Chapter 15: A Concerned Friend

Subject: Caim Location: Maliscade - The Blightbane Guild

Caim sat opposite Mille in a small box of a room. Ivory walls and a metal ceiling closed them in. The door to the room was of thick, gray metal construction, blocking sound in and out. The same lanterns found in the public area lit the room. Two hung behind Caim on the wall opposite the door. Between Caim and Mille was a sturdy blue-gray table. Its surface was bare, save for a curious fixture in the center. Three gray prongs rose from a half-spherical black base.

Caim couldn’t help but feel caged. The room and its furnishings weren’t responsible. It was the silence. It was Mille’s intense stare. It was the fact that she had insisted he sit on the side of the table furthest from the door. Caim couldn’t look directly at her, so he looked around the room and down at the table. He looked anywhere but at those judging silver irises.

“Alice briefly summarized your situation. You are safe here,” Mille explained, quietly breaking the silence. “We use these meeting rooms for many things, including initial seeker registration interviews and business negotiations.”

“Did she? I don’t know-” Caim began.

“Before we get into anything else, I want you to answer some questions. When I inspected Alice’s armor, I found scratches and bite marks commonly associated with blightbeasts of the Riventread festerfont.”

“Riventread? I thought that place was called Shimmerden.”

“My mistake. Riventread was where she was supposed to be. Shimmerden isn’t usually a place seekers go before midday. Riventread has higher visibility before peak daylight hours.”

Caim looked up at Mille while she talked. She spoke calmly. Her conduits remained silver, which he believed was the default for faron. He didn’t know what she was thinking or feeling.

Was that “mistake” intentional, as a way to test me?

“I wouldn’t know. I arrived in Shimmerden unexpectedly. I had never been anywhere in Shroud before that,” Caim cautiously added.

“So my friend said,” Mille continued, not missing a beat. “Alice’s armor is unusable now. She will need to purchase a fresh set.”

Mille stopped talking. She continued to stare at Caim, which made him incredibly uncomfortable. His legs squirmed beneath the table.

Finally, Mille broke the silence. The flow of the conversation was entirely in her control.

“It’s just as well… Alice needed something more protective. I’ve been telling her that for months. Now, she will make the purchase without complaints.”

Mille laughed, but the nodes above and below each eye didn’t shine green like they had when she had first seen Alice.

“Alice says you’re a trustworthy person, and I’m inclined to believe her. However, I wouldn't be so easy to forgive someone who put my friend’s life at risk. Traversal magic is exceedingly rare, to the point where I’ve never met anyone capable of casting even a Longdrop spell. Is that the one you used?”

What is the correct answer here?! Do I lie and say that I used that spell and risk getting a detail wrong if she asks follow-up questions? Do I tell a half-truth and claim that I have no idea what spell was used?

“There is no wrong answer, Caim,” Mille offered in a surprisingly gentle tone.

“I don’t know what spell carried me to Shimmerden. I didn’t cast it. I have limited experience with magic, and the one who sent me here taught me everything I know,” Caim admitted as earnestly as he could. “She really did a poor job of teaching me anything.”

It was hard for Caim to choose the right words. Mille’s deadpan expression and serious posture put him on-edge. He was already trying to string together his next sentences, depending on how Mille chose to proceed. He wanted to make the ordeal even a small amount easier on himself if Mille continued to press him on the subject.

“It’s too bad you didn’t arrive with this other mage. Advanced Traversal spells are indeed capable of transporting another party. A mage capable of successfully casting such a spell could have also protected Alice from the danger that ravaged her armor. That mage could have prevented the wounds I know she sustained, even if she denies it.”

What did you tell her, Alice?! Do I have to guess what story you used and cover for you even if you didn’t tell me how?

“Vera told me that her spells were ‘different’ when she started training me. Not in those exact words, but that is what she meant. I was also told that I would probably never see her again. She couldn’t follow after me.”

Mille was especially interested in his description of this claim made by Vera. When Caim finished with the line about Vera not being able to follow him, Mille’s conduits pulsed violet, and he couldn’t help but anxiously straighten up his posture.

“Alice claims you arrived when she was fighting a ‘ward varcer’, a varcer that had undergone its first malevolution. Alice claims that even though she was in a certain… state, and engaged with the varcer, she saw you ‘suddenly appear’. Alice recounted a summary of your story and what you did up until now. I find that story beyond peculiar.”

“Yes, I can understand that,” Caim yielded.

He did not make any further justifications because he didn’t want to dig the hole deeper. He was a suspicious character, whether he admitted it or not.

