The next day, Rieren was summoned to another meeting with Mercion and Silomene, but one she looked forward to. They sent a short message—it was time for the real meeting.

“I don’t know how long exactly is appropriate to meet and discuss potential charges against a tournament official,” Mercion said, sounding faintly worried that they might be found out. “But I think twenty minutes ought to be enough, right?”

“Enough for me to get everything I want out of Starloper?” Rieren asked. “Perhaps.”

“Perhaps isn’t good enough, Rieren.” Now he began looking like he was regretting the whole affair. “This is terrible. Terrible.”

“Lord Mercion, please.” Silomene patted his shoulder with a gentle hand and offered a pacifying smile. “Nothing will come of it.”

Rieren supposed he had good reason to be worried. As much as he was willing to put his standing on the line, he would be putting himself at risk if their charade was found out. Mercion was doing this in part to restore the Shatterlands’ standing within the Trials of Ascendance. If it was discovered that this whole thing was a farce, it wasn’t just Mercion who would suffer backlash.

The entirety of the Shatterlands would, including all the cultivators under their banner, all those who were allied with them, and Clanmistress Avathene as well.

“Silomene is right, Lord Mercion,” Rieren said, stepping closer to him and holding out her hand. “You must put your faith in me. We have come this far, after all.”

“I have faith. I just wish… there wasn’t this much risk unvolved.”

“Nothing risked, nothing gained.”

“Yes, but we’re gaining a coin while risking a fortune.”

This conversation was going on longer than Rieren had prepared for, so she simply reached out and grabbed Mercion’s forearm. “Stand still, please.”

As Rieren used Enchant to draw upon Waterborne Passage, she remembered the previous uses of the ability with a little smile. There had been that scared soldier she had used to enter the Falstrom, then the time she had cooperated with Gorint Malloh to trick the dissident faction acting against the Clanmistress.

Mercion looked a little skeptical despite Rieren having explained the process already. He appeared even more concerned when her Domain rose around him, the water coating his entire form in a thin film of liquid. For just a second, his breath was cut off, and his eyes widened in panic.

Then the water left him to cover Rieren instead. When the film of liquid settled, her appearance had changed.

Mercion shook his head disbelievingly. “I should be prepared for this, but…”

Rieren stepped back and admired her new form. Since he was shorter than her now, her illusion head actually started where her nose was. It felt as though her eyes were lost in a forest of hair that was somewhere between gold and brown.

“What a strange power.” Silomene walked around Rieren, observing her from different angles. “You said that this ability transforms you by refracting light through water. Yet, no matter what angle I look at you through, you appear normal.”

“Such is the power of the Enchantment.” Rieren cleared her throat and tried to imitate Mercion. “So say I, Lord Mercion, the scion of the Ordorian clan!”

Silomene laughed. Mercion scowled a little.

“I don’t talk like that.” He stared at Silomene pleadingly. “Do I?”

“Don’t worry, my lord, I think it’s a part of your charm.”

Leaving them to their friendly banter, Rieren headed out for the actual meeting. Best not to waste any time. The enchantment wasn’t permanent. Both her companions wished good fortune to her back. While Rieren didn’t answer, Batcat meowed back at them in her stead.

“You seem sprightly, cat,” Rieren said. She had considered leaving the Spirit Beast with Silomene, but Mercion had been seen with the cat already the last time. It wouldn’t be odd to bring the winged kitten along. “Are you looking forward to the meeting as well?”

Batcat squirmed in her lap a little, before jumping back onto her shoulder. It didn’t like that she was covered in water. Good thing it hadn’t tried to jump on top of her head. Considering her new stature was a little shorter than her true form, it would look odd if a kitten was floating several fingerbreadths above her hair.

The administration tent was easy to find. It was one of the largest in the entire tournament grounds. Mercion and Silomene had described it well.

Rieren couldn’t help but let her eyes wander around the entire area. She ought to have focused on her location, not gawked like a tourist in a foreign land. But she couldn’t help taking occasional sidelong glances here and there. They wouldn’t allow her into the main grounds under normal circumstances. She had to drink it all in now while she could.

What struck her was the sheer number of people everywhere. It wasn’t just cultivators milling about. There were mortals too. Vendors selling clothes, food, and various other goods. Servants and messengers hurrying hither and thither. Workers jogging from one task to another.

