Ar'Kendrithyst

In a flash of light, Erick, Poi, and Teressa reappeared in the front room of their temporary apartment.

Erick immediately asked Poi, “So what the fuck was that about with Ari?”

Poi looked a bit bluer around the face—

And then he turned and puked out watery bile onto the floor.

Teressa gave a nervous, terrified laugh as she patted Poi’s back, saying, “You’re good, Poi. It was just— Just a person getting torn to shreds.” She cast a [Cleanse] upon them all, dispersing thick air from all of her, and from all of Poi; the results of sweat turning to mana. Only the barest bit escaped from Erick. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

Poi groaned and spat up more bile. After a moment more, he stood straight, and cast another [Cleanse]. He looked at no one as he said, “Soul magic is terrifying.”

“I didn’t know you could sunder a soul that easily!” Teressa said, “That was the scariest part! Just a fucking—! Just a damned grand rad and a glass diamond! That’s all it takes? HOLY SHIT!”

“Ah,” Erick said, realizing that he had perhaps glossed over some of the abominable acts of magic that they had witnessed. Was he becoming inured to the horror show? Or was he breaking in odd ways? Probably a bit of both. Teressa not having a grip on what she had seen was understandable, though, but Poi reacting like this? That was a bit odd. He said to both of them, “Sorry. I didn’t think it would be like that. I didn’t know that it would affect… any of us like it did.”

Poi breathed out, forcing himself to calm, his eyes half lidded as he looked away, saying, “I knew it would be bad, but not that… At least I managed to hold off my reaction until now.” He fully opened his eyes, and said, “This was unprofessional of me. I apologize. It will not happen again.”

“Well shit!” Teressa said, “If I have to walk into that place again, I might piss myself, and that surely won’t be professional! Gods damn! That place was like walking in a part of the Forest covered in Deathsoul Shrooms!” She exclaimed, “Souls crying out, everywhere! Holy damn.”

Erick decided that he was definitely becoming numb to the horror shows of the world, and to the suffering of others. He hadn’t seen any of what Teressa had seen. He said, “All I saw were souls summoned for one last talk with their surviving relatives, or otherwise. It seemed kinda nice.” To the dismayed look of both Teressa and Poi, Erick rapidly added, “Except for the soul sundering, of course. I could go without seeing that ever again.”

Teressa’s words failed her. She wanted to tell him how he was fucked up, but her words did not seem to work right.

Poi’s words did not fail him. “Summoning souls is like ripping out a hunk of memories from your loved ones in order to talk to them one last time. You saw how Raidu wasn’t all there, right? You wouldn’t want someone doing that to you, would you? You could still have an afterlife in the realm of a god, or with the angels or demons. But if you’re summoned back, then you might not make it to your destination without forgetting who you were before.”

Teressa exclaimed, “Yes! That! I’ve heard it told different, but yeah. That’s the lot of it.” She said, “Watching all of that in there… All I could see was the pure greed in the eyes of those who summoned their fathers or mothers in order to ask where the casks of gold were buried in the Tribulations. Or the men with the lawyers, and the necromancers working on behalf of the living instead of the dead!” Teressa said, “That was immoral. The entire institution.” She added, “No wonder Elder Arilitilo didn’t want to be there! Holy gods.”

Erick frowned, saying, “Ah… Well. All good points.”

Teressa added, “And the pure disdain for the desires of the summoned! Half of those ghosts were writhing in pain while they were trapped on this plane!”

Poi shivered. “They were losing parts of themselves every moment they were here, so yeah; pain.”

Teressa blurted a nonsensical, “Eethaaghuuu,” also giving a shiver. “I have to walk around a bit.” And then she did, walking down the room, and then pacing the hallway, remaining in earshot.

Erick let them get a grip; he could wait.

Poi relaxed, then said to Erick, “Anyway.” He breathed deep, then exhaled, and said, “Arilitilo is under heavy guard right now because she was an unknown Soul Mage working in the government of Eralis for so long. She’s under a lot of scrutiny from the Palace of the Eternal Court, and she wants you to know that she cannot talk openly, for they question her all the time, and she wants to be able to be truthful with them, to be able to say that she has not spoken to anyone outside of approved meetings. Her talk with you last time was meant to be her break from politics, but she was uncomfortable with the heavy questioning she received afterward. She doesn’t want a repeat of that event. In a few years, she might get something of her life back, but for now, she’s content with what is happening to her.”

That was a disappointment.

Erick said, “She told you to say that, but that’s not what she was truly thinking, was it?”

Poi faltered. “Not... totally correct. She only had those thoughts in her head, this is true, but without telepathically sending them out, she could truthfully say that she had no knowing contact with you. Some of her thoughts were along the lines of ‘Ah… How it vexes me that I cannot tell him about this scrutiny of being a Soul Mage in Songli’, and the like. No doubt they will question her about her thoughts around me, as well, but the Palace of the Eternal Court cannot sanction her because they allowed her into the presence of a known Mind Mage.” He added, “She was only there because she was your contact, and they wanted to make you happy to know that she was okay. And she is okay. She says she’s okay, for now. She will let you know if that changes.”

Erick relaxed a little, and then declared, “This is fucked up,” Erick decided. “Well. If she ever wants a rescue, or asylum, and you hear of it, let me know. I’ll take her to Candlepoint, or Spur, or something. I’m sure Silverite would be fine with her around.”

Poi’s lips scrunched.

Teressa stopped her pacing at the mention of ‘Silverite would be fine with her around’, her eyebrows narrowed in thought as she came back into the room.

Erick asked the two of them, “… Would she not be welcome in Spur?”

Poi and Teressa shared a look. Teressa shrugged. Poi hummed.

