Interlude 3.38 [Lysska] (Patreon)

[Was supposed to do a double chapter drop yesterday, but I ended up getting sick. Caught a viral flu, and I'm feeling pretty miserable right now.

Sorry about the delay. I'll make it up with a double chapter drop next time.]

"How certain are you of this?"

"As certain as I was when I first drew this… map. I trust my eyes. And not just at this key point, there were three more I found, scattered along the ley lines."

"That is certainly troubling."

"So, have they any lead on what manner of summoning circle it might be?"

"As of now, much to my disappointment and helplessness, I cannot seem to pin anything down. There are a few possibilities, but they would require us to venture into forbidden territory to uncover them."

Lysska heard all that and found herself back at square one once more. This sheer sense of helplessness, like no matter what you uncovered, however much you unearthed, you always fell short of the whole truth. It was maddening. Nor was it as though she could do much about it; she was dealing with forces far beyond her station.

Right now, they stood in a dimly lit chamber. Outside, a blizzard howled above Varkaigrad, while a nearby hearth cast the light of dancing flames across the room. Matriarch Snezana stood over a table scattered with multiple records and dormant artefacts, striving to discern exactly what had been transpiring right under their noses all along.

Lysska could feel it, as her luck energy shrieked around her core. She was so, so close to the truth. It would not be long now until they figured it out. Yet even so, a certain dread gnawed at her heart, one she had not been able to shake. It felt similar to that fateful, dreadfully dangerous night when she and Vyra had escaped the clutches of Vok’Akh, and the horrors that might have befallen them had they not fled.

This was akin to that. All her accumulated experience screamed at her to run from all of this, that whatever awaited her if she stayed might be worse than death. But she could not. Not unless she uncovered the truth and knew her loved ones would escape with her.

Her attention returned to the map she had made using Kraven of the sewers, where the ley line influence was so potent that even a gold core like Snezana herself steered clear of it. With her unique bond with Kraven, Lysska had managed to map most of the place out, and along with it, she found something alarming: there were people in it. Not just any people, but the very alchemists who had been kidnapped by the elves when it all began.

So far, they had discussed a few theories regarding what had happened earlier. 'Varkaigrad will fall at the hands of its own architects.' That was what they had managed to uncover earlier. Architects, that were the alchemists who had helped set up this place above such potent ley lines.

Lysska had wondered what that precisely entailed. Was it a prophecy? Something they felt they had already stanched when they caught the elves with a vast haul of dangerous alchemical supplies in the lower districts? After all, how could a city fall to alchemists, if not through the products they made? But now she could say with certainty that it was merely a ruse set up by those clever elves.

For this… 'summoning circle' beneath Varkaigrad, the alchemists were positioned in such a way that it resembled a keg. A fuse. Lysska, even without the matriarch’s guidance, understood rituals well enough to recognize their function, even if neither of them grasped the full picture. The alchemists were like fuses to this massive circle. Once connected, though Lysska had a clue as to how, they would complete it in a manner, activating the circle. And whatever it was designed to do... would come to pass.

It was absurd. Even setting aside the ominous prophecy, they quite literally had a ticking explosion right beneath the entire city, and the ones controlling it were elves. It was the feeling of finally seeing the fog clear, only to realize you were standing in an elaborate cage.

A wind swished through the air, and Moryana appeared. The demonic familiar, with her butler-like uniform and goat-like face, carried more tomes and records. She sighed as she placed them down. "Apologies, Master. It seems the elders are growing more cautious of my presence. I had to shake off one of their familiars that was stalking me, hence the delay. I managed to retrieve a few reference tomes, though, from a quick glance, I am uncertain they will be of any help."

Matriarch Snezana looked weary as well; Lysska did not think she had seen the woman rest even a moment since it all began. Thus began another round of research, all of them trying to figure out what in the blazes lay beneath Varkaigrad. While the three of them were here, buried under heaps of ancient records and the research of their predecessors, Lord Veyan was in the field, not interfering outright though, but keeping a watchful eye on the elves around the Colosseum.

The rest of the gang assisted him in whatever ways they could. Vyra and Viper might not be the most powerful, but they were reliable in such matters. Brickfist had returned to their lair, packing supplies on Lysska's orders, so that even if they had to flee at the last moment, at least something of value would come with them. Lysska had also spread rumours that the Vor’akhs were preparing a massive attack in the lower districts, giving the people they were already trying to evacuate another reason to leave as soon as possible. A few other gangs, like the Fang Circle, took her rumours rather seriously, which only served to heighten the sense of danger. She could not reveal the true reason, but she did what she could.

Meanwhile, Jade remained within the Colosseum. She had been inside for over five days now. A normal spirit hunt lasted nearly twelve days, so she was roughly halfway through. Her familiars— Alice the doll and Belle— stood guard over Vasilia in case of any emergency. Though Lysska could not be certain of Alice's exact whereabouts. That doll might very well be present here, watching and listening to everything they were saying. She had grown more elusive of late. Earlier, the Matriarch had been able to detect her presence, but the last two times, even she had taken a while to lock onto the faint ripple of her aura. It was as though Alice were learning and growing stronger.

