Chapter 343. Playing the Player (Patreon)

Ian rubbed his eyes. Achemiss was impersonating him? “Excuse me?”

Maria barked a laugh at Euryphel’s supposition. “That’s one possibility I didn’t foresee.”

Ian gave her a look. “That’s an understatement. I thought we might try impersonating Achemiss to frame him for doing bad stuff and weaken his bond with Sere, but it seems like he’s already a step ahead.”

“I bet he’s going to take perverse pleasure in ruining your image,” Maria said, her voice losing its previous mirth. “Y’jeni, this is quite devious.”

Euryphel interrupted their sulking with a gust of wind. “You’re forgetting that since Sere thinks that it’s working with Ian, Achemiss’s strategy is a double-edged sword. We have the actual Ian Dunai here with us. If we get Ian in the same room as people like Clara Belvaire, just think of what we can learn.”

Ian wondered how Euryphel planned to get him in the “same room” as important Sere officials like Clara. In-person meetings were a possibility, albeit a risky one. A potentially better solution was catching a glimpse of Clara while using the transmission artifact on someone else in Sere that Ian had met during his travels.

Suddenly, his Beginning affinity derailed his train of thought, revealing a potential leap in logic he’d neglected. At once, he realized Euryphel’s true plan.

“You’re planning to call her here,” Ian posited. He withdrew the Blade of Revelation and infused it with ascendant energy, then pointed its edge at the transmission artifact. “You can call her even if I can’t. And you think that if we see her, even if she’s just a transmission, it’ll be equivalent to seeing her in real life.”

Euryphel let out a single chuckle. “Got it in one. And actually, you’ve already done just that in a scenario. I called her here and confirmed that you could use the normal, untransformed transmission artifact to visit her afterwards. You just don’t retain your memories when the scenario ends. And before you ask, I tested sharing your memories with another version of you in a different scenario. Using the memories alone, you couldn’t visit her with the artifact.”

“Impressive, Euryphel,” Maria praised. “Seeing your methodical mind at work makes me feel less bad about my loss to you in the war.” She pinched her fingers together. “Only a little bit, though.”

Ian’s gaze was fully focused on Eury, almost rude in its intensity. He didn’t notice Maria’s questioning look. He just stared, completely lost in his thoughts.

One thought dominated the others. Eury was an incredible force multiplier. With his scenarios, he could do in seconds what might take Ian hours or days. He and Maria had tried to make moves against Achemiss, but those efforts had been... not great. Now that they were finally united with Euryphel, things were moving significantly faster. Ian could work with other Regret practitioners, like Ascendant Red, but working with Euryphel just felt different. Better.

Ian felt incipient dread as he considered that he’d need to leave Euryphel behind when he returned to Eternity. Dread that Euryphel and all his brilliance would die in a few short decades, or maybe even sooner in their violent world. He hoped that Euryphel would ascend, but even if the Crowned Executor had a better chance to do so than most… Ian’s Beginning calculated that it was an unlikely outcome.

It left a bitter, painful pit in his stomach.

He averted his eyes and exhaled, imagining all the negative emotions flowing out of him with his breath. He sensed the confusion and concern through his bond with Maria.

I’m fine, he told her, just lamenting that we’ll need to leave a powerful asset behind when we return to Eternity.

Ian felt Euryphel’s blood rush subtly to his cheeks and ears in response to the piercing gaze. He chose to ignore it, knowing that Euryphel hated it when Ian acknowledged his attraction. After all, it wasn’t something Euryphel could control, so why bring it up and make it harder for him?

They’d agreed to be brothers. Ian wouldn’t make things weird.

“So,” Ian said, breaking the odd silence, “what’s our course of action? We can talk to this woman and get information, but what are we trying to learn? And what do we need to do in the real world, versus in your scenarios?”

Euryphel responded swiftly, the question snapping him out of his embarrassment. “Let me share with you both what I learned.” He raised an eyebrow at Ian. “Sharing memories through Remorse is slower than me writing things out, so give me a second to jot everything down.”

Remorse allowed for communication at the speed of thought. It was fast, sure, but Ian’s inexperience led to inefficiency. Using the metaphor of reading a book, where a skilled Remorse practitioner could skim through and focus on the useful parts, Ian had to read line by line, sounding out the words like a child.

With everyone in agreement, Euryphel began to type up what he had learned on the holo display. There were two columns, the left side showing the question and the right indicating Clara Belvaire’s response. Horizontal lines indicated the end of each scenario, demarcating when Clara’s memory was reset.

“How many replicates did you perform to confirm the veracity of these answers?” Maria inquired, her eyes scanning over the report.

“Let me note that down.” The Crowned Executor went through and dragged parts of the text into boxes. For a brief moment Ian was confused before it clicked. Euryphel was showing the progression of his scenarios–and more specifically, his recursion checkpoints. Next to each of the boxed subsections, Euryphel noted a number.

Ian realized that even some of the most basic questions–ones verifying Clara’s identity and her position within her guild–had been repeated multiple times.