“Alice isn’t the best liar. I know when she isn’t telling the whole truth, though this isn’t ever to harm me with malicious deceptions. Her caring nature is why I love her so much.”

Is it that she doesn’t believe Alice’s account of my own situation? Did Alice really tell a lie on top of it? I can’t defend myself if I only know this much!

Caim’s racing thoughts only exacerbated his anxious state.

“She told me you actually saved her life. She told me that you used magic to conjure a ‘shimmering metal creature’ and that this creature set upon the Varcer with ‘bolts of light’,” Mille quoted Alice’s words with a mild expression of disbelief. “She likes you, I get that, but this is excessive.”

“Actually, that story is partly true.”

“Which parts?” Mille asked, projecting a dull purple glow that peaked and then vanished within a second.

“I did summon the creature she described. For the first time in my life. It surprised me as much as her... maybe more. I’m not the mage she may think I am, but I did use that spell.”

“But?”

“She saved me,” Caim meekly admitted.

Memories of the event were forcing their way in, crowding out his other thoughts. He swallowed hard and drove the words out.

“The varcer t-turned on me and-” he choked on these last words and couldn’t continue.

Throughout this interrogation, Mille’s face remained consistently calm. Her restrained emotional expression led Caim to believe that this was how all faron were. Faron conduits seemed to help them express themselves more fully. Yet, Mille’s conduits had been a neutral silver since stepping into the room with him. Only twice had they flashed purple.

Mille’s conduits had now begun to shine an intense blue color. Her facial muscles twitched all at once. The jewels above and below each of her eyes and on the backside of each of her hands simmered back down to silver.

It will take me awhile to get used to faron conduits and those sing-song voices.

“You don’t have to continue. This was your first experience with combat I take it?” Mille asked.

“Yes.”

“Were you also hurt?”

“A little,” he admitted while looking away, worried what might come next.

“Show me,” Mille ordered softly, pushing out her chair and standing up.

Reluctantly, Caim stood up and unzipped his jacket. He showed Mille the holes in his undershirt. She moved closer and inspected the pristinely healed skin underneath with a light touch.

“Given your citizenship status, you couldn’t have received treatment from a medical station...” she began, implying that Caim should explain why he didn’t still have a pair of holes through his abdomen.

“No, Alice healed me. The wounds weren’t that bad.”

“Yes, they were,” Mille corrected. “Those tusks fatally wounded you. Even the teeth of a generic varcer would have left lasting damage, and Alice can barely cast the ‘Renew’ spell. There should at least be scarring, but-. Wait. Turn around.”

Mille’s gaze fell upon the slight bulges running the length of the back of Caim’s spine beneath his shirt. Her conduits simmered purple.

“Please,” she added without moving her eyes.

“Because I know you are going to ask, I may as well tell you that I received a minor medical operation when I was young,” Caim lied.

He lifted up his shirt as he turned around, dropping his jacket over the back of his chair.

“It doesn’t really do anything,” he lied again.

Mille reached out and ran a finger along the surface of one of the many smooth black objects embedded in his spine, letting out a surprised gasp as she did so. Caim had been living with these artificial grafts for many years. He had grown accustomed to this body and forgot to hide it.

“I don’t know what material this…” Mille mumbled. Caim didn’t feel like she was talking to him. Instead, she was working through her thoughts out loud. “Based on your supposed background, I’d guess it conducts magical energy. If that is true, it could have amplified Alice’s regenerative spell. That might be the reason you healed so well. Really, I have no way of knowing any of this without consulting a professional… which is out of the question.”

“I don’t think it has any interaction with magic,” he tried to explain.

“Did this Vera mage do this to you?” Mille asked.

“No,” he answered.

“Did she have anything to do with it? Did anyone connected to her orchestrate the procedure?” Mille pressed on.

Caim froze.

“No, I don’t think so…” he answered.

“Perhaps she performed surgery to make you more resilient? Or she was using you as a test subject…? Alice said some strange things about Vera. Answer truthfully.”

“If it has anything to do with Vera, I would be concerned,” Caim accidentally mused aloud. Mille’s conduits pulsed red.

Without warning, he felt a sharp jolt as a wave of energy cascaded through his body. Mille’s hand twitched, and she winced, yellow light pouring from her eyes. Caim knew Mille didn’t have a ‘Mark’, whatever that really meant in Shroud, or Alice would have mentioned it. Even so, the way her eyes looked now reminded him of Alice in Shimmerden.

Caim continued to feel a tingling across his skin that eventually dulled when his body started to feel numb. When the feeling finally faded, Mille returned to normal, but her conduits glowed blue. They gradually shifted to green and then eventually softened to silver. She seemed satisfied with the results of whatever it was she had done. He decided it was best to continue with his explanation.

“Vera was difficult to understand,” Caim angrily muttered as he remembered the experiment.

Supposedly, it was the reason Caim was here, but he knew nothing about it.

“She did send me away to give me a chance to start over, but I didn’t have a say in the matter,” he continued.

“Even if it doesn’t seem like you have anything dangerous on you, that curious material on your spine included, I still get the sense you are hiding a lot.”

Mille stared patiently at Caim, watching for a reaction. She waited for him to defend himself from the vague accusation. He was already overwhelmed, so he simply began rambling. He tried to say anything that would save him from Mille’s critical stare.

“You said something about citizenship status, but I don’t know how much Alice told you about me. I’m not from Shroud. She said something about a ‘barrier’ and that I would have needed to cross it to enter Shroud. I don’t know anything about that. Vera sent me away and didn’t prepare me for any of this. I’m not here in particular for any special reason, and I probably won’t be anywhere before long.”

Caim swallowed after admitting his chances of survival in Shroud. He went on.

“There is so much that I don’t know about Shroud or anywhere else. It would be hard for me to be a threat to anyone. I was told that this would make me a target for the Enforcers. I am terrified of that, but I also don’t want you or Alice risking your safety for me. I said I was unfamiliar with Shroud, right?” he accidentally repeated. “This looks like a scary place to live.”

By the time he was done rambling, Caim was out of breath and even more overwhelmed. Through blurred vision, he saw Mille crack the faintest of smiles.

“It’s becoming more clear why Alice was so taken with you,” Mille declared. “You may put that back on and sit down.”

Caim did as he was told, but he felt uneasy about how much of himself had been laid bare.

“I’ll be blunt. I thought Alice was lying to me with that sun-spun story of hers about a metal creature and a foreigner suddenly appearing. I was trying to figure out why she told the lie, why she would risk her already-tenuous safety by being with you…”

Mille shook her head in muted exasperation.

“Just tell me this explicitly. Were you responsible for any of the harm that came to Alice, and are you a spy?”

“I am not responsible for any of Alice’s injuries, directly or indirectly. I am not a spy. I know extremely little about the world. I only made it out of Shimmerden because Alice was there to lead me, and she told me she had already killed the other blightbeasts that would have attacked us on the way out.”

“If I had known she was heading to that festerfont alone at that time of day…” The orbs around Mille’s eyes pulsed red briefly, and Caim tried to avert his gaze. “Any class or saturation of festerfont is dangerous, even Placid Clarion. That girl is too ambitious. She thinks she needs to be so much stronger than she is, with limited patience to develop that strength in a realistic amount of time.”

Mille’s conduits shone red again, simmering down to a cool blue.

“This is a story all too common with seekers… but Alice is so much smarter than that,” Mille mumbled, her eyes widened while her private thoughts carried on a tangent. She looked at Caim while thinking, and then she narrowed her eyes. “A proposition for a later date.”

Mille stopped speaking. She recomposed herself in a matter of seconds, an air of professionalism returning to the room.

“There should have been no such creature within that festerfont. Malevolent are a grave matter. I will need to log this incident. Your names will be kept out of the report,” Mille clarified reassuringly. “You deserve more credit than you appear to want, but I understand why you might be reluctant to attract attention right now.”

Caim exhaled and began to calm down. He didn’t know what Malevolution was. In context up to this point, it sounded like it meant a blightbeast had become stronger. That explanation was enough for him for now.

“I know this has been an uncomfortable talk for you. I wouldn’t normally put someone through this, but our circumstances demand it. You aren’t the average prospective seeker, and this conversation is not on the record. It can’t be, or it would put the three of us at risk. However… Shroud is not such a frightening place to live once you get used to it. I’m going to help you get acclimated.”

Hopeful that the interrogation was finally over, Caim sucked in a deep breath and exhaled some of the tension stored in his muscles.

Subject: Caim Location: Maliscade - The Blightbane Guild

“Now, Caim... why do you want to become a Blight Seeker?” Mille asked.

“If I’m being honest, I’m not so sure I do. I barely survived my first experience, I don’t know what it is seekers actually do.”

Caim slid his hand down to his jacket pocket, where the black card rested in its compact form. The card that had allowed him to summon the Scion construct with magic. He felt more at ease while his fingers were pressed against its smooth surface.

“It was Alice’s idea to take me here. After hearing my circumstances, I think she thought it was my best option. She didn’t exactly consult me.”

“I should have known,” Mille chuckled softly. “When she told me about the spell she saw you use… You should have seen her expression.”

“I think she has the wrong impression. But, yes, I have no other skills except for that spell. I think there might be one more that I can use, but I have never tried.”

“Excuse me? I’m confused. Do you mean you haven’t mastered it?” Mille suggested.

“Yes, that is what I meant.”

“Magic isn’t easy to learn,” Mille insisted. “To master a single spell like what Alice described… you could be a seeker if you so wanted. Normally, I would want you to think it over. To be a Blight Seeker is to accept considerable risk, even for the cautious. It is my job to deter the reckless, people with grossly unrealistic assumptions about what it means to be a seeker, and anyone who might become a liability to their comrades. I turn people away so that they don’t run off and die.”

Mille’s cool blue conduits complemented her earnest stare. She slowly shook her head side-to-side.

“Unfortunately, your options are limited,” Mille lamented. “Shroud has been expanding its tracking of laborers.”

“But not seekers?” Caim asked.

“Oh, no. Seekers were among the first professions to be regulated. Guild staff like me are also carefully watched. I don’t know how many informants the theocracy has placed around Shroud, but it is always good to assume you are being watched. Scrutiny is the price we pay for freedom in determining our path as a Guild.”

Always being watched. Well, I’m used to that, at least.

“I’ve seen evidence of that freedom,” Caim commented on his impression of the Maliscade Guild headquarters. “Is the Guild incredibly wealthy?”

“The Blightbane Guild is wealthy in Malisacade, but don’t get the wrong idea. We may be a private organization, but that is only through tense diplomatic negotiations with the government. It isn’t my department, but I can understand that both sides would want more say in how the Guild is allowed to operate.”

Caim remembered the varcer bearing down on him in the depths of Shimmerden and mentally recoiled.

“Shroud values the Guild’s service,” Mille emphasized. “I would choose no other profession for myself. It is like that for many people whose lives have been changed by the Blight. Without the Guild, Shroud would have more than border skirmishes to worry about.”

The pieces were falling into place. Caim knew what he wanted to do.

“I appreciate your predicament, so please hear me out. I’m frightened by the position I’m in. As reluctant as I am to admit it, Vera thrust me into this because she thought I couldn’t move forward if I wasn’t forced to take risks.”

When Caim said this, he thought of past efforts with ARC. A short lifetime he couldn’t share with anyone. He thought of the paralysis that life had caused. He contrasted that with his ability to act down in the Shimmerden cavern.

“I want to be a seeker, because… as a Blight Seeker, I won’t have to worry whether I’m having the wrong impact on the world. I don’t have to spend time worrying about the unintended consequences of my actions,” he confidently answered.

Mille eyed Caim curiously while he said this.

“I don’t think I’ve heard it put that way before, but you’re absolutely right. This is a noble cause, defending the world from the Blight. You do understand that it will be dangerous, right? Not always as dangerous as facing a ward varcer, but it remains a possibility.”

“Yes,” Caim answered confidently. “I don’t want to die, but I’m willing to take that risk.”

If I do die, it just means Vera’s kind are down a test subject.

“I want to get stronger. I need to earn a living in some way.”

“I’m satisfied with your answers,” Mille announced, conduits outpouring with a green light.

Again, Caim gripped the outline of the card in his pocket, remembering what it was like to command Scion. He recalled the intoxicating feeling of having fantastical power under his control. Learning about magic was one thing, but using it was another. Caim wanted to wield the power again.

“We will test your abilities by picking a manageable Initiate contract to start with, just to make sure it is a good fit for you. All Seekers start as Initiates, but most aren’t mages with mastery of advanced spells. If you easily overcome all obstacles, you will move up to ‘Seeker Ardent’ before long!”

“I would like to begin immediately,” Caim explained. “I have no money.”

“Fortunately for you, Maliscade’s Guild offers free board to Initiate seekers.”

“It does?” Caim asked in disbelief.

This seemed too good to be true. There must be some kind of catch, a hidden cost. Caim was desperate, but he was also suspicious. When Mille saw his wary expression, she gently laughed and shook her head sideways.

“Seekers may do the job for their own reasons, but the Guild needs them to hold the Blight at bay. It is a mutually beneficial service. The bedding is nothing extravagant. I’ll explain more when we get to that part of the registration. First, we need to get you looking a little more like a seeker.”

“Just tell me what you want me to do,” Caim answered. “If I’m capable of it, I’ll do it.”

“Alright, alright,” Mille gestured for Caim to calm down. “Now you’re beginning to sound a little too much like Alice. We’re just going to go shopping.”

Mille scrutinized Caim’s attire and sighed.

“You’ll need some proper armor for when the eyes of the Guild are on you. You aren’t ready for our initiation ritual just yet.”