The Way, is a set of teachings primarily found in the Jade Empire centered around two concepts. First to understand the flow of the forces of the world and then to understand the self. Mastery is labeled as something impossible to achieve though being an Enlightened is the closest thing to it. They through their enlightenment over the forces and their place in the world are able to predict the future and harness a fragment of the forces of the world for their own use.

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Damû

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I keep my distance and make use of a few enslaved spirits to relay the conversations going on around the young Ravnos. Regretting that I have yet to learn any of the translation spells and none of my enslaved shades know the language they are speaking in. It is a terran language but it has diverged since the disjunction too much for any shade I have to work.

Still I manage to get some information from the cognates and what is said in a language I do have access to. The new arrivals are relatives of the young Ravnos, I suspect his father but I can’t tell what the relationship is with the female. It seems mother and son but she is too weak, only a base human. Adoptive? Maybe though it seems unlikely, similar features but she lacks draconic traits that would have to be from his mother if my assumption is right.

Should I go get my current experiment and force him to translate? May. . .

“Did the short human just say?” I ask one of the shades I keep floating around me.

“Yes” it answers.

Tomas is a name, it must be a person they know, a person a dead person? It seems like they know a Tomas. That name isn’t found on Althrá. . .

Oh no, no no no.

Tomas is not a name used by anyone native to Althrá, if they know a Tomas who is now dead but was here when the arrived. . .

I can’t take the risk. My project cannot ever meet these people. The devourer project while promising is not worth the risk if it turns this dragon-ravnos against me.

“Continue observing” I command the spirits before walking a short way further from the traveling mortals.

Once more the world shifts in a resounding crack of air being displaced in an instant and I now stand in the courtyard of the outpost I left the boy at. This shouldn’t take much time, he is after all a tainted creature that never had personhood in their laws to begin with.

The soldiers unlike when I appeared before do not act startled by my method of arrival, as if they were waiting for me. The kitsune must have seen more through his magic than he mentioned. . .

But how much? Enough to know I would return soon, but how much more? What are they planning?

“Blood Immortal, welcome back. Might I invite you to tea once more?” a voice I recognize as the black furred kitsune fills the small courtyard.

“Unfortunately, I am in a great hurry. I need to see the creature that I left in your care” I respond, the man frowning at the rudeness as he knows that I do not give polite declines before accepting anything.

“That is unfortunate, shortly after you had left the thing went mad. It has to be put down and erased by the purifying flames of the void. I am sorry to have destroyed your property.”

I frown that can’t be right, I had laced thousands of spells into his blood and bone. Dozens that should have alerted me if the corruption was getting too high and even more on the cause and time of death. Yet the flow of his blood is completely undisturbed within the kitsune. He isn’t lying but this isn’t right.

Ignoring the kitsune and the soldiers that surround me, I snap my fingers casting a simple charm to check on the status of the spells woven into my experiments and frown. No response from anything on the boy as if I had never cast any of them on him, that is not possible. They would have had to have been dispelled all at once with overwhelming power, difficult but not impossible. I glance at the black furred kitsune. He is not lying yet my magic’s results point to a betrayal. . .

Why would they do this? I’ve worked with them for centuries. What could be so valuable that they would risk betraying me? Why would they go through the effort of erasing everything with their Flames of the Void?

Tomas does not have any power, knowledge or skill to be worth so much more than me, so it must be a connection to someone or something else who does. . .

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Then it is as I have feared, no worse Tomas will have some form of support from the Jade Empire to help him return to the Ravnos while at the same time endearing him so that he would be willing or even volunteer to use his connection to the Ravnos on their behalf. Yes, that seems the most likely reason if they know his connection and it is in fact a real one.

I look towards the black kitsune and say, “a pity, and his corpse was also purified as under your laws for aberrants?”

The fox nods, seemingly without a care to that I just may level this compound for what they have done. Should I? Or do I need to start tracking my experiment down?

They would have removed any information from the outpost, I won’t get any benefit from destroying this place but I cannot allow them to cross me as they have. . .

Do I even have a use for them anymore now that I cannot trust them to babysit something for me?

“Keeper of the Flame of the Void, are you sure this is what you and your Emperor want to do?” I ask and am answered only a moment later

“The boy went mad and had to be put down. That is the truth regardless of how you feel about it.”

