--- Lilian Weaver ---
Lilian was waiting for a meeting of the Interim Council to start. The council was gathered to discuss the recent assassination attempt on foreign royalty. Investigations had shown that this was connected to several other recent events: The unexplained demon summoning a few weeks ago, during Rania's examination for her adventuring license, as well as the events at Bells End, and investigations into Transcendence Laboratories.
This was unsurprising to Lilian. Random events weren't really random when she was involved. The Shan siblings had been found by team Nundru, and that naturally meant that events by the two groups would be connected.
It had turned out that Lilian's knowledge from another universe was relevant to the case, so the council had reluctantly allowed her to join the investigations.
She found it amusing to see how differently the councilors regarded her. About half of them did not believe a word she said. They thought she was a joke of a person who was simply very good at making up fiction and vastly exaggerated perfectly normal events simply to sell her books. Meanwhile, the other half thought that all her stories were the complete and literal truth, and they were convinced that her presence meant some great calamity was about to happen. This meeting had no formal seating arrangement, so she could tell to which group a person belonged by how far away from her, and how close to the exit, they had chosen to sit.
"The meeting will now come to order." The chairman of the Interim Council declared.
"Awfully confident of you to claim that." A strange blue skinned man in gaudy but clearly expensive clothing immediately interrupted the chairman. His hair was waving dramatically in the air despite the complete absence of wind.
"The meeting will probably not be very orderly until I decide to stop interrupting it for my own amusement." He clarified.
"Who is this man? Who let him in here?" The chairman asked, sounding both offended and confused at the same time.
His skin color could be the result of biomancy, but his hair was clearly a magical effect that would be expensive to replicate with a spell. Based on Lilian's expert experience as someone who encountered rare things on a daily basis, he was probably a half-elemental. Those were very rare and stood out, so he couldn't be a local noble if the chairman didn't recognize him.
Lilian glanced at the politician to her left, who sighed and handed a hundred gold over to her. He hadn't believed her when she predicted that the meeting was going to have at least one unexpected interruption. Rather than try to argue the point, she decided to just wager some money on it. It was a sucker's bet. The meeting was important enough that Tonos would surely be paying attention, and the god would never stand for the boring official proceedings these sessions usually followed.
"Allow me to introduce myself." The man began. He took only the slightest of bows as he said it, a clear sign of disrespect when addressing high nobility.
"My name is Adam Gust, and I am a Historian of Secrets." He continued.
"Oh." The chairman responded, nonplussed.
Well, that was interesting.
The Historians of Secrets were the most prestigious graduates of House Mardok's famous bards' college. Most bards were trained in the arts and in entertainment, as the Old Power Denissa Mardok enjoyed artistry of all kinds. But the Historians of Secrets were special. They were sent to experience and record history as it happened, all over Hyd. They would make accurate and exacting records of everything, and these records would be stored in House Mardok's many libraries.
Denissa Mardok was the only being that was said to be truly immortal. She was the only chronomancer on the planet, able to alter time and reverse harm to herself. She could even come back to life when killed. Moreover, it seemed that her pool of mana went much deeper than anyone else's, although it did not recharge very quickly. She could crush any other being on the planet with ease, but it would take her a very long time to recover afterwards. As a result, she avoided unnecessary conflicts and took a hands-off approach. She mostly relied on political maneuvering and trading of favors to get her way, instead.
In her own famous words to the Council of Elder Wyrms, after disintegrating the ancient dragon Orsat the Conqueror with a single spell: "I was there when your species came into existence. You are basically insects to me. But if I spent my time slapping every single gnat that tries to bite me, I would never get anything done. If you keep interfering with my plans, I will single out whichever one of you made the most noise and make another example of them. Now sit down, behave, and stop distracting me."
Her immortality gave her a rather unique perspective on the world. She did not care much about the rise and fall of nations, as they were all like mayflies to her. The only problems she bothered to get involved in were those that threatened the world itself. She had different priorities: She cared a lot about standardizing the language Common, and about accurate record keeping.
