Douglas Miller
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MiP B2 Chapter 4: Concerns
🕑 Added 2024-04-22 19:36:11 +0000 UTC<< First | < Previous | Next >
High Lord Recindril Tostral stared across the practice yard at his opponent with intense focus, never blinking both eyes at once, for losing sight completely even for a literal eyeblink could be fatal in combat at his level. He was vaguely aware of the rest of the courtyard around them, the racks of practice weapons and a few trophies hanging high on the walls, and a part of him was alertly watching for any hint of danger from any direction. The bulk of his attention, however, was squarely on the younger man facing him with drawn swords at the ready.
It was remarkably similar to looking in a mirror. The young man in front of him had the same strikingly red short-cropped hair, the same alert brown eyes, the same angular chin, the same well-muscled but wiry frame, strong without being overly bulky. Even the youth's stance was identical to his own; right foot forward, knees bent, feet ready to dance like the wind across the ground, right-hand longsword extended forward to threaten an attack, and left-hand longsword held closer to parry. The family resemblance with his firstborn child and heir, Recindren Tostral, was unmistakable.
The younger Tostral finally made the first move, a short step forward and a lunge, but the high lord could tell it was only a feint. The movements of muscles and mana gave away his opponent's intentions to his finely tuned senses, and he responded with only a minute shift of his left sword, prepared to slap the strike away if Recindren tried to convert it into a genuine attack mid-lunge. Recindren withdrew his feint and shuffled to his right, trying to find or create holes in the elder's guard.
Lord Recindril rotated in place to stay facing his son and continued watching closely, analyzing for even the slightest flaw in the young man's movements. He fended off a rapid series of thrusts and slashes, practice swords ringing almost musically as their dulled edges clashed repeatedly. Soon, it would be time to counterattack and test the boy's defenses as well, but for now he merely played at being a hard target. That was an exceedingly scarce commodity for his son by this point, as only another noble would ever be able to stand up to the hurricane of steel the young man was unleashing on him. Most commoners, even high level adventurers, wouldn't even be able to see the attacks, much less block them.
His son needed a sparring partner he couldn't instantly overwhelm, and Recindril was happy to fill the role. It gave him some much-needed practice as well, though he still had to hold back. His heir may have been empowered by their mana wellspring, but Recindril himself had received that power as well, and had developed further beyond that point in the years since then. He had an advantage of 8 more levels of compression in his mana, and the additional speed, skill, and strength from that could have ended this fight decisively in fairly short order. Neither of them would learn much if he pushed that advantage as hard as he could, though.
The lord watched his son commit to a double lunge, one sword stabbing at his eyes and the other at his right shin, which was his most exposed body part. The move was superbly timed, with the eye strike coming just enough before the other to potentially distract from defending the leg. Against an opponent less able to keep calm, it likely would have scored a wound, maybe even a crippling one. Recindril just leaned his head a few inches to the side to barely dodge the eye stab and swung his right sword low to deflect the other. In the same movement, he smoothly pivoted forward, moving inside his opponent's guard to bring his left sword forward in his first attack of the bout.
He moved a bare measured hair less quickly than he could have, turning what could have been an instant defeat for his son into an opportunity for learning and recovery; a kindness he would never show to an actual enemy, such as those upstarts, Carlos and Amber. Not that either of them would be an issue much longer. Their souls should be dissolved already by now, and he was expecting a report of mission completion from the Black Blades very soon. That report is actually overdue at this point. Could something have gone wrong?
Recindril's mind was suddenly forced back to the sparring match by a stinging vibration in his left hand, accompanied by twin clangs of his son's swords hitting his left sword on opposite sides, trapping it between them and twisting it out of his hand. An instant too late, he realized that his son's attack, while genuine, had also been intended to bait exactly the response he'd made. He immediately stepped back and held out his empty left palm. "I yield."
Recindren backed off, lowering both of his swords, and frowned. "What's wrong, father? That move should not have worked that well against you. You seem unusually distracted."
Lord Recindril sighed, then walked over to the side and placed his remaining practice sword back on its storage rack. "Your sister's incident in Dramos should have been tied up neatly by now, but the report is late. The Black Blades are usually very punctual and professional. An unexplained delay from them is concerning."
The younger man pressed his lips together in silence as he put his practice swords on the rack too. "Concerning, yes, but it's unlike you to let any incident with a mere minor house weigh on your mind like this."
