Soketsu stopped and glanced around the junction of underground corridors. The hallways were wastefully spacious, almost five meters wide and three meters tall with slightly arched ceilings that ran into tidy domes at each intersection. The white concrete walls around him were eerily smooth and clean and illuminated by a chain of bulbous lights embedded into the corners where the walls met the ceiling. They filled the air with an ambience that managed to be both bright and yet somehow gloomy at the same time.

As if the weird lighting and the uniformity of the environment wasn’t enough, there was also a pervasive scent in the air that he had to struggle to identify. It was lavender, or some other similar flower, masking a sharper stench that reminded him of an Order hospital. It was probably from the cleaning supplies used to scrub the walls into monotony, he concurred.

That actually made him ponder for a moment. The tunnels were obviously scoured very recently. That meant that the place was either cleaned regularly or, more likely, in preparation of his arrival. But wouldn’t that mean that they knew he would be coming well ahead of time? After a moment of consideration he sharply shook his head.

Was that really a question at this point? Of course they knew. Not only that, they were expecting him in particular, not just any odd Rover, and the scientist seemed quite eager to talk to him as soon as possible. At least that’s what his attitude and the little notes glued to the wall suggested.

Speaking of notes, Soketsu stopped in front of the latest one. It was a mundane piece of white paper fastened to the wall with transparent tape right next to one of the irregularly placed doors in the tunnels. It was the sixth or seventh he found. He wasn’t counting.

They all had arrows drawn on them with different colored crayons and they were all leading him from one note to the next. They also had various crudely drawn stick figures under the arrows. This one in particular had two such illustrations. The first was probably the scientist, he ventured. It was smiling and holding a kettle with an arrow pointing at it saying ‘Tea’. The other figure had no identifiable features save for a teacup in its hand, so he supposed it was probably representing him.

As much as he tried, Soketsu couldn’t wrap his head around the point in these notes. Why stick figures? Why in crayon? Why tea? He didn’t even like tea…

[Soketsu]: "What do you make of this?"

[Kay]: "That he is either not a very good artist, or this is some kind of prank."

[Soketsu]: "A prank? That is…" Soketsu paused uncertainly.

[Kay]: "It’s what?"

[Soketsu]: "I wanted to say it is implausible, but then I thought about the situation we are in and kind of realized I couldn’t deny the possibility, and that makes me worried."

[Kay]: "Because you hate being pranked?"

In the end he rolled his eye and continued on. He decided he would have all the time in the world to question the scientist about his choice in artistic expression and beverages once he was safely tied up and gagged. Well, maybe not gagged. Unless he kept insisting on tea.

Just then he noticed the next sign guiding him around a corner, this one featuring the now-familiar stick-figure of Pabloc accompanied by a shorter figure with long, yellow hair. Both of them were smiling and there were the words ‘Over here!’ written over the arrow with rainbow letters. He rounded the corner.

There, at the end of the concrete passageway stood a finely crafted wooden door sticking out of the monotony of the hallway like nun in a bordello. He approached the door cautiously. The first thing that caught his eye was the gaudy silver plaque with the name of his target engraved on its polished surface with stylish cursive letters. The second thing was the small note under it written in the same rainbow lettering saying ‘Welcome, Soketsu!’

[Kay]: "Ooooooh… Ominous."

Soketsu rolled his eye and automatically reached for the doorknob, however as he was about to touch it his mind instantly threw up a number of warning flags. Could it really be this simple? Maybe it was a trap. Probably a mine or a shaped charge. At least that’s what he would have used, though he usually couldn’t get his hands on either of those because of the Cathedral’s chief requisitions officer was a pompous little bureaucrat.

But then again, why would his target jump through all these hoops to invite him like this only to blow him up? But what if he only did that to loosen his guard for a sneak-attack? On the other hand, maybe he only wanted him to think that so that he could place the explosives in a place where—

Then there was clicking noise and the door opened. Soketsu blinked uncomprehendingly and glanced at his hand. Apparently his brain was too preoccupied with trying to untangle the motives of his target to actually forward the memo to his extremities. He let out a short string of curses that would have had a prelate pale in blasphemy-induced anemia and finished it off with a resounding ‘Bah!’ Oh well, he thought, at least now he knew there were no explosives. Yet.

