9-17 Daggers Behind Daggers (Patreon)

"Good sir, I told you. I told you our wants would see us dead. Why did you follow me? Why did you come back? I spared you. I spared you."

"And I told you. My game was an ending with you, and not an eternity without."

-Final exchange between Assundiya, Queen of Hounds, and Vandenhurn, Master of Foxes from The Follies of Vandenhurn, Kosgan Folklore

9-17

Avo snarled.

Avo hissed.

Avo raged.

Gathered around a quick-sculpted table, Kae shivered as he clawed at the phantasmal representation of the Incubus’ encrypted memory. Off to the side, Draus regarded him wryly, faint bemusement bright on her face. “Havin’ a… bit of trouble opening that cookie jar there, consang?”

“It’s not a ‘cookie jar’.” Avo said, tone even with naked rage.

The glare he turned on her bore enough hate to slag metal. Jelene Draus just smirked, tendons drawing tight around her wrought-iron jaw. “Well, be that as it may, you are chokin’ on it.”

“Not. Just difficult. Need more time. Can you do it? Can you?”

Her smirk grew. She was enjoying this. The beast inside whispered delightful acts of violence for him to perform. Gods did he want to pluck the tendons out from her face. See if she could sneer at him then. “Heaven’s fine. Have to… understand.”

“Oh, no. I get it. Crackin’ Incubi shit’s a real rust-job. But you can’t deny it’s funny seein’ you get stuck on a wisp like that when you were opening golems like aluminum cans a couple o’ nights ago.”

He directed his Echoheads to rattle at her, outsourcing the dispensation of his ire. He was busy. His Ghostjack flashed. He edited a few more memories, tweaking delusion and nausea–

ACCESS DENIED

MEMORY SEQUENCE INCORRECT

The weight of his frustration erupted, his thoughtstuff rearing up, the shape something between the hair on a cat’s back and a crashing wave just about to fall. Kae scampered away.

He had his Heaven. He had his reflex booster. He had his skill–and pride–as a Necrotheurgy on the line.

Yet, the damnable memory would not offer him its secrets.

The encryption was a strange miasmic design–a slipstream moment plucked from the riverine of another mind, part hallucination, part fever dream.

Entirely unique.

Even with minutes stretched into hours by the aid of his Canon of Haemonkinesis, the issue he faced was one of specificity, not effort. He could crack this. He could. There was no question. But time was not an ally with the cascade of events set to clash in the near future, and to let Ori-Thaum linger in the background without a clear idea of what they were doing seemed a delightful way to experience a sudden nulling.

Much like the one he had delivered on the Incubus formerly residing in the depths of Essus’ mind.

They had gone silent after that. He had scouted for them, looking briefly through each of his assets for any other visible signs of rival Necros of regardable competency. The fact he found nothing was either a sign of safety or a silent omen waiting to turn loud.

Necrotheurgy made these things hard to judge until after the fact. His encounter with the Incubus was chance. Happenstance. Without it, they were all predators of the same jungle, hunting each other in the dark. The moment of surprise could have been the other way.

There was another question, then. Why Essus? And when? Surely not during the Crucible. The flat had seen him die and resurrect. What would they make of that memory, if they had seen it at all? Or did he even remember it, so engulfed by the demise of his son?

No. It was probably some point later, after catching Mirrorheads' notice.

There was another game being played here. He couldn’t imagine Mirrorhead being so tolerant–much less working together–with the Silvers. They saw his mother dead, and in  fashion of peak humiliation.

So even with their penetration, Greatling remained alive. Unnulled. Nor did Avo uncover any subversive phantasmics in the Syndicate boss’ mind. There was always the possibility their skill exceeded his so greatly he missed something, but his encounter against the Incubus earlier told him that he was facing adversaries of a near-even caliber.

Except there were certainly far more of them than there existed of him. While he had the overwhelming speed advantage in terms of processing, even eldritch powers were enfeebled when he lacked the proper components to make a workable key.

The impotence was…

“Maddening?” the Woundshaper offered. “Ah. But now you understand what spurs gods to grow. It is not enough–never enough to hold to one groove. Totality. Omnipotence. Omniscience. To plaster yourself over existence without melting into it. Such is the desire.”

He wanted to respond to his Heaven, but a warning flashed through his cog-feed.

Mentally scrolling through the numerous interfaces occupying his mental display, he found himself looking at his DeepNav, icons and visual identifiers mapping much of the block via his assets. Slowly, his mem-cons were spreading through the loci and subverted Necros, and with them, his knowledge of the block broadened.

That all paled before the alert and objective of this dive– Mirrorhead himself. Mirrorhead, broken son playing at vengeance. Mirrorhead, who had been offered final summons from his sister.

Mirrorhead, who on the DeepNav, had just shifted a few hundred miles and two Layers up in the Warrens. No longer was he nested within Conflux tower. Instead, he was on the Layer of Light’s End, at the base of the Tiers where New Vultun “actually” began.

