“What are you doing here, Joscur?” William asked cooly without moving from his position.

“It is I who should be asking you that,” Joscur growled. The three guards beside him had their clubs in hand, ready to rush William. The one who’s lip the eidolon had bloodied wiped their mouth with the back of their hand. “Civilians are not allowed down here, and for good reason.”

“Oh, you mean this?” William asked sarcastically, his entire body language changing in an instant as he stood up straight and jutted his thumb at the fluid entombed child beside him. “Why ever wouldn’t you want people to find out about this?”

The reaction caught Joscur off guard a bit. He’d never seen William be so snarky, but it only infuriated the two that he’d knocked out before. “Let us drag him out of the tunnels and throw him back to the Wastes!” the one with a pounding headache aggressively suggested in Mirage-Tongue.

Joscur held his arm up and barked back, “Hold!” in his native tongue. William fully understood that that word at least. He’d picked it up while working as a wellerman and didn’t have to rely on memory to understand the sentiment.

Joscur and William had their eyes locked on each other. The father was unsure of what to do in this situation. It was, after all, unprecedented. Just as unprecedented as William’s arrival to Mirage from the sky. Ever since he had brought the then sunburned and weary William back from the clutches of the unforgiving desert, he’d been monitoring him for the council. He’d been subtle about it, making sure that he felt welcome in his home, sharing his food with him, getting to know him as much as he would allow. But always had William been distant. Careful with the answers he gave. Telling he and his family just enough to not seem unfriendly but never enough to get a clear picture of who he was. He didn’t think that William had ever gone as far as to outright lie to him, his children, or Daniellex in all of the times they had interacted with each other, but half truths were almost as bad as lies.

And every half truth he’d passed on to the council. They knew as much about William as he did and had, so far, deemed him to be safe to keep in the city. Despite his strange arrival, which William never spoke of and Joscur had been instructed not to ask about in the hopes that he would bring it up naturally. It was agreed to treat his arrival as the traumatic event it likely was and to let the black haired young man talk of it of his own volition. Patience had been chosen with the belief that strange, strange William would open up with time.

Joscur knew that none of that mattered now. William’s coming down here had put him in a situation that could not be ignored. How he had found this place, what his purpose was for being here, Joscur simply couldn’t fathom. That didn’t matter though. Limited though his imagination in this matter might have been, he knew this much: William had broken laws by coming here, betrayed the generosity and hospitality of the city of Mirage. For all he knew, his place here was now forfeit and he would be thrown back out into the sands to become a victim of reauslers of reavers, whoever found him first.

Yet, as they stared at each other, Joscur found himself not wishing this of William. Despite his position as a guardian of Mirage, he liked the young man before him. His son and his daughter liked him. Mysterious as he was, wary as he knew he was supposed to be around him, the approval of his family was a powerful motivator for the father to look kindly upon the lost boy. There had to be a reason he was down here. He even trusted that the reason would be a good one! But he needed to know what that reason was before he could decide on how to act.

“William, please come with me. We can talk about all of this. Get it sorted. Whatever has happened, we can-”

“I need to talk to the Elder Council. Now,” William interrupted forcefully, his body language shifting back to a more aggressive figure. The look in his gray eyes was harsh and unforgiving.

“We will, I assure you,” Joscur said, holding out a wary and defensive hand in William’s direction. “First, drop the sword and kick it over to me.”

“Not a chance,” William growled, raising the sheathed sword and bringing it to rest on his shoulder. All four of the guards tensed up, Joscur raising his other hand back to the others to try and keep order.

“This is no place to fight,” Joscur spoke to all of them. “These… creatures, are dangerous. None of us would want to risk-”

“They’re dead, aren’t they?” William asked, his eyes narrowing.

“Yes, they are dead,” Joscur replied with a nod, a bead of sweat sliding down from his hairline to his jaw illuminated like a shooting star in the green glow of the tanks. “That does not make them any less dangerous…”

“Why?” William demanded.

“Enough questions! He is not meant to be here! Let’s drag him out!” the guard with a bloody lip roared in Mirage-Tongue, pushing past Joscur before he could be stopped.

William took a single step back and swung the sword around from his shoulders and pointed it at the guard, replying mirthlessly in Mirage-Tongue, “Try it.”

The advancing sentinel stopped and the others raised their clubs defensively. Joscur stepped forward and swatted the raised arm of the forward guard who was glaring daggers at William’s cool demeanor and gave the guard a push on the shoulders to force him back a pair of steps. “Not here!” he cried in his native tongue, turning to face William and repeating the phrase. Another surprise learned about William just now; he understood at least a bit of Mirage-Tongue and could speak it now. When he first arrived, he didn’t seem to know any of the desert-dweller’s language. It seemed a month working with them had taught him some, even if when he’d last asked William had told him that he still wasn’t understanding their tongue. He remembered assuring him that he would pick up on it if he kept trying. Another half truth passed through William’s lips, it seemed.