Everything was quite busy.

Rieren was saluted by the guard in front of the administration tent. Apparently, Mercion was now a known quantity. She couldn’t tell if that was good or bad.

One of the administrators greeted her and led her to a side tent through some flaps. Rieren didn’t get to see much of the actual goings-on within the administration camp other than a gaggle of white-robed people working at desks.

“Are you sure you want to conduct this interview, my lord?” the administrator asked with no small amount of desperation. “Would you not kindly reconsider?”

Mercion had warned her that the fellow was rather “beg-happy”, as he liked to call it.

“I am certain,” Rieren said in the affected approximation of Mercion that she could manage. If the official found her voice strange, he wouldn’t mention it even if his life depended on it. One didn’t insult the scions of Archnobles like that. “Bring him in. I want to ascertain the truth for myself, and I will not be satisfied until I have done so.”

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The official offered one last simpering smile, but seeing Rieren was unshakeable, he finally sighed and hurried. “I will be back soon with the offender, my lord.”

“Ten minutes,” Rieren said.

The official closed the flap behind him. “Of course!”

Rieren took in the little room she had been left in while the man was gone. Her chair was hard and utilitarian, but the table held a pitcher of water and a bowl of fruit. Poor fare for an Archnoble’s son, but she was certain they didn’t have much better here.

It hadn’t even been five minutes before her administrator returned. With him was her true target in tow.

Starloper.

“Here you are, my lord,” the administrator said.

“Thank you,” Rieren said. “Please, leave us.”

With a little bow, the administrator closed the tent flap behind him as he departed. His steps faded soon. Rieren was finally alone with Starloper.

Who looked much the same as he had before. Still in that mortal’s form with the high brow and widow’s peak. He was sporting a faithless expression, verging on boredom and nonchalance, like he couldn’t be bothered to go through with this malarky of an interrogation.

Nevertheless, Starloper took the seat opposite Rieren and faced her. “Well, my lord? I hear you have complaints against me and that I ought to apologize for any infractions while explaining that I’ve done nothing wrong malevolently.”

“Is that what he accused you of?”

Rieren might not be able to feel a lot, but it was quite satisfying to see the confusion on Starloper’s face.

“He?” Starloper shook his head. “Those accusations came from you.”

“Right, right.”

“Do you always speak so strangely?”

He must have meant her voice. Starloper didn’t labour under the same kind of care the administrator was forced to adhere to. Rieren decided she had pulled her old friend’s leg long enough.

“It is me, Star,” she said.

Starloper’s expression flickered for a fraction of a second. For just a heartbeat, he was surprised. Then he sighed. “Of course, it is you, Arianaele.”

“Not Arianaele anymore.”

“Not yet, you mean.”

Rieren paused. “Do you think it is still possible… in this form even?”

“Well, it does look a little scrawny. And for an Archnoble, you certainly could have picked someone more handsome to impersonate.”

“Not this form.” The slightest of grins had adorned his face. A grin that was Starloper’s own. It brought up so many memories of the past, of their experiences together in the previous timeline. Rieren shoved them aside. He had been the one pulling her leg, just then. “You know what I mean.”

“I do. And I do not know, in truth.”

Rieren tried sighing but it didn’t work. Right. Of course. Even an Enchantment couldn’t fake that. “But anyway, enough of the distractions.” She leaned forward a little, her hand reaching across the table to clasp his with her own. “Do you know how long I have been waiting for this meeting, Star? You of all people should know how much I detest being kept in the dark.”

“And thus, you went to all this elaborate effort just to squeeze the truth out of me?”

“I thought you would approve of this ingenious method.”

Starloper moved his mouth like he really wanted to say something else, but then he sighed again. His hand slipped out of her grasp only to clasp his fingers with her own. The little smile was back. “Yes, fine, I admit that this little plan of yours was well executed. It certainly caught me off-guard.”

“Good. You must now feel very obliged to answer all my pressing questions.”

He tilted his head a little. “I have a feeling you know more than you’re letting on. But ask away.”

“Tell me everything that is going on. Why are you here? What are you doing here? What is going on at this Abyss-cursed tournament with the monsters and the Emperor?”

“So many questions all at once. But I think I was right. I think you have answers to at least some of those, don’t you? Regardless, I cannot answer you without knowing what you know first. So tell me this, Rieren.” He gave her hands a little squeeze. “What answers to your questions can you provide me?”

