Chapter 8: A Trail of blood
06 - A trail of blood
I used to like the morning oath on Engday. I like the ritual, the sense of purpose, of words spoken by generation after generation, for two hundred years.
Except here, everyone is cold and sleepy, half the agents mutter the words sullenly, and half the others have the glazed-over stare of Stemlink users. Our breath mists in the frigid air as we speak.
My team stands in a rigid line, at the left of Lieutenant Sareas, while Team Green stands at his right. Althea stands one step aside, more relaxed, and Jaeleri watches malevolently from a corner.
The Captain stands in front of us, looking like she just wants to be done with it. She's in her fifties, and wears her hideous mittens, which are both ridiculous and against regulation. I didn't expect an inspiring officer, but she's so drab and indifferent, I can almost hear her counting down to retirement. I've met her a few times – she quickly greeted me on my first day here, and sometimes I glimpse her making a furtive sandwich in the mess hall, but she mostly communicates through the lieutenants. Or maybe the lieutenants do all the work while she naps.
It's hard to put my heart into the oath, standing in a dilapidated courtyard, where the Agency sent me to have me out of their way.
But I try anyway. Because the Agency is more than asshole officers and skimmed funds. It''s history, its a cause, it's a centuries-old duty to defend humanity, rooted in the thousands-years struggle to stand against the Dark Power. We must remember that, remember that we're more than just a bunch of kids with silver swords, shivering in the snow.
"I take the silver blade that is given,
I take the golden coin that is offered,
I listen to the story that is remembered.
I swear by the broken moon above,
I swear by the memory of the fallen,
I swear by the world we shall save.
I shall stand against the horrors beyond,
I shall battle the dark power,
I shall fight those who tear the veil.
Until my strength shall fail,
Until the war is won,
Until the sky is mended."
"At ease, soldiers," the Captain orders, without bothering to say her line. I find that so annoying. Since we're here freezing our asses, she could at least do her part.
"I see Team Blue is complete now," she adds, looking at Althea, and sounding vaguely surprised. Did she just find out she's here? Abyss, how can a Captain not know who's in her fucking base?
"Lieutenant Sareas, you have a full roster now. I hope you're ready for the responsibility."
She says it with a small smile.
Sareas, however, nods very seriously. He stands rigid in his immaculate, well-pressed black uniform, silver buttons shining. He looks every bit the officer: close-cropped hair, fit physique, his every movement precise and economical, and no hint of a sense of humor. I like him, so far. But both Kaelich and Sorivel dislike him, and given how different those two are, they probably have a good reason.
"I'll do my best, ma'am," he answers. He has a slight Vorokan accent – he's one of the few people in the base who's actually from here. He also has the weirdly light skin common in Vorok, even if not as pasty and sickly-looking as Jaeleri. His tattoos are black instead of white - which makes sense with a Vorokan complexion, I guess.
"We're all eager to start working," he adds, and salutes.
Jaeleri only looks eager to go to bed. And Team Green's agents, who're barely standing up, look like they've never been eager to do anything in their lives, let alone to work. Then again, Kaelich is way too eager, and Sorivel can be pretty dedicated, as long as he finds some relevant scripture to quote. Maybe the squad averages to reasonably enthusiastic.
"It's good that you're eager," the Captain says, sounding amused, and I dislike her more for every word she says. Not only is she a slacker, she mocks those who actually believe in their duty. "We're heading for difficult times. Rakavdon used to barely have any magical crime. But the new Syndicate Cartel is pushing for power in the whole Vorokan Republic, and the magical factions are restless."
She looks distant as she says that. She's probably wondering if she'll get to retire before the next Mage War breaks out.
"We're ready, ma'am. We won't let the Cartels touch this city," Sareas says, sounding much more confident than I'd be if I were a junior officer in this sorry excuse for a ThauCon base.
"Well, let's start small," the Captain answers. "There's an assignment for you - remember the jewelry robbery? I think Team Blue went to investigate," she says, pointing vaguely at us. "Civilian Intelligence performed DNA analysis, and we have a match. It's a young person who went missing recently, with no previous record, criminal or magical. You should coordinate with CivInt and see if the kid can be found. We have xir DNA and a partial signature, so it should be feasible with our resources. Especially if we catch xem using magic again, so we get the full signature."
My first real operation. Not a terribly impressive one, but if this base is as sleepy as Kaelich says, a decent rogue Liar is as interesting as things will go. Unless the Syndicate Cartel does make a push for power in Rakavdon – stopping that would be proper ThauCon work. But it's probably best to learn to work with the team before we face a really dangerous enemy, much as I'm impatient to do something important.
"We'll do our best," Sareas says, with a crisp salute. "The mage will be localized and brought here in handcuffs."
At the corner of my eyes, I see Kaelich twitch - I know xem well enough to be sure xe's repressing a snicker.
"Be careful," the captain says, and for the first time, there's a hint of energy in her voice. "Lie-mages are more dangerous than their power level suggests. And they tend to be so detached from reality, they can be unpredictable. Catch the mage if you can, but remember your first duty, Lieutenant, is to keep your soldiers alive."
"I understand, madam. We stand watch."
"To victory," she says, unenthusiastic, "and a mended sky."
Later that day, Sareas calls a meeting. Since we're still on watch duty, we all have to fit in the cramped watchtower.
"Should I ask Althea to join us? She'd come, I think" Kaelich says. Althea isn't technically ThauCon, so she doesn't have to waste her time standing in the watchtower. She's probably sipping warm chocolate while wearing one of her revealing tunics, looking gorgeous even while slouching in the R&R room.
On the other hand, not being ThauCon means she's not included in briefings, except as a courtesy.
"Sure as the Abyss Jaeleri won't come," mutters Sergeant Gehat, Team Green's leader. I don't know much about her yet – except she's a redhead with a cool scar, which I like, and she doesn't talk much, which I like even more.
"Supporting mages aren't part of ThauCon," Saraes says, curt. "We'll let them know if we require their input."
Kaelich looks unhappy, but shrugs in surrender. I'm tempted to point out that if we'll have to share information with her anyway, if our Team will be deployed to catch the Liar – it would be efficient to have Althea join the briefing . But I don't want to start an argument on our very first meeting with Sareas. I was told that leaves a bad impression on people.
Of course, if people were smarter, I wouldn't have to argue with them so often.
"Let's be clear," Sareas begins, "our Investigation team isn't the best. I suspect it's the worst in the whole Agency, actually, and they were sent here because of that. So, we have to do a decent job without them."
"We can't do their job for them, sir. They didn't teach me how to do detective work, and they sure don't pay me for it," says Karan – Green Team's huge, sour-faced blademaster.
Lieutenant Sareas takes a long breath.
"I'm not saying we should replace CivInt. It's not, as you say, our duty," Sareas says, his voice firm, cold blue eyes on Karan. He's half the size of the blademaster, but Karan is the first to look away. "But we should be aware of their limitations, double-check their work, and keep pressure on them."
"Anyway," the Lieutenant goes on after a short pause, "at least they gave us a name for the hair found by Team Blue. Soldiers, meet Korentis Tal-Venant. Nineteen years old, Vorokan citizen from a wealthy family, no previous criminal record, despite a slew of minor administrative procedures."