Poi said, “Maybe. Silverite has killed her fair share of rogue necromancers, and all necromancers in Spur are rogue necromancers. If Silverite were here and had power over this land, this Palace of the Eternal Court would be ash and mud with every necromancer either promised to never summon another soul again, or executed.”

“Yeah. Spur doesn’t allow necromancy.” Teressa said, “But Soul Mages aren’t always Necromancers. Ari ain’t a necromancer either… Eh.”

“Arilitilo would get a pass, though, right?” Erick asked.

Teressa shrugged.

Poi said, “I’ll ask her in case the situation goes that way. Elder Ari did save your life and I can vet that she’s exactly the stabilizing force she appears to be.”

Erick frowned, at himself as much as anything else. He said, “I think my sensibilities are getting eroded. I don’t see what the big deal is with Soul Magic.”

“A lot of Soul Magic seems fine; I agree.” Poi said, “But it’s like Blood Magic. It’s easily abused.”

“More so than [Force Beam]s to the face?” Erick countered.

“Yes.” Poi said, “As a Darker thought: If it weren’t for us knowing who you are as a person, and what to expect from you, Erick, and for my own ability to tell what is actually happening in the minds of all involved… This fascination of yours with helping Arilitilo could easily be attributed to soul mutilation caused by Arilitilo when she went inside of you and fixed you from the soul spear.”

Teressa paled a little as Poi’s dark words were trotted out into the light for all to see. She looked away, then looked back; she had these thoughts on her mind, too. But Poi was the only one to give them a voice.

Erick sighed out, and said, “Okay. I see that. I think… I think I need to go lay down for a while.”

Poi said, “Tyli is coming over soon.”

Erick winced. “… Dammit.”

Teressa asked, “I’ll make some coffee? Strong, too. I know I could use some.”

“Yes, please.” Erick said, “I would like that. Thank you.”

- - - -

Erick welcomed Tyli into his house. She carried with her a large wooden box, filled with vials filled with blood, while another two Elites walked at her side. Erick didn’t know the other two people, though Tyli did introduce them, so Erick welcomed them inside as well, and then set them up in the front room; the one without [Prismatic Ward]. He tried to be personable, and especially with the two new people, but seeing Raidu torn apart into mana had him remembering how he tore apart red soldiers with beams of light for the past week…

And it was getting to him.

Everything was getting to him.

He did ask one question, though, “I’m not searching for any dragons with this lot of blood, am I? I don’t want to be a part of that.”

Tyli assured him, “This is truly blood from the Book Binders. The Headmaster wouldn’t want to be involved with any draconic business outside of what happens at Oceanside. There are no surprises here, Archmage Flatt. I understand your man, Poi, is a Mind Mage. If you want I will subm—”

“No, no. That’s fine.” Erick said, “I just needed you to say the words. I can be mad later if they turn out to be a lie.”

Tyli seemed to take umbrage at his words, but she said nothing.

The four of them got to it.

With the use of the vials of blood, each of which was simply labeled with a number starting at #1, and going to #48, Erick erected [Cascade Imaging]s throughout the nearest 7000 kilometers, searching for wayward Book Binders. Teressa served tea and cookies while maps populated. Over the next few hours, twenty two of the forty eight searches returned matches, most of them in Eralis, in public spaces or in hotels. Some searches that Tyli had expected to find were not found, for some parts of Songli had been destroyed in the fighting. Several searches turned up sites well outside of Eralis and the nearby lands. All of the sites were mapped out by the elites at Tyli’s side, but Erick glanced at each one with an Ophiel.

Aside from the places in Eralis, one target got into Alaralti and the Tribulations. Two people got all the way to the Warlord Clans to the north, along the Wanzhi River.

One person got over to Terror Peaks.

The last one was concerning.

After they searched through all the vials, they went back to the one that had turned up results near the former nation of Terror Peaks. A closer search revealed DNA tracks near Warchanter Farloa’s former research castle. That place had been thoroughly blasted and was little more than rubble and a few scattered towers, but with a [Cascade Imaging] layered over the location, Erick revealed that the target’s DNA survived in some of the less-open spaces. Whoever the target was, they must have been there many times to get their DNA all over the place.

Tyli frowned, her eyes full of red light as she stared through the world, to a distant [Scry]. She came back to herself, saying, “That’s disappointing.” She looked to her people, who nodded, and started packing up. She turned back to Erick, saying, “The Headmaster thanks you for your assistance. I cannot tell you anything about that person right now, as not even I know who the numbers belong to, as I said, but if something untoward should be discovered, the final story will be disseminated through official channels to those who need to know. You count as one such person who needs to know. We might need your assistance for further scanning on the other ones discovered as problematic, such as the one in the pirate coves down south, and the one we found in Holorulo. Can we count on you for further assistance?”

“Of course.” Erick said, “Anytime.”

The other elites each gave their own farewells, with Tyli taking up the rear, leaving Erick’s house last.

When they were gone, he went to bed.

He woke up for an anemic dinner and to check in with Jane to see how everything was going with her. There was light conversation, but nothing too arduous or concerning, so Erick mentally checked out. He knew he was checking out on life at the moment, and he knew it was a sign of bad, unresolved mental stuff; he noticed that shit in other people all the time, so he could certainly see it happening to him, in real time. But, exactly like those people in the charred ruins of their homes in Eralis, or at the gravesites of their loved ones, with their empty eyes staring at nothing and their hearts beating only because that’s what they’ve always done… Erick lived. And that was all, right now.

The sundering of Raidu and the ‘imprisonment’ of Ari had affected him more than he had thought possible. Maybe it was the fact that he couldn’t do anything about either situation.

Whatever.

Erick went back to bed after dinner.

