Mage Tank

I paused a few feet away from Lito and Myria and gestured for Sineh to keep moving. She shot me a worried look, then walked forward to slip between the pair.

“A saboteur wove an advanced teleportation array into the lounge,” I said. “It appears that the king, the Eschen delegation, and the rest of my party were inside when it activated.”

This stirred up some chatter in the crowd, and I wondered whether I should have been more circumspect. Then again, no one had told me to keep quiet, and making the danger clear would hopefully encourage everyone else to get out of my Closet.

I gestured at the bodies. “Patriarch Ravvenblaq issued a challenge phrase to the Guard, which they apparently failed. Then, their heads fell off. Ealdric said the whole platoon had been compromised, so I assume he was responsible for the beheadings, but I don’t know how. After that, Ealdric, Cera, and Bobret went through the portal to recover the king. Matriarch Duckgrien destroyed the array afterward.”

“Did you have anything to do with the array?” asked Myria. Given the situation, it was a reasonable question. It still stung to be suspected by old allies.

“No,” I said. “I don’t know how it got there.”

Lito grunted. “He’s telling the truth.” Myria relaxed a fraction.

“Did any of our fearless founders leave instructions?” she asked.

“They said to get everyone out of the Closet.”

“Nope.”

Myria scowled. “Typical.”

“Reckless,” Lito added. “How are we leaving?”

I held up the marble “Emergency portal to Foundation.”

Lito held out his hand and I passed him the small glass sphere. He held it up to the light and studied the runes within. Myria leaned in to try and get a good look as well.

“What tier is that?” she asked.

“Dunno,” he said. “Higher than seven.”

“I didn’t know the tiers went higher than seven.”

“Neither did I.”

Myria bit her lip. “How much do you think that’s worth?”

Lito closed his fist around the marble. “Right now, it’s worth one stable portal back to Foundation for a gaggle of nobles.” He turned to the crowd and started laying out the situation. ℝΑꞐǒꞖĚṤ

“What about the rest of the King’s Guard?” I asked Myria. “There were twenty more of them in here.”

“Oh,” she said. “All their heads fell off at the same time.”

“That’s… terrifying.”

Her composure slipped as she nodded. Her eyes went vacant, and she reached up, fingers tracing her throat. “There were four of them in the hall with us outside your bedroom. I thought– I thought we were next, ya’ know?” She shuddered. “Don’t fuck with the Patriarch.”

I absorbed that life advice while imagining myself grabbing my head, trying to make sure an invisible force didn’t separate it from my body.

“What about the Lord Director?”

“I have no idea,” she said. “He rushed off without saying anything. That was before the mass decapitations.”

“So there may be a rogue Level 26 in here?”

“Gods, I hope not,” she said. “Knowing Aprogar–if it really was Aprogar–I don’t think Ealdric could kill him from a distance with one move. The man’s as paranoid as it gets.”

“Great,” I said, mentally nudging Grotto to try and locate the man. “How do you want to handle Leon? We know he was working up a distraction with his public interrogation.”

“Leon Heronwyte?” she said. “Where is he?”

“We have him in timeout. Somewhere. Possibly in a very sharp cage.”

“Okay. Send me the evidence you’ve got.” She paused before speaking again, furrowing her brow and producing her slate. “That was fast.”

[I have sent copies of Leon’s attempted communications to your slate. He has been requesting extraction every sixty seconds since being contained.]

Myria finished reading through the text, then started scanning the crowd. “We’ll need to talk to that servant as well.”

There was a quick burst of Dimensional mana, and the Heronwyte servant appeared next to Myria. The mundane man stumbled, fell, and then rolled onto his side to begin vomiting. His mundane constitution was ill-prepared for Grotto’s unexpected teleportation.

Myria took the servant’s sudden appearance in stride, waited for him to finish emptying his stomach, then pulled a black length of rope from her inventory and tossed it at him. The cord wrapped itself around him like a snake, binding him, then raised him back to his feet.

