Chapter 70: Ch. 65: Cloaks and Lances Part II

“The new world, Alkerd, was a land of new promise. After the intercontinental war, society once again settled on the land, instituted laws and so forth and so forth. Nonetheless, in throwing away the shackles of the Old World, we turned to Meristocracy as a form of governance. Blue blood no longer conveyed a place of power; instead, based on deeds and deeds alone, the worth of people was judged and if they were cut from the cloth that made leaders, class notwithstanding, we raised them to sit at the pinnacle of society. It was another form of nobility without the ludicrous trappings of power from generations afore. From there, we had families of military, magic and merchant bent who rose to take their place as the leaders that run our towns and cities to today.-”Excerpt from Valerith Quillworth’s,  Alkerd: New World History

---

In another world, Nora would have become a psychologist, a torturer or a combination of the two. Or even a serial killer. That was something she had learnt on her own, after becoming an Assassin, way before she met the Clan.

 Nora never told the full story and Arthur never pried, just like he had secrets he kept, not of his own volition of course.  Likewise, her tutelage as a healer under Venera had also given her a few more skills. And then there was her charm which Arthur had first hand experience with; she was that good at reading people. 

Throughout after the introductions by the master of ceremonies, the long speeches and the entertainment she had been furtively profiling all the people who had witnessed the spectacle. As the Meet transitioned to hobnobbing, rubbing elbows and food both inside and outside the Founding Hall, she categorised the people she’d scoped out in what she said as separating the minnows from the wharks. 

 Their spectacle had almost been forgotten in the litany of entertainment and then an intermission where people went to grab food.  That accorded them some time to steal away into the terrace gardens for privacy where they could talk while they ate with the automata standing sentinel over them. Nevine and Hanna were also there with them. Nonetheless,  their present company was unaware of the conversations going on in their minds as they silently ate and drank.

‘ Psychological profiles and reverse psychology huh?’ Arthur thought.

‘ Hmm?Just how extensive was your education? Never mind. As I was saying, shocking them was a good way of putting them off kilter. It made it easy to see past their facades. There were those who were honestly shocked, whom we ruled out.  Then there were those whose mask of apathy slipped, showing their avarice. I have an inkling that they had information from somewhere  but weren’t sure what to expect.  Then we have those who were completely aloof; their expressions did not change regardless. Those we have to watch out for…” Nora sent.

‘Haha.’ Arthur chuckled. ‘They were damned if they did or otherwise. Couldn’t have thought of a better plan.’

‘Yes.  You surprised me too, you know. Either way, now we know who to be wary of. We’ll have to deal with more people coming from the front than the back ,’ Nora said. ‘The more aloof they act, the more cautious we’ll be of them. I already have a list of people to mark,’ Nora winked.

‘Scary’ Arthur thought away from their telecry link.

“I wonder why Master Arthur’s feat has taken a footnote in this Meet,” Nevine murmured.  The silence had perhaps been a bit too stifling for him; he looked harried and out of his element. He was more wallflower than Arthur could ever be.

“ You did hear the word going around. There’s worse things to worry about than that which is already known,” Hanna put across. “ By the Mother , hearing entire steadings disappearing overnight and the Void Syndicate in the same statement was just alarming.”

“ Ah, yes. You’re right…” Nevine said, shuddering. His glances at the automata did not go unnoticed.

“ So Zumi?” Hanna said, swirling her wine glass. “ She has a name?”

“ I prefer to think of them as they; they are virtually genderless,” Arthur pointed out. “ Better than thinking of them as it. Sets a bad precedent and sounds like I am objectifying them…”

“ You’re treating them as a person? Do they have a sense of self?” Nevine asked with a befuddled look in his face.

“ Have you ever stopped to ask the automatas if they do? No one has ever really thought about it,” Arthur shrugged.

“ But your automata talks…” Hanna pointed out.

“Having the ability to talk does translate to getting one’s meaning across.  I don’t mean to wax poetic but, sometimes, it is better to be considerate…” Arthur remarked.

“ Ah, better to err on the side of caution,” Nevine said looking at the automata in new light. “ I once read a story about an expedition that thought as certain race of wealdfolk were monsters. They had a primitive way of communication; by the time they realised they were just misunderstood it was too late.”

“ Whose expedition was that?” Nora asked, interested.

“ I think it was the Cartographers Guild?  One of their ships is in the berths,” Nevine said pointing towards the largest terrace across from theirs. However,  someone made their appearance as Arthur looked towards that direction. It was a butler and he had a sealed envelope.  Arthur passed the letter along to Nora as he watched the butler’s back recede.

‘For our eyes only. They wanted an audience after the Meet is over. Presumably three days from now or at our earliest convenience.’ Nora sent.

‘ Who?’ Arthur sent. To the teenagers they seemed as if they were communicating through their eyes.