“I repeated my questions while adjusting my wording until I was satisfied that I had a consistent, and ideally accurate, answer,” Euryphel explained. He highlighted one such question in his write-up: Do you know a man named Achemiss? “I never asked this exact question directly. But no matter how I phrased it, Clara never expressed any sign of recognition.” He scrolled to a later scenario’s log. “I repeated the line of questioning in a later scenario, one where I’d already established that she was in contact with ‘Ian Dunai.’ Her lack of recognition was again consistent.”

Maria nodded thoughtfully. “What do we think Achemiss’s aim is in impersonating Ian?”

Ian cocked his head. “He wants to lure me out because I have his void storages and the return beacon. While he doubtlessly wants to kill me, getting those items should be his priority. He also wants to borrow my authority as the most powerful Death practitioner known to this world in recent memory. He’s a vengeful person, so he probably also plans to run my reputation into the ground, as Maria said earlier. Finally, he knows that I care about this world.”

Ian rubbed his jaw before continuing. Both Euryphel and Maria regarded him intently. “Y’jeni. Based on what Euryphel learned, Achemiss is likely planning something involving the Infinity Loop that will doom this world even earlier than anticipated. He’ll force me to intervene personally, giving him the opportunity to attack.”

“If he doesn’t plan on facing you with his true body, he shouldn’t pose a threat,” Euryphel said. “You’ll survive whatever he throws at you.”

“Not necessarily,” Ian said, his gaze focusing on Maria. “As we all know all too well, practitioners are fragile. One mistake will spell my end, and Achemiss is a crafty old monster. The only one who’s guaranteed to survive against one of his schemes is Maria.”

“You don’t have enough faith in yourself,” Euryphel said solemnly.

Ian smiled grimly. “I’ll give you an additional point to chew on. What if Achemiss isn’t acting alone?”

“You mean, what if Sere is helping him?”

Ian shook his head. “No. What is he’s aided by another returned ascendant? Or perhaps, multiple ascendants?”

Euryphel’s jaw worked soundlessly. “Why would ascendants help Achemiss destroy this world even faster?”

Ian shrugged. “I don’t think they would–at least not for that reason. The ascendants on this world came here to get away from Eternity… and to eventually die. But what if even one of them has regrets?”

Maria’s eyes panned to the ceiling. “If Achemiss is successful, he’ll have our return beacon. That will allow him to return to Eternity… and he can take one other person with him.”

“And that’s assuming that Achemiss doesn’t have a return beacon of his own stashed in one of his storages,” Ian added. “Maria still hasn’t managed to work past the protections on them–if we try to force them open, they’ll collapse, destroying their contents.”

“And here I thought we had pulled ahead because Soolemar helped recruit an ascendant to our side,” Euryphel stated, his voice cold. “But none of this is confirmed. We can speculate for days and never touch upon the truth.”

“I know,” Ian acknowledged, leaning forward, his hands steepled together over the table. “We should take things one step at a time. Returning to the matter at hand, should I reveal myself to Clara Belvaire–or really, anyone involved with Infinity Loop research?”

Euryphel hesitated. “I think you need to reveal yourself. Which is perhaps the point–Achemiss’s goal is to force you to act in a certain way. I expect he never thought you would find out about his involvement with the Sere Consortium this early, however.”

“Why do you say that?” Maria asked.

“He hasn’t done anything yet,” Euryphel said. “He’s only made contact with them recently, and according to Clara, Dunai’s return and interest in the Infinity Loop experimentation is strictly confidential, disseminated only at the highest levels.”

“Perhaps there’s a different approach we can take,” Maria proposed, “one with a subtler touch. We want Achemiss to be lulled into a false sense of security. We want him to deal with Sere so we can get clues into the location of his true body.”

Ian frowned. “Yes… and?”

Maria placed her hands on the table. “What we really need to accomplish our objectives is a Sere insider. Someone who will be in the room negotiating with Achemiss. Ideally, someone also working directly on the Infinity Loop research.”

“Someone like Clara,” Ian said.

“Right,” Euryphel agreed, “but that’s easier said than done. If we forced Clara to take an End oath to spy for us, other End practitioners would see it. If we snuck into Sere and used Remorse to read her memories after any meetings, she would be aware of it… and I wouldn’t be surprised if she were already beholden to oaths that forced her to faint if anyone tried seriously reading her memories. That, or oaths that clouded her mind, preventing her from remembering important details outside of well-defended areas.”

“Like her office, or the labs,” Ian said.

“Yeah. Anyway, she’s surely well-defended against mental espionage, if only because of her rank in her guild. I’m sure business competitors would love to use Regret and Remorse practitioners to extract her memories in unremembered scenarios.” Euryphel sighed. “If we did something extreme, such as having Ian control her body with decemancy, any Life or Death practitioner would notice something amiss.”

Ian froze at that. Maria, sensing his thoughts, spoke up. “But what if no one could sense Ian’s control? What if Ian… what if he hijacked the woman’s soul?”