Randidly shook his head emphatically. “Sorry. Unless those two focus on the sensations they felt when interacting with their mysterious backer, the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night cannot do anything to help. It’s not an interrogation device… just one that allows for reflection.”

The two of them were standing in Octavius’ library. Edraine shrugged slowly, as though she had been so aware this news was coming that she forgot to react to it when she heard it. “I understood it was a longshot, but it is difficult to know the best course of action without knowing who our foe this time is. Luckily… Octavius was just a chess piece in the larger Nexus political struggle, not the actual target. Our group’s purpose is likely unrelated to this incident.”

Randidly nodded slowly and turned to look through the wall into the now mostly demolished bedroom. “...they were strong through. The person who could hire them… Their Engraving was positively sublime, but even without that… I wouldn’t have wanted to fight them at the same time. Why would they do this, anyway?”

Gesturing to a scroll on the table, Edraine spoke in a light tone. “They did it to frame Octavius for underreporting the harvested Aether in the Seventh Cohort. Apparently whoever arranged for this attack has also been moving amongst some of the NLC’s lower-tiered accountants: in very specific places, about 25% less Aether was reported than what is currently present in the Seventh Cohort gathering formulae. Octavius is currently checking each formula by hand, but he’s already found several dead bodies in the area. The opposition is cleaning up after themselves and leaving us a mess.”

Then Edraine sighed. The air around her started to hum with anxiety The lines on her face were deep, to Randidly’s eye. “Lady Iellaya was able to pull some strings to shift of the Cohort’s security personnel to help with clean up on the Commandant’s funeral, but we need to figure out how badly Octavius has been deceived. Especially now that there is a trail of bodies, it will be difficult for Octavius to avoid culpability, as the Overseer.”

“...you need a distraction,” Randidly realized, tasting the subtle moodiness that was radiating off of Edraine. That was why she had insisted that he come so quickly, even though the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night was almost guaranteed to be ineffective. His mind began to whirr. “To buy Octavius time.”

“A last line of defense, in case of emergency,” Edraine said as she nodded. “But we are near that point already. With another hour, Overseer Octavius Shrike will have uncovered a plot to steal Aether from his Cohort and heroically put his life on the line to stop that. If he is discovered in ten minutes next to the bodies, the most likely conclusion the security personnel will come to is that he is dirtying his hands to cover his tracks. We need a stop-gap in place to pull attention away.

“Likely the force that is responsible for this conspiracy won’t try and interfere directly; until they understand why their initial attempt failed, they won’t move drastically. They don’t need to, if the entity responsible is large enough pay off the Bestial Purity Association to do its bidding. They will likely assume that someone like me exists and push other pieces around to draw me out.” Here, Edraine pursed her lips. Her face looked especially severe as she stared down at the floor, a testament to the different life experiences between her and Vualla. “...it’s unfortunate to admit, but we cannot digest this situation ourselves. You won’t just be a distraction, but also a bridge. As a group, we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves by bringing this conspiracy to light… and also we have no legitimacy in the eyes of the established Nexus organization...”

“You don’t need to spend so much time explaining,” Randidly cut in. “We don’t have much time. What do I need to do?”

“Honestly… perhaps it is me that I’m trying to convince by dragging my feet,” Edraine sighed again and shook her head. “But you are right. We don’t have time. If there are better answers… they will take more time to discover than we have. We might not be able to digest the benefits of revealing this conspiracy, but Military High Command easily could.”

Suddenly, Edraine’s hesitance began to make sense. Randidly’s eyes narrowed as black-purple energy flared to life around his eyes. He did his best to peer into the future, but he felt the heavy madness that he had witnessed in the face of Commandant Wick pollute his vision. Very quickly, that primal madness of chaos made the intersection of chance murky. Even so, Randidly pushed himself to the limit. Darkness swirled around his left eye until he was completely blind to the physical realm. What remained was the graceful and brutal crash of intentions that spiraled toward the future.

This taint from Wick’s image… Randidly could only grit his teeth and do his best to predict how the monolithic military figure would react. Yet the more he peered, the worse he felt; very quickly, he was nauseous. He had never seen the threads of timelines mutate before his eyes like this. His Skill gave him a window into an entirely different world.