“Hello,” said Myria. She pulled out a cloth and wiped the mess from around the man’s mouth. “I’m Dancer Myria of the Hiwardian Central Delver Authority. You’re being taken into custody as part of an investigation concerning several crimes that have been committed on Master Xor’Drel’s property.”

“C-crimes?” the man asked, wide-eyed. “What–” he gulped. “What sort of crimes?”

“Sabotage, kidnapping, and treason,” she said. “More may be coming. I’ll let you know. For now, we’re heading back to Hiward where you’ll be interviewed.”

The man had gone perfectly still, as though Mria were a predator he hoped he could avoid by staying motionless. Myria sent the cloth back into her inventory, then placed a hand on the servant’s shoulder.

“As a servant of Lord Leon Heronwyte, any actions you were compelled to take under his direction will be attributed to him, not you,” she said. Her tone was soft and sympathetic. “Sometimes Delvers abuse their powers and authority. In my experience, most people in your situation are never charged with anything. You’ll also have representation from the Steward’s Coalition, so try not to worry for now.”

The man nodded, but he still looked terrified. Myria led him off to one side, the rope slackening enough for him to shuffle, and spoke with him some more.

While Myria spent a few minutes calming the man, Grotto sent me some private psychic messages. [The Lord Director looped back around to your bedroom and activated the teleport weave.]

“That’s good evidence it goes somewhere meaningful.”

[Indeed. He left the weave intact when he went through, however, which makes me apprehensive. If he did not wish to be followed, there are many ways he could have defaced the runes after passing through.]

“You think he might be trying to manipulate us into intentionally activating a trap we already knew about? A trap that uses another trap as bait? Is there a word for that?”

[Yes, it is called a trap. Alternatively, he may have become sloppy in his eagerness to escape. He was bleeding quite profusely.]

By the time Myria finished up with the man he looked much better. The pair of us had to wait on Lito to do a headcount, making sure no one else was missing or hiding out.

“Those rules are fairly forgiving,” I said once Myria returned.

“You didn’t know about servant’s rights?” she asked. “We’re not even allowed to use Active Skills on mundane people unless they’re a danger to others.”

“I’ve mostly been concerned with laws that affect me and my party members. I hadn’t planned on hiring anyone to wait on me.”

“I suppose Majordomo is an exception.” She gave me a conspiratorial look. “Lito told me he’s not a ‘traditional’ butler.”

“Right,” I said.

I’d never come clean with Lito about Grotto’s true identity, and Majordomo was, in essence, a double-feint. Still, I wondered how much the Guardian knew that he didn’t want me to know that he knew. Probably a lot.

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“Did you pick up anything suspicious about the King’s Guard?” Myria asked.

[Their communications gave me no reason to suspect them,] Grotto answered. [I am sending a log of their messages.]

Myria’s eyebrows went up as she watched the information start pouring in.

“I might have trouble explaining how you got this,” she said.

“Do you know how we got that?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “Which is why I won’t be able to explain it.” She tucked the slate away to review later, avoiding any further discussion of the matter.

Lito had the Hiwardians arranged in a single-file line to move quickly through the portal once it opened, including the group of Ravvenblaq manor staff. Several nobles looked unhappy at having been corralled like a group of kindergarteners, but their desire to leave trumped their pride.

“Ready to go,” said Lito, walking back to us. “We just need to grab Leon. Otherwise, the guests are accounted for. We aren’t missing anyone who wasn’t already missing.”

“How do you want to handle Leon?”

“Depends on how he wants to be handled,” said Lito.

[He has taken the time to equip himself for combat. He has also refused my requests for him to disarm.]

I hadn’t forgotten that Lord Heronwyte was a Level 15 gold, and not some hapless meddling noble without any real combat experience. Lito went over Lord Heronwyte’s known abilities, and we formulated a simple pacification plan.

Myria stayed behind to keep order with the agitated guests, while Grotto teleported me and Lito to Leon. Lito insisted that we needed to give the man the option to come peacefully. Sadly, that meant we couldn’t come in guns blazing.