“The Elder Council,” William raised his voice firmly, keeping his sword arm raised in their direction. “Now.”

“Sword first!” Joscur countered in Imperial.

“The only way you’re getting this sword is by taking it from me,” William warned. “Ask your comrades. I won’t go down easily. You’ll have to try very, very hard to take this sword from me Joscur. Are you prepared to do that?”

“This does not have to happen!” Joscur pleaded, turning back towards William fully.

“Why are these things dangerous still?” William demanded to know.

“The Elder Council will explain, just please-”

“What do these things have to do with the nightly raids?” William cut in once again.

“I told you, the council will-” Joscur tried to say, raising his voice and speaking more firmly through his frown.

“What does Lucifer have to do with all of this?”

This truly caught Joscur by surprise. His heart skipped a beat in his chest. A single question barged its way to the forefront of his mind: ‘How much does William know?’

“How do you know of Lucifer?” Joscur countered, his voice humbled. By his reckoning, it should have been impossible for William to know about that man given how long he’d been in Mirage for.

“Tit for tat, Joscur,” William replied flatly. “We go to the Elder Council. I keep my sword. We talk more there. That’s as cooperative as I’m going to be. Try to force me and I’ll draw my sword and it will draw blood. Do I make myself clear?”

Faced with the difficult choice of enacting or avoiding violence, Joscur decided to choose the latter. He nodded slowly. “Fine. We will go. You,” he said, turning his head around and pointing at one of the technicians who operated the door to this chamber. “Alert the council of what has happened, tell them to assemble. We will be there shortly.” The ningen in the full body suit went off to do just that and Joscur turned back towards William who was slowly lowering his sword arm. “You had better be certain if your decisions here tonight. I cannot protect you from what comes next.”

“I never asked you to,” William responded coldly.

The trip up to Natator Tower had been a quick, quiet, and tense one. William had been escorted by Joscur and the three other guards through the room with the encased creatures while keeping equidistant from each other. William lead the way with Joscur directing him where to go from behind and through those directions they had passed through a door way at the far end of the rather large room which lead to a hall connecting to another room. This room, equally as large as the last, was filled with scientific equipment, papers scrawled with notes in all manner of stack, pile, file and pinned on boards. Ningen were in this room as well, their work stopping as the group passed through. The rear guards loudly told them to continue working.

“Move on. Do not stop,” Joscur encouraged William, not wanting to give him a chance to even attempt to read what was on any of the notes these people were working on or work out what it was they were doing with their equipment. William did not even bother to properly look around. He recognized a laboratory when he saw one and it didn’t take a genius to conclude that whatever they were working on in here was related to the room they’d just been in.

From the lab they made their way to another short hall that had an elevator platform like the one that they had ridden when William had first went to see the Elder Council. The panel on this one only had two buttons. William made his way to the far corner and stood, sheathed blade held out in front of him with the tip pointed towards the floor of the platform, while Joscur and the other guards all crowded around the operating panel. Joscur pressed a button and they began to ascend. The four of them stared at each other while they rose high and high. No one lowered their clubs. Two of the guards’ hands hovered over their hip where another piece of equipment hung. Bolases, from the looks of it. Doubtlessly effective at stopping at stopping a fleeing individual. Too bad William had nowhere to run on this platform.

When their ascension came to an end no one chose to get off before William who casually strolled onto the base level of Natator Tower where they had ended up. The tower was almost entirely empty at this time of night. Where before it had been eerily quiet despite the activity, now it was unsettling and silent save for their footsteps that bounced acoustic on the walls and bookshelves. The light bulbs that hung all around were dimmed to nearly the point of snuffing out. The dragon in the floor lay silently in its eternal rest.

“Wait here,” Joscur ordered. William turned to look at him.

“Won’t the council want to meet in their chamber?” he asked.

“This is an… unusual, emergency session. Deliberation may not make it to the top floor. Sentencing will likely be passed here,” Joscur replied.

William said nothing. He turned his back on Joscur and walked over to where the dragon’s head was. He began to think of Cornello again.

The guards spread out and moved to surround William to insure that he did not run. The gesture was training put into practice. He wasn’t going anywhere. Only Joscur remained where he was, armaments left at his sides, still trying to make sense of all of this. He still didn’t understand why William had done this. What did he have to gain by breaking the curfew and wandering out into the night to the one place where most of all he should not be? There was some time before the members of the council assembled. He decided he had to know.

“William,” Joscur began softly, walking over towards the young man who had ate at his table so many times. “What were you doing here tonight? What was it you hoped to do?”

“Why were you here tonight, Joscur?” William responded in kind, his gaze not leaving the floor. “Tit for tat.”

“I was following you,” Joscur admitted, crossing his arms over his chest. “Not originally. I was coming to your apartment to invite you to my home for the evening. Vamenco has missed your stories, and Marisia asked me to invite you for dinner if you were in the city. So I checked to see if the Andros had made port, and seeing it had, I made my way to your apartment to invite you to sup.”

