The smell of the incense mixed with the woodsmoke and the coffee to create something incredible. A sensory mist that spoke to them, and the world around them. It was the only one talking. The group sat quietly around the fire, plainly not clear on where to start.

“Just to confirm- you rescued the Shattervoid girl?” Merkovah asked.

“Yes. Well, basically yes.” Everyone tensed up, but Truth waved them down again. “I disabled the spells restraining her and she carried us out of the volcano and into the… let's go with ‘warm embrace of her family.’ I think that’s the line I usually read in those situations.”

“Lucky you got in there before they blew up the volcano.” The ambassador chuckled.

“Yes. Lucky.” Truth nodded. Merkovah’s eyes narrowed momentarily.

“Young man, while not everyone in this room has been read into every detail of your background, they do all have our highest level security clearance and have been specifically read into major parts of the program supporting your efforts.”

“Oh. Neat.”

“It means you can talk freely here.”

“Of course.”

There was a pause. Merkovah sighed and buried his face in his hands.

“You aren’t going to say a single thing more than you need to, are you?”

“Nope! Well nothing dangerous. I think I would actually enjoy just… chatting with people for a while.”

Merkovah looked around the room for support. “He’s been like this for as long as I have known him. He brutally interrogated a Dancing Cloud when he saw one for the first time. He rides the most horrible iron horses because he knows every part that goes into them and how to fix them when they go wrong. He spent fourteen hours flying in cargo holds rather than take a meeting with a droned operative. He has never once used any of the supplied plans we made. And yet, everyone acts like I’M the asshole when I ask for mental health days and a raise.”

“I mean, it’s clearly justified.” Truth’s lips quirked. “You know Siphios Intelligence, or whatever you call yourselves, is completely, totally, compromised.”

This got sputters of indignation from everyone in the room, including a particularly hard look from the old lady. Truth shrugged.

“Look at it from my perspective. Jeon internal security only ever really got close to me twice. Once when I screwed up my cover, resulting in the whole Hell Prince nonsense. Once when they traced a ritual. And that was it. Having no contact with anyone has made me an utter nightmare to track. On the other hand, I’m betting your other teams of operatives have been getting nabbed left and right, except for a few who are either very lucky, or are being left there to feed you false information.”

“It’s not quite that bad.” The ambassador’s voice was bone dry.

“Oh, you got some out alive?”

Merkovah cut in. “Alright, before this devolves any further, what ARE you willing to share?”

“I found out what’s on the other side of Level Nine. And, related, I also found out what the System Astrologica is.”

That got a lot of attention. The Diplomatic Security Officer grunted. “Spell draw just shot up. Not any kind of obvious attack. Dropping…. Back to baseline. Seems to have been a transitory spike.”

Merkovah’s eyes slightly narrowed. “I wonder. Without revealing anything, where did you learn this from?”

“The Shattervoid girl. We got into most of it when we were off planet, actually.”

Looks were shared across the room. The old lady, Kuleni, poured out a small cup of coffee, sniffed it, tasted it, and nodded. She looked over at Truth. “Sugar?”

“For the really good stuff, I prefer drinking it black.”

She nodded and poured him a cup, serving it on a little saucer. “I always like mine with lots of sugar, or a knob of spiced butter, but to each their own.” Truth smiled and inhaled the aroma.

The world seemed to judder to a halt for a second.

The smells- coffee, yes, but there was chocolate there too, and a hint of dark cherries and lemon zest. Under them was some rich complexity he couldn’t put words to. Layers of flavor and meaning he had to dive into if he wanted to explore them. He lifted the cup to his lips and took a long pull.

He put the cup down on the saucer gently.

“That is the best coffee I have ever had or even heard of.” Truth didn’t know how to be effusive. Everyone felt the sincerity, though. She smiled, and poured for the rest of the room.

“Take your time with it. The second cup is lighter, the third the lightest. No rush, no rush. Go slow and savor it. And while you do, talk.” She waved him on.

It was, as everyone expected, a long conversation. Merkovah made some alterations to the wards on the room which let Truth finally reveal the existence of Nascent Souls, and what the System Astrologica probably was.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“The key thing, I think, is that this was more or less confirmed by a C-Suite Level Eight.” Truth explained. “She said the only point of contact the System Astrologica has with the material world is Starbrite himself.”

“Do we know who was in the base?” The Ambassador looked over at Merkovah, who wiggled his hand.

“Based on the description, I would say it was Racine Fennister. She came up through their manufacturing department, so it would make sense that she was overseeing the Prototyping Lab. And that she had the combat capability of a stunned potato. Last time she was in a real fight, they used her like artillery. Way, way, in the back. Mostly her level was deterrent enough.”

“Sorry, she just ignored getting shot in the face?” The DSO asked, looking like he couldn’t believe it.

“Nothing was touching her. Nothing was even close to touching her. I had trained her to not see the needles as a threat.” Truth shrugged. “She also said that The Tongue was a spellbreaker sword?”

Merkovah nodded. “It’s an outdated technology. Spell Blades were somewhat notorious for using them. Basically they worked by overloading spells with damage in a highly concentrated area. Wards of that era couldn’t hold up and tended to fall apart. Even more so unstable spells like curses or evocations. They weren’t anti-magic so much as they just… broke spells. Like saying a hammer is anti-peanut.”