He slept fitfully; without any true rest.

- - - -

Erick woke up and could not get back to sleep. It was past noon.

He needed a distraction.

So he sat in bed for a while, sending his sight to the Ophiel flying around outside, checking out whatever caught their fancy. Some were interested in other birds, copying their form as they flew. Others delighted in the play of wind in the willows. Another Ophiel tracked a bloodied man from high above, as that man walked through a dim street of unremarkable buildings.

Erick sat up and devoted some concern to the bloody man.

He had Ophiel look around. The nearby buildings were unadorned, bare stone and wood, meaning that this was a recently fully-rebuilt neighborhood. There weren’t lightpaints on any of the walls, and those lightwards that survived had been shifted out of position from their normal place atop their lightpoles, or their sconces. Turning his sight further afield, Erick saw that the bloody man was somewhere in Alaralti, the central city of the Highlands. Looking from higher, Erick discovered that the man was on the east side of the city, beyond the river, outside of the Void Wall. He was bleeding from a dozen different wounds, as he shuffled toward a guard house far in the distance.

With a twitch of light, Ophiel checked out that guardhouse.

There was no one there.

This particular section of Alaralti must have been fully scoured from the surface of Veird, but the man didn’t know this until he had arrived. Maybe he wasn’t up on the current news? Obviously not.

Tracking the blood he had dropped on the ground took but a moment. The man had come from the Teleport Square a bit further east. No one was in that guard station near that Teleport Square, either. Not finding what he needed to find, the man had come inward, following roads that he must not have known that well, for his blood tracked several steps down two side roads that did not lead to the next guardhouse, which was his obvious destination. The man knew he had almost gone the wrong way several times, though, so he wasn’t fully out of it.

He had probably expected this city to still be standing, but the entire section of Alaralti he had blipped into was gone. He was likely out of mana, too, otherwise he would have moved onto the next location.

Discovering that information had only taken about twenty seconds. The guy wasn’t dying at that specific moment, for he had managed to walk a kilometer already. Erick had also taken the time to figure out what was happening because the guy looked different, aside from the blood all over him painting him as a possible [Luminous Beam] target, which was the main reason why Ophiel was tracking him.

Erick told Ophiel that the guy wasn’t a target; he was a victim of something. And yes, both types of people ‘wore all red’, but not everyone in red was a target. It’s okay, you’ll get it eventually, Ophiel.

Ophiel just twittered in unsure guitar twangs.

Anyway: the bloody man.

The man wore bloody furs and thick leather wrappings around his feet and a skirt of deer skin. Some of his pale violet skin was exposed, but only because his clothes had been shredded. He was demi, maybe, for there were no horns upon his head. He was also skinny, with his clothes hanging off of him as though suffering from too much healing, but he would need a lot more before the day was done.

Erick flickered Ophiel to the man’s front, staying five meters ahead. Ophiel took the form of Erick, except with a bit more feathers than usual, for that was the form that Erick had shown to Nelboor, over the skies of Terror Peaks, before they used that soul spear against him. Ophiel was still in sunform, though; ready to retreat into a marble-sized form and cover himself with [Animadversion] if needed.

The man took a while to recognize that something had appeared before him. Erick stepped back, so that the man did not bump into him. At the shuffle of Ophiel’s ‘feet’, the man’s shuffling gait halted, and he looked. He saw ‘Erick’.

The man whispered, “Are you a monster?”

“No; I am not. This is my [Familiar] standing before you.” Erick asked, “Are you in need of assistance?”

The man’s whole body relaxed, as he tried to report, “I am in need of assistance. Severing Crescent’s delegation to Warlord Niyazo has been replaced with face stealers. I have only been here once before so I don’t know where to…” He started to wobble as his voice faded in and out. “Where to… go...”

He collapsed to the ground.

… It was a risk to help the man.

But it was a risk Erick would always take.

Erick cast a quick [Greater Treat Wounds] and then a [Teleport Other] to plop the dude into a nearby guard house that was occupied. Erick had helped a lot of people in Alaralti, and a lot of people in this land knew what Ophiel looked like, so it wasn’t hard to get them to rally around their new problem in addition to all the other problems they were already having.

Everyone was having problems.

Erick decided there and then to get involved in this bloodied man’s problems, since this appeared to be something that he could actually solve. A guy needing help, collapsed in the center of the road? Solvable!

He could have picked any number of a thousand other distractions to get himself out of his own head, but this was the one that landed in his lap. So he got out of bed, and went to ask Poi about a talk with Matriarch Tipanri of Severing Crescent. She would want to know what this guy was saying.

- - - -

The [Viewing Screen] popped up in front of Erick while he was having a late lunch in the kitchen. He set down his sandwich.

Matriarch Tipanri of Severing Crescent appeared on the other end of the Screen, her white scales and red eyes seeming to shimmer like her green and pink robes. She glanced at the sandwich, and said, “I seem to have caught you at a bad time.”

For whatever reason, Tipanri seemed more proper than the other people Erick had met in positions of power in Songli, but that was fine. Or maybe she was subtly telling him that while she was perfectly poised, he had crumbs on his hands. Which was odd. In the course of working closely with her in order to rain over Alaralti, Erick had thought that they were acquainted enough to get past some of this formality.

Had something changed?

Whatever.

“My daughter insists that I eat more, so I am,” he said, giving himself an excuse for his appearance. “I apologize if I was the one that caught you at a bad time. I know you are busy, but this wounded man showed up out of nowhere, spinning a story about face stealers and a compromised delegation from Severing Crescent to some Warlord Clan up north. I didn’t know what the term ‘face stealer’ meant until minutes ago, when my guard informed me that it is a colloquial term for Hunter-who-[Polymorph]s-into-their-victims, so naturally I thought this might be a concern.”

