Chapter 129 - More Questions, More Answers

Vern trailed behind Captain Shinsei as he explained some details about swordsmanship to the third member of their party. Generally, Vern would be listening attentively, but his eyes were glued to his notepad.

That's gotta be a 'Hir', and that one should be 'keu.' He tried to see if anything else made sense, but it didn't. So, he flipped to another page. Hmm, that should be 'dea,' and that…'dxl?' 'dlx?'

No. That's not right. Ughh. It wasn't working out as well as he'd hoped. He was trying to see if what happened this morning—or was it night—had been just a dream or not.

It wasn't, and he didn't know if this was a good thing.

What confluence? What council? What Visionary, and what summoning?

What even is happening? What was that plea for 'help?' Was it from the same people who were trying to summon him? If so, why not just add it to that intrusive monologue?

And if it was someone or something else, then who and what did they want from him?

Most mystifying of all—he could suddenly comprehend the runes! Well, at least some of them. The pages of Convergence's note sprinkled throughout his notepad that used to full of random glowing shapes, now held meaning.

Not much, but it's something.

However, it wasn't like the usual understanding of a language. He had no clue about the letters, nor did he find any patterns or grammar in them. Even worse, things he now understood didn't look one bit like the 'Help' rune he'd seen last night. So his understanding wasn't visual.

It was more of an instinctual than anything, and that irked him quite a bit. He couldn’t dissect instincts. He didn't know for sure what governed his comprehension of this 'language,' though he did have conjectures.

It could be about making contact. The simple act of being contacted by whatever higher entity delivered that message could have given him new insights that helped him comprehend the runes.

Or…

He rubbed his forehead. He didn't want to believe himself special after what the Aqua skin god—who Yharl Ballin was an avatar of—had told him.

Him getting the Observation Record of Subjectivity was just a 'seed' the entity had sown—one among many. Not something Vern alone was chosen for.

Yet, if he looked at this new situation from an outsider's perspective, then someone asking for help in runes that were only visible to him clearly meant something. How would others help if they can't even see the plea?

So maybe their need for him to understand could have been why he was gifted an inkling of comprehension of this runic system.

Hmm, could this also be a broadcasted plea for help? Because the message discussed a 'confluence' and a 'council.' Then, others had to have received the same message, right?

Yet, just how many people could really see these runes?

He flipped to another page that had conjectures regarding this written down in a complex cipher his master used for trade secrets.

He still made sure not to put down any damning information on paper because Observers were hacks and cheats that could side-skirt basic common sense, but there was enough to jog his memory.

'Enlightenment Through Objectivity,' and 'Surviving Duskfall.' These two were the conditions he believed were necessary to see the runes. He was sure that many would have passed the first stage.

That's because a big chunk of Yharl Ballin's other seeds should have managed it, too—much less others with their own luck. But surviving Duskfall was where things got tricky.

He'd managed to slip out of that one by the sheer luck of having Hensen as his hitman—someone with means and reason to leave him alive. If they'd assassinated all such people throughout the world, what were the odds that they'd survived, too?

Yeah, that's impossible to guess based on the current information at my disposal.

So, assuming I am one of the very few that met both these conditions, something or someone is asking for my help. But for what? How am I supposed to help them if I don't even know what is happening?

He didn't know.

Though he had an inkling he would have a better idea about that soon.

Hah, it's sometime tonight. The oral message said he should prepare his 'spirit and flesh' to be summoned on the 'morrow.' He just hoped that morrow meant one full day, not just any time.

Because he had to make a couple of preparations. Like—

"My friend, are you ready?" said the swordsman as he stopped in front of what looked like a burnt-down row of houses. The new addition to the team for today, a girl in red and black overalls—Victoria, also looked back at him.

Oh…

Vern reeled back his thoughts and closed the notepad shut. He was on another mission today. This was supposedly a 'simple one,' too.

However, when he looked around, he felt a weird sense of Deja vu. Yet, he didn't let the confusion show on his face and nodded to the captain.

Captain Shinsei then pointed at the charred remains of the houses, "I'll take the leftmost house, Vern will take second, and Victoria, you can take third. From there, we skip the already cleared houses and move down the row."

