V-26 Slipgate

Welcome to GEN-101. I see some of you rolling your eyes already, discounting the importance of this class. I know some of you are martial Pathbearers and you think your path in life is set. You will be the hammer of the Republic. You will be its fist. You will be its bow, its dagger. You will be its mind.

For some of you, general education doesn't seem to hold a purpose. What point is there to make sure you can write an essay or conduct statistical analysis? For those of you who are crafters or magi, it might seem an inadequate thing as well. Not only is the course pointless, but it's also pointlessly easy. Indeed, the written and math portions of this class might be, but that is not the purpose of this class.

You will not be taking Gen Ed 101 for the rest of the semester. You will be taking it for the next two to three weeks, and then you will be assigned supplemental classes per your weaknesses. That is the point of Gen Ed 101.

For the martials here, you're going to receive an order someday, and you're going to need to respond to it. You best be able to write well and write legibly, and write and describe your thoughts in an understandable manner. Failure to do so might see your comrades slain, might see medical supplies delayed, might cause confusion and chaos within your ranks.

If you are bad at math or personal finances, you're going to learn how to do that because there's little point in spending all your mithril on a set of armor and finding yourself destitute, first forced to serve as some low-tier Sell-Skill to make up for your empty pockets.

And for the Magi, we're here to make sure you can clean your own bloody clothes using your own bloody hands and that you can talk to people without issue. We don't need you to like socialization, we need you to be capable of it, and that is not negotiable. This is not about comfort but functionality.

We rise individually, but we rise on scaffolds and shoulders. The scaffolds installed by those who came before and the shoulders of giants who trailblazed certain paths ahead of us, who removed impediments for our progress.

Now wipe those looks off your face, turn your eyes to the board, and start writing. The faster you get this done, the faster the class can move on to the next portion of the matter. Introducing yourselves to each other. I can already tell most of you are going to need to go to CHARM-101. Abernathy is going to be so very happy this semester.

-Master-Instructor Michael Hu, GEN-101, Phoenix Academy

V-26

Slipgate

By the time Adam and Shiv finished explaining things to Irons, he looked like someone had pissed in his breakfast as well.

"I see," the captain sighed. "Do you think she's in danger to herself or anyone else right now?"

Adam shrugged. "I can't quite say. She’s definitely not stable, though. She’s still in denial that she did anything wrong."

"The mind is a fragile thing after it's shattered," Irons commented.

“And people love scooping up bullshit and telling themselves it's chocolate." Shiv grunted with annoyance. "She should keep away from Marcus for now, though. Her and the rest of her old Brunswick bunch. Won't stop them from shooting ugly looks at me or spreading rumors, maybe, but that's them dealt with."

"Yes, but the resolution came at potentially increased peril." Irons narrowed his eyes at both Adam and Shiv. "Was it wise to invoke the presence of the Inquisition?"

"No," Adam said, "absolutely not, but it was the easiest thing I can think of in the heat of the moment. The last thing we need was Shiv getting compromised some other way. Like Magnolia breaking her blade on his face.”

“If she did that—”

“You would have stopped time and choked her unconscious, yes, Shiv, truly the best plan.”

“And she would have deserved it, too.”

The captain still looked slightly displeased. "You could have called for me."

"They were already at the door," Shiv said, "and before things got really dark, it seemed like a goofy story. Marcus Unblood apparently got two girls pregnant, and now one girl’s brothers are trying to kick his ass. What are you supposed to do about that? Enforce discipline? Yeah, that would draw attention, too. The simple matter is that the liaison left out a bunch of stuff or didn't know a bunch of stuff. Now we're paying the price for that. Speaking of which: Cullywier!”

The fairy manifested in a burst of wind, flower petals, and fragrance. He stood behind Irons, whose eyes widened uncharacteristically at the sight of the newcomer.

"Is that a fairy?" Irons said.

"Supposedly he is," Shiv replied. "So far, I don't see what the big deal is, aside from him drinking up all that necromancy."

"That's not unique to me," Cullyweir  replied nonchalantly. "All fairies can neutralize Necromancy. We don't decay, we don't die. Why would a lore of endings affect a creature of eternal cycles?"

"Yeah, that's cool and all, but did you not know that Marcus got murdered by his own people? Or you just didn't plan on telling me?"

The fairy looked up at the ceiling and paused briefly. A second later, he replied, "I did not know. The Dragon Brokers thank you for this information."

Shiv threw up his hands in frustration. "Alright, so they're incompetent, not malicious, perfect."

