“When was this?” I asked Clarissa.

“Yesterday. By tomorrow word will have spread. Any ideas how it could be done?” Clarissa asked me.

“Everyone? Even the Divine Empress didn’t get everyone,” I replied, while thinking as hard as I could about what the Astrologer could have done to wipe out a city secretly.

“That’s the issue. Esperanza is a key city. The lynchpin from the East to the West. I don’t have anyone I can put in as governor either. Everyone is busy getting their own cities and zones under control. A full wipe like this? If the Imperial Government can’t protect the cities from threats, then they might look elsewhere.” I immediately sat up straight and stared at Clarissa.

“Is that likely to happen?” I asked.

“In time, if this keeps occurring. If it happened once, it could happen again. The Astrologer knows of our bunker down strategy and is moving to counter us and force action.” This wasn’t a situation of just option A or just option B. Whatever response I picked required a lot of nuance and careful consideration.

Clarissa was coming to me because this was something that required me to respond or sign off on whatever response we did give. If it a bad response, then things would only get worse. How had he wiped out an entire city? “Was there damage, gate guards?” I asked.

“No damage and there were guards at the gate,” Clarissa answered.

“Property ownership?” I asked since that would let us know if they were still alive.

“This message is all I have. So, you know as much as I do right now.” That wasn’t good. “We can keep bunking down, but long term, it will put us in a tricky position. What if people start paying for protection crystals to the Astrologer. We will get hemmed in.”

I could see it now. A direct fight would be risky, and he probably still wanted to replace me. “What about the Protector? Where is he? Isn’t he supposed to be looking for the Astrologer with all the bombings?” I asked.

“Yes, he is.” I nodded at this.

“Put him on the case, with the expectation he is to report back to us in twenty days on his progress. I will speak with him myself and most likely kill him if he doesn’t kill the Astrologer by then,” I told Clarissa. Her eyes went a bit wide.

“Really? That would destabilize the Free City of Hong Kong when they learn of it.”

“I don’t care. If he doesn’t show up or makes an excuse he is working for the Avatar, there is no other way he knows. If he does show up without results, then he is useless while plotting. You can’t have both traits at the same time and except to survive very long. Anyone else that is at that level of stats?” I asked.

“Some of the governors have high stats and will getting higher with how the taxes are set up. But nothing that should be a concern to you at the moment.” I shook my head.

“It is easier to catch up as I found out with the Divine Empress. The gap will shrink. Both due to the cost and the lessening impact of stat points. We need to start ending possible threats. If any of the governors, hint or complain, invite them here to complain to my face and get a replacement ready. Have them take more precautions. Hire more guards. They run their cities, it isn’t our false Esperanza was lost, but whatever governor was running the place,” I made my position clear.

“Michael, these people, they don’t grow on trees. Competent people,” Clarissa said.

“Then put someone like Sam in,” I told Clarissa. He had been in charge of Neo Brasilia, but had died during the war against the Divine Empress. He was not a nice guy, but he followed me. “Put a fanatic in charge and get more people ready to go. If the Astrologer wants to wipe out governors, we will replace them faster than he can kill them. The grinding teams should be okay, which is the most important thing.”

“Probably. I am surprised Michael. I thought you would have been more upset,” Clarissa said.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I am upset. But moves like this overplay the Astrologer’s and Avatar’s position and desire to draw either of us out. They want us to make a mistake. To rush about. Instead, we will consolidate and outlast. The other cities are still sending in their points, so it doesn’t matter, temporarily losing a city,” I replied.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“He could be going for the arrivals. To build his own army or grinding team,” Clarissa said.

“Probably, but then the Protector should have an easy time finding him. If not, then he can be removed permanently. I wanted to forgive and move on. To focus on healing and working together for a brief moment. I was being an idiot. This is a battle of nations, with the winner becoming the strongest person on this side of the Systemic Lands. We have the superior position, so not moving is the best course of action.”

“There will be an attack on another city or two and then the Astrologer will likely strike here and take us out during the chaos,” Clarissa said. It was good to see she wasn’t being an idiot either. The Astrologer was only one man and just like the Divine Empress, he would be challenged in developing a rebel government without someone like Clarissa.

