Dinner was exquisite, as was expected. Butler and Niles waited patiently by the side of the table as he ate. Niles looked excited to report. Must have gone well. Truth finished with a sip of tea and nodded.
“Report.”
“Sire, we were expected. It seemed that Ms. Anakdaughter could tell I served you. How, I cannot say.” Truth waved it away.
“Her eyes work differently than most. Carry on.”
“Yes. Ah, she introduced me around the office. People were a bit disoriented, but apparently this was not unprecedented. I was able to order the rebranding initiative to begin the preliminary phases- putting together a style guide, focus testing effective phrases, that sort of thing. I also…”
Here he glanced over at Butler, who pretended not to see. Niles steeled himself and pressed on. “I took the liberty of creating a credit gem for you, your Highness. I know you disdain such matters, but I hoped that with this, you would never need to trouble yourself about them.”
Truth looked calmly at Niles for a long moment. Niles didn’t quite break out into a sweat. “Well done. You are the CEO. Initiative is required. I accept your offering.” Niles bowed ninety degrees, sputtering about how thankful he was. Truth waved him silent.
Something was… not quite right. He closed his eyes. Inhaled slowly. Let his tongue taste the air. Some indefinable thing was tickling at him. And it wasn’t Niles. He looked over at the succubae. No problem there. Then the danger must be from outside.
The Prince was a high profile play. Invisibility through social engineering. However, in Harban, it was a dangerous one. There were people here who could disdain rank, as they had so much of their own. Time to go. Now.
“You have done well. Butler, Maid, you will attend to Niles and see him kept in reasonable comfort and reasonably human condition. Continue his indoctrination, and ensure he does his best as CEO of MegaShroom. Ensure he continues to advance my purpose.” Truth reached out and with a sharp tap, knocked out Niles.
“Highness?” The succubae spoke together.
“This location and Identity have been burnt. Probably for a long time, but I sense the attack is coming. Likely soon. So we split up. I will find you. Be true to me, and I will continue to hold you as my Butler and Maid.
They bowed, and immediately set to packing. Niles was safely stowed in his suitcase, Truth’s luggage assembled, and they parted with a nod. The succubae would vanish into the hotel as only gaseous spirits could do, hiding Niles with the rest of the luggage until the coast was clear.
Truth had no confidence in his ability to hide in place. Instead, he slightly shifted his persona to a spoiled son. Not some spoiled teen- the even more loathsome adult child. The entitled brat that never grew into responsibility, only into assumed power. The kind of person one would find reasons not to associate with.
He rode the elevator into the lobby, taking all the seventy floors to let the Prince persona dissipate, and the spoiled man-child form instead. By the time he was in the lobby, he was a cauldron of insecurity and arrogance.
The elevator doors opened with a soft chime. The lobby was packed with riot police. The almost invisible watcher creatures were scattered around like obscene wall ornaments or a fetishist’s chandelier. Truth couldn't be bothered to look at any of them.
Directly in front of him was a little man. So old he simply dispensed with cosmetic glamorous and was content to be old. His long, narrow goatee somehow balanced the gray-white of the ponytail coming from under his little fedora, managing to add dignity to the senior’s already august face. He dressed like a man from another age. A loose, long jacket with wide sleeves that tied closed at the chest. Loose, wide trousers. Soft, heel-less shoes. Little round glasses that reeked of enchantment.
“You have made this old man run around a lot.” The Elder’s face slowly split into a malevolent grin. “Still. Lots of time to get to know each other now. All the time in the world.”
Truth nodded. He could feel the suppressive aura the old man was putting out. Level seven if he was mage at all. No pin, for what little that was worth.
“So about… sixteen months?”
The old man burst into a cackling laugh. Truth silently released the Blessing of the Silent Forest. It would only drain him. There was no hiding here. The scales he shifted into something more… appropriate for the situation.
“I dare to guarantee I can make that feel like an eternity, boy. I haven’t accidentally let someone die since I grew my first pube. I’d ask you to surrender but…”
Incisive screamed a split second warning. Truth exploded out of the elevator, calling the Tongue to hand. He lifted the blade across his face, feeling hard blows on the blade. Two needles fell to the floor with chiming “Pings!” The old bastard went for the eyes. He shifted left, getting his leg up, as a foot like a steel hook went for his balls. He was quite sure the only reason his leg didn’t shatter was the years of cultivation behind the Meditations.
“Hohoh! No wonder you have been giving these kids fits. A body cultivator with Incisive and an angelic blade? What a little monster.” The old man cackled happily. “Oh there is just no WAY you are going to die on me. I can go as hard as I like. Bwahahahah!”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Dignity, Senior?” Truth asked softly.
“OVERRATED!”
More needles, twice the length of a man’s hand, slipped from the old monster’s sleeves and dove like silvery birds at Truth. The old man aimed everywhere, at the thighs, the feet, elbows, arms neck, chest, head. On and on, the needles came. Truth moved the Tongue in a blur of steel. These needles were enchanted, heavily enchanted. With what, Truth didn’t want to discover.
The riot cops were hanging back, as were the watchers. Clearly just there to fill any gaps and prevent any outside interference. Truth was desperately trying to think how he could turn them to his advantage while the senior was still playing around.
