The person who came to welcome them was, perhaps unsurprisingly, Calm. It took him all of one second to nod, then command everyone else away. Including the mage whose office they were seemingly in, though the man went without a hint of complaint. Before everyone actually cleared out though, Irwyn spent the few seconds by being fascinated in his own growth.

  Calm was, after all, one of the first mages Irwyn had ever met with face to face. Back then, he had barely detected him as someone with magic. Much later, he had been able to tell that the man possessed a Concept, but not much else. Now, he knew with complete certainty that there were exactly nine Concepts carved into his Soul. No wonder it had been difficult to hide every trace of all that magic even against someone much weaker. Calm had quite visibly reached the very limit of where his Soul could grow without a Domain.

  “Some privacy, please,” the man requested as soon as they were alone. Elizabeth easily obliged him, the walls of the room quickly enveloped in Void magic. Much like her old bubbles of privacy, except far more potent. Irwyn knew that first hand, as one of their Trials had required them to stop what amounted to information leaks.

  “Why are you in Abonisle of all places?” She also immediately questioned her… close acquaintance and confidant was perhaps the most accurate term.

  “Auditing the reconstruction efforts,” Calm smoothly replied. “The actual reason is, naturally, secret.”

  “And no one is suspicious of that? In the middle of the War?”

  “I am not even categorized as a combatant, so this is a completely normal task to be assigned to me,” he smiled slightly.

  “One would think that there might be pushback against favorable arrangements like that,” Desir added his own thoughts.

  “Very little. Ezax’s opposition likes having someone without even a Domain often sent on important tasks on the Duke’s behalf. Hence, they prefer me alive for the moment. Though I don’t believe we have been introduced.”

  “Desir,” the shapeshifter said with a small bow. “Pleasure. Though, I have a few things I would prefer mentioned quickly. Before they even can become a problem.”

  “The demons that wanted to meet with Irwyn…” Elizabeth quickly explained Desir’s situation. It did not take Calm long to actually remember exactly what events they were referring to, which did help. They revealed a chunk of Desir’s true background, though not his full affinities or Bhaak.

  “One of those demons has remained to fight. Rest assured, I will make arrangements that you are never on the same front.”

  “That is appreciated.”

  “How fateful, to discover someone like that on your journeys, Elizabeth. Avys will undoubtedly demand her own assurances about your character, but there is no need to worry too much. Talents are always welcome, especially those clearly so coveted. Not to mention, you have been looking at me quite strangely, Desir. I wonder why?” Calm said with an expression that clearly said he had a good guess.

  “At a risk of giving insult…”

  “I never take any.”

  “I have no idea what is going on inside your head, but my instincts tell me that you should be completely insane. Not even the most deranged and broken people I have met had their intents shifting as yours do. Like watching a river flowing up into the air at random intervals while turning purple and sometimes taking the time to cook. The analogy makes as much sense as what I am perceiving.”

  “Yes, I have not ordered my thoughts properly,” Calm simply nodded. “It takes effort, so I do not always bother. Few can catch even a hint of it with just Concepts or even Domains. Just this ability speaks quite highly of your potential. Avys does so love people with unique uses.”

  “She has no claim on my entourage,” Elizabeth immediately interjected.

  “Suddenly, you seem… ordinary,” Desir simply kept staring at Calm, his expression fascinated.

  “Soul is one of your carvings, isn’t it? I can teach some tricks to play on yourself. Most people have called them ‘incompatible with the human mind’ or ‘too perverse to contemplate’, but perhaps those will not be able to stop you.”

  “I would certainly be willing to try,” Desir quickly nodded.

  “We still need directions,” Irwyn spoke up. “Where are we expected to go now that we are back? I presume there is something we can contribute to the war.”

  “And why were the second Beacons sounded?” Elizabeth added.

  “Perhaps we should move to a better venue first. Alice, could you please move the five of us to coordinates I give you.”

  “Six. But I should be able to.”

  “Ah, Waylan. Strange to slip my mind, isn’t it. Even after a year. Here,” he took a small crystal out, handing it to Alice. “A few moments… yes, you can bring us through.”

  Irwyn felt the sensation of Alice’s magic filling his body and let it. He was somewhat surprised that Calm was so willing to allow that, but did not comment. There was no worry about the transport failing with the Temporal beacon in place, even though he and Elizabeth had apparently grown ‘unreasonably heavier’ when it came to teleportation.

  The room they suddenly found themselves in was yet another office, but a much larger one, though there was little of note about it. The strongest hint of where they had actually gone was to be the floor and ceiling. Both built of solid metal. Tungsten, specifically, it seemed like. They were somewhere in one of the Spires. The dense mesh of enchantments too thick to identify, much less see through, only confirmed as much.

  “The beacon is strange,” Alice commented. “It makes the magic so… smooth. Like cartloads turned to the weight of feathers and mountain trails fitted into highways.”

  “Didn’t you experience it last time?” Irwyn wondered. Either of them, really.

