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Path of the Immeasurable Swarm [Worm/Cradle]

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Boss Hoss said:
Except he regularly fails to see through system stuff like loot boxes. Primal Hunter is not a well considered world. It's just 'system fuckery' to excuse it with pretense.
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Jake is allowed to see through what he is allowed to see through. Anything that isn't the system itself, it's avatar, other bloodlines or transcendents, are fair game.

Even Jake's perfect computer simulation, in a perfectly simulated multiverse, could see through the system simulation and notice real Jake watching him.

"The system did not need to be powerful, for it was already omnipotent. Transcendents… Bloodlines… did not exist outside of the system, because the system couldn't control them. They existed outside because the system allowed them to."

"It wasn't something that could be done… for to comprehend the system would be to comprehend everything there is, and that comprehension itself would still merely be a part of the system. Every action, everything accomplished, was merely an expansion of the system itself…"

I'd also like to see where he fails to see through something, that isn't another Bloodline or Transcendent. He mentions he actively tries not to look through them and he literally talks to Villy about his ability to completely ignore the System created barriers during System events and how he can see through Dungeons.

"It was true that he could see through those barriers during the World Congress, though he had tried to avoid doing so, so as to not be a peeping tom. He also did remember how he could see "outside" the dungeons he was in, basically just seeing large black voids beyond the walls. Villy had also mentioned something similar before. He was pretty sure it was something about how only two things operated outside the system."

I don't disagree with it being a poorly constructed world but an omnipotent system is all the pretense you really need. Is that boring? Yeah, its why I don't like Jake's Bloodline. But it is factually an absolute on anything that isn't omnipotent. Nothing in Worm is resisting his sight or instincts which was the argument I was trying to make about wider ability range not automatically equating to better.
 
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Zoolimar said:
Even PtV has limitations around triggers and a few other problematic points.
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As far as I recall these limitations are artificially imposed on the shard by Eden as part of the Cycle and many, if not all, of the blind spots in Contessa's power would have been irrelevant if she had unrestricted access to her shard.
 
Reyemile said:
As far as I recall these limitations are artificially imposed on the shard by Eden as part of the Cycle and many, if not all, of the blind spots in Contessa's power would have been irrelevant if she had unrestricted access to her shard.
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In the interlude where Eden dies it was shown that she rapidly patched in all those limitations in an attempt to preserve the cycle/herself. Previously she was capable of predicting the entities and shards directly. But Contessa already had the steps needed to kill her, and it was short enough she didn't forget.
 
Just a small update: I wrote myself into a bit of a corner in the current chapter. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to write myself out of it eventually, but it's taking longer than I'd like. If I can get everything straightened out this weekend, hopefully I'll be able to finish it next weekend. Sorry for the delay.
 
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Event Horizon 5.2
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    • Author's note: Well, this one ended up way longer than I intended. There's not really a good place to split it, so have a huge-ass chapter.




    The Dark Moon Sect was in Iceflower, the only continent to be claimed by no Monarch. It was widely considered something of a backwater for that reason, and because of its harsh landscape. The northern portion of the continent was covered with vast steppes and boreal forests, giving way to tundra as you went further south, and ultimately to ice sheets and bare rock. That was where the sect was located, in a city carved into an immense glacier.

    The Moon Sage practiced an ice and shadow Path, as did the majority of her sect. They were notable for their isolationism and their intense dislike of Monarchs poking their noses into Iceflower, which was why we hadn't approached them directly. Even if we'd gotten them to negotiate at all, no certain thing, they would have extorted us for all we were worth, and the clan simply couldn't afford that kind of expense anymore. So instead, I was going back to my roots and robbing them.

    If I'd been at full strength, and especially if I'd been an Archlord, I might have been able to simply walk through their defenses entirely unnoticed. Unfortunately, I couldn't justify spending as much time recovering as I would have liked. As it stood, I was currently somewhere around the level of a very strong Underlord or a very weak Overlord. My authority was also somewhat more difficult to wield than it had been before the battle. At a guess, I was around the level I'd been at immediately after manifesting the Shadow Icon, or maybe slightly weaker. That meant I was going to need to get creative.

    I stepped out of the portal on a barren mountainside. It had been mostly Charity's work, but Hera and I had helped enough that she was able to send us all the way to Iceflower in a single step. I hadn't had the chance to really experiment with spacial manipulation since the battle; it felt like my understanding had grown much deeper, but I was fairly sure most of that understanding was actually Hera's. I needed to understand it in my own terms if I wanted to grow my authority.

    I took a moment to take in the stark landscape, and the vivid aurora flickering overhead. The wind was dense with ice aura and bitterly cold, cold enough that a baseline human would have frozen to death in minutes, but Lords could endure harsher conditions than this. Despite everything, it meant something to be able to stand here like this, appreciate this sight in a way that I never would have been able to in my first life.

    [CURIOSITY]

    "It's beautiful, isn't it?" I replied out loud. Despite her growth, beauty was a concept that Hera had yet to grasp; she saw value only in utility. I opened our link wider, letting her share my experience of it.

    [IMPATIENCE]

    "Yes, I suppose we should get moving," I said, my lips quirking slightly up. I narrowed our link so she wouldn't catch me comparing her to a kid who took one look at the Grand Canyon and asked if they could go now.

    The portal had dropped me over a hundred miles away from the Dark Moon Sect to ensure that their Sage wouldn't notice it. The wind was conveniently with me, though, so the flight there took less than half an hour without needing to push myself.

    The valley containing the sect was maybe a hundred miles long and half that wide, entirely buried under at least a mile of ice. There were few signs of the city beneath, just a handful of towers poking up here and there, also seemingly constructed of ice. There was a gap in the mountains at the valley's north end, and the protruding face of the glacier had been carved into a sheer fortress wall with an enormous gate set into it.

    The gate was currently open, a small but steady trickle of wagons going in and out. The wagons were on sleds rather than wheels, drawn by shaggy gray dogs the size of horses. The Golds driving them were wrapped in thick fur coats which left nothing exposed but their eyes. Similarly attired guards stood by the sides of the gate, briefly interrogating the incoming wagons, but they seemed mostly ceremonial. I doubted the sect got many unexpected visitors. There was a security script as well, but it was similarly perfunctory, at least as long as the gate was open. Invisible, I flew straight through without difficulty.

    Inside, a short tunnel opened up into a cavern nearly a mile wide. Light was provided primarily by the ice itself, which glowed softly blue. Unlike the walls and ceiling, the floor was dark, smooth stone, as were the buildings rising up from it. Some of the towers reached all the way up to the roof of the cavern like enormous pillars. It was still cold, but probably only just below freezing, nothing like the arctic chill outside. More tunnels split off into further caverns, some as large or larger, while others were individual warrens of rooms carved into the ice itself.

    I stayed invisible for now, letting my scarabs filter out into the city. The clan's knowledge about the Dark Moon Sect was fairly sparse, so my first order of business was gathering information. With my new, closer relationship with Hera, I found that my scarabs had changed slightly. She'd always been the one controlling them and processing their senses, but previously she'd needed to simulate countless copies of my own mind to actually interpret and understand what they saw. Now, she had at least some capability to judge for herself which details could be safely ignored, and which she should draw my attention to. That was especially true when we were looking for something she was deeply familiar with: conflict.

    I had no confidence in my ability to rob the Moon Sage under her nose, which meant I was going to need a distraction. I needed to at least get her to the opposite end of the city, or preferably out of it entirely. That meant I needed to find a mess which was already on the verge of boiling over, something big enough that the Sage would decide to intervene personally.