He puts his tablet on the table, pushing away cups of steaming tea. There's a picture, looks like it's taken from a school's yearbook - a teenager with a forced smile. Next to it, the pictures from the security camera.
"I don't know, sir, they look like siblings, not the same kid," Kaelich says, with the frown xe makes when xe's trying to say something smart, which rarely works. "The similarity is there, but besides the hair, the face kinda looks different."
"Changing facial structure is well within the power of a Liar," I say, "and DNA analysis would tell us if xe were a sibling instead of an exact match. Xe made themselves different enough to fool face recognition."
We studied pattern-recognition algorithms for Intelligence training. It's very hard to trick face recognition with make-up or camouflage, but very easy with magic. The two pictures are rather different - the real Korentis apparently has black hair, brown eyes and the epicanthic fold - but they both look like the kid in a class you can tell will do all the stupid pranks.
"I agree. A Lie can't fool DNA, so the face must be a trick," Sareas says. "Anyway, Korentis has two elder siblings, but they're both accounted for and don't look anything like xem. Xir family claims - and local police confirms – that Korentis ran from home about a month ago. So xe's definitely our rogue mage."
"Xe must have had a mentor," I muse, "no one can reach that proficiency with magic in a month. Either xe immediately joined a terror faction, or xe had a teacher."
And we could really use Althea's expertise here. But I can't think of any subtle way to point that out.
"I'm not so sure," Sareas says, frowning. "Xe made no attempt to cover xir signature. Any mentor would teach that first, especially in the terror factions. Maybe xe started practicing xir magic sooner than xir family thinks – or is willing to tell us."
"Or, xir teacher didn't mean to teach signature masking," Sorivel intervenes, cocking his head. "You said xe's from a well-off family. They wouldn't be the first to covertly teach a child the basics to control their power, hoping to avoid the need for silver tattoos."
He sounds angry at the very idea – he also clutches his arms, where his own tattoos are.
Sareas nods.
"That's a possibility, too. In any case, if xe had a mentor, they're a magical criminal, and we should investigate that. It would be useful to ask the family some more questions - amicably, since officially there's no hint of wrongdoing on their side. But even a visit would be hard to formally request - on paper, CivInt already took their depositions," he adds, annoyed.
"If we think Korentis used magic at home, we could frame it as investigating a magical crime scene, which is within our mandate," I point out.
I was always good at loopholes.
Sareas looks at me, as if he saw me for the first time. I know the wait, you're actually smart look.
Well, of course I'm smart. I'm wondering if he is, too. He made some decent points, and he takes his duty seriously. Maybe he's just too serious for Kaelich's taste.
"That looks like a good approach," he says. "I also asked Corporal Aeniki to do some datasphere sleuthing and find about Korentis' friends. I hope the Corporal will actually work on it, I've been told she's not the most reliable analyst, and…"
"She's good," Kaelich says, "you just have to make her like you. Try to bring her some muffins."
"This isn't kindergarten," Sareas says, "she'll do her job because it's her job, not because I bribe her in any way. Anyway, if Korentis ran from home, xe probably is, or was, crashing at some friend's house. It's surprisingly common for rogue mages. If we're fast, we can get xem before xe finds a better hideout."
"What if xe leaves the city?" Kaelich asks.
Sareas shrugs. "If xe leaves our jurisdiction, xe's no longer our problem. We've submitted xir DNA and signature to ThauCon database so wherever xe'll pop up, xe'll be found. But xe can't leave easily.
"Unless xe's willing to walk for weeks in the snow, there are only three ways out of the city: vac-trains, chartered airplanes and the airship caravans. Trains have thorough security, without an ID chip xe's not riding one. I doubt xe has the money for a private flight, or xe wouldn't be stealing. As for airships, Kalestran caravans don't like taking passengers and they usually lynch mages on sight. I doubt xe'll risk it."
"Xir family could help xem charter a flight," I point out, "the fact that xe ran from home doesn't mean they wouldn't help xem. There are security scans at the airport of course, but it's not as airtight as the trains, since it's only for super-rich people."
Sareas nods. "I'll make sure Intel covers that side. Anyway, there's no real reason xe should leave. ThauCon is everywhere, and xe grew up here. It's easier to hide in a place you know."
"The Captain claimed Syndicates aren't active in this city, historically," I say. "Is that accurate? Do we know why? A young rogue mage of some talent would be a prime target for them."
Kaelich shakes his head. "No Syndicates in Rakavdon. Well, that's what everybody says, at least. I guess they see no reason to freeze their asses up here."
"Yes, but seriously," I say, looking at Sareas. Your time to show you're worth something, Lieutenant. "This is a mid-sized city with a lot of wealth and limited ThauCon presence. Why aren't the Syndicates active? The Lodge of Stars and the Sacred Song Society have a presence in Vorok, at the very least. The latter is part of the new Cartel, they're trying to expand all over the continent."
Sareas shrugs. "I wouldn't worry over the problems we don't have."
I nod, as if he had said something smart. He has some organization skills maybe, but he's stupid. Good to know. And I'll have to look into the lack of Syndicate activity on my own time.
***
A few days after the briefing, we get our first orange alarm - magical incident with harm to persons. Since the magic is low-level, and it's been a single burst, our team goes alone, and we get another quadcopter ride.
"Mission control to Team Blue - apparently we got an anonymous call," a sleepy Aeniki says on voice comms, while we're landing, "the caller claims he's been attacked by a mage who tried to rob him in the metro system, with an accomplice. He refused to provide details or identification, and won't go to a hospital, despite claiming he's seriously hurt."
"What the fuck?" Kaelich answers. "Is this some kind of prank?"
"More likely, the victim is either another mage or a criminal," I suggest. You can rely on people sucking. "Did he describe the attackers?"
"He spoke with CivInt, I just got the recording, and they woke me for that," Aeniki groans. "I'll see if I can ID the caller from voice data."
We rappel down from the helicopter - which, I must admit, is somewhat cool - and Althea floats down, as if she were falling through water, engulfed by green light. I look at her, transfixed, partly because I've never seen magic used so casually, partly because she looks like a movie star, in her wildly-weather-inappropriate green dress and perfect hairstyle.
Civilians point and gawk at us – but mostly at Althea. A few people make the sign of the Officers, others simply stare in disbelief, and two young women scream encouragement like it's a fucking concert.
"Was that use of magic necessary, Althea?" Sorivel asks, grumpy. "Mages could perceive it."
She laughs. "It won't corrupt my soul or break the moon, it's magic so simple, it's basically a party trick," she says. "Also, we came in a fucking chopper. Everyone knows we're here, and it's not like my training included rappelling."
Sorivel mumbles something involving Navigator and Heretics, but leaves it at that, and we walk into the station beneath which the magic was detected. People point and whisper at our passage. I resist the urge to snap at them - it's not us they should worry about.
"What if it is a setup, though?" Sorivel asks. "Metro tunnels are great for ambushes, and they used only very weak magic, so we didn't bring reinforcements."
I stop in my mental tracks for a moment. He's right, and I hadn't thought about it.
"Come on, who would ambush ThauCons?" Kaelich says, "even if it worked, it would attract the whole Agency's attention."