Their conversation had taken a familiar turn. Whenever Rieren tended to ask anything, Starloper often coaxed out an answer from her before giving his own statement on the matter.

Rieren looked down at the table where their hands met. She explained a good deal of what she suspected, including what she had discussed with Elder Olg. The gods infighting thanks to the deities of the Abyss and the Aether being on Rieren’s side, the Emperor’s suspected new divinity.

She even mentioned how she knew Starloper had tried to get a hold of her indirectly before. That cursed Gravemark Puppeteer had captured his attendant, had used the poor man to enhance its own knowledge and powers to better manipulate events.

“Ah, poor Evos.” Starloper’s face fell. “I never wished such a fate upon him. A terrible fate that my service cost.”

Rieren draw his hands across the table towards herself. She squeezed his fingers in between her own. “He knew the risks, I am certain, and does not regret the choices that led to his passing.”

“He would never, yes.” Starloper closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, they were sharp, focused on Rieren entirely. “Your suspicions are true. As I thought, you know much already. You’re simply missing a few key details.”

Rieren smiled a little sardonically. “Details regarding you, Star.”

Starloper laughed softly. But before he could answer, steps sounded close.

Rieren pulled her hands free just as the tent flap opened and the administrator stepped in with a little bow of his head.

“Has the compromise been reached, my lord?” the man asked. “I hope my colleague has proven that he regrets any actions that caused you harm. It was a regretful—”

“We are in the middle of discussing it,” Rieren said, remembering to recapture her approximation of Mercion’s voice. “If you would be so kind as to give us a moment to come to terms about the matter.”

He didn’t leave. In fact, he stepped closer. “Yes, well, I believe that I may be of help.”

“Lassier,” Starloper said. “Lord Mercion here has a proposal where I can make reparations by serving him personally. I am to judge a few bouts at his estate back in the Shatterlands. He needs my details as a match official for that, however. I was going to get it, but now that you’re here, would you kindly retrieve it for us?”

The administrator’s face brightened at the realization that they had reached an accord. “Excellent.” He quickly ducked out through the tent flap again. “I will bring the register post haste!”

Starloper shook his head a little once the odious man was gone. “They can be so frustrating sometimes.” He turned back to Rieren. “Now, where were we…?”

“We were at you, Star.”

“Ah yes.” He cleared his throat a little, then began speaking quickly. “You’re already on the right track, Rieren. The old Emperor has indeed ascended to the Divine Realm, leaving his brother behind to govern the best he can.”

“So they are in on this together?”

“Yes. The plan was this—the old Forborne Emperor wished to root out the corruption afflicting his empire at the very heart. His court would be too difficult to purge without causing grievous harm to the social fabric of the Elderlands. So instead, he decided to focus all his time, energy, and resources to breaking through the last of the Fated realm to reach the Primordial realm.”

“And so, he became a god in truth.” Rieren’s eyes went unfocused as she thought back to all those times she had blamed him for the troubles of the Elderlands. When she had thought he was taking no action. But he had been. He had simply aimed his response much higher than she had thought. “I approve.”

“He’d be delighted to hear it,” Starloper said wryly. “But now that he is gone, he has left his brother to clean up the mess.”

“The brother who is also the caretaker of his bastard daughter.”

“Correct. They have their own plans regarding the imperial court that I am not entirely privy to. I have only one purpose here.” Starloper’s smile took on a sinister cast, another little slash of his mouth that was entirely his. “I will simply be excising the god’s influence from the court.”

Rieren needed only a second to understand what he meant. “The Banishedborn?”

“Correct. Though…” He looked a little crestfallen then. “I am yet to find any of them here, unfortunately.”

For all that she had received a great many answers to what was going on at the Trials of Ascendance, Rieren’s mind buzzed with more questions. There were still so many things she didn’t know. But now wasn’t the time to ask. Their time together was at an end.

The administrator returned, his steps preceding the opening of the tent flap. “Alright!”

Rieren didn’t take long to pretend she was poring over the register and acting like she had settled on the deal Starloper had mentioned. Once done, she headed out, with a nod of farewell directed at Starloper. He returned it.

Her mind was abuzz with everything she had learned. She needed to think. But more than that, she had a match to catch. Amalyse was fighting.