Then, he moved again. Not quite as far this time–manifesting at another point in the district. He was within a tower now–one Kaswarg’s Grove. A recently built Stormtree-owned establishment. Room number 5588.

Avo froze. Just what was Jhred Greatling doing now?

Drawing the encrypted memory claimed from Ori-Thaum back in his mind for now, Avo cast out a message to Draus before firing his reflexes again. +Mirrorhead’s moving.+

He didn’t wait for her response before he wrestled time to a near-halt with a flex of his Canon.

Triggering the memories that formed the path to his hidden session, he slipped out between canals of memory within the fifteenth layer of Mirrorhead’s mind. The inner rings lay just beyond, and with concentrated assault, Avo thought he could crack his foe before they could even resist.

Tempting. Very tempting. But until he was near enough to tear the Soul from the Greatling’s unworthy husk and drink his Heavens dry, nulling him now would only alert him to the intrusion and grant him a fighting chance post-resurrection.

Avo had no desire to offer such an option to Mirrorhead. Devastation was owed. Devastation in flesh, mind, and more.

The blemish of being rendered choiceless was a blemish to Avo, the weight with which it bore down on him grew greater by the day.

That, and Mirrorhead’s weakness taunted him. Pulled at the beast within him. Where the beast had been averse before, now it was slavering.

And this time, Avo intended to let it free.

Some sequences around him looked changed. Whatever the Syndicate boss did to tighten security, he left most memory artifacts related to Avo intact. As such, his backdoor remained unimpeded.

Yet, as he diluted himself into the ocean of Mirrorhead’s mem-data, he moved with greater caution than ever.

Knowing Ori-Thaum was a player at the table inspired a different level of focus, especially compared to the sloppiness on display by Conflux’s Necros. A mistake would see him nulled here. Such wasn’t the end, but he had greater things to risk than mere death.

Having someone harvest a memory of his Frame, for instance, or discover the nature behind his new sanctuary was unacceptable.

There was much to risk here. Much to risk. He needed to consider installing a self-nulling phantasmic to prevent such an outcome…

HOST AWARENESS: 2%

Near-term memories pressed in on Avo, mem-data flowing back in from the outer sections of Mirrorhead’s mind. A blur of perception coursed through Avo’s mind as he found himself beholding the nature of Mirrorhead’s power for the first time.

A chasm of light connected the exiled Guilder to the Heaven of the Twice-Walker. Inside him, recollections of an internal subreality unfurled like a map, bridges to other places forming shape in Avo’s mind.

Twelve sets of luminous shards expanded from the back of the Heaven, with eight burning bright, each fractal bearing a reflection leading to a different place. Yet, its primary structure–and the scene revealed in the three gleaming eyes of the Twice-Wallker–only had one position installed.

The current position of Mirrorhead was a middle-grade hotel room lined with fine furs draped over a king-sized bed, a Grendel Fantasy locus-entertainment system spinning brightly at the center of the room. One of the Twice-Walker’s shards had sunken into it–and the Mirrorhead’s sanctuary of glass became the reflection it stored.

There was a Domain of Light at play here. Or Luminosity. Brightness? Something he needed to inquire Kae about later. Something told him the bridge between different places that shone in the glass was a hubris to exploit.

A sudden thought twisted the sequences of Mirrorhead’s mind. The mental command came suddenly–and if Avo had been without present boons of speed, the act would have unmasked him entirely.

As such, only a momentary ripple saw him sinking back within the shroud of his past selves.

HOST AWARENESS: 3%

The Greatling had sent an order into the entertainment system. Peering at the departing mem-data, Avo studied the sequences being cast out.

The build seemed random. An explosion at its beginning. A dozen people were gunned down before open graves; the graves blossoming into the eyes of a heavily modified nu-dog, its gaseous limbs expelling heat as it pawed its way through the void, where the stars in darkness formed a constellation, and the constellations formed a symbol.

A tree. A tree with roots that formed fissures of lightning. From there, the lightning lashed down, repeating into an explosion, and the memory cycled anew.

Avo understood then.

This was a session to an Auto-Seance. Not unlike one recently sequenced by Avo himself.

Turmoil still stirred the waves in Mirrorhead’s mind, but the rawness of his emotional hurt had been sufficiently quieted. The Syndicate boss’ Metamind was filtering out all memories relating to his sister or family and was instead keeping him focused on the task.

A meeting.

With a benefactor.

Curiously, not even Mirrorhead seemed to fully know their name.

A shower of light formed the shape of a person standing opposite Mirrorhead, while Avo’s accelerated reflexes gave him ample time to study the nature of the mind beyond the veil. A trickle of thoughtstuff flowed through. Again, Avo infused more ghosts into the other Godclad’s perception.

The time lag eased slightly, and the first flash of wards greeted Avo like a bash to the jaw.