"The Syndicates ambush ThauCons," I answer. "And the anonymous caller, combined with the underground location, is concerning. Corporal, should we wait for reinforcements?"
Through the helmet's visor, I see Kaelich bite xir lip. A brief pause, then xe answers. "Your point is noted, but I think we're safe. Syndicates have never been active in this city, and if they're setting up shop, we don't know about them yet. They'd be stupid to attack us."
"You worry too much," Althea adds. "The Syndicates are spineless vermin. They rarely fight. And they'd need serious muscle to deal with three agents in full armor. Not to mention me."
Kaelich nods, looking relieved, and leads us toward the escalator.
"Let's go downstairs. But send your scout drones ahead, Sori," xe adds, "better safe than sorry."
"Heavenly Doctor, save us from optimists and fools", Sorivel grumbles. He flicks his wrist, and two small, flying drones detach from his backpack and go whirring down the escalator.
"All clear," he reports a few seconds later. "Truth still detects some residual Theta activity. Do you think you'll be able to get a signature, Althea?"
She scoffs, as we go down the escalators. "Of course I'll get their signature. I'm not a useless slime like Jaeleri, you know. We'll catch them soon."
Below, we find a depressing, dilapidated periphery station, with a closed-off cafè, wheezing air circulators and two broken information screens out of three. An orange no datasphere connection blinks at the corner of my eyes.
The loudspeakers are repeating a warning to leave the station due to an ongoing criminal investigation. The few people left are leaving in a hurry, and hasten their pace when they see us - but there are no obvious signs of a magical fight.
"Mission control, can you give us the exact location of the incident?" Kaelich asks.
"Do I look like a fucking prophet to you?" Aeniki answers, "Our theta detectors are museum pieces, they give me a fifty meters spatial resolution. Be grateful I can tell you it happened near the station. That said, the anonymous caller said the attackers dragged him to the maintenance sidewalk going west - that's toward an abandoned station."
"Why would the mage do that?" Kael asks, overlooking her staggering lack of professionalism.
"No idea, but I'm pretty sure the guy was lying anyway."
"I think I found something," Sorivel says. His tone is strange. "Wisdom followed the theta residual activity and there's some… what… oh, sweet Doctor, help us. Yes, I found the crime scene."
"Active threats?" Kaelich asks.
"Not that I can see. No current theta activity, and no people in the vicinity," Sorivel says, sounding dazed. "It's just… well, come and see."
He leads us to the dark, empty tunnel leading to a dead station. Even in this wealthy city, metro lines are being cut and stations closed, one by one. It's hard to escape the reminders of our civilization's slow death spiral.
"Everyone be careful," Kaelich says, "the mage almost certainly left, but you can't be too cautious with a Destructor. Can you make some light, Sorivel?"
"No need," Althea says. She waves a hand, and a line of glowing green squares appears on the tunnel's wall, casting it in sickly green light for several dozen meters.
"Wisdom has a flashlight," Sorivel says, sounding exasperated, "one that is white and doesn't cause theta background."
As he says that, one of his drones - the small, flying one which he insists to call Wisdom - flies back to us and starts circling around Sorivel like an overly excited pigeon. Those things are annoying.
"My own magic's background isn't a problem," Althea says, dismissively, "since I'll be the one doing the reading. Now what… oh, fuck, is that a finger?"
It takes me a moment to see it, and - there's a gun on the ground, sliced neatly in two. There's still a finger on the trigger, with a surprisingly small pool of blood where it was cut.
For a moment, my head is light, and the station seems to spin. I take a deep breath - it's just a finger. A minor wound, as far as magic is concerned. True, this is my first violent crime scene, but I'm not going to feel sick like some amateur.
"Elsefire, obviously," Sorivel says, contemplative - Wisdom buzzes around the gun, and another, spider-like drone that might be Truth scurries down Sori's leg and scuttles toward the crime scene. "There's some blood on the floor, careful not to step on it. Also, did our anonymous caller mention carrying a gun?"
"No," Aeniki answers, and for once she actually sounds lively. "Look, it sliced the finger and the metal so cleanly! That's cool! Anyway, our source was full of shit, that's obvious."
"My bet is he tried to rob a mage," I say. That's so deeply unsatisfying. This mage is exactly the kind I'm supposed to protect the world from - a rogue using deadly power to harm and kill. But the fact that it was in self-defense against a lying robber takes something away from the righteous feeling.
"Wait, it gets even better," Aeniki says, and from her sudden cheer, I expect her to announce there's an eviscerated corpse in a side tunnel. "I got access to the security cameras and ran a quick scan. Our friend Korentis left from that tunnel, about seven minutes ago. You almost bumped into xem on the way down."
"Wait, the fuck? This isn't the same mage who robbed the Jewelry, right?" Kaelich asks.
"I wasn't there, so I can't tell you for sure," Althea says, "but theta signal analysis should have told you, if it was the same person. Anyway, I'll collect the signature here, and see if I can get an idea of what happened."
She walks to the gun, careful not to step on the blood, and her eyes glow green. Sorivel turns away, counting the Officers on his fingers. I stare, transfixed - I studied magic, watched videos, even trained with some Council mages, but I've never watched a mage working from this close. Well, if you don't count Jaeleri, but it's not like he did anything.
Fascination with magic probably isn't the best trait for a ThauCon agent. And it is scary, in a way – the green is too green, the light doesn't behave as light should, it moves and clings to objects like a sticky fluid. It's wrong. Otherwordly.
But it's also beautiful, and fascinating. I can't take my eyes off Althea's fingers, where soft, brown skin gives way to hard light. How can something so dangerous look so good on her?
Althea moves her fingers, as if drawing in midair, or tying invisible knots. Small dots of lights form in midair - no, not dots, cubes, like a child's construction blocks, arranging and rearranging themselves, until they form the fuzzy outline of a scene.
It's hard to make out faces in the glowing green light. It's like watching a grainy, single-color video. But I can tell there's a group of three people standing by the sidewalk, facing two more, who came from the dark tunnel. One of the three holds a gun. Another one holds something - a stick? A knife? And definitely looks threatening toward the two.
Althea moves her fingers, and the images move in jerky fits, like a fast-forward. The pair and the trio seem to be talking mostly – pity we can't hear sounds. The shorter of the pair raises a hand. A color that is not green bleeds into the image: a faint dark red glow on the shortie's fingers.
I startle when the other figures move, one taking out a gun, the other lurching to stab the mage. Then something like blood-red lightning explodes from the mage's hand. Althea moves her fingers, and the image freezes like that.
"I'd say we have a pretty clear picture, at least of the immediate situation," she comments, with satisfaction.
"Can you tell what they were saying?" Kaelich asks. "Also, whoa, this is amazing. I didn't know mages could see the past. Why don't you do this for regular murders?"
"You can only go back a few minutes, unless you have a Sight-path mage," Althea answers, with a smile. "But using it for non-magical crimes would violate the Council's charter. Even if that's obviously stupid."
I studied magic in much greater detail than most, and while I knew mages can extract a magical signature from a past event, I didn't realize they could do this. I studied almost exclusively how mages fight. That looks like a worse mistake every day.