"Yes, but… which house is it?" The lord retrieved his disarmed sword from where it had fallen and added it to the rack. "At first I attributed Jamar's ignorance of that detail to merely her not having memorized every minor house's children, but I do not recognize them either, by name or description, nor have I found them in our records. I find myself wondering exactly what house we have come into conflict with. Their ignorance of the rotation agreement also seems strange." He sighed again and shook his head. "There are too many oddities in the situation for comfort, and Jamar's report is light on detail."
"Could they be foreigners? Have you checked the Crown's records? Maybe send Jamar back to investigate?"
Lord Recindril let out an amused huff. "A foreign house is technically a possibility, but would be an utterly bizarre mix of competence and stupid carelessness. I think it unlikely, and I hesitate to risk drawing the Crown's attention to a matter where they might regard us as being in the wrong. As for sending Jamar…" He turned and walked to the practice yard's door. "Send someone to investigate, yes, but not Jamar. We need someone unrelated, who no one might recognize. Jamar will just have to wait for her next slot in the rotation."
"You know she'll hate that." Recindren spoke lightly, simply stating a fact as he joined his father's walk.
"It can't be helped. Besides, a lesson in patience might be good for her." Lord Recindril hesitated, then nodded decisively. "It would soon be time to hand off Dramos to the next house in rotation anyway. Come with me, my son, and we'll tell House Golarn our concerns. They'll want to investigate it themselves for the security of their own scion's visit, and their investigators will have no connection to us."
Recindren nodded. "Of course, father." He walked alongside his father as he thought and wondered. If the Black Blades simply failed, they should still have reported that by now. What could be delaying them?
___
Deep inside the royal palace, below ground in a hidden and warded room, Captain Granlan of the Black Blades examined his gauntleted hands as he slowly curled them into fists, released them, and turned them over. Small sparks crackled and danced over the surface of the enchanted steel armor, and he reveled in once again feeling how the substance of lightning subtly permeated everything. He grinned widely and turned his head to look at the royal mage standing next to him. "Ahhh, that feels much better. And just this morning, I was sitting in prison and wearing suppression cuffs."
"Her Highness ordered your supervised release. Therefore, we released you." The mage, despite being a foot shorter and half Granlan's width, somehow seemed to be looking down at him while dryly stating an explanation fit for a child. "Now, we've removed your suppression, cleaned you, and returned your equipment. Are you ready to start on the tasks required to earn the Crown's mercy?"
Granlan bowed slightly. "Of course I am. Which of them would you prefer to discuss first?"
"How you prevented the equipment of two royal guards from detecting your intrusion or signaling for aid."
"Hunting down the details that you want will likely be as difficult as proving my client's identity, unfortunately. I was telling the truth when I said I do not know the mechanics of how it worked. I just wasn't telling the entire truth." Granlan smiled a little cheekily, but the royal mage just glared at him. "We used single-use specialty enchanted items from an anonymous supplier. The items destroyed themselves when used, and I truly do not know who the supplier is. The Enchanters Guild is the obvious suspect, of course, but I looked into them many years ago and found not even a hint of any similar items in guild stores. The items are runic in the manner of guild-made enchantments, not dungeon-made; I know that much, at least. But either there is someone else who knows how to make enchanted items work, or the guild is keeping these items a closely held secret."
The royal mage continued glaring for a moment, then nodded in acknowledgement. "I see. This self-destruction was in the same manner as how the soul decoys spontaneously disintegrated? How did you come into contact with this mysterious supplier, and how do you get the items from them? Are you able to acquire more for us to examine? Have you ever shown one to a guild enchanter?"
"Yes, same as the soul decoys, which came from them too. I tried bringing an item from that supplier to an Enchanters Guild store once. The item disintegrated as soon as I came near the store, and I received an irate letter the next day, admonishing me to never try that again." Granlan shrugged. "I decided it wasn't worth the risk of potentially pissing off a valuable and irreplacable business partner, and stopped pursuing it. As for our history with them, they contacted me decades ago via the anonymous channels I had set up for potential clients to hire us through.
"They included a sample item as proof that they truly could make things that I had believed were impossible. Their message directed me to leave my response, with a sample of my mana signature, in a specific location where their own arrangements would get it to them. They wanted to be kept informed of what jobs I took and for what payment. In exchange, they offered to sell special items to me, for very reasonable prices, as needed to enable me to successfully complete jobs that suited their purposes and that would otherwise be impossible." Granlan raised a hand to ward off the mage's response. "And before you ask, no, I have no idea what their purposes are. They refused to say, and I see no apparent pattern in which jobs they have offered to help with."