Denissa Mardok reportedly got quite annoyed whenever the people she talked to said wrong things about historical events where she was personally present, or when the wordplay in her favorite theater plays became hard to understand because of linguistic drift. To prevent these things, she owned many libraries full of historical records. There were even redundant copies of entire libraries, just in case one of them was destroyed. It was rare, but such things did happen every couple of millennia, so making copies was just prudent.
It was the job of the Historians of Secrets to gather this knowledge, and to that purpose she guaranteed them diplomatic immunity. They took their names from the fact that Denissa Mardok wanted them to record absolutely everything, including secrets. Their records should be as accurate as possible, and not distorted by propaganda. She therefore had a very simple policy: When her Historians of Secrets asked someone what was happening, or what their plans were, she expected people to be truthful. No exceptions.
She didn't care if a secret was embarrassing or valuable to a ruler, even if the secret was so important that revealing it could cause a revolt and topple a government. If someone refused to be truthful to her Historians of Secrets, and she found out about it, then she would generally make an example of that government. Usually it was enough for her to just declare the offender Persona Non Grata. This would ensure that all their political allies with any sense would abandon them before she decided to take more drastic measures.
At the same time, her historians very meticulously made sure that all the secrets they gathered would not be published immediately, and would remain secret until the last person who could be harmed by revealing them was dead. Even if this took millennia. Denissa Mardok was not in a hurry, after all. As a result, people actually had more detailed records of ancient history than of more recent events, since House Mardok's libaries contained both, but the latter were not public, yet.
She personally ensured that her Historians of Secrets were professional and could be trusted with the secrets they collected. But unfortunately for the politicians in this room, being professional did not mean being polite. Quite the opposite, in fact. Part of their role as representatives of House Mardok was to ensure that people did not forget who the most powerful being on the planet was, and where they stood in relation to her. It was practically part of their job to annoy and mock people, so long as they did not reflect poorly on Denissa Mardok herself.
This led to the somewhat absurd situation where the Historians of Secrets could and would spy on people, make sarcastic remarks, and generally antagonize nobles for their own amusement. And there was nothing the nobles could do about it.
And one of them was now in the room with her.
It looked like he had just invited himself to the meeting without anyone knowing. When your boss was the most powerful being on the planet, you could apparently just do that.
Lilian was jealous.
"I sometimes hear strange remarks about my unusual looks, usually from the parents of pretty girls for some unfathomable reason. So let me just explain: My father was a human, and my mother an air elemental. Strangely enough, I am not half air-elemental, as one might expect. According to Denissa Mardok, I appear to be a Sass Elemental instead. The first of my kind in five centuries."
The fact that he spoke of Denissa Mardok without any title spoke volumes. She had accumulated an immense number of titles over the years, and sometimes demanded that people use more of her titles depending on how much she disliked them. It was a petty display of power, but that was the point. That this man was apparently allowed to refer to her without any title at all was not lost on anyone present.
"Unfortunately I have also inherited a mental condition from my father." The man continued in a poorly faked melancholic voice. "It makes me not give a fuck about other people's opinions. I will therefore be mocking you all viciously on occasion. Please bear with it. It's nothing personal. Except when it is."
He paused for a moment to let that sink in.
"As for why I am here: I was in the area when I heard that the lovely Lilian Weaver was here."
He gave her a wink and a smile.
"I always wanted to feature in one of your books, and it is past time that someone investigates how much of your stories are made up fiction, and how much is worth recording as the truth. Also, while I'm here, I might as well take a look at all the dirty secrets of the less interesting personages here."
He smirked at the gathered nobles.
"Now, everyone please pretend I am not here and go about your business."
With that, he gave another insultingly slight bow to the council.
Then he triggered a rune on his cloak, and began floating into the air. He took out a recording crystal with a magnifying glass, and started flying above the council members, very conspicuously spying on all their private notes.
Lilian was so, so jealous of the man. But also a little bit flattered. If he thought that she was worth investigating, did that mean that Denissa Mardok had heard of her? Was she reading her books?