He paused for a moment here before continuing. “Then I saw you rushing out of your place, after curfew, sword in hand, and the night changed for both of us.”

William had been followed. He hadn’t noticed Joscur trailing behind him. He’d been too focused on what was ahead of him, keeping out of sight of any guards or animunculi that might be in his path forward. He hadn’t bothered to consider what may have been behind him. The black haired eidolon let out a puff of air through his nose. A stupid mistake.

“Why didn’t you try to stop me before?”

“I wanted to know there was a reason to stop you,” Joscur said simply. “Curfew is broken all the time. Young people sneak out to be with each other, people imbibe too much drink and end up wandering after dark. It is not so uncommon, and so not a great offense. I wanted to believe you were just out for a stroll or exploring Mirage at night. Maybe you had met a girl. Maybe made friends with a bloodling. I wanted to know what it was. I never expected…”

“That I’d find Mirage’s dirtiest little secret?” William finished for him cynically.

“What was the point of going down there?” Joscur asked sternly.

“Something is terribly wrong here in Mirage,” William said flatly, his tone bordering on annoyance at having to say something so painfully obvious. “This city wasn’t like this the last time I was here.”

“The last time?” Joscur echoed. “I thought you had not been to our city before?”

William gave silence as an answer.

“You have not answered my question – why, William? Why?” Joscur insisted.

“I had to know. I need to find Lucifer.”

“How can you know Lucifer? Who is he to you?”

“How do you know Lucifer?” William countered, looking up from the floor for the first time.

Joscur chose to answer honestly. “I knew him in a professional capacity. He was here, working with the Elder Council on something. Some project.”

“Knew him? He was here?” William emphasized.

Joscur nodded. “He has not been in Mirage for many years.”

“How many?”

“Five,” Joscur said flatly.

Another piece of the puzzle fell into place. Lucifer left Mirage close to the time of the nightly raids. The monsters people spoke of in hushed tones because they weren’t allowed to speak of it plainly - they were probably the deformed people down in those tanks beneath the tower. William looked away from Joscur and tried to put it all together. Despite his choice of names, Lucifer wasn’t one for making monsters. Had he somehow been responsible for the raids? Had he fled because of them? Was he dead? Question after question… The biggest of all being what did Mr. Wink have to do with all of this?

Niamh was the first of the council members to arrive. The doors to Natator Tower, closed during the evening, pushed inwards and the mature man marched forth with a serious expression on his face. His green robes were not as well fitting as William had remembered them being and the jeweled rings were missing. Signs that he had come here in a rush.

“I am the first to arrive?” he spoke, his deep voice booming in the quiet.

“Yes, councilman Niamh,” Joscur replied.

“Mm. Go and guard the door, escort any other council members who arrive by the road as I did, make sure they are here promptly,” Niamh ordered.

“With respect, councilman, I believe I should stick close to William,” Joscur interjected. “I have managed to maintain the peace so far, and worry my absence by invite violence.”

Niamh considered this for a moment, looking at the three guards who were positioned to attack or intercept William should he try anything. He scoffed, waved his hand dismissively. “Fine. One of the others, then, it does not matter who – and find more guards and send them here!”

Joscur turned to his colleague with a bloodied lip and jerked his head for them to go. They grunted and did as the councilman ordered, marching away towards the opened front doors. Niamh stepped up to within ten paces of William and looked him over with hard, calculating eyes. William looked back at him with a neutral expression.

Niamh was silent as he waited for the others to arrive but watchful of William all the same.

Kieran was next to arrive. She, unlike Niamh, had not bothered with her council robe and had shown up to the tower in much more casual dress – a simple, elegant and thin gown that suggested she might have been sleeping before this emergency meeting had been called. Also unlike Niamh, she arrived from above, riding down a natator elevator from the first ring above the base level. Stepping off of it, she met Niamh half way as he approached her and the two whispered to one another. William wouldn’t help but view them as conspirators.

Next to arrive, in quick succession after each other, were Thrain and Mernavia. Thrain, like Kieran, descended from above and was not wearing his robe. Instead he was sporting a skirt that reached down to his mid calf, the white sash he’d worn repurposed as belt. The freckled man was shirtless.

Mernavia charged through the open doors, stomped her way forward and, seeing the three other council members assembled, immediately began to erupt in anger. “I told you! One and all! That this would happen! Did I not say that this was why he was here, hm? He would see Mirage undone!” She was wearing her vermilion robes properly and her long black hair had been piled on top of her head and bound together with ribbon, the ends arcing out in random directions atop her skull.

“Mernavia, enough! Do not start already!” Thrain called out from his descending platform.

Mernavia scoffed, stopping in her tracks and looking up to her fellow councilman. “Start? I have not even begun to start!” She started in earnest by switching to Mirage-Tongue and speaking at such a speed and intensity that William had no hope of following what she was saying. He was pretty sure he understood the gist of it, regardless.

