Chapter 44: Entering Lockdown

Subject: Aiden Location: Maliscade - Commerce District

Deep in the cramped basement of the shop where Aiden worked and slept, an Atlas Shard exhausted its remaining energy and disintegrated.

“Another failure,” he grumbled, tugging on dangling tufts of lavender-tipped hair in annoyance.

Just when he thought he’d made a prodigious breakthrough, doubt descended. The magic was fickle, yes, but that wasn’t the only problem. Aiden wasn’t a proper vessel.

Story of my life.

Atlas Magic was a valuable field of study for many reasons, but Aiden had just one. As far as he was aware, none of the local guilds or private companies gave it any attention.

He believed it was because they would weigh investment against the profit or influence they could gain from the research. As delicate as the materials were and as unstable as the magic was, it wasn’t practical.

“I can’t ask anyone else to do this in my place. It’s expensive, time-consuming, and uncomfortable.”

But he knew he was on to something. There was some kind of a fundamental pattern. If he could communicate it to someone, a professional or something, maybe they could decipher it?

Aiden’s specialty was support magic, and nothing most people would call “useful”. He used utility magic from various branches to manage his shop.

He was able to just barely scrape by with this hobby of his, so that was something.

*BOOM*

“What was that?!”

He jumped to his feet, slipping on a stack of books that were far too expensive to be occupying the ground, sending him tumbling down again. Aiden replaced the stack and got up again, looking up at his basement ceiling.

The ceiling was constructed from reinforced amoten, the same bluish-grey metal covering most of Maliscade, so it probably wouldn’t crumble easily.

Even so, he decided it might be best to go to the ground level. However, that would place Aiden closer to the source of the explosion.

“What to do…” he pondered at the foot of the stairs.

Cautious steps echoed against the stairs as he ascended. He activated his virasense.

“No use. I don’t know why I expected to see anything through all of this metal…”

Bypassing amoten with magic was like trying to walk through the wall yourself unless you were very skilled and possibly also inherently gifted.

*Crash*

The door to his shop burst open and an Enforcer charged in, enchanted solblade drawn. The blue aura of the enchantment melded with the red of the blade into a deep purple color.

Aiden dropped down to kneel. Seeing this, the Enforcer turned and hastily sealed the front door. Template cities were built with this magitech functionality on most of the building entrances, but only Enforcers and certain government officials had the ability to activate them.

As someone trying to crack a lock of his own, Aiden watched curiously.

“Name and identification!” she shouted at him, her commanding voice distorted by the glinting black full helmet.

Enforcers wore these helmets at all times. He wondered if death was the punishment for revealing one’s face to a citizen.

“Aiden,” the frightened shopkeeper answered, scrambling for his identification.

“Family name? Are you alone here?”

The Enforcer walked around Aiden to the stairs, starting to descend before he gave his answer. She didn’t even bother to look at his ID Plate.

“I’m alone, but you can check the subfloor down there. A-And I have no family name. Not anymore.” He paused. “My parents severed my familial tether.”

He was hesitant to mention that last fact. Many people would assume he was a spiritual deviant of some kind, but that wasn’t the case. At least he didn’t believe so.

Aiden prayed regularly to both The Martyr Furle and The Engineer Rute. Sometimes at night, especially after a particularly devastating failure, he would even wonder if he was somehow invisibly Marked by the Stranger of Truth.

But he was not a Bearer of Blue. He was just born disgusting. Though he couldn’t think of a way he would be a threat to anyone, his parents had wished to be rid of him as soon as possible.

An Enforcer could procure that information anyway, and withholding could bring terrible consequences.

At least Aiden’s parents, worried about how this might impact their social standing, publicly granted him a healthy severance allowance before urging him to leave Veilas and “change his ways.”

The Enforcer returned and snatched the plate from Aiden’s still-outstretched hands. She pressed it to a black band on her gauntlet, and it produced a low hum.

It was forbidden to study how the Enforcers knew who was deserving of judgment using a citizen’s ID Plate. The official explanation was that they were trained to discern the state of a citizen’s soul tethers by using the plate as a safe intermediary.

Satisfied, she dropped the plate to the floor.

*BANG BOOM*

The most recent explosion was louder, and it startled Aiden enough to make him scramble back behind his counter. His guest simply turned her attention to the door.

After a brief lull, he cautiously peered over the counter and found the Enforcer looking his way, inscrutable behind that full helmet.

“Apologies for troubling you with a question, Enforcer, but what are those sounds out there?”

She didn’t answer right away, regarding him oddly.

“Intruders. Consider yourself fortunate to have retained Arbe’s favor, citizen. Maliscade’s Enforcers will scour the city until every one of them meets Prane’s cleansing blade.”

