His eyes glanced away, like he was thinking about something else, then he visibly flinched, looking back at me in shock.

His phone didn’t seem to be affected by being underground fifty feet when it buzzed a moment later. He handed it to me, I took it and looked at it, the whole thing swam in front of my eyes, and I just glanced at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, right.” He reached over and precisely poked one of the many buttons I couldn’t see clearly.

“Hello?” I asked politely.

“Who the hell are you or were you?” the clipped and dangerous voice on the other end snapped. It didn’t sound like my inherited memories, but that was fine. I didn’t, either, nor had Briggs.

“A shard of the soul Sauron wants to sue.”

“Sauron wants to...? The Lord of the... sunuvabitch! The Ringlord?! Here?!”

“A shard of his soul. He ended up having to chop off parts for reasons. I’m still a One, by the way.”

“Nooo Shiiit.” She was caught between amusement and consternation. “How long have you been here?”

“This is my thirteenth night. All sideways Levels.”

“Damn. Just... damn! You... you have all the gaming memories, too?”

“Kraken, two troops of sahaug, sea serpent, and kopoacinths. Didn’t need to call you to bail us out, either.” The encounters from the last time Ael had met her in-game, on the way to Coralost with Diana.

She burst out laughing. “Fuck me, you do know! And Briggs is here, too?”

“He’s a well-known figure in Baltimore. Commands the Shore Guard out of the First Light of Dawn there.”

“Huh, him and port cities... And he’s got a Source Oath to find me... not for bad reasons? I’m kind of a wanted person...”

“Yeah, I read the stories, which are long on condemnation, and preciously short on any facts except that you lived through shit nobody else did... which is what Nulls do. Interestingly enough, those who might actually be responsible also died, too.”

“Not that they wanted to!” she growled back in great satisfaction.

“I’m not going to ask you where you are, or how you know The Mick, or anything. I’m currently finishing up a Heavenbound quest in Pittsburgh, and I’ll be stopping at Heavenbound Hall in Detroit at the recommendation of Master Fred.”

“The Silent Warlock? Nice. How’d you meet him?”

“He was in the area by way of the New York Shroudzone. I hitched a ride to Baltimore. Guess who we ran into there, for some reason?”

She laughed into the phone in appreciation. “Damn Sources, and you being a One and all can’t stop him from pulling shit in around you to run into you!”

“Pretty much what I’m guessing.”

“Now, I would pretty much love to meet you in person, but I’ve got a deathmark on my head I don’t want you to have any affiliation with.”

“Have you been training up Forsaken, and someone found out?”

“You’re going to annoy me if you keep doing that.”

“Tell me who to watch out for.”

“The Weres, the Eryllian Amazons, the Imprusar, the Huulites, the Uruthimi, various Sinbound, and the Hags.”

“You simply do not know how to play diplomatic with people,” I said in an admiring voice. “Not the vampires? They must like the richer blood.”

“That is damn truth,” she agreed. “You got a number for Briggs?”

I rattled it off instantly, then added my own. “I’ll use The Mick as a contact if I need to reach you.”

“Good. If I figure out a good way to meet up with you, I’ll let you know. Don’t tell anyone you know me.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Master Fred knows.”

“The Mick speaks well of him. He keeps his mouth shut in more ways than one.”

“He does.”

“There is a great deal I want to talk to you about, but you can’t do shit until you Level, so it can wait.”

“There is a great deal you want to hear, too, but agreed, it can wait.”

“Take care. I’ll be in touch.” There was a click as she hung up as abruptly as she’d called.

I handed it back to The Mick. He had a curious look on his face as he turned it over slooowly for emphasis, I looked at it placidly, and he stashed it away. “I need your phone number,” I told him.

He rattled it off. “Want me to send it to your phone?” he asked.

“So anyone but me can read it off of there?” I rolled my eyes, and he smirked despite himself.

“Sama has almost the same problem as you with tech,” he informed me.

“It’s frustrating as all hell, and I have no idea when I’ll be rid of it.”

There was a big flash in the other room, and a psychic wave of anger washed past me. I leaned back to look into the other room as The Mick’s white gloves flashed to his temples.

There were little pits and gouges in the desk around the scroll rollers, and the treated skin looked a little tattered. Master Fred looked back at me, I nodded for him to keep going, and he resumed his Casting.

“It’s reduced but not gone,” The Mick said firmly, concentrating.