"I must remind you that this body was provided on short notice," Cullywier offered a silly smile. It looked uncanny, like an animal trying to mimic a human expression. "All things done in haste will usually come with their own downsides."

"That is undeniable," Irons said flatly, agreeing with Cullywier.

"Alright, fine, you didn't know that, but is there any other information I need to know about Marcus? Does he have some other girl he impregnated back in the mountain holds? Some kind of evil twin somewhere? Anything like that?"

Once more, Cullywier paused, and Shiv realized the fairy was actively communing with the Dragonbrokers each time. "That is not known to us thus far, but we will see if any other unsavory details about the past of Marcus Unblood turn up."

"That's about as much as I can ask for right now," Shiv grunted with disgruntled acceptance.

"May I be dismissed then, Deathless?" Cullywier asked.

"Yeah," Shiv waved away the fairest. "You can—" And Cullywier vanished in a burst of fading wind. "Go now." 

The Deathless sighed and rubbed his face. "Didn't even get finished scrubbing my own ass before we had to deal with that shit. Alright, Irons, can you smooth this over with the kids here and the campus militia?"

The captain nodded.

"Great, Adam and I are gonna go back to the coliseum. I'm not sticking around here, even if we got Magnolia to piss off. I don't trust the looks the old Brunswick boys were giving Adam earlier."

Irons gave a grunt of acknowledgement. "I will see things handled properly. And that things don’t get out of hand.”

Shiv looked at Irons once more and considered something. "Hey, you said that Melissa gave you some evidence earlier, right?"

Irons nodded slowly. "She did."

"Any chance you could send some of that over? Or have Adam pick some of that up? I think we're gonna be doing some planning and research tonight, along with some other stuff. We might be able to get through some of that too. See if we find anything."

The captain considered that for a moment, and he nodded once more. "It would be appreciated."

Just then, Adam pulled out the pin he had earlier. And that made Irons cock his head.

"This is a special pin given to me by Enchanter Merrielmel," Adam said. "It belongs to a member of the on-campus security, currently enjoying a period of extended leave."

A look of distaste passed over the captain's face, but if he had any objections, he kept them to himself. "I see."

Another stream of mana formed between Irons' pin and Adam’s security pin, and soon there was a growing communications network between the trio.

"I'll send you a message in a bit," Adam said. "I'll tell you that 'the evening swan comes to roost.'"

The captain almost did a double take. "The evening swan comes to roost."

"So you know it's me."

"Do you know how often I get messages in the middle of the night on my Academy pin, Arrow?"

"No, and I don't assume anything.”

For once, Irons gave a genuine smile, and that caught Shiv completely by surprise. The captain’s face really wasn’t used to the expression. "At least you learned something or remembered something from my class."

***

With the day somewhat ruined, and unwilling to be ambushed in the dorm again, Adam and Shiv returned to the bathroom, where the Gate Lord fired another arrow. This one led back to the coliseum, and they went across with as much haste as they could. As soon as they arrived, Shiv found himself hounded by Helix immediately, demanding that they start their Biomancy and Practical Metabiology lessons immediately.

"Yeah, look, I'm not blowing you off, Helix. I want to start it soon, frankly. I probably want to start it more than even you do."

"I strongly doubt that," the orc said, adjusting his spectacles. There was a strange mark along his face. It looked like someone had whipped him with something. He also refused to make eye contact with Adam for whatever strange reason. The other orcs snickered at him from behind. 

Shiv got the feeling that Helix was undergoing an unusual moment of humiliation. “Look, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can, and we can actually get some shit done. Right now—”

“Legend Shiv,” Can Hu said, calling out from behind. “Your presence is needed within the Slipgate chamber.”

Both Shiv and Adam came to a halt. Helix scoffed. “Oh, good, more distractions from what truly matters.”

The first order Shiv had to attend to wasn't Biomancy or even Melissa's evidence. It wasn't even going over the day's events with Adam and the other prisoners. No, it was the current state of the Slipgate, the project that Enchanter Merrielmel and the Smith Concelhaunt were working on. 

Can Hu was unusually animated regarding the Slipgate. It seemed the Penitent thought there were opportunities there they could take advantage of. But that wasn’t the only reason it seemed excited. The Penitent's body had been mostly restored, and there was an additional layer of material lining its chassis as well. Studs of mithril and lengths of focus crystal formed what appeared to be a skeletal scaffold over the Penitent's spine and limbs. A stream of binary numbers and sloshing smears of unattuned mana glided along the magical conducting materials.