    As with any major city on Cradle, thousands of lesser clans, sects, and schools sheltered under the protection of the Dark Moon Sect, ranging in size from a few hundred Golds to million-strong organizations led by Overlords. The competition between them was endless, each constantly trying to increase their own power and influence at the expense of their rivals'. Just a few minutes after arriving, I saw a battle break out in the street between a dozen flame artists over which of their clans had the right to provide heating services to the neighborhood in question. It ended quickly, one side retreating with minor injuries. That sort of scuffle was commonplace, not nearly enough to draw the attention of any higher authorities. I was going to need to spark something much larger.

    I'd dealt with many hundreds of sects, schools, and clans over the years, from tiny backwaters ruling over a single village to Monarch factions claiming entire continents. All of them had certain similarities, but they also always had their own quirks. As I flew through the city in a rough zig zag, I couldn't help but notice the number of statues, all of the same woman; her arms were spread wide, and an image of the moon hung behind her head like a halo. It wasn't entirely unusual for sacred artists at the highest levels to be worshiped as gods, but it was rather unusual for them to actually encourage that worship. Malice had never had much use for it, so long as everyone obeyed her. The Moon Sage, on the other hand, clearly seemed to enjoy it. Every cavern had multiple structures which couldn't be described as anything but churches or cathedrals, each of them centered around one of those statues.

    The actual sect headquarters were at the far end of the glacier, where the ice was thickest. Like the Akura Clan, a sect this size would easily command millions of Golds, the vast majority of whom would never advance beyond that. The bulk of them lived in the largest cavern I'd seen yet, nearly two miles across, and filled with barracks, warehouses, Soulsmith workshops, and everything else a major sect needed to function. But the higher-ranking members, including the Sage herself, lived in a complex carved directly into the ice at the very end of the glacier.

    Here, I encountered the first real security I'd seen. The gate to the inner sect was guarded by an Underlord, and the scripts around it were far stronger than the ones at the front gate. The physical layout worked to their advantage; with the sect buried behind thick walls of ice reinforced by decades of madra, they could afford to invest in some truly high-quality security on the few access points. Even if I'd been at full strength, trying to sneak through would have been a significant risk.

    Instead, I settled down on the peak of a nearby tower to watch. It wasn't like the inner sect had cut themselves off from the rest of the city; some tens of thousands of people lived inside, still mostly Golds, but the more favored disciples who might have the potential to reach Underlord. The sect wasn't going to waste their time on cooking and cleaning when they could be focusing on advancement, which meant a regular flow of people going in and out.

    After observing for the better part of an hour, I'd learned that the servants for the inner sect were entirely from the outer sect. That wasn't just a matter of security; the aura in the heart of the sect was probably dense enough to be dangerous to Golds who weren't on compatible paths. Even the Dark Moon Golds were wearing the same heavy coats as the ones I'd seen leaving the city. They entered and left in groups of around fifty a few times an hour, with some variance. As far as I could tell, no one had an actual list of who was allowed in, which was convenient. Instead, they presented small tokens to the guards to gain entrance.

    Deciding I'd seen enough, I hopped off my perch and headed for a different tower nearby, descending down towards the base. The bottom of the tower was taken up by a large warehouse, mostly food, but also plenty of basic equipment. Above that were barracks, each floor housing hundreds of Golds. At the tower's peak was a suite for the Underlord in charge. A large safe in his office contained the tokens needed to access the inner sect.

    I started at the bottom, since the Dark Moon Sect wasn't particularly keen on windows in their architecture. The reason for that was fairly obvious; it was much warmer inside than outside. They couldn't heat the actual caverns above freezing for obvious reasons, so instead they built with thick walls and as few openings as possible to keep the heat in and the ice aura out. Dozens of Golds were hurrying around the warehouse storing or retrieving supplies, but it wasn't difficult to locate and appropriate one of the thick coats they wore, along with the matching gloves and boots.

    Storing the outfit in my void key, I stayed invisible for now as I ascended the tower. The door to the Underlord's rooms at the top were locked but not guarded, and the scripts opened at my command. The Underlord himself had stepped out a few minutes earlier, headed somewhere lower in the city. I made my way to his office quickly, opening his safe just as easily; these defenses were meant to stop Gold criminals, nothing more.

    I withdrew one of the tokens and spent a moment examining it. The constructs were well made, clearly the product of at least an Underlord level crafter. Activating one required madra and soulfire from the commanding Underlord, as well as madra from the intended recipient. It contained essentially a spiritual fingerprint of both, a means of identification which was nearly impossible to fake.

    I cracked two of the scales I'd stored in my soulspace, one of shadow madra and one of ice. I wove the two types together, careful to keep it separate from my own madra as I guided it down my channels, then injected the mixed madra into the token along with a sliver of soulfire. The token lit up with a slight glow, active but useless; even a casual inspection would reveal it as a forgery. Then I said "Mine," and the madra inside shifted slightly, turning from a simple mix of ice and shadow madra into true Dark Moon madra. Some of it gained potency, taking on the power of an Underlord, while the rest became more diffuse, weakening to a power appropriate for a Lowgold.

    Still invisible, I descended back down the tower until I found an empty room where I wouldn't be disturbed. Retrieving my stolen outfit, I changed into it and stored my original clothes in my void key. I dropped my Enforcer technique and withdrew my wings, then focused my authority on my own spirit and said, "Conceal." A powerful veil covered my core, strong enough that removing it would take a moment of real effort on my part. Next, I broke more of the scales in my soulspace and began carefully replacing all of the madra in my channels. The foreign ice madra was unpleasantly cold, but it wouldn't actually do any harm unless I tried to take it into my core. I wouldn't be able to use any of my own techniques until I expelled it, but it would make me completely indistinguishable from a Dark Moon Lowgold to anyone below the Sage herself.

    My disguise in place, I descended back down to the warehouse. Several large carts were being loaded up, bound for the inner sect. I joined a pair of real Lowgolds loading sacks of flour into them, tweaking their dream aura slightly so they wouldn't question my presence. I let their idle chatter wash over me; the Lowgolds gossiping and complaining about the same kinds of things workers always complained about, and the Highgolds snapping at them to get a move on.

    The truth was, although I could lie like a rug when I needed to, I was actually a fairly terrible actor. I was an expert at hiding my emotions, but acting required the exact opposite of that. When I was dealing with Golds, I could avoid the problem by letting their own minds fill in the details, but that wouldn't work on Lords. I was going to have to avoid suspicion the old fashioned way. The mindset of the timid, withdrawn girl I'd been in another life didn't really fit anymore, like jacket I'd outgrown years ago, but it was the only role I had any confidence at all in playing.

    "Alright, that's a full load," shouted one of the Highgolds. "Get over here and let's get moving. I don't want catch anyone slacking!"

    I obediently followed the other workers as they assembled in front of the carts. Apparently it wasn't worth using sacred beasts or constructs to haul loads over such short distances, so we got to do it ourselves. Each cart had a long board of wood extending from the front with three pairs of handlebars sticking out from the sides, although most of them were only being pulled by four or five Golds. I was careful to push as lightly as I could while still pretending to put effort into it, since I could have picked the entire wagon up with one hand.

    Once the Highgolds had shouted sufficiently to get everyone organized, the wagons began trundling out of the the warehouse one at a time. As we made our way out into the street, the Lowgold next to me turned to me. "Hey, new girl. Don't think I got your name yet. I'm Pyong-Ho."

    I glanced at him, then looked down quickly. "Sung-Yun," I answered, trying to sound as shy as possible.

    "First time in the crystalline halls?"

    That, I gathered, was what they called their inner sect. "Yes."

    "Nervous?"

    "...It's a great honor."

