Chương 49: The Plan

Arielle stared at the inscription on the wall, unease crawling up her spine. There it was again, that feeling of being watched. Her neck snapped to the side and then behind her. This time, there was no mist, no darkness except at the very corners of the hallway. It was lit well, with only thin slices of shadows in places where neither the lanterns nor the orangish sunset could reach. No one was here. Yet, she felt a presence regardless. She turned back to the inscription and flinched. Something had been added.

Now, a pair of eyes accompanied the words, and they were looking right at her. She backed away. There was no question that someone had left it there. Perhaps someone who wanted to play a prank on her. Maybe Telip. Or, most likely, it was the Unmaker and his Unholy Trio. The eyes were a direct replica of the ones she'd seen in the temple, and she thought she knew what the message meant. He wants me to find him or die trying. That was what Telip had written in his book.

Was that some kind of challenge issued to Vacu-dominants, or at least those who showed an interest in the Unmaker? Perhaps it was his way of infiltrating the realm, and the punishment for not finding him was madness or death or the misfortunes that had befallen other Vacu users. The thought concerned her to say the least. What did she do now? Should she show someone? She should tell Elric at least. He might know what to do.

She walked into her room and hurriedly retrieved her messaging scroll, writing: Elric, I think I'm being haunted by the Unmaker and his disciples. They have left a message on my wall. Please advise. She knew he wouldn't respond immediately. He was likely still escorting her family home. But she hoped that when he did see it, he would have an answer for her. As she waited, she went to wash up and lie on the bed, staring at the ceiling. The words continued to echo in her mind. Find me.

Why did Unmaker suddenly want to be found? Everything she'd learned of him previously had led her to believe he wanted to stay hidden. There was even the suggestion that his very nature was not to be known. So then why did they issue this challenge? It was confusing. But in a way, it was thrilling as well. Arielle was surprised to note that she wasn't necessarily scared, although she'd been disconcerted at the thought of something she couldn't see watching her. Instead, she was almost eager.

If this was a challenge, then that meant that there had to be an answer, an explanation, and possibly a prize at the end. This was beyond homework now. With this, she was solving a puzzle of the universe. And she was determined to win. She would find him. The Drift, the Priest, Death, and the Unmaker. She would find them all. And she would find out if and why Vacu was cursed in the first place. She wondered if there was a spell she could use to detect if a ghost was watching her.

Wraiths and phantoms were partially visible, but ghosts were not. Ghosts were the souls of the once living left behind, due to some unresolved matters. Perhaps that was who the disciples were. She pulled out her spell book from her desk and began to glance through it. There was the increased perception spell called [Sensate], which would enable her to detect certain things in her environment, including how many people were watching her and what direction the observation was coming from.

However, that specifically worked on humans. Similarly, there was the [Haunt Index] spell, which would help her notice if a place was haunted, although it wouldn'tspecify what kind of haunting was taking place. She wondered if she could combine both spells. There was a slight complication in that they were both high-tier, and so combining them might move them into the Master tier.

Unless she could somehow delay the reaction of one spell and hinge it in the air before activating the other, so that both spells would only combine after the first activation was technically over. Would that be enough to trick the system? Hmmm… She would need to experiment, but that was the kind of experimentation that Professor Valeria said she was supposed to do with supervision. She didn't think Valeria would approve, and she wanted to check for the ghost right now. What to do... what to do...

The door opened while she was mulling it over, and Lyra walked in, putting her basket of goodies down by her bed." What are you reading?"

"Spell book." The basket reminded Arielle of the one her mother and sister had packed. She would need to write them a 'thank you' message.

"Why?"

"To catch a lurking primordial."

"What?" Arielle put down the book and rolled out of bed.

"Come," she told her, walking out of the door, and pointing to the wall where the inscription had been.

"See?" Lyra peered at the end of her finger.

"See what?" Arielle frowned and looked back at the spot she was pointing out, surprised to find it bare. No inscription, no eye, nothing. She blinked.

"That's impossible," she said.

'It was right there."

"What was right there?"" Find me," she said.

"It said, Find Me."

"Find who?"

"The Unmaker, I think," she said.

"Or one of his disciples."

"Hang on." Lyra put her hand out as though to stop her.

"You think the Unmaker or his disciples left a message for you on our wall, asking you to find him?" She nodded frantically.

"Yes. And there were eyes here, too, just like the ones in the temple. He drew it."

"Okay," Lyra spoke slowly.

"Do you think maybe… because of everything that happened today, you were a bit tired and saw something that wasn't there?" Arielle shook her head. She had never been tired enough to hallucinate before.

"I mean, you've been spending a lot of time researching the Unmaker," Lyra said.

