Chapter 166: Chapter 559: Family Issues

Clive tossed a pinch of powdered lesser monster core against the wall, briefly causing runes to light up as the powder fell on them.

“I was right,” he said. “There are hidden enchantments placed at regular intervals along all these tunnels.”

“What do they do?” Humphrey asked.

“More precisely, what do they do to us?” Neil asked.

“Nothing, at the moment,” Clive said. “These enchantments are completely inactive, which is why our magic senses didn’t notice them. I think they’re part of the safety measures for the facility.”

“Meaning that if this place does get sabotaged,” Neil said, “whatever these enchantments are they become active.”

“Most likely,” Clive said. “Should I try to figure out what they do?”

“That would be prudent,” Humphrey said, “but we lack the time for prudence. We keep going.”

***

Baseph whacked his hammer into the metal plate set into the wall. He repeated the action over and over until the glowing sigil engraved into it dimmed. This caused the orange sigils glowing at various points around the room to turn red. Then despite having been carved out of solid, magical rock, the room started to very gently vibrate.

“Two nodes down,” he muttered, but his expression held more concern than satisfaction. He had no illusions of the vibration going unnoticed. If the invaders had any idea of what they were doing, and he had to imagine they did, then they would probably be actively searching for him now.

***

Melody paused, frowning as she tilted her head.

“Melody?” Sendira asked as the rest of the group paused as well.

Melody didn’t have any of the pure converted with them, keeping a lean, sharp team of five, including herself. Her second-in-command, Sendira, was the person she trusted the most, which was as much about clarity of purpose as loyalty. Sendira was not the most imaginative subordinate, but she could be relied on to execute orders faithfully, with a surplus of dedication and a deficit of ambition. Every member of the Order of Redeeming Light was loyal to Purity, but not necessarily to Melody.

The third member of the team, Kelleigh, was the most skilled of all Melody’s forces, with the possible exception of Melody herself. Even that difference was potentially due to her being in the low range of silver, where Melody was closing in on gold. Like Sendira, Kelleigh was not ambitious, but she demonstrated the occasional independent streak. This placed the ever-reliable Sendira as Melody's second, even if she wasn't quite up to Kelleigh and Melody's level.

The last members of the group definitely weren’t up to Kelleigh’s level. Rhett and Jaime were a pair that Melody kept close because they demonstrated similar independence of thought to Kelleigh, but to a much greater degree.

Melody was fully aware that the flames of redemption that all members of the order went through frequently engendered a lack of imagination. It wasn’t close to the drone-like behaviour of the pure converted who had resisted the conversion process, but there was a distinct trend towards linear thinking, as exemplified by Sendira. While Melody valued loyalty, she also understood that the ability to think laterally was often more valuable than a strong sword arm.

This was the reason she kept Rhett and Jaime close. They were, without question, the most independent thinkers within all the order's forces. At that moment, they were thinking about how much they didn't like being under many tons of rock that were, in turn, under many tons of water. Unfortunately, their suggestion about how voluntary participation would be was not something Melody had been receptive to.

Melody dropped to one knee, placing a hand on the smooth, polished granite of the tunnel floor.

“This is deep granite,” she said. “This entire complex has been dug right through it.”

Sendira also crouched to touch the floor and the others did the same. The silver-rank sensitivity of their touch picked up the incredibly faint vibrations.

“What is that?” Sendira asked.

“Deep granite has a resonating property,” Kelleigh said. “It is sometimes used in the construction of resonating-force siege weapons for exactly that reason.”

“Who uses siege weapons when there are essence users?” Sendira asked.

“Not everywhere is Rimaros,” Rhett said. “Most places, silver-rankers are the elites and gold-rankers are too special to waste on knocking down walls.”

“We had a line of wine jars made from deep granite,” Jaime recollected. “Expensive stuff, but perfect for certain kinds of wine.”

“Oh, do you remember tremblevine wine?” Rhett asked reverentially.

“I really thought it would sell better,” Jaime said. “It was so good.”

