The Effaced: Chapter Forty-Three (And Update) (Patreon)

So, Trump has been elected as president, and several senate seats were won by republicans. As I'm sure anyone who's been following along with the Effaced can discern, I'm not a fan of one small group being able to control a massive amount of the government.

But his win isn't a plot to commune with the Deep Realms and Elder Things From Beyond Reality. This is real life, and has real consequences. It's also got me scared, tired, and sad. And even with it framed in fiction, it's a mental struggle to work on this project right now - the timing couldn't have been worse.

I'm going to go ahead and release the final few The Effaced, then I'm going to take a bit of a break before I start on book two. I'm not sure exactly how long this break will be, but I'm guessing around 3 months? I'm not 100% committing to it, but I'd like to start putting out book 2 chapters at SOME point in February.

During my break, I will put out an extra chapter of Mana Mirror each week on Patreon, so I'll be going up to four chapters a week for those months.

I also have a couple of things on the backburner that I've been working on, and I'll use the time to work on those... I can't say much about any of them, but I think you'll like 'em.

Stay safe, everyone. Stay alive.

-

The weekend following the court-case, I had a handful of important meetings that I needed to go to. 

Rhys, Kelly, and I took Rhys’ automobile out to a restaurant slightly to the south of Elucidate Labs, in order to meet Hadiya and Jessica. We were ushered into one of the back rooms, where Hadiya had put out several devices and Jessica was in the middle of using a stick of a substance that looked like chalk, but was made of a shifting rainbow of colors, to draw all over the walls, table, ceiling, and floor. 

The staff member who’d led us back there paused. 

“Uh, ma’am, you can’t do th–” 

“Oh, sue me if it’s still here when we leave,” Hadiya snapped. “We’ll clean it up, and probably improve the room while I’m at it.”

I winced, feeling bad for the poor server. 

I sat in silence while Hadiya and Jessica continued their preparations, only standing up to channel my aura into the different spots when I was told to. Both Kelly and Rhys did the same, and Hadiya put down three aura generators. They were the smallest possible sized ones, each the size of a watermelon, so even with three of them, I donated a lot of the power. When the wards finally sparked to life, Jessica let out a slow sigh. 

“We can talk freely here,” she said. “I’ve intentionally lowered the lifespan of these wards in order to exert a lot more power than normal, then with the help of my demon, hid dozens of tripwires to protect us from scrying.” 

Kelly opened his mouth, so I preempted the question he was about to ask.

“Her demon’s ability to make rituals appear inactive, or even as if they weren’t there at all,” I told him.

“And I’ve extended the defenses through the other planes,” Hadiya said. “Even set up several cross-diversion layers, so if someone tries to scry us from the Dreamscape, they’ll hit a wall of protective djinn magic feeding them false finited-causal history…” 

About a quarter of that made sense to me, but I understood the most important element of it: this was as secure as we could possibly be. 

“You don’t even want to know how much it cost,” Jessica groused. 

“Well, now I’m curious,” I said. “I can try to repay you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “It wasn’t the kind of thing I got my hands on with money. We’ve got enough components to do this twice more, but that’s it.”

I grimaced and nodded. The value of a good favor owed was hard to replicate. 

“Then we should get down to business,” Rhys said. “The most important thing we need to discuss in the short term is the tattoos. They want you to stop your research into them, but do they know about the third generation ones? Do you still have the information?” 

“Maybe,” Hadiya said, shaking her head. “The c-suite’s orders had me seal and burn a lot of the research while they – well, technically a secretary – kept an eye on me, and cleaned out my office. The information on the third generation tattoos was the first thing I burned, so they wouldn’t find it on a sweep of my office. I don’t think they know, but I can’t be entirely certain. But I think there’s a new way to get a copy of the third generation tattoos.” 

“Burning everything sounds pretty bloody definitive to me,” Jessica said. “How do you plan to get them back?”