He opened the door wide and cautiously glanced over the interior of the room before entering. He found exactly what he has been looking for, though not exactly what he expected.

Pabloc: "Come on in," The scientist waved at him cordially while sitting in his comfortably padded swivel-chair behind a fine wooden desk. Soketsu hesitated for a moment longer and took another glance.

It was a medium sized room no bigger than five by five meters at the most. It was way more colorful than the outside corridors, though he had to admit that it was not a hard feat to achieve. The walls and ceiling were covered in simple, sand-brown wallpaper, which went surprisingly well with the antique furniture and hardwood floor.

Speaking of furniture, there wasn’t much to speak of. Aside of Pabloc’s desk there were only a set of simple shelves on Soketsu’s right and an empty chair by the desk. All of them looked to be aged but well-maintained; they were probably antiques even pre-devastation.

[Kay]: "Affable, smug and classy. I’m afraid we are dealing with a class A supervillain here."

[Soketsu]: "Hush. I am trying to focus here."

[Kay]: "Buzzkill."

As his partner fell silent Soketsu continued mapping the room. First and foremost, there was also another door at the back corner of the room, though it didn’t seem to have a handle or any obvious opening mechanism. An escape route, Soketsu surmised, and he made a mental note of it in case the scientist decided to flee.

Speaking of Pabloc, he was still nonchalantly sitting in his chair and beckoning for the Rover sent to apprehend him to enter. There were a handful of the familiar floating screens buzzing around him, most of them replaying recordings of his fight with the two mechanical guards while others were showing texts or diagrams too small for Soketsu read from afar.

The moment he entered the screens turned blank and then moved behind Pabloc with unexpected grace, forming into a neat stack as the bespectacled man turned to him and welcomed him with a smile most people reserved for old friends or people that happened to bring very expensive gifts.

Pabloc: "Welcome!" He beamed and gestured towards the chair by the desk. "Please take a seat. I am sure you have a lot of questions."

Soketsu placed a tentative foot inside the room all the while his eye was focusing on the scientist’s smallest movements.

Soketsu: "I was set up, wasn’t I?" He spat the question at Pabloc, intently watching for his reaction.

Pabloc: "Oh?" The man raised an eyebrow with a pleasantly surprised expression. "What makes you think that?"

Soketsu: "Everything," He shrugged while casually inching forward, his halberd held low but ready to rise in guard if necessary. "The quality of the intelligence reports for one. Then there was the whole ‘being invited’ deal. That was pretty blatant."

Pabloc: "Ah, yes…" The man chuckled softly. "I wanted to be sure."

Soketsu: "On the other hand, I don’t get what you want. Your ‘guards’ let me get away with not one but two lethal mistakes. That couldn’t be a fluke either."

Pabloc: "Sorry about that," To Soketsu’s surprise the scientist appeared apologetic, even a little awkward. "I know you hate when your opponents are handicapped, but I couldn’t really risk you dying, now could I? That wasn’t their purpose anyway."

Soketsu barely suppressed the urge to snap at the man with the glasses. Even now he was skirting around his questions as if to irritate him. But then again, maybe that was exactly what he was planning. Getting him angry and sloppy. In the end Soketsu took a deep breath and slowly shook his head.

Soketsu: "So they never meant to kill me. I suppose this entire recovery mission was a trap."

Pabloc: "Weeeeeell, in a way it is a recovery mission," The scientist contemplated with an amused twinkle in his eyes that made Soketsu’s own twist in anger in response. "You just got the roles reversed."

Now, that was something he wasn’t expecting. Soketsu narrowed his eye and choose every word carefully.

Soketsu: "So you are saying that I was lured here on purpose for… ‘recovery’."

The scientist gave him a big nod with a smile. His eyes were positively sparkling with approval, like a teacher whose student just solved a difficult problem. Soketsu pondered for a moment.

Soketsu: "Was anyone in the Order a part of this charade?"

Pabloc: "Why do you ask?"

The Rover straightened himself to his full height and his visible eye blazed with a sudden fury.

Soketsu: "Because if you had accomplices amongst our ranks, they will wish they have never been born once I get back to the Cathedral with you."

For a second the scientist looked startled but then a series of soft, breathy chuckles escaped his mouth.

Pabloc: "Ah, there we go," He smiled warmly at Soketsu. "That’s the man I know. Stubborn, impulsive and uncompromising to a fault. For a moment I was afraid you totally lost your true colors after so many years."

Soketsu grit his teeth. The man has been acting way too familiar with him and it irritated him to no end. Worse still, while he felt a faint trace of familiarity when looking upon the face of the scientist, he couldn’t recall ever meeting him in person. It was vexing, to say the least. At last he exhaled sharply and raised his weapon.

Soketsu: "I had enough of this charade!" He declared while he pointed his halberd at the sitting man, the tip of the weapon only about a meter from his nose. "We both know why I’m here. Let’s get it over with so I can start sorting out this mess."

Pabloc: "Indeed," Pabloc beamed at him in response as if completely oblivious to the explicit threat. "I knew you could never resist tea and cookies. Just give me a second and—"

Soketsu: "That’s not what I am talking about!"

To his sincerest bafflement the scientist casually brushed off his bellow and reached for a teapot that has indeed been sitting on a shelf beside him all along. He looked at the one-eyed man, then back at the teapot, and finally spoke with a slightly patronizing voice.

Pabloc: "Ah, but you still have many questions, don’t you? This might very well be the last time you can ask them, so why don’t you do that first?"

Soketsu desperately wanted to give the man a snappy answer to clean the smile off his face. Sadly, no suitable words came to mind, so he just silently glared at him. Not that the scientist seemed particularly bothered by it.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Pabloc: "Tea?" He asked again, tilting the teapot at his direction. Soketsu roughly shook his head. His target gave him a shrug and began absent-mindedly polishing the kettle like it was the most natural thing to do in this situation. The man had zero tension in his body-language.

Soketsu grit his teeth. As much as the one-eyed man hated to admit, there was at least one last question he wanted to ask Pabloc before things went south. He inhaled deeply to clear his mind and spoke up in a voice steadied by years of self-discipline.

Soketsu: "Actually, there is one thing..."

Pabloc seemed pleasantly surprised.

Pabloc: "Oh? Very well then. What do you wish to know?"

For a few seconds Soketsu tried his best to see through the smile on the scientist’s face, but the effort felt wasted, so he simply spoke his mind.

Soketsu: "Tell me, just how much of that intelligence report was a fabrication?"

The question raised Pabloc’s brow in surprise and he put the teapot he was polishing back onto the shelf.

Pabloc: "That’s an interesting question. It depends on how much was presented to you. Which part are you curious about?"

Soketsu: "The facility?" Soketsu inquired, tilting his head slightly at nothing in particular. "How did you get your hands on it?"

Pabloc: "It’s Gabe’s, like pretty much everything else," The scientist answered as if stating the obvious. "I think it was a minting facility he used to make counterfeit Order coins."

A chill ran down Soketsu’s back.

Soketsu: "So those machines…"

Pabloc: "A minting press. They have been out of use for quite a while, that’s why we decided to re-purpose it for your…" The man’s face suddenly lit up in amusement. "Well, I suppose I could call it your ‘welcoming party’."

The wheels immediately began spinning in Soketsu’s head. This was a hidden counterfeit operation right in the middle of Order territory. There were a scant few organizations in the world that would try something this bold, and none that would have the funds and infrastructure to create a facility like this. Except maybe one…

Soketsu: "You are working for the Eastern Union," His growl was somewhere between doubtful and distasteful.

Pabloc: "Excuse me?" The scientist cocked his head slightly and his expression seemed to have a hard time deciding whether it was more surprised or irked. "No, I am not working for anyone… Although technically you could argue I am working for Gabe in the sense that I use his resources, but it is a partnership at the end of the day."

This Gabe person again… Was he the leader of this organization? Maybe an agent from the Union? Either way, there had to be more to this.

Soketsu: "You are lying."