"So maybe you were thinking about him and imagined that he had written you a message."

"I didn't imagine anything. I saw it. It was there, but now it's gone."

"Okay. Then maybe it was some kind of prank."

"Why would anyone prank me?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure you've made a handful of enemies while you've been here, Faulkey being one of them. When I saw him, he seemed pretty steamed that today didn't go how he wanted it to go, and maybe he's trying to get back at you with some illusion spell." Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

"No. He won't be able to hold an illusion spell that long." He could barely cast his own bloodline spell with exceptional accuracy.

"He might have had help with charms or runes. Or maybe Antigones helped him."

"There was no magic here." She'd not seen any orbs anywhere around the inscription.

"The message was physical, not magical."

"See? That proves it. You probably just need to rest." She put her hands on Arielle's shoulder.

"Don't worry, Ari, no ghosts or primordials are going to get to you with me around. I'll fight them off with my spells." Ariele frowned.

"You aren't powerful enough to do that."

"Yes, Arielle, I know. You don't have to rub it in." She rolled her eyes.

"I didn't mean it literally, I was just trying to comfort you."

"Oh," she said.

"Thank you." Although what Lyra had said didn't comfort her. She wasn't comforted by the thought that the message had just been a figment of her imagination or a prank from a rival. She wanted it to be real. It was real. It had to be. Telip would know. If he'd been through this before, if the Unmaker and his disciples had truly contacted him, then he would know if she had really seen what she saw or if she was losing her mind.

In the meantime, Arielle let Lyra distract her by telling her all the new spells she wanted to learn for her next session.

The next morning, Arielle got up before daybreak and got ready. It was going to be a very busy day. There were a few facets underlying Ari's plan, and she'd organized it in a series of bullet points in her notebook. Encoded, of course. The first step was to check if she could indeed sell the gems. After all, there was no way of knowing if the information she'd attained from the book was correct. So she would go to investigate the location, under a good disguise, and meet with whoever she would be selling to.

Once she got off the ferry, she would find somewhere quiet to change her cloak and activate her Glamour spell. Then she would use her compass spell to track the coordinates, and if she met with the buyer, they would agree on the price, andthen they could make the sale. The problem was then the storage of her coin. She could quickly buy goods that were worth that amount and store it somewhere safe. But Arielle wanted her coin liquid, and she didn't know enough about investments to make smart choices.

However, if she opened a bank account with a thousand pieces of gold, questions would inevitably arise. The bank was still the safest place to put her money. An alternative was in a storage facility, which would be vulnerable to security raids and robberies, and given that she was spending most of her time at school, she would not have easy access to the funds. She couldn't take it home either. So the best way to do this would be to legitimize her money and put it in a bank. She had two options then.

The first was a shell account. This was a concept that had been mentioned once in politics class, in that a lot of sects used hidden accounts to move around their money without system detection. There were certain ways to do this, and for the right price, you could even open several shell accounts. But this required that you knew the right people as well. Alternatively, she could start a business under a new identity, which would act as a legitimate front to explain her funds.

She'd researched how to do this by plucking information from the restricted side of the library and discovered that the easiest business for a young mage to set up was as an independently contracted mercenary. There was some oversight, and she had to pay heavy dues every year, but she could simply make up the bulk of her clients and serve a few real high-profile ones a year to prove legitimacy. She could set it up pretty easily, too, with a form filled out at the adventurer's guild.

Then, after she was done, and presumably everything went smoothly, she could take the form and the coin to the bank, claim that she had just finished a very big confidential job, and had been paid in advance for a few more, and deposit the money with no worry. It would be as easy as that. Now there might be hidden complications that she hadn't seen yet. The reality might be very different from how things worked in theory. The good thing was that she could ask the buyers if her plan would work.

After all, shady people tended to be very good at hiding money. After Arielle went through the steps again, she got dressed and went down to breakfast. While getting her food, she saw Lacey and Riorke sitting and eating. Riorke waved her over.

"Nice to eat with you again, Ari," Lacey said, his eyes twinkling.'"Yes," she responded, her mind far away. She decided to ask them questions, in case they would reveal more information that she hadn't considered.

"Do any of you know about shell accounts?" Riorke and Lacey paused and shared a look. It was Lacey who responded.

"An uncle of mine has a few," Lacey said.

"Why? Do you want to open one?" Riorke asked.

"No," Arielle said, quickly busying herself with food.

"But if I did want to open one, how would I do it?"

"Erm... a shell account isn't something you just open, Arielle," he said.

"You have to go through a business manager, but why do you want one?"

"I don't," she said.

"I'm just curious."

"Yeah, I don't buy that," Riorke said.

"Me either," Lacey said.