"Hmm." The royal mage tilted his head in thought. "I take it you can't just request to buy an item, then. You have to tell them about a job you've been offered and wait to see if they're interested."
"Correct."
"What did you tell them about the job that brought you here? You were not aware that the guards you faced were the Crown's, I believe."
Granlan cracked his knuckles. "I wonder if perhaps my client was unaware of that fact as well." He shrugged. "In any case, I gave them all of the information that my client gave me. I told them the objective, that the targets were young nobles named Carlos and Amber of an unknown house, that they had two competent, professional, and well-equipped guards, and that they were staying at a high-quality inn in Dramos. My mysterious supplier responded with an offer of two soul decoys that would adjust to match their designated targets, plus an item that would subtly disrupt the sensing and communication capabilities of the guards' equipment. No idea how, that's just what they told me it would do."
The mage raised an eyebrow. "Soul decoys that can adjust to match a target after being made? And that do so without an enchanter working on it?" He shook his head. "Are such things typical of this… supplier of yours?"
"Honestly? Yes. After all the things I've seen from them by now, I didn't even blink at this one."
"Hmm." The mage chewed his lip. "We will have to be cautious. How would you suggest attempting to find or identify them? Have you given the matter thought over the years?"
"Send them a message about a new job, try to track it, and pray that my stealthy tracking capabilities can somehow beat whatever their countermeasures are. I considered my odds of success, or even of my attempt going unnoticed, to be rather dismal." Granlan crossed his arms and smirked challengingly. "I'm sure the Crown will have better odds, of course."
The mage laughed. "We do have rather considerable expertise available for the problem, even if it's not the Crown's specialty. Very well, we will prepare for that."
Granlan rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, the Crown's specialty of utterly overwhelming force is undisputed and unchallenged. Now if you want to try the same sort of thing for proving that my client was House Tostral, we do have an opportunity for that too in a report I'm supposed to send, but time is running low for that. We'll have to get me back to my company before they declare me lost and my second-in-command sends his own report in my stead."
It was the mage's turn to smirk this time. "That will not be a problem. Just tell me where I need to teleport you to."
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Comments
BarGamer
Edit Suggestion: He moved a BARELY-measured hair less quickly than he could have,
Irony
So the tostral house is a martial people, super impressive skills too "I hesitate to risk drawing the Crown's attention to a matter where they might regard us as being in the wrong.“ you have no idea how right you are, you tried to kill a new founder Sounds like he’s finally piecing together that maybe that was a bad idea. He’s in for a surprise when the black blade does show up Oh it’s definitely the enchanters guild, they only give such items when it benefits them? And we know the guild has personal beef with Carlos and a lot to gain with him home. They have to make sure no other enchanter exists too Especially since he knew their names and that they were a new house "Soul decoys that can adjust to match a target after being made? And that do so without an enchanter working on it?" - I doubt it, I bet they had Carlos and ambers soul signature or something like that, since they had Carlos and Amber in cuffs and plenty of time to do so Oop, Tostral house is definitely in for a surprise because he going to be able to make it in time. They’re screwed
George
After re-reading chapter 57, I'm thinking it's most likely that the single use item only affected the two armor sets present at the time, but that all of them have built-in back doors and overrides hidden by attention diversions, which were possibly triggered by the single use item. I now think the triggering was a test run and would not at all have tipped the hand of whoever got those backdoors in place had Rossera not been there.
Russell
My understanding was that the reason the Crown didn't respond when the guards originally tried to call for help was that their armor attached an attention diversion "packet" to the call (so that the receiving end doesn't remember to respond), which Lorvans and co were only able to notice due to Ressara's specialization. I'm sure Crown Guard armor does have some of its own attention diverters but I don't think everyone would have responded like they did in Ch. 57 if they were supposed to show up in the scan. I'm just saying that, if it were me and I had the luxury of time to consider the implications, I'd be freaking out significantly more than they have (so far). Since apparently a "single use" item implemented by the Black Blades in Dramos affected, at minimum, 2 additional armors all the way in the Capital or wherever Lornera was, or more likely (and scarily) turned off the "call for aid" feature in every Crown Guard's armor everywhere.