I guess I could do my next career-ruining essay about the need to involve Sight-mages in regular police work.
"So, do we have a signature?" Sorivel asks, clearly ill at ease with the magic in front of our eyes.
"Yes," Althea says. "When we're at the base I'll reproduce it for the theta scanners."
"Well, mission accomplished," Kaelich says, relieved, "it's nice having a mage that can actually do their job. And if Korentis was really one of the two mages involved, we might catch them together, with some luck."
"Can't say I'm enthusiastic about that," Althea says. "The mage was clearly being threatened. But it still counts as a violent crime, there's no self-defense clause for rehab sentencing."
For a moment, I'm surprised that she voices concern for mages' punishment - that's just not something you do in ThauCon. But of course, she's not ThauCon.
"The Navigator offers us a choice, and they've chosen the Dark Power," Sorivel says, grimly.
"They're mages and didn't turn themselves in. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes," Kaelich adds.
Althea looks at them, says nothing, and then looks at me.
I'm not full of sympathy for poor rogue mages who steal expensive jewels and get into fights with gangs. They could learn basic control, get their tattoos and go back to their lives in a month from the moment they discover their powers.
But maybe we don't know the full story here, and I don't want to antagonize new team members, especially really attractive ones, so I choose the path of wisdom and say nothing.
Soon we have the newcomer's magical signature, and we easily spot him in the station security footage: he's walking side by side with Korentis. He's not in the citizens database, however - probably a recent immigrant, since Vorokan kids get registered by schools. Aeniki finds a few frames where you can see a complex tattoo on his arm, which looks like a bunch of snakes, and apparently it means he's Kalestran.
Were we in Ter Valentis, we could trace their movements through street cameras and catch them by tomorrow morning. But Vorok has a lot of annoying privacy laws, so we can't do that. We'll have to find them with a real-world search, like it's the fucking middle ages.
On the other hand, I don't think we'll need to search very hard. Those mages caused two major magical incidents in two weeks, they're not keeping a low profile. And with the full signature, as soon as the Kalestran boy uses any magic, we'll get him.
Not a bad start for our first case, even if I won't say that aloud until we have them in silver shackles. But Kaelich must think the same, because xe's in a good mood too – which means in the evening xe drags us to do some extra training.
"What am I even supposed to train on?" Sorivel, who's in bed, reading, objects. "I already spend way too much time practicing my drone link."
"You could try and shoot something, for once. You're supposed to know how to do that in a pinch, you know." Kaelich says, shrugging. "Or you can cheer for us."
"Captain give me strength, and Surgeon give me a lot of patience," Sorivel answers, but he gets dressed and follows us from our bunk room to the Base Core.
"We should practice team signals and coordination," I say. So far, Kaelich's practice has been only on weapons only, and I'm starting to fear that shoot things is xir whole idea of drills.
"We definitely will, I know how training works," xe answers, with a hint of annoyance - I should also practice hiding the contempt from my voice.
"But not yet," xe adds, cheerful again. "We must get some experience with the training facilities here, and I want to see you practice the basics - blade, unarmed combat, movement, marksmanship. Yes, you too, Sorivel, I know you're better than the Engineer himself with your drones, but one day you might have to fight someone who's in your same room."
Ok, xe actually has a point, and I was being unfairly dismissive. Kaelich is only mostly stupid, after all.
We get to the door to the training facilities - it's half-stuck, and we basically have to squeeze in - when Althea enters our same hallway.
"What are you doing? Not going out to drink without me, I hope," she says.
"We're training, wanna watch us shoot?" Kaelich asks, "as long as you follow safety rules. They do teach you safety in basic… in whatever beginner-level magery is called, right?"
"It's called The Council's Academy," she says, putting her hands on her hips, "and to be blunt, you should practice with me. I'm part of the team, and I'm becoming an offended part of the team right now."
"Err," Kaelich says, with a sheepish smile, "I thought about it, honestly. I think it would be good. But you need a special permission to practice magic, and I can't sign it, you need an officer. And I thought, uh, maybe we should ask when we move to more advanced drills."
Some of the sourness goes away from her face.
"So, the problem is you're too spineless to ask either Sareas or the Captain. Ok, I'll pester them directly in the future. However, that's only for magic, right? I can still train with you in physical combat."
"Do you… use weapons?" I ask, honestly surprised.
"Weapons are for losers," she says. "But I try to keep up with unarmed combat."
Kaelich looks confused, and I'm puzzled too. I've no idea why a mage would learn martial arts, but I'm not going to complain one split second if it means I'll get to spend more time with Althea.
"Cool, cool," Kaelich says, "I'm not that good at unarmed, honestly, you can probably teach me! Sori is incredibly bad, I know that for sure. Ceri?"
"I'd be happy to spar," I say. "I'm best with blades, of course, but I did a lot of unarmed combat and need to keep practicing. It's great for balance."
I stop just short of asking her what art she practices, hoping it's one of those where you grab each other a lot. Lady of Life, I really need to get laid, if I want to keep some semblance of professionalism.
"Wait," Sorivel asks, cocking his head, "how did you find us? You didn't come here at random, did you? This corridor leads only here and to a storage room."
Althea shrugs. "All places are one in the Else, my oh-so-mystical colleagues say. To me it's more like you glow green in the Else so I can sort of tell where you are."
Sorivel crosses his arm, his mouth in a sour line. "I don't like that you can tell where I am. Could you avoid doing that?"
She rolls her eyes. "Could you keep your ears plugged so you don't hear me walking? I don't like that you can do that."
"Chill, guys," Kaelich says. "We didn't know you could do that, Althea, that's all. You… can just feel our position, right? Not what we say or do?"
For a moment, Althea looks like she's going to go off an angry rant, but she cools down. Personally, I don't mind that she can find me, but I'm starting to suspect that I might be biased.
"Only the position, and even that vaguely," she says, "I only noticed because you were all moving together. I can try to avoid looking but… it's like actively trying to ignore sounds you hear. And it's harmless, I swear."
Sorivel sighs, and raises his hands. "Never mind. I didn't know about that trick, that's all. Navigator, show me the way. Let's go practice. I'd say I'll have my revenge on the mat, except Kael is right, I am embarrassingly bad at martial arts and you'll hand me my ass."
I relax a bit - this is probably the most accommodating I've seen Sorivel with Althea. We might make a functional team yet, if Sorivel keeps being reasonable, Althea doesn't antagonize him, Kaelich doesn't get caught in a mage rights argument, and I don't develop an ill-advised crush on our team mage.
Last ThauCon character portrait!
Have Sorivel, who, given his teammates, has plenty of good reasons to pray.
Art from Tacchi.
"We fight many enemies.
We fight the Exiled and her knights, standing defiant on the Moon, their hands full of terrible power.
We fight the Hidden Schools, ever plotting and scheming, shrouded in secrets and subtlety.
We fight the Faceless Army, whose agents walk the streets in broad daylight, ready to unleash their fury on the innocent.
All those are enemies. All must be defeated.
But there's no group I hate more than the Syndicates. They use their power not to defend the world, like us, nor to pursue misguided ideals, but only to build petty, violent criminal empires.
They're not worthy of being called enemies. They're vermin, to be exterminated."
