Dimitri smirked at the request. “Your development over the last nine months has been impressive, but I’m not sure I can sign off on that.”

“Why not?” Tom asked flatly, abandoning the cute look. He really wanted access to the lairs. “I need it.”

“Because we don’t know what caused today’s incident. You know it was unnatural. That boss monster was three ranks higher than it should have been. That’s not something I can ignore. At a minimum, you’ll need protection now, in case something like that happens again.” Dimitri, Tom noticed to his relief, had switched from a responsible adult persona to a focused solution mode. “I need to explore options.” He mused.

“Thank you.” Tom inclined his head gratefully.

“We’re done here. I have responsibilities. I need to leave, be visible, and clear up the mess the alarms I triggered have caused. Can you do me a favour? I need you bundled back into the fabric.”

Tom scoffed in annoyance. “Why?” he challenged. He didn’t object as such. It wasn’t like being hauled around was that uncomfortable or particularly humiliating. It just felt like he was being treated at his biological age, and that was not something he appreciated.

“Plausible deniability. I’m going to stash you in a malfunctioning isolation room.”

He honestly couldn’t work out the game Dimitri was playing. This moving him from place to place felt like it would paint a target on his back. “I don’t understand. Isn’t that the most suspicious thing we could be doing?”

Dimitri shrugged helplessly. “We can’t know the best move. It’s all about probabilities. If they’re physically observing me, then we’re in trouble. But if that’s the case, then you’re already one of the walking dead.”

Tom winced at that blunt description. It wasn’t something he was sure of. DEUS was intimately involved in protecting him, after all. All he could do was trust her. She would not allow him to be pitted against an unbeatable enemy, not when after his first proper death she had sought to reward him. For him to die now would be her breaking her own implicit promise, and that was not something that she would ever do. As far as he could tell, it was not in her nature, and, therefore, he was safe.

The big man scratched his head. “There’s nothing I can do to counter the risk of physical observation, so I’ll ignore it. The continuous issue we face is the scryers with all their various tier-ten and above skills. They’re an ever-present problem, and they’re dedicated to searching for reincarnators. They’re restricted from interfering, and by that I mean killing, anyone who is not a reincarnator, but they can watch them. I don’t know how many remote scouting powerhouses the other GODs have arrayed against us, but it’s a lot - probably every suitable resource that multiple terror races can dedicate to the problem. We’ve done some testing. There are more than four, that’s for sure. Myself, my peers in the other towns, we maintain a working assumption that we’re continually under observation, as are all the other human powerhouses who have contact with kids. When they’re in town, the assumption is that we’re being watched. That’s the true threat we need to counter, and it’s what the fabric does.”

“But downstairs I wasn’t protected.”

“Do you mean in the lair?”

He winced at Tom’s clarifying nod.

“That’s like worrying about physical observation. But with the fate we’re investing, not to mention all the wards, scrying down there will be hard. We’re probably fine. And if we’re not...” he shrugged. “There’s nothing we can do about it. Everyone in the town standing guard over you won’t save you. Not with rank-one attribute. They’ll sacrifice fifty rank-seventy assassins, and one will get through. The only shields you have are anonymity and the fact the GODs won’t allow wholesale slaughter.

“Okay, so if we assume we’re safe. What about physical observation when we’re suggesting rooms? Wouldn’t it be better for me to stay here and sneak out when you’re not around? Or are you suggesting that you’ll sense any while you’re moving me and kill them?”

“No. I’m good, but not that talented. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a deficiency on my side. It’s just that the people they send are better, but only once they’re entrenched. If they’re moving around or following me, I’ll spot them. There’s a strategic layer to this problem.”

“But the carpet will still be obvious.”

“Yeah, if any are in here, and that’s a big if, they’ll see me carrying it around. And they’ll know someone is in it, but they won’t know who. I’ll move around to lots of places, and they’ll have a couple of data points. The main gymnasium, possibly some corridors. They won’t be able to work out where I put you. Besides, there are too many rooms for the remote scouting to monitor all of them.”

“It sounds…”

“It’s me being paranoid, Tom. Excluding the scryers, I could walk you, covered in blood, back to your dorms, and you’d almost certainly be safe. This approach is slightly better.” Dimitri winked at him. “Older kids get locked overnight in the isolation rooms all the time. Those things malfunction constantly. It’s almost like they treat it as a game. I have to admit, it’s very convenient for me. Even if I pretend to be super grumpy every time. I don’t know how such a practice started taking place.”

Tom let himself get bundled up. Dimitri clearly knew what he was doing. Once more, he was slung over the bigger man’s shoulder and transferred via lots of stop-start movements that went up and down multiple floors, until he was deposited in a new room.. Dimitri spent a few minutes fiddling with the controls, then picked up the fabric roll. He turned to face Tom. “You’re going to be stuck in here for at least six hours. I’ll give you a five-minute warning before I fix...” He mimed inverted commas when he said the word fix. “Before I fix the malfunction. Do whatever you want in the meantime, but when I come back, assume you and the contents of the room are known to the enemy.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

With that, he left, the door clicking firmly shut behind him..

Tom washed himself and then spent his time alternating between magic spear work and meditating on Danger Sense. All the while, he was maintaining an open cut seeping blood that he attempted to influence with his sideways evolution, the one that sped up clotting. All the effort invested into skill development made him feel like the evolution was responsive to his will, even though the total sum of his theoretical knowledge suggested that was an impossibility.

The attempt didn’t cost him anything, so he persisted, hoping that it might somehow lead to obtaining a trait.

After what felt like days, but what his pseudo system room had tagged as only eight hours, the entire room flashed.