It wasn’t descriptive, but she did give him an answer.

The Enforcer unsealed the door and crossed the threshold into the street beyond. Then she turned around and held out her hand to activate the door a final time.

“The Commerce District is almost secure. The largest cluster of outsiders is reported to be in the Gate District, so you can rest easy.

“Thank you,” was all he could say, without knowing what to call her.

Enforcers didn’t need a name to do their duty. Aiden wondered if maybe having a name at all was a luxury.

Subject: Caim Location: Maliscade - Blightbane Guild

Mounting tensions in the Maliscade Blightbane Guild hall flared up.

The first to leap to their feet and into the fray were, not entirely surprisingly, the Blight Seekers who were already raring for a fight.

This was more than Hexknight Latice bargained for when he demanded the Guild fight back, but at least no one was using a weapon.

The Welders, Latice’s knight squad, were still firmly in the lead, protected by much heavier armor. The clangs produced by the clash of metal-studded hide gauntlets on metal armor filled the hall.

Caim was disoriented, uncertain who to protect with his five Flourish boons.

Just then, Mille huddled behind Caim, shielding herself from harm. At least, that’s what it looked like she was doing, but he quickly realized her true intent when she pressed something to his back. He slid his hand behind him and received a spiky object like a small fruit.

It was a blightseed. The seed was burnt orange, a color he’d never seen before.

“There won’t be time to use it here,” she said in her melodic faron voice that only leaked out with Alice and, apparently, in times of extreme stress. “This is the best I can do right now.”

The glint of metal and the dull glow of the blue lanterns reflected in Mille’s silver eyes. Conduits swirled with ocean blues and hues of anxious pink, powerfully enough to illuminate her flint-colored skin.

She meant it would take time for the blightseed’s energy to accumulate within him, and this was an immediate need they were facing.

That was how it usually worked with others, but the same rules didn’t seem to apply to him.

To communicate this reality, he turned to face her completely. Ignoring their surroundings, and with one hand on her shoulder, he grinned.

“No,” he assured her confidently. “Vera may have cut me loose with little preparations, but her magic is different. This is just what I need.”

He brought the seed in close and saw the deep orange veins weaving between spines of grey. Really, it was nothing like any blightseed he’d ever encountered, but it was presumably still safe to swallow.

What it looked like wouldn’t change what he had to do with it.

Caim swallowed the seed and turned around. Vile juices settled in his stomach, and he tried to swallow the taste away unsuccessfully.

Then it happened.

There it is… It’s even better than the first time!

Caim felt an enormous infusion of energy wrap him in a shuddering embrace. A seed of this color must have come from a terrifyingly strong blightbeast. He wondered why Mille had it on her person.

“I really wish Alice was here, but I’m glad she’s safe,” he laughed nervously.

Spellweaving Event Triggered Accessing Catalyst Priorities [ Subject Disoriented ] Error Accessing Priority Queue

[ Subject in Danger ]

Defaulting to Protection Variant

Master Establishing Connection

[ Error ]

Reassessing

A new Catalyst variant! Caim put his full faith in the Flourish spell still protecting him and retrieved the black card from his pocket.

Before the view of his surroundings clouded over entirely, he saw Latice scrutinizing him. He had neither time nor attention to spare on that.

Spellweaving Event Advancing Residual Energy Available Lockdown Preventing Further Growth: Main Path [ Shunting Remaining Energy to Existing Powers ] Calibrating First Spell

[ Maximum Targets: Increased to Four]

Calibrating Second Spell: Flourish Variant

[ Maximum Targets: Increased to Nine ]

Calibrating Second Spell: Safeguard Variant

[ Maximum Targets: Increased to Six]

Master Establishing Safemode Connection

[ Success ]

Observing

The phantom constellation stretched out before him, but only he could see the endless expanse of dark stars. Only Caim understood that each of the large stars represented a spell, and the smaller ones around it the growth of that particular spell.

Actually, it was better to think of them as planets, with orbiting moons. But, whatever they were, they were helpful, and this was the biggest change in the “star chart” he’d seen to date.

It was definitely a new Catalyst, and a fairly straightforward one at that. After using Flourish for this long, Safeguard would be a cinch.

Caim closed his eyes and pocketed the card.

“Don’t tell me…” Mille exclaimed from behind.

“I won’t know until I try. Come here. This one will need a different host.”

Subject: Gillis Location: Maliscade - Gate District

The city streets had been filled with people not a minute ago, but now Enforcers swept the streets, and it was as if Maliscade’s other inhabitants had vanished.

They were sealing citizens in their homes. It was standard protocol.