    "It is," he agreed, nodding. "But let me offer you a piece of advice. The Great Sage is divine," he paused to make seemingly religious gesture, making a circle with his thumb and finger and putting on his forehead, then continued. "But Her disciples are still only human. Some of them, ah, haven't cast aside their worldly concerns as much as they should have."

    "Careful with that kind of talk," said the Lowgold behind me. "Her Chosen are an extension of Her will. You're not suggesting She chose incorrectly, are you?"

    "Of course not," said Pyong-Ho. "But the aspirants haven't been chosen yet, have they? Most of them won't prove themselves worthy, and they're the ones you have to watch out for. The best thing you can do inside is keep your head down and do your job as well as you can."

    The other Lowgold grunted, but didn't argue the point. It was good advice. It sounded like the Dark Moon sect was similar to other sects at least in this regard, which meant the large majority of inner disciples who failed to reach Underlord would eventually be kicked back out to the outer sect to make room for a fresh crop of potential talent. That type tended to be the most eager to use and abuse their status while they still could. Of course, I had a completely different reason to want to avoid attention, but it was convenient cover. "O-okay," I said, using my hood to hide my expression so I wouldn't need to fake that as well.

    It took only a few minutes to reach the gate to the inner sect. The guards were efficient but perfunctory; they clearly weren't actually expecting anyone to try and sneak in. Truegolds scanned each worker's token and spirit, while the Underlord scanned the groups and the carts as a whole. I wasn't nervous; I trusted my work. When it was my turn, I drew no more attention than any of the Lowgolds next to me.

    Then it was time to pass through the gate. The scripts were more thorough than the guards had been, designed to rip away veils and disguises. They found no purchase on mine. My token was imbued with my authority, declaring that I had the right to be here. The scripts acknowledged it, brushing over my spirit only lightly. Although it was certainly an Archlord level script circle, the power needed to tear away the veil I'd put on myself would have shredded the spirit of a real Gold. The scripts saw no reason to look at me more closely, so they didn't.

    The moment we passed through the gate, the temperature plummeted to well below freezing. Several of the Lowgolds shivered and tightened their coats, although none of them offered any complaints. The floor was paved with stone tiles to provide traction, but everything else was pure ice. The tunnel continued on for a hundred or so feet before opening up into a wider space, but we turned off into a side passage. This one opened into a wider space as well, a junction of several more hallways with Golds scurrying back and forth. A harried Truegold came over to direct us to an empty storeroom.

    I began carefully letting my scarabs out one at a time. Insects weren't exactly abundant in the frigid environment, so they'd be immediately out of place to anyone who noticed them. On the other hand, they were extremely difficult to notice visually or spiritually, more so than their small size alone could account for. I'd have to be cautious with them around Archlords, and particularly the Sage herself, but I doubted anyone below that posed much of a threat as long as I was circumspect.

    As we arrived in the storeroom and began unloading our cargo, I started to get a feel for the layout of the inner sect. It was roughly pyramidal in shape, with height corresponding to rank. Lowgolds had quarters and training facilities on the lowest level, none looking older than fourteen or fifteen. Their rooms were tiny, barely enough space for a bed, a desk, and a dresser, but there were enough of them that they still took up the most space. Above them, the Highgolds got slightly larger rooms, and the Truegolds got their own bathrooms, but even their rooms were small enough to send a clear message that they had yet to prove themselves.

    The Gold rooms were all basically uniform, but the suites belonging to the Underlords varied in size quite a bit, no doubt a reflection of their favor with their superiors. Also, the higher you went in the complex, the colder it became. At the Overlord level, even a warmly dressed Gold would need some sort of Enforcer technique to survive, and there were training rooms where Golds simply wouldn't be able to survive at all, the air being too cold for them to breath. I noticed that while the outer sect servants all had heavy coats like mine, the inner sect disciples wore only simple robes, clearly being expected to keep themselves alive through their Sacred Arts alone.

    I was looking for two things. First and most importantly, I needed to know exactly where my target actually was. The worst case scenario would be if the Sage actually kept the Grand Oath Array in her own rooms. I wasn't willing to scout out her rooms without knowing for sure that she wasn't there, but I located a promising lead just below, in the Archlord level. The heavy metal door was sealed with scripts even more powerful than the ones on the front gate, the most secure vault in the entire complex.

    I quickly judged there was no way I was getting through that door in my own, not without taking far too long and drawing far too much attention. I needed more information. Was there a key to the door, or was the script set to recognize certain people? Did they have a record of the contents outside the vault itself? Fortunately, that was all information I could collect while also working on my second goal.

    After we finished unloading our cargo, we hauled the carts back to the junction and then left them. Another crew of outer sect Lowgolds arrived shortly afterwards, taking the empty carts with them as they left; it seemed their shift was over, and we were their replacement. I wasn't sure exactly how long the shifts were, but I assumed at least a few hours, which should give me plenty of time to work with. The Highgolds consulted with the Truegold in charge, then began barking orders at us, assigning us to various tasks. One of them paused in confusion when he got to me, but there were no Lords nearby, so I tweaked his dream aura and he quickly assigned me to the kitchens.

    A few minutes later, I was chopping up a massive pile of some kind of white root vegetable alongside half a dozen Lowgolds. It was an ideal posting, where I wasn't likely to be bothered by any inner disciples. Imagining the reaction of the others if they somehow realized they were chopping vegetables next to a Sage also amused me slightly. I settled in to wait and watch.

    It didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that the Dark Moon Sect could only be described as a cult. All sects had at least a few cult-like aspects, of course, just by virtue of being centered around a single powerful individual, but the Moon Sage took things way further than that. Any sacred artist hoping to advance quickly had to dedicate at least a few hours a day to cycling, and I could see plenty of Golds doing just that. All cycling techniques required specific breathing patterns, and I'd occasionally seen sacred artists recite mantras to go along with it. But I'd never seen a cycling technique which required reciting a religious catechism before, especially one dedicated to lavishly praising the sect elder.

    The people here were nearly as cut off from the outside world as Lindon's people had been in the suppression field. They genuinely believed that the Moon Sage was the most powerful being in existence. They'd been taught that the world outside their city was nothing but an endless expanse of frozen wastes, inhabited only by barbarians, and that she'd created the sole bastion of civilization. At least some of the higher-level Lords had to know better, and I was curious to see exactly where the cutoff was between the true believers and the cynical manipulators. At least it made things a bit easier for me; since no one was going to recognize me from the Uncrowned King Tournament, I wouldn't have to bother concealing my features, which were close enough to the norm to not stand out.

    The Dark Moon Sect still had external enemies, of course, the "barbarians" who were no doubt actually disciples of other powerful sects elsewhere in Iceflower. But with the vast majority of their territory's population residing in a single city, border skirmishes were surprisingly rare, only breaking out when two scavenging parties happened to stumble on the same cache of natural treasures or valuable remnants simultaneously. It seemed that in the absence of major outside threats, the sect had directed most of its hostility inwards.

    It wasn't obvious. On the surface, there were fewer obvious rivalries than I would have expected. All of the inner disciples were unfailingly polite with each other, even formal, but something about their attitude rubbed me the wrong way. I had to wait only a few minutes for the mask to slip. A young boy, probably no older than thirteen, made the mistake of complaining about the harshness of the Truegold instructor as he was leaving a class with a few dozen of his peers. What followed was comparable to a school of piranhas descending on a chunk of raw meat, and it turned my stomach.