"So the Slipgate works?" Adam asked, seeming slightly doubtful, despite everything.

"There is good reason to believe so," the Penitent declared. "So far they have not managed to open a pathway to the Outside. However, dimensional stabilization and mana threshold diffusion functions are operational."

"There is always some level of discrepancy from the ambient mana thresholds between different realms," Adam explained. "Even between naturally bridged realms connected by a gate, there needs to be a sort of stabilization process, hence the gateways. Some of them are formed in the natural environment, and the dimensional mana is manifested in naturally occurring archways. But for artificial gates, there needs to be a finer calibration process. For it is not the system's hand that guides things in these circumstances, but ignorant and fallible individuals."

"And so it’s a device that can measure and make sure the ambient mana is equal between places?" Shiv guessed.

"Not quite. There's a device that actively absorbs and displaces ambient mana across locations. Think of it like a scale, except you have some kind of mechanism that is capable of shifting weight from one section of the scale to another."

"Alright, makes sense," Shiv said. “How bad is it if things aren’t balanced?”

“Well, you already know. Just drain a bit of vitality from the fabric of the world.”

“Oh. Shit.”

“Quite.”

And as they rounded another section of the maze, Shiv saw that a dimensional rift was already open ahead of them. The stones lining the walls were fractured open in a spiral pattern, and it resembled a rocky flower in bloom. At the center of the flower was another chamber, a massive one, and the sheer amount of magical energy spilling free from the portal was overwhelming, even for the Deathless. It hammered against his Shapeless Tides, and he felt like a man in a full suit of armor walking out to embrace a sky filled with falling hail.

Passing over, the Deathless blinked as he took in the facility that had been constructed. The width of this room was approximately half the size of the Rubix Well's mana core. There weren't a mess of walkways here, and the space was considerably less cluttered. However, there were many panels lining every square meter of the entire chamber, and they glistened with rippling wavelengths of mana. The space was like the inside of a large oval, and Shiv faintly felt a slight churning motion. The floor was moving beneath his feet, and that's how he noticed that the room was constantly turning as well, like something of a turbine, something of an automaton's turbine.

At the center of the room was a hundred-meter long inverted obelisk. It was lined with so many magical patterns that he couldn’t tell what material it was made out of. It didn't seem like any kind of mithril or focus crystal he knew, and with the way it constantly let out a pitched shriek, he wondered if it had the capability to modulate or manipulate specific mana frequencies.

Hanging beside the large inverted obelisk were two smaller pyramids. They were dense with mana, each glowing with a kaleidoscope of colors. The hues of a rainbow radiated out from each of them, and as one grew brighter, the other dimmed, and a second later, vice versa.

"Those the magical scales you were talking about?" Shiv breathed.

"That it is," Adam said, equally awestruck. "I've seen smaller ones, but displacers of this size must have cost a fortune, and one small mistake could see all that mana cascade into a cataclysmic overload."

Shiv looked the obelisk up and down once more. It was well over a hundred meters long, and at its base, there was also another emanation of mana. Pure waves of dimensionality splashed out from the root, but it was converted to other colors before it could reach the tip.

At the very bottom, the two crafters snarled and barked at each other like rabid animals. The remains of a broken gauntlet hovered between them, and its isolated shape was rattling once more.

"They managed to fix my Magebreaker?" Shiv said.

"I managed to get it back to an operational state," Can Hu corrected, claiming its proper share of the credit. "They had little experience working with Inertium, though they are more studied of other aspects and sciences."

The Deathless smirked as he regarded his former armor. "Well, guess you showed them. And speaking of, what do you make of those two?"

"Merrielmel was manic. He's driven to see the Slipgate made operational, not only to save his sibling, but also to prove this experiment to be a reality. He's often absent-minded about other things and spends his time obsessing over the finest details of this project. As such, he has a tendency to miss the forest because he's trying to make a perfect tree. Concelhaunt, meanwhile, is driven by guilt. His heart is not entirely in the project, though he is far more pragmatic and efficient in terms of material acquisition."

"And what does that mean, in plain speak?" Adam asked.

"He is likely the one that constantly strikes deals with the Neath," Can Hu explained. "He stepped out earlier to speak to one of the Dragon Brokers' liaisons. They are also deeply interested in this project, and will likely use this as a means to connect their criminal enterprises across Integrated Earth, or potentially go beyond the confines of this realm alone. And that is one reason I called you here.”