So, second, fifth, and eighth. Simple enough.

Victoria nodded solemnly, and Vern looked on in amazement as she opened the pouch hanging on her waist. Knives came floating out of it before arranging around her.

"Well, you might not need them today, my friend. We’re simply here to suppress the subjectivity pollution. There’s little to no risk.”

“Sorry, yes. I just like to keep them around me whenever possible,” she said sweetly.

“No worries. Then, let's be quick because once we're done here, we have four more sites to cleanse. Pollution here is minor, so you don't need an amulet of restoration. Just observe it from your viewpoint, and things should fix themselves after a while."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Kind of like how Ambrose did back in Steamscript relay station? That was in far worse of a condition, though.

Vern shook his head and followed the other two to the beginning of the burnt houses. That's when his gaze landed on the street sign.

It said, 'Hartley St.'

A shiver went down his spine, and he asked, trying and failing not to jump to conclusions, "Sorry, but what district was this again?"

"Hah. I knew your mind was somewhere else." Captain chuckled.

It indeed was.

But then Victoria answered without turning back, "We're in the Athenaeum district. The next site is—"

Vern zoned out the rest of her words as his mind whirled. Hartley St. Athenaeum district. Hartley St. Athenaeum district. This…

This is Ari's dormitory!

"Ahh, thank you, Victoria," and before the captain could enter, he followed up. "My bad, but did you also explain what happened to these houses? Is this one of the anomalous places that Vigil burnt down?"

"Hmm, not really, my friend. Yes, we did burn down a bunch of places, but this wasn't us. If I remember correctly, this was reported the same night as the incident in Starfall Heights alongside hundred other similar reports."

Once the captain stopped, Victoria added in her plain voice, "Probably just some cultists using this place as their grounds for rituals. I think we had a couple of similar cases around my family's mansion, too."

"Mhm, that's what our investigators think, too. Other similar cases had signs of them everywhere."

"Ahh…" Vern nodded.

He counted the houses from the left and realized that the fifth was actually Ari's place. Even I can be lucky sometimes.

Thanking them another time, he entered the second house.

He quickly moved through the burnt-down first floor and observed it using stability. The pollution was so minor that all the black particles in the vicinity disappeared with a single glance.

The wooden stairs to the second floor were in pretty bad shape—and would clearly crumble at the lightest of the touch. However, his eyes flared, and the stability supported the stair's structure as he ascended to the second floor and made quick work of it.

Indeed an easy job.

Not wasting any time, he exited and walked to the fifth house, nodding to Victoria, who also just left the house assigned to her.

The moment he set foot inside, his memory flashed, and he contrasted what lay in front of his eyes with what he'd seen back then.

It was…gone.

This house was markedly in worse shape than the other one. Heck, the whole ceiling had collapsed and he could clearly see what used to be Ari's room.

It was…empty. There was nothing inside it except burnt soot and ash.

A fierce tug pulled at his heart. He'd come here just a couple weeks ago, hadn't he? Then what the hell happened?

He hadn't come back for fear of raising suspicions about his relationship with someone in the building, but who would have thought something like this could happen?

This was the last sign of Ari in his life.

This reminded him, What happened to...Ari’s friend? He remembered her name rhyming with some cathedral. Did she survive this? Were people involved in this accident?

He didn't see any blood—but fire was a cruel mistress that was gluttonous for everything human.

The thought of that innocent girl getting caught up in this further weighed down on him.

He wanted to continue staring at it. Hoping…wishing to see it all go back.

It didn't.

Thump. Someone knocked on the door, and he shouted, "Sorry, one second. I was writing something down."

He stood there in silence for another dozen seconds before he cleansed it all with one glance and walked out.

Nothing was going to happen by standing there.

The eighth house wasn't much either.

The trend continued at the second and third site for the day. It really was a simple mission this time. However, the fourth site had him stumped again.

It was the Chamber of Astromancers from Elmhurst's Institute of Higher Education—the one where Ari used to study.

It was a high observatory with a gigantic telescope at the top. However, most of it was in shambles with clear signs of destruction—some of it even burnt. Winter-resistant moss and vines had started to lay their claim on the building, but Captain and Victoria entered it without much thought.

