Throne of Time - Chapter 64: Glyphbreakers and the Blank Hand (Patreon)

When most students returned to Darkmoon late at night, it was because they had been drinking or otherwise celebrating in the city. For Suria, it usually meant she had been working late. She didn't mind, especially since Xuhriha seemed to enjoy the nighttime, despite standing out like a sore pink thumb. As they returned to campus, the darkmoon itself seemed to float in the inky surface of the sky overhead, a disc atop an endless ocean.

"Thanks for coming out again, Suria," Xuhriha told her while juggling all the flowers she'd purchased.

"It's hardly a problem," Suria told her with a smile. "I needed to get some more ingredients anyway."

"Alchemy is really resource-hungry, isn't it? I understand why usually only nobles can practice it." Xuhriha walked along at an odd gait, scuffing her feet with each step. "We should do this more often, but you're probably going to go with another roommate next loop, right?"

"Am I?"

"Due to Kiznua and Maut-mai... oh, have you not checked in with them?"

"I guess I haven't." Suria frowned to herself as she considered that it had slipped through the cracks, even though the term was well underway. "I should have, there are just enough things to deal with, and... well..."

"I understand." Xuhriha stopped her scuffing to move closer and nudge Suria's arm. "It's hard when they forget, isn't it? That's why I just let most people think I'm a loon."

"We'll have to change for our goals, sometimes, but we'll stay in touch, I promise."

Xuhriha beamed at her, and they might have said more, but at that moment they arrived at the university gates. The statues were actually no obstacle or even interruption, since they allowed in students via passively checking their identification pin. No, the problem was Wynchard, who was standing on the other side and clearly waiting for her.

"Excuse me," he said to Xuhriha, "can you let us talk?"

"Sure!" Xuhriha stuck a flower in his hair and then skipped past him. Suria let her get out of hearing range and then waited for the other looper to speak.

"Did you see anyone suspicious out there?" Wynchard asked her in a low voice.

"Like who?" Suria asked. "Gang members? The necromancer? I'm not sure I would notice them either way."

"I can't figure out how they're doing this. There are clear signs of the necromancer acting both inside Darkmoon and in the city. Even if they have perfect ways of evading campus security, I should have been able to find them."

"How do you know they're active both places?"

"Mostly when we find bodies that have had necromantic spells cast on them." Wynchard turned his attention to her with a grim expression. "Be careful, because things are heating up. The Endelythans say the Blank Hand actually killed one of the city guards. I think it was probably the Glyphbreakers instead, but we don't know. And we don't know in part because someone, probably the necromancer, took the body right out of the graveyard."

"Well, I don't have any evidence for you," Suria told him.

"Then just keep your eyes open. They have to make a mistake eventually."

Suria wasn't sure that was true, or that it would be a comforting thing to say even if so: if the mysterious necromancer could make a mistake, then all of them could make a mistake as well. And unless Qanti figured out soul armor, they were all vulnerable to being eliminated if they made the wrong sort of mistake.

She would have liked to leave the issue entirely to Wynchard and the Endelythans, but she had a feeling that it was going to become relevant to her whether she liked it or not. When she entered campus she found Xuhriha, who was waiting for her with an odd expression.

"I wanted to resume our conversation," the other woman said, "but it looks like all the boys want to talk to you. And I think you'll actually want to talk to this one."

That seemed baffling until Suria looked past and saw that Rije was standing on guard beside Convocation Hall. There weren't normally guards there, even in past cycles, and she wasn't sure whether that was actually his job or if he was investigating something else. In any case, it looked like he was trying to make eye contact, so Suria said farewell to Xuhriha and went to meet him.

"I don't actually have that much to report," Rije told her in a low voice. "But were you talking to Wynchard Odinel just now?"

"I was." Suria blinked at him. "Is there something I should know about him?"

"Not like that. He's a noble's son, heir to some sort of fire magic. Apparently they felt he never lived up to his full potential, so they sent him to Darkmoon hoping it would inspire something in him. That's all I know. It just surprised me, because the two of you, uh, don't seem..."

"He's concerned about gangs targeting students." Suria shifted to lean against the wall beside Rije and looked over at him curiously. "Do you think that's actually such a big threat?"

"Under normal circumstances, no. Everyone knows Darkmoon is the biggest power in the region." Rije looked over his shoulder, almost as if someone would be listening from Convocation Hall. "But recently? I've been hearing grim news from friends in Darmkael, even some people being killed. If students tried to meddle in that..."

"I heard something about a group called the Blank Hand, do you know who they are?"

"Biggest criminal organization in Darmkael, with some connections beyond."

"What kind of name is that?"

"Oh, there's a little story there," Rije told her. "Years ago, there used to be a lot more 'hands' - different gangs calling themselves the bloody hand, the white hand, whatever - they'd leave their symbols up on walls in areas they controlled. Some new leader came to town and started wiping them out. Whenever his group took over, they'd leave just the outline. Pretty soon they emptied out all the other gangs, so... I'm pretty sure you get the picture. Nobody else uses hand names anymore."

"And they're involved with all criminal activities in the city?" Suria asked. "I mean, do they specialize in smuggling, or...?"

"I don't think a group as big as the Blank Hand really specializes. But they're known for having more mages than the other gangs did. You practically need them, with so much magical security in the city and so many mages walking around."

"Would they be involved in theft of materials?"

Rije frowned. "That is a suspiciously specific question."

