Interlude: Attaboy

The bed in his new room was like nothing he had ever imagined. Attaboy wasn’t sure if it would be possible to sleep on something so squishy. For about the hundredth time he bounced his weight on the soft substance laying on what he considered to be the actual bed, debating whether he should move to the floor when he actually wanted to sleep.

It was great to sit on though, with such a soft covering too. He used his special eye power to look more closely, and couldn’t find a single crawling creature, which was nice.

The day had been amazing, overwhelming, confusing.

Mostly confusing.

He had walked with Dr. Quimea around the grounds of the southern sanctuary. When they walked through the people punching the air, everyone cast their eyes down and held themselves absolutely still.

“You see, Attaboy,” Dr. Quimea said, ignoring the silent figures all around him. “Our clan respects strength. Every member strives to get strong, to be worthy.”

Attaboy wasn’t sure what ‘worthy’ meant, but he thought that Dr. Quimea must be much stronger than he looked, if all these people were so scared of him. He hastened his footsteps to keep up with the Doctor’s leisurely pace.

“Would you like to be strong, Attaboy?”

He was suddenly very aware that everyone could hear his reply. What else could he say?

“Yes.”

His ear allowed him to hear the sharp intake of breath from several of the people. Did he say the wrong thing?

Dr. Quimea continued as if he hadn’t. “Very good. Sinaloa is strength.”

"Sinaloa es fuerza!” all the assembled people yelled, making Attaboy jump.

Chapter 22: Mission

Magpie hesitated at the door to her room, exhausted from another long day of social engineering. This time, her trainer had pushed her out of the Academy building and into town. There, her mission was to gain a thorough understanding of the social and financial network between the various merchants and shop keepers, all while raising her reputation among the untempered.

It hadn’t been a total waste of time though. Her trainer had suggested she raise her Disguise skill to Upgraded Journeyman, as a special allowance for her task.

Disguise turned out to have more depth than she had expected. Aside from the obvious ability to look like someone else with makeup, costumes and such, she was able to use the Magi component to build a false profile for interacting with others. As long as the disguise worked, all the reputation gains and losses would accrue to the profile, rather than her main character. It also gave a bonus to her Deception skill for changing her public information.

All day long she had been posing as a variety of students, visitors, traveling merchants, and any other character she could think of to fit her needs. She would learn from one merchant about the price of maple wood, or the clan that was cornering the market on cinnabar. Then she would go to a different shop and use the information to ingratiate herself and hear some local gossip. Then another shop to spread the gossip and so forth.

At least it was a more interesting subject than the love lives of Academy students, and by the day’s end she had a great appreciation for the value of information in any economy. With just a few well placed rumors, she could cause chaos in the little community, now that she understood the various players, pressure points and inflections. It was quite a bit like unarmed combat, in a way, all about leverage.

It had been clear to her that several of the merchants saw through her disguise, but their only reaction had been a bit of an eye roll or a long suffering sigh. Clearly, she was not the first student tasked with this assignment. Living and working near the Academy had accustomed them to all sorts of shenanigans, so her reputation never took any serious hits. It probably didn’t hurt that she had taken pains to overpay for some useless trinket anywhere she had been discovered.

Mission accomplished, she dragged herself back to the room, only to hear excited conversation through the door. If she had retained any energy, she would have been more excited to hear Lily’s voice. Instead, she felt a wave of exhaustion and a dull acceptance.

It’s about time. Let the games begin.

She braced herself and opened the door. Three sets of eyes turned to her.

“Hi Magpie!” Skria and Lily said in unison. They were both standing behind a seated Jessila, almost obscured by a massive pile of hair they had released on her head. Magpie was a little surprised to see that Jessila’s brown hair was streaked with waves of an almost golden blond. Jessila wore a stoic expression; her eyes had the distant look of a prisoner or a refugee accepting that life was no longer under their control.

“I heard that you met Skria and Jessila,” said Lilijoy. “Isn’t it great we’re all here for the first time? We were just talking about Jessila’s advisor.”

“He’s a real jerk,” added Skria.

“Can you believe that he’s only met with her once?”

“She hasn’t even seen him since we got back.”

“I think he’s prejudiced.”

“She’s not even in a magic class.”

“I think she should try to switch.”

The rapid back and forth made Magpie a little dizzy.

“Do you think she can?”

“I don’t see why not. Clearly, he’s not helping.”

Jessila made a grunting sound.

“No, Jess, you shouldn’t have to do it on your own.”

“Can you believe how beautiful her hair is?”

“I know! Jess, you’re so lucky.”

There was another grunt.

“So, Magpie, how was your day? I got to do a scenario!”

