Interlude: Rosemallow

About four weeks ago…

She stood in Eskallia’s grove at first light, as she had every day since she returned to the Academy. As always, she spoke as if Eskallia was listening, though she rarely received any kind of reply.

“Masgret’s trying to get her claws in my student. How that… woman found a Way that made her even more of a bitch I will never understand.”

The leaves around her rustled, despite the still air.

“She’s going to fill her head with knowledge that the kid’s not ready for. I don’t think we’ve ever had one this young and dumb, and frankly, I’d like to keep it that way. There’s still time for her to toughen up and grow in the right ways. Can’t we give her some time to develop, to have at least a sliver of normality before she’s consumed?” Rosemallow’s last sentence took on a pleading tone that would have shocked any of her former students.

The leaves rustled again, and then a pool of water formed in front of Rosemallow and grew into a shimmering replica of her old friend.

“Dearest Mal, if it wasn’t for the softness hiding in your heart, we never could have redeemed you from your evil ways.” There was a long silence. Rosemallow stared at the ground by her feet, unable to bear the sight of Eskallia’s watery avatar. “You have made a very reasonable assumption, especially in light of the previous Union. But this girl is something different, both more and less than the elixir needed to quicken the coming Union. She would suffice, if necessary, but my divination of the Great Mind’s Way has shown me that she was not intended.”

Rosemallow forced her eyes to rise. “Well that’s… new.”

A relief, she had been about to say, but she had already revealed more of her heart than she had intended, even to the being who knew her better than any other.

“It is an opportunity. Through her, my own plans may finally bear fruit. Soon, Masgret will bring her before me, that I may judge her suitability.”

Rosemallow felt a mild sinking sensation in her chest, which she ruthlessly suppressed.

“How can I help?” she asked.

“You must keep her small. For this, I do not require another branch or bud. Those abound, and never have they served. No, for this, I require a seed.”

Rosemallow shook her head. “We can’t tell Ani about this. He has taken to the girl, become entranced by her presence in our world, much like the Gatekeeper.”

“Ani is not necessary to our plans. We have manipulated events to our liking, such that our involvement will be minimal.”

“Gods, you sound like Shadow when you talk like… oh. That ‘we’.”

“Yes. Our old friend was most gratified when you reached out to him.”

Rosemallow’s mind spun. In her currently reduced form she could not begin to follow the layers of the scheme revealed to her. Even were she able to make use of her mind’s full potential, she knew that she wasn’t qualified to understand the warp and weft of any plot involving Eskallia and Shadow.

That bastard. He said he would be here at the end. I wonder if he was right about me finally seeing?

Chapter 13: Inverse

Two people sat in a room.

“Sweet Christ, could this be any more boring?” asked one. “Come on. Let me have a turn.”

The other did not reply. His palm rested on a glowing spear of white crystal and his eyes were closed.

“Dude!”

The other man opened his eyes and looked at his compatriot with irritation. “Dude yourself. Only five minutes left in the show. Relax.”

The first man made a small sound of exasperation and settled back in his chair. “Well I get it after we’ve finished processing the serfs. Pasquel can go play in the dirt some more. I don’t care...”

Whatever the man didn’t care about was lost, when the heavy door of their chamber flew across the room, smashing into the crystal-gazing man and nearly smashing the crystal itself. In the door’s wake was a large figure with her shoulder down. She stumbled across the room and collided once again with the door, where it had come to rest on the far wall. The door’s impact with the wall was softened, slightly, by the presence of the crystal-gazing man’s body.

Guess he’s not going to find out what happens at the end of his show for a while, thought the first man.

A dart bounced from his cheek as he surged to his feet to counter the charging… gnome? Whatever it was, it was moving as fast as any humanoid he had encountered over his years Inside, following on the heels of the door-breaker.

Just my luck that the Wraiths attacked us here when Arturo and Liza were pulled out, he thought as he intercepted the first two of six Qi blasts. The rest came too quickly for him to process, so he was filled with relief when he saw the damage.

Qi Barrage inflicts

36 damage

Thank God for my ring, he thought. This creature may be fast, but it, she, doesn’t seem to be much of a threat. If they were allowing us to wear our armor, I wouldn’t have gotten a scratch.