Thrain responded in kind, leaning over the edge and pointing down at her as the two of them bickered back and forth. Niamh and Kieran both joined in, trying to calm the two of them down as best as they could. Joscur stood still and watched the leaders of his city devolve into a yelling mob over the mysterious boy who, despite everything, he couldn’t help but like.

Ode and Eira showed up at the same time, riding down on the same natator from further up the tower. The eldest members of the council were both dressed in robes which were modest and differing shades of blue. Ode cradled the large orb that held his long beard together in his left hand and Eira held onto his elbow for support.

As the eldest pair of the Elder Council came down to the level of everyone else, ode spoke up louder than anyone else in Mirage-Tongue, demanding a cessation of the yelling. All turned towards the old man who, for a moment, stood straighter and looked younger after speaking before shrinking again. Raising his voice so loudly had taken a bit out of him after a long day and being awoken for this emergency meeting. Eira patted his elbow and the pair of them strode forth.

“We are all here, then,” Eira said, her voice not nearly as loud as anyone else’s had been but filling the void left behind by the screaming regardless.

“What about Boma?” William boldly asked, looking to Ode.

“Boma will not be joining us,” Ode stated frankly as he approached. “When emergency sessions, such as this, are called, the child member of the council is often excluded for their lack of experience. And besides…” He paused, the pair of elders coming close enough that neither had to raise their voices to be heard by all present. “He does not know about what it is we’re here to discuss, nor should he learn of it. We have all agreed to this previously, not that you would know that. Or would you?”

“No more games,” Mernavia spoke up, walking around Joscur and coming to stand beside Ode and Eira. “He has finally shown his true colors! He broke the law – laws – of our city and put everyone in it in danger! Cast him out and be done with it!”

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“Stop being hasty,” Eira chastised, frowning. “This meeting has only just begun. We will not jump to judgment prematurely!”

“Prematurely!?” Mernavia hissed, scoffing again and holding her hands up in disbelief. “I wanted the boy gone the moment he arrived! He has not proven to be trustworthy even once!” She whirled around and snapped the word in William’s direction before turning back to Ode and Eira. “Refused to openly answer questions! Would not disarm himself! Only ever gives half truths and avoids any and all personal information about himself! Now he has trespassed and, once again, endangered everyone in Mirage! What will it take for this council to recognize, as I do, that the mystery is not worth pursuing and the danger he represents is far too great!?”

“We have continuously heard your objections and warnings for weeks now,” Niamh interjected, stepping forward. “None of us have disagreed with your assessments – except that learning the truth is what is most important! Making decisions in haste is what cause those… things which we guard to happen in the first place! Will you not learn from the past!?”

“Enough. Both of you,” Ode said, pulling his arm away from Eira and walking forth to stand in front of William. Joscur stepped to the old councilman’s side and faced William, his hands moving down to the baton and bolas at his hips. He liked William, but he would defend the council he served if need be, and as councilwoman Mernavia had just pointed out, he was never quite sure how much he could trust William to begin with.

Ode’s green eyes bore into William’s gray and he cleared his throat. “Let us not play games, William. Truth for truth. No more deceptions. Let us get to the bottom of this and be done with it, tonight.”

“Agreed,” William nodded.

“We have been observing you for the past month or so,” Ode confessed. “Joscur has been reporting to us any and all information he could gather about you from your visits. Teutna, too, has been regularly questioned about you. We have had eyes on you at all times while you were here in Mirage. Every purchase you made, establishment visited, your habits studied in the short time you have been here.”

“Not surprising. I suspected as much,” William replied dryly.

“In all that time, there has been nothing that suggested to this council that you would do something like this,” Ode continued. “You played it close to the chest when it came to matters of your personal life and past. That was to be expected. Whether because of trauma or shyness, you refused to talk about your fall. Strange as falling from the sky and surviving might be, we accepted this and did not press Joscur or Teutna or Daniellex or anyone else to find out why you were so secretive. That aside, none of your habits suggested you would do something like this. From our perspective, this intrusion into the forbidden is uncharacteristic and comes out of nowhere.”

He paused, taking a deep breath. He did not break his eye contact with William. Had not blinked. “Why did you choose tonight to act?” he asked.

“I learned that Lucifer was somehow involved with this city,” William answered honestly.

“How do you know of Lucifer?” Thrain asked, confused by this. “He was a native of Mirage, had never been to the mainland, where you claim to be from. What could he possibly have to do with you?”

“He and I are colleagues,” William answered. He didn’t bother to elaborate on what an eidolon was, nor would he unless pressed.

“Meaning?” Thrain pressed.

“It’s difficult to explain, and not terribly relevant beyond the fact that I know him, and I did not know that he had been here previously.”

“Have you been in contact with him in the past five years?” Mernavira asked, her tone surprisingly level even if her eyes were burning embers.

“No,” William answered honestly. “I haven’t seen him for a very long time.”