“Bloody Eyes’ is a contractor, and a blood witch who sells his skills to the highest bidder. He’s associated with the Concrete Crown, the Contractor, and a half-dozen other underworld powers and corporations. Officially, he gave all of his notes over to me, but I’m betting that he has his own copies,” Hadiya said. “If he doesn’t, then I’ll have to try and reconstruct the ritual from memory, and I’m… Not sure that will work. There were over ten thousand runes from eight and a half different languages, not to mention all of the different mundane components. I remember some – salt, iron, silver, gold, dirt, copper, quartz, blood – but not all.” 

“How did you use eight and a half languages?” Kelly asked. 

“Dialects become languages, because the lines are quite annoyingly fuzzy,” Hadiya told him. “But that’s not important. If we can get the notes, then I’m going to have our contact from the northern ligature meet with us.”

“You’re not stopping, then?” Rhys asked. “Even though Nexus gave you express orders?” 

“Of course not. I’m going to stop lobbying as publicly, but if Nexus thinks they’re the only ones able to play the long game, or be subtle, then they’re in for a shock.” 

Rhys’ took in a deep breath and nodded. 

“Alright, it’s my turn,” I said, reaching for the information that Nexus – or more accurately, Egress – had provided to me. I spread it out on the table. “What do we think about this?” 

I laid out the dossier on Abraham’s information, a list of possible places where the Arenamaster would strike next and how, and finally, a handwritten list. 

Eleven government officials: the Senate Organizer, Parliament Chairman, and the nine members of the Overriding Judiciary Council. 

Thirteen powerful individuals: CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CDOs, CMOs, and other corporate c-suite individuals, including the ones from Elucidate Labs who’d sold out Haidya. 

And one member of the constables: the head of Internal Investigations and Affairs.

At the bottom of the list was a scribbled note and a doodle. The doodle was of a young woman sticking out her tongue and winking.

“If you want to take on some extracurriculars to help me trim some fat, meet me in the undercity at the Sekou Noodle Bar around three in the morning in a week. Try to be as subtle as someone taller than some half-giants can be, kay?” Kelly read aloud.

Below that, there was an E. 

“Egress wants to meet you?” Rhys said in disbelief. “That… That’s got to be a trick. She’s working for the chairman.” 

“She is working for him, but there’s no guarantee of what ‘trim some fat’ actually means,” Jessica pointed out. “They’ve shown a willingness to hire assassins onto their payroll. This could be a job offer. Maybe they’re trying to extend an olive branch?” 

“Then why include the list?” Kelly asked. He flipped through the dossier on Abraham. It was all about him and his life – a list of places he visited often, information on his security mages, his four different apartments in the city, and more. Nothing like the list of Nexus members. 

Even all of the pages in the dossier had been written by a machine or an ink and paper mage, while the list of Nexus members was clearly handwritten. 

“I don’t know,” I said. “Would it be better to go? To not go?” 

“Don’t,” Rhys said. “Nothing good comes from getting closer to the assassin working for Nexus. Even if she really is working against them, that’s going to risk your safety and the safety of others. You should focus on taking out the Arenamaster for now. That’s something you can do, it will keep them happy, and it will keep your ethics intact. Killing Abraham is too far, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it.” 

“I think you should go,” Hadiya said. “If she is working against Nexus, though, you need to be careful. This could be a loyalty test. Sometimes Elucidate Labs does that on us. They’ll send an investor to our homes, and have them promise us tons and tons of money in exchange for giving over this secret, or that bit of technology, or more. But it’s a trick. If you agree, you’re fired on the spot.” 

“That’s awful,” Kelly said. “That seems kind of immortal.” 

“Immoral,” I said. 

“I know,” Kelly said, then frowned. “What did I say?” 

“Immortal?” 

That helped to break the tension in the room, at least for a moment, as Kelly started laughing at his own mistake. When they calmed down, Jessica spoke up. 

“I think you should go too, but like Hadiya said, you need to be careful. There's a chance that it’s a test, but there’s also a chance that it’s real. Even if it’s slim, think about it. How long before you or I wound up rebelling against the Arenamaster? I would have bet that it was the moment that you actually managed to beat Aniseed, or I managed to beat Lemonpeel. And the moment one of us started it, the other, and probably Deepwater too, they were…” 

I sucked in a breath and let it out slowly through my teeth. 

“I can see that. From my interactions, Nexus seems like the kind of people to use a velvet glove over a fist of steel, a gilded cage to keep their prey trapped in luxury.” 

“I agree,” Rhys said. “But you still shouldn’t go. It’s too dangerous. What if she attacks you?” 

I waved my hand dismissively. 

“I’ll be fine. I’ve been getting increasingly less rusty, and even if she might escape, I’m confident I can stop whatever she throws at me.” 

Rhys’ jaw worked for a moment, then Kelly spoke up. 

“I can go with you. If I throw up an invisifield over the restaurant, and enter a few minutes after you go in, I can be like a secret weapon.”

“Absolutely not,” I said. “Egress has too many contacts among the Dreamscape. She’s been shown to be able to conjure up incredibly powerful bindings in a single moment. I know there are ways for a mind mage to interact with dreamscape magic, but I don’t know what they are. Do you?” 

There was also the fact that I was categorically unwilling to allow Kelly to get wrapped up in a secret meeting against an assassin. I’d already done enough harm to his life, I didn’t need to keep doing more. But I knew that argument wouldn’t persuade him at all.

“No,” Kelly reluctantly admitted. 

“Still, the idea of backup isn’t a bad idea,” Jessica said. “I’ll go. I can’t get too close, she’s still got too many ways to pick up on me, but I’ll hang out on a rooftop for a bit before. I can throw some camouflage and nondetection spells up, and then I’ll be there in case things go poorly. And if she finds me, I’ll at least still have basic force wards to defend myself.” 

I didn’t like the idea, but after arguing back and forth for a while, I agreed to let her come. After all, I couldn’t really stop her. My sister was her own person, and she was able to make her own choices. Even if I disagreed. 

“We don’t have much time left on this spell,” Hadiya said. “Axel, I’m going to need your help to track down Bloody Eyes. It’ll look way too suspicious if I do it, but you’ve been running around meeting with people from the undercity for the past week. Can you do that for me?” 

“I can,” I said. 

“Good. I’ll tell you where you can meet the agent as soon as I can. Before our time runs out… Rhys, do you have any idea what Nexus is actually up to?” 

“I’m not sure, but I have some theories,” he said. “They’re really focusing on the external parts of the spell, the ones that were actually used to reach into other planes. They barely seem to actually care about the ritual sacrifice parts at all, or the infusion into a mage’s body.” 

“Huh?” I asked, leaning forward. “I know that we were told that they didn’t plan to create a super mage, but isn’t their weird take on sacrifice what allowed you guys to develop the third generation tattoos?” 

“It is,” Hadiya confirmed, then nodded for Rhys to continue. 

“Well, they’ve had me running every possible bit of translation I can on the bits about other planes, and have me reporting to them anytime I come across the petroglyph for heart. But it keeps showing up in the sacrifice portions, only for them to tell me to disregard it and keep looking.” 

We were all silent for a moment, until Jessica spoke. 

“They think they’re doing something important, right? Something good?” 

“I don’t know?” I said. 

“They probably care the most about keeping their own power and money,” Kelly said. I smiled grimly. It was sad that a kid was so cynical, but I understood it. 

“But it was clear that they want Elderglass to succeed as a nation,” Hadiya said. “They wanted my brain applied to creating new things, be it at Elucidate Labs or not. They’re clearly working towards a goal. What sort of summon would even be worth it? Do they think we can chain an archangel to heal our city?” 

There was silence around the table after that, as we all sat there, thinking, until the wards flashed red. Hadiya looked around. 

“Thirty seconds left. If anyone has anything desperate to get out, now’s the time.” 

“I… no,” Rhys said. 

Nobody else had anything to say, and as the ward flashed one more time, we set to work cleaning up the horrible mess we’d made.