The Conciege
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(TLO) Chapter 134: Dead Accords
🕑 Added 2024-01-18 04:35:15 +0000 UTCFire crackled with the effervescent snapping of burning wood. It rested as small as a campfire in a fire place that had not been in Jim’s office the last time Seth was there.
Today he stood before Jim’s desk with hands behind him and legs spread apart at shoulder length. Right now he was not an adventurer reporting to his benefactor. He was a seminarian reporting to his handler.
“I am to believe this adventurer was something of a false ranker?” Jim asked calmly, having listened to Seth’s rendition of the events of the cleared silver nest.
Seth nodded once. “Yes, Reverend.”
“And what did you say his name was?”
“Nosam.”
“His full name, Oden.”
Nosam Beltwich, his mind reminded him.
“Nosam Beltwich,” he answered promptly.
Jim grinned. “Beltwich.” He said the name like a predator savoring the taste of the hunt. A hunter who’d found the tracks of a particularly palatable prey. “Do you know the name Beltwich?”
Seth shook his head.
“They are not a popular name. But maybe you might’ve heard of Senator Russel Beltwich.”
Seth kept every expression from his face. “No.”
Jim nodded, as if in understanding. “That’s unsurprising,” he said. “You don’t remember much of your life before the seminary, even if you spent a part of it here. Senator Russel Beltwich, or should I say former Senator Russel Beltwich is believed to have stepped down from power amongst the top echelon of the government. The rumor is he had a disagreement with them and abdicated his position in government. The truth, however, is unknown.”
Seth waited quietly, receiving information he had partially. At least now he knew how a mere silver mage had information only available to the government; how the team had known the Oracle had already predicted the next world crack.
“But to find his grandson in the adventurer’s guild is just precious,” Jim continued. “Some would argue that when Russel stepped down, he became free of the signed agreement that none with government ties would have anything to do with the adventure guild, the hunter association, or any of the Barony’s ruling. But that would be false. Once a politician,” he tapped a finger against the table, “always a politician.”
“So Nosam is a spy?” Seth asked.
“Most definitely. I wouldn’t bet on it normally. But if you’re right and he’s a false ranker, then he’s most definitely a spy.” He paused, then turned a more serious gaze on Seth. “Did you people get what it was he was looking for?”
Seth shook his head. “But whatever it was, he was very eager to find it. It cost him two of his team members and he wasn’t deterred. If all of us hadn’t agreed to turn back, he would’ve led them to their deaths over it.”
“The government has a spy in the adventurer’s guild.” Jim laughed. “And a false ranker at that, responsible for the deaths of two other adventurers. Oh, this is gold. I guess you aren’t just a burden to me after all. It doesn’t excuse you for doing a contract I did not give a go ahead for but it’s a start in paying for it.”
“So the guild did give Nosam the contract?” Seth asked.
“No.” Jim slid out a drawer in his desk and took out a green orb that reflected the light of the fire place so that it seemed to glow an odd green. “Lucas wouldn’t sanction such a contract. And even if he did, to go in search of something so important in a cleared silver nest he’d send a team of Silver adventurers.”
Seth’s minds caught onto a word and he capitalized on it. “Something so important,” he said. “You know what’s down there, Reverend?”
“I do.” He drew a finger along the body of the orb, inscribing runes Seth couldn’t see. “But its inconsequential. The seminary has more than enough dilators to go around. We don’t need one of Lucas’. However, Ex-Senator Russel’s false ranker grandkid is a different thing.”
Seth nodded but did not understand completely.
A dilator was used to close fissures. An engineering master piece of the human race. One of its early soulsmiths had succeeded, with the help of others, in creating something capable of closing a weakened fissure. But why would Nosam be willing to risk so many lives just to get one back.
From the little he knew there weren’t so many. The soulsmith who’d come up with the blueprint for their creation had kept it close to his chest, never sharing it with anyone. So when he’d gone missing near ten years ago, the number of dilators became limited. Barons and organizations couldn’t simply request for new production anymore. But there were still enough to go around.
Did the guild lose more than Jim knew down there?
