Saphena

Ghelgliani already taught me the ropes, so on the second day I was already doing some more spying. Well, ‘taught’ was a strong word, as Ghel focused on teaching the bare minimum while seeing what I already knew, as if to test me and try to pick from where I came from. I used all I gathered spying and gave informed guesses where I could, and it at least seems to work, as I’m not executed just yet. So now as my first day, I was going to look around the main hall overlooking Neohazelel, since it not only was a major focus of Ghel’s faction, it was where my revolutionaries were.

Reaching the main hall, I scan portals of interest, mainly searching for the one looking at Auvrey’s shop. It was lower than initially, although it was almost unnoticeable, as it was located hundreds of levels up, so more than likely it was just the result of the political shuffling, not any increased suspicion. So I go looking around for people in the zones controlled by Ghel, looking if the people there were properly working. It was the most low-level work, as it wasn't hard to find people slacking in the job, which allowed me to get some quick results so I can look for my interests.

Most of the faction agents were in politically important places, which were mostly concentrated on the first two layers, so I didn't need to go up the stairs. It always was a big contrast being here instead of anywhere else, as here you had mana being thrown around like crazy, when everywhere else you would be killed for opening up space for a fly to go through if anyone was close enough to feel it. Well, that had to do with how this room operated, as the various panes looking into other spaces were so tiny that they looked dim and it was impossible to hear anything. To solve this issue, every looking portal had another portal behind it that led to one embedded somewhere in the same room. Those hearing portals were sometimes as big as the entire wall or floor of the room being spied on, so you could catch any talking really well. If you wanted to hear anything, you just had to cast an entrance in front of the hearing one and an exit on your ear. So it was quite easy to know who was listening to what by following where the portal led to.

I had some names and descriptions of agents Ghel told me to look for, although I knew a bit more and was sure he did imply I had to get something outside of the names I was given. Tests, tests and more tests. Well, it is true that he should test my allegiance as I’m a spy, which makes it all the more annoying to know he is right. I just have to get some information on some lazy people and go for my objectives, so I kept going to the major windows to political figures, which is a major focus for the faction. Reaching those spots, I found people just seeing without hearing, just hearing, getting distracted, talking to people, paying attention to other portals instead of your respective one, and so on. I knew how mind numbing it was to look into random people's days for hours and a part of me wanted to stop recording it all to let them have some slack. Unfortunately, I needed those reports and they were probably going to get chastised even without me speaking as there are more domestic spies than me to cross reference those kinds of information. The people talking are especially interesting, as they not only are slackers, they're oftentimes talking about stuff they shouldn't be talking with so many people hearing, like complaining about what your boss did to you or complaining about what incompetent minions you have, sometimes both from the same person.

“I have to talk to a fucking weapons dealers and can't even get intel handed down to me!” said one of the targets I'm supposed to pay attention to, starting quiet and getting more and more flustered as time went on, “I can't even use the time looking into how not to die as work hours, it's such bullshit! I'm even prohibited to kill them in self defense.” That is an interesting piece of intelligence, it isn't common to speak to weapons dealers, as we have a sword that can cut anything from far away. The most likely reason to need those is if you want war between two reigns, which is scary since people tend to die on those and I needed some people alive. If Ghel was planning a war, I was in a good position to sabotage it, although it could screw with my plans and would be risky. I know I have to think hard if I pass this information up, since the reaction to leaking this information could give me an idea how important this is, with the drawback of them discovering I know of it, losing me an advantage.

I had to think on that later, as I saw some commotion from up the stairs, so I headed there as I had a bad feeling from all of this. It was getting dark already, so most people were already home and not much usually happened, so what could possibly have occurred? It had to be a serious problem to make the mages who discovered it share with others, instead of keeping it for themselves. As I kept climbing, the commotion was spreading upwards and downwards the stairs, so whatever it was, I couldn't keep it under wraps if I wanted. I was already dreading it, so reaching the expanding mass of anxious talking I brace for impact. I find a person who looks like they want to speak their mind and when they see me they start talking.

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“An entire class is casting time magic while in class, somehow they learned that repeating a spell in front of someone is a good way to teach. It will possibly require a Space shattering event to silence them all.” They answer, with a lot of concern in their voice. I hear them talking as well as hearing other conversations going on to get a picture of what was truly going on. All the while my face is painted in concern, since I can show that I feel concerned easily enough without having to act. So as I see people throwing portals around to inform their respective factions, I throw one myself to go back to base. I don't have the power or authority to just go straight in the base, so I push the exit close to the entrance and walk from there, using the walk to think what to do.

I didn't need to hear too much more to know what happened. Solaria was a curious and perceptive girl, she would get the best way to pass on magic and not be selfish to keep it for herself. All reasons I picked her, and here I thought I could deal with any consequences of her outbursts. I walked fast to Ghel's room, as I needed to be the first to inform him, so I could get the most amount of information from reactions. I reach his room, say my name and knock twice, code for urgency, waiting to be invited in. After some moments of wait he urges me in.

So I tell him what happened, omitting any mention of names, as from what I heard, they got the information by hearing one of the classmates bragging that the whole class was casting magic and confirmed it with another student with the same story. All this because a single Space mage was probably randomly spying on people for either a personal project or to amuse oneself. It was one of the reasons why you could never assume you were safe just by being in an underwatched place, as by the amount of people, each with their own conflicting interests making it impossible to make sure a particular place was unwatched, you could only predict it by predicting every intention of every actor.

“So after all that, do tell me, why are you talking to me about it?” Ghelgliani asked, which made me panic inside, straining my skills to the limit to not show it. This for sure was another test, trying to pry why I was coming here to talk to him directly, since my job wasn't that of a regular spy. “It's because I want to know where to focus now that a possible Space shattering event is happening,” I start justifying, and seeing the suspicion in his eyes I make a decision to risk it, “and since the war planning could be majorly disrupted in the aftermath, I wanted to hear where do you want me to go and focus on.” It looks like it was a good gamble, as bringing attention to the war seems to have reduced some concerns that, thinking about it, I should have known if I were someone high up enough to get my current job.

It is really fortunate to have this reaction, as I’m asking a lot, since a shattering is an opportunity for many goals to be achieved directly. Those were a last resort resource to silence threats to the system, and although were always focused on a particular spot, there were always groups at the edges of the targeted area to directly kill or maim targets that were untouchable in normal circumstances. So where, when and how big were important questions to be resolved, and the political maneuvering needed was complex to navigate, as different factions pick sides and coalesce in a way that made smaller players more important than usual. It would be even worse to predict after the reshuffling that happened after the last internal fight, with enough time for most important players to reorganize and get going again.

“I want you to get a temperature of the wants inside our walls and find possible spies and saboteurs.” he answers, not telling explicitly why I had to do all that, as I had expected. Still, I could glimpse something from that, since cohesion being a main focus of his meant he did intend to put all the weight of the faction towards his goals and that he probably already had a plan for what he was doing. That is little, although it is a starting point to discovering if I had to do everything in my power to stop or help him. “Anything else you want to talk about?” he questions after some time thinking.

“Yes, I have a list of people either not doing their jobs properly or talking loudly about faction secrets.” I responded, reciting everything of interest. Except the weapons dealer one of course, as I didn’t want to give him such a big clue of where I got the fact I know about the war.