Dummy
I'd assume the attention diversion enchantments are built into every royal guard's equipment, they just don't do anything except hide themselves until activated. Thus, the single use device was more of a remote than an applicator.
Russell
Hmm, if they used single use items to interfere with the Guard armor, then why did the ones that came with the Prince also have the interference when they scanned each other? They presumably weren't in the vicinity when the item was used. Unless he was answering a different question than was asked, and meant that the single-use item disabled the "call for aid" function of every single Crown Guard, rather than just the pertinent two. In which case the Unknown R&D Department is really, really terrifying and not just an opponent that outclasses House Carlos for now.
Markell
Also; (completely forgot to add to my comment) Good to see you back! Glad you’re doing better, hope the medication is doing its thing. I know it’s a bitch to get hold of right now so know you’ve got a bunch of people who understand and support you!
George
I normally don't read a chapter twice in a row, but I do always read the current chapter on Royal Road and the current chapter here, which works out to twice after a bit.
buzzonga
So good I had to read it twice. Once last night and again today.
George
Well, looks like not all the Tostral scions are complete brats. They're all still assholes, but not all brats. Here's the discussion on the armor hack tool I was waiting for. So, the Black Blades don't even know if their supplier knew they were targeting royal guards. Very mysterious. Either it was very multifunctional, or it targeted their specific enchantment set. Either way, perhaps the supplier did know and this was a test run to see if the decoy and suppressor tools worked on royal guard equipment. That would be very useful to know if you're planning to make a big move against the Crown. Yeah, I'm changing my guess on the supplier from a skilled rouge enchanter to a secret spook/R&D conspiracy within the Enchanter's guild. Just how high in the guild does this conspiracy go? (Well, assuming it exists.) EDIT: after re-reading Chapter 57 since posting this, I see I had forgotten that *all* the Royal armors had the attention diverting effect during diagnostics, which implies (but doesn't prove) the issue with the armors is not a hack but a built in back-door.
George
Assuming those barriers are made by spells or enchantments, and not someone using an ability gained from soul structures, since Carlos can only de-power an area's invocation system that way.
Jupiter
I was wondering about how would a quine would look like in this universe. it just remind me of Ra by qntm.
Bloop
I just mean cause it has been established that spells which draw on mana from the spell system can crash the network
Elain C. Moria
Now imagine if Carlos also liked Godzilla movies. Tell me him summoning up Godzilla to ruin someones day wouldn't put the fear of lizards into their family psyche for eternity? (yes I'm a Godzilla fan, been watching the movies since I was knee high to a blade of grass, so roughly 59 years now). Also, I am just being silly, but that would be funny as heck. Carlos: Oh him? He's a family secret... ok guess he's not so secret anymore. What's he eat? Anything he wants....
harkange 585
Thgat was one of the longest weeks in my life, happy to have your back towritting can't wait for the next chapet
allsampah
Welcome back.
viperfan7
Now I have to wonder what a SpellGPT would be like, now that you brought up adaptive soul decoys. Imagine combining a chatgpt like spell with a soul decoys, all the havoc that could bring with it. Also, I find it slightly ironic that they're talking about delays. ADHD fucking sucks, I have yet to find meds that actually work for more than a couple months for me
viperfan7
I was thinking the same thing, these mysterious benefactors are VERY bad news if they can make adaptive spells. It means they know the intricacies of the spell system, and thus, are possibly also programmers of some kind. As they figured out that magic is just programming. Hmmm, I wonder if there's an equivalent to the dark web in this universe, that implies there would be analogs to other things like 4chan, anon, and the NSA
Some BS Deity
New Chapter, can't wait for more.
Bloop
"Oh this? I call it an ICBQ, Intercontinental Ballistic Quine."
Bloop
it has just occurred to me that Carlos has nukes: he can obliterate the defensive barriers around any house's mana spring at will and dissolve the souls of anyone within their cities.
Markell
House Torstral is in for a rude awakening… also this sub-sect of the enchanters guild is frankly terrifying… I wonder if they too have access to “help”? Or perhaps other system privileges?
13L00D13ANE
Glad to see youre back at it! Health before all, my man. Looking forward to the next couple chapters!
TUSF
Just happy to have my MiP fix at this point.
Maurice Brown
Yay! The story is afoot! I like these responses to their actions. I can’t wait to see how everyone responds to the crown looking into things.
Dale
UTR
Centuri
Yay
Barbar
Yessir, back to peak
Chrystal 1776
Whoooo let's go!