It was a good question to ponder on. It was also a question he would not get an answer to.
………………………………………………
Seth sat crossed legged on his bed. His room in the Willow’s Tripe inn was dark with a touch of moonlight sneaking in through the window. It cast him in a pale blue that gave him the visage of something mystic.
Below him, somewhere downstairs, the inn was filled with the cacophony of adventurers celebrating one successful adventure or the other.
The innkeeper had offered to bring him something to eat for dinner when he’d pulled himself in from another expedition with his silver rank team. This one had lasted four days, three of which had been spent on the road. As for the offer of dinner, he had refused graciously. As tired as he’d seemed walking in, his fatigue was only of the mind. Pulling a trigger from a great distance could only tire out a mage very little. His core remained full and his body fresh. The only action he’d gotten was from refusing to pass his daily quests.
The consequence of his belligerence of them was the only experience he had.
Tonight he sat with eyes closed and a frown on his face. His hands rested on his knees in the way the monks of old eastern cultures often sat in meditation, in some need to attain some higher concept. For him, there was no meditation. There was no need for higher concepts or clearer minds. He sat this way because it was comfortable.
So he sat with beads of sweat pooling on his wrinkled forehead, gathering above his brows. He concentrated as best he could, given the task before him. His breathing was controlled so that he cycled his core at will, forced it to pump reia through his channels so that he remained constantly flooded.
Today he didn’t focus on the accomplishment of some quest or the other. He had a quest still pending but not immediate, so he listened to his minds and indulged them in a curiosity they’d been trying to assuage for months now.
Yes, one of his minds thought. That feels right. A little more focus.
Seth forced himself to concentrate. What was required of him wasn’t some calm collection. They’d already tried that and found it moot for the task they wished to complete. They’d also tried his right hand and found it incapable of the task at hand.
So he sat cross legged in a quiet room attacked by sounds from a lower floor, focusing any will he could gather to the task.
In his left hand a beast core rested in the discomfort of a forceful hold. He and his minds had long since learned aggression was the key. They thought of the very core as a defiant enemy only to be conquered aggressively. This was not a game of synergy. This was not the peaceful assimilation of a soul fragment. It was not an acceptance or a mutual agreement. This was a core having something they wanted and them taking it by force.
Again, not for the first time since they’d begun practicing this, his minds felt something he did not. He felt their excitement grow and doubled his efforts, hoping, wishing tonight was the night they found success. Then something cracked and he let out a frustrated sigh. When he opened his enclosed hand, the core at its center had cracks running all over it. However, it wasn’t broken. It remained intact enough to roll from his hand. It hit his mattress and rolled its way to the ground beneath it.
Seth breathed heavily, panting visibly. It was odd how a task that involved the invocation of no skill whatsoever drained him of reia so thoroughly.
We’re missing something, a mind thought with a touch of annoyance. We just can’t figure it out.
There was a desperation in the thought that worried Seth. He’d listened to his minds bicker and complain under the effect of different emotions. In truth, he’d felt them when they were desperate. But this was different. Unlike every other time, they seemed collectively desperate. They were united in this task, without disagreement or conflict. For the accomplishment of this, they were almost one.
“I think that’s the last one,” he told them. “We’re out of cores.”
A collective sigh ran through his head from four minds. The action proved lethargic and he found his tense body easing up. He scooted back so that he rested his back against the wall of his room and freed up his legs. Eyes still closed he wondered at what benefit the end result of this would be. He couldn’t absorb a soul despite how much he’d tried. But this showed promise. Deep in his heart he knew he would be able to absorb a soul fragment if he got this right.
Until then, he sat, tired, with his eyes closed. In his senses most of his room was warped. He could spread the reach of his awareness as far as he could but wouldn’t see much. Each time he did, most of his room was filled with the undulating cacophony found when looking at the world in a heatwave. Everything was distorted, and they rose from countless spots.
They were burning through too many cores every night they spent in the inn. At this rate his team was going to start asking questions. He was exchanging his pay for as many cores as he could get his hands on and was at the point where he wasn’t even being paid anymore. His fees now came in monster cores. So, for the money he needed to survive, he spent his time wandering through busy markets, taxing full purses and rich wives.
