Chapter 218. To Gnoste (Patreon)

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Aside from attending the Fassari Summit, Euryphel had never before been so far from the SPU in an official diplomatic capacity. After assuming the role of Crowned Executor, he had either conducted most of his duties remotely, or sent for other heads of state to approach Zukal’iss, the capital of the nascent federation.

Consuming multiple autonomous states under one mantle necessitated rapidly being brought up to speed on each state’s assets, capabilities, and secrets. The days following his coronation, Euryphel had received hundreds of page-long briefs from the member states. He tossed the SPU’s report aside–given his former position as Crowned Prime, it was only a formality–and used Regret scenarios to rapidly read the others.

One of the most shocking discoveries was that the Kyeilans had off-the-record arrays leading to remote areas in other countries. The information was extremely sensitive–creating and maintaining backdoor arrays was grounds for war. Euryphel knew that one such array led to Suvva, a country bordering Gnoste. However, until the federation established channels for inter-state transfer of exceedingly sensitive information, he needed to visit Kyeila in person to learn more details.

The Kyeilan array room where the Crowned Executor now stood was stark white and smelled of harsh cleaning agents. The arrays were smaller than those in the former-SPU’s array station–they weren’t built to transport large quantities of people, but individuals over long distances.

Guardian Urstes and Prime Shivin’i flanked Euryphel. Also in the room were two Kyeilan peak practitioners, Senator Xanus and General Zimmerman, as well as two white-coated specialists of End and Dark affinity, respectively. While Xanus didn’t currently hold a military title, the man was a retired member of the former Kyeilan president’s Aegis.

The  president’s presence was sorely missed. Dispatching Xanus–the dominant senate faction leader–was giving Euryphel some face, but it was less than he deserved. Even before founding the Selejo Imperial Federation, failing to send the sitting president to greet the Crowned Prime would have been seen as an insult. Now that the Kyeilan president was Euryphel’s direct subordinate, his absence was recklessly negligent.

The Crowned Executor and his companions let their displeasure show through their hard expressions and stiff posture.

Rather than making excuses for the president’s absence, Senator Xanus began touting the capabilities of the room’s central array. “It’s specifically configured to bring only one person at a time. While other arrays leave energy traces that trained practitioners could trace and detect, this array leaves only a hundredth of the normal residuals. There will be no trace.”

“And where will the array deposit us?”

“It’s connected to a bridge point in the Suvvan desert and maintained by staff under strict oaths. A Remorse practitioner will wipe all memories of your passage from their minds within an hour of your arrival and exit, respectively.”

“Can you point it out on a map?” Shivin’i inquired. “The Suvvan desert is a rather large area, and we’d like to know where we can expect to find ourselves.”

Zimmerman aimed her glossY at one of the windowless white walls, creating a projection of northern Kester. Xanus walked languidly forward and pointed his finger at a point near the Suvva-Gnoste border.

Excellent.

“I assume you all have your own documents?” Zimmerman asked coldly.

Urstes smiled while narrowing his eyes. “While we appreciate Kyeila’s offer to provide us with materials to facilitate our entry and exit, we did in fact come prepared.” Zimmerman made no such offer; Urstes was calling out the man’s impoliteness by failing to offer the courtesy.

Xanus gave General Zimmerman a sharp look before panning back to the foreign trio. He sighed. “Please excuse him–the war is fresh in his mind. We are all still adjusting to the new order.”

Euryphel smiled politely. “When will the array be ready to activate?”

Xanus gestured to the two practitioner staff on the side. “It’s ready now.”

Grunting, Urstes stepped forward. “Then let’s get on with it–daylight’s already fading over there.”

“You’re going first?” Euryphel asked.

“Of course–I need to make sure it’s safe. I’ll be going there and straight back. Will that be a problem, Senator?” Urstes asked.

One of the specialists wearing a white coat gave Xanus a pained look, but the senator ignored it. “That will be fine.”

Urstes stepped onto the center of the array. His fingers played with the hilt of his sheathed blade, giving him a rather casual air. The two specialists peeled off from the wall and walked over, stopping on opposite sides of the array and bending down. Hands touching the outer ring of the inscription, they began to work.