Lord Heronwyte was not in a cage of blades. He was in an empty cubic room surrounded on all sides by a portal barrier, like the one that contained the Pocket Delve. He was dressed in light armor–gambeson with Madrin mail over top–and a golden barbute protected his head. He held a pair of shortswords and dropped into a combat stance the moment we appeared.

“Lord Heronwyte,” said Lito. “I’m Guardian Lito from Central. I’ve got questions for you, so you’re coming with me back to Hiward one way or another.” Lito’s presentation was a bit more brusque than Myria’s.

Leon looked between the two of us, sizing us up.

“And what of Master Xor’Drel?” he asked.

“What about him?” said Lito.

Leon pointed a sword at me. “He has imprisoned me unjustly!”

“You can file a complaint. Put your weapons and armor away and agree to submit to a control effect.”

“What?” said Leon. “You wish to treat me like a criminal?”

“That is what’s happening, yeah.”

“Nonsense,” said Leon. “I have committed no crimes.”

“Then you’ve got nothing to worry about,” said Lito. His tone was bored, like he’d had this talk a hundred times before. “But refusing a lawful order from an agent of Central is a crime. So, put your weapons and armor away and agree to submit to a control effect.”

Leon’s sword dropped, and he stood up from his crouch.

“This is absurd,” said Leon. “I have exposed Master Xor’Drel’s wrongdoings, and I am the one being treated this way?”

Lito scratched his jaw. “What wrongdoings have you exposed?”

“He collaborates with enemies of the Kingdom!”

“And what is your evidence?”

“My evidence?” said Leon. “You should– You should already have it. It should have been delivered to the King’s Guard shortly after this devil confined me here!”

Lito grunted. “Is that all?”

“That isn’t enough?” said Leon. “I would think the contents of Master Xor’Drel’s bedroom should more than suffice, but fine. I have documents here.”

One of Leon’s shortswords disappeared, replaced with a scroll case. He held it out to Lito, who looked at the case, then at Leon’s remaining blade. Leon scoffed and dismissed his second sword, then tossed the case to Lito.

“It isn’t as though I could not resummon it at a moment’s notice,” Leon grumbled.

Lito caught the case and examined it closely for a long moment. He popped the end open and retrieved the rolled up set of documents within. He unfurled the first paper, three feet in length, and his eyes darted back and forth as he read through its contents. He cleared his throat before moving to the next. There were three in total, nine feet of text. He made it through in a couple of minutes.

“I see,” said Lito, then waved me over. I moved closer and he handed me the first document. It was handwritten in a neat, flamboyant script. I became increasingly confused as I read.

DAMNING EVIDENCE PART ONE

Ah, like morning dew, our thoughts are but transient things, evaporating in the sun’s radiation. But such moisture is never gone, merely displaced by the heat burning in the sky. One can always find that which has been dispelled so, with careful thought and study. To pluck each molecule from the air and reassemble those little droplets, to see the shape of the grass that wetness once touched! Dear sir, you may find that my musings lack the profundity of your intellectual suitors, but know that I am more than a winded librarian, greater than a head stuffed full of books and words, a mind, vast, endless, empty, and waiting. Dear sir, I take no pride in saying that…

The scroll continued on like that for its full length. It was a single, unbroken paragraph of opaque ramblings. Lito handed me the second page.

DAMNING EVIDENCE PART TWO

A note, containing a poem, containing a thought, containing a word, containing a letter, containing ink, held in a quill, belonging to a bird, long dead, may she rest in peace.

Hello.

Welcome to Hell.

You have been here your entire life.

Eating.

It is endless.

You must injure and kill and consume.

Hunger.

Will never leave.

Death will march to your mouth eternal.

Sleeping.

Will never rest.

Your eyes will close but you’ll stay awake.

Wanting.

It never ends.

You are consumed or are consuming you are consumed or are consuming you are consumed or are consuming you are consumed or are consuming…

The rest of the page was filled with hundreds of repetitions of the poem’s final sentence. Lito handed me the third page but kept his eyes on Leon.