………………………………………….
“…And you’re saying we should join in on this?” Tao Mei asked.
Drew adjusted his glasses and Seth watched a look of satisfaction go through the adventurer’s entire body.
He’d joined the meeting today to find the leader of the team seated with a pair of glasses over his eyes. They looked medicated, but he knew they were not. Soul mages had no physical flaws. They did not fall sick or have poor eyesight or weak hearing. Everything physical about them had surpassed human limits. And they lived above human illnesses. If there existed an illness capable of affecting them, none had experienced it yet.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Tao Mei continued. “Everything about it seems suspicious.”
Today she wore a dress in the Chinese fashion and held her hair up in two buns on both sides. Her dress was a faint black with hues of brown that almost made it seem faded if not for the dark flower print design that remained a clear black. It had a slit that ran up the sides of both legs that made moving in it as an adventurer practical. At her neck it was finished off with a proper mandarin collar. And while Seth constantly battled the urge to stare, the team held its meeting.
Do we have a thing for Chinese dresses? One of his minds teased, and he made a pointed show of ignoring it.
“That’s why we’re only joining in once,” Drew said. “If it doesn’t seem like our kind of crowd, then that’s that.”
“You know,” Jaola joined in. “I wasn’t a good student in school. And what I learned from that is it’s when the good students decide they want to join in the bad things that the authorities somehow show up.”
Beside Beth, William nodded in agreement.
Finding out Jaola had attended the Academy had been a bottle of surprise to Seth. The Academy didn’t have too many drop outs, and those who’d successfully graduated from it with whatever honors—like Jonathan—usually found themselves some government work or a place in the hierarchy of some Baron or the other.
The founder of the academy wasn’t exactly public knowledge but the establishment had a reputation amongst the Barons and the government so that they accepted its products, even ones as defective as the few dropouts. To learn at the academy was to be groomed to stand amongst government officials and Baron subjects.
As for Jaola, it seemed he had opted for the adventurer’s guild, instead. And the fact that the guild was aware of his past affiliations and still allowed him the title of adventurer was confusing. There existed a possibility as to why Jaola had chosen the adventure society which fell under the same purview as Nosam Beltwich’s purpose as well, but Seth tried not to think too much on it.
“Just out of curiosity,” Beth said, thoughtful. “How exactly did you learn of this fissure nest?”
Drew shrugged. “I know a guy.”
“A guy you can trust?”
“A guy who only spreads shady information that could get people in trouble.”
“And you still want us to join?” Tao Mei asked, incredulous.
“No,” Drew answered in a placating tone, as if calming a feral cat. “I want us to see if it’s something that could work for us. If it’s not, then we leave it.”
Tao Mei opened her mouth and closed it, as if changing her mind. Then she turned to Seth. “Don’t you have anything to say about this, Silver eyes?”
It was a name she’d taken to calling him. The reason was simple and lacked creativity.
“Nope,” Seth answered, indifferent. “I’m just here for the ride.”
“It’s a silver rank fissure nest,” she said, as if hoping it would make a difference. “A silver nest formed around a silver rank fissure. That means its filled with silver rank beasts that never finish. By the time we kill the head of the nest more will come from the fissure and repopulate it in less than half a day.”
Seth nodded. “I know what a fissure nest it, Mei.”
“And you’re not objecting to it?”
He offered her an amiable smile. Even though he didn’t think of any of them as friends, Tao Mei often displayed the traces of having a soft spot for him, and that was something he could show a little appreciation for. That and the fact that her dress made it impossible for him to take his eyes off her.
“I’m an addition to the team,” he said, struggling to keep his eyes fixed on hers and nowhere else. “Ultimately, I hold no sway in team decisions except serving as a tie breaker, and you don’t need even that. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“Boy toy over there seems to know his place,” William chuckled. “It’s good to see he has a brain in that head of his.”
Seth gave him a flat stare. It was empty, with neither respect nor disrespect.
