in her notebook. Aulysse spoke first. “You can see through the notebook?” She asked.

“No, no.” Marke shook his head. “I could tell what you wrote from the motion of your arms and your notebook as you wrote.” He said to Jandar. “So can K-… can the shadow entity actually see what you wrote, or does it just know it because I know it? The test is not certain.”

“Um.” Jandar said. “Perhaps if you close your eyes then?” The researcher looked uncertain, but held his notebook ready to write in.

Feeling uncomfortable, Marke looked over to Zily. She looked somewhat surprised. Hmmm. Kente said. Can we answer that question truthfully? Not sure we should explain that we can observe literally everything around us without eyes or ears.

Marke looked around the table. “Does anyone have a spell for blocking the senses? We should try to make the test as certain as we can.” He asked.

—————

Several hours later, Marke lay on the floor in a ring of runes, wearing a blindfold, earplugs, and with a blanket thrown over him for good measure. Aulysse and Zily had returned from a brief shopping trip with completely mundane ink and paper. The paper, folded and sealed, with messages pre-written, would be passed into the room one at a time from far down the hallway.

We might be a little bit overpowered. Kente said.

Agreed. Marke replied. I’m really uncomfortable with how vulnerable we are right now. He didn’t mean to say that and hoped Kente would understand that it wasn’t an expression of reluctance, just discomfort. Kente didn’t respond, however.

The first note entered the room. Saida tapped a small bell to signal the arrival and start of the test. Marke felt Kente’s attention move around the room.

It’s a weather report, I think. Kente said. I don’t know all the words, but it says “sunshine” and “rain”. Marke relayed this answer, and Jandar wrote it down on the back of the paper note. The note was placed at the end of the table and Saida tapped the bell twice to signal Aulysse to send in the next note.

Marke couldn’t see or hear any of this–the only think he could hear was the sound of the small bell. Kente’s answers ranged from “an obscene poem” to “a bad sketch of Hero Dingo”. When Saida rang the small bell three times, Marke tossed off the blanket and walked out of the circle of runes. He tried not to show how high his adrenaline had gotten or how close to panic he was. As he carefully controlled his breathing and removed the blindfold and earplugs, Aulysse and Zily opened the notes and compared them to Kente’s answers.

Zily walked over to inform him of the results. “You got one wrong.” She said.

I did not! Kente objected. Marke just raised his eyebrows in a silent question.

“You miscounted the little tails again.” Zily smirked. “The poem wasn’t obscene.”

Marke gave a small smile and shook his head. “It wasn’t me. It was him, the shadow entity.” He said.