“It’s probably got one level to attract, and another to Taint and corrupt.”

“It’s not affecting Boxer?” The Mick asked curiously.

“He’s Pactbound, not Powered. It’s aimed at people like us.”

He looked a little disgruntled. “And you resisted it, while I didn’t?”

“Moment of Perfect Clarity, first of the Sun Saves. Weren’t you told to get them?”

His expression fell. “I can’t use the Sun ki yet...”

I glanced at his blood-red silk tie tellingly. “You’re not wearing an Amulet?”

“There’s a wee problem with funding for such extravagant things.”

“Ask Sama to make you a Trisoul Amulet for Ki, rated to III, and explain the Soul Save disciplines to you. Adding an Insight bonus to your protections would be pretty basic, and it’s cheap for what it does.”

He gave me another odd look. “You talk almost like she does too, Lady Traveler, tossing out all these airy terms of magic and lore nobody should know.”

“I’m a Caster, I’m SUPPOSED to know all that stuff, as are you. It all depends on where you get your information from.”

He considered that point. “Do I even want to know where you got that information from?”

“Considering what I went through to get it, and what she had to, and Briggs... no, I don’t think you do...”

He studied me, and slowly nodded. “I think I believe you.” He looked past me as there was another flash from the room behind me. “Boxer, I think you’re pissing someone off!” he called out. He tapped his temple. “Feeling nothing...”

“I’m not saying I don’t trust you, but a Dispel won’t remove Taint.” He glanced at me, looked past me, and took a calm step backwards.

A Tome-Tainted Blooded didn’t need exposure to actual Taint. At all.

----

Master Fred didn’t read them, either. I spun them back to the beginning with Prestidigitation, and started scrolling them past me, right to left.

I cast a full Comprehend Languages, and the pictograms began to spin and resolve into characters in other languages.

“This is the Feather Script of the Daoic cuneiforms, as well as Aklo and Necrus. This was probably written with the help of a native of Leng,” I said, wiping away a spot of blood that came out of my nose.

“The Sage Ghouls don’t have many dealings with the Chinese. If I remember correctly, the Chinese deal with the Merchants of Leng instead,” The Mick spoke up from the other room.

“This is written on human skin. It is going into the procedures for harvesting the resentful souls of the dead and how to bind them into flesh and make them your servants in ritualistic form. It requires magical power and the ability to follow instructions, but you don’t have to be a Caster.” I hissed, licking more blood on my lips away from my nose. “There’s also a lot of extraneous symbols, which I assume were anchor points for the Curse woven into this thing, as they are partially burned away. There’s a lot of torturing souls involved in this procedure to bring them to the proper level of hate and resentment.”

The scroll stopped abruptly, the first row of flickering letters partly revealed near the end of the scroll. I closed my eyes and looked sharply away. “Master Fred, until they aren’t glowing any more,” I said, backing away.

The Wrath of Heaven and Hell came down on the glowing Words repeatedly, clashing and nibbling at the magic, and dark Runes of inhuman shape and design spiraled off the paper, getting devoured by flames burning scarlet and golden, shooting in all directions like unclean fireworks.

At last there was a hissing, and the letters began to burn. I swept my hand across, and the last sections of the scroll unwound, revealing a whole array of symbols, runes, and diagrams that were all being devoured and swept off the skin.

“That’s what killed the man and turned him into a vylstrigoi. It probably was meant to turn him into an aswang, but went awry because he was a necromancer. He ended up being the dominant undead, instead of a subservient one. Pointedly, the instructions to create a Jiangshi’s control talisman are not in here... the vylstrigoi did not make them, which means someone else did, and they were sent here... and ended up in his control.”

The rollers clapped together. I waved my hand and burned away the blood from my nose, and surely I didn’t hear The Mick smack his lips from the other room.

“Okay, let’s bind those shut. That’s Tainted lore, and if most people try to read it, bad things are going to happen, even if we broke the Curse attached. The end of the scroll is the layout of the Curse, it can be used as a reference point for study... and it’s a direct connection back to whoever made it.”

“Oh, someone is going to get fucked!” The Mick called out from the other room, and Master Fred nodded.

“Now, Lord Mick, you’ve probably got a stronger Disk than I do, if you’ve got one memorized?”

“Corpse and loot-carrying! Do not leave home without it!” he called back.

“Let’s pick up the relevant shit for sorting through, burn the rest heartily, and get out of here.”