We fight the Exiled and her knights, standing defiant on the Moon, their hands full of terrible power.
We fight the Hidden Schools, ever plotting and scheming, shrouded in secrets and subtlety.
We fight the Faceless Army, whose agents walk the streets in broad daylight, ready to unleash their fury on the innocent.
All those are enemies. All must be defeated.
But there's no group I hate more than the Syndicates. They use their power not to defend the world, like us, nor to pursue misguided ideals, but only to build petty, violent criminal empires.
They're not worthy of being called enemies. They're vermin, to be exterminated."
- Archmage Ton Ked, commander of the Council Battle Force, in a speech to the Parliament
I used to like the morning oath on Engday. I like the ritual, the sense of purpose, of words spoken by generation after generation, for two hundred years.
Except here, everyone is cold and sleepy, half the agents mutter the words sullenly, and half the others have the glazed-over stare of Stemlink users. Our breath mists in the frigid air as we speak.
My team stands in a rigid line, at the left of Lieutenant Sareas, while Team Green stands at his right. Althea stands one step aside, more relaxed, and Jaeleri watches malevolently from a corner.
The Captain stands in front of us, looking like she just wants to be done with it. She's in her fifties, and wears her hideous mittens, which are both ridiculous and against regulation. I didn't expect an inspiring officer, but she's so drab and indifferent, I can almost hear her counting down to retirement. I've met her a few times – she quickly greeted me on my first day here, and sometimes I glimpse her making a furtive sandwich in the mess hall, but she mostly communicates through the lieutenants. Or maybe the lieutenants do all the work while she naps.
It's hard to put my heart into the oath, standing in a dilapidated courtyard, where the Agency sent me to have me out of their way.
But I try anyway. Because the Agency is more than asshole officers and skimmed funds. It''s history, its a cause, it's a centuries-old duty to defend humanity, rooted in the thousands-years struggle to stand against the Dark Power. We must remember that, remember that we're more than just a bunch of kids with silver swords, shivering in the snow.
"I take the silver blade that is given,
I take the golden coin that is offered,
I listen to the story that is remembered.
I swear by the broken moon above,
I swear by the memory of the fallen,
I swear by the world we shall save.
I shall stand against the horrors beyond,
I shall battle the dark power,
I shall fight those who tear the veil.
Until my strength shall fail,
Until the war is won,
Until the sky is mended."
"At ease, soldiers," the Captain orders, without bothering to say her line. I find that so annoying. Since we're here freezing our asses, she could at least do her part.
"I see Team Blue is complete now," she adds, looking at Althea, and sounding vaguely surprised. Did she just find out she's here? Abyss, how can a Captain not know who's in her fucking base?
"Lieutenant Sareas, you have a full roster now. I hope you're ready for the responsibility."
She says it with a small smile.
Sareas, however, nods very seriously. He stands rigid in his immaculate, well-pressed black uniform, silver buttons shining. He looks every bit the officer: close-cropped hair, fit physique, his every movement precise and economical, and no hint of a sense of humor. I like him, so far. But both Kaelich and Sorivel dislike him, and given how different those two are, they probably have a good reason.
"I'll do my best, ma'am," he answers. He has a slight Vorokan accent – he's one of the few people in the base who's actually from here. He also has the weirdly light skin common in Vorok, even if not as pasty and sickly-looking as Jaeleri. His tattoos are black instead of white - which makes sense with a Vorokan complexion, I guess.
"We're all eager to start working," he adds, and salutes.
Jaeleri only looks eager to go to bed. And Team Green's agents, who're barely standing up, look like they've never been eager to do anything in their lives, let alone to work. Then again, Kaelich is way too eager, and Sorivel can be pretty dedicated, as long as he finds some relevant scripture to quote. Maybe the squad averages to reasonably enthusiastic.
"It's good that you're eager," the Captain says, sounding amused, and I dislike her more for every word she says. Not only is she a slacker, she mocks those who actually believe in their duty. "We're heading for difficult times. Rakavdon used to barely have any magical crime. But the new Syndicate Cartel is pushing for power in the whole Vorokan Republic, and the magical factions are restless."
She looks distant as she says that. She's probably wondering if she'll get to retire before the next Mage War breaks out.
"We're ready, ma'am. We won't let the Cartels touch this city," Sareas says, sounding much more confident than I'd be if I were a junior officer in this sorry excuse for a ThauCon base.
"Well, let's start small," the Captain answers. "There's an assignment for you - remember the jewelry robbery? I think Team Blue went to investigate," she says, pointing vaguely at us. "Civilian Intelligence performed DNA analysis, and we have a match. It's a young person who went missing recently, with no previous record, criminal or magical. You should coordinate with CivInt and see if the kid can be found. We have xir DNA and a partial signature, so it should be feasible with our resources. Especially if we catch xem using magic again, so we get the full signature."
My first real operation. Not a terribly impressive one, but if this base is as sleepy as Kaelich says, a decent rogue Liar is as interesting as things will go. Unless the Syndicate Cartel does make a push for power in Rakavdon – stopping that would be proper ThauCon work. But it's probably best to learn to work with the team before we face a really dangerous enemy, much as I'm impatient to do something important.
"We'll do our best," Sareas says, with a crisp salute. "The mage will be localized and brought here in handcuffs."
At the corner of my eyes, I see Kaelich twitch - I know xem well enough to be sure xe's repressing a snicker.
"Be careful," the captain says, and for the first time, there's a hint of energy in her voice. "Lie-mages are more dangerous than their power level suggests. And they tend to be so detached from reality, they can be unpredictable. Catch the mage if you can, but remember your first duty, Lieutenant, is to keep your soldiers alive."
"I understand, madam. We stand watch."
"To victory," she says, unenthusiastic, "and a mended sky."
***
Later that day, Sareas calls a meeting. Since we're still on watch duty, we all have to fit in the cramped watchtower.
"Should I ask Althea to join us? She'd come, I think" Kaelich says. Althea isn't technically ThauCon, so she doesn't have to waste her time standing in the watchtower. She's probably sipping warm chocolate while wearing one of her revealing tunics, looking gorgeous even while slouching in the R&R room.
On the other hand, not being ThauCon means she's not included in briefings, except as a courtesy.
"Sure as the Abyss Jaeleri won't come," mutters Sergeant Gehat, Team Green's leader. I don't know much about her yet – except she's a redhead with a cool scar, which I like, and she doesn't talk much, which I like even more.
"Supporting mages aren't part of ThauCon," Saraes says, curt. "We'll let them know if we require their input."
Kaelich looks unhappy, but shrugs in surrender. I'm tempted to point out that if we'll have to share information with her anyway, if our Team will be deployed to catch the Liar – it would be efficient to have Althea join the briefing . But I don't want to start an argument on our very first meeting with Sareas. I was told that leaves a bad impression on people.
Of course, if people were smarter, I wouldn't have to argue with them so often.
"Let's be clear," Sareas begins, "our Investigation team isn't the best. I suspect it's the worst in the whole Agency, actually, and they were sent here because of that. So, we have to do a decent job without them."
"We can't do their job for them, sir. They didn't teach me how to do detective work, and they sure don't pay me for it," says Karan – Green Team's huge, sour-faced blademaster.