Ever since running into the Nooman a few months back and seeing what Nosam was capable of, Seth was beginning to suspect his silver rank teammates each held a formidable power he was yet to see. There was no point antagonizing an opponent he now knew he could not win, no matter who started it.
“I think the misconception Mei is having is why I’m suggesting we do this,” Drew said. “It’s not for the money.”
“But we will get some money out of it,” Beth added hurriedly. “Right?”
“Wrong.” Drew got up from his chair and approached the table at the center of their little gathering. “If an independent adventuring team under House fifty-eight suddenly started showing up with beast cores and fragments and parts that did not tally with the contracts they took, a lot of brows will be raised. Questions will be asked. That would botch the whole thing. We would be punished by the society and scorned by the teams.”
“Then why are we going there?” William asked.
“How’s it that Oden can learn his place but you can’t learn to think?” Jaola chuckled. “Apart from the resources, what other benefits can a fissure nest give?”
William scowled at his teammate but answered, “I’ve got no idea. Quick death?”
“Experience,” Drew corrected. “Each time the beasts in a fissure nest respawn, they are different.”
“And that’s why its deadlier than the other nests.”
“And that’s why it’s the best place to help us evolve.” Drew reached into his pocket and brought out a folded up piece of paper. “I don’t know about you, Will, but I think I’ve been Silver long enough. I have plans of evolving to gold as quickly as I can. And here’s my chance.”
“There’s always the world crack,” Seth said.
All eyes turned to him in the collective mixture of confusion and unconcealed humor. William laughed without restraint.
“And what does an Iron know of the world crack?” William asked between laughs.
Seth shrugged. “I know a guy.”
“Sure you do,” Beth said, words dripping with sarcasm.
“The issue with the world crack,” Drew said, as if the brief mockery had not just ensued, “is that only gold mages are let in. When there is a need for reinforcements, that’s when the silver teams are deployed. And they are handpicked by each organization. Or at least, that’s how the adventure society does it. I heard the hunters’ association uses something called beast points to determine which silver goes into the crack. And most importantly, no one knows when the next crack is. Not until the government announces it.”
Seth nodded slowly. It seemed there was no dissuading the idea of a fissure nest of silver rank. Not that he’d had any intentions of doing so. He’d merely tossed out that bit of information to test Drew’s resolve to attack the nest.
“Now that we’ve got that sorted out…” Drew raised the folded paper high enough for all to see. He unfolded it and spread it on the table, revealing the details of a map. “This,” he circled a minute portion of the map, “is the road to the nest.” He circled what was left of the map. “And this is the nest.”
“That’s massive,” Jaola observed, climbing down from his place at the window.
Each of them left their seats and approached the table. They surrounded it, looking down at the elaborate map in mild awe.
“They’ve already mapped out the nest?” Beth asked, impressed.
“Not all of it,” Drew answered. “But there are parts of the nest they’ve advised that no one enter. And I suggest we take their advice very seriously.”
“Wait,” Seth frowned, cocking his head and looking at the map from another angle.
Something about it seemed familiar, not the nest but the location of it. He touched the extreme edge of the paper where the path to the nest began and asked, “Where is this?”
“The hunters’ association,” Drew answered without looking up.
“Can I get a landmark,” Seth clarified. “Something like its distance from the Darnesh Manor?”
Drew looked at him skeptically, thought for a moment then answered. “A ten minutes’ drive east of the manor.”
Seth snorted and stepped back. He already knew this had something to do with the adventurer’s he’d been listening to when he got his beast glades quest. But he hadn’t known how insane adventurers could be.
“What’s wrong?” Tao Mei asked, watching him return to his seat with worried eyes.
“None of you know where that is?”
Jaola looked at the map then at him. There was mild recognition in his eyes, but it wasn’t substantial. It was the recognition of something a person knew but couldn’t bring themselves to remember how. It was like meeting a face seen in childhood but not remembering where it was seen or why. It was like seeing the face of an aunt’s friend’s cousin spotted once during a colleague’s wedding.
“Where is this, Silver eyes?” Tao Mei asked.
Seth sighed then folded his arms over his chest. He could only hope his answer carried the weight of what they were signing up for.
“It’s one of the Dead Accords.”