“And there it is,” Adam sighed. He pinched the bridge of his nose once more. "Nothing can be gained without penalty or consequence. We create the Slipgate, we find our way to the outside and save Blackedge, and after that, we also have to contend with the fact that we have created, we have helped stabilize a cross-dimensional teleportation network for murderers, smugglers, and worse."

As Adam complained, however, Shiv had narrowed his eyes at the obelisk. "So this entire room is going to get flooded with dimensionality when the Slipgate activates."

"That appears to be the case. However, the way it operates is quite ingenious."

"Yeah, I think so too. I'm guessing that the gateway at the heart of the academy is what the base of that obelisk is connected to."

The Penitent's optics flashed twice, signaling confirmation. "Quite so, very astute of you, Legend Shiv."

"Not hard to guess. Since it's tapping into the gateway, that probably means it's using the gate as an in-between door of some kind, isn't it?"

And that statement caught Adam's attention. "You're right, that would be how it works. We need a source of unending power, and the gate provides. All the crafters need to do here is hide any overt fluctuations or time it to specific spikes coming from within the gate, and most of the activities will be nigh-unnoticeable." But then, the Gate Lord suddenly stopped talking. His eyes darted about, and a thought came to him.

"Adam, what do you got going on in your head?" Shiv asked.

He held up a finger, but didn't reply to Shiv. Instead, he stormed over to the crafters. "Concelhaunt, Merrielmel, a word."

Both of them jumped away from each other and whirled around to greet him. The goblin piloting the mechanical chassis briefly clutched his chest. "Damn it, kid, tell us when you're coming in. You're trying to give me a heart attack?"

Adam ignored his complaints. "Is it operational right now?"

Both of them looked up. "What? No, no," Merrielmel said, waving both hands frantically. "If you try to activate it right now, the matter diffusers will undergo a dramatic overload." And then he made a loud explosion noise as he gesticulated just how massive the blast would be.

Shiv guessed that would kill most everyone. Too bad for the Ascendants and all the bastards that wanted him dead that he wasn't most everyone. Neither were the other Legends for that matter. Hell, he gave Adam even odds by now, too. He might just make the Gate Lord turn into a phoenix and slam into several things before he came away with a few burns.

"How long will it take for you to get its base functions activated?"

"Base functions?" Concelhaunt asked. The goblin looked confused.

Adam rolled his eyes. "You're not punching a hole directly into the Outside. I’m not a dedicated crafter, but even I know that. To get beyond the system’s reach, you need to use another dimension as a proxy, and then you're springboarding into the between through all the waste Dimensionality leaking out from the gateway. That means you can tap into other dimensions adjacent to the gate as well, right? And from them, you keep going and get into the Between.”

Both of the crafters looked at each other uneasily. Psycho-Cartography activated, and it wasn't that Adam was wrong. It was that they were startled to realize just how much the Gate Lord got right.

Sometimes, being a know-it-all bookworm is pretty cool, Shiv admitted.

"For primary functions to take shape," Merrielmel said stammering, "it will still take at least two weeks to a month. And then it will still take more time to test and—”

"I'm not talking about primary functions," Adam hissed. His patience was waning. "I'm talking about the standard functions that a gateway is capable of, connecting one realm to another. Can you connect this to any realm using the Inertium as a stabilizer and with those diffusers? They look functional.”

Can Hu’s optics narrowed, and something about the Penitent seemed positively giddy.

Alright, what’s being planned right now? Shiv wondered.

"Alright, kid, what are you asking us to do?" Concelhaunt said, catching on to Adam's intentions.

Shiv was also trying to figure out what Adam was getting at. But Can Hu was staring hard at the Gate Lord—it already knew.

"I want to do a test run first," Adam said, "as soon as possible. I want this place to be connected to the Tutorial."

Shiv finally got it. And it was remarkable. A way back to Gate Piety. Hells, a way back to the Tutorial where Courtney was—where his orcs were. Wonder if Bonk and some of the other fallen are already waiting there.

"T-t-t-t-t-tutorial!" Merrielmel nearly had a mental breakdown right then. "You mean the place where the o-o-orcs reside?"

"One of the places," Shiv said, and there was a massive grin on his face now. He realized what Adam was getting at. If they could connect to the tutorial, then they could get back to Gate Piety as well. There was a gateway linking both of those realms, too. This would allow them to bypass Harlock's notice.

"Why the hell would you want to open a place that'll fucking help you like that?"