    First came the snide insinuations, that the boy wasn't sufficiently committed and grateful for the opportunity to serve the Moon Sage. He quickly backpedaled, insisting that he was grateful and he hadn't meant it that way, but next came the outright false accusations. Nearly a dozen disciples chimed in, claiming they'd overheard him disparaging the food, or the living quarters, or the temperature, or even doubting the divinity of the Sage herself. They trampled over his frantic denials, dripping with false sympathy as they told him he had to admit his wrongdoing before he could be helped. It took only a couple of minutes for him to fold under the pressure, stammering out tearful apologies for things he hadn't done.

    That was only the beginning. Next, they escorted him to a Truegold's office, praising his honesty, all of them wearing smiles that might have been taken for sympathetic if I hadn't seen the same smile on Emma's face too many times. There, he was "encouraged" to confess to a list of sins, no one caring that it was different than what they'd accused him of before. The Truegold then led him to a cafeteria where hundreds of Lowgolds were lining up for the meals I was currently helping to cook. He was walked onto a low stage at one end of the room and again pushed to confess; when he froze under the eyes of hundreds of his peers, the Truegold sternly reminded him that the stain on his soul had to be exposed before it could be purged.

    Eventually, the boy once again stammered out a confession for a variety of supposed crimes. None of the other disciples looked at all surprised at what they were seeing, suggesting it was a regular occurrence. But the public humiliation still wasn't the end of the ordeal; the boy was next given a choice between having his "sins" purged or being dishonorably expelled from the sect, something which would condemn him to a life of poverty at best. When he obviously chose the first option, he was shut in a tiny cell which was then flooded with ice aura, dropping the temperature well below what his Enforcer technique and Iron body could protect him from. Within a minute, he was curled up on the floor, shivering violently.

    He was let out after around twenty minutes, but that was still plenty of time for frostbite and hypothermia to begin setting in. The moment he was let out, he was met by applause and praise, the same group of disciples who had accused him now congratulating him on overcoming his weakness. He was then given a low-quality healing pill which would reverse the damage he'd suffered slowly and painfully, and sent off to his room to meditate on what he'd learned.

    It was a struggle not to interfere, even though there was nothing I could realistically do. On the upside, I now had a much better idea of how to approach things. It was never hard to start a conflict in an environment where everyone was already looking for an excuse to turn on each other. And although the Moon Sage's indoctrination was no doubt highly effective, there would inevitably be a few people who held onto bitterness and resentment. I had yet to catch a glimpse of the Sage herself, but I found myself wondering just what kind of personality would create something like this.

    Slowly, I began assembling an answer to that question. As stilted as the conversations between the inner disciples were, all of them constantly on guard against any verbal misstep, I still picked up useful pieces of gossip here and there. It seemed the sect had just concluded a major annual tournament a few days previous. Most of the rewards were the usual sorts of things, weapons and advancement resources. But the most sought after prize, if I was understanding what I was hearing correctly, was a chance to… audition to become the Sage's consort. In a few days time, the sacred artists she'd judged as performing adequately would present her with a gift or offering. If she liked one of them enough, she would take the sacred artist in question as her consort for the rest of the year, until the whole process repeated.

    Apparently she hadn't found any of the offerings worthy for the last few years. The Dark Moon Sect had two Archlords, both of whom were seemingly always allowed to audition. But this year, a young Overlord named Dae-Jung had swept his bracket, defeating opponents decades his senior, and caught the Sage's eye. I located him in the sect's archives, pouring over dream tablets. It was easy to see that his talent wasn't the only thing which had drawn the Sage's attention; he had the kind of chiseled, rugged face which wouldn't have looked at all out of place on a magazine cover.

    He didn't look to be going anywhere anytime soon, so I left him to it. In the meantime, I'd caught sight of the sect's first Archlord coming out of his suite. He was a more imposing man than Dae-Jung, looking to be in his thirties or forties; at a guess, that made him at least sixty but no older than two hundred. I took the risk of slipping a scarab into his rooms while his door was open, successfully avoiding his notice. While he set off towards the lower levels of the sect, I began searching.

    It took me only a couple of minutes to locate his office. Some of the cabinets were locked and sealed by scripts, but the ones containing records weren't; on Cradle, the only information considered to have any real value were secrets on the Sacred Arts. Unfortunately, there was a lot to go through, and I only had one scarab. It crawled through reams of paper detailing sect membership, contracts with lesser sects and clans, ledgers of supplies purchased, and more.

    Before I found anything useful, I noticed that the Archlord was also heading for the sect archives. He fully veiled his spirit as he approached, brushing past the clerks who bowed deeply to him and ignoring their offers of assistance. This, I thought, ought to be enlightening. As I expected, he headed straight for the room where Dae-Jung was studying.

    Dae-Jung didn't notice his appearance at first, being engrossed in another dream tablet. He only looked up when the Archlord snorted contemptuously. His face tightened briefly, then quickly assumed a carefully neutral expression. "Elder Tae-Seong. How can I assist you?" he said, standing with a bow.

    Unlike the lower ranked disciples, Elder Tae-Seong didn't bother hiding his hostility behind a smile. "So you really are wasting your time looking at old offerings," he said, briefly examining a dream tablet before tossing it back on the table. "You think you can win the Great Sage's approval by imitating your betters? Pathetic."

    "On the contrary," said Dae-Jong, his voice blandly pleasant. "To present Her with something original, I must first know what She has seen before."

    The Archlord glared at him for a moment before responding. "How long do you intend to continue this farce? You can't seriously believe She would ever take a worm like you as Her consort."

    "I would never dare to question Her wisdom or decisions. All I can do is present Her with my best effort."

    "No. That isn't all you can do," said Tae-Seong. "You can beg an audience with Her, tell her that you're far too worthless to be Her consort, and withdraw yourself from the Rite of Adoration."

    "Do you believe She made a mistake by choosing me, then?" asked Dae-Jong.

    Tae-Seong hesitated for a beat, the blow clearly landing. "Of course not. Her mind is beyond us. No doubt She has some deeper plan, that even a worm like you can be part of. But it would be a shame if others suffered because of your inability to shoulder the burden." He leaned forwards. "Like disciple Min-Su, for example. How will you spare the time to look after her, if you insist on trying to prepare a suitable offering for the Great Sage?"

    A flicker of emotion passed across Dae-Jong's face before he stilled it again. "Disciple Min-Su and I are no longer involved. The Great Sage has my full devotion."

    "Of course," said Tae-Seong. "But on the off chance you have any lingering affection for her, then I suggest you consider withdrawing. I suggest you consider it strongly."

    With that, he turned and left, striding out of the archive. Dae-Jong waited until he was sure the Archlord was gone, then sunk back down into his chair, putting his head in his hands. He stayed like that for a few minutes, then stood and left as well, telling a passing clerk that he was finished with the dream tablets he'd requested. I watched as he headed back to the upper levels of the sect, but he didn't return to the Overlord level. Instead, he paused at the Underlord level, seemingly struggling with himself. He glanced around furtively, and seeing no one, he hurried off towards the sect's far corner, staying to side halls.

    His destination was the smallest apartment in the Underlord level, barely larger than the rooms belonging to the Truegolds. He activated the doorbell script, then waited, again glancing up and down the hall. The door opened after a moment, revealing a pretty woman with long black hair of a similar age. "What are you doing here?" she hissed, scowling, then shook her head. "Get inside before anyone sees you!" She grabbed his hand, pulling him inside, then let it go as soon as the door was closed. "You shouldn't be here," she said again.

    "I know. I'm sorry. I just needed to make sure you were alright," said Dae-Jong. He hesitated for a moment, then said, "Elder Tae-Seong threatened you to try and get me to withdraw from the Rite of Adoration."

    The woman, who I assumed was Min-Su, paled slightly. Then she let out a deep breath and said, "All the more reason to make sure we're never seen together."

    Dae-Jong was silent for a moment. "What if… what if I just did what he wanted?"