The nobles were all taken aback by the bard's brusqueness, but they soon caught themselves.
"I welcome the esteemed ambassador of House Mardok." The chairman said. "As per your request, I shall ignore your presence. Now, for the first item on our agenda: A report of the results of the investigation into recent events by the chief of the guard."
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He motioned to a uniformed woman nearby, who took the cue and began speaking:
"We have not been able to discover who is behind yesterday’s assassination attempt. Only one of the attackers survived. He was delivered to us by classified Coros special operations."
This was the second time that Lilian heard a vague allusion to such a group. They would probably turn out to be pretty weird people when Lilian inevitably encountered them. She made a mental note to look into that and prepare.
"Unfortunately, the man was killed in custody before we could question him. He died of a curse, which we managed to trace back to Lilian Weaver. Further investigation cleared her name and her help proved invaluable moving forwards."
What a way to phrase it. There had been a lot of collateral damage and an almost-riot, and that unspeakable thing with the noodles, but the chief glossed over all of that. At least she acknowledged that her help had been useful.
"It turned out that the curse was the same one used to kill a witness in a seemingly unrelated case: The summoning accident from a few weeks ago, when demons invaded the university through a malfunctioning summoning circle. Investigations into this had been inconclusive at first, but when the Coros offered reward money for solving the case on behalf of one of their clients, we received a valuable anonymous tip. This tip led to something of a paradox: We uncovered incontrovertible evidence that one Belnyl Mightthorn was behind the sabotage of the summoning circle, but at the same time she also claimed innocence and had a watertight alibi."
"Given their interest in the case and their previous help, we reached out to the Coros to ask them if they knew more. Mister Goront responded with a cryptic 'We either don't know anything more, or choose not to say.' He claims that his response was not illegal, since it would only be obstruction of justice if it turned out to be the second part, and if we were able to prove it. He claims that he would rather make vague statements and maintain plausible deniability, than risk ever being caught in a lie and damaging his company's reputation. As frustrating as this is, it matches their organization's previous behavior, so this is not in itself suspicious."
That company sure kept coming up a lot. As far as Lilian was aware, the only thing connecting them to the case was Rania. One more reason to believe that the elf was secretly some sort of powerful being.
"Hold on for a minute, please." Adam Gust suddenly interrupted the speaker, who promptly stopped talking.
"I'm trying to copy down these notes, but they are really hard to read." He continued, while floating behind Lord Ochon and looking over his shoulders. "What is this? Is this an 's'? Your handwriting is terrible."
The noble was bright red in the face. Lilian had to stop herself from laughing out loud at the poor man's misery. Being called out like that was terrible. With how much Denissa Mardok cared about the standardization of language, it was considered a status symbol to speak Common without any accent, and to write it with calligraphic precision. That man was going to be the laughingstock at fancy parties for months to come.
"Wait, aren't you the same guy who proposed that plan for resettling Greenwatch by blowing the miasma away with wind magic?" The bard continued. "That was such a fascinating read. I mean, I have heard worse ideas before."
He paused for dramatic effect as everyone looked between him and his victim.
"But not many."
Ouch.
"Honestly it was a very subtle parody, and it took me embarrassingly long to figure that out. A brilliant satire, really. It was a perfect illustration of the kind of plan that only someone completely disconnected from reality could come up with, presented with all the arrogance of a man who has never heard a 'no' in his life before. Naturally, it must be a parody and not a genuine proposal. I did not expect to find a satirist of such a caliber when I came here, and feel like I must applaud you."
Then he gave a slow clap.
It was plainly obvious that whatever plan he was talking about had not in fact been satire. But it wasn't like Lord Ochon was going to say this out loud, after such a brutal attack. So he just sat there, with a shocked expression and a beet red face.
Lilian really did not want to be in this man's shoes right now.
"Anyway I'm done copying down his notes now. You can continue." He added after a few seconds.
The chief nodded, and resumed her report as if the interruption had never happened.