Tipanri seemed to return to some of her former relaxed self, as she asked, “Could you verify his tracks?”

“Sure.” Erick flicked his senses to the Ophiel furthest north, and moved him to a better position in the direct center of the warlord lands. In the work of a moment, [Cascade Imaging] went up into the air, searching for the guy’s DNA. Erick came back to himself and conjured a tiny lightform map, with a blue dot on it, saying, “The map is here, near this bend in the Wanzhi River.”

Tipanri nodded, regally, then said, “We will take it from here. Thank you for your assistance, archmage.”

She dismissed the Screen.

Erick went back to eating his sandwich, but his eyes were focused on the Ophiels he had go north. While the [Scry] eyes of Severing Crescent appeared around his map, Erick was already poking around in the lands lit blue by his search, seeing if he could find out what was happening with the local ‘Hunter’ population.

He briefly considered offering his services to find and kill every single Hunter in the area.

… And then he considered offering his services to find and Bless every single Hunter all around Songli. Hunters were a systemic problem the world over, after all. People who killed others for Levels did not need to exist, and they had been a personal problem for him in the past, for Hunters were some of the only ones who would think to target him specifically for his levels.

This was a problem that Erick could solve for Songli with a method that Olariz, the overseer at the paddy house, had considered a miracle. According to him, the Blessing of Empathy was a wonderful alternative to the usual methods to contain problematic people, which were exile, killing, or the Antirhine Elixir.

There were other, somewhat productive things he could be doing, though.

Like finding Goldie or Queen and figuring out what the fuck was going on there. Or he could go back to Spur and recast Yggdrasil in the Lake. Or he could continue on to the next destination of the Worldly Path. He could go learn of metals from the renowned smiths in the Near Underworld, under the northern Tribulation Mountains of Nelboor, or he could go to the Deep Underworld, and visit the Core. There were level 90 monsters down there, apparently. If he wanted to gain a level, he could do that.

Ah. But Jane wanted to go down that deep, too, and she wasn’t ready to leave Songli…

Or Erick could go to Rozeta’s Orrery, and learn what makes the Script work, or at least whatever they’re allowed to tell petitioners. Or he could try his hand at the Fractured Citadels of Quintlan, to see what the undead civilization was all about over there, though maybe not before he learned more Soul Magic…

Which brought him back to the current situation in Songli; back to Ari’s predicament.

No… He could not move on from this land quite yet. Besides all the obvious reasons to stay, something was telling him that there was still some major event coming up. Something that he would play a part in, no doubt. Maybe this was that thing?

Hunters were a problem the world over.

A problem that didn’t need to exist.

Erick hummed to himself as he glanced around that blooded man’s usual stomping grounds, with Ophiel in an invisible sunform.

It didn’t take long till he found the site of the battle, and also the village that the man had been from. Both looked like normal villages, but it was easy to tell that something bad had happened at one location, and not the other.

Some of the people at the battle site were probably impostors.

Anyway. What was likely the man’s home village was located next to a small tributary of the Wanzhi River, with large yurts scattered on carts in the flat lands between the riverbanks and the tall grasses of the prairie. The yurts were made of wood and animal skin, while the carts underneath were twice as large as the houses themselves, with much of that extra space serving as a porch. Herds of large, shaggy blond cows munched on the prairie grasses, looking like a breed of animal that was fully capable of pulling those mobile yurts if you lined them up and harnessed them, which they probably did when it was time to move.

There were no roads out here in this vast, untamed land, so as long as there was empty space ahead, these people probably moved as they were wont, tugging their homes across the grass. None of the people here seemed worried about being outside of the walls of a city, either, which was a nice change.

Mothers had their children strapped to their backs in cow-skin baskets while they fished in the river, or magiced vegetables from small plots of land in the center of the village. Children played all about, but far away from the taller grasses where the cows grazed. Warriors on cow-back watched their herd, and watched the land around them, looking for potential monsters. The cows seemed to fill a myriad of functions; milk, meat, fabric, vehicle, and lawnmowers. Those cows ate a lot of grass, and with every meal, they expanded the land for the village to temporarily occupy.

The people here were dressed in the same manner as the bloody man, with thick furs and cloth; almost fully covered. The nights in Songli were already rather chilly, but a bit further north it got a lot colder.

It all looked perfectly normal, with people on guard at the edges, with eyes scanning the grass land around them, while children and elderly worked in the center, reasonably safe from possible monsters attacking from the outskirts. The elderly in the center had some near-invisible defensive spells going all across the village, but Ophiel didn’t trip any of them, and none of the casters noticed Ophiel, or at least they pretended not to.

The other place, the site of the recent battle, was the same sort of village, but different; a bit larger, for sure, but that wasn’t the only distinction.

All of the village yurts were situated around a central firepit in the middle of a vast grass field that looked no different than all the rest, but one of the yurts was twice as large as all the rest, and situated outside of the main ring. This yurt was sort of a meeting place with rising benches that circled a ceremonial central firepit, with lavish metalwork and a fire burning in the center.

The oddity about this place, though, was that the bloody man’s DNA was everywhere, according to the map in the sky not a hundred kilometers away, but there was no blood here, and the people in this space were of two kinds. Those who wore fancy furs, and those who wore white silk robes embroidered with the words ‘Severing Crescent’. A quick check in the past, with a [Witness], revealed that the delegation from Songli had only been in this room for the last ten minutes, while an hour ago, around the time that the blood man showed up in Alaralti, the manasphere had no history; someone had blanked it.