    "Don't be an idiot!" snapped Min-Su. "What do you think the Great Sage will do to you if you disrespect her like that? What do you think She'll do to me?"

    "Then what are we supposed to do?" he asked. "I hoped if I could thread the needle perfectly, give Her an offering good enough to avoid offending Her but mediocre enough to bore Her, She'd lose interest. But now if I give an offering at all, Tae-Seong might hurt you anyway."

    She turned away, crossing her arms. "I'll figure something out," she said. "You should give the Great Sage the best offering you possibly can. This is the chance of a lifetime, something everyone dreams about. Don't… don't throw it away for my sake. It's better for both of us if you just let me go. I'm only holding you back."

    "Now you're the one being an idiot," said Dae-Jong gently. "You know I only fought so hard in the first place for your sake. I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it." He paused for a moment, but she didn't answer. "How are you feeling?" he asked eventually.

    "Fine," she said, shrugging.

    "The pain hasn't gotten any worse?"

    She shook her head. "It's fine," she said again. "I'm used to it."

    "You shouldn't have to get used to it. I will find a way to get the Four Phase Elixir for you."

    Min-Su finally turned back around, stepping forwards and embracing Dae-Jong tightly. When they separated, she sniffled a few times and wiped her eyes. "Idiot," she said. "You should go. Don't worry about me. Tae-Seong was probably just talking, he wouldn't try anything under the Great Sage's nose."

    She didn't look convinced, and neither did he. "Maybe… Maybe I can find a place in the city you can hide until this is over."

    "Don't," she said, shaking her head. "They'll be watching you. Don't give them any excuse. Just… just trust me to look after myself for now, and I'll trust you to figure something out. Okay?"

    "...Okay," he said eventually. "Just promise me you'll stay safe."

    "I promise," she nodded. "Now get going."

    He slipped back out after making sure the hallway was still empty. I watched him go, considering. Although the Sage had yet to reveal herself, I'd already learned a great deal about her. To put it plainly, she was an utter narcissistic bitch. I strongly suspected that she would pick Dae-Jong as her consort unless his offering was outright offensive. The offerings were nothing but a way to stroke her ego; what she really wanted was a new toy to play with, having grown bored of the two she already had. The fact that he was in love with someone else probably only made him more desirable in her eyes. She wanted the validation of seeing him leave his partner for her, and I doubted she'd take it well if he refused.

    I now had the glimmerings of a plan. My scarab in Tae-Seong's office had finally located what I'd been looking for, a record of the sect's vaults, including their highest level one. An item matching the description of the Grand Oath Array was listed as "Unknown Divine Treasure, non-functional." Also listed was the Four Phase Elixir, a potent medication capable of healing all but the worst spiritual injuries. It was easy to guess how things had played out. Min-Su had somehow had her spirit crippled, and Dae-Jong had pushed himself to excel in the tournament hoping to win a cure for her. Was he still owed a prize? The plan hinged on that.

    The answer seemed to be yes, although it took me another couple of hours listening to gossip to verify it. Apparently Dae-Jong had in fact asked the Moon Sage for the elixir immediately after the tournament, but she'd put him off, telling him to take more time and consider his decision more carefully. The implication was clear: now that she'd decided she wanted him as her consort, she wasn't going to tolerate him giving his prize to another woman.

    I slowly fleshed out my picture of the sect over the next few hours. The sect's second Archlord, Sang-Jun, was clearly the older of the pair by a large margin. He had graying hair and a lined face, which likely made him well over three hundred. Unlike Tae-Seong, he seemed to be simply going about his regular duties without much regard for the Rite of Adoration.

    Tae-Seong, on the other hand, clearly had greater ambitions. I watched him spend a couple of hours cycling, hardly unusual, except that he would periodically make odd statements aloud. Most of them had something to do with the Moon Sage, and several of them made me physically cringe. It reminded me of a peak Truegold struggling to find their Underlord revelation, but he was already an Archlord, so that made no sense. I also noticed he kept moving his madra in different patterns, as though trying to work out a new technique.

    Only when he rose with a scowl and retrieved a scroll from a sealed safe did I realize what was going on. Tae-Seong was trying to advance to Herald, but didn't know how. He must have assumed it was the same process as the Lord advancements, requiring a revelation. The Moon Sage certainly had to know, so the fact that she hadn't told him was revealing. She didn't want him to advance. She wanted a partner she could control, not an equal who could potentially threaten her power. He seemed completely oblivious to that, and was convinced that she would make him her permanent consort if he could advance. Another piece of my plan slotted into place.

    I also kept an eye on Dae-Jong. He eventually returned to the sect archives, spending another couple of hours there before seemingly giving it up as a bad job. He hesitated for a few seconds when he left, then headed down rather than up. When I realized where he was going, I saw my opportunity. Thinking quickly, I grabbed a nearby tray of food as an excuse to leave the kitchen. As soon as I was alone, I pulled the tray into my soulspace to hide it, then hurried off towards a nearby storage room containing spare sets of robes for the inner disciples. I hurriedly exchanged my servant's outfit for a Truegold's uniform, breaking more of the scales in my soulspace to increase the apparent power of my spirit to match. Then I strode back out into the city after Dae-Jong.

    The advantage of disguising myself as a Truegold was that they were permitted to go about their business with minimal supervision, but there were still too many of them for anyone to think it odd if they didn't recognize me. I passed the guards at the entrance of the inner sect without trouble, receiving only a nod. Dae-Jong had left a couple of minutes before I had, but fortunately he wasn't rushing, so my scarabs had no difficulty catching up with him. I ducked into a nearby alley, finally flushing the ice madra out of my channels with a small sigh of relief, then became invisible and let my wings back out.

    I followed the Overlord for some time as he made his way further down into the city. I thought he was partly just walking to help him think, but he also seemed to have some purpose in mind. After a while, he ducked into an empty alley as I had and exchanged his Sect robes for a more discrete cloak, veiling his spirit as he did so. Thus disguised, he moved on, eventually pausing outside a block of tenements in one of the city's smaller, less prosperous caverns.

    When he told the clerk in the tenements' office that he wanted to rent a room, I snorted. Apparently despite what he'd told Min-Su, he'd decided to try and find a bolt-hole for her anyway. I could sympathize with the urge to do something, but he wasn't being nearly subtle enough. He even paid with a high-grade scale, probably enough to rent the room for an entire year, and something which was sure to draw notice in this part of the city.

    The clerk escorted him to an empty apartment, handing over the keys with several deep bows when Dae-Jong dismissed him. He unlocked the door and entered, looking around the tiny room with a small frown. A narrow bed, a rough dresser, and a small table with a pair of chairs were the entire furnishings. It was cold, too, the walls being thinner than was advisable, although that wouldn't bother a Lord.

    "A bit cramped," I remarked, "But I supposed I've slept in worse."

    He'd already whirled before the first word was fully out of my mouth, preparing a technique. Normally that would have drawn the attention of every sacred artist within a mile, but I'd already veiled the room in my authority. Finding me leaning back in one of the chairs with my legs crossed, he refrained from actually releasing the technique, which would have been much more difficult to hide. It might have been safer to avoid surprising him, but I wanted to set the tone for the conversation immediately.

    "Who are you?" he demanded. I felt him scanning my spirit, then scanning it again more forcefully. He didn't pierce my veil, of course, but that alone would tell him that I was as strong or stronger than him. "What do you want?"

    "You can call me Weaver," I said. "I believe we can help each other."

    He studied me in silence for a few seconds. There were probably fewer than twenty Overlords or higher in the city, and he would certainly know all of them. It didn't take him long to come to the only reasonable conclusion. "You're an outsider."