‘Myra Silvyre,’ 

Arthur was both relieved and disappointed it was not from the dwarves nor from the Phylandirs. But from the Silvyres, maybe they were acting as a proxy? 

‘ At our earliest convenience and three days in the same letter huh?’ Arthur thought. Then another voice interrupted them.

“Master Arthur, Nora?” a sylvmaiden and one other person walked into the chromastone's illumination.

“Ah, Lena!” Nora exclaimed, a smile breaking on her lips. The dhampir walked around to embrace the sylvmaiden.

‘That close already?’ Arthur mused as he too stood up to meet the other woman.

“ [QuarterMastresse] Isignel,” he nodded to the Guilder.

“ Mage Crafter Arthur,” Isignel nodded back. “ Shall we talk?” she motioned with her chin.

“ By all means,” Arthur motioned away. He threw a look towards Nora as they walked off the other side of the gazebo.

---

“ Did you mean that spectacle as a deterrence or as a form of entertainment?” Isignel said, smirking as she looked over the festivities.

“ Either,” Arthur shrugged. “ I doubt you are here to talk about that though…”

“ Its related,” Isignel said shifting her posture. She had on a mage knight’s dress uniform just like Arthur’s but in the Guild colours of olive green and brown with gold trimming to distinguish her rank. Her buzz cut was sharper than usual; she also had some lipstick and daub of makeup on. “ A bit of oversight on our part, or perhaps, the fever pitch must have rushed things along.”

“ I understand. What did you have in mind?” Arthur said with a quirked eyebrow. He folded his arms and threw a glance towards the gazebo. They were far enough that their conversation did not carry but the excitement and laughter from Nora’s side still reached them. 

“ Hmm,” Isignel worried her lower lip. “ Edel might be throwing his weight around to shield you from the other Families, but even that won’t be enough. I see you had the right idea to separate the rabble from potential hanger-ons but I would like to add to that idea. “

“ Which is?” Arthur asked, furrowing his brows even further. “ I hope you are not about to renege on your concessions.”

“ Haha,cynical aren’t you?” Isignel chuckled. “ Think of it as doing me a favour. See, Elenaril has just recovered but, she has been morose of late and knowing her, she is going to work herself to the bone. She feels guilty for what happened to Yssinia?”

“Ah.  Speaking of  Miss Wolfhowl, how is she?” Arthur enquired.

“ Hmm? Your betrothed didn’t tell you?” Isignel enquired.

“ Been a busy couple of days and then there’s the invitation that came out of the blue,” Arthur snorted.

“ The [Knight Hospitaller]  who’s been away all over the frontier is back. He came and took over her treatment. She has been moved to the Heptad’s infirmary. Progress is slow, but he said to give her a few days,”

“ Ah? That is the [Healer] I was hearing about?” Arthur hummed. ‘ Some sort of consolidated class? I could swear I know Knights Hospitaller from somewhere.’  Arthur had a few questions about their institution but shook off his curiosity for later.

“ Anyway, what is it  that you want me to do?”

“ I want her as your liaison. Given that you will be appropriating an office of your own at the Guild, you shall need the extra hands. She has some background experience with runecraft and I can vouch for her quillwork and inventory…”

“I see, you think a change of pace will do her good?” Arthur nodded in realisation. “ Don’t expect me to divulge secrets though. Unless she’s included in the geas contract, I’d like to keep a lid on the project I promised.”

“ We shall make amendments come Tduosday,” Isignel affirmed. Arthur frowned as he spied something take place aboard one of the berthed aerships. His eyesight had been acting up of late and thought it was just his abusing of [Draconic Sight] during the last three days. He squinted and a look of alarm overcame his face.

“ Master Arth―” Isignel started.

“ Everybody down!” Arthur warned, diving and taking down Isignel with him . And not a moment too late. There was a crack like thunder as something fired from one of the aership’s forecastles. An unknown projectile clipped one of the gazebos’s pillars into a burst of splinters,  screamed overhead and carried a wake of air  which shredded the hedge behind them. There was a whine not unlike the one his uncle told him about shelling. Dazed, he slowly picked himself from the ground. Then he heard the screams coming from across the plaza.

Arthur and Isignel recovered  fast and picked themselves up from the ground dusting off debris and dirt.  From afar, they heard the bells  and the yelling of men as a fire burnt at the other end of the docking plaza. One of the aersloops had exploded into a conflagration, scattering pieces of its hull all over the scene. Both Arthur and Isignel looked at where the projectile had shorn the hedge and punched through the gazebo’s pillars.  Arthur’s heart skipped a beat―

“ Nora!” Arthur yelled, as he raced towards the crumbling garden fixture

“ Here, “ Nora said, pulling herself and the two teenager’s out another hedge. Elenaril also looked unharmed if a bit dazed as she steadied herself against the automata. It seemed as though the automata had acted in time and moved the slyvmaiden out of the way but the latter was none the wiser. Looking at the angle, she would have not been so lucky if she were still in the shot’s trajectory.