“I still think it was the name. It sounds kind of gimmicky and cheap.”

“Yeah, we lost a packet on that deal. Do you think we could get some of that wine here?”

“Not here, here,” Rhett told him. “We’re in a wet tomb, remember?”

Melody cleared her throat and the two looked around guiltily.

“What do you think these vibrations are?” Sendira asked Melody while glaring at Rhett and Jaime.

“I’m not sure,” Melody said. “It seems to be affecting a wide area.”

“The vibrations could well be resonating through the stone across large portions of the complex, if not the entire facility,” Kelleigh said. “It might be possible for me to track them to the source.”

“Is that necessary?” Sendira asked. “Perhaps we would be better served by staying on task and avoiding further delays.”

“No,” Melody said. “Whatever this is, the lordling Amouz kept it from us, likely hoping it would catch us out and get us killed.”

“While getting tortured,” Jaime said. “You have to respect that.”

“No you don’t,” Sendira said with a glower. “We should have put him through the flames of redemption and made him one of us. Then he would hide nothing from us.”

“He’d share everything, sure,” Rhett said. “Weeks from now, once he recovered from the flames. Maybe even months. How long did you take to wake back up, Sendira?”

“Almost three months,” she acknowledged.

“We don’t have that time to wait,” Melody said. “We need to be already building up a construct army by the time the next war starts. The Adventure Society either knows what we are doing or soon will. Once the monster surge is no longer occupying the bulk of their resources, they will seek us out with rigour.”

“Unfortunately, that left us with less than effective methods of questioning,” Kelleigh said.

“I’m just going to come out and say it,” Jaime said. “I don’t think torture’s great. We worship Purity, not Pain. I know that Caitlyn and her group think that pain purifies the soul, but I think they just like hurting people.”

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“And being hurt, I think,” Rhett added. “I’ve heard some sounds coming out of their dormitory that I’m not sure how I fell about.”

“Sometimes suffering is necessary,” Kelleigh said. “Both to be endured and inflicted. There is no Purity in enjoying it either way, yet Caitlyn does both.”

“It is not for you to question other cell leaders,” Melody said as she stood up. “It seems that our captive has endured out under Caitlyn’s ministrations better than we thought. Kelleigh, track these vibrations to the source. I want to know what we’re dealing with.”

***

“What did I tell you?” Neil asked as Team Biscuit all held their hands to the floor.

“Any way to trace the source?” Humphrey asked Clive. “The staff probably don’t realise that rescue is here.”

“I think I have a ritual in a book that can trace vibrations to the origin point,” Clive said.

“That’s not what we need,” Sophie said. “We have to find whoever it is before they finish the job and all this gets a lot harder.”

“Forget harder,” Neil said. “We'll be the ones who need rescuing.”

“What have you got, Shade?” Jason asked.

“I am not in regular communication with my other bodies,” Shade said, “but they have been searching for any facility personnel, including senior staff. If one of my selves finds the saboteur, they will inform him that evacuation is in progress. As for tracking the saboteur, perhaps if Mr Standish can determine what has been done already, he can anticipate what will be done next.”

“I think you may be overestimating my ability to determine what's going on from maybe one room of damaged artifice infrastructure,” Clive said. The rest of the team shook their heads.

“No, I don't think we are,” Neil said.

“We have a plan, then,” Humphrey said. “The ritual please, Clive.”

Clive called up a circle of floating runes and the small aperture to his storage space appeared. After a quick rummage, he pulled out a book.

“Lindy, can you…” he trailed off as he glanced at her and remembered, then started flicking through his book.

“What?” Belinda asked.

Sophie tapped a finger to her top lip and Belinda's eyes went wide. Her moustache shrank into her face and vanished.

***

Baseph turned the heavy wheel valve until it wouldn’t turn anymore. He kept exerting his silver-rank strength anyway, but instead of turning more, the wheel broke loose from the shaft as a secondary seal locked heavily into place. With a growl, he tossed the wheel aside and pulled a sledgehammer from his bag. The heavy head was made not of metal but magical stone, while the handle was made of the difficult to cultivate colos wood. Very few materials were able to endure rough treatment at the hands of a high-ranker. The materials of the simple hammer made it more valuable than most expertly-crafted bronze-rank weapons.