“I still do not understand,” Kieran spoke up, her arms crossed over her stomach. “What does you knowing of Lucifer have to do with your actions tonight? If you have not been in contact with him within the past five years, how could you possibly have come to the conclusion that he was involved with the creatures below?”

“I’ve been investigating this city ever since I got here,” William answered. The honesty was like a punch to the gut for most of the people in the room. “Ever since I got here, something felt out of place. Wrong. Different. I needed to find out what it was. Lucifer would have come to the same conclusion I did. I was trying to follow in his footsteps without knowing it, and as soon as I learned he was involved, my suspicions were vindicated. Emboldened by truth, I had to act.”

“Truth?” Ode asked. “And what truth have you discovered, hm? What do you know?”

“Not nearly as much as I should,” William replied coldly. “Your man Joscur stopped me before I could fully find out what was happening below this tower. Convinced me and the other guards to not shed blood. I’m still not entirely convinced I won’t have to tonight.”

Joscur’s hand gripped the handle of his baton. He wished William hadn’t said that.

“Go on. Tell us what you know,” Eira said.

“Five years back, for a period of roughly six months, this city was under siege,” William began to recount, connecting the dots plainly. As he spoke he paced back and forth and looked at no one in particular. “The ‘nightly raids’, as they’ve been called now, were a series of attacks committed by creatures with no describable uniformity in shape, leading to contradictory accounts of what they looked like. The Elder Council and the city guard scrambled to keep the situation contained but found it impossible to do so. In a desperate attempt, you started to abduct people. Probably holding them prisoner temporarily until the monsters were sorted. A temporary measure to try and prevent panic. No one knew that the monsters were coming from within the city itself, from underneath it. Underneath this tower. They only accepted that, after six months, the attacks came to an end. New security measures were put into place to place Mirage under a constant surveillance. More machina and animunculi, the ornithopters, brought in from Golem’s Isle, technicians to operate and repair them. Ways that lead to under Natator Tower became forbidden to enter by civilians and were guarded day and night. And Lucifer was somehow involved with these creatures. That’s all I know,”

He paused his pacing and looked back to Ode. “I tried to learn more tonight and get a fuller picture so that I can decide what should be done about Mirage.”

“What should be done about Mirage?” Kieran repeated, honest disbelief in her voice. “You speak as though you are an arbiter of judgment, or the Emperor himself…”

“As far as you’re concerned, I am,” William replied coldly.

“So you admit to having a connection to one of the Princes?” Mernavia cut in.

“No. I’m much worse than any of them,” the eidolon confessed. “Now tell me what it was that Lucifer had to do with the creatures below us.”

“Is it wise to answer?” Niamh asked, stepping forward. “He claims to not be affiliated with any of the imperial family, but if he is lying and they learn about what we have done here…”

“They don’t know?” William asked.

“Mirage is an oasis in more way than one,” Ode explained. “A harbor from the harshness of the Wastes, and able to take advantage of them in a way that the mainland is unable to. On this continent, we are more freely able to test scientific advancements. The isolation from major populations and infertile desert prove to be ideal conditions for testing all sorts of things that can be of use to the Empire. Much of the mainland’s graces are given at the cost of scientific advancement, and a not insignificant portion of Mirage’s population is dedicated to this advance.”

“Are you suggesting these creatures are some sort of science project?” William lowly questioned.

“And Lucifer was in charge of the project,” Ode finished.

The old man turned away from William and looked to the other council members. “I propose that we explain ourselves and show William Oleum One,” Ode said.

“What? Why?” Mernavia demanded in disbelief.

“As I understand it, William has been pursuing a truth about this city that most of us in this room well know,” Ode explained, speaking to one and all. “It was only after he discovered his self-proclaimed colleague Lucifer had been involved in some way that he chose to act. That suggests a level of closeness to him, and I don’t think I need to vouch for Lucifer’s character to this council, do I?” He let the question hang in the air. The ningen present looked around at one another. All of them had known Lucifer and trusted his character at least.

Ode continued. “Up until this point, he has not displayed any hostile or devious intent towards the inhabitants of Mirage, nor performed any actions that suggest he is in league with one of the three warring brothers…” he chuckled dryly. “He was also clever enough to find what he has found on his own without us even knowing he was looking, even with all of our efforts to constantly monitor him! Joscur, when he was invading the loins of this tower, did he harm anyone?”

“Not seriously,” Joscur replied. “From what I understand, he had a skirmish with two of the guards that rendered them unconscious temporarily until I and Perks came along and revived them. As they tell it, he did not even draw his sword.”

“It was the only way to get inside,” William said defensively. “I’d been avoiding everyone up to that point, but as there was no avoiding them…”

“I believe that he is not an imperial agent, come to spy on us, report us to whichever brother is claiming to be emperor, and have Mirage, as we know it, taken over and replaced by some stooge from Damocles,” Ode said drly with a glance to Mernavia. “I believe if he had truly intended to harm us or anyone else, he would have done so already, and I believe that he is known to Lucifer…” He paused again, turning to William and stepping towards him. “I also believe that, if we show him what he wants to know, that he will be forthcoming with us, answer all of our questions honestly, and then, this council will decide what is to be done about him, once all of us have placed all of our cards out to be examined. Am I wrong?”