    "I am."

    "Outsiders are blasphemers against the Great Sage." It sounded like a reflexive response.

    I chuckled slightly. "I intend to do a lot more than just blaspheme against the Moon Sage."

    "...Whatever madness this is, I want no part in it," said Dae-Jong. "The Great Sage's will is absolute. Anyone who defies Her dies."

    "The Moon Sage," I corrected him. "There's nothing particularly great about her. She's done nothing but hide in her little corner and play god for centuries. The Winter Sage could probably thrash her with one hand behind her back."

    "The… Winter Sage?" he repeated, looking thoroughly lost. "What…" He trailed off, unsure of what question to even ask.

    I leaned forward, becoming more serious. "Sages are neither unique, nor the most powerful beings in the world. You've been lied to your entire life. Tell me, do you trust the Moon Sage? Does she act as though she has your best interests at heart? Or does she act like a cruel, petty tyrant with too much power?"

    That one struck home at least slightly. "This… This is insanity. I shouldn't even be listening. Is this some kind of test?"

    "I suppose I am asking you to take a lot on faith," I mused. "Let me do you a little favor. This room would look much nicer without this ugly table, don't you think? Vanish."

    The table obediently winked out of existence. Dae Jong stared at me, his mouth actually hanging slightly open. "You… You can work miracles like She can. How?"

    "I told you. Sages are not unique."

    Slowly, he backed up, sitting on the bed. "Who are you, really?"

    "That question, I won't answer quite yet. Not until you answer a question of mine. How far are you willing to go for Min-Su?"

    "I… How do you know about her? How do you even know who I am?"

    "The same way I know there's currently an Underlady on the roof across the street, waiting for you to come out," I said, pointing. "I can't fault you for missing me, but you should have expected that someone would follow you when you left the sect."

    He muttered a curse, then said, "Describe her."

    "Short dark hair, a scar on her left cheek, and her Goldsign is a cloud of snowflakes above her head."

    "Eun-Seo. One of Tae-Seongs's toadies," he said. "...You could be lying."

    "I could be. Do you think I have a reason to?"

    "How can I know, when I don't even know what you want?" he retorted. "You implied you can protect Min-Su from Tae-Seong, maybe even from… from the… the Sage herself. But you haven't told me what you want in return."

    "I can do more than that," I said. "I can get her the elixir she needs, and then I can take both of you well out of the Moon Sage's reach. As for what I want, it's simple. I want you to help me rob the sect's highest level vault."

    He stared at me. "You can't be serious."

    "Entirely serious." And then I explained what I needed from him.

    When I was finished, he stared at me for several long seconds, then shook his head. "Even if I believed everything you've told me, this is… this is too much. You're asking me to put both of our lives in your hands. How can I trust you when I barely met you five minutes ago, and you've openly declared yourself to be an enemy of my sect?"

    I nodded. I hadn't expected things to be quite so easy. "I swear on my soul that if you accomplish the task I've given you, I will protect Min-Su until she can safely leave the city, and see her spiritual injury healed." Soul oaths were always risky things, but I'd worded this one carefully to minimize any factors out of my control. The oath settled lightly on my spirit, waiting for him to complete it.

    "...Why?" he asked after several seconds.

    "Mostly because I'm on a tight schedule, and the most efficient way to accomplish my goal here is with your help. But also because I find what the Moon Sage is doing abhorrent, and I have the opportunity to do something about it."

    "And if I still refuse?"

    I'd never really considered myself a people person, but if there was one side of human interaction that I understood, it was the darker side. Any reassurance I offered that of course he'd be free to go would have rang false, because it was. "If you refuse, then I'll require a soul oath from you not to reveal my plans or my presence here. If you refuse that as well, then I'll have no choice but to kill you. But I'd very much prefer if it didn't come to that." Ironically, I was actually bluffing; I couldn't kill him without alerting the entire city to my presence, which would make it pointless anyway.

    Fortunately, I hadn't misread him. He was silent for several more seconds, then slowly nodded. "I still think this is insane. But even if your plan ends up getting me killed… if you can keep Min-Su safe, it'll be worth it. I accept."

    We spent a few more minutes hashing out the details. I provided him with what he'd need, and he wrote a note for Min-Su, informing her of her own role. I would've preferred to take more time, but the spy outside was still waiting for him to come out. Besides, his task was ultimately a short and straightforward one.

    I flew on ahead when we left, having a few things I needed to take care of in advance. Changing back into my Truegold uniform, I reentered the inner sect without difficulty. Once inside, I purged the disguising ice madra from my channels and became invisible. It was a bit of a risk; my Enforcer technique wouldn't stand up to scrutiny from the Sage right now, but I still hadn't seen any actual sign of her, and she'd have to actually be looking for me to find me. As long as I went no higher than the Underlord levels, I should be fine.

    Dae-Jong returned a few minutes later and began climbing up into the upper levels of the sect, all the way to the Archlord level. He paused outside Elder Sang Jun's suite, took a deep breath to steady himself, then rang the doorbell. An Underlord greeted him, the Archlord level of the sect being too hostile for Golds to survive. "I wish to beg a moment of the Elder's time," he said.

    The Underlord nodded. "Wait here while I inform the Archlord." He settled onto a soft chair in the entryway, clearly nervous. Fortunately, that was in character for the moment. The true test of his acting ability would come later. The Underlord returned a few minutes later. "The Archlord will see you now."

    Dae Jong followed him up to Sang Jun's office, finding the Archlord sitting behind his desk. "Dae Jong," he said after his secretary had withdrawn. "I hope you have a good reason for coming to see me now of all times."

    Dae Jong bowed deeply. "Forgive me, but I must beg a favor."

    Sang Jun frowned. "You are young, but not so young as to be this naive. You understand we are rivals now, do you not?"

    "I cannot in good conscious consider myself worthy of being your rival," said Dae Jong. "That's why I've come."

    "...I see. Speak your piece, then."

    "I wish to enter the Vault of Highest Heaven and claim my prize. I wish to retrieve the Four Phase Elixir and heal Min-Su."

    Sang-Jun raised an eyebrow. "You would do this, even knowing it will displease the Great Sage?"

    "If I displease Her, then let Her anger fall on me alone. That is the second favor I must ask. Please, shelter Min-Su from the Great Sage's displeasure. No one else can."

    The Archlord nodded slowly. "I could do as you've asked," he said. "But are you sure this is the course of action you wish to take? Perhaps I've grown sentimental, but it brings me no pleasure to see a promising young sacred artist ruin their future even under these circumstances. The Great Sage has taken Overlords as her consort before, and every time she has tired of them within a few years at most. I understand your position, but consider whether it might not be better to simply have patience rather than doing something drastic. Min-Su will forgive you in time, I'm sure."

    That was surprisingly decent of him, in a twisted sort of way. I'd learned that there were two ways to open the vault: the Sage could open it herself, of course, but the Archlords could only open it if they were together. It was a security measure based on the fact that they hated each other too much to collaborate, but I was hoping they would set that aside if it meant removing a third rival from the picture.

    Dae-Jong shook his head. "I can't take the risk. Tae-Seong has threatened Min-Su unless I withdraw from the Rite of Adoration."

    Sang-Jun scowled. "He should know better. Under other circumstances, the Great Sage wouldn't allow such direct interference, but as it is…" He sighed. "I'll ask you once more if you're absolutely certain this is the course you wish to take."

    "I am."

    "Very well, then. I won't deny you. Come. I'm sure Tae-Seong will offer no objection."