The delegation from Severing Crescent were the people who had been compromised, according to that bloody man. The leader of the fur-clad people, who Erick assumed was Niyazo, was talking to the delegation as though nothing too dangerous had recently happened.

Both sides had greeted each other as per normal customs, but those normal customs were quickly failing. While Ophiel watched from outside of the yurt, tempers rose inside, and Erick listened in, unwilling to show Ophiel yet, or to interrupt what was happening.

The leader of the delegation from Alaralti, a man of pink skin and horns, said, “Enough with the rounding; answer me or be barred from entering the Compact. Where have you hidden your man, Warlord Niyazo? Where is Amasar?”

Niyazo grit his teeth, and said, “If my nephew has given offense, then tell me why he has given offense, so that I may solve this on my own terms. That is what the Compact is about, is it not? Empowered Clans are allowed to police their own. Do you go against your own Compact so late in our talks, Ambassador Bai?”

“You are not part of the Compact yet.” Bai said, “Your man has killed three of my own. If you fail to produce him, then I will be forced to declare you an enemy of Songli. You could run, but you would not be able to hide from us. We are creating a backlog of miscreants for our new archmage to hunt, and unless you want your name added to that list, produce your nephew. Now.”

Erick felt a spike of dread lodge directly between his eyes and his breath catch in his lungs.

Songli was not doing that; He would have heard.

And another thing! If they ever asked him to do this!…

Okay. Well. He would consider it. He was already considering killing all the local Hunters, after all, but—

But no! Targeting ‘miscreants’? Fuck no. Erick would only search out for high crimes and dangerous people! He had made this much known already, hadn’t he? Yes, he did.

Ambassador Bai was lying; trying to pressure Niyazo into getting what he wanted.

Yes; that was what was happening there.

Niyazo glared. “You threaten with phantoms instead of honoring the same lawful processes that you championed not two years ago, when you first started coming to us. You bring dishonor to us all with these words of war. You bring dishonor to yourself by treating my Clan Pale Cow like we are simple commoners. You show your true self in this demand.” He stared. “Leave. Now. Before you ruin what you have tried to create.”

Niyazo stood. His three warriors stood with him.

On the other side of the meeting hut, Bai and the five person delegation from Songli stood in response.

Ambassador Bai said, “Bring us Amasar to answer for his crimes, or throw away all the good works we have achieved these last two years.” He added, “You are a power among your people because of us. You are the head of a Clan because of us. Do not [Cleanse] that away as though it means nothing.”

“I see now that all you ever wanted was a boy to whip, to make me achieve your demands.” Niyazo said, “You are breaking hospitality. I ask you to leave one more time.”

Bai glared. “I’m not leaving without justice. We’re not leaving without the head of the man who killed three of mine. Comply, or have your head removed.” Bai’s face fell, as his voice strained, “Comply, dammit, Niyazo. You are outnumbered a thousand to one. I am just one man, but Songli is millions. You will not win this confrontation.”

“It would be a million to one, and I would still resist this.” Niyazo said, “It was you that helped me to see that words are meaningful, Bai. That the Compact has value. Now, you threaten to ruin what we have because some of your men are dead and my nephew is supposedly the culprit. But he will not run forever. He has family here. I will take care of this problem when he eventually shows. Why are you pushing so hard?”

Bai breathed out, settling himself for combat as he put a hand on the sword at his belt. “Old friend. Please see reason.”

Niyazo placed a hand upon his own sword at his side. He resigned himself. “Apparently not friend enough.”

Every single person in the room moved—

And ran into solid panes of force. [Quick Wall]s had gone up absolutely everywhere, and though some of the people broke through some of those walls, they did not break through the hundreds Erick had placed between both sides. Some people had the wherewithal to stare at the walls around them, unsure what had happened, but others quickly realized that a third party was involved. Some people tried to blip here or there, but Erick had already filled the space with [Spatial Denial], so those people barely got meters from their starting location. And since [Quick Wall]s were absolutely everywhere, including above and below, those people merely blipped to the edge of the translucent white Force, and stopped; unable to blip any further. Rapidly, other spells filled the space, from [Unmoving Fire] to all the rest. Erick decided he needed to make the Prismatic Version of that spell sooner rather than later. He’d do that after he cleared up the problem here.

The final touch was a [Draining Void] cast across everyone.

Some of the people screamed in sudden pain, but the pain of extraction would stop when they had no more Mana or Health. It was a simple end to a simple—

Ah. Some of them stopped screaming. Not a lot of mana then. Losing Health was more palatable than losing mana, it seemed. Soon enough, the room was silent. The two main guys continued to stream drops of Health into the air, but soon enough, even that stopped. They didn’t stop staring at each other from across a room full of [Quick Wall]s, though. Soon enough, groans of pain turned to words, turned to muttered curses directed at the other side; accusations almost came out. But before the conversation could start up again, Erick had Ophiel blip into a space he had already shaped for Ophiel to go; a space devoid of the spells he had cast across the land on the other side of the firepit.

Ophiel became a third party to the discussion.

Everyone turned Ophiel’s way, as Ophiel shaped the unimpeded light into Erick’s partially-feathered form. The delegation turned scared, then hopeful; but Erick could tell that the ‘hopeful’ was a lie. They were truly terrified. Niyazo had a much more honest reaction. First came wary terror, then came anger.

Niyazo yelled, “You are not welcome here, Archmage! I give you no leave to exert your will on my people!”

Erick countered, “Amasar is healing and in custody in Alaralti. He had a fortuitous encounter with me, and so I am here now. Sorry about the unkindness of my actions, but I’m pretty sure that the delegation in front of you is full of face stealers, so your involvement is merely an unfortunate side effect of capturing them.”

As he spoke, the delegation paled, but the leader steeled himself for the lies that were about to come out of his mouth.