Truth blinked. He was highly familiar with a wide variety of weapons and had never heard of that one. Merkovah smiled slightly and preempted his question.

“Because warding spells improved, needler technology massively improved, and combat doctrines changed to entirely ranged magic. It was just massively more efficient to use a specialized talisman or have a regimental marksman use a heavy needler with Graeme’s Arrow or Drill Spark or similar if you had to overload a specific point.”

Truth allowed how that was fair and got stuck back in. When he was wrapping up, Kuleni handed him a second cup of coffee. It was brewed in the same pot using the same grounds, he noticed. The taste was significantly lighter. You could pick out the brighter, more subtle notes, but something of the body was lost. It was still phenomenal, and he said so.

“You said you like a knob of spiced butter in the coffee?” he asked.

“Just a little bit. Would you like to try some?”

He did, and it was weird, but delicious. The spices reminded him vividly of the food in Siphios, while the butter added a richness to the coffee that changed the whole sensation of drinking it. The fat stuck to his lips a little bit, and coated his tongue. They kept the taste lingering in his mouth. He didn’t know that he particularly liked it, but it was absolutely fun to try.

Truth wrapped up his report. He left out starting the war, or liberating the phoenix. He did mention his campaign against Onis public security as a way to stoke tensions. The “room” was very quiet afterwards. It was a lot to digest. Truth looked out across the mountains and enjoyed the fresh air. It might be an illusion, but it was a calming one.

“So… we need to find Starbrite and kill him. But every soul that gets enrolled in the new System is subconsciously training its host’s psyche, and every enrolled person we kill is directly empowering Starbrite’s soul. Which is already so vastly powerful, the Shattervoid think it’s deformed and evil.” The ambassador concluded.

Truth appreciated the awful-lot-of-questions that the ambassador clearly had but was choosing not to ask. The DSO was keeping his eyes on the wards, but Truth was utterly certain the cop wanted to get him in an interrogation cell ASAP for more detailed answers. Merkovah… was looking up at the ceiling.

“It’s not hopeless. It’s not hopeless. We just need to… radically depart from our initial plans and try to adapt things not intended for this job from their original purpose.” Merkovah’s voice started calming and ended wry.

“I have always been a big believer in the power of jank.” Truth nodded firmly.

“You would.” This came as a growl. “Congratulations on reaching Level Five, by the way. And not exploding. Again. Somehow. Despite the amount of available cosmic rays sharply declining globally.”

“I do need access to a spell library, now that you mention it. A real one this time. Also we need to sit down and have a long, long talk about Cup and Knife.”

There was a pause at that. The old lady cocked her head to one side. “I don’t think I know that spell.”

Merkovah slouched into his chair. “You memorized that spell. Of all the spells you lifted from my library, you memorized the absolute jankiest. Your faith in God is nil, but your faith in crudely cobbled together monstrosities remains vaster than the skies. Sure, yes, why not, I have absolutely no other pressing matters, let's talk about a spell that was broken when it was first written hundreds of years before I was born, and was preserved only as reference material.”

“I mean, it doesn't have to be right this second. But if we are our spells, figuring out how it’s meant to work and what Manda’s intent was behind the spells is… pretty damn important, actually. Because my next spell will have to play well with what I already have, and that’s going to be another big job.”

Merkovah’s lips quirked. “You realize that the correct answer is actually “Spend the time to get to understand your spells and what they mean to you,” right? Behead Starbirte and we can spend all the time you want chatting about it.”

“Hah. Well. I’ll get on that. Any idea about the sarcophagus thing?”

“Many. None more than ideas. I will research it and let you know.”

About what he expected.

“Got any ideas about finding Starbrite and, you know, stopping him from doing whatever the hell he is doing with all these soul fragments?”

Merkovah’s smile was unpleasant. “Why, yes, yes I do.”

“Why am I suddenly worried?” Truth asked. That got snorts from around the room.

“The fact that you haven’t dropped Incisive even for a second while we have been here is both heartening and probably the explanation you are looking for.” Merkovah shook his head.

“No. It is terribly sad,” Kuleni said. The gathering fell silent. She let the silence brew for a moment, then smiled sadly at Truth. “Young man, you are in immense pain and living in fear. They are your constant companions, more so than even your sword.”

“Yes.”

The illusion provided the sound of birds singing in the trees, the wind blowing the leaves. Somehow, it made the silence deeper.

“I don’t know about Cup and Knife, but I know about Incisive. You have learned, perhaps too well, the lessons of Botis the Snake Demon. I think it is time you turned your mind to what you can learn from Botis the swordsman, debater and Lord of Hell. From there, you can pick your next spell.”

“Thank you, Senior. I think I will do just that.”

“Good. Because we will be exploiting your Hell Prince identity, and you will need to take full advantage of that.” She continued in the same calm, reassuring tones.

“Pardon?!”

“Oh yes. You are going to cut back the supply of souls immensely, and poison the well of the ones he does get. Weaken him before you go in for the final confrontation. Well, you, and everyone who will be supporting you. This will be anything but a solo act.”