To Randidly, it looked like a sinister ballroom, where the unholy band sawed bones against each other to the raucous merriment of the bloodthirsty couples that spun together across the various timelines. He could practically hear the laughter of the dancers in his ears, as harsh and jarring as a piano ripping itself to pieces.

And above it all, thousands of glowing red eyes watched from the eaves.

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelations of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 340!

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelations of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 341!

Ultimately, Randidly shook his head and backed off of the Skill; he really wasn’t able to peer into how Commandant Wick would react. Instead, he spoke to Edraine; it made sense, even if it made him uneasy. “I’ll get in contact with the Commandant and allow him to spin this as corruption within the NLC. In exchange...he protects me while I perform the distraction and finds Octavius to be completely innocent in the follow-up investigation. That… is putting a lot of faith in him.

“Plus… the worst of it…” Randidly’s frown deepened. “We reveal the connection between you and I. Which will draw in Octavius and Lady Iellaya. We let him know that you exist and that my relationship with Lady Iellaya is more serious than just her being my superior officer.”

Edraine nodded. “You are correct that our ability to gain this information and offer it to him will reveal a bit of our strength… but I suspect it won’t be as much as you think. Men like the Commandant… he might now suspect that you have someone near his power behind you, but there is no way that he will expect me.”

Edraine revealed a sharp smile as she finished her words. Just the movements of her lips and tongue were enough to release weak waves of force in the room. As always, her image was quite impressive. No wonder she had subdued the duo in the bedroom so easily. The scroll on the table trembled and rolled. Randidly slowly nodded his assent. “Alright then. I’ll send a message to the Commandant.”

*****

Elohamore Huzzhleigh adjusted the cuff of his guard’s uniform. Then he reached up and unbuttoned his collar. Immediately, he heaved a deep sigh of relief; he appreciated his position as a member of the Nexus Security Force, but the requirements for the uniforms were notoriously strict. Sometimes, a day of simply patrolling became near-torture.

Even now, his partner Kadan glanced around quickly to check for a superior when she saw him unbuttoning the collar. Then she gestured toward the clock with a small smile on her face. “Are you cutting out early? Heh, maybe a special night planned with Mrs. Huzzhleigh…?”

“Fuck off, Kadan,” Elohamore rolled his neck. Due to him being more bestial than humanoid, the neck hole was barely capable of containing the thick muscles of his upper torso. His windpipe was forced to give up some of its space to compensate.

“I’m just saying, the last time I saw you this excited-” Kadan said with a widening grin, until the noise of her words was briefly blanketed by outside noise.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A rumble went through the ground and their guard post. Instantly, Elohamore’s face went white and he quickly rebuttoned his uniform. Kadan tightened her belt and then leapt to her feet. Both grabbed their weapons as they hurried through the door and into the outside world with all thoughts of clocking out forgotten.

Ding!

Behind them, the warning light flicked on several seconds too late.

Very quickly the duo rushed toward the source of the reverberation. Powerful confrontations were unfortunately very common in the Nexus. Even worse, the Nexus Security Force had no legal right to intervene in these sort of situations, when the image power indicated that the upper crust of the Nexus was moving.

Elohamore knew that this would be a difficult incident as soon as they arrived at the source of the shockwave. The explosion had come from the Suaycloak Lounge, a swanky gambling establishment in the district that Elohamore and Kadan patrolled. They were a bit below the bottom of Bray Street, so this area wasn’t the truly posh portions of the Upper Nexus, but it was exactly in these sorts of mixed neighborhoods that seedy establishments thrived.

The grand, five-meter tall doors of the Suaycloak Lounge had been smashed to the side so forcefully that the portions of the wall where the hinges had been attached were now cracked and crumbling. Elohamore made a note of that; in situations like this, the security forces were essentially highly-paid appraisers. They tried to calm whatever confrontation was going on, but they were really just here to record who broke what.

Later, they would send a missive to the culprit with a carefully tallied bill.

This sort of job always left a sour taste in Elohamore’s mouth, because it was a far cry from what he had thought he would be doing on the security force. But he breathed in as deeply as he could manage and strode through to the interior, which was set up like a jazz club.

A man with black hair, a metallic grey torso armor, and bare feet was glaring over at a four-armed man who was trembling in the corner. People scrambled to the side, trying not to be pierced by those locked gazes. The black-haired man smiled. “Did you really think I would just let your show if disrespect go…?”