But isn’t this just my luck, Gillis complained to himself. I had to be in the city at a time like this. It’s a job for the Enforcers, but if I don’t handle it myself, it’ll only set my schedule back further.

“You there!” an Enforcer shouted after rounding the corner of a nameless sidestreet and seeing Gillis and his Cartographer Knights. “Halt, state your name, and present your identification!”

The sky was overcast grey, but beams of golden light pierced the thick clouds. The cramped walkway meant they would have to pass the over-glorified guard on the way to their destination.

Everything has gone wrong since I started this project. I wouldn’t be surprised if a leviathan ducked below the cloud layer and laid waste to the city.

Gillis didn't even bother stopping. He couldn’t lose his concentration or his virasense would falter, and then the visual radius would shrink.

A Cartographer Knight’s vira signature flared up while the knight cast a spell. As expected, Gillis’s subordinate handled a mere Enforcer with no troubles and in mere seconds.

The Hexknight didn’t waste time analyzing what spell was cast, but he was confident it was non-lethal and short-acting. His knights knew how he operated and he trusted them to resolve conflicts accordingly.

Why would they-

“There’s a group of them up ahead. We can’t make it in time, but we will trap them in the Guild Headquarters.”

One of his subordinates voiced a concern. It was his unofficial second-in-command, Jai.

“The Guild… That could cause you trouble in the future. You know how many state protections they have, and how persistent their politicians can be. We could let them resolve the conflict themselves and assist the Enforcers in cleaning the rest of the city or we could pursue our original targets. What is your command?”

Jai kept her hair short and no-nonsense. It complemented her professional demeanor well.

Gillis would prefer his knights acts as they want while obeying only his short list of rules, but they were trained to the point where too much freedom made them uncomfortable.

Rather than for freedom, Jai used the common knight system to operate as an unnamed “knight captain”. Her keen blue eyes analyzed the behavior of those around her and then used what she knew to “order” each knight to support Gillis in a way that complemented their respective personality.

They obeyed Jai not only because she was talented and fair, but also because she acted the part of a captain, even off-duty. But Shroud’s knights were never really off-duty.

This routine was not just a tiresome way to lessen the discomfort of her fellow knights, it also made her an effective tactician when they fought as a group. Gillis was chosen to be a Hexaline Knight for a reason. There were many things that only he could do, and he needed to be able to do them without interruption.

She’s also very talented. She can locate the Marked merely by vira signature, and I wish that was something I could learn. It would make my secondary goal a whole lot easier.

Jai was right about the Guild complicating things. What she wasn’t saying was that he was also trying to keep his activities in Maliscade concealed from those in the capital. It wasn’t like they were doing anything illegal, but politics was politics, and the laws could change depending on who was interpreting the scripture.

If they made a scene, they might even have to wipe the slate clean and move the “factory project” to another bastion city. That would be a shame.

“It isn’t ideal, but it’s also our duty to protect the people, and this is where we can do the most good for them. I’ve never seen magic like this, so who knows if the Guild can defend against it.”

Their boots pounded the pavement as they entered the main street. Twelve Enforcers were preparing to breach the doors to the enormous building. The number of enemies and the size of the building justified at least this many Enforcers.

They turned their attention to Gillis and his squad, who looked more like civilians than knights. Their uniforms matched the Hexknight’s own “grid” patterning, but it was made from expensive and sophisticated fibers, modified to enhance magic cast by the wearer.

“On Hexaline Knight of Progress Gillis’s authority, we are entering the Guild Headquarters building,” Jai announced, stopping to make a shortened prayer gesture.

Her leader and the other knights continued on, closing the distance between them and the wary Enforcers with each step.

The Enforcers would want to see a Hexaline Knight’s seal, but that wasted time. There was a faster way.

“Take this as proof of our identities. Use it to bring order to Maliscade in the name of The Remnant! Consider it her blessing.”

Even though Gillis faced away from Jai, he saw a bright white beam of her magic fire past him and hit one of the Enforcers in the chest plate. Smaller beams splintered off this initial target and spread out amongst the eleven other targets, bathing them in a dreamlike aura,

All of Gillis’s knights were exemplary mages. Jai was well-versed in many branches, but her enhancement spells were downright arcanely inspired.

Energetic flames licked the pavement, casting a radiant glow so bright that shadows danced on the outlying buildings. Such was the magnificent glow of the enhancement aura. In another context, demonstrating a power like this would assuredly be sacrilege.

The Enforcers were frozen in stunned silence, allowing The Cartographers to swiftly surge past their line, uncontested. They knew that, had they wanted to halt the advance, they couldn’t stand against a power like that.

Jai caught up to the other knights and sped past Gillis without asking. She would be the first one through the set of heavy double doors. If there was danger inside, she intended to face it in his place.