Invisible to all but End practitioners, the white coat on the left began to manipulate the array on the ground, connecting it to the inky dark tendrils pooling out from the hands of his partner. The darkness whorled and settled in the array’s gaps and divots.

A surge of darkness covered Urstes from head to toe, leaving only a silhouette. When it faded away, everyone could see that Urstes was gone.

They waited another minute and Urstes reappeared, no worse for wear. “It’s safe enough.”

Urstes left again–now it was Euryphel’s turn before Shivin’i brought up the rear. He stepped gingerly to the center of the array and waited, breathing slowly in and out to keep his nerves from flaring up. The Kyeilans would gain nothing by betraying you now, he reminded himself.

When he reached the other side, Urstes was already changing into a pair of civilian clothes and conversing with a Kyeilan staff member. The earth elementalist broke off his conversation abruptly and inclined his head toward the prince, startling the woman he’d been talking to.

“We should get going immediately,” Urstes argued.

“No complaints there,” Euryphel replied. “Did you ask which way we’re facing on the map?”

“West,” the guardian replied.

Shivin’i appeared and rolled his head to the side, shaking off his disorientation. With everyone present, they made their way through the small compound–little more than a concrete slab recessed between two boulders in the desert.

“They weren’t joking about this place being small,” Euryphel murmured. Despite the mixed political signals, the Kyeilans hadn’t sent them into a trap–there really was a tiny base staffed by a handful of people in the middle of nowhere.

Urstes’ earth elementalism helped to steer the group towards the nearest hovergloss terminal, his elementalism able to pick up on the vibrations of civilization. Using wind and earth elementalism, they rapidly ate up ground as they closed in on their destination. That kind of travel was reckless if they were trying to stay under the radar, but Euryphel scouted the way forward in Regret scenarios, ensuring that they wouldn’t be discovered.

They reached a small town without incident and proceeded to the nearest hovergloss station. Euryphel discreetly blew air over their clothes to remove dust and Shivin’i used his Beginning affinity to scope out suspicious individuals in the environment.

Their vigilance was ultimately unnecessary: Nobody questioned their appearance as they boarded a hovergloss toward Morinapol. Safe from discovery within the hovergloss, Euryphel peered outside the window.

“I almost feel like I’ve been here before, in a way,” he commented. “I led him through this desert.”

After forty minutes, the hovergloss approached Morinapol. The city was large, with a mix of new and old buildings. The blue-gray bay twinkled behind skyscrapers. Euryphel scanned the skyline until he found the parliament building where Ian first met Soolemar in a scenario.

He’d heard the place described so many times as he ran scenario after scenario–seeing it in person was uncanny. A few months ago he wasn’t sure he’d survive the year–visiting a country on the other side of the world hadn’t registered as a possibility.

And yet fate had brought him here to meet with one stubborn man who refused to leave Gnoste. Soolemar.

Ian had given him Soolemar’s basic contact information. It was enough to find his address: a lakeside penthouse.

As they approached the high rise, Euryphel asked Shivin’i what the best way to approach would be.

“I thought you had his number,” Shivin’i asked. “Why not just call? Let him know you’re a friend of Ian’s come to pay an important visit regarding a common enemy?”

Euryphel frowned. Shivin’i made it sound so easy, but Euryphel had his doubts. This was a thousand-year-old lich they were talking about. He’d already reached out to the man formally through the Crowned Executor’s office, inviting him for a formal visit, but he’d declined without providing an explanation other than, “unavailable.”

Even if he was friends with Ian, Soolemar might consider the encroachment of three peak practitioners as a rude gesture or threat.

In Gnoste, Euryphel’s visible End arrows were much reduced–he didn’t have as much fate with the people there. The most distinct arrows led to Urstes and Shivin’i. But there was another unassuming thread–once part of the background tangle–that was growing clearer. Euryphel traced its length and could see it physically moving closer.

Euryphel entered a scenario and started running, shouting for Urstes and Shivin’i to wait while he tried something. He turned the corner of a brick grocer and found himself face to face with a silver-haired man and his matching silver-coated dog. The man’s eyes were an arresting green, and his features were like aged wine–mature and distinctive; overall improved rather than diminished on the grindstone of time.