Adam looked to Shiv, and the Deathless pointed at himself. "Vaketh-Insul. Also, we have somewhere else we need to get to, and the tutorial is the quickest way."

"Vaketh!" the goblin sputtered. "Is that why you have a small army of orcs with you?"

"What else do you think?" Shiv asked.

"We just thought they were mercenaries. People hire orc mercenaries sometimes." The goblin clutched his head. "Oh my god! Our Ascendants! What did we let walk into our own lab?"

"The only reason your experiment might be taking off," Shiv said dryly. "Now can you do it or not?"

Both of the crafters looked at each other. Merrielmel gawked and Concelhaunt looked like he was having every second thought possible. "It is theoretically, maybe... Can I interest you in another realm?" Concelhaunt coughed. “Anywhere fucking else as a first test.”

"No," Adam barked. "Look, if it's any consolation, I don't much want to go to the Tutorial either. I don't want to deal with the orcs—they’re bloody maniacs. However, there is a place I need to get to, and there are people I need to help. And ultimately, I have a Gate as well. I am a Gate Lord. I have resources to offer—and a Unique mana core as well. And also, do you want a place to retreat to and hide from the capitol's authorities if everything goes south?"

"You're going to be able to protect us?" Concelhaunt said.

"Again," Shiv replied, "Vaketh-Insul. The orcs will do what I say."

The goblin scoffed. "Yeah, orcs. Obedient. My ass."

"You ever kill an orc?" Shiv asked the goblin.

Concelhaunt blinked. "I, uh…”

They don't really scream or beg when they die. They always got that smile on their face. But if you pop things inside their soul using Animancy or something else, oh, there's just a little bit of fear, and they get just a bit more human compared to before. They will listen to what I say." Slowly, the fear chain between him, Shiv, and the goblin turned iron-hard.

Shape of Monstrosity 139 > 140

Just then, there came a splash of incandescence out from the back of his cape. Shiv grunted, and Adam noticed it as well. A loud, shrieking cry followed, and Radio tumbled out. Its body was burning, and after a brief cry of, "Oh, come on, don't just take my body like..." 

Cripple manifested.

Both crafters shrieked as the ethereal outline of the Ascendant glared down at the offending group of Pathbearers. "What are you two doing?" Cripple all but bellowed. “What madness am I hearing you spew?”

"We're trying to find a way to get back to Gate Piety," Shiv said without any hint of fear. “And I need access to the Tutorial because—”

“Right within Phoenix Academy, within the capital itself!" With every syllable Cripple spat, its outrage only grew. "Have you no consideration of your actions?"

"Listen, I would do any other thing other than open this gateway. However, that requires Harlock to fuck off. Now is Harlock going to fuck off?" Shiv asked.

"No," Adam said, folding his arms. "He is not."

And Cripple turned, glaring at Adam now, using his single cyclopean eye. "Him, I can understand. He's reckless. He is the Deathless. But you—"

"But I what?" Adam almost snapped. "I wake up within a prison. A prison which is run by my Ascendants. Someone had reached into my mind and defiled my memories. City Lord Stormhalt remains unpunished for his part in things."

"He has been stripped of his right as Avatar," Cripple said with a slight growl. It was clear that the Strongest didn't think that was punishment enough, either.

"Oh, wonderful!" Adam's sarcasm flowed free. "Stripped of his position, Shiv. Did you hear that? Let us host a gala to celebrate. It's not like his actions caused the death of countless citizens. It's not like he led an entire detachment of Inquisitorial agents to sack and siege one of our own towns." 

Rage spittle flew free from the Gate Lord's mouth. He pointed up at Cripple, and his fury continued to burn. "You make demands of us. You ask me what I think about the citizens of the Republic—if we care for them at all. I care for them. I do." Adam slammed a fist against his chest piece. "And when it comes time, I will do everything I can to make sure none of them are harmed by what we do. However, I can do nothing to protect them from you. You and the other bastard gods we worshiped."

A crushing silence followed. Adam staggered a step away from the Ascendant, and Cripple looked upon him no more.

"I believed in you," Adam said, and his voice was haggard. "I believed in all of you, every single one. I wasn't the most faithful, but I cared. I pledged myself to you, to your banner. Look what you've made of me. Look what you've made of us."

Seconds passed, and Cripple didn't say anything. Shiv had his arms folded. Adam hadn't gotten a chance to talk with Cripple in great detail. That moment got derailed by the other Ascendants during their attempt at escaping from the Rubix Well. Now, several things were broken. The prison was obliterated, but even its destruction paled in comparison to how much damage Adam's faith sustained.

