Olz Hap casting magic in the style of Caravaggio, as interpreted by DALL-E in January 2025.

  Chapter 3: Tridi

  Mikla metropolitan area

  Year 5638 of the Confluence

  Countdown: 20

  Olz Hap

  The morning briefing from the Excession Investigator took a long time, but Olz did not feel that she learnt anything new. Most of the time, he was either just stating the obvious or plodding through a full range of possibilities that needed to be settled before it would be possible to do anything useful.

  It was funny for Olz to juxtapose the Lord Protector’s insistence that this was not a time for philosophical doubts with the Excession Investigator’s review of potential unknowns, many of which seemed possible only in a philosophical sense.

  The Protectors had hurried to the conclusion that the Blight was an enemy attack but then proceeded to counter this attack at a very leisured pace, emphasizing the importance of never jumping to conclusions.

  Then again, Olz had always had misgivings about the Protectors. The state’s security apparatus really should not be a self-governing body – this seemed to her like maybe the most basic principle of government.

  The pre-Confluence world was full of examples of how security institutions like what they called the military and the police took direct or indirect control over governments, and the results were never pretty.

  One of Olz’ strategic ambitions was to cut the Protectors down to size and bring them under control, but she had never been able to find a way to accomplish this. Maybe this Blight investigation would give her an angle?

  After the briefing, Olz had an informal talk with Agata, Takashi, Uliaz, and Corto about their impressions of the Excession Investigator. She summoned them in such a way that her Shieldbearer would not notice that he was being excluded – she did not want to have a Protector in the room when her team was discussing another Protector.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  “What is your take on this?” Olz asked.

  “Seems like they’re stalling,” said Corto. He shared Olz’ views on Protectors.

  “Well, they are certainly being careful,” offered Takashi, who was himself often careful and tended to provide moderate perspectives on things.

  “He talks very much but doesn’t say a lot.” Uliaz favored economy of expression and had little patience with people who did not tell the truth.

  “I agree. There’s something not right about him.” In a different world, Agata would have been a warrior or some sort of combat medic: she was unafraid, straightforward, and bold. She would not last five minutes as a politician.

  “You say that about every Protector,” observed Takashi, being right as usual.

  “Well, there’s something not right about them.”

  “Ok,” said Olz, “but if they are stalling, why would they do that? The Blight is a threat to us all.”

  Nobody said anything for a while. Then Uliaz suggested “Maybe they are just stuck in their bureaucratic nonsense.”

  “Could be,” Takashi agreed. “They have protocols for everything and probably have zero experience with deviating from established procedures.”

  “That would at least be a rational explanation,” said Corto. “I can’t see any other rational explanations. You don’t play politics with something like this, especially when you have just insisted on declaring it an enemy attack.”

  “Sure,” said Olz. If she wanted to use this investigation to get an angle on the Protectors, was she playing politics? “But there’s something unhurried over them, isn’t there? Like it’s not really a big deal.”

  “You’re the psychologist here,” said Agata, “but if I had a team of people looking so relaxed while dealing with an emergency, I would say something was wrong.”

  Corto’s eyes sparkled for a moment, like an idea popped into his mind. “They said there were two Invokers on the team keeping the others relaxed, right? That probably means the investigators are under some form of enhancement, doesn’t it?”

  “I would have noticed if they were under active enhancements, but something could have been set on pause.” Olz laughed. “Maybe they’re Mellowed when they do the job. That could explain the calmness and dawdling.”

  ---

  The Tower of the High Magus was where Olz lived and worked. It was a tall, slim cylinder – the tallest building in Mikla with plenty to spare – and was constructed from a material closely resembling ivory, although far more durable.

  At regular intervals throughout its height, sections of the outer wall were both transparent and luminescent, so the Tower could light up for special occasions. In principle, this lighting function might be used to alert the people of Mikla at times of emergency – you could see the Tower from almost anywhere – although this would only make a meaningful difference if the ether went down, which had never happened.

  The non-luminescent sections were also transparent, but only from the inside – seen from the outside they were fully opaque and looked exactly like ivory. Olz’ personal quarters, known as the High Magus Residence, were located at the top of the Tower, while the offices for herself and her team were a few floors down.

  Further down there were other government offices. An elevator shaft and a stairwell filled the center of the structure, and of course the High Magus had a separate elevator, constrained to the top floors, all to herself.