Niyazo surprised them all, saying, “I know what they are!”

Erick startled.

Everyone turned to Niyazo, as the man said, “Amasar contacted me and told me everything.”

One of Niyazo’s men startled behind him. “You accepted a [Telepa—”

“I did not. It was a [Viewing Screen] from High Clan Matriarch Tipanri herself.” Niyazo glared at the offending pretenders across the translucent barrier, saying, “I was not willing to accept that Bai was dead, but I see now that my friend is gone. Bai would never do as this man has done.” He glared at the offending man, saying, “I had to be sure. I was prepared to sound the retreat the second the battle started for I trusted my men to last that long. I know face stealers are too dangerous to fight when outnumbered.”

A lie.

But only the part about ‘sounding the retreat’. Niyazo trusted himself to kill ‘Bai’, at least. Maybe he would have succeeded… But probably not.

Erick came back to himself momentarily, as Poi cleared his throat.

Poi said, “Matriarch Tipanri thanks you for your assistance, but your distortion spell has prevented her people from coming in and handling the situation. She wishes to apprehend the Hunters alive.”

Erick almost felt a pang of shame and smallness, as though he had been doing something he shouldn’t have. And then he got over that damned emotion right quick. He said, “Please tell her that I personally dislike Hunters, and thus when the situation revealed itself to me, I became invested. If she sees a way for me to assist without stepping on her toes, then I am willing to help in whatever way she wants, but I saw no indication that anything except a slaughter was about to happen.” He added, “I’m recasting the spells; they should be able to appear within the village in ten seconds, but I will keep these specific people locked down. They’re already all drained of Mana and Health.”

Poi nodded, and glanced away as he relayed the message.

Erick went back to Ophiel and did as he said he would.

In twenty seconds, a new batch of people in white blipped into the grass outside of the large yurt.

By this time, Erick’s various spells had washed across the land, and then been retracted, but people still noticed when their water and air spells had stopped working. The village was a land of at least three hundred people, and the women at the [Grow] section of the mobile settlement had noticed the disruption first, when their water spells stopped drawing liquid up from a well. Not to mention the various guards on the perimeters or the old women and men in the center all seeing that something was happening.

Absolutely everyone noticed the itchy feeling of a Shade in their presence, too. Some even screamed as much, openly praying as they raced for shelter and for their children.

Okay. Well. The side effects of [Spatial Denial] were not great, but it would have to be as it was, for now. It was just a small bit of panic, anyway. After the panic passed, people rallied to defend themselves.

Anyway.

After that first [Spatial Denial] came down, then left, leaving a new Denial molded to the main yurt, twenty five newcomers in white, a whole platoon of them, started speaking —yelling, really— at the perimeter guard, which was on super high alert. The reshaped spells allowed Erick to [Teleport Other] Niyazo out in front of the meeting yurt, though, which he did. The casual maneuver of Ophiel’s [Animadversion] shield in front of the Warlord prevented one of the young men from accidentally skewering his leader with a [Force Beam].

Niyazo rapidly reoriented and then yelled at the offending young man.

If that spell would have hit, Niyazo would not have had the benefit of Health to mitigate that killing spell. So Erick tapped the Warlord with a [Greater Treat Wounds] to help speed along his recovery of Health.

Things calmed down after that, with Erick mostly watching from a distance as Niyazo rapidly took control of the situation. He glared at Ophiel, who appeared to be big and hovering above the main yurt, but it was just an illusion; Ophiel was still small and covered in [Animadversion] and hovering near the warlord.

Other people in the village openly stared at the lightward Ophiel, and at the events unfolding before them. Things calmed down a lot when the [Teleport Lock] feeling went away. Only a few had been scared by that, anyway; only some of the people here knew what a Shade Lock felt like, but all of them were rapidly able to organize around those who had called out the problem and the supposed threat.

Erick watched as Niyazo invited some captain of Severing Crescent away from his platoon and into the village. That captain and several other people walked in to the Yurt with a quintet of collars among them. Erick helped the captain by taking away the spells that impeded entry, as well as removing the [Draining Void] surrounding the new prisoners.

The former delegation did not resist. Mostly.

When the [Draining Void] went down, one guy behind ‘Bai’ covertly broke a vial of blue potion that he had sewn into the skin of his leg, on the inner thigh. That he had such a backup plan was exactly the same as that one hunter who Erick killed when they first came to Songli. Erick was prepared for the blip, so when the man tried it, a [Harmonic Counterspell] shut him down.

Erick moved Ophiel near that guy, holding him down with [Harmonic Counterspell] twice more, saying, “This guy just tried to [Teleport] away. The potion in his leg helped him get back the mana needed to do that. I’m rather sure he’s a Hunter. Not sure about the rest, but they all exhibit signs of being one.” As everyone went from high-strung, to calm, to rapidly collaring the man Erick had shut down, Erick continued, “He’s the only one with a potion in his leg, though. The rest have potions on their person. Please keep me informed of what happens here, as I do not like Hunters; thus, the personal interest.”

The captain, Xuloo, and his people told Erick what he wanted to hear, but Erick was pretty sure that they were terrified of him, too. Erick knew he would have to deal with Tipanri if he wanted to keep abreast of whatever this nonsense was happening in this village.

The soldiers outside were building a temporary shelter of stone and dirt outside of the village’s protective lines. As Xuloo frog-marched the pretenders to their new cells, Niyazo watched ‘Bai’ vanish into that stone building, bereft of something intrinsic inside, something that he had held in his heart before the confrontation with Bai. And then, like a man who saw the world for what it was, Niyazo slumped momentarily, and then straightened, and got on with it.