It was a massive tower of many floors, and going up after cleansing each of them became quite a chore. However, Victoria hadn't complained about that even once. It'd be weird if he did.

So he shut up and kept at his job. Many questions whirled in his mind as he breezed through his allotted floors with ease.

Why would rituals burn the places down? He found it hard to believe these were the work of some cult.

So, he grabbed onto a different thread. He'd been wondering why Vigil hadn't figured out the vessel's identity when she had lived here for so many years.

Now, it started to make sense. Someone actively wiped away the evidence of her existence. It'd be one thing if Duskfall hadn't made it impossible to figure out who was alive and who wasn't, but in the current state of the city's infrastructure, it would be foolish to trust any identity documents.

Not that the members of Asea's church couldn't have wiped any information about her from there, too.

Wonder why they didn't come after me, given they'd probably perused through all the documents. They surely knew I was her brother.

After cleansing a dozen more halls, he had a weird answer to that. Did Ari register me as dead? A wry smile formed on his face. Was there a gravestone of his name in the city somewhere?

After all, he was dead for all intents and purposes for the first three days post-Duskfall. Maybe that threw them off the track, and their premeditated cleaning tactics kicked in when she had to leave the city?

Or Ari had a hand in this. She wasn't as slow as it seemed. Especially when she had time to think through things. She probably understood that involving him would be nothing but trouble.

The mere thought disgusted him. His incompetence was why he was here cleansing the remnants of her passing rather than being with her as she struggled to retain her being against a literal god.

Tch. The only good that came out of these Asea's grunts, it seems. They had inadvertently helped him by destroying all the evidence of her existence. It actually eased a lot of the worries on his mind regarding this secret.

Once they were all the way at the top, Vern looked at it all one final time. Did she spend a lot of time here? She liked telescopes, didn't she?

The thought reminded him of that gash in the sky, and he quickly sobered up. Things were bigger than just him and Ari. He had to think bigger or he’d be always stuck one step behind her.

I have to get a grip.

Once they were done here, their carriage escorted them to Fulham borough for the last cleansing site, and all three of them finished it right when the sun set for the day.

"I have something to take care of back at my place, so I shall take my leave here. See you both tomorrow," Vern said as he bowed to his team members. He didn't want to risk being summoned for this confluence or whatever inside Vigil.

He still didn't know what to feel about the whole thing. But it was coming soon, and he had to take precautions. He wanted to avoid it if he could, but something told him he couldn't just back out from this.

Not when they claim to be something of a secret hand behind the world itself.

In almost perfect noble etiquette, Victoria bowed back, her slender fingers resting on her cravat. Captain Shinsei just nodded and held his sword before taking off himself, leaving Victoria alone in the carriage.

Vern chose to walk. Hotel Inkwell was nearby, and he had a few things he wanted to buy in preparation for tonight. He quickly found what he was looking for, albeit at absurd prices.

.

.

.

Grabbing at the heavy knocker,

Knock Knock.

"Welcome, Master Vern. Nice to have you back," greeted Beaumont with that serious yet kindly face like usual.

Vern smiled and greeted back in kind.

"Could you please send some food upstairs?"

"You have some mail, too, Master Vern."

"I will look at it tomorrow."

Beaumont nodded, and Vern didn't dally. He ascended the stairs and entered his room by inputting the lock's passcode.

The smell of parchment and old wood hit him, and he instantly felt at ease.

Loosening the straps of Duality's sheathe, he rested it in a corner and slumped onto the bed. It wasn't as physically comfortable as the one in Vigil, but it definitely made him feel at peace.

Once the food arrived, he brought it all to the table and slowly nibbled through it as he read his notes and solidified his plans for the day and week and onwards.

Minutes turned into hours as he waited. Soon, the tower next to the hotel chimed eleven times, and as if synchronized with the clock, golden tendrils suddenly appeared all around him.

It is happening. Fuck!

A mixture of disbelief, excitement, and nervousness coursed through him as he grabbed his notepad, the mask he'd bought, and a couple of other items before his vision exploded with gold.