The man was a tangle of fate. How did I not notice him when I first arrived?

“So,” Soolemar began, walking up close to Euryphel and stopping. “I take it a certain someone sent you?” He reached down to scratch his dog on the chin.

Still in a scenario, Euryphel decided to push Soolemar to see how he would react. His therapist’s disapproving face came to mind, but Euryphel ignored it–Soolemar wasn’t a member of his own guard or a prince on the council. Euryphel had every justification to prod and test the man in scenarios.

“Ian has always spoken highly of you,” Euryphel replied. “Did he ever mention that we searched for a necromancy teacher together? You were the first we found, but you turned out to be better than we could have hoped.”

Soolemar’s eyebrows twitched at the mention of necromancy, but otherwise maintained a pleasant expression. “This is a scenario, isn’t it?” He chuckled. “Oh, Ian mentioned you often, though I don’t believe he ever said that you helped him find me.”

As soon as someone guessed that they were in a scenario, their actions inevitably changed. That was usually grounds for terminating a scenario early, but Euryphel wasn’t quite finished. “I know that Ian’s a masterful decemancer, but where would you place his skill as a necromancer?”

Soolemar responded immediately. “Decemancy falls under the umbrella of necromancy–there’s no reason to assume his talent for necromancy is inferior. His only weakness is inexperience, but that’s being rectified as we speak.” He snorted. “Ian’s a fast learner.”

Euryphel suspected as much, but was still glad he asked–hearing other people compliment Ian warmed his heart. Too many people didn’t see Ian the way Euryphel did. Aside from the SPU, the Selejo Imperial Federation’s member states equated Ian to a scourge. Even the people in Zukal’iss whom Ian had saved his Deathseeds felt terror and trepidation more than reverence and love. It was one thing to see a champion fighting duels in the Fassari Summit and another thing entirely to see news footage of said champion single-handedly wiping out hundreds of enemy soldiers with a thought while churning out armies of disturbing bone minions.

“How many other necromancers exist in this world on his level?”

Soolemar pointed a thumb at himself. “Me. Potentially Kurin Ventrebel, though I haven’t seen him since he agreed to go into hiding years ago. I’m sure others have the potential and just haven’t been given the opportunity to develop it.”

Euryphel sighed. That was about what he expected, but still unfortunate. “In the real world, if I asked you to bring me to your apartment to talk, would you?”

Soolemar shook his head and smiled. “I’d much rather bring you to my cave.”

Euryphel snapped out of the scenario. Urstes and Shivin’i stood next to him, waiting for his command. He bit his lip and walked off alone as he entered another scenario. This time, rather than walking until he ran into Soolemar, Euryphel used his wind elementalism to transmit a message. “Soolemar, it’s Eury. I’ve come because we need to talk. Is there somewhere we can meet in private?”

Soolemar clearly had experience working with wind elementalists. He began to carefully mouth words so that Euryphel’s practice could feel the shapes of his lips. “Enter a scenario.”

“You’re in one, though I’m surprised that you’re just going to take my word for it.”

“Ian trusted you, and even when everything turned to shit, you didn’t turn on him,” Soolemar replied. “Good enough for me. I’ll entertain you in my cave if that’s acceptable.”

“Where is it?”

“Come find me and I’ll mark it out on your glossY. Hidden cave’s don’t exactly have addresses.”

Euryphel speed-walked over to Soolemar’s location. When Euryphel turned onto Soolemar’s block, the man was peering into the window of a men’s high-end clothing store. Euryphel knew that Soolemar had probably been able to sense his approach from at least a block away.

Euryphel joined Soolemar at the window. As though the two were companions, Euryphel passed his glossY over to the necromancer and waited for him to mark the cave’s location. When he finished, Euryphel took back the glossY and committed the location to memory.

He snapped out of the scenario, re-entered the location into his real world glossY, and reached out to Soolemar again, replaying through the beginning of the previous exchange.

“Enter a scenario,” Soolemar commanded.

“No need,” Euryphel replied. “I have the address, but not a time. It needs to be today, as soon as possible.”

“I can get to my place in thirty minutes.”

The prince nodded and clasped his hands behind his back. “Then I’ll see you there.”