“Have you ever heard of The Dandy Man or Mr. Wink?” William asked.

“No,” Ode responded, furrowing his brow and frowning.

“Honesty begets honesty, then. You explain to me what Oleum One is, and what Lucifer had to do with it, and I’ll tell you all about me.”

“Eira?” Ode turned towards his fellow elder, walking over to her and looking into her kind eyes. “We have shared our places on this council longer than any of the others. Do you trust in my assessment of William’s character and reasoning for taking the actions he has?”

“It does seem sound, Ode,” she conceded.

“Does it make sense to you to inform him of what started this all, as he wants, in exchange for an explanation for who he is, as we want?”

She looked to William who was watching them carefully. “Can we trust that he will keep what we tell him to himself?” she inquired.

“If I deem it right to do so,” William spoke up. He planted the tip of his sheathed blade on the carved floor at his feet and placed both hands atop of the pommel. “Believe me when I say that, depending on what I learn, there is no power in this world that will keep me from doing what I must.”

“What you must?” Mernavira repeated with disdain. “Care to elaborate?”

“No. Show me Oleum One, and maybe you’ll get an explanation.”

Ode called for a vote. “Those in favor of the motion?”

It took a few moments, but gradually, one by one, five of the six council members raised their hands. Mernavira kept hers locked in front of her chest. The same phrase that had been said when the council last took a vote in regard to William to spoken (which Mernavira chose not to repeat) and the matter was settled.

“Before we go, for our own safety, Joscur, I would ask that you go and help round up some more guards. Just in case I am entirely wrong about William. I take it that since he still has his sword he was unwilling to part with it?”

“Under pain of death,” William confirmed.

“More guards it is, then.”

***

Back below, in the chamber filled with the defiled corpses of the nightly raids, the six members of the Elder Council present, William, Joscur, and a grouping of seven additional guards all stood in close proximity to one another. Joscur was keeping close to William, who was keeping close to Ode, who was being trailed by the other five members of the council, and all of them were encircled by the leather clad guards who were all watching William for any sign of aggression. Two of the guards stood at either entrance to the chamber in case the boy who fell from the sky tried to escape for whatever reason. Trust had severely eroded between all parties involved.

Ode sought to restore that trust, or at least attempt to. On the far side of the emerald colored room, on the right side of the elevator, sat a singular tube in which floated a most unusual specimen. It was this specimen, Oleum One, that the group was gathered around. For William, entering this room was like being dunked into a frozen river. His every nerve rattled in agitation, the hair on his arms and neck standing at attention. Nowhere was this feeling worse than in front of the tank of Oleum One.

The raven haired eidolon stepped closer to the thing and looked it over. Never had he seen anything quite like it which was utterly astounding to him! Here was something truly new. Something he had no knowledge of. It was little wonder that it made him want to vomit from anxiety. As he got close enough to the tank that he could see his reflection hovering over the visage of the vile thing, he couldn’t help but think of the Dandy Man and what he’d told him. This was the secret Mirage was holding that could alter the fate of this world. He knew that much at least.

Oleum One was a monster. Asymmetrical, with little that could be called ‘features’ to begin with. The tank in which it was suspended was almost entirely black save the edges from the amount of viscous black fluid that pooled from its body, the shape of which William had to actively focus on in order to see through the gloom. It was curled up like a child in the womb. Hunks of material he could only assume was calciferous clung to the thing’s body at random joints. Half of its head was covered in this material. It might have been white, the dark fluid made it hard to tell. The number of limbs the thing had was also difficult to parse, but it certainly had more than what nature allotted. Looking at this thing was like seeing the creature that dwells in the abyss and stared back at you.

“This was found on the southern shores of this continent roughly six years ago,” Ode spoke up, stepping up beside William who stared, revolted, at Oleum One. “Washed ashore in a pool of its own inner liquids; the fact it was found at all is a minor miracle. So little can easily survive on this continent without predating others or scavenging, and yet nothing came to devour this creature. Reausler and reaver alike left it be, as if they somehow knew…

“It was Lucifer that gave it the name ‘Oleum’ and the designation ‘One’,” Ode continued, turning away from the monster and looking out at the other tanks. “He was so curious about the thing. Insatiably so! Persuasive young thing, when our wellermen found it on the shore and reported back to us, he convinced this council to bring it back here for study. There was much that we could learn about it. Where it had come from. How it could have ended up in the south. What could we learn from it?”

“Nothing worth knowing,” Mernavira spat. Ode looked at her and shook his head.

“Mernavira…”

“If you are to tell the tale, tell it wholly!” Mernavira protested, turning then to William who was still staring intently at Oleum One. “I was the only one who protested it being brought here! If the Wastes or the ocean did not want that thing, of what use could it have been for us?”

