Chapter 30 – Life 6 – The Two Councils

  “This is *not* my daughter’s fault!”, declared my mother.

  The man she was speaking to was angry. “Who else could it be, then? No, there is one person responsible for this, and it’s the freak girl who led the charge to destroy that crystal.”

  The room had been hastily commandeered from the GreatLake Hunter’s Guild. It had been several days of nonstop discussions, so many of the people arranged had dark circles around their eyes. The rest of my team was either sleeping or injured, but these talks were important... or so I had assumed at the beginning.

  A woman I recognized as a respected High Caster from York City spoke up. “She may share some of the blame, but not total responsibility. By all accounts, she wouldn’t have managed this alone. When news was leaked of what she was doing, maybe a few tried to stop her, but most were completely willing to cheer her on, if not help out themselves.”

  My mother nodded along. “Exactly, don’t try and act like she was working alone. There were people selling *tickets*, for fuck’s sake! ‘The biggest event since High Casting was discovered’, they called it!”

  A large, muscular man intervened. “There is a time and place to assign blame, and this is not it. As we quibble here, our fighters on the ground fight and die.”

  Most of the people in the room, including myself, agreed with his words. I would atone for my actions once people were back to safety.

  A man with glasses pulled out a map. “The Arena is bordered by what was once called the Ohi O-River on one side, which curls northward in both directions. Our best Light Folders have indicated that the monsters have been avoiding the river for now. So, they will likely spread north until they hit the much larger body of water here. That *should* keep them contained…”

  The muscular man interrupted, “No, it will not. After they reach that lake, they will start evaporating the rivers and escape into the wider Five States. I reckon we’ll reach complete infestation in a couple years, five on the outside.”

  Everyone looked at him, and he elaborated. “Evolved monsters aren’t just a stronger version of their brethren. They are smarter, too. I once hunted a trio of Evolveds up north. Set a trap for them. They not only knew to avoid it, but they also somehow communicated it to the rest of the pack. They know when they’ve been cornered, and *will* find a way out.”

  Someone I didn’t recognize spoke up: “Can we put a stop to new monsters from being summoned? Like… entomb the crystal in solid metal, or something?”

  The woman from York City shook her head. “It’s been tried before, on the lesser crystals. With both Earth and Metal. Not only does it trigger ‘hardcore mode’ immediately, it also doesn’t work. The crystal doesn’t need line of sight to summon a monster, and they have a much larger area of effect than you might think.”

  The same person spoke up again: “Well, what if we walled off the area? Surely that would-“

  My mother finished for him: “It would be impossible, is what it would be. Every Redsteel Caster and Folder across the Five States put together wouldn’t be able to wall off an area of that size. And regular metal won’t cut it, we know that from what they did to the walls of the Arena…”

  “Well then, what are we supposed to do? We’re out of options here!”

  I spoke up for the first time in the whole meeting. “There is one more option. We ask for help.”

  The muscular man scoffed. “Who from, girl?”

  I turned around to a corner of the room that I noticed everyone had been avoiding. “From them.”

  A figure shrouded in a cloak that looked like it was made of pure darkness stood up. Many people were startled, as if they hadn’t known they were even there. Which was probably the case.

  The figure tilted its head and spoke with a bemused, feminine voice. “I see someone has learned to pay attention. Whether such knowledge will serve her, remains to be seen…”

  I growled. “Enough games. You could put an end to this, couldn’t you?”

  Her chuckle had a slight echo to it. “You think quite highly of us. Perhaps that is wise, for forces beyond your control. Perhaps not.”

  “That wasn’t a ‘no’.”

  The figure sighed. “In truth, these events caught us by surprise as well. There have certainly been previous attempts to erase a crystal, but yours was the first to succeed. All others have been put on hold, of course.”

  My mother spoke up with an unusual amount of timidness in her voice. “Y-you’re the ones my daughter spoke of. The ones who showed up after she found that man with-“

  The cloaked woman sighed and shook her head. “Yes, yes, we don’t need to bring up that whole business. Steps have been taken to ensure such eyesores are kept in their cage. That is unrelated to the matter at hand, though.” She turned back to face me. “You asked for help. What are you willing, then, to give in exchange for assistance?”

  I had been thinking about this from the moment I first noticed the cloaked figure. “You said I was the first to succeed in destroying a crystal. That means you don’t have anyone with Living Bronze on your side, do you?”

  Another echoing chuckle. “We do, actually. A father and son who make self-propelled vehicles for us on occasion. Your point is made, though. Those two couldn’t make a set of armor to save their lives, much less one that acts as a soldier independently. Do you wish to give us an army then? I’ve seen your work. It’s good. It’s also highly liquified at this point in time. Everything but the proverbial clothes on your back, so to speak. Do you *really* think that’s enough?”

  I gulped. This would be a gamble, but it was a necessary one to save my home. “I don’t offer an army. I offer a squad. Six soldiers, no more, no less. All made with the entirety of my Essence output over the next several years. I think you know what that would mean.”

  The eyes of everyone else in the room glazed over in a highly disturbing fashion. They didn’t blink, didn’t move a muscle. Meanwhile, the cloaked woman moved forward in a way that seemed almost inhuman.

  “And how. Pray tell. Did you learn of such things? The beginnings of Artificing, yes, some have independently mimicked. But to so willingly throw yourself on that path, knowing that it would entice us… who told you? The overbearing watcher? That self-styled Emperor? Surely not the other two, and Mistress would never…”

  I gulped, not realizing that the Swordsman’s achievements were considered so valuable. I had to tread lightly. “I have… heard rumors, nothing more. That, alongside experiments in my own time, led me to draw some conclusions. Six is clearly an important number, right? So-“

  A sigh that caried a terrible weight. “Spare me your excuses. I don’t know how you came about this information, but you have, for better or worse, intrigued me. Certain interested parties were already on their way to examine the new crystal, but I will leave a message for them to examine you as well. Assuming you survive their gaze, an exchange of favors may be possible. You have 2 hours. Do not leak what you know any further, or you will envy the fates of your melted constructs.”

  The cloaked woman then held out a strange object, barely visible, that seemed to cast shadows on all available surfaces. The shadows grew, and grew, until the entire room was filled with swirling darker-than-dark tendrils. And then, all at once, the tendrils, the shadows, the woman in the cloak, they were all gone. After a brief, terrible moment of silence, everyone in the room inhaled simultaneously and seemed to wake from a long slumber.

  “Well then, what are we supposed to do? We’re out of options here!”

  The same man spoke up, with the same precise tone of voice he used to say that sentence the first time. No-one seemed to notice anything was amiss. As I marveled at the quite frankly terrifying power the cloaked woman had wielded, the argument continued from exactly where it had left off, only without my interjection.

  Very little was accomplished during the meeting, only an agreement to give great favors to any Storm or Redsteel wielders who agreed to help stem the flow of Magma. I quietly excused myself, and my mother seemed quietly relieved that I was allowed to leave without incident.

  I found a small, unoccupied workshop in the Guild building and decided to spend the next two hours infusing all the Essence I could spare into my armor. There was no time to make an entirely new soldier, but I could at least try and prepare myself as best I could.

  Eventually, I heard a commotion outside. Precise timekeeping was difficult for the people of the Five States, but I had a sneaking suspicion that it had been two hours to the minute since the woman gave her ultimatum. I carefully ventured into the courtyard, which now seemed to be filled with people of all sorts. There was only one common thread among these people: I could somehow tell that they were no doubt powerful masters of whichever element they wielded.

  Above all of them, though, standing high above the courtyard, was a metal construct covered in some of the most finely filigreed details I had ever seen. I would never have believed that it had arrived so suddenly if I hadn’t seen the Metal Folders constantly refining their work before my eyes.

  Atop the platform stood 4 people, and they couldn’t have been more different. One was a cloaked figure, indistinguishable from the woman I had spoken to before. One was a frightfully tall dark-skinned man whose bulging, veiny muscles were completely on display thanks to his lack of shirt or other upper clothing. The third was an older woman dressed in the finest red robes I could have ever imagined. Her appearance was of a style I associated with the memories of the Swordsman.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Finally, there was a man who appeared completely ordinary. His light brown skin, average height, and unremarkable clothing wouldn’t be considered notable in any neighborhood, rich or poor, in the Five States… it was only the fact that the other 3 seemed to avoid his gaze that lent him any hint of power.

  It was the ordinary man who spoke up first. He looked right at me and said, “This is the girl we have arrived here for.” There was not any question in his voice, only pure, even certainty.

  As the 4 walked towards me, the Metal Folders in the area rapidly restructured the platform to slope down under their feet. The result was that the 4 kept perfectly even footing even as they loomed over me, taking a closer look.

  The robed woman scoffed and spoke in a highly stilted accent, clearly not speaking her home language. “I must thank you, girl. Some in our Empire want all crystal go away. Stupid. Crystal help us be strong. Now you show truth. Crystal *never* go away. Just get stronger. People have to get stronger, too. Good reminder, girl.”

  The muscled man spoke up in a voice that sounded like it was just shy of being a yell. “Easy for you to say! Your people live an oceano away from this disaster! Not to mention all the plans this wrecked! Do you know how many resources we’re going to have to push at these super-crystals to keep os monstros under control?”

  The cloaked figure gave the impression of looking askance, and spoke up with what was, surprisingly, a male voice this time. “I don’t believe you have any interests left this far north… something you want to share with the class?”

  The unassuming man shook his head slightly. “The incident was repeated in Bogota. The local Metal-Fist Gorillas now inflict Rust with their every action.”

  The muscled man looked back in shock. “WHAT? Your suprimo agreed he would keep his all-seeing bullshit out of our borders!”

  The unassuming man raised a single eyebrow. “Similarly, yours agreed to curtail his ‘harvesting’ operations until we learned more about the risks. They were then promptly increased to triple speed.”

  The muscled man sputtered. “Wh-pff-that-you wouldn’t even KNOW if you hadn’t-GAHHH! Fine! Si, we destroyed another crystal, and *si*, another one fell from the sky. And it’s MERDA! Those gorillas evolved into those Azul Metal ones twice as often as anything else put together, but nooo, the new crystal makes ‘em maldito RUST gorillas. Now, not only we’ve gotta fight against more Rust monstros than anyone has ever seen put together, but we’re out one of our best supplies of Azul Metal, too!”

  The cloaked man sighed. “As entertaining as this all is, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the real on we’re all here. The girl wants our help, and she made an offer she *really* shouldn’t have known how to make. Her entire set of Core Artifacts.”

  The robed woman grimaced. “That right. Girlie, what you doing saying thing like that? You want attention, you got, but it *bad* attention.”

  With all their focus returned to me, I tried to keep calm. “I was… not fully aware of the significance of my offer. Still aren’t, actually. Perhaps these ‘secrets’ you speak of are easier to discover independently than you give them credi-“

  The cloaked man laughed in a way that echoed far more than his female counterpart’s. “Ohhhh you really think that’s going to work? Fine, since you are oh-so-ignorant, let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, in a land far-far-away, there was a set of swords. Swords that were made of Bluesteel, but not just any ordinary Bluesteel. Because these things could cut damn near anything… *including Bluesteel armor*. They are, to this day, the most powerful treasures in the Immortal Empire save for their very Emperor himself!”

  The robed woman looked like she wanted to refute this, but ultimately refrained from saying anything.

  The cloaked man continued. “So, everyone wondered, how were these swords made? What was more Bluesteel than Bluesteel? Were they forged and reforged by some master blacksmith? Were they fashioned from the armor of some impossibly powerful monster? Or maybe, just maybe…” The man gestured to me, and I realized that he was expecting some audience participation.

  “Maybe there was more Essence infused into the swords than normal?” I ventured a ‘guess’.

  The 3 with visible faces grimaced, while the cloaked man just gave an unhinged laugh. “YES! ‘Maybe’ indeed! It’s not the first thing people think of, and often not even the third or fourth… but for everyone who hears about these swords, and the other Artifacts like them, there’s always somebody who wonders ‘oh, maybe *that’s* how they did it! So, they try it for themselves! And you know what happens then?”

  I hesitated for a long while. What was he implying? When the Swordsman did exactly this to make his final swords, and had anything... bad happened? I mean, he blacked out for a little while, but there… wasn’t anything else… I didn’t want to say anything until the muscled man, out of some sort of pity, gave me a hint. He moved his hands in an outward fashion while his lips made a little ‘o’.

  I blinked. “They… died?”

  The man cackled with unearthly glee. “’They died’ she says. Oh yeah, they died. But not just them. They take everybody nearby with them!”

  I was aghast. “The Artifacts explode?”

  “Ohh no, no no no, that would be far too simple! No, when an Artifact fails to form, every person within earshot just… drops. Dead as a doornail. Poof. Even when the Artifact *succeeds*, there are risks.”

  I stammered: “B-but that’s… impossible! How does that even work?!”

  The unassuming man looked at me with pity in his eyes, and said, “Some truths are unknowable. Others are very knowable, yet equally dangerous.”

  I had a horrifying realization. “You aren’t keeping these secrets for power… you’re keeping them to… protect people?”

  The muscled man gave a low chuckle. “Bit o’ both, girl. See, the Core Artifacts that *do* form are some real good shit. Everyone wants ‘em, especially if they aren’t-“

  The other three, including the unassuming man, glared at him furiously. He grimaced. “Ah, yeah, forget that part. Point is, if it weren’t for the dangers, we would be pumping these things out left and right. Hells, even if it was just the Artificer at risk, we would still try. But when desperate people could empty out whole cities if this info got out… yeah, we keep it locked down tight.

  The robed woman frowned at that. “Which beg question about… where you learn this, girl? Who tell you Artifact come in set, but not ‘bad ones kill people’ part?”

  The muscled man nodded. “Yeah, I was kinda wondering that, too. Seriously, this shit is like those old stories of ‘nuclear bombas’. The more people who know, the worse off we are.”

  The cloaked man nodded as well. “That’s what I was saying! It’s even worse than I thought, too. I figured the girl was just overconfident in her chances for some reason, but to actually *not know* about the death radius is just flat out irresponsible.”

  I gulped. I was starting to realize what had happened. The Swordsman had created his final swords while exiled in a nearly empty city. Any problems that would have been caused would probably just be attributed to wild monsters. I… I had no idea! If I had done my experiments in a different order… could I have killed everyone back home more surely than the Magma Mantises? And Lambert… I had told him a bit about infusion, too! Were they going to kill him? Were they going to kill me? Were they going to kill *everyone I had ever met*?!

  The four were staring at me. I had to come clean, explain that this was all a misunderstanding, that no-one I knew wasn’t a font of impossibly dangerous knowledge.

  “T-the truth is-“

  “Unnecessary at this juncture.”, finished the unassuming man.

  The other three looked at him in shock. He silently refused to elaborate.

  The robed woman broke into a string of strange words that I vaguely recognized as terrible curses the Swordsman knew. The other two reacted about as well.

  The cloaked man recovered first. “FFF-fine. Alright. Very well. Does the All-Seer claim this girl, then?”

  The unassuming man gave me a long look, before finally speaking up. “He does not. Her truth is her own, but any deals with her will be made, or unmade, without further intervention.”

  The muscled man muttered something along the lines of ‘idiotas act like they’re doin’ ya a maldito favor even enquanto eles te ferram…’, slipping into what I assumed was his home language at the end.

  I didn’t know why the man was helping me, but I wouldn’t question it, lest he rescind his protection. I also thought about what I had learned.

  “So, this… effect, this, ‘death radius’… how big is it? And… does it kill monsters?”