“Really? What was it like? We just camped in the woods during experience term and hunted for monsters for two weeks, and it was rotten,” said Skria.

“It was amazing. And horrible at the same time. I’m still processing to be honest.”

“What kind of monster did it have?”

Magpie realized she had yet to say a single word and wondered if there was some kind of special skill needed to participate in this conversation. Maybe she could talk fast enough if she used Flash? Finally she broke in.

“I spent the day in town.”

Skria looked almost startled that Magpie spoke. Of course, she looked startled most of the time with her huge round eyes.

“Oh! Did you go shopping? What did you get? Did you see Mr. Sennit?” Lily asked.

Magpie quickly thought through the odds and ends she had picked up to mollify various shop keepers. She realized that it would have been smart to get a gift for Lilijoy on purpose, but she could always pretend after the fact.

There was a plain silver ring she had bought for herself, since it raised Charm: Sentients by a point. She had figured she needed all the charm she could get. The folding knife had come from a weapons shop; it wasn’t magic, but it was well made, with a walnut handle and steel blade. She had paid three silver for the damn thing, a total ripoff, even considering metal items were exorbitantly expensive. A crystal pendant that glowed in the presence of elves was the cheapest thing she could find at the shop specializing in, naturally enough, magic crystals. That had cost two silver. The leviathan bone comb, the wooden carving of a gnome and the charcoal drawing of the Academy had all come from various street vendors who wouldn’t talk to her until she purchased something.

She realized suddenly that she would need to give a gift to all her roommates or it would look weird. Thinking fast, she started with the no-brainer.

“Actually, I picked up a little something for each of you. Jessila, since you were so interested in my hair this morning, I thought of you when I saw this.”

She handed the comb to Jessila, who took it from her hand tentatively. Moving on, Magpie brought out the knife. “I figured this would come in handy until you can afford a real blade,” she said to Lily as she gave it to her. Lily started to say something but Magpie cut her off, turning to Skria. She was still trying to decide whether to give her the ring or keep it for herself. Remembering the fruit from the morning, she pulled out the useless crystal pendant.

“This isn’t much, I just thought it looked pretty.”

As soon as Magpie removed the pendant from her inventory, it began to softly glow.

“Um, I’m not sure why it’s doing that,” she managed to say.

Skria gasped. “Magpie, this is magic! You really shouldn’t have.”

“I thought it was supposed to glow in the presence of elves or something. Not super useful, if you ask me, but… “

She was interrupted by a strange sound, a groaning, shaking inhalation. The source of the sound was Jessila, who had her hands over her face. Her shoulders were heaving.

“Oh dear,” said Skria. “I think Jessila’s upset about something.” She put her tiny hands on Jessila’s shoulder. “Jess, what’s wrong?” she asked, while Lily looked on with concern.

The big girl looked up at Magpie. “Thank you,” she said. Her voice was warm, and gentle and round, almost musical, and not at all what Magpie expected after all the grunting. “I’m sorry.” She got to her feet and stumbled into her room, hair streaming behind her. As soon as the door closed, Lilijoy whispered to Skria.

“What was that all about?”

Skria leaned over and whispered back. Magpie had to turn her hearing all the way up to hear what she was saying.

“People weren’t exactly nice to Jessila when she was growing up. I’m guessing that she didn’t know what to do when Magpie gave her a gift. Either that or the elf thing. Probably some of both, really.”

“Elf thing?” asked Lily.

Skria looked at Lily, confusion on her face.

“You didn’t know?”

“Know what?”

“Jessila’s part elf. It’s easy to tell from her eyes and skin.”

Lily and Magpie exchanged glances, and Magpie approached the huddle.

“Why would that upset her?” she asked.

“Elves are a little snobby. They used to be okay with it, I hear, but ever since the exodus, they really hate humans, especially Outsiders. And of course, they’ve never really liked orcs either, even if the Urkurs have usually gotten along with them.”

Lily looked as confused as Magpie felt.

“I feel like there’s a lot going on here that I don’t understand,” she whispered.

“What are Urkurs?” added Magpie.

Skria looked at them with pity. “I sometimes forget how little you Outsiders know about things that matter. Urkurs are the bear totem orc tribe. Jess is part Urkurs, part human and part elf, and all three races have it in for her. I haven’t figured out why.”

Now things made a little more sense. Magpie remember that Runk had been from the boar tribe, the Urusk orcs. “Do the different orc tribes resemble their totem animals?” she asked.

“Of course, silly,” Skria said with a laugh. “Anyway, I should go check on her. See you guys later.” She went over to Jess’s door and let herself in after knocking.

After a moment of thoughtful silence, Lily spoke.

“Thanks for the knife, Magpie. That was really thoughtful. I hope it wasn’t expensive.”