"And while I'm all for financial manipulation of the system, unfortunately, I can't help you." Hmm. So the answer was to open a legitimate business. That would definitely be the more time-consuming option because she would have to find a client every once in a while to pay her money to prove that she really was a mercenary. Oh well. She would figure it out. On her way to the ferry, she ran into Rava, fixing a leaky pipe with Garron.

"Are you going to the market?" Rava asked. Ari nodded.

"Have fun. The Hylox festival is going to start later this evening, so if you're there by then, you might catch some of it."

"Hylox festival?"

"Yes. It's a celebration of the Hylox comet, an event that happens every four years. It was said to have first happened the year the Black Knight appeared, but that's just as much speculation as it is fact. Anyway, there's usually a parade in the evening. You should enjoy it."

"I don't think I enjoy parades," Arielle said. That was just too much noise for her. She stepped onto the ferry, the fourth person on board. There were a few second years and third years also heading to the Khor. She sat in the row behind them and kept her distance, glancing out at the rolling waves of the ocean. Unbeknownst to her, the others watched her, but she was too lost in her thoughts to pay them any heed.

About an hour later, they were stepping off the boat, and Arielle ignored the calling fishermen, putting the hood over her head, as she started toward the market with quick, determined steps. It was more crowded than the last time. More buyers and esoteric traders, shouting about their enchanted loot and offering free samples. Most people wore black with red bandanas on their heads, matching the long ribbons of scrap fabric and brightly dyed silk that were strung from roofs and second-story windows.

Large banners also dangled across the town hall. Red lanterns were lifted off roofs, attached only by a single rope to floral garlands wrapped around wall posts and doorframes. Arielle did not give herself time to take it in. She wanted to get away from the noise as quickly as possible. This time, she didn't receive any reprieve at the square. Crowds had gathered to watch troubadours playing lutes and beating drums at the Knight Statue, with a juggler a few paces away.

Three men walked on stilts, blowing fire into the air. Her heart raced as bodies brushed hers, some of them bumping into her. She kept her cloak over her head and her head down. She needed space. She needed a place to breathe, to change. She finally found it. The sole quiet in the chaotic streets seemed to be in the temple of the Unholy Trio. She quickly jogged up the stairs and ducked into the cool room, as the ghostly presence surrounded her once more. Finally.

"Hello," she greeted the muted temple as she walked to a darkened corner. Her glamour spell changed the color of her hair to a brighter brown and the color of her skin darker. She also changed her eyes to blue instead of green and gave her nose a slight hump. That would be enough. On her way out, she looked back. The presence she'd felt that first time lingered, feeling stronger today. The space felt more alive than ever.

Something within her itched to spend time exploring the temple and investigating the strangeness she could detect. But she knew that if she got distracted, she might not come up for air anytime soon. So she told herself she would return once she was done with her other business. Still, it felt strange leaving like this. The space had served her well; she couldn't leave without giving something in return. She went over to drop a copper coin in the receptacle. That was when she saw the mask on the floor.

It was a black half mask, with the eyes cut in the shape of a raven, not unlike one that a few of the festival goers had been wearing. Probably, one of them had left it behind. Perhaps this could add to her disguise, in case her glamour glitched or someone used a spell to cancel it out. She picked up the mask and slid it on her face, saying, "Thank you," before she continued down the stairs. She activated her Compass spell, tracking the coordinates while still trying to pay attention to her environment.

She narrowly avoided being grazed by a cart, but she was bumped into by a young child, who fell to the ground, quickly got back to their feet, and bolted off again. Eventually, she slid between two stalls, down a narrow path that led to a dirt street and away from the noise. An abandoned house was in the distance, and on the way there, she found cabbage abandoned in a stall. She was in the right place. Ari quickly used [Sensate] to scan the atmosphere.

A few Luxa lattices later, and her senses were attuned to her surroundings, every step magnified, every scent sharper, every movement leaving a faint trace behind. Even as she walked into the empty, unpainted concrete building with nothing but two pillars holding up the second story, she knew she wasn't alone. She couldn't see him, but she could hear him breathing, hear the subtle heartbeat. Not to mention the Vacu orbs concentrated in the shadowy corner.

They must have a high-tier Vacu lean to be able to hold that concealment spell for that long. Or maybe it was a bloodline trait. She stood for a second waiting for them to emerge, and when no one was forthcoming, she called out, "I know you'rethere." The statement elicited a sharp intake of breath.

"How did you sense me?" they asked, without breaking their enchantment. They had set the voice to echo all over the building and appear to be coming from the opposite side. But she looked right at where he was hidden, letting him know she would not be fooled that easily.

"That doesn't matter. I'm here to trade."