But we had enough space to rebuild cities and keep the process of building up the tax base and economy. Taking out Esperanza, however he had done it, was a sign he was getting desperate and escalating. By just hunkering down, he would eventually make a mistake or feel emboldened enough to strike at us.

The real danger was if he took over a city, which would force me to respond. If a city was under his direct control, he would have the passive income to get stronger. Which would require a response. “He might take a city to force me out. The soldiers, they have stats, can they fight him?” I asked.

“Fight yes, win no. You know his capabilities better than anyone else, and you are at that lofty level. We need more time for my elite group of Imperial Soldiers to get enough stats. I was helping them during the war, but we are talking around a billion each and skills. That amount takes time since there are other expenses.” I could see she was asking if I wanted to adjust the tax rate. I shook my head at this.

“No changing the tax rate. I am sorry to put more work on you, but we need a governor pipeline or school to replace the ones we lose,” I explained.

“It is fine, just that governors are appointed from the Council of Governors. We can just slap the label of temporary or honorary on them in the meantime and confirm them later on. I will send the needed messages out. Also, Director Katz has succeeded in what you asked for.” My eyes went wide at that. Finally, some good news. I would have to give him a hug when I saw him.

Clarissa slid a makeup mirror across her desk towards me. There was an enchantment on it. I carefully picked the mirror up and it was enchanted with a low-level active glass-reflection type enchantment. “There is some wiggle room in the enchanting process, based on the Spirit stat. Same with store purchases.” I nodded at that but was focused on the information I was getting from the mirror.

I pushed in energy and the enchantment activated. I held it up in front of me and I saw the reflection of energy, not just the visible light spectrum. This was beyond priceless for me. I had brought up my requests and forwarded them on to Clarissa and then the good doctor.

There hadn’t been much hope at the start, but this invention was further proof Doctor Katz was on my side. The energy draw was a bit high, at 10 energy per second. It was a level 2 enchantment. I could easily maintain this and keep my energy level consistent. Another problem solved by this one tiny piece of equipment.

“This small and only one?” I asked.

“To focus the enchantment. There is some relation between size and power. That is why you can’t just enchant one very large thing and have it work the same way compared to a small item. This was in one of the books you recovered from Normandy. The effect is tied to the volume and surface area of the object. It was a factor for the super weapon,” Clarissa explained, and I nodded. I had probably heard this before but had forgotten.

That was why I wanted to start up a journal again. Little details like this that I would forget but were important. The problem was such a thing falling into the wrong hands or the Avatar spying on what I wrote.

It was hard to keep track of everything. That was why a notebook of key information was critical. Something to think about. This place didn’t have internet or textbooks and trying to remember it all was a good way to forget.

Carefully holding up the mirror close to my face, I could see a reflection of energy. It was a bit blurry, but it was a vast improvement over sensing things. I held up my right hand and carefully looked at with my eyes and then in the mirror.

There was a blur, much greater than what a person would normally see from the ambient energy in the air. The enchantment wasn’t capturing the full reflection. Energy wasn’t light. It was thought. That had been talked about by enough people and used in that way I was sure of it.

I had no good guess as to why it worked, just that it was working. If I had to guess, energy let out traces, which spread out. That was interpreted by the Sense stat into human senses, the key one being sight. I guess how the mirror truly worked with the enchantment was something at the molecular or atomic level. Both were things that were completely unknowns in relation to energy.

But this was useful, and I could use the mirror to carefully look for issues. While it wasn’t perfect and the blur it gave off was annoying, it was better than anything I had before. “What about getting a better one?” I asked.

“I can put in the request, but everything is stretched quite thin at the moment. It might take a few days,” Clarissa said, and I nodded at that.

“Thanks. Pass on my thanks to Director Katz,” I said.

“I will do so. Now I have to set up a pipeline to get more people ready to be governors. This is going to be rough, for a bit,” Clarissa said, but I knew she wasn’t really complaining. Just annoyed at having to set up another aspect of the government. I had come to realize she enjoyed this sort of thing. Delegating, having power, and deciding things.

While I could be an annoying boss, I was fairly hands off and we had a good working relationship. That was the thing that was most surprising, but she appeared to truly be content as the power behind the throne making sure everything ran. She was being paid an insane amount as well, which was kind of hilarious. The old me would have had a heart attack at 100,000 points per day. Now I didn’t even blink at that number.