DAMNING EVIDENCE PART THREE

Temptation

Oppression

Obsession

Infestation

Possession

WE ARE SEEKING GRACE TO BECOME INSTRUMENTS OF THE DIVINE SPIRIT

Deliverance

Two to three people pray over the afflicted person; only one is the leader in prayer while the others are interceding.

Take authority over any spirits that may be present.

IN THE NAME OF OUR GOD I BIND ALL POWERS AND FORCES IN THE AIR, IN THE GROUND, IN THE WATER, IN THE UNDERGROUND, IN THE NETHERWORLD, IN NATURE AND IN FIRE.

IN YOUR NAME I BIND

IN YOUR NAME I BIND

IN YOUR NAME I BIND

Renounce all areas of bondage.

If the afflicted person refuses to renounce, place in a sealed room with no food or water for 8 hours. Encourage the afflicted to expel any and all waste in a manner where it can be inspected by the presiding pastor.

Repeat steps one through twenty-nine.

Pray for deliverance.

BY THE POWER OF BLOOD

I BIND YOU

YOUR EVIL SPIRITS

DEMONIC FORCES

PRINCIPALITIES

ATTRIBUTES

ASPECTS

CLUSTERS

ENDOWMENTS

THRONES

KINGS

PRINCES

TERRORS

DEMONIC ASSIGNMENTS

FUNCTIONS OF DESTRUCTION

…

The final list kept going, growing increasingly unhinged as it went.

“What do you, uh, what do you make of this?” I asked Lito.

“You see?” said Leon. His sword was back out and pointing at me. “He should be the one taken into custody!”

“Right,” said Lito. “Lord Heronwyte, when’s the last time you had a full Dispel and Cleanse performed?”

“Why?” asked Leon. “Are you suggesting that I am being influenced?”

“These documents don’t even mention Master Xor’Drel.”

Leon’s eyes narrowed, barely visible through the barbute. Lito turned the first page around and held it up. Leon leaned in, reading the text from a distance. His scowl was replaced by a moment of confusion, then he let out a whine which quickly transitioned to a growl.

He dashed forward, blade thrusting toward my throat.

I brought up Gracorvus to block, intercepting the strike and deflecting the sword. Leon simultaneously used his second weapon to strike at my thigh, but I sidestepped away, the tip of the blade missing its mark by a hair. I felt a social attack hit me while I dealt with the strikes.

You have resisted Fear!

I activated Elemental Barrier, shaping it to avoid Lito and choosing the Sonic damage type. The air around me thrummed with energy as a constant blast of pressure began rocking Leon. The man flew away from me and crashed to the ground, blood spraying from his nose as the Sonic damage assaulted his sinuses. I followed up with Gravity Anchor, and Leon slid across the ground back toward me, flailing with his swords. His whole body shook violently as the Sonic attack tried to pummel him away while Gravity Anchor drew him closer.

Leon tried to stand but failed miserably while in the throes of the oppositional forces. He struck out at my ankles from the ground, but I deflected the clumsy attack with my shield. His second blade was intercepted by a blazing chain as Lito entered the fray. Lito’s hammer split into molten fetters, a half dozen lengths that grappled Leon’s limbs, blackening the armor beneath. Leon screamed as the heat began to sear his skin. Blood dripped from his eyes as the Sonic damage did its work, and I pressed my boot to his chest to keep him down.

Lito gave me a signal, and I dropped the skills.

Leon gnashed his teeth, eyes bloodshot and skin flushed, jerking his body violently to try and tear free of the chains. He was unsuccessful. The man was absolutely livid and continued to thrash despite it only causing the chains to tighten further.

“Is he… Berserk right now?” I asked.

“Looks like it,” said Lito.

“Does he even use Berserk?”

“Nope.”

“This whole situation is fucking weird.”

Lito took a deep breath and blew it out through his nose. “Yyyep.”

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