“It’s just a little thing,” Magpie replied.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Lily pulled some coins out of her inventory. “I got a reward for completing the scenario today. Now I only owe you a favor!”

Thanks for the perfect setup, Magpie thought. “Oh, don’t worry about that.” she said. “Although… “

“Yes?”

“Okay, there is one tiny thing. Probably nothing. And you have to promise me you won’t get carried away.”

“Carried away how?”

Magpie assumed a serious expression. “We haven’t known each other long, Lily, but I get the sense that you’re involved in some serious stuff. You won’t talk about the Outside, which is fine by the way,” she hastened to add. “And you said you needed to infiltrate a compound, and you need to learn about the clans. Honestly, I’m worried about you. I don’t want to add anything to your plate. So you have to promise me that you will only keep an ear out for information. No spying, no investigating. Just, if you happen to hear something, you’ll let me know. Promise?”

“I promise!” Lily was practically bouncing. “Now tell me what I can do.”

“There’s a clan that has threatened my clan. They’re really bad people, Lily. Way stronger than my clan too. All I ask is that if you find out someone is a member or you hear any gossip, you let me know.”

Wait for it…

“Of course I will, Magpie. You can count on me.” She paused. “Um… what clan is it?”

Bingo. “Sinaloa.”

***

An hour later, Magpie was humming to herself as she walked down the hallway. In your face, Raven! she thought. She was pretty sure she hadn’t heard the whole story yet, but she had what she needed. What Uncle needed. She reached the hidden door she was looking for and entered the chamber beyond. Once there, she activated the wards to prevent scrying.

Gotta love Inside security protocols.

She pulled out the geode she had been carrying around for days, waiting for this moment. Strictly speaking, it was half a geode. The other half was somewhere else, she had no idea where, but the two halves were linked in such a way as to allow voice communication.

She took a moment to admire the purple and white crystals on the inside of the semi-spherical rock, and then spoke. “A little birdy told me something you might want to hear.”

“We’re sorry, the rock you are trying to reach has been disconnected. Please check your address and try again. Boop.”

“Real professional, Raven.”

“Hey, I know my audience.”

“Where’s Uncle?”

“What, you think he pines by the rock, waiting for your increasingly delayed call? I’m your contact on this gig.”

“Fine. Subject’s Outside name is Lilijoy, good luck finding records; she was a tribal indigene in the northern amazon with no connectivity until a month ago. Her friend or brother, she wasn’t clear on which, is being held at a Sinaloa compound, probably in Columbia. Intelligence is from Renaissance, over two weeks old.”

“Renaissance, eh? Not exactly known for their spycraft. What does Sinaloa want with a gob?”

“The subject was evasive. They want something he has, possibly legacy nanotech. Whatever it is, they haven’t gotten its location out of him, or so the subject thinks”

“Must be a tough little bugger. I doubt I’d last a day under Sinaloa methods. Still doesn’t answer the important question though. What is she in all of this?”

“That’s where it gets weird. Apparently, she has access to the same nanotech, so it's at least something like a Rank One. It can’t be anything standard, or Sinaloa wouldn’t care.”

“And how do you explain her performance in the Trial, and the signs of previous training? Something about her has all the subsets stirred up.”

“Some combination of luck and natural talent, I guess?” Here, Magpie knew she was on shaky ground. “I think she’s a savant of some kind. It wouldn’t be the first time someone came out of nowhere and changed the game.”

“Like Echelon?”

“Yeah, just like that.”

Echelon had been the son of agricultural workers who indentured themselves to provide a system to their autistic child. He had emerged from the Trial with incredibly high affinities for all elements, or so the story went; it had all happened sixty years ago or so. Too old for the Academy, he had somehow managed to gain four sources and teach himself enough magic to become the most powerful Outsider Mage within two years of his arrival. Then he moved on to Purgatory and disappeared. Depending on who you talked to, he had either been torture banned by powerful clans, died on the Outside from a stroke caused by overusing his brain, or discovered a new area beyond Purgatory and never returned.

There was a long silence from the other end. Then Raven spoke again. “Alright. Here’s the next step. Think of it as a graduation exercise. You will obtain the Outside location of the subject’s brother. The method is up to you, but expect no support beyond what Buzzard can provide from within the Academy. You are expected to maintain deniability to any Flock involvement. A win scenario is defined by the continuing good will of the subject, secrecy from the Corp, and you actually getting your shit together enough to pull it off. Understood?”

“What should I tell the subject?”

“Make up whatever you want, as long as you maintain Flock deniability. Leave the rock in here when you go.”

“Got it.”

Finally, a real mission. She already had some ideas for how to pull it off.