  “My senses were comparatively horrid. And longer range transportation let me feel things way more deeply than just some casual magic would. Which I could not test before, as unsanctioned teleportation within the city proper is heavily monitored and strictly punished. I don’t know how long it needs to be to become noticeable, but my dad made me repeat that rule until I was sick of it before we first came here.”

  “Your growth has indeed been extraordinary,” Calm affirmed. “So I wish you had not made such a scene upon your return.”

  “We just tried to enter the city,” Elizabeth said.

  “You have several means of making contact from afar,” Calm replied, unimpressed. “Just sending a word half an hour in advance and I could have arranged for discretion. Now, there has been an entire incident. Your unexpected arrival has triggered far more reactions than you imagine across the chain of command. Therefore, the soldiers will have to accurately record and report what they had witnessed. As will coordinators and anyone else remotely in charge during the situation. Nothing reasonable can be done to suppress those during a Lich War. Which means that within a few hours or days at most, everyone with a relative or ten keeping eyes on irregular reports in the bureaucracy will know. In other words, anyone who remotely matters will find out that you are back with Concepts. At least the rest of you have not shouted your names across the street, but the years of efforts spent on hiding your talent has just been wasted, Elizabeth.”

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  That gave her a pause. A few awkward seconds paused before she spoke again.

  “They have served their purpose. I am not so weak that I need to desperately hide any longer.”

  “Arguable. But now people will be asking questions. There is only so much that can be deflected by ‘opportunity’. Even the luckiest idiots don’t return after a year with several Concepts to their Soul. Many will realize something is off. Or at best, send someone to confirm the reports.”

  “It feels difficult to care.”

  “If nothing else, at least don’t scorn Avys’ attempts to wrangle factions ruled by Truth bearing mages into relative irrelevance. Decades of effort you have just thoughtlessly undermined.”

  “…perhaps I have been a bit thoughtless. But it sounds like you might be exaggerating the impact.”

  “It is a chip. A completely needless wound that will now need to be staunched. We will need to hide you so that no one can come and confirm the truth of the matter. The senior mage who has welcomed you will be reassigned as soon as his report is submitted, so that he cannot be interrogated. He will also have to thank you for retroactive complaints about inaccurate reporting suddenly appearing all across his records. Then whatever other measure your mother deems necessary.”

  “Should I prepare for a painful conversation, then?”

  “No. The Ducal couple is currently on a diplomatic journey to the Duchy of Teal. Their Archduke intents to organize an event to rouse morale. Otherwise, you would likely be discussing this blunder with her already.”

  “How has the war been going,” Irwyn interjected. “We still haven’t heard anything substantial.”

  “The Duke of Cyan is dead, and probably not so much anymore by now. The mayhem that a diviner of his caliber will inflict on us has not shown yet, but that is only a matter of time. He had also been integral in personally sniffing out the Rot’s hiding places, since things have still not resorted to open conflict. A turn for the worse is basically inevitable in the near future, hence why we sounded Dread.”

  “But still mostly the same as before in other regards?” Elizabeth wanted to clarify.

  “Yes. Just assassinations and ambushes. Attrition on the regular troops had not been the worst so far, but elites are becoming somewhat thinned in numbers. The Federation has lost over ten Domain mages and one Duke with a Truth since the beginning of the fighting, which is far worse than usual for the timeframe. Particularly because all but one of them had been taken.”

  “Speaking of assassinations and ambushes, now is probably a good time to mention what had awaited us as we crossed the mountains,” Desir added a new direction. “I thought that would be one of the first thing mentioned. An undead with Concepts was lying in wait there.”

  “That is very strange,” Calm frowned. “An unexpected allocation. How many?”

  “Nine,” Irwyn said.

  “And you actually killed it? Does the Rot know about that too?”

  “Desir managed to intercept its final message, and it didn’t seem to expect us to kill it as quickly as we did,” Elizabeth explained. “It probably relayed us having multiple Concepts, but it had been too incautious until its last moment, so it likely couldn’t tell how many at all. Or was confident we would not use them well.”

  “So they might assume intervention, rather than your ludicrous growth. Which is probably for the best. Because that ambush had been likely set for you specifically.”

  “Us?” Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed.

  “That, or one of you as a singular person. There is literally no one else of any note that was expected to return by that entrance. And those lists are not nearly secret enough to assume the Rot doesn’t have their eyes on them. For whatever reason, you are likely being targeted.”

  “We haven’t actually done anything that should attract direct ire.”

  “Killed that big one in the Republic?” Alice suggested. “It would have definitely shown you are dangerous.”

  “That is too far away for word to spread back to the Federation,” Elizabeth disagreed. “Even they are limited by Finity. What we fought was not nearly strong enough to pass that distance with even just information.”

  “Revenge over Abonisle?” Desir tried next. “You two did play a big role in it being retaken.”