Pabloc: "No I’m not." Pabloc’s answer was as blunt and forceful as the flat of a hammer. Under normal circumstances Soketsu might have taken such an instant denial at face value, but these were not normal circumstances, now were they?

Soketsu: "There is no one else who could finance something like this."

Pabloc: "A fair point, but the truth is we don’t really need financing per se. In fact we are quite detached from the economy of the outside world." The rogue scientist re-adjusted his glasses and in a wondering tone added, "I don’t even know why Gabe bothered with counterfeiting on the first place. One of his weird whims, I suppose."

Soketsu: "You want to tell me that you have no need for money."

Pabloc: "As I said, we don’t really interact with the outside world so no, not really. Don’t worry if you don’t get it, I found it strange when I first arrived too."

Soketsu: "You mean after you ran away from the Order with the stolen data? How long has it been again?"

Pabloc suddenly let out a mirthful little laugh and waved his hand dismissingly.

Pabloc: "That part of the report was made up. I didn’t actually work for the Order. Not as a researcher at the very least."

Soketsu: "Oh. So I suppose that entire segment was made up along with the su’bloli nonsense," Soketsu concluded grimly, though it was more to hide his momentary uncertainty and, even to his own surprise, relief.

Pabloc: "Excuse me?" The scientist’s sincerely baffled expression now added another layer of emotion hidden by Soketsu’s grim visage: apprehension

Soketsu: "The report. It said you tried to open some sort of portal to bring a su’bloli into the world."

Pabloc: "Oh, that!" Pabloc grinned wide as he finally understood. "Of course. I’m not trying to open a doorway there. Why would we need another?"

Soketsu’s mask didn’t as much crack as it shattered and crumbled to dust as the casual remark struck him. His visible eye went wide in shock but a moment later it narrowed into a glare observing the scientist’s face. Finally it opened wide again, this time in abject horror as he let out a small gasp.

Soketsu: "By Nov’Elsfaan… You are serious!"

Pabloc looked at the Rover’s ashen face with a mixture of emotions. At last he slouched back in his chair and shook his head with a disappointed sigh.

Pabloc: "It’s not really such a big deal, you see. We already did it once three hundred years ago, though back then we didn’t bring anything through. Well, anything worth studying. The new one is smaller though, just in case."

Soketsu: "Are you mad!?" Soketsu suddenly bellowed and leaned closer, the tip of his halberd now only couple dozen centimeters from Pabloc’s face. "What if one gets through?!"

Pabloc: "They wouldn’t," Pabloc Said dryly. "And even if they tried—" The scientist paused for a few seconds and the shrugged. "You know what? It would be easier if I just showed you."

With that the scientist nonchalantly turned away from the confused man currently threatening him with the pointy end of his weapon and pressed a few buttons on one of the screens beside him. Nothing happened. Silent seconds slowly trickled into silent minutes and Soketsu could feel tension building up in him until he felt like a human piano-wire.

Then, just as he was about to speak up, the unusual door at the back of the room abruptly slid into the wall with a quiet hiss. Soketsu’s breath caught in his throat, but to his considerable confusion it was a small girl in an orange nightgown who pattered inside. She stumbled under the doorframe, drowsily glanced inside the room and then let out a huge yawn before continuing on. She couldn’t have been older than nine and her nearly knee-long golden hair gently waved with every step she took. No, on second look it didn’t just ‘wave’, it appeared as if it was blown by a gentle breeze that didn’t actually exist in the room.

????: "What is it Pabloc-san? I was taking a nap…" Her voice was clean and tinkling even though her words were slightly slurred with drowsiness. She also had some kind of accent, putting strange emphasis on seemingly random syllables and pronouncing words in an unusual way.

Pabloc: "Sorry Lily, but I wanted to introduce you to an old friend of mine."

‘Old what?’, Soketsu would have liked to ask if he wasn’t too baffled by the scene unfolding in front of him to squeeze the words through his teeth. The little girl wiped the drowsiness out of her eyes and looked over him before she absentmindedly jumped onto Pabloc’s lap without the slightest of reservations about the armed stranger in the room. This, consequently, forced Soketsu to lower his weapon lest he would injure her by accident.