The room was spotless, but he healed himself and triggered a cleaning spell to remove the blood. Then he grinned, tipped over two of the toy boxes and used his feet and hands to fling the toys wider.

Smugly, he sat in the only cleared area of the floor. The door opened and Dimitri strode in. He looked at the scattered toys with annoyance and glowered at Tom.

Innocently, the latter smirked back.

Neither of them said anything other till the door shut and it dinged to indicate they had privacy once more.

“And?” Tom asked.

Dimitri shook his head. “I’m going to have to clean this, you know.” Then he sighed. “But it was probably the right call. There’s no way a five-year-old getting stuck in here for eight hours will not cause a mess.”

“Yeah, that’s the only… only reason I did it.”

“Yes, the mess was only to aid your disguise, and you weren’t smirking.” Dimitri rolled his eyes. “On to more important things. Eden’s completed her sweep. The wards weren’t penetrated, like I thought. Unlike me, Eden has abilities to let her pierce any entrenched assassin’s defences. So, you’re off the hook.”

“Good; and her views on the boss?”

Dimitri grimaced. “Eden couldn’t find any evidence to suggest it was anything but random.”

“Damn. A ritual.” Tom cursed. While humans were the only species that could spend fate innately, other species could do similar things with structured magic, if admittedly at a massive cost.

“Yes, exactly. Not great news. And if a ritual’s leveraging fate, there’s no way to prove it post factum, since all it’s doing is distorting the probabilities. The boss remains a random occurrence, even if it was off the scale level of unlikely.”

There was something about how Dimitri looked.

“And you think I’m the target?”

The big man sighed. “I’m almost certain that’s a yes.”

“You know my history then. That’s great. Tell me everything?”

Dimitri winced slightly. “Well, that’s the thing, Tom. I know what the holes in your memory represent. Eden inadvertently told me exactly what was stripped away, and, as you rightly guessed, it was definitely responsible for your new precognition affinity.” He trailed off into silence.

“Don’t stop there. What did I do? How did I help? Was it a soul-bound artefact?”

Dimitri said nothing and scratched his hair, looking particularly uncomfortable. “Um, the problem. Um. The thing is… if memory was stripped from you, then DEUS obviously didn’t want you to know them. If that’s the case, I’m not sure I’m qualified to tell you.”

“What? That’s ridiculous. It’s my story - I have a right to know.”

“I’m sorry. Given what you did, I don’t want to keep secrets, but if this is what DEUS’s wills, then who am I to circumvent her wishes?”

“That’s bullshit. It might have been one of the other GODs.”

“And it might have been, but the common view is that DEUS controls the process. I’m not taking the risk, Tom. If you want to learn more, you’ll have to convince a priest that you should be granted the information.”

“What priest? Keikain?”

“He’s the easiest option, but if a priest is willing to vouch for your need to know, then I’ll tell you everything. I just won’t do it without permission from someone who has the mandate of DEUS.”

“Can you give me a clue?”

“Sorry, Tom. I know the role you played. I know it was your plan to get the racial trait, and that you made other substantial contributions as well. We all owe you a great debt. But that’s not enough for me to go against DEUS’ will.”

Tom’s instinct was to argue. But he understood the point that Dmitri was making, and, if the positions were reversed, as much as he hated to admit it, he would have done the same. However, even if Dimitri was in the right, it didn’t mean he couldn’t leverage the situation.

“That’s… sorry, I’m just really emotional about this. I can’t put into words how much those holes in my memories trouble me. It’s… Sorry, you’re doing the right thing. Don’t say anything.”

“I wish I could help.”

“It’s okay. I’ll be fine.” Tom sighed and covered his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. We should stick to business. First, I assume, since now you know who I was, I’ll continue getting access to the bat lair?”

Dimitri stared at him suspiciously. “Yes, I can do that. Just so you know, I didn’t deliberately give any clues to Eden, because if my guess is right, there’s a bit of a history there, and I don’t like pissing off powerhouses, whether current or future ones. But then, when I was trying to get you resources, I might have misspoken. I basically listed your achievements and what you’re focusing on.”

“She picked up on the healing spells.” Tom guessed immediately.

Dimitri nodded. “Yes, sorry. She sort of stuttered, shut down for a moment when I mentioned them, so I know she noticed. In hindsight, I probably should have protected your privacy better and pretended that you were developing a different set of spells. I just wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s fine,” Tom said to put him out of his misery. “I understand. Besides, the history’s complicated, but not necessarily problematic.”

“Anyway, if that comes back to bite you, then sorry. I told her to try to get the resources, and the good news is that it worked.”

He pulled out an arm guard. “I’m authorised to give you this. It’s a defensive artefact that’s warded so scryers can’t notice it. You need to wear this while you’re in the lairs. If you trigger it, it will create a powerful personal shield and an attack golem to defend you.”

“That’s going to slow skill acquisition down.”

Dimitri shrugged. “It’s one use and most promising students in native cultures wear a similar limited use lifesaving treasure. With all their history and knowledge of how Existentia works, if they’re doing it, then we’ll be safe to do the same. If there’s another surprise like the bat, this will be more than enough to counter anything that can be generated even by extremely unfavourable probability events. It won’t stop an assassin, but it will slaughter any future boss monsters. If you’re wearing it, you can continue training against the bats, and, once you get spear mastery, then I’m fine with you testing yourself against the orcs. And after Touch Heal and Spark, you can fight whatever you want down there.”

Tom stared at the bracelet, and then mentally shrugged. His point about natives using this was a valid one. He could live with a small drag on his skill acquisition, and he really couldn’t afford to turn down extra protections when someone was willing to throw major fate rituals at him.

“I’ll wear it,” he promised.