“Then suffer the consequences of betrayal” I say before attempting to teleport away.

I grin as I slam into a barrier that prevents me from leaving. So they planned to get rid of me? This will be so much more entertaining then.

I am slammed back down onto the jade stone floor that is their deposit site for all unauthorized extradimensional movements. My bones snapping into multiple compound fractures that I don’t chose to feel and my blood spills out onto the jade floor. I pick myself up as I rapidly heal my body snapping back into its proper place. I look around to find that the room has not entrances or exits. I am inside a hollow piece of jade.

So they have decided to imprison me? This would have been easier if it were blood jade, but it shouldn’t be overly difficult to get out of here.

I pull out a small piece of blood jade, a shard that is tied to every single piece of the material I made for them. With it I can move to any piece of the substance on Althrá, but first I shall use it to punish them. I pull out another vial, one with a single drop of blood from every diseased creature that I have found and pour it onto the shard slowly. Drop by drop the blood seeps into the shard and goes into those that are using the other pieces as I cast every variation of Plague, Pestilence and Pandemic I know.

If only the Church of the Holy One could be dealt with so easily. Unfortunately, they do not have a focus I could use and have gotten very good at the healing spells the Jade Empire is going to need if any of them are going to live.

Now for the some Ancestral Curses . . .

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Andrus

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Setting down a vial of the elixir I just drank, I frown as I read the last two reports from the men tasked with bringing in rogue Called. The first makes no sense, allied with multiple werewolves and that the elementalist is some unknown subspecies of draconian. Which is ridiculous, there are only humans on Terra where he was pulled from, he was registered as a human by the scanning divinations upon arrival and the very idea that a pack of werewolves is following him is almost as impossible.

The vast majority of the information has to be false, an illusion crafted by the kitsune that follows him around like a lost puppy. But even that does not explain the details of the second report. That a 'dragon' attacked their stronghold is possible, how they managed to track it down and that there has not been any communication from there since is another matter.

I should never have accepted this assignment, it was simply too easy to be true. A weak elementalist ran off during a battle that ended up costing more than had been expected. At least the Bloodclaw were confirmed to have been dealt with. Their little tribe is gone and animal attacks near the forest of Dearth should go down quickly now that they are not disturbed nor infected by the barbarism of those disease infected creatures.

I slam my head down on my desk and groan as I realize that it is the battle with those canine barbarians that allowed the elementalist to get free. Wait, could they have colluded? How would they have gotten past the detection wards to listen in on message spells?

The elementalist doesn’t have to mana pool to sustain a wind whispers over such a distance but what of some other method we haven’t yet set a net for?

No, elementalism is well known for it’s minimal mana costs and disturbances. Something that he seems to have taken that to an entirely new level. Aside from his presence nothing he’s done registered beyond the error margin on the continual shifts of the leylines, a feat only master of the craft could accomplish.

Perhaps the short range small scale spatial folding he used to perform petty theft? Ingenious but that he was on site for almost half of the unregistered spatial manipulations was foolish. A few larger heists and he would never have been discovered. Should I use that as a way to get an extension and more men? Can I even use it?

He has skill and power but not the wisdom to use it. He should have been easily recruited and placed as a strategic weapon rather than two suicide missions. Even with three followers of only slightly above average use. . .

No I’ve already had the screeners interrogated and punished for their failures. I need to work on confirming his actual power level and preventing another walking catastrophe like the blood elf. Confirm possibility of communication with the diseased wolf men and check on the men sent to recover the focus medallion for the bindings on his batch of called. Investigate what happened at Research Lab 17.

Setting the papers down I open the bottom drawer of the desk, it seems emptier than it should be but I can’t remember having one of the vials within since the sun came up. I grab one and drink it, the familiar burning sensation of it going down my throat calls me the dim glow of my blood increases and I frown. I guess it hasn’t been a full day since the last dose. No matter I’ll just have to remember to not have one tomorrow.

Now, where was I? Reading these reports, yes. Skimming through the lines of the first page I frown. Draconian? No, he could not be a draconian, he very clearly registered as a human. . .

I yawn but push off the need for sleep, this is too important. There is too much to do for this assignment of mine.