Niyazo went to his clan, who had been watching, and began talking.

Erick got the full story then, or at least the one the warlord chose to tell his people. All in all, it was rather straightforward.

Niyazo said, “Nephew Amasar was successful in getting help from our contacts in Alaralti. He found Archmage Flatt. And now, it is revealed that Ambassador Bai and his people have been replaced by face stealers. At least one is confirmed. We will know more later.” He gestured toward an old woman in the crowd, who had three young women warriors surrounding her. “Aunt Yorila will be breaking [Telepathy] Silence and confirming that we have no more face stealers in our midst. Allow her to message you to confirm who you are.”

Aunt Yorila nodded, while some people in the crowd scowled at the old woman.

Niyazo declared, “It’s over, for now. The soldiers of Songli will set up nearby, but they will be gone within a day; I have been assured. Aunt Yorila will be calling upon our allies and telling them what has happened here, so that the call may go out wide and far. That is all.”

Other people scowled at that, with more than a few muttering how [Telepathy] was as unnatural as [Polymorph].

One man called out, “What about talks with Alaralti? What about becoming a Clan of Songli?”

The crowd refocused.

Niyazo spoke to the crowd, “We will get a new ambassador. Talks will resume. We will not support incorporating into Songli without an understanding of all that has happened today.”

“It’s only going to get worse!” called out a middle-aged woman, about Niyazo’s age. “It probably wasn’t face stealers at all! This is what they do to each other. They invent reasons to harm, and this is somehow a harm; just you wait! The malice of Songli will show in the end.”

A few people agreed with her, nodding along.

Niyazo glared at the offender, then calmly said, “Ibahka could be correct; we do not know. We do know that the Clans of Songli try to outdo each other all the time. They can afford to do so, since their bounty is so vast. But this is the final race now. Before, this plan of incorporation didn’t look possible. And now it is possible! Now, Terror Peaks is gone; the largest impediment to Songli is no more.” His tone turned darker, saying, “Now, the Face Stealers and the Shadows come out to play in one final bid to prevent Empire; to prevent power from forming in our hands. Gain the Sight to see: Songli is destined to take all of Nelboor and we have a choice to be one of those who rise to the top and take control of our own fates, to be empowered by Empire, or to be crushed under the foot of our fellow grass travelers, as Songli raises them up instead.” As the crowd fell silent, Niyazo belted out, “We will lead our people! Us! We will not give up our rights as Clan. We will not allow others to control our Fate, for make no mistake: the Shadow War is here, so [Ward] your hearts, and let us do what must be done.”

Niyazo finished.

People looked to Ibahka, and the woman nodded; satisfied. She walked off, with several nearby people following her. With her departure, the crowds dispersed.

Erick came back to himself, thinking…

He didn’t need to think for long.

He slapped his leg, declaring, “Nope! No Shadow Wars are gonna happen here! No way; not on my watch.” He turned to Poi, and said, “We’re killing every single Hunter that Alaralti or Songli or whoever has on file. Send out the word to whoever you need to tell. I’m doing here what I did for the Crystal Forest. All of the Hunters are going to die.” As an afterthought, he said, “Or maybe I’ll Bless them. I’m not sure. Have Songli make a decision either way; I won’t do anything without their consent and assistance, and this isn’t going to be some half-assed ‘point me at who they want dead’-thing, either. Verified Hunters. Verified organizations that murder and kill. Any of those types; We’re getting rid of them, one way or the other.”

Erick thought for a moment, going over the words he had just said, and feeling their gravity. He mentally checked himself to make sure that this was what he wanted.

Organizations like the Cinnabar Hand, the Hunters had come after him and Spur at the behest of Caradogh Pogi, needed to not exist. Anyone who ate the brains and hearts of people, and then turned into those people in order to kill more, needed to be put down.

So.

Yes.

Yes; Erick wanted this.

Erick said, “Yes. This is what we’re doing now, if Songli wishes for this assistance. The parameters of my help are narrow, for I will not assist with every little problem, but if this land has a Hunter problem then I will make it vanish, with their help.”

Poi stood strong, his face resolute, as he sent out the message.

He was a little bit happy, too.

“Of course I’m happy.” Poi said, “This is a good thing, Erick; I’m all for the removal of Hunters. Everyone should be. But this is a land of millions. I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t tell you that this will make us a target.”

Erick nodded, saying, “I am aware, but I’m already a target, and if they come to me, then that makes taking care of them that much easier.” He added, “I plan to create better defenses, though, so we should be rather unassailable if they come here— Ah. Well. We’ll be harder to attack, anyway. An antirhine-missile could still get in anywhere, couldn’t it?”

“No one is ever as safe as they think they are.” Poi said, “But if Songli agrees to this, then they will be charged with keeping you safe, too. And by the way, though the Cinnabar Hand might have been destroyed, Hunter organizations exist all across the world. We’ll surely end up catching more than a few of them if this Purge happens here in Songli.”

Erick nodded, solemnly, and almost said something else, he stopped.

The weight of Poi’s words were upon him, and he saw a certain glee in Poi’s countenance that he had rarely ever seen before. Poi didn’t like Hunters, did he? How had Erick missed that before?

Wasn’t his sister murdered? By unknown, strong people? Or at least people that Poi wasn’t willing to tell Erick about…

… For Erick would have helped him solve whatever problem he had.

And Poi knew that Erick could help him to solve his long-standing hatred.

Thinking back, Poi had a rather strong reaction when the question came up over whether to execute or soul-warp the Hunters who attacked them when they first arrived in Songli. The man had to go out and get drunk afterward, too. It was a strong reaction indeed.