Lily: "Is that Soketsu-san?" She asked innocently, her voice even more angelic without the sleepiness weighting it down. "I thought he would be taller…"

Pabloc: "Don’t be rude to our guest…" The scientist chided her while rubbing the top of her head.

Lily: "Gomen~."

Seeing Soketsu’s baffled expression drew a muffled chuckle from Pabloc’s lips.

Pabloc: "Let me introduce you to Lily, our resident su’bloli. She serves as a sort of emissary, amongst a number of other things."

Soketsu: "Lily…?" Soketsu croaked, his voice hoarse and confused.

Pabloc: "Yes. She has a surname too, but only Gabe could pronounce it, and I am not even sure about that. I think he was just pulling my leg about it. Too many rolling ‘r’s and tongue-clicks."

Lily: "Nice to meet you, Soketsu-san~!" The girl beamed him with a sunny smile that could have melted icebergs. Soketsu instead froze in place. Just how exactly was he supposed to react to that…?

Pabloc: "As I was saying, we are not afraid of any other su’blolis coming through, because if they tried, Lily would eat them."

Lily: "Gao~!" The little girl growled while playfully clawing at the air, her smile positively sparkling. She was… just plain adorable, strange accent and weird hair included.

Soketsu shook his head and tried to collect his thoughts. It was only a partial success.

Soketsu: "Are you seriously trying to tell me that she is a su’bloli?" He finally squeezed the words through the haze of his confusion.

Pabloc: "Hard to believe, isn’t it?" The scientist grinned at him with almost childish glee. "At first, I was prepared to cut out a few incompatible parts from my brain if she happened to be more like some unspeakable eldritch abominations with tentacles and everything, but it turned out she can consciously shape-shift. ‘A shape you are comfortable with’, she said, but I honestly never expected she would become the cutest thing ever."

The little girl blissfully squirmed in his lap as Pabloc ruffled her long golden hair. Soketsu on the other hand was bewildered to the point where he just nodded in a daze while his brain worked overtime trying to make sense of the situation.

Lily: "Pabloc-san! I’m hungry!" The girl suddenly glanced up at the scientist.

Pabloc: "Now that you mention it, Gabe said she brought you a few kittens yesterday. They are in the fridge of the guest-room."

The girl’s eyes suddenly gleamed with childish joy and she let loose another of her stone-melting smiles.

Lily: "Yay! Kittens!"

She jumped off Pabloc’s lap and gleefully pattered out of the room the way she came.

Pabloc: "Dress up before you catch a cold!" The scientist yelled after her in fatherly voice and she answered from the other side of the wall with a resounding,

Lily: "Ha~i!"

Pabloc finally turned his attention to the man in front of him once again. By this time Soketsu already got over the first shock and he managed to mount a serviceably threatening frown against the scientist’s affable smile.

Pabloc: "She’s just adorable, isn’t she?" Then, as if he just realized something, the scientist leaned closer and added in a conspiratorial whisper, "By the way, she is not eating actual kittens. It’s a kind of cake, but Gabe keeps insisting they are made from real cats. You know how he is."

Soketsu absent-mindedly nodded, more in a daze than for actual agreement, but it immediately widened the smile on the scientist’s face.

Soketsu: "That was… quite unexpected. And hard to believe. And crazy."

[Kay]: "In that order." His partner added in a deadpan voice.

Soketsu: "In that order." Soketsu echoed her words after a second of pause.

Pabloc’s brows shot up at the wry comment and then he abruptly broke out into a heartfelt laugh.

Pabloc: "I cannot deny either of those, but trust me, there are many more unexpected and hard to believe things I can tell you. As for crazy …" He raised a hand to fidget with his glasses for a moment and concluded, "I believe Gabe can take care of that part better than I do. So, what do you say? Wouldn’t it be better if we just sat down and discussed everything like reasonable adults, without any more bloodshed or collateral damage? Please?"

Conflicted as he might have seemed for a moment, Soketsu slowly shook his head in face of the scientist’s offer.

Soketsu: "I might have taken you up on your offer under other circumstances…" He spoke slowly.

Pabloc’s face became sullen.