Lieutenant Sareas takes a long breath.
"I'm not saying we should replace CivInt. It's not, as you say, our duty," Sareas says, his voice firm, cold blue eyes on Karan. He's half the size of the blademaster, but Karan is the first to look away. "But we should be aware of their limitations, double-check their work, and keep pressure on them."
"Anyway," the Lieutenant goes on after a short pause, "at least they gave us a name for the hair found by Team Blue. Soldiers, meet Korentis Tal-Venant. Nineteen years old, Vorokan citizen from a wealthy family, no previous criminal record, despite a slew of minor administrative procedures."
He puts his tablet on the table, pushing away cups of steaming tea. There's a picture, looks like it's taken from a school's yearbook - a teenager with a forced smile. Next to it, the pictures from the security camera.
"I don't know, sir, they look like siblings, not the same kid," Kaelich says, with the frown xe makes when xe's trying to say something smart, which rarely works. "The similarity is there, but besides the hair, the face kinda looks different."
"Changing facial structure is well within the power of a Liar," I say, "and DNA analysis would tell us if xe were a sibling instead of an exact match. Xe made themselves different enough to fool face recognition."
We studied pattern-recognition algorithms for Intelligence training. It's very hard to trick face recognition with make-up or camouflage, but very easy with magic. The two pictures are rather different - the real Korentis apparently has black hair, brown eyes and the epicanthic fold - but they both look like the kid in a class you can tell will do all the stupid pranks.
"I agree. A Lie can't fool DNA, so the face must be a trick," Sareas says. "Anyway, Korentis has two elder siblings, but they're both accounted for and don't look anything like xem. Xir family claims - and local police confirms – that Korentis ran from home about a month ago. So xe's definitely our rogue mage."
"Xe must have had a mentor," I muse, "no one can reach that proficiency with magic in a month. Either xe immediately joined a terror faction, or xe had a teacher."
And we could really use Althea's expertise here. But I can't think of any subtle way to point that out.
"I'm not so sure," Sareas says, frowning. "Xe made no attempt to cover xir signature. Any mentor would teach that first, especially in the terror factions. Maybe xe started practicing xir magic sooner than xir family thinks – or is willing to tell us."
"Or, xir teacher didn't mean to teach signature masking," Sorivel intervenes, cocking his head. "You said xe's from a well-off family. They wouldn't be the first to covertly teach a child the basics to control their power, hoping to avoid the need for silver tattoos."
He sounds angry at the very idea – he also clutches his arms, where his own tattoos are.
Sareas nods.
"That's a possibility, too. In any case, if xe had a mentor, they're a magical criminal, and we should investigate that. It would be useful to ask the family some more questions - amicably, since officially there's no hint of wrongdoing on their side. But even a visit would be hard to formally request - on paper, CivInt already took their depositions," he adds, annoyed.
"If we think Korentis used magic at home, we could frame it as investigating a magical crime scene, which is within our mandate," I point out.
I was always good at loopholes.
Sareas looks at me, as if he saw me for the first time. I know the wait, you're actually smart look.
Well, of course I'm smart. I'm wondering if he is, too. He made some decent points, and he takes his duty seriously. Maybe he's just too serious for Kaelich's taste.
"That looks like a good approach," he says. "I also asked Corporal Aeniki to do some datasphere sleuthing and find about Korentis' friends. I hope the Corporal will actually work on it, I've been told she's not the most reliable analyst, and…"
"She's good," Kaelich says, "you just have to make her like you. Try to bring her some muffins."
"This isn't kindergarten," Sareas says, "she'll do her job because it's her job, not because I bribe her in any way. Anyway, if Korentis ran from home, xe probably is, or was, crashing at some friend's house. It's surprisingly common for rogue mages. If we're fast, we can get xem before xe finds a better hideout."
"What if xe leaves the city?" Kaelich asks.
Sareas shrugs. "If xe leaves our jurisdiction, xe's no longer our problem. We've submitted xir DNA and signature to ThauCon database so wherever xe'll pop up, xe'll be found. But xe can't leave easily.
"Unless xe's willing to walk for weeks in the snow, there are only three ways out of the city: vac-trains, chartered airplanes and the airship caravans. Trains have thorough security, without an ID chip xe's not riding one. I doubt xe has the money for a private flight, or xe wouldn't be stealing. As for airships, Kalestran caravans don't like taking passengers and they usually lynch mages on sight. I doubt xe'll risk it."
"Xir family could help xem charter a flight," I point out, "the fact that xe ran from home doesn't mean they wouldn't help xem. There are security scans at the airport of course, but it's not as airtight as the trains, since it's only for super-rich people."
Sareas nods. "I'll make sure Intel covers that side. Anyway, there's no real reason xe should leave. ThauCon is everywhere, and xe grew up here. It's easier to hide in a place you know."
"The Captain claimed Syndicates aren't active in this city, historically," I say. "Is that accurate? Do we know why? A young rogue mage of some talent would be a prime target for them."
Kaelich shakes his head. "No Syndicates in Rakavdon. Well, that's what everybody says, at least. I guess they see no reason to freeze their asses up here."
"Yes, but seriously," I say, looking at Sareas. Your time to show you're worth something, Lieutenant. "This is a mid-sized city with a lot of wealth and limited ThauCon presence. Why aren't the Syndicates active? The Lodge of Stars and the Sacred Song Society have a presence in Vorok, at the very least. The latter is part of the new Cartel, they're trying to expand all over the continent."
Sareas shrugs. "I wouldn't worry over the problems we don't have."
I nod, as if he had said something smart. He has some organization skills maybe, but he's stupid. Good to know. And I'll have to look into the lack of Syndicate activity on my own time.
***
A few days after the briefing, we get our first orange alarm - magical incident with harm to persons. Since the magic is low-level, and it's been a single burst, our team goes alone, and we get another quadcopter ride.
"Mission control to Team Blue - apparently we got an anonymous call," a sleepy Aeniki says on voice comms, while we're landing, "the caller claims he's been attacked by a mage who tried to rob him in the metro system, with an accomplice. He refused to provide details or identification, and won't go to a hospital, despite claiming he's seriously hurt."
"What the fuck?" Kaelich answers. "Is this some kind of prank?"
"More likely, the victim is either another mage or a criminal," I suggest. You can rely on people sucking. "Did he describe the attackers?"
"He spoke with CivInt, I just got the recording, and they woke me for that," Aeniki groans. "I'll see if I can ID the caller from voice data."
We rappel down from the helicopter - which, I must admit, is somewhat cool - and Althea floats down, as if she were falling through water, engulfed by green light. I look at her, transfixed, partly because I've never seen magic used so casually, partly because she looks like a movie star, in her wildly-weather-inappropriate green dress and perfect hairstyle.
Civilians point and gawk at us – but mostly at Althea. A few people make the sign of the Officers, others simply stare in disbelief, and two young women scream encouragement like it's a fucking concert.
"Was that use of magic necessary, Althea?" Sorivel asks, grumpy. "Mages could perceive it."
She laughs. "It won't corrupt my soul or break the moon, it's magic so simple, it's basically a party trick," she says. "Also, we came in a fucking chopper. Everyone knows we're here, and it's not like my training included rappelling."