"Fortunately, we managed to resolve the paradox of Miss Mightthorn’s incriminating evidence and contradictory alibi on our own. Miss Weaver's recent claims that alternate universes exist proved crucial and pointed us in the right direction. Using state of the art divination magics, we were able to determine a number of inconsistencies that lead us to believe that the perpetrator was a clone of Miss Mightthorn, of the same kind that was also encountered by team Nundru in Greenwatch.”
“Please note that this does not prove that the individuals in question are actually from another universe. It only proved that the same magic was used to create or summon the clones in both cases."
What an interesting way to say 'Thank you Lilian, we knew you were right all along!'
"In summary, the curse used connects the summoning incident to the assassination attempt, and the cloning magic connects it to the events in Greenwatch and Bells End. It is likely that whoever is behind the events in Bells End is connected to the assassination attempt. The use of cloning magic, whether or not it has anything to do with alternate universes, is extremely concerning."
There was precedent for it, but cloning a person required an extremely difficult and powerful spell.
"Once we realized that our perpetrator was capable of this kind of magic, we began looking into alternative explanations. During the Great War, our government maintained the only Mass-cloning facilities on the planet, to create copies of our greatest warriors for the frontline. Their locations were secret, and they were all lost during the Cataclysm. It is possible, although not likely, that the perpetrator managed to find and restore one of these hidden facilities. This is an alternative explanation to Miss Weaver's claims."
"Of course, a third option is that the perpetrator is a powerful enough spellcaster to be able to cast such a spell on their own. This is also unlikely, as the number of spellcasters of this caliber is very small. They tend to be publicly known, and all of them are accounted for."
Lilian thought about which of these options was the most likely. Naturally, since Tonos was involved, that would be the one with the most drama. Unfortunately, she couldn't decide. Multiverse travel was fascinating and novel. Ancient hidden facilities restored to life by a group of villains were a classic. And of course, a lone powerful mage who schemed for centuries without being discovered was a classic as well.
Maybe it could be some combination of all three? She would have to think about this some more.
"We interviewed Captain Ambermoon of Bells End, who is now in protective custody, to determine if his clone had anything in common with the clone of Miss Mightthorn. The only rare commonalities that stood out were the following, which are unfortunately not conclusive: They are both very competent mages, especially in the field of enchantment. They are both followers of Brytius. They both attended the same convention on some specific kind of foreign literature, but to Captain Ambermoon's recollection they did not meet there. They also both suffer from a specific disease that would be utterly unremarkable except for its rarity."
Fascinating. Lilian had never seen an entire swarm of Red Herrings before. Or was that called a school of Red Herrings? What was the correct collective noun for a literary trope? She should ask a priest of Tonos the next time she met one. Or maybe not. Those always creeped her out and were really pushy about getting her autograph.
"In better news, the documents retrieved from the House Erundir facility in Greenwatch have been studied, and we believe that Transcendence Laboratories is now active again. We have not been able to determine the purpose of the facility, but we can rule out that it has anything to do with cloning. It is located inside the Capital Containment Zone, making it inaccessible without extreme care and expensive protection spells. They must have either found a way around the dangers, or they have reliable and easy access to group wide protection against the elements."
"As a consequence, it is clear that..."
He was interrupted by a sudden loud bang, as the door to the room was thrown open, and a messenger arrived.
"This is an emergency!" He yelled, as he made his way to the center of the room, a panicked expression on his face. He was trailed by five equally worried looking guards.
Lilian was upset. Betting with her neighbour that there would be an interruption had been easy money. She should have taken the risk and bet on more than one interruption instead.
"This message just arrived." The man said, as he held up a recording crystal and activated it.
"This is an emergency broadcast by general Crulk of the second Grey Legion. We are under attack by Thelan forces at Lake Carania. This is a full invasion. We have fallen back to Chokepoint Valley."
The aptly named Chokepoint Valley was the only access way into Oruk along its entire Northwestern border and it was fortified like nothing else. Attempting an invasion there was suicide.