  “The Rot does not think in the terms of vengeance,” Calm disagreed. “For the most part, everyone is despised equally. The hatred of all that lives is rather impersonal in that regard. When a decision is made, it is always strategic in some way. Only some particularly powerful liches are known to have enough personality left to actually hold grudges. Which is unlikely to be the case here. The much more probable scenario is that you have somehow been picked out as a dangerous talent and thus attracted their eyes.”

  “It could also be just Irwyn, still over Abonisle,” Desir opined. “I have never heard of anyone else able to literally smell undeath. Especially if they are trying to hide this time around. I don’t know how much of what you can smell the undead understand, but it sounds like an obvious skill to target.”

  “It puts us into a bad position either way,” Irwyn thought. “Being directly pursued is bad for life expectancy.”

  “That, or it could serve as excellent bait. If you are being targeted but at the same time under-estimated… well, the chances are good that some relatively dangerous undead would be wasted failing to kill you.”

  “That would put us in a lot of danger,” Elizabeth frowned.

  “Difficult to be truly safe during a Lich war. Especially for anyone visibly competent. But with Irwyn’s unique nose, I think the risk would be manageable. If he notices the stench of a Domain, there will be long enough to flee. Either by Time or Void. In the worst case, emergency countermeasures can be put into place to buy a few minutes for a rescue. I don’t expect anything less will give you any trouble without the element of surprise.”

  And much more than that. Irwyn did not need to share a glance with Elizabeth - as that would be too obvious - to know what she was thinking. Namely, that even a Domain would not be enough to deal with them. Though that surprise could likely only be sprung once. Calm could barely feel the ballpark of their Concepts, much less what they still hid within. Nevertheless, Irwyn played along.

  “That presumes I could tell a Domain apart. There is seemingly correlation between the strength of the stench and power, but that is still untested.”

  “As I said, no certain safety. But you must have known that before returning. I think there is a clear path for you to do the most good while keeping in line with any other needs. Namely, you could hide your strength as much as possible, then go and use Irwyn’s nose to hunt infiltrators and traitors. That would undoubtedly provoke assassination attempts - which would be ultimately insufficient because of your unexpected power.”

  “And divination also interacts strangely with Irwyn,” Elizabeth said. “I think it was along the lines of ‘predictions happen as if he were not present’? That will make us even harder to catch off guard.”

  “We did not have the Duke of Cyan doing those predictions, so the effect might not be as complete if that is the caliber of divination at play. But then, the best diviners on both sides are fighting over more strategic objectives.”

  “That does sound reasonable,” Elizabeth nodded. Irwyn mirrored the gesture. Indeed, he could do great good rooting out hidden enemies. “I presume this will also hide us from scrutiny as you wanted.”

  “Groups like that naturally have additional protections regarding their whereabouts and identities. While some inconvenient people technically have the right to request that information, the paperwork can easily be delayed to take years.”

  “Can you really just decide we have the right to… become whatever this would be called?” Desir, ever the voice of doubt, asked. “I expect it would involve quite a bit of summary execution, proportional to success. Even if against infiltrating undead, everyone would still be taking our word for spotting the difference. That cannot possibly be something allowed lightly.”

  “Not quite by myself, but almost. By the authority of the Duke, it is easy to arrange for your operations within the Duchy of Black. It would hardly be the first time a noble child and their entourage is given a position of audit and oversight. That being said, identifying and executing infiltrators is the purview of the Inquisition. It would therefore require their sanctioning.”

  “And that would take?”

  “Either a lot of bothersome paperwork with months eaten up by the glacial pace of overburdened bureaucracy… or the personal approval of a High Inquisitor to bypass those rules. Here, the latter is obviously the more expedient choice.”

  “Can you actually arrange that?” Elizabeth suddenly doubted. “The inquisition is notoriously hard to pressure.”

  “Forcing their hand would indeed be very hard. But there is no need to. Since you seem to have forgotten, you have played a pivotal role in saving Abonisle from the Rot. The inquisition tends to look kindly towards those that advance their mission. It will be enough to get you a meeting. From there, the inquisition rarely refuses anyone mostly trustworthy willing to help with one of their most time-consuming tasks. Between Irwyn’s nose and Desir’s Soul Concept you make an ideal group.”

  “When od we meet them then?”

  “In between 30 and 90 minutes,” Calm smiled. “The High Inquisitor currently stationed here in Abonisle purposefully avoids a predictable schedule. She will call for you. Or through me, anyhow.”

  “At what point have you even arranged that?”

  “As soon as you tentatively agreed. As if splitting your attention just two ways was hard, Elizabeth. I have noticed how your reaction times have visibly improved. Each of you could have easily done the same. It's the rapid eye movement that gave it away, if you want to work on hiding that better. But we shouldn’t waste what time we have until then. From abundance of caution, we will get you equipped before the meeting. Something to much better hide the number of Concepts you each hold. Then a trinket of some kind for Desir - I am sure there is an masterpiece or two in the vaults for avoiding even powerful demons. Ah, but do not forget to disable and remove protections for the Soul - she will want to make personally sure this is not a ruse.”

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