The orders hadn’t made any sense, though that was nothing new. Honestly, no one had really minded not being confined in hot leathers or heavy metal while they sat around killing time, so there weren’t any complaints.

He had just enough time to grab his short sword from inventory and cast his Ice Armor spell. Behind him, he heard a roar as Julio threw off the door pinning him to the wall. Now the fun begins, he thought.

He lashed out at the tiny girl, closing the last foot of distance with a sudden icy extension to his blade. Just as he was about to drive the point through her neck, his inner ears flipped and he lost his balance, instead drawing a thin red line the length of her jaw when his driving leg propelled his entire body into the air.

What the…

He lost track of the little one as she scurried past his floating legs, somehow using her hands to pull herself along the floor. Then there was a blinding flash of light and pain as something crushed his skull and he was riding the white.

***

Lilijoy looked away from the mottled face and bulging eyes of their last opponent.

Air magic is disturbing, she thought. Disturbing, but very powerful.

It hadn’t been the vacuum spell that killed the large man though. At Skria’s current level of expertise, she could only hold it for a few seconds, and in a fixed area at that. The man hadn’t known that though, and his moment of panic allowed the rest of the party to pile on the critical hits that brought him down.

“Did you see the look on the ice guy’s face when he left the ground?” Magpie asked with a laugh. “I’ve got to get me one of those gravity thingies. I don’t suppose you could tell tall and scary that we lost it?”

The moment that the ice man’s sword doubled in length faster than she could react was probably fixed in Lilijoy’s memory for good. Everything that happened immediately after was quite muted by the absolute clarity of the near death experience. She remembered escaping along the floor, and seeing Magpie absolutely tee up on the man’s head with the weighted end of her chigiriki’s chain.

“You’re welcome to try,” she replied. “I’m sure Master Rosemallow would be very understanding.”

Magpie shuddered and turned to consider the crystal, which had miraculously remained intact through the mayhem. Lilijoy turned her gaze there too. Here it was, the object of their expedition, now within their grasp. It looked like something just pulled from the ground, an uneven hunk of quartz or something similar, prism piled upon prism into a skinny pyramid, shaped almost like the pointed top of a stalagmite.

“Not much to look at, is it?” Magpie noted.

“I just touch it?”

“That’s what I read. There weren’t any relevant experiences in the mystic library, at least none I had access to. Once you touch it, your system can form an interface with the specific outside network it’s attuned to. Evidently, the attuning process is a major pain, and Outside security protocols can break the connection, so odds are good that we’ll find an unsecured network on the other end."

Lilijoy let Magpie’s words flow in the background. She knew all of that already, had known it since their very first meeting to plan the infiltration. There was a good possibility that they weren’t truly done, that this crystal would be connected to a network that had no information of any value to her. Her built-in bias detectors were screaming at her, identifying her hesitation as reluctance to face the simple fact that they probably weren’t finished in Averdale.

Jeesh, can’t I have a few seconds to be a normal person? she asked her system.

Naturally, there was no reply. Her mind was all in one place for this moment, for the possibility that the next phase of her life could begin.

She reached out her hands.

Even before her palm touched, she felt it, saw it too. Nandi’s boon was glowing, resonating with the oracle stone. She felt a force pull her hand like a strong magnet, heard the audible click as she made the connection.

Her mind went elsewhere, somewhere very different from whatever expectations she had been able to glean from her research of oracle stones. She stood in a grassy field. In front of her was a glowing form, a translucent outline of Nandi, the bull. This Nandi was white and luminous, and when he spoke, his voice sounded thin and distant.

“Greetings, Lilijoy of the Teeth and Arms.” While bulls could not smile, there was no mistaking the joy in his voice. “You have awoken the fragment of myself I placed inside my gift to you. I bear you a simple message, both explanation and apology. Perhaps I should deliver the explanation first. My Way is that of that of joyful anticipation, the eager awaiting of that which is to come. It is why I have chosen to usher in new souls from Outside for these many years. Though many try to hide it, none can escape the powerful excitement of a threshold to a new life and new discoveries. Thus it is only in my nature that my gift to you would create more of the same. I look forward to experiencing your excitement as you discover and utilize the wonders contained therein. I apologize for the lack of any clarity or instruction, but that would ruin the fun, wouldn’t it?”