It was a modified Quicksand Sync-Shield. Same as the one Avo downloaded from the Incubus he nulled, bar a few floating phantoms meant to give off the visage of a Sanctus Starseeker.

Before any judgment came, Avo waited. Not everyone who used a modified Quicksand was an Incubi. He knew that. Plenty of Necros of sufficient skill touted those–signs they managed to steal or earn favor with Ori-Thaum.

But something sat wrong with Avo. Something wasn’t right here.

The waters of Mirrorhead’s mind were calm. Calm as if he was beholding an ally or asset rather than hated adversary. Pilfering some more mem-data regarding the mysterious benefactor Mirrorhead was meeting, little knowledge entered Avo’s Meta other than the fact that Mirrorhead had been meeting them on a consistent basis for the past six months.

Deeper memories remained connected to them still, but that was beyond the Fifteenth Layer, running even deeper.

Avo considered spoofing his way in further–the beast snarled and told him to just null the other Godclad and use his Galeslither to make his way up, to be done with this farce and stop delaying.

But the beast was an impatient addict of food, and the alluring taste of conspiracy appealed ever-greater to Avo’s broadening sensibilities .

He could trigger a partial collapse of Conflux. In fact he was going to trigger that before the slaughter to come.

But instinct and experience both told him to wait a moment longer. Zein wanted Mirrorhead alive to fail at just the right point. The Incubi spared Mirrorhead of overt machinations, surely their plans built on his intent to kill one of their number. And nothing from the other Godclad’s mind showed his knowledge of any of this.

Avo’s foreboding only worsened when a dozen of his mem-cons blinked out–the spread of his awareness collapsing back as the loci began falling out of his control.

A pit formed in his stomach as two functions blinked out of his mind’s eye–the connections he had linking him to the techs.

And in the narrowest fraction of a second, they were gone. Shattered. Already dissolving. There was no gap between the moment they were whole and the next when they weren’t anything at all.

WARNING!

SESSION LOST

WARNING!

SESSION LOST

Too late. The crackling screams of their nullings rattled down the one-way path within his mind, lag stretching the moment before the act and the culmination. Shattered fragments of abject terror and mental agony speckled through as his link fizzled.

Their ego-deaths were instant. Like they had been shattered by a tide of overwhelming force. The final fragments of their echoing demises crackled to static in the back of his mind. There was no hint of an assault. No sign of intrusi–

Avo froze.

The Incubi.

Omen of silence it was, then.

A trickle of his surprise leaked free. A swirl of perception brushed down from Mirrorhead’s Meta as Avo hid once again, visual information blinking out.

HOST AWARENESS: 5%

Flicking his attention over to his own Metamind, Avo's encroaching darkness ate away nearly every loci he had subverted–but none of the Necros. He puzzled at that, then understood. His mem-cons must’ve tripped a passive defense the Incubi had already set within the local lobbies.

He still had assets at play. The Necros that handled his techs. Chambers. Mirrorhead himself. But the loci belonged to the enemy. All his mem-cons had done was offer them something to trace. What was sufficient to fool the Syndicate faltered before the Incubi.

From what Walton told him of Ori-Thaum’s modus operandi, they changed members when a team was exposed. Or a situation went against them. Ego-Alienation was the effective term. It was designed around making the opposition feel like they were always fighting someone strange, someone they didn’t understand.

Immediately, Avo sent a command to activate the various vicarities he connected to Chambers’ sequences. If nothing else, it would help him detect if someone was diving into the enforcers’ mind. Lustaway usually worked, but sometimes, the arousal within the memory bled over. That was something even seasoned Necros tried to avoid when working through a sequence.

Avo kept an eye on Chambers but stayed within Mirrorhead’s mind. Part of him wanted to return to the block. To see things done between him and the Incubi cell. Experience told him this would be a long-lasting thing. When gone, they were like nu-sharks diving deeper into the darkest waters. It would be folly to go swimming after them blindly, even if he did think of himself as the nu-whale in this metaphor.

A cast thought lanced out from the Fantasy entertainment system. A pale cloud molded into the shape of a person burned into shape before Mirrorhead as a whirlpool of patrolling Specters circled the room, casting their perception outward like an aegis.

+Your organization,+ the benefactor said, voice masked in notes of soft monotone, +has been compromised.+

A low, bitter laugh came from the Syndicate Godclad. Weariness threaded out from every memory, but they broke away by the fifth Layer, never escaping to be thoughtstuff. +That’s not nearly the surprise you think it is. But Conflux is living the final days of its purpose. There are, however, other matters that … threaten my operation.+

+Yes…+ the benefactor continued. As the time trickled on between the full delivery of each thought, Avo again studied the benefactor’s Quicksand Wards. The sequences… the design… They all seemed too similar to the one used by nulled Incubus to be a coincidence. +You have been compromised by Incubi. Tell me, do you know how long your sister has been working for them?+

And with that statement, the twin minds of Mirrorhead and Avo lurched to a halt as one.