Erick guessed that Poi’s ability to [Mind Control] his problems away was very much like his own ability to [Blessing of Empathy] killers into becoming not-killers. Poi had likely battled with that concern on the daily, or at least every time he recognized a Hunter walking around in someone else’s skin.

Because that had to have happened at least once, right?

Mind Mages didn’t use what they knew against anyone, unless there was imminent personal harm about to be committed. So all a Hunter would have to do was plan their kills outside of imminent harm.

Which was kinda worse, in a deep way.

How many times has Poi subtly stopped a murder by pointing guards at the would-be killer? How many times has he not? But now that Erick was thinking about it, Poi probably hadn’t failed anyone that badly, or at least not in a long time. The guy routinely and subtly made muggers and other sorts of problematic people decide to not be problems when he and Erick were out on the town, shopping or whatever. No; Poi probably hadn’t failed anyone like that in a long time… which likely meant that he failed someone early on, by not preventing a foreseen problem in the correct way. Maybe he decided not to report something once, and found out two days later that someone had died because of his inaction.

… Which was not a fair thought. Just because someone could read a mind did not mean that they had all the answers when they were young.

As soon as he had these thoughts, Erick regretted having them. How awful must it have been for Poi to hear him think these unkind things, because according to the dragonkin man’s face, Erick might not have had all the particulars correct, but he had the broad strokes.

Erick forgot what he was going to say, and instead said, “I’m sorry, Poi.”

Poi went tense as he talked to other people, on the other side of telepathic tendrils. He said nothing. He looked away. He finished relaying the message, and then he turned back to face Erick. He still said nothing, likely because he was having trouble putting his thoughts into words.

And then Poi said, “It wasn’t Hunters, exactly. It was humans— No… That’s not the right place to start. It was the Dragon Stalkers from the Greensoil Republic and— Look. I don’t really want to talk about this, but I can’t have you imagining problems that I have already worked through— That I mostly worked through.” He paused. He said, “They found my mother raising two dragonkin in Kal’Duresh, and it was odd for them, and it was Quiet War shit, and they got her and tried to get me and my sister, but we moved, and then they got her a few years later, and I escaped. All in a bid to get my father.” Poi looked away, saying, “The Dragon Stalkers are a worldwide military and the main killers of dragons out in the open. Don’t get mixed up with them, Erick. They’re bad news, because usually, they’re accepted the world over. A lot of dragonkin know of and help them, too.”

Erick listened to Poi’s pain, and said, “I’m sorry that happened to you. That shouldn’t have happened to your mother, or to your sister, or to you.” He asked, “It’ll likely take days for the High Clan to make some decisions, so do you want to go out to a bar again tonight?”

A moment passed; unreal.

Poi huffed an unexpected laugh, then said, “No. Thank you. There’s not one we could go to anyway without being found out. Besides. Getting drunk that night was me being stupid; I don’t need to be drunk to…” He looked away. “I don’t need to be drunk to get through this problem, and we’ve got a lot more problems coming our way, anyway.” He looked back to Erick, saying, “We’ve got tentative confirmation from Patriarch Hangzi and Matriarch Tipanri, but Matriarch Lingxing wishes for more information as to the truth of your ability to search out people in [Polymorph]s.”

Erick let Poi’s history lay, as he turned his mind back to the new problem that he had made for himself. He said, “Don’t mention any of the finer points of what I’m actually searching for, but tell them that what I am about to tell them is a small bit of magical trivia that I would consider relatively classified, but not overmuch.” Erick explained, “[Cleanse] gets rid of a lot, but it is not enough. [Cascade Imaging] can track the tiny bits of a person that [Cleanse] leaves behind through cross contamination on clothes and traveling through a space and other such movements. But, tracking this way will be a lot harder to do than what we did to search out the terrorists of Terror Peaks. It will require samples of targets in whatever form they actively Hunt people with, otherwise, the search will be fruitless.

“In order to do this, we will need high-ranking people to make decisions about who we find, to see if they’re actually [Polymorph]ed Hunters, or just normal people in the wrong place at the wrong time. I suggest Sin Seekers to suss out guilt of killing, or whoever else you’d prefer to use to make these sorts of calls. I will not go along with this if the ‘commoner killing’ clause of Clan Law is used to solve the problem by simply putting everyone found to the sword.” Erick added, “And I don’t want to get involved with dragons, so if they think this search will head that way, we’re simply going to stop right here.”

Poi relayed Erick’s message through the appropriate channels.

Erick waited.

Poi reported, “They’re in conference, discussing your offer. They’ll get back to you later.”

Erick nodded.

He turned his attention back to the Ophiel overlooking Niyazo’s village and had Ophiel move closer to the temporary stone building that Songli’s forces had created. The suspected Hunters were being interrogated in small, hastily made stone rooms by newcomers that were not a part of the original 25 person platoon.

With a truthstone sitting on the table between her and him, a woman in white asked ‘Ambassador Bai’ about parts of his life that she said that he should know, while ‘Bai’ said nothing. He gave no response, for whatever reason. Others were much less stoic.

One of the for-sure Hunters, the one who had the vial in his leg, was unable to answer any questions because he was in a rage. He screamed and punched at the stone walls, chipping the rock and bloodying his fists in return, as he roared out profanities against Songli. He yelled about how their people would steal the faces of all they sent north, and how they would bring down every High Clan of Songli from the inside. They would finish what Terror Peaks started, erasing Songli from the world before they would ever let them take their hunting grounds.

The interrogator for that guy simply watched from the next room, taking notes, his eyes wide as he listened. He was unprepared to hear the plans pouring out of the raging killer’s mouth, but was good at his job, and he professionally took down notes. Songli would hear about the new threat allied against them.

Erick listened, all the while wondering how deep this Hunter rabbit hole went.