"We're going to use whatever means we have now," Adam said. He swallowed, and his face was flushed. He seemed to realize how loud and uncontrolled his outburst was. "And I’ve not forgotten the fact that you aided us. That you, alone among all the other Ascendants, decided to intervene. Decided to intervene on our behalf. It's something, but it's not enough. We need every edge we can get.”

"Not enough," Shiv said. "But that's why you're here, too, Cripple. We're not hiding any of this from you. If you want to propose another idea, or come to terms with a Challenger, you're free to do so. I'll even make introductions, and you can try punching him in his fat gray head.”

The Challenger is looking forward to having a conversation with the so-called Strongest.

A sound of groaning metal signaled Cripple's displeasure. "When you do activate the slipgate, I wish to be here. I wish to be present within Radio. And you two." Cripple's gaze now fell upon the hapless crafters, who clung to each other like children caught by their parent. "To think that you were creating something like this on the grounds of one of our most hallowed institutions. Among those you deem your peers and pupils."

Shiv shot the crafters a brief glance. "Well, yeah, of course they're gonna do it here. The Gate’s here, the Neath is sponsoring them. And they have someone they gotta get back. Seems pretty expected to me.”

And that drew the Ascendant's ire once more. "Does all this mean nothing to you? Are you unburdened by the risks you place upon the student body here?"

"Not really unburdened," Shiv said. "But Neath was going for this to begin with. And up until me and Adam showed up, you guys had no idea what was going on." Shiv paused. "Well, most of you probably didn't. I can't put anything beyond Veronica. She seems to be the only one who knows the larger picture. How is my piece of shit of a grandmother, anyway? Did she get my letter?"

"I am not the Councilwoman's minder," Cripple said severely. "But I am yours. The conditions of our prior arrangement remain. I am not only here to prevent you from being abused and used by Udraal Thann. I am also here to prevent you from using and abusing the people of this Republic."

"Yeah, sure, and I'm fine with that," Shiv replied. "But there's one more thing on top of that. We need a private place to do our business, and we need a fortress to hold up in when the system comes to claim our lives once more. There's a storm coming on the horizon, Cripple. You want to meet with Starhawk? Well, you're already on dangerous territory with your fellow Ascendants. There's probably no easy way to hide inside the capital. Gotta have an alternative spot. That, and… well, we got some prisoners with us. It’s better they end up in the Tutorial and our Gate than sticking around here, right?”

Cripple didn't say anything about that, so Shiv took it as a sign of agreement. "So, are we done here?"

"I wish to be here when the Slipgate activates," Cripple said once more.

"Yeah, yeah, you'll be here, don't worry. And we'll make sure nothing goes wrong for the citizens or the students. Just like we made sure nothing went wrong on campus earlier."

"You mean with the prophetess," Cripple said. "Yes, I barely stopped myself from intervening then, too. That was dangerous, sloppy."

"And they slipped out of your net," Shiv said.

"Our net," Cripple snarled, outraged. "Our net, that was only necessary because someone collapsed the mana core."

Shiv wanted to continue barking his own offenses at the ascendant. But Psycho-Cartography told him it was an unworthy and ultimately ineffective way of going about things. "Yeah, you know what, Cripple? Alright, it was close. But you want to know how you can help me make it less so next time? Maybe find a way for me to deal with someone without letting the fight spill over or get noticed by the rest of the city. Your guard were nowhere near catching those four. And if I'm going to help your guys wipe their asses, I can't always be fighting with both hands strapped behind my back."

And to Cripple's credit, he didn't continue complaining either. "I will see what can be done," Cripple said mutely. A long, tired sigh escaped the ascendant. "The lockdown will likely persist for a period of three weeks. After that, things get hard. The market will become volatile. The nobility will rebel. And trade will grind to an irreparable halt. Furthermore, there's movement to our south and north as well. The Jotun are mustering, as are the scarred ones." And then a beat followed as Cripple seemed hesitant. "We also no longer know where the Tarrasque is.”

"You felling what?" both Shiv and Adam cried at the same time. “How the hells did you lose that thing? It’s the size of a mountain!”

Cripple groaned awkwardly. “It is the size of a mountain, and it developed… Counter-Divination and several Stealth Skills. Suddenly. Without explanation.”

Shiv cupped his face and Adam clutched the sides of his head.

“Udraal!” Shiv snarled. “It has to be fucking Udraal!”