    He stood, and Dae-Jong followed him as he left his suite. Making their way to the other side of the Archlord level, they requested entrance to Tae Seong's suite. He scowled heavily when he saw them, but it turned into a smirk when they explained why they were there. "I'm glad you took my advice to heart," he said.

    They started towards the vault immediately. Both Archlords clearly understood that the Sage probably wouldn't approve of what they were doing, even if most of her anger would be directed at Dae-Jong, and wanted to get it done as quickly as possible. When they reached the door, they each placed a hand on it. The scripts lit up, and the heavy pieces of metal slowly began swinging inwards.

    The walls of the vault were ice, just like the rest of the sect. Rows of tall shelves were stacked with glass cases of all sizes, from tiny pillboxes to a cage containing what looked like the remnant of some sort of mammoth. "This way," said Sang-Jun, leading them forwards.

    "I'm grateful to both of you for doing this," said Dae-Jong.

    Tae-Seong snorted. "Enjoy this look at the greatest collection of treasures in the world. It's the only time you'll ever get to see it."

    "Enough, Tae-Seong," said Sang-Jun. "You're getting what you want. No need to gloat."

    The pair of them descended into bickering, allowing Dae-Jong to drift slightly further behind them for a moment. He quickly caught up, now looking back and forth at the treasures they passed, sometimes pausing to read their descriptions. As they approached the far end of the vault, he stopped next to a case containing a curved sword resembling a katana. I saw him take a tiny breath to steel himself. Then he said, "This one should do."

    "Excuse me?" said Sang-Jun, both Archlords turning to look at him.

    "This sword. I claim it as my prize."

    "What foolishness is this?" demanded Tae-Seong. "We opened the vault so you could retrieve the Four Phase Elixir, and nothing more than that!"

    "You opened the vault so I can claim the prize I'm owed. I choose this sword," said Dae-Jong. He glared at the two Archlords contemptuously. "Did you seriously think I would throw away my chance to become the Great Sage's consort for a crippled Underlady? Didn't I tell you,Tae-Seong, that I was finished with Min-Su? It isn't my fault if you failed to believe me."

    "You dare lie to me?" said Tae-Seong, the pressure of his spirit exploding outwards. Dae-Jong staggered under it slightly, but remained standing.

    Sang-Jun was frowning. "It seems I misjudged you. How disappointing."

    "As you said, we are rivals, are we not? Now, open this case and give me what I am owed!"

    "You are owed nothing but a lesson in proper respect!" shouted Tae-Seong, striding forwards and raising his hand to seize the Overlord.

    "Tae-Seong-" began Sang-Jun, halfheartedly reaching out to stop the other Archlord. Then both were abruptly cut off.

    "Freeze."

    Both Archlords instantly stopped moving, becoming as still as statues. Behind Dae-Jong, the air shimmered as a woman faded into visibility, dropping an Enforcer technique not dissimilar to my own Umbral Mantle. Her white hair fell down nearly to her knees, and her lavish silver robes hugged her body, emphasizing every curve. She smirked as she stepped forwards. "Attacking a fellow contender, and in the Vault of Highest Heaven, no less? Tut, tut."

    On the other side of the sect, I cursed softly. I'd been hoping to avoid drawing the attention of the Moon Sage quite yet. Now I just had to hope that she hadn't noticed anything out of place. Dae-Jong quickly dropped to his knees, follow a second later by the two Archlords as her working faded. "Forgive me, Great Sage. I allowed my anger at this weakling's deception to cloud my judgment."

    "You defied my will. You violated the rules of the Rite of Adoration. And you put the sect's greatest treasures at risk. You are not forgiven. Remove yourselves from my sight. I shall decided on an appropriate penance later." The two Archlords scampered off like kicked puppies. The Moon Sage dismissed them immediately, turning back to Dae-Jong. "Rise," she said, reaching down and placing a finger beneath his chin to pull him to his feet.

    "You honor me, Great Sage," said Dae-Jong, struggling to decide where he should put his eyes. He settled for looking at her chin, not high enough to meet her eyes but not too low, either.

    "You have pleased me," she said, tracing his jaw with her finger before letting it drop. "Your act was masterful. Even I briefly believed that you were doing something exceptionally foolish. I am glad to see that your devotion to me is in fact stronger than ever. But tell me, why bother with the deception at all? As amusing as it was, I would have gladly opened the vault for you had you simply come to me and told me what you desired."

    "I wanted to accomplish it without needing aid from you, Great Sage. I want to prove myself worthy to be your consort. And, ah…"

    "You wished to humiliate your rivals?" she asked, laughing musically. "Well, consider your goal accomplished. Now, shall we retrieve your prize?" The case containing the sword opened at her touch. She removed the sword, handing it to him. "A fine choice. It suits you."

    "Thank you, Great Sage," he said, bowing. "Forgive me, but I have much work left to do, if I hope to present you with a suitable offering."

    "Well, I suppose I can wait a little longer," she said, pouting. She moved closer, almost whispering in his ear. "Do be sure to impress me, won't you? I promise you will be… well rewarded."

    "Of… of course," said Dae-Jong, swallowing.

    She laughed again. "Well, come along then. A treasure you might be, but I have no desire to see you locked in a vault." She led him out, sealing the door behind her. "I look forward to our next meeting," she said, before turning and walking off towards the sect's highest level, making sure to put a little extra sway in her hips.

    I allowed myself a sigh of relief. So did Dae-Jong, after he'd put enough distance between himself and the Sage. That had been close. His act had slipped slightly at the end, a hint of fear and discomfort showing through. Fortunately, the Moon Sage seemed to have the flaw of only seeing what she wanted to see, and had taken it as nothing more than butterflies. Neither had she bothered examining the vault more thoroughly.

    Back in the now-sealed vault, a sphere of dark purple madra the size of a large marble faded into visibility where it had been hidden under a shelf, and then unfurled itself. A moment later, my simulacrum was standing in the vault. The Crown Icon had granted me significantly greater mastery over the technique; compressing a simulacrum like this without destroying it would have been beyond me before. A touch of spatial trickery from Hera had also helped. I walked to the edge of the vault, examining the scripts lining the walls. I was far from an expert in scripting, but I should be able to at least figure out which parts I needed to sabotage.

    Meanwhile, Tae-Seong had returned to his suite, cursing foully the moment he was inside. He swiped several expensive vases off of a table, sending them shattering against the far wall, then stalked to his private training room. He unleashed a barrage of dark blue comets at the walls, only stopping when the scripts reinforcing them began to crack, then stalked back out, still cursing. His tantrum was interrupted by a chime at his door, and he threw it open, snarling, "What!?" at the cowering Underlord on the other side.

    "F-Forgive me for interrupting, Elder, but we've found a scroll which might be of interest. I brought it to you immediately, as instructed."

    Tae-Seong glared for a moment longer, then stepped aside and jerked his head, allowing the Underlord to enter. "Well, what are you waiting for?"

    "Of course, Elder," said the trembling Underlord, producing the scroll from his soulspace and handing it over.

    The Archlord unrolled the scroll and glanced over it, then went back and examined it more thoroughly. Slowly, his scowl faded, replaced by a smirk. "This… This may be exactly what I've been looking for all these years," he said. "You've done well, very well. Perhaps today won't be such a disaster after all. I must study this more thoroughly. Go, and ensure no one speaks of this."

    The Underlord bowed deeply. "As you command," he said, the note of relief in his voice clear.

    "Wait," said Tae-Seong before he could withdraw. "The girl, Min-Su. I want her suitably dealt with at the first opportunity. We'll see how sincere Dae-Jong really is."

    Min-Su herself was currently waiting in a large courtyard near the center of the sect, tapping her foot anxiously. The courtyard was the intersection for several major thoroughfares, so although it wasn't overly crowded, plenty of people were passing through. They'd have their audience.