  The cloaked man sadly shook his head. “Great idea. Fantastic, even. It’s been tried on multiple occasions. Got some good Artifacts out of it, but no effect on the monsters. Well, it does have the tendency to attract and enrage any monsters that have formed their own Artifacts…”

  I considered that last bit. “Doesn’t that make Artifact creation a good weapon against those incredibly powerful monsters?”

  The muscled man spoke up. “Second best, after the Artifacts themselves. But convincing someone to focus on all that crafting and meditation and shit just so the Fog Devourer or Swarm Queen or what have you starts breathing down their necks is what we in the business call a ‘hard sell’. The part I think you care about, though, is that there ain’t no way to make a death radius that kills all those Magma monstros. Maldito shame, I know.”

  I sighed in defeat. “So, you didn’t really come here to help. You came here to figure out why I know what I know, and now even that has been… blocked off, I guess? You’re all just going to let the Five States melt into molten slag, then?”

  The cloaked man *hmm*ed. “Well… not quite. You see, while it is true we came here to isolate any leaked knowledge… well, I for one can’t quite say that a full set of Core Artifacts from a quite rare element isn’t… attractive.”

  The robed woman looked up at him. “OHHH no. No no, you no get full set! She not one of you!”

  I got the vibe the cloaked man was smiling, even though I couldn’t see his face. “Well, I mean, she did offer them without having met any of you, so really-“

  The muscled man shut him down hard. “Not happening there, babaca. You like rules so much, now you gotta follow them. *Each* faction gets one, and she keeps the last one.”

  A small glimmer of hope appeared in my chest. If they were talking about Artifacts I hadn’t even created yet… were they actually accepting the deal? And they were even talking about letting me keep one, which seemed to imply they were being honorable about it… but wait…

  “Isn’t the set of 6? If you four get one, and I keep one… who gets the last one? And where would I even go to make the set safely?”

  Chuckles all around, even, I thought, from the unassuming man. The cloaked man spoke up first. “Funny thing, both those questions have basically the same answer. You see, there’s really only one man we all trust to keep the secrets of Core Artifacts safe while still making them for us. Thanks in no small part to the fact that he never leaves his home. And that’s where you’re headed.”

  I frowned at the sudden turn-around of my situation. “You’re just sending me to live in this guy’s home? Where… where even is it?”

  The muscled man smiled a grin with yellow teeth. “Ah… South”.

  “The tropical territories?”

  “You wish. Muy South.”

  “…The jungle continent? I thought that’s where you-“

  “More south than that.”

  “Australia? I heard that place is-“

  “Better than where you going. South again.”

  “There’s nothing on the maps south of Australia!”

  “Ohhh yes there is. You know that little white bit on the bottom of every map and globe?”

  “…No. You can’t be serious. No, I’ll find another way to save-“

  “We weren’t asking. It’s either this or shadowfucker over there has to wipe your memory of any dangerous info. Which we *will* be doing to your little boy-toy, by the way. It won’t hurt him. Much. But for you, we have a sneaking suspicion that it would do a lot more than hurt. So, trust me, this really is your only option…”

  I looked back at the other three. The unassuming man was looking off into the middle distance, like he couldn’t even see me. The robed woman saw me but couldn’t care less. And the cloaked man… he shrugged.

  “He’s right, for once. From the moment you played your hand, this was the outcome. But hey, a deal’s a deal. So long as you knuckle down and make those Artifacts on your end, we’ll corral those Magma Mantises on ours. Just, uh, try and stay warm, alright? It’s pretty damn cold in Antarctica…”

  I tried to run, but at some point, a large batch of liquid metal had gathered near my feet. It pooled upward and trapped me at the simple, nonverbal commands of the unassuming man. He had the grace to look ever-so-slightly apologetic.

  Then the cloaked man brought out that strange shadowy object that must be some sort of Artifact. If I could just break free of this quicksilver! If I could just make it back to Penn and find some other way to save my home! If I could just convince-

  Darkness.