Which, by all appearances, tended to happen to those around Jade. Both Belle and Alice were becoming forces to be reckoned with as they grew, and how they were growing, Lysska had no idea. She merely knew they were getting stronger, little by little. Unlike her, who remained stuck at the bottleneck of her red core, unable to ascend to gold. But thinking on it would avail her nothing. All she could do was wait for the fateful event— or moment— that would trigger her ascension.

After a while, the Matriarch herself spoke. "This is no use. None of these records bear symbols even remotely like this. The arrangement screams summoning, but… the intent remains elusive." She paused for a moment and looked outside; the blizzard had grown fiercer, while the flames in the hearth continued their flickering dance. "Perhaps we are looking at this all wrong."

"You mentioned something about 'venturing into the forbidden' if we wished to find out more about this, Matriarch," Lysska prompted. The words had caught her attention earlier, though she had not pushed. She knew her place—and her own lack of knowledge. If it were easily achieved, the Matriarch would have done it already, yet she seemed uninterested in pursuing whatever lead rested in her mind. Still, Lysska could not hide her curiosity.

"Ah, well, it is something someone as clever as you might already be aware of."

Lysska had a few ideas.

"But certainly. You might not know the exact cause. You are aware of how limited our history itself is."

Lysska nodded. No history exists beyond the previous five or six hundred years.

"You might also be aware of how gatekept magic was, and how there were no towers dedicated to such an intricate subject, one that demands research to innovate."

Lysska frowned. Yes, that was true as well. She herself was not walking the path of an arcanist. She knew a plethora of spells, but she had always assumed magic was simply kept from the general public, for research on such matters could be dangerous if left unregulated. Yet that certainly did not explain why no official branches for magic research itself existed, as they did for enchantment and alchemy.

"Makes you wonder, does it not? Well, what you are circling around is correct. These matters are what we consider 'forbidden.' At that time, I was not sure exactly why either, it was something drilled into me ever since I was young by the elders. Don't look for the origins of things. Don't dig too deep into history. Don't seek any breakthroughs in spellcraft. Just learn what we already have, for there is a plethora of it." She chuckled a little. "Well, if you tell a child that, they will simply wonder why. So I had my own quest for understanding. I was a curious child as well. I never took spellwork for granted; I kept trying to create something from what I was taught when no one was looking. After all, why would I not? Playing with magic and runes resulted in more than a few explosions, but in the end… I succeeded in understanding and creating something new from the very scratch." Her expression darkened, and Lysska felt a terrible pressure descend upon the chamber, with a feeling as though she were being watched.

"You feel that, do you not?" the Matriarch said. "Even speaking about them brings forth their attention. Needless to say, that was the day I realised who ensured these things stayed forbidden." She returned to her book without elaborating further. Lysska, meanwhile, was sweating buckets as the terrible pressure slowly receded, as if no longer interested in their affairs.

Even though her luck remained intact, Lysska knew she had brushed against something terrible. What in the blazes was that? It was as if it had been waiting for the right, or perhaps wrong, words to fall from the Matriarch's mouth. Looking back at the conversation, Lysska slowly pieced it together. It seemed some things were forbidden because someone— or something— kept them that way. A pressure to frighten even a gold core witless; Lysska could not imagine what manner of entity it was. That pressure felt like certain… erasure, more dreadful than death itself.

Lysska stopped thinking about it immediately. She could not afford to lose her composure now, but before she could return to her research, another voice flowed through the room, carrying a singsong quality.

"My, my, sister, you certainly have a flair for enlightening the unknowing. I almost felt scared for you for a moment when I detected their gaze landing here."

It was a tall woman dressed in provocative red, carrying a cane. Neither Snezana nor Moryana seemed on guard against this new presence. The Matriarch merely gazed up tiredly. "Gweneth, are you here merely to rub salt on my own incompetence at uncovering even a simple conspiracy?"

The tall woman laughed. "Oh, do not sell yourself short; there is nothing simple about this conspiracy. And well, it is not as though I am trudging about purely for entertainment, I, too, am working on something equally great."

The Matriarch opened her mouth to respond but immediately stopped as words appeared behind Gweneth. They were written upon a disembodied blue screen: [Don't stop, keep going naturally. I simply cannot say what I am about to say out loud, for she is already watching and listening.]

"Ah, something greater. I certainly wonder if it will ever come to fruition," the Matriarch replied, quick to recover.

[Good going. Now.] Lysska felt the attention shift to herself as new words appeared on the screen. [I have heard someone amongst Jade's retinue might be able to communicate with her. I simply have a message for her.]

The next message chilled Lysska to her very core.

[Jade is going to die if she wins the trial.]