So she told him about the theft at Bub's Bobs, which she hadn't thought too much about since the beginning of the loop. She had just considered it as an opportunistic thief aiming for a valuable item, since stealth magic seemed very plausible in a city like Darmkael. Learning more about the city's underworld had made her reconsider, and as she finished Rije was nodding along.

"It's possible," he told her. "The Blank Hand would have the resources to learn about a shipment before it arrived and target it with a skilled thief. But I have to wonder what they wanted to take and why it was worth such an overt method. Usually it'd be easier to take something in transit or from a warehouse."

"I could take you to talk to Zebub, if you want?"

"No, I'd best leave that to the city guard. We're on friendly terms, but they wouldn't like it if university staff got involved with their investigations."

"What about the Glyphbreakers?"

That got Rije to look up at her sharply. "Where did you hear that name? I don't think there are any in Darmkael - they're more a faction in Taedria in general."

"Wynchard thinks some of them are coming to town." As she spoke, Suria considered exactly how to approach things, not because she intended to lie, but because she didn't want to influence what Rije told her. "He thinks they're involved with the Blank Hand, but I really don't know enough about them."

"No, that... doesn't really make sense." Rije folded his arms and frowned. "The Glyphbreakers aren't a gang, more of a... loose movement. There was a story... well, maybe this is more than you want to know. It's just local politics."

"No, please tell me."

"There are a lot of towns out there that use mana windmills: they operate like normal windmills, but they also catch mana floating in the air. Villages will have tons of them, running lots of little industries. A while ago, a mage developed a glyph that somehow pulled all the mana in a region to his big industrial windmill. Everyone in the surrounding area got upset about that, and one night a man - oh, I should have said the wind-controlling glyph was on a massive stele. One night a man shattered the glyph to pieces. It was repaired, then it got smashed again the next night, and the next."

That was certainly a story that Suria hadn't heard before, but now Rije was petering off, so she had to nudge him. "And how did it end?"

"In the short term? The mage abandoned the stele. But he came back with an army, and there was legal action, and I'm not sure if it was ever truly resolved." Rije waved his hand vaguely. "The important thing is that it's local history. There is no Glyphbreakers organization; they don't have official headquarters or membership roles."

"So if people are in Darmkael calling themselves Glyphbreakers..."

"It's just a name people take up if they think something's unjust. I'm not saying we've never seen people call themselves that and smash things they shouldn't, but frankly I'm sympathetic to a lot of them. And they're not a gang. That doesn't make any sense."

"Well, Wynchard could be mistaken." Suria wasn't sure what to make of it all herself, especially since she'd been offered such wildly different pictures.

There was a potential solution to the problem, of course: to go out into the city and even the mountainside and find out for herself. Suria very much didn't want to do that, even if she knew that it was selfish. She could stay at Darkmoon University and learn so much... wandering off into the mountainside just for local politics would feel like a huge waste.

"Sorry, I need to..." Rije shook his head and, visibly gathering himself, forced a smile. "I should talk to some of the city guard, maybe things have changed. Stay safe in Darmkael, Suria. Even a mage can die to a knife in the back."

"I'll be careful. Thanks, Rije."

They separated and Suria went back to their room filled with conflicting thoughts. She had hoped to set everything aside and just focus on her studies again, in particular because she was so close to success on so many fronts: alchemical concentration, the soul talisman, timing augments. Yet she couldn't get any of the problems out of her mind, so she was still unfocused when she returned to their room.

"You look serious," Xuhriha said from her bed. "More than normal, I mean."

"Just a lot of people telling me things." Suria wearily kicked off her shoes and set her satchel down before she dropped onto the bed. "I suppose you have opinions on the Glyphbreakers too?"

"They're a type of pastry, I think."

Despite everything, Suria giggled at the unexpected line. It didn't last long, however, and seeing her seriousness Xuhriha sat up to talk.

"I hear about dangerous things happening too," the other woman told her, "and I'm not sure what to tell you. I'd like to find out more, but there are still so many questions. The Blank Hand coordinates a lot of local crime, and people say they have connections to nobles, maybe even a professor here."

"A throne?" Suria asked, sitting up straighter.

"No, almost certainly not. The thrones keep their distance from that sort of local politics. But there are a lot of journeymages and younger professors who are more involved with events in Darmkael."

"Then it seems like no one really knows anything. Just Wynchard going on about things, and the Endelythans never talking to anyone, and-"

"Actually, I could tell you about them."

Suria blinked. "The Endelythans?"

"Sure. They don't know about me, but I've investigated them." Xuhriha began ticking off her fingers. "Their names are Qyresh, Grynore, and Phisvene. All three are from noble families in Endelyth, though not very big ones. I don't think they knew each other before the loop started, but they banded together and they started trying to manipulate the Blank Hand and other gangs."

"Isn't that a huge risk?"

"Normally, sure. But if they get stabbed they just come back, so they've been figuring out more about the gang. What I can't tell you is why: other than making a lot of money in some cycles, I'm not sure what they're doing with the connections. They don't seem interested in illicit substances like Gerial."

"Hmm, that's curious." Suria resettled her weight as she thought over everything. "Wynchard knows this, right?"

"Oh, I'd assume so," Xuhriha said. "He's probably trying to use their connections to figure out what the Blank Hand is doing lately, and if it has anything to do with the Glyphbreakers. But as for how it all fits together... couldn't tell you, sorry."

"That's okay. Thanks, Xuhriha."

They remained silent for a while, then eventually began working on some alchemical experiments together, trying to refine silphium. But as much as she tried to focus, Suria kept thinking back to questions that had no clear answers.