Pabloc: "But?"

Soketsu: "But you have deceived me, assaulted me and insulted me, and with me the Rovers and the Order as a whole." Soketsu answered with a chilling glare. "I am Soketsu." He declared as he raised his weapon once again, pronouncing each word separately for emphasis. "I do not respond well to that kind of treatment."

Pabloc’s sullen expression became severe for a moment.

Pabloc: "Is that your final answer?" He asked with a disappointed frown in his eyes. Soketsu nodded in response, drawing a frustrated sigh from the scientist’s lips. "I see. I suppose I can’t really go against those pesky predictions after all. Very well then, I guess I have no other choice but to fight and subdue you myself."

Soketsu’s brows involuntarily rose in response to the man’s nonchalant declaration of resistance. He didn’t expect the mild-mannered scientist to lash out at him, but it wasn’t the first time his expectations were betrayed this day, and for some reason he had a feeling it wasn’t the last time either. Nevertheless, he immediately tightened his grip on his weapon.

In the meantime Pabloc began fiddling with his glasses on the bridge of his nose as his muscles visibly tensed up.

Pabloc: "Before we start, can I have a request?" He raised his face and looked Soketsu in the eye. His gaze was heavy and it quickly made the one-eyed man uncomfortable.

Soketsu: "What is it?"

Pabloc: "Would you mind if we took this fight outside?" Pabloc nodded towards the open door behind Soketsu. "While this office was prepared for our meeting, I actually quite like it and I don’t want to see it wrecked."

Soketsu stayed as silent as a statue, his one eye fixed on the scientist without even blinking.

Pabloc: "I take that as a no." Pabloc groaned with an annoyed smile. "I suppose I have to do it the hard way then…"

With that the scientist casually extended his palm towards Soketsu, fingers spread, and his eyes suddenly grew icy cold behind his glasses. Soketsu could once again feel the pinprick sensation of incoming danger on his temple and he immediately tensed up, ready to lunge at the man still within the reach of his weapon. Then the word suddenly blurred as he was thrown back.

No, ‘thrown’ was inaccurate, he mused with a sudden, almost clinical detachment. Throwing involves a number of things. Leverage, gravity, grappling points, those kinds of things. In that light, he wasn’t thrown. He wasn’t struck, tackled or shot either.

In fact, there was no impact whatsoever. At one moment he was standing still and the next moment the entire world flew out of under him in a blur. He was just moved.

His momentary stupor ended with a hard jerk on his weapon, and a moment later his feet touched the floor again. Without thinking he lowered his center of gravity and took a defensive stance.

[Kay]: "What just happened?" Asked the baffled voice in his head.

[Soketsu]: "I don’t have the faintest idea." Soketsu answered in a similar tone.

He glanced around, visible eye wide open. He was almost under the doorframe of the entrance and he figured the only thing that kept him from flying out into the hallway was the butt of his halberd being embedded into the frame. He forcefully tore the thrusting point out of the wood and his eyes snapped back to the scientist. He found him right where left him, sitting behind his desk with his hand extended towards him.

The bespectacled man clicked his tongue irritably, audible even over the distance and folded his arms. Then he rose from his chair. At first it looked like he just stood up, but then he kept rising higher and a moment later his feet casually glided over the back of his chair.

Soketsu: "Magecraft…" The one-eyed man muttered in muted disbelief.

Pabloc: "Actually, the proper term is Core Hacking. Calling it ‘magecraft’ is a wee bit unscientific," Pabloc spoke sardonically and then frowned at Soketsu again. "I ask you one last time: are you sure you don’t want to rethink this? I would rather not hurt you if at all possible."

Soketsu glared back at the scientist. Like he was the one who should be worried about injuries here! Bah! In the end he grit his teeth and silently raised his halberd with a faint trail of green light. The scientist sighed in disappointment and straightened the collar of his white coat.

Pabloc: "For the record, I tried everything I could think of." He told him with an apologetic smile. With that he rose even higher into the air. For some reason the act looked surprisingly natural, without any gust of wind or billowing coat to accompany it and he told Soketsu in a grave voice, "You have no one else but yourself to blame after this point…"