“ What the Blight was that?!” Nora asked, her face grim.  Nora must have moved Nevine and Hanna both with [Shadow Walk]. They were  also visibly shaken and unharmed except for a few scrapes. None of them seemed as though they knew how they’d evaded.

“ Someone shot from one of the sloops,” Arthur said, moving towards the rest with Isignel at his heels. Recalling where the automata had been standing before, Arthur used a chain of command matrices.

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“ Zumi! [Prompt]; [Detection];[Identify]; [Recall].”

“ Amberkeep, send a [Message] spell to the Guard,” Isignel said to the sylvmaiden.

“ Observation; one hostile detected northbound at time stamp 2132 QTz. [Identify]; Out of range.” the automata responded.

“ Damn, so much for that,” Arthur said, gritting his teeth in indignation

“ I need to go find my parents,” Hanna gasped. She hiked up her ball gown and got ready to start running out of the terrace.

“ Miss Hanna, wait. We’ll escort you, “ Nora said. She held her back as she met Arthur with a look.

“ [Prompt] Zumi, arms,” Arthur said to the automata. The automata withdrew the weapons from their tote bag; evidently a bag of holding. Arthur holstered his Kalthoff Luftkaster and buckled Overkill at his hip. Isignel seemed to have had her weapon on her. Clustered together,  group moved out of the terraced garden with the [Quartermastresse] in the lead; theirs was the gazebo closest to the plaza.

The plaza was full of mayhem as the event goers were bundled into carriages. Guard presence was high while they meticulously checked anyone deemed suspicious. 

A sylvani and human hydromancers were battling the blaze as dwarven geomancers  raised walls of dirt to keep away the fire from encroaching on the other sloops. One other sloop’s mast had already caught fire while the others were lethargically coasting back from the docking plaza in an orderly manner.

 The group passed  a carriage in the path of the missile that had been punched clean through the glass.  They saw the blood trailing from the driver’s seat and the cut harnesses hanging limply  off the carriage.

“Who were they and what were they after? Was it you or me?” Arthur asked  as they ran, they navigated the press of people heading from the Founding Hall. They could see Garyson rallying the members of the Guard  at the top of the staircase.

“ Hard to say,” Isignel said grimly as the guard sergeant looked their way and then, throwing a nod towards one of their subordinates, started descending towards the group.

 “ That lance bolt was shot at range and cut too close to call. Who knew that you were there?” Isignel asked.

“ Some sort of attendant who gave us a letter; something about the Silvyre’s summoning us ?” Nora said, frowning. 

“ Do you remember what they looked like?” Isignel asked. Every single person answered in the negative. Even Arthur could not dredge up anything from [Eidetic Memory], like the person had been part of a dream . Obfuscation perhaps?

“ As I suspected,” Isignel said. “ They had already infiltrated in too deep; the Families are not in the habit of sending missives through their butlers. Everything is sent through the Merchants Guild Secretariat. I need to talk with the Sergeant about this. Elenaril do you have anything yet?”

“ Several [Message] spells I am afraid; all priority and urgent. Most are requesting for the [Healer] but damage reports are still being passed around,” the sylvmaiden said with a weary sigh.

“ The [Knight Hospitaller] might be overwhelmed, think you can point me to the most affected?” Nora asked as she shared a look with Arthur.

“ I might need a moment to collate details,” Elenaril said. The Quartermastresse obliged her and Elenaril stopped, raising two fingers  to her temples as her eyes glazed over in the telltale sign of casting [Message]. The rest of the group stopped  by the first landing to let the event goers pass them by in orderly panic. Garyson happened to arrive at that moment.

“ Isignel, Löwenmaul,” Garyson gave her a nod as he looked over the rest of the group

“ Grizzythorn,” Isignel responded; Arthur mutely nodded back. “ Damage here?” she asked.

“ Carriage driver almost lost his hand. None were injured in the explosion . I have two griffins in the air but no luck on the perpetrator.Your side?” Garyson asked. 

All turned towards the sylvmaiden whose eyes had shed their glazed appearance. Her lips were a thin line. A guard, with two of the Lalilab’s attendants in tow came to a stop before the Sergeant but Garyson forestalled their report with a raise of their hand. Elenaril let out a sigh before she spoke.

“ Multiple instances of tier 3 or higher explosions recorded in Sojourners Quarters, a fire still raging,” Elenaril said. “ Several adventurers, presumed drunk, didn't make it but the casualty count hasn’t been established yet—”

“A diversion,” Grizzlythorn grumbled.  Waving on the Guard and his accompaniment; Hanna and Nevine were wordlessly shepherded away under the watchful eyes of the two attendants.