“What did you learn about it?” William asked quietly.

“At first, nothing,” Niamh spoke up. “We were unable to identify a species, could not fathom a point of origin. At first we were reluctant even to touch it directly, which was something else that Lucifer advised. It was brought to Mirage in a sheet and transported here below the tower for further study. Most of us were in agreement that it was simply some mistake of nature, but Lucifer was… excited. Said that this was a ‘new discovery’ worth looking into.”

William scoffed, just barely not interrupting Niamh. “Yeah, I bet he did,” he noted listlessly, taking a step back from the tank but not removing his eyes from it.

“It wasn’t until we sanctioned a test of its blood that we began to learn about it,” Kieran said quietly.

“That stuff you see floating around in the preservative fluid?” Ode remarked, gesturing not at Oleum One but at the other tanks before it. “It is not blood. Not at all. It is closer to a polymer, or some sort of oil. In that black ooze there are no organic cells whatsoever…”

“Yet it has a distinct reaction when coming into contact with living organic mass,” Niamh again interjecting, his tone as grim as his expression. William looked away from Oleum One and to the councilman in green.

“Lucifer discovered this through his testing, and by then, we realized too late what had occurred…” Thrain included, looking down to the floor before closing his eyes and rubbing his arms as though suddenly cold.

“The substance,” Ode picked up, “has many interesting chemical reactions in combination with all sorts of materials. Acidic and basic fluids, metals, fabrics, stone – these things it clings to, like a glue, as if trying to make whatever it touches a part of itself. Nonliving organic matter is dissolved as if it were acidic, which it is not, Lucifer tested for that too, but to living organic matter it produces effects most… mutagenic.”

William’s stomach would have dropped if it wasn’t already on the floor writhing. He wheeled around to look at the other tanks just as Ode was, who was looking at each of them with a glum, numb expression.

“We do not know who touched it first. One of the wellermen who brought it to us, doubtlessly. Perhaps as little as a single droplet on the skin. That is all it takes, we later learned. Someone was… infected first, and while Lucifer spent his days toiling down here with chemicals and samples of Oleum One, we were scrambling up above, trying to solve the case of our people being slaughtered in the night!”

“It was slow at first,” Eira recalled hauntingly. “Slow, but brutal. The graphic nature of the attacks lead us to put every available body on the task. We assumed, at first, that the attacks were the work of a reaver who had managed to slip past the barrier, but we soon learned the truth.”

“More attacks happened. It became exponential, but fortune was on our side,” said Thrain.

“Oleum Two,” Ode spoke, pointing in the general direction of the specimen in question. There were too many tanks for his finger to clearly point out which it was. None were clearly labeled. “They were the first to be affected by Oleum One’s blood. One of the wellermen who touched it. There were two more discovered shortly after, Three and Four. We managed to round them up. Captured them so they could be studied by Lucifer, hoping we could learn more.”

“We should have just killed them and been done with it,” Mernavira huffed. Even her tone, usually so angry and spiteful, was filled with remorse.

“And how could we, without risking spilling more of their blood and contaminating others?” Ode cracked back, whipping around to Mernavira with the fierce annoyance of one who has made a point several times too many.

“What do you mean?” William asked coldly.

“Oleum One’s blood wasn’t just mutagenic. It was prolific,” Ode explained, turning back to the various other cadavers in tanks. “Once it was inside of your system, it rapidly took over the body’s systems for blood production and changed it to make more of itself. A victim’s very bones become their greatest enemies… Oleums Five through Seven taught us that, when attempts to subdue the infected resulted in the spillage of their blood onto the… unfortunate guards charged with rounding them up. They were, of course, quarantined, and studied.”

“Lucifer was in charge of studying all of this?” William turned to the other council members.

“He insisted,” Kieran said. “He had always had such a keen scientific mind and was so charismatic. He convinced us all that it would be to our benefit to learn all that we could about this phenomenon, to expend as much of our resources towards its cataloging as we could spare.”

“What possible benefits could have been had from all of this?” demanded the eidolon.

“Theoretically, endless ones,” Ode replied, his back still turned to William. “The Wastes are harsh and cruel. Much effort is put into our continued existence here, much strain. Lucifer saw in Oleum One’s blood the possibility of infinite adaptation to ningen and bloodling physiology. If it could just be controlled and harnessed, there would be no conditions to which we could not become accustomed to. It was the sort of mad dream that, presented with the evidence, seemed so enticing at the time…”

William understood. Better, even, than they who had lived through this. But he didn’t understand everything. “What happened next?”

“The nightly raids,” Eira sighed. The old ningen leaned upon Thrain as she spoke, as if the effort of remembering all of this bore a physical strain on her legs, who stood still and supported her.

