(Geoffrey POV - Geoffrey's Office)

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Seated at my desk, I heard knocking on my door.

"Come in." The door opened, and a group that I've played with recently came in. They were Dale, John, Tod and Pok.

"Hello."

"Take a seat." I spoke to them amiably. "Would you like some tea, water, or coffee?"

"I'll just have water." Dale told me.

"The same." "Me too." "Likewise." The other 3.

With a thought, I manifested 4 glasses of water and watched them gulp them down. It is not usual that people that come into my office are this thirsty.

"Phew...Thanks." Dale said. Rubbing his face, he got into the zone and began giving his report. "You have to help us, Geoff. He latched onto us."

"Euclid did? What does he want with you?" I began the interview. He looked at his boys, and shrugged.

"To be honest, I am not sure. Apparently, just to show him around town later." I heard as much from the personnel tailing him. Euclid said he killed Louis, and that matches with him not getting back home last night. It is too bad Walter, we won't be able to have that meeting.

"I see. Well, I already know what Euclid did during the day. He forced you into a duel. And since you were betting a single chip the whole time he wasn't looking to bust you. Still, how did the games go? That is what I want to hear about."

"It was weird." The balding Pok said, looking at the rest.

"Definitely." The thin John nodded.

"I've never seen anything like it." Tod confirmed, shaking his head.

"How so?" I wondered.

"When the game started, Euclid first took off his glasses. He tossed them off into the abyss dramatically." Dale manifested a pair of glasses on his for emphasis and imitated Euclid short of actually throwing them away. "The next thing he did was raise his hand to his face in some weird pose and swish it across the eye level, like he was parting a curtain." Dale did a little move for emphasis. "When he finished that move his eyes became yellow. I can't recall what his eye color was previously, brown maybe, but during the game it was so unnatural."

Damn, he really is an Episteme if he is able to transmute his eyes...well, assuming he didn't just manifest some ordinary lenses in the duel space for the kicks of it. But that would still put him at mid Aleator.

"If anybody in the world below did that at the table I would have laughed at him, but the only thing I could think at that moment is that he is an Episteme. It brought flashbacks of some of the Epistemes doing bodily transformations during the Heaven's Key tournament. It was quite frightening. Euclid must have sensed it because he had a smug look on his face the whole time afterwards."

"So how did the game go? Did he read your hand and beat you one sidedly?"

"That is the weird thing. It didn't happen. In fact we won most of the games." I looked at the rest and they nodded.

"I started thinking that I could take him." John said. "One time, I bet 20 chips and this time he didn't bother with changing his eyes. He played as if he knew exactly what we had and what cards were going to come out. He never lost more than the ante on any given hand."

"Don't do that again." Dale warned him. Tod and Pok glared at him as well.

The fact that he did do it gave me some good information. The reaction of the rest of the group to John's action told me just how highly they thought of Euclid's gameplay. On its face, a single match is not much to go on, but sometimes it is more than enough. It is possible to gleam a lot from live play that people wouldn't have imagined otherwise.

"I agree that you shouldn't. I got news that the enforcer we sent after Euclid didn't come back. Euclid is telling the truth when he said he killed him."

"What rank was he?" John asked.

"Mid Aleator. Purely based on that we can be sure that Euclid is at least a high Aleator, and most likely an Episteme." John whistled, impressed. "So just keep him entertained. We'll get him soon enough."

"Will do." John accepted. I looked at Dale and raised my brows, urging him to continue.

"How did you win?"

"He wasn't focused on winning. Instead he seemed to be acting." Dale said. Dale looked at Tod.

"When the game started he seemed to be in though. Then he started reciting A B C D E...the whole alphabet while looking at us." Tod said. He looked at Pok.

"Yeah, or he'd say something like: Cow drinks...and wait for a couple of seconds for us to digest it. None of us would say anything. After a little while he would manifest a canvas with a bottle of milk painted on it." Pok continued. "Then he'd stare at us."

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"The painting of the bottle was quite detailed. He is good at art." John offered.

"At first I thought he was looking at us, but after a while I realized he was looking at our foreheads." Dale tapped it. "He wasn't really looking us in the eyes."

"Huh, really? Yeah, you are right now that I think about it." John remarked. Tod and Pok exchanged a look and then nodded. "Yeah, now that you mention it..." "I thought something was weird, that had to be it."

"He manifested all kinds of paintings, and described what was on them. It was weird. He'd for example manifest a mountain on a canvas and say: mountain. Or a painting of a dog and say: dog. Or a cat. You get what I mean." I nodded. "It was like teaching a toddler how to speak."

He is definitely an Episteme. Being able to manifest arbitrary imagery is not something Aleators can do. Aleators can do a lot, but it takes a decade of practice.

"You said the images were good right?" I asked John.