Sorivel mumbles something involving Navigator and Heretics, but leaves it at that, and we walk into the station beneath which the magic was detected. People point and whisper at our passage. I resist the urge to snap at them - it's not us they should worry about.
"What if it is a setup, though?" Sorivel asks. "Metro tunnels are great for ambushes, and they used only very weak magic, so we didn't bring reinforcements."
I stop in my mental tracks for a moment. He's right, and I hadn't thought about it.
"Come on, who would ambush ThauCons?" Kaelich says, "even if it worked, it would attract the whole Agency's attention."
"The Syndicates ambush ThauCons," I answer. "And the anonymous caller, combined with the underground location, is concerning. Corporal, should we wait for reinforcements?"
Through the helmet's visor, I see Kaelich bite xir lip. A brief pause, then xe answers. "Your point is noted, but I think we're safe. Syndicates have never been active in this city, and if they're setting up shop, we don't know about them yet. They'd be stupid to attack us."
"You worry too much," Althea adds. "The Syndicates are spineless vermin. They rarely fight. And they'd need serious muscle to deal with three agents in full armor. Not to mention me."
Kaelich nods, looking relieved, and leads us toward the escalator.
"Let's go downstairs. But send your scout drones ahead, Sori," xe adds, "better safe than sorry."
"Heavenly Doctor, save us from optimists and fools", Sorivel grumbles. He flicks his wrist, and two small, flying drones detach from his backpack and go whirring down the escalator.
"All clear," he reports a few seconds later. "Truth still detects some residual Theta activity. Do you think you'll be able to get a signature, Althea?"
She scoffs, as we go down the escalators. "Of course I'll get their signature. I'm not a useless slime like Jaeleri, you know. We'll catch them soon."
Below, we find a depressing, dilapidated periphery station, with a closed-off cafè, wheezing air circulators and two broken information screens out of three. An orange no datasphere connection blinks at the corner of my eyes.
The loudspeakers are repeating a warning to leave the station due to an ongoing criminal investigation. The few people left are leaving in a hurry, and hasten their pace when they see us - but there are no obvious signs of a magical fight.
"Mission control, can you give us the exact location of the incident?" Kaelich asks.
"Do I look like a fucking prophet to you?" Aeniki answers, "Our theta detectors are museum pieces, they give me a fifty meters spatial resolution. Be grateful I can tell you it happened near the station. That said, the anonymous caller said the attackers dragged him to the maintenance sidewalk going west - that's toward an abandoned station."
"Why would the mage do that?" Kael asks, overlooking her staggering lack of professionalism.
"No idea, but I'm pretty sure the guy was lying anyway."
"I think I found something," Sorivel says. His tone is strange. "Wisdom followed the theta residual activity and there's some… what… oh, sweet Doctor, help us. Yes, I found the crime scene."
"Active threats?" Kaelich asks.
"Not that I can see. No current theta activity, and no people in the vicinity," Sorivel says, sounding dazed. "It's just… well, come and see."
He leads us to the dark, empty tunnel leading to a dead station. Even in this wealthy city, metro lines are being cut and stations closed, one by one. It's hard to escape the reminders of our civilization's slow death spiral.
"Everyone be careful," Kaelich says, "the mage almost certainly left, but you can't be too cautious with a Destructor. Can you make some light, Sorivel?"
"No need," Althea says. She waves a hand, and a line of glowing green squares appears on the tunnel's wall, casting it in sickly green light for several dozen meters.
"Wisdom has a flashlight," Sorivel says, sounding exasperated, "one that is white and doesn't cause theta background."
As he says that, one of his drones - the small, flying one which he insists to call Wisdom - flies back to us and starts circling around Sorivel like an overly excited pigeon. Those things are annoying.
"My own magic's background isn't a problem," Althea says, dismissively, "since I'll be the one doing the reading. Now what… oh, fuck, is that a finger?"
It takes me a moment to see it, and - there's a gun on the ground, sliced neatly in two. There's still a finger on the trigger, with a surprisingly small pool of blood where it was cut.
For a moment, my head is light, and the station seems to spin. I take a deep breath - it's just a finger. A minor wound, as far as magic is concerned. True, this is my first violent crime scene, but I'm not going to feel sick like some amateur.
"Elsefire, obviously," Sorivel says, contemplative - Wisdom buzzes around the gun, and another, spider-like drone that might be Truth scurries down Sori's leg and scuttles toward the crime scene. "There's some blood on the floor, careful not to step on it. Also, did our anonymous caller mention carrying a gun?"
"No," Aeniki answers, and for once she actually sounds lively. "Look, it sliced the finger and the metal so cleanly! That's cool! Anyway, our source was full of shit, that's obvious."
"My bet is he tried to rob a mage," I say. That's so deeply unsatisfying. This mage is exactly the kind I'm supposed to protect the world from - a rogue using deadly power to harm and kill. But the fact that it was in self-defense against a lying robber takes something away from the righteous feeling.
"Wait, it gets even better," Aeniki says, and from her sudden cheer, I expect her to announce there's an eviscerated corpse in a side tunnel. "I got access to the security cameras and ran a quick scan. Our friend Korentis left from that tunnel, about seven minutes ago. You almost bumped into xem on the way down."
"Wait, the fuck? This isn't the same mage who robbed the Jewelry, right?" Kaelich asks.
"I wasn't there, so I can't tell you for sure," Althea says, "but theta signal analysis should have told you, if it was the same person. Anyway, I'll collect the signature here, and see if I can get an idea of what happened."
She walks to the gun, careful not to step on the blood, and her eyes glow green. Sorivel turns away, counting the Officers on his fingers. I stare, transfixed - I studied magic, watched videos, even trained with some Council mages, but I've never watched a mage working from this close. Well, if you don't count Jaeleri, but it's not like he did anything.
Fascination with magic probably isn't the best trait for a ThauCon agent. And it is scary, in a way – the green is too green, the light doesn't behave as light should, it moves and clings to objects like a sticky fluid. It's wrong. Otherwordly.
But it's also beautiful, and fascinating. I can't take my eyes off Althea's fingers, where soft, brown skin gives way to hard light. How can something so dangerous look so good on her?
Althea moves her fingers, as if drawing in midair, or tying invisible knots. Small dots of lights form in midair - no, not dots, cubes, like a child's construction blocks, arranging and rearranging themselves, until they form the fuzzy outline of a scene.
It's hard to make out faces in the glowing green light. It's like watching a grainy, single-color video. But I can tell there's a group of three people standing by the sidewalk, facing two more, who came from the dark tunnel. One of the three holds a gun. Another one holds something - a stick? A knife? And definitely looks threatening toward the two.
Althea moves her fingers, and the images move in jerky fits, like a fast-forward. The pair and the trio seem to be talking mostly – pity we can't hear sounds. The shorter of the pair raises a hand. A color that is not green bleeds into the image: a faint dark red glow on the shortie's fingers.
I startle when the other figures move, one taking out a gun, the other lurching to stab the mage. Then something like blood-red lightning explodes from the mage's hand. Althea moves her fingers, and the image freezes like that.
"I'd say we have a pretty clear picture, at least of the immediate situation," she comments, with satisfaction.