Seeing a bull wink was new to Lilijoy.

“One last thought before I go. A riddle for you,” His voice became serious. “Four have come before, only one persists. Seek out the master of five eyes so that there may be two.” His voice began to fade. “Fare thee well, little dancer.”

The field around her faded as well, first to black, and then into a uniform gray with a single message floating in front of her.

Connecting to network...

Well, that was interesting. Like I don’t already have enough to think about. Nandi, I’d love to give your boon the anticipation it deserves, and your riddle the attention it no doubt merits, but those will just have to wait.

The Sinaloa network opened before her and she flooded it with requests for information, using her system capabilities to map and explore the file structures and search every corner where the information she wanted may be hiding. The translation protocols of the Inside seemed to be in effect still, but just to be safe she had prepared possible search terms and phrases in many languages, especially Spanish. It didn’t take her long to realize that the network she had accessed was somewhat limited. As she had feared, it connected to standard sources of information, and possessed extensive records pertaining to the management and oversight of the workers, as well as programs for managing their systems remotely.

She set her system to vacuum up as much data as she could, then split her mind again and again, straining to uncover any possible lead, hoping to find a way to access more valuable data. In seconds she had her first lead. The database of workers had their places of origin and current locations, as well as that of their families. This allowed her to cross-reference maps she had found online and refine her sense of where major Sinaloa holdings were located.

There was also much to be learned from the personnel files of the overseers. She quickly realized that Sinaloa was not particularly well organized as a bureaucracy, though it was clear they had some aspirations in that direction. The files had random formats and inconsistent types of information, including one that was simply a picture of handwritten notes, which made it hard for her to quickly scan through them. Several of them contained links to other databases, and it was there that she had her breakthrough, by following a link that led to another server. Her system blasted through some low-level security protocols and then she had access to unencrypted files containing lists of new and provisional members of the clan going back decades.

With a silent apology to Nandi, she dampened her anticipation, restrained the excitement that she felt. It was only another step in the right direction after all, not the answer she was seeking. Most of the other areas of the new network she had found were much better secured, and her system wouldn’t be able to access them in the time she had available. There were a few file systems that would only take minutes for her to access, and she set to work on those, while she began to analyze the list of new and provisional members.

Her first realization was just how unlikely it was for a provisional member to be accepted. Looking through the long, long list, provisional members outnumbered new members by at least twenty to one. It also became clear that Sinaloa was less of a traditional clan, where family lineage and inheritance dictated membership and standing, and more of a brutal meritocracy, at least at the lowest levels. The vast majority of the names on the provisional list had a ‘deceased’ marker, while relatively few had the ‘promoted’ one.

She was still looking over that list when her system notified her that a new file had been added to the previous server, the one directly connected to the oracle stone. At first, she dismissed the prompt without thinking much about it, but after a few seconds, she couldn’t help herself, and returned her awareness to the first network to see what it was. The file was titled ‘Indigenous Worker Program’ and she opened it immediately.

A quick search and there he was. Attaboy Duende, at a work camp in Calamar, Columbia. There was even a picture of him attached. An electric thrill went through her, and she studied the picture, looking for signs of abuse and injury while renewing her acquaintance with Attaboy’s familiar features.

I’ve done it. I’ve finally done it. What are the odds that…

A chill passed through her, displacing her previous excitement. What indeed were the odds that this file would just happen to show up when she happened to be looking?

Honeypot.

The word floated in from her internet memory.

They know I’m in the system. And that means…

She pulled out of the oracle stone as fast as she could.

“It’s a trap!”

Her companions stood around her, looking up at dirt falling from the ceiling, their faces already showing signs of fear and surprise.

I guess it’s time to learn what ‘ride the white’ means.

“Time to respawn!” she yelled as she willed her death-wish device to detonate.

Nothing happened.

She saw surprise on Skria’s face as well.