"Yeah, all of them." He confirmed. As soon as he did that a shiver went down my spine. Euclid has unfathomable talent, enough to scare me. A kid being able to do this after a week of getting here is unheard of. He might be the most talented player ever to set foot on this city in its entire history. And the city has existed for a very long time. If we give him any more time to develop he will become unbeatable..

"Please continue." I smoothly got back on track, but on the inside, I am quite on edge now. I do not want to miss even a little detail of this conversation.

"Where were we? Yeah, besides the paintings and Euclid saying random words and sentences at the table, Euclid tried guessing our hands out loud. We'd check on the river, and he'd say something like 3s 8c. Then we'd showdown." Dale continued. "And at first, he’d get it completely wrong. I'd have K5 or something like that." Dale recalled one moment during the game. "But that was only at first. Later on he started getting it right all the time."

"That wasn't the weird thing though." John spoke up. "Towards the end, he'd look at me and say John...Greaves. Greaves is my surname."

He reminded the rest of something.

"Yeah, he'd do the same to me. He'd say Pok...Covilin. There was this creepy pause as he stared at me before saying my surname."

"He got all of ours right. The weird thing is..." Tod followed up. They exchanged wondering glances.

"The weird thing is that we never told him our surnames. How could he possibly know that? Is he a mind reader?" Dale finished, looking me in the eyes. I felt the hairs on my skin rise. Is Euclid even a human? Did he develop some kind of eyes that would allow him to read minds and was using Dale's group as practice? Is that it?

It is actually confusing as to what his aim is. I've never heard of an Episteme capable of reading minds. If it is merely hands, there would be all sorts of more convenient ways of doing it. There is no need to know exactly what other people think.

There is no need to have any doubts, not only is he an Episteme, he is not even a low ranked one. The enforcement division is going to have a hard time with him.

I sigh.

"I see...before we finish, I want to ask if Euclid talked about what his plans are?"

"I asked him about it and he said that the enforcement division is weak, so he is going to take some money from them. After that he said his plan is to find rich people and kill them apparently. I am guessing he plans on having us find such people."

The classic 'kill the cops and take from the rich' plan for wealth creation. Wonderful. We need to put a stop to him. I sometimes doubt my job, but not in this case.

I should have recommended we send an Episteme to face Euclid from the start, but maybe even that wouldn't have been enough. There is no reason not to take him as the highest possible thread. In stories, the bad guys send goons from the weakest to strongest after the hero allowing him to power up. I won't make the same mistake here. My misjudgement got Louis killed.

"Right." I nod. "I think I've heard enough. At this point I am sure that Euclid is a mid Episteme at least. In my report I am going to recommend the enforcement division use all of its power against him."

"That should be enough to beat him, right?" John asked. I looked at him, choosing my words carefully.

"It should be enough to eliminate him. But if it is not, the ruler is going to get involved and it will be hell in this city until he becomes tamed." I lick my lips. "The next few days are going to be interesting. I suggest you do your best to blend into the background." I emphasized that last sentence to all of them.

"We should be able to send somebody after him tomorrow. If we don't do your best to keep him from doing anything rash, like attacking random people on the streets. Play to his ego. Say that the enforcement division needs time to find a player capable enough of facing him." They nod to my words.

Having acquired enough information, I get up from my seat and move to the door, opening it to escort them out. They follow.

"If you'll excuse me I have a report to make. As usual, the enforcement division will reimburse you for any losses taken during our cooperation. My secretary will take care of that. See you around, gentlemen."

We part, and soon enough, I am alone at my desk, ready to begin work. I have the meeting recorded on a brain core. I pick it out of my pocket and place it on the table. Then mentally accessing it, I begin to compose my report.

(Report by Geoffrey to the Enforcement Department)

Subject: High Episteme-level enforcement request

This is a follow up to my previous report, see the attached zip file for reference.

Due to insufficient information, I've made a gross misjudgement of Euclid's capability. Based on the latest interview with Dale, and the fact that he managed to defeat Louis, a mid Aleator enforcer, my current estimate is that Euclid is at least a mid Episteme. Ever since he defeated Louis he had grown at a frightening pace and is now capable of effortless manifestation in the duel space, as well as mind reading. Not to mention, he has other hidden powers besides those, Dale's group mentioned him knowing what cards are coming out once the stakes were raised to 20 from a 1 chip during their latest session.

> He played as if he knew exactly what we had and what cards were going to come out. He never lost more than the ante on any given hand.

A single match might not be enough to draw conclusions by itself, but Euclid does not make an attempt to hide his power. Neither is he making an attempt to hide his intentions. He did not express a desire to negotiate after his victory, and in fact has threatened the lives of ordinary citizens unless we send somebody stronger after him. I suggest we do just that.

But rather than dedicating only a top ranked player, we should put the entire resources of the Enforcement Division at our disposal and dedicate all our top players to this case.

Nothing like this has happened in the history of the city, and Euclid's talent cannot be measured by common sense.

Currently, he is in possession of 5743 chips. This is the ideal spot for us to stop him.