"Can you tell what they were saying?" Kaelich asks. "Also, whoa, this is amazing. I didn't know mages could see the past. Why don't you do this for regular murders?"
"You can only go back a few minutes, unless you have a Sight-path mage," Althea answers, with a smile. "But using it for non-magical crimes would violate the Council's charter. Even if that's obviously stupid."
I studied magic in much greater detail than most, and while I knew mages can extract a magical signature from a past event, I didn't realize they could do this. I studied almost exclusively how mages fight. That looks like a worse mistake every day.
I guess I could do my next career-ruining essay about the need to involve Sight-mages in regular police work.
"So, do we have a signature?" Sorivel asks, clearly ill at ease with the magic in front of our eyes.
"Yes," Althea says. "When we're at the base I'll reproduce it for the theta scanners."
"Well, mission accomplished," Kaelich says, relieved, "it's nice having a mage that can actually do their job. And if Korentis was really one of the two mages involved, we might catch them together, with some luck."
"Can't say I'm enthusiastic about that," Althea says. "The mage was clearly being threatened. But it still counts as a violent crime, there's no self-defense clause for rehab sentencing."
For a moment, I'm surprised that she voices concern for mages' punishment - that's just not something you do in ThauCon. But of course, she's not ThauCon.
"The Navigator offers us a choice, and they've chosen the Dark Power," Sorivel says, grimly.
"They're mages and didn't turn themselves in. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes," Kaelich adds.
Althea looks at them, says nothing, and then looks at me.
I'm not full of sympathy for poor rogue mages who steal expensive jewels and get into fights with gangs. They could learn basic control, get their tattoos and go back to their lives in a month from the moment they discover their powers.
But maybe we don't know the full story here, and I don't want to antagonize new team members, especially really attractive ones, so I choose the path of wisdom and say nothing.
***
Soon we have the newcomer's magical signature, and we easily spot him in the station security footage: he's walking side by side with Korentis. He's not in the citizens database, however - probably a recent immigrant, since Vorokan kids get registered by schools. Aeniki finds a few frames where you can see a complex tattoo on his arm, which looks like a bunch of snakes, and apparently it means he's Kalestran.
Were we in Ter Valentis, we could trace their movements through street cameras and catch them by tomorrow morning. But Vorok has a lot of annoying privacy laws, so we can't do that. We'll have to find them with a real-world search, like it's the fucking middle ages.
On the other hand, I don't think we'll need to search very hard. Those mages caused two major magical incidents in two weeks, they're not keeping a low profile. And with the full signature, as soon as the Kalestran boy uses any magic, we'll get him.
Not a bad start for our first case, even if I won't say that aloud until we have them in silver shackles. But Kaelich must think the same, because xe's in a good mood too – which means in the evening xe drags us to do some extra training.
"What am I even supposed to train on?" Sorivel, who's in bed, reading, objects. "I already spend way too much time practicing my drone link."
"You could try and shoot something, for once. You're supposed to know how to do that in a pinch, you know." Kaelich says, shrugging. "Or you can cheer for us."
"Captain give me strength, and Surgeon give me a lot of patience," Sorivel answers, but he gets dressed and follows us from our bunk room to the Base Core.
"We should practice team signals and coordination," I say. So far, Kaelich's practice has been only on weapons only, and I'm starting to fear that shoot things is xir whole idea of drills.
"We definitely will, I know how training works," xe answers, with a hint of annoyance - I should also practice hiding the contempt from my voice.
"But not yet," xe adds, cheerful again. "We must get some experience with the training facilities here, and I want to see you practice the basics - blade, unarmed combat, movement, marksmanship. Yes, you too, Sorivel, I know you're better than the Engineer himself with your drones, but one day you might have to fight someone who's in your same room."
Ok, xe actually has a point, and I was being unfairly dismissive. Kaelich is only mostly stupid, after all.
We get to the door to the training facilities - it's half-stuck, and we basically have to squeeze in - when Althea enters our same hallway.
"What are you doing? Not going out to drink without me, I hope," she says.
"We're training, wanna watch us shoot?" Kaelich asks, "as long as you follow safety rules. They do teach you safety in basic… in whatever beginner-level magery is called, right?"
"It's called The Council's Academy," she says, putting her hands on her hips, "and to be blunt, you should practice with me. I'm part of the team, and I'm becoming an offended part of the team right now."
"Err," Kaelich says, with a sheepish smile, "I thought about it, honestly. I think it would be good. But you need a special permission to practice magic, and I can't sign it, you need an officer. And I thought, uh, maybe we should ask when we move to more advanced drills."
Some of the sourness goes away from her face.
"So, the problem is you're too spineless to ask either Sareas or the Captain. Ok, I'll pester them directly in the future. However, that's only for magic, right? I can still train with you in physical combat."
"Do you… use weapons?" I ask, honestly surprised.
"Weapons are for losers," she says. "But I try to keep up with unarmed combat."
Kaelich looks confused, and I'm puzzled too. I've no idea why a mage would learn martial arts, but I'm not going to complain one split second if it means I'll get to spend more time with Althea.
"Cool, cool," Kaelich says, "I'm not that good at unarmed, honestly, you can probably teach me! Sori is incredibly bad, I know that for sure. Ceri?"
"I'd be happy to spar," I say. "I'm best with blades, of course, but I did a lot of unarmed combat and need to keep practicing. It's great for balance."
I stop just short of asking her what art she practices, hoping it's one of those where you grab each other a lot. Lady of Life, I really need to get laid, if I want to keep some semblance of professionalism.
"Wait," Sorivel asks, cocking his head, "how did you find us? You didn't come here at random, did you? This corridor leads only here and to a storage room."
Althea shrugs. "All places are one in the Else, my oh-so-mystical colleagues say. To me it's more like you glow green in the Else so I can sort of tell where you are."
Sorivel crosses his arm, his mouth in a sour line. "I don't like that you can tell where I am. Could you avoid doing that?"
She rolls her eyes. "Could you keep your ears plugged so you don't hear me walking? I don't like that you can do that."
"Chill, guys," Kaelich says. "We didn't know you could do that, Althea, that's all. You… can just feel our position, right? Not what we say or do?"
For a moment, Althea looks like she's going to go off an angry rant, but she cools down. Personally, I don't mind that she can find me, but I'm starting to suspect that I might be biased.
"Only the position, and even that vaguely," she says, "I only noticed because you were all moving together. I can try to avoid looking but… it's like actively trying to ignore sounds you hear. And it's harmless, I swear."
Sorivel sighs, and raises his hands. "Never mind. I didn't know about that trick, that's all. Navigator, show me the way. Let's go practice. I'd say I'll have my revenge on the mat, except Kael is right, I am embarrassingly bad at martial arts and you'll hand me my ass."
I relax a bit - this is probably the most accommodating I've seen Sorivel with Althea. We might make a functional team yet, if Sorivel keeps being reasonable, Althea doesn't antagonize him, Kaelich doesn't get caught in a mage rights argument, and I don't develop an ill-advised crush on our team mage.
Last ThauCon character portrait!
Have Sorivel, who, given his teammates, has plenty of good reasons to pray.
Art from Tacchi.