“Say kid, where’s your bravado, huh? Weren’t you having fun, acting like a big shot? Murdering all those people? Don’t you have a slogan to shout?”
Needles were flying at him from all directions now, some dropping towards the floor then shooting up, others trying to move around behind him. Feedback from the Tongue said they were absolutely filthy with curses and poisons.
“I don’t really believe in much. Go Rats?” Truth tried to press on the offense, but the senior moved like a ghost, always just out of reach. With seemingly limitless numbers of needles too.
“Go Rats? Rats? What kind of slogan is that? Junior, you disappoint me!”
“Sorry. My education was famously bad.” Truth started deflecting the needles into the masses of cops and watchers. The cops didn’t shift an inch. They just huddled down behind their riot shields and let them take the damage. The watchers didn’t care about getting hit. They just died. No curses deployed.
Interesting.
“Senior, since we have a moment, might I trouble you for wisdom?”
This made the old monster’s eyes open wide, even as he launched another wave of needles.
“Oho? What do you want to know?”
“What is a human?”
The fight came to a sudden halt.
“You what?”
“What is a human? I’m not being funny with you, senior. I really can’t define it, and I have been thinking about it a lot. When you get rid of all the things a human can live without, what is left? What is that core thing that defines us?”
The old monster’s head tilted to the side. He glanced around the room, as though confirming that, yes, they were still surrounded by riot cops, there were needles lodged in the floors and walls, there were dead watcher things falling off pillars and yes, the young man in front of him really was Jeon’s most wanted terrorist, or at least one of them.
“Boy, are you entirely clear what’s going on here?”
“You are here to capture me for torture, interogation, propaganda, and eventually a horrible, prolonged death. The latter less to scare others and more for the private satisfaction of many very powerful people.” Truth nodded. It wasn’t a nice thing, but it was pretty clear.
“And… you want to define humanity.”
“No, just humans individually. What we are, exactly.” Truth explained.
“You are a real buzz kill, you know that?” The old man’s shoulders slumped.
“Really? I mean, all those things I just mentioned are still going to happen, right?”
“Of course. I was chosen specifically because you would have no opportunity to commit suicide in front of me. But if I can’t bully you a bit first, it’s all just a chore. And you seem like you don’t really care about… anything. Which makes you extremely boring.” The old monster stuck his hands into his wide sleeves. Truth was sure he was preparing something uncommonly nasty in there. That was fine. So was Truth.
“Oh, I care. It’s not an idle question. Do you know what the System Astrologica is? I mean the bit that lives in the C-Tier and up employees?” Truth smiled softly. He noticed that the watchers had stopped looking for incoming dangers and focused on him. He was pretty certain he had the cop’s full attention too.
“Oh? Do tell.” The old man rolled his eyes.
“It’s your soul. The swearing in ceremony mutilates a bit of your soul, imprints it with a bit of the System Astrologica, and then uses it to manipulate you. Over time, it literally changes how you think. So are you still a human? And if you live in a world ruled by… whatever those things are that Starbrite is making, are you still a human? Scrabbling and biting and climbing over each other to eat the same few crumbs of food. Eating each other. Or are you something else? Something not human?”
“Go Rats.” The old man grinned horribly. “Interesting theory. Doesn't hold up though. You think we wouldn’t have noticed soul manipulation on that scale?”
Truth nodded. “Yes. It’s very easy not to notice things when it is your job not to look. Medical tests checking for spiritual parasites produce false positives when they scan people with the System. Weird, huh?”
You could practically hear the listening cops clicking the pieces together. The old man narrowed his eyes. “Incisive. You sneaky little shit.”
The old monster flung out his arms. Needles in lacy arrays spun from his sleeves as spellforms manifested around him. He would end the fight with one blow.
Truth struck first. He took an explosive step forward and let the Tongue lash out. The old man made an easy dodge. But the fangs of Botis didn’t have to be attached to something material. A sharp stab came at the senior’s side, causing his eyes to widen. Defensive charms sparkled and burst, defeating the hidden attack. The old man grinned nastily, seeing victory at hand. Truth could see the moment in his eyes- that instant shift from triumph to horror.
“What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO!?”
Truth didn’t reply. He just lunged forward, stabbing up under the ribcage, shredding the organs within, letting the bane on the blade do its work. He could see the old man trying to draw on his magic. For revenge or survival, Truth couldn’t say. Didn’t matter, there was nothing there for him regardless. Obliteration did show some traces when it was cast, but not many. Easily lost in a burst of defensive charms going off. The old monster’s magic was dying even more quickly than he was.
Truth had never been one for talking during a fight, but sometimes exceptions had to be made. He chose to think of it as tactical dialog. Time to run like hell before the backup swarmed in. He kicked the corpse off his blade and ran like hell for the windows.
He had almost taken three steps by the time the front of the lobby exploded inwards and backup swarmed in. No more cops. These were soldiers. Professional killers with no interest in captives. Each one sported a seven pointed star on their BDU’s. The Starbrite PMC, Harban Branch. Captain Clavegauh leading from the front.