"The situation is dire. They have found a way to bypass the transmutation wards in the valley. Their druids are turning the canyon walls into mud. We can not hold this position. We are requesting immediate assistance by all available forces."
The gathered nobles were disturbed. Some whispered amongst themselves, while others openly panicked.
"How certain are we that this message is true?" The Duke of House Nadror interrupted loudly. Of all the gathered nobles, he had the closest ties to the military, which was otherwise only answerable to the crown.
"The authorization codes check out." The messenger continued. "We are also receiving a deluge of sending spells, but almost all of them are fake. The enemy is conducting information warfare, but so far our security is holding."
"No it isn't." Lilian interrupted loudly.
She was quite sure of this. If there was a reason that Tonos sent her to this universe, then this was probably it.
"Would you care to explain yourself, Miss Weaver?" The chairman asked.
"The Thelans did not have any such spells in my home universe."
"Again with the 'alternate universe' crap." The chairman interrupted her. "This situation is serious and we do not have time for your delusions. Lord Nadror, what are your thoughts on the matter?"
"Oh, please let her finish." Adam Gust interrupted once more. "I think there is more to her than you are giving her credit for."
The chairman looked visibly annoyed, but he waved at her and said "Keep it brief and to the point."
Well, she could do that. It wasn't really her style, because Tonos liked drama, but if she had no other choice.
"This message is almost identical to one I heard during the War of the Two Eagles. Back then, it turned out that the message was faked by something called the 'Cassandra Project'. It's an automated spell, so I'm guessing it just generates similar messages for similar situations, in both universes."
"The Cassandra Project!" Lord Nadror yelled in shock.
"You recognize it?" Lilian asked, genuinely surprised.
"Of course I do!" He replied. "It was one of the greatest military achievements of our country. Access to it was lost with the Cataclysm. Why in the world were you hiding something like this from us?"
"I wasn't hiding anything!" She responded. "I just didn't know it was that important. It's just a spell that created fake messages to send me on a wild goose chase across the country. I thought that it was something Tonos arranged to mess with me personally, not something that mattered for other people."
"The Cassandra Project is not 'just' anything." The Duke replied. Lilian heard genuine pride in the man's voice as he continued. "It is the most sophisticated information warfare system ever invented. It generates message spells and creates simulations of the voices and mannerisms of important personnel that are indistinguishable from the originals. It can even use divination magic to guess passwords with decent accuracy. Worse, it can intercept other people's message spells and modify them on the fly, and can confuse teleportation spells by interfering with their targeting. The Cassandra Project creates a logistical nightmare for the enemy and was a key element of our military strategy during the Great War."
The man closed his eyes and took a deep breath, calming itself. When he opened his eyes again he was staring directly at the chairman with one of the most serious expressions Lilian had ever seen.
"If the Cassandra Project has been recovered and activated by enemy agents, then we have a serious problem. I do not believe that Thela is actually invading. They have no reason to, and it would be suicidal for them to try. Instead, consider what happened in the past twenty four hours: We had an assassination attempt on foreign royalty. There was just enough time for rumors to spread and for people to leave the city or send their own message spells. But we haven't made our own official statement to the Shan Kingdom, yet. So all they know are rumors."
"Then, communication breaks down, and all of our military forces receive orders to move to the Northwest, leaving our Eastern border undefended. If the Shan Kingdom was to invade, that is where they would arrive. I guarantee you, the Cassandra Project will be sending fake messages to the Shan even as we speak. This is a setup. There will be an invasion, but it won't come from Thela. It will come from the Cursed Lands. And to make matters worse, the timing of all this was far too precise. I'm willing to bet it was an inside job."
"We need to go on a war footing immediately. Send messengers to the armies and explain the situation. Recall them. And send somebody to secure the Shan princes. Use guards from multiple houses, and assume treachery is possible. We can not afford the risk of a second assassination attempt."
As panic erupted in the council, Adam floated over to Lilian and said: "I'm impressed. I thought you might have been exaggerating, but I have barely met you for a few minutes and already I am drawn into an international incident."
"Welcome to my life." She responded with a sigh.