Baseph hammered on the pipe over and over, its resilience to even silver-rank strength remarkably formidable. Baseph urged himself on, knowing the gong-like ringing would draw any nearby raiders straight to him.

***

Panting with exertion, Baseph staggered out of the infrastructure node room. He was moving to slink into a shadow when it stepped away from the wall and took the shape of a person. He turned to run, only to find the figure appearing in front of him again.

“Baseph Rimaros, spouse of Princess Liara Rimaros, I presume. My name is Shade. In case it in any way entices you to be less inclined to flee, I am an acquaintance of your wife.”

Baseph looked warily at the dark figure.

“I don’t recall my wife being friends with any strange shadow men.”

“With respect, Mr Rimaros, I am not responsible for the level of attentiveness you demonstrate in the performance of your husbandly duties.”

“Excuse me?”

“I am not here to assist you with your family issues, Mr Rimaros, but to prevent you from sabotaging this facility. As we speak, a rescue operation is taking place to eliminate the invaders and rescue the workers of this facility. If you complete your sabotage efforts, this operation will be considerably impeded.”

Baseph turned to look back at the doorway he had just emerged from, then back to Shade.

“Oh,” he said, and the tunnel started to tremble.

***

Jason and Sophie were both away from the team, separately scouting ahead, when they heard water rushing on them like an indoor tsunami. Even so, their silver-rank reflexes gave them each time to spring into action. Sophie reacted with unsurprisingly alacrity, moving faster than the wall of water as she dashed down the tunnel. Jason pulled out one of the items he’d purchased to help him deal with underwater environments; a garish orange belt he was still hastily attempting to buckle around himself when the water hit.

Sophie managed to dash back to the team, who had likewise heard the water and were making what preparations they could. Humphrey jammed his sword into the stone floor, burying half the blade despite the stone's resilience. He then gripped the hilt tightly and braced himself. Neil gripped Humphrey tightly and also braced himself. Sophie crashed into Clive, not slowing down as she slung him over her shoulder and kept moving. Belinda looked between her team members, then at the approaching water as it slammed into her.

***

After what felt like endless, wild tumbling, Jason slammed into something that yielded enough to not hurt while somehow still being very firm. He found himself face-down in knee-deep water and pushed himself onto all fours. He pushed a hand against the barrier and looked at it blearily. It was a glowing magical wall, on the other side of which was water deeper than he was tall.

He groaned as he pushed himself onto his knees and looked around. He was in a tunnel, the other end likewise sealed by a magic barrier. He was also not alone. A woman with dark skin, familiar features and starkly white hair was somehow as dry and pristine as he was wet and bedraggled. She looked down at him from where she was standing on the surface of the water. He got to his feet, using his cloak to reduce his weight and step onto the surface of the water as well.

“I don’t suppose…” he began, stopping as she drew her sword, cold hostility in her eyes.

“I suppose not,” he said, drawing his own blade. He had lost the extra belt he had tried to put on before the water caught him, but his normal belt had held just fine. The pair looked at each other for a long moment before they clashed, dashing across the water to meet blades. Jason immediately recognised that she was using his fighting style, the Way of the Reaper. He also recognised that she was better at it.

The Way of the Reaper was a highly versatile style, with Jason and Sophie both using it in very different ways. Sophie used its adaptiveness in domineering fashion, shifting her approach moment to moment to apply relentless oppression. Jason was more deceptive and elusive, unpredictable enough that he seemed almost ephemeral. Jason’s opponent fell somewhere in the middle, adaptive and aggressive but also tricky to pin down. After a rapid exchange of blows, they separated, each watching the other with caution.

“You fight a lot like I do,” she observed.

“Your daughter said the same thing the first time we met,” Jason told her. “I’ve got to find a better way to meet women.”

 

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