    She made a beeline for Dae-Jong as soon as she spotted him entering the courtyard. "Dae-Jong!" she called. He ignored her, continuing to walk forwards until she physically got in his way. "Dae-Jong, please! You haven't said a word to me since the tournament! Please, just talk to me!"

    "What could I possibly have to say to you?" he said, looking at her coldly as he finally came to a stop. "You didn't really believe I would choose you over the Great Sage, did you?"

    "I- No, of course not, I just-"

    "You're nothing but a burden, a burden which I no longer have to carry. Don't speak to me again."

    With that, he stepped around her and continued walking, ignoring the less than subtle stares from the surrounding crowd. Min-Su stared after him for a moment, then turned and fled, covering her face. She ran for the sect entrance, fleeing out into the city. I took one last glance around to make sure things were proceeding, then followed.

    "Headed out again?" asked one of the guards as I passed them in my Truegold outfit.

    "My master's business is no concern of yours," I replied frostily.

    "Of course, no offense meant," she said quickly. The guards were all outer disciples, and they'd be used to the prickly pride of inner disciples. Still, hopefully the guards would change by the time I needed to reenter the inner sect, so I wouldn't become too familiar. A shame the scripts on the doors would strip me of any disguise I Forged on myself.

    I followed Min-Su further down into the city as she headed for the room Dae-Jong had rented earlier. I was sure to stay close enough that I'd be able to intervene if anything threatened her; with my soul oath in effect, it would be foolish to take any risks. She unlocked the door with the key I'd left in her room along with Dae-Jong's note. I waited a few seconds for her to have a look around the tiny room before becoming visible and knocking. She jumped slightly, then hesitantly approached the door and opened it. She tensed when she saw my uniform, which I hadn't had the chance to change out of. "Who are you?"

    "Weaver. I believe you're expecting me?"

    She relaxed partially, but only partially. Nodding, she stepped back, allowing me to come in. "Alright, I want some answers," she said once she closed the door behind me. "What in heaven's name is going on? What have you roped Dae-Jong into?"

    I smiled slightly. I always preferred the direct ones. "We should have a few minutes," I said. "To put it simply, the Dark Moon Sect has an item in its highest level vault which I need. I'm here to relieve them of it. Dae-Jong agreed to help me in exchange for keeping you safe, retrieving the Four Phase Elixir for you, and providing both of you with a way out of the city."

    "You're… You're going to try and rob the Great Sage!?" she demanded. "Are you out of your mind?"

    "It seems to be going quite well so far," I said. "There was a bit of a close call earlier, but luckily for us, the Moon Sage is surprisingly unobservant for a Sage."

    Min-Su sputtered incoherently for a few seconds. "You'd better explain exactly what you mean by that."

    I did, as much as I was able. She took it… moderately well. I could tell she certainly wanted to believe me when I told her that the Moon Sage was far from omnipotent. There was, however, one sticking point. "You took advantage of Dae-Jong," she accused me.

    "I did," I acknowledged. "He had no real option besides helping me. But I also gave him an option when he had none before."

    "An option that might get him killed!"

    "The most dangerous part for him is already over," I said. "He should be leaving the city in a few hours at most."

    She frowned. "How is he going to leave safely? I doubt our little performance convinced everyone that he's really abandoned me. If he goes now, just after I left, they'll figure it out."

    "You're right," I said. "That's why he's waiting to leave until you've been reported dead."

    "Excuse me?"

    "Like you said, Tae-Seong was always going to call Dae-Jong's bluff. He's sent… Looks like half a dozen Truegolds after you. Well, probably his underling actually gave the orders. Plausible deniability and all. They've been ordered to bring your remnant as proof, which will make things convenient. Showing no reaction to your death should elimate any remaining suspicions the Moon Sage has. Then he'll be free to claim he wants to leave to hunt an Archlord-level sacred beast as an offering for her."

    "I, ah, I assume actually dying isn't part of the plan?"

    "You assume correctly," I said, chuckling slightly. "Don't worry, I'll handle everything. We just need to wait a couple more minutes for the Truegolds to arrive. Then, I'll escort you to a safer location that Tae-Seong doesn't know about."

    She nodded after a moment. "I guess I have no choice but to trust you, then."

    "I swore a soul oath," I reminded her. "That isn't a risk I would have taken if I had even the smallest doubt in my ability to protect you."

    "Right," she sighed. "Just… Forget it."

    I considered her for a few seconds. I knew something about feeling powerless; it was never pleasant needing to rely fully on someone else for your safety, especially when you used to have power yourself. "You know none of the things Dae-Jong said to you were true, right?"

    "Of course I know that!" she snapped. She was silent for a while, but then she spoke again. "Did he tell you how I crippled my spirit?"

    "I didn't ask. It didn't seem like my business."

    "...I tried to advance too soon," she said after a moment. "Dae-Jong is a year younger than me, but he still reached Overlord before me. I just… wanted to keep up with him, and tried to advance before I was ready. None of this would have happened if I'd just been a little more talented."

    With how easily the Sacred Arts came to me and all the other advantages I enjoyed, it was easy to forget that for the vast majority, it was a mountain they would spend their entire lives climbing without ever coming close to the peak. There were pitfalls at every level, any of which could end your Path. "You're wrong about one thing," I told her. "Dae-Jong would almost certainly have caught the Moon Sage's eye eventually, probably within a few years, even if he hadn't pushed himself so hard for your sake. I know her type. She enjoys taking things away from other people."

    "...Maybe," she said, shrugging. "But it still would have been a hundred times easier to deal with if I wasn't just dead weight."

    "There's always someone more talented than you," I replied eventually. "Any sect or clan in the world would consider you a bright talent. You have the potential to reach Archlady yourself someday. Maybe not as quickly as Dae-Jong, but I don't exaggerate when I say that fewer than one in a billion reach that level. As long as you learn from your mistake, you won't be left behind."

    She didn't answer, but I thought she looked slightly happier. We waited in silence for another minute. Then I said, "Our guests are about to arrive. Go over and sit on the bed, would you?" She did, and I made myself invisible. She startled for a moment, but then clearly realized what I'd done, her own sect having a similar technique. A few seconds later, a weak spiritual scan went through the room. The moment the Truegolds verified she was inside and alone, the one in the lead kicked the door straight off its hinges. It went flying into the room, crashing into the far wall, but missing Min-Su by a wide margin. Four Truegolds burst in, already preparing techniques. Then they all collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

    I dropped my Enforcer technique, dragging a pair of Truegolds further into the room so I could close the door. "What… What kind of technique was that?" asked Min-Su.

    "It wasn't a technique. I suppressed their dream aura directly. They left two outside to cover the exits, but they shouldn't be able to sense anything important." I broke a pair of scales in my soulspace, carefully weaving the madra together. Using techniques with foreign madra was difficult, slow, and weak, but my madra control was easily refined enough to manage it. A dark blue comet launched from my hand, striking an unconscious Truegold in the chest. As usual for techniques with a shadow aspect, it was insidious; the bolt sunk into her body, freezing her heart and lungs. She convulsed once, then went still. A moment later, her remnant began rising.

    I seized the remnant with aura, and it thrashed wildly as I began reshaping it with my will alone. Parts of the remnant became denser, the madra composing it becoming more powerful. Other parts splintered and fragmented, leaving it misshapen and ruined. "That should do," I said. I reached down and plucked a construct from the belt of an unconscious Truegold, activating it. The remnant was sucked in, still struggling ineffectually against my grip.

    I eased the pressure on the surviving Truegolds slightly, but still maintained a grip on their dream aura. "Stand up," