1 Soul Bound
1.2 Taking Control
1.2.2 An Awakening Epiphany
1.2.2.14 Painful truths
It was almost fully dark by the time she left the tent, sparks from the bonfire flying high into the night sky, with planets and stars showing clearly. Wellington had returned and was talking with Bulgaria. Tomsk was playing drums, and Omobono was deep in a discussion with Nicolo, showing him how to finger a flute. Alderney was keeping Vittoria company. Bungo was just behind her.
{Minion, how much time do I have left?}
[You have 10 minutes arlife time, which is 20 minutes in-game.]
Damn, not enough time to fit Vittoria in, and she’d have to hustle if she were going to help Nicolo. Time to be bossy. It was what the deities wanted of her, right?
Kafana: {Alderney, I can’t fit Vittoria in. Please, talk with Minion to arrange a time this afternoon arlife that I can make, and then explain to Vittoria there’s preparation she needs to do before the attempt. Review the last two minutes of my meeting with Olga and then explain the preparation to her.}
Kafana: {Omobono, please could you bring Nicolo over to the tent I’m standing by.}
Kafana: {Bungo, please ask Olga if I may make use of her tent and her table, then lay out the most detailed map of Torello we have.}
She started getting her full equipment out and singing buffs upon herself. She’d just have to keep her head up straight and balance the gems on the inside of her diadem. Good for her posture, if nothing else.
Balthazar: [Sorry to intrude, Nadine, but I don’t anticipate you being any freer before you log out. I have a warning from project ‘sense danger’ for you.]
She waited until a pause between buffs, then replied.
Kafana: {Balthazar, go ahead.}
Balthazar: [It falls under ‘in-game impacts you appear not to be anticipating’ but it is from other players not plot. Are you sure you want it?]
Kafana: {Not sure, no, but I’m short on time. Tell me. I’ll survive.}
Balthazar: [Given the information you discovered about Igraine, and the way Bulgaria reacted and his biometric readings, and his previous statements about keeping an eye upon major guilds, I calculate that there’s a greater than 95% chance that he was aware Igraine was not a member of Nevermere and that the attack upon Pierrot was a trap.]
She felt like the ground had fallen away from beneath her feet. She froze for a moment. It was a moment too long.
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Wellington: {I just had to give Bulgaria some bad news. Someone in arlife died. It was a young man who had volunteered to spy on The Immortals. His body has turned up. We didn’t manage to get him out in time. Bulgaria has flipped out to arlife. I’m going to go too. I’ll see you later, Kafana, for that chat about security. Make time for it. It’s important.}
Bungo: {That’s terrible. Go, take the time you need.}
Wellington: {I’ll be reviewing arlife contingency measures, Bungo, trying to tighten things up, help save more lives, not be mourning. I don’t have time to mourn. You do it for me. His online nick was Tlaloc. He was 23 years old.}
Bungo: {Kafana, table’s ready for you, and we’re standing by with Nicolo. Come in when you’re buffed.}
Tomsk: {I can brief the Vessels, and I’ll look after Vessel-Kafana after you flip. Concentrate on casting that spell for Nicolo. We’ve got the rest. We’ll handle any search or fall out.}
Her world felt flipped upside down. Every time she gained one step, she lost two. Compartmentalising could only last so long as a solution. Right, do it just this one last time. But then she needed to stop playing roles, especially roles picked by other people. She needed to find out who she was when she wasn’t just playing at life, at being someone she wasn’t. If only the ‘locate’ skill worked on finding abstracts like your own true name.
She cast a confidence buff and calming upon herself and walked into the tent, her eyes glowing a bright gold to match her diadem, pendant and skin. Olga, she was pleased to note, had to shrink back and shade her eyes.
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In the end, the spell was trivial. Nicolo produced a locket worn by his mother that was Antonio’s most treasured possession. Kafana borrowed a chain and used it as a divining pendulum over the map while casting her locate spell in harmony with Nicolo. Nicolo provided as much desire to find the body as anyone could wish. Kafana had plenty of mana to spare. The spell was one she was practised at, and with the learning buff on, she didn’t find it hard to adapt it to work via the map. What Johannes had said made more sense now that she’d made use of it a few times.
[Skill “Homing” has reached level 11.]
Hmm, could she make a more detailed map? She took a piece of paper from the pad. Currently the paper and the end location were two items. She wanted the end result to be them linked together in such a way that an image on the paper reflected the layout of the end location found by the locate spell. The spot on the map where the pendulum had touched down could act as a proxy for that. So, a name for the new gestalt: “map pair”. Link them together with appropriate runes, visualise the result, apply willpower and just add mana. *snap*
[Title gained “Seer”.]
[Skill “Seeing” acquired.]
[Skill “Seeing” has reached level 1.]
A picture formed on the page. Part of it showed a corner of a warehouse container. But most of the page showed Antonio’s dead body, the stab wound still clear.
[Quest “What has happened to Antonio?” completed.]
[Quest “De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est” available.]
Nicolo crumpled to the ground, the bravery he’d been maintaining all day finally defeated. His only remaining family was now lost for good.
She should stay, put on a comforting face for him. But it would be a lie. And she’d sworn to herself: no more masks.
She logged out.
*flip*