“The initial attacks were impossible to cover up, but we managed to disguise the truth. Mirage was told that the attacks were the responsibility of reavers, that watches would be doubled, the barrier diligently maintained. All true, of course, just not for the reasons we gave,” Ode continued. “With six living oleum specimens being kept beneath Natator Tower, Lucifer was able to learn much. What he did not expect, however, was their intelligence. They… acted like animals. Mindless. They needed to be caged, tranquilized to observe closely. Lucifer should have known that they were up to something after tranquilizing them seemed to illicit joy of all things. Perhaps he did, but he swore to us that he did not anticipate that they would start escaping and then returning to their cells! The attacks began again. Others became infected. Some were… or were not, perspective depending, lucky. They were just killed…”

Joscur’s mouth tightened up as he clenched his teeth. His left fist shook.

“We assumed, at first, that we had missed one and that it was out on the loose. The more time that passed, the less likely that became. Any new ones were caught and brought to Lucifer, and it was he who figured out the Oleum’s scheme. Pretending to be mindless. It took weeks before he figured out how they were escaping, and by then, there were over two dozen of them. People were terrified. Looking to us for answers we did not have. No matter what we did to try and contain them, they always found a way to slip past and out into the city. Our hands were tied. We needed assistance from the Empire to contain this.” Ode paused to take a breath, running a hand over his beard and bringing it to rest on the decorative orb he still cradled.

“Lucifer was ahead of us, by then,” the old ningen continued. “Rather than allow us to inform the mainland of what had been happening here, he, instead, reached out directly to Golem’s Isle. We found out after that he had spun an elaborate lie that was convincing enough to the animunculi for them to send us the ornithopters as well as additional materials for his research. Machina for dissection and vivisection. Restraints and more powerful locks to keep the oleum in check. We were paralyzed. Had no idea what to do. The lie, uncovered, would have been justification enough for Emperor Gawain to send an army and forcibly end our way of life. There was also the possibility that he was right – if tamed, controlled, untold amounts of suffering could come to an end. He was so… so enthusiastic about each discovery he made…”

Ode turned his green eyes back towards William who returned the gaze with a stony complexion. The story was almost over now. “What came next?” he asked.

“Lucifer killed them all,” Thrain said, prompting William to give him a confused expression.

“How?”

“We do not know, nor do we know why.” Thrain paused, turning to look out at the tanks filled with ningen and bloodlings turned oleum. “One day it was simply discovered that all fifty six oleum had been killed and Lucifer had disappeared. Much of his research was gone, too. Either taken with him or destroyed. The bodies were already in their tanks by the time they were found. As far as we could tell, he managed to do this by himself. No one was found to be an accomplice in this.”

“That was five years passed,” Mernavira concluded. “We have maintained the watch over Mirage and this chamber, maintained the lie Lucifer started, but-”

Her words were cut short, her breath caught in her throat, as Kieran let out a piercing scream! Eira was close to follow though her shriek was out of the sudden surprise of the younger ningen’s cry. Many of the men flinched and gasped at the two councilwoman’s screams and most turned to look at her. She was rapidly backing away from everyone, pointing with one arm while the other was held defensively in front of her. She was speaking in her native tongue and others were replying in kind, trying to calm her down. William, Joscur and Ode all turned to look in the direction she was pointing at the same time.

Oleum One was stirring in its tank!

William reacted swiftly, pulling his sword up in front of him and grasping its sheath, yanking the leather covering off and throwing it behind him before brandishing his single edged blade towards the green tank. Joscur was not far behind, drawing from his hip both the baton and bolas and holding them up, unsure of whether they should be used on William or the thing in the container! The other guards, too, had armed themselves and were closing in initially on William but turned towards Oleum One as they saw the movement within.

“What is happening? How can it be moving!?” Mernavira demanded to know in Mirage-Tongue! No one had any answers for her.

Within the luminous preservative, the inky cloud of Oleum One’s blood swirled and extended out in all directions! Tendrils of previously murky black bodily fluid coalesced into tendrils and spikes, rotating and extending out towards the glass which contained it, up to the top of the tank. Like fingers grasping at something to hold onto the bloodlike substance seemed to explore independently of the body from which it originated. Said body only moved as a result of the black blood, it’s shriveled, abominable form rotating in the liquid that suspended it to reveal half a mouth which lacked any sort of teeth. A pair of eyes sat one on top of the other, closed yet writhing as dark ooze welled up from the corners and rose to join the gathering bloody cloud above its head.

Another shriek from Kieran and everyone turned around! The rest of the oleum, too, were reacting this way! The fungus-like globs of proliferated oleum blood seeming to secrete out of the bodies and rise towards the top of the tanks, posthumously marionetting the bodies which had played host to them to macabre effect.

William noticed it before anyone else perhaps because of that funny feeling that made him so acutely aware of how wrong Mirage as a city was. His eyes scanned one tank after the other and saw the same in all of them. He turned his head towards the ceiling. Something was happening above on the streets!

“Get the council out of here! Take them into the tunnels and somewhere safe!” William barked as he turned and bolted towards the elevator. No one chose to even attempt to stop him.

A second after he began to run, Joscur chose to give chase and follow him.