The ceiling above them ripped free with a great grinding sound, not falling, but moving up and away in a cloud of dirt and dust, revealing the late afternoon sun and a host of armored figures looking down upon them. She grabbed the backup method, a poison pill Skria had made for her using the most vile ingredients available, but before she could bring it to her lips she heard a voice.

“Don’t move,” the voice explained, reasonably enough. She froze in place.

A part of her mind that was occupied with going through the files she had absorbed abandoned its task and surged to the fore. She quickly rerouted control of her motor circuits away from the part of her mind that heard the command and jammed the pill in her mouth. Magpie had warned her of this possibility, that a Charm Master might be employed to prevent respawn techniques, and Lilijoy had developed a number of failsafes to avoid being captured in this way. She quickly turned off her hearing to avoid being convinced to regurgitate or something of that nature.

You have been poisoned!

Unknown substance

20 points of damage per second for 30 seconds

Health 77/97

It was a bit of overkill, but now she just needed to help the others in the three seconds she had left.

She took a quick inventory of the scene, her mind at full speed. Jessila was in the process of falling, caught off balance by the Charm Master’s command, with Skria clinging to her shoulder. Magpie was nowhere to be seen.

Did she betray us?

Lilijoy couldn’t focus on that now. She had one more option to help her friends escape. Skria was first, only a few feet away and immobilized by Charm, Lilijoy dispatched her in the first second.

Critical! (x2)

Qi Strikes inflict 90 points of damage.

You have been poisoned!

Unknown substance

20 points of damage per second for 29 seconds

Health 57/97

She pushed her very mixed feelings about pulping her helpless friend to the side and turned her efforts to Jessila. This was a much more daunting task, and she wasn’t sure she could do it in the time remaining. It didn’t help that Jess was falling at an angle which made it difficult to hit her vital areas. Lilijoy did her best to target her friend’s head, but as she feared, glancing blows didn’t produce the criticals she needed to work through two hundred and fifty health points.

Qi Barrage inflicts 60 points of damage.

190/250

You have been poisoned!

Unknown substance

20 points of damage per second for 28 seconds

Health 37/97

Jessila hit the ground and Lilijoy dashed up her immobilized form, which cost her almost half a second.

I just need four crits. I can do this.

She launched into her barrage of Qi strikes, but to her horror, they were intercepted by a glowing shield that manifested over Jessila’s head.

You have been poisoned!

Unknown substance

20 points of damage per second for 27 seconds

Health 17/97

This was a scene from her worst nightmares. She would be abandoning the most vulnerable of them all to Sinaloa’s tender mercies. Jess had no ability to log out, no way to reduce the pain she would feel. Lilijoy felt a scream of frustration begin to tear through her throat as she pumped her arms, delivering impotent Qi blasts in the last fraction of a second she had available.

The dagger came with no warning, slicing through the tender, perfect skin of Jessila’s throat. In the last fraction of a second remaining to her she turned to see Magpie standing next to her. A new message flashed through her internal awareness, one she almost ignored in the relief that they had gotten away after all. Surely, Magpie would have been able to take her own poison pill if she had escaped from the Charm.

You have entered a healing aura.

You have been healed for 15 points

You have been poisoned!

Unknown substance

20 points of damage per second for 26 seconds

Health 12/97

No!

She watched as the same emotion of alarm crossed Magpie’s features, watched as she turned the dagger toward Lilijoy when she could have just as easily slit her own throat.

Lilijoy lifted her chin to accept her friend’s sacrifice.

The black-feathered arrow took Magpie through the skull before she could complete the motion.

You are in a healing aura.

You have been healed for 15 points

You have entered a recovery zone.

You have been healed for 10 points

You have been poisoned!

Unknown substance

20 points of damage per second for 25 seconds

Health 17/97

Even as Magpie’s body fell to the ground, the stone at Lilijoy’s feet rose around her, encasing her arms and legs.

You are in a healing aura.

You have been healed for 15 points

You are in a recovery zone.

You have been healed for 10 points

You have been poisoned!

Unknown substance

20 points of damage per second for 24 seconds

Health 22/97

The last thing she saw before the stone covered her eyes was the archer, Jack.

Raven.

He gave her an apologetic shrug and vanished.

She had been captured.