“ But what for?” Isignel reiterated.

“I think I should go help now,” Nora said. “ The earlier the better. Arthur can you―”

‘Otou-san? I'm scared…where are you?,’

‘Where are you?!’

An unsolicited telecast came through the sylvani artefact on his ear. And in the same breath it chilled him to the bone, the automata who’d been an unobtrusive bystander pivoted in the direction of the manor so fast he almost heard its frame creak. Their ocular crystal eye opened with a gaze of crimson as rune tracery turned a deeper shade of the same. Then Zumi, the first of the Zodiac twelve, said one word ―

“ Ojou-sama.”

It resounded like a gong of recollections in his memory as [Rosetta Stone] snatched at the word.

‘Young Lady’  it passively translated.

---

Most people had heard about the strange spectacle of the automata maidservant and their master in the gallery. Some had heard about it and thought it hearsay on the vine, exaggerations or just faerie tales told just for the sake of it.

 In full view, the unbelieving got their glimpse of the automata and another juicy tidbit they did not see coming. That they could talk and one other thing that happened, scratch that, two things followed,  sending ripples of awe and dread through the crowd. 

Without Arthur so much as issuing a command, the automata had bunched up their dress, crouched and blasted off like they had spring loaded legs flying right over the heads of gawping onlookers. They ricocheted right off the balustrades, then a still intact belvedere and just seemed to form an afterimage in the air before they vanished.

“ Sergeant, is there some way to reach the outpost in the inner circuit? We need a carriage ready to take Nora to the town,” Arthur said, snapping his circle out of their daze.

“ Come now young Löwenmaul. How do I know you’re not about to make a getaway?” the sergeant whirled reaching for a pair of mage-binders. “ And what the blight was that your maidservant just did?”

“ What?” Arthur jerked away as his veneer of composure broke. He felt affronted that someone would just profile him for no apparent reason other than the fact that he was a foreigner in the town. It hit too close to home; it had happened before and he calmed down realising the action had been reflexive.

“You are an unknown quantity, how would I know you are not the orchestrator of all these events?” Garyson said. “ The plaza is under lockdown…”

“ I’ll vouch for him,” Isignel stepped in as she stared down the Sergeant.The two were more or less matched in the intensity of their staredowns that the air was practically boiling “ Go. Elenaril, [Message] whoever’s at the guild infirmary to get ready to receive Mastresse Löwenmaul.” 

‘Nora,’ Arthur telecast the dhampir, taking advantage of the enthralled masses to materialise the hoverboard from [Inventory Chest]. One foot on it and an infusion of mana had it floating over the ground. While Garyson was none too amused at being stalled, the look of befuddlement was hard to miss as he saw the two hop on the hoverboard and then it started levitating.

“ Ah, now I see why you snatched him up Isignel. Are we sure he was not Ascal’s prodigal son?” Garyson grumbled as he rallied Guards for dispatch.

“ I would be inclined to think so, but who knows? That’s for him to tell,” Isignel sighed, sending a wordless nod to Elenaril. They were also sending their contingent.

Regardless, Arthur did not deign to respond as they  ascended. People began to take notice but then, Arthur had already heeled the Azure Surfer, willing it to climb faster leaving a blue-green afterglow of aer mana in his wake. 

By the time the crowd was collecting their jaws for the second time that night, Arthur was cresting the woods that spiralled with the rise of the moor with Nora’s hands wrapped around his torso. Levelling out over the top of the trees, they saw the smoke billowing from afar, activities in the town below no longer festive but sombre and frantic.

 Arthur leaned onto the glide and pumped the Mark I for all its worth until the board was rattling beneath the feet. A flex of [Aer Mastery] was all that was needed to keep the air off their faces, and then they dipped, like a snowboard ripping down a snowy slope while [Light] spells lit the way.

‘ Something happened at the mansion,’ Arthur telecast. Nora remained silent but there was contemplation over the link as though she was weighing her duty as a healer or going with Arthur. 

Seemingly coming to a decision, she replied. ‘I am shadowwalking , it's dark out and no one will notice’, Nora said scanning their horizon. ‘I trust you to take care of yourself and not do anything reckless. Help is on the way,’

‘Right, stay safe,’ Arthur added. The weight on the hoverboard suddenly lightened as Nora shadowwalked right off. Arthur swerved sharply and aimed the Azure Surfer towards the manor.

‘I am coming,’ he murmured as if cognizant of what he’d chance upon. Anticipation and  festering dread pooled at the pit of his gut as he grit his teeth  to stop them from rattling with the board’s turbulence. ‘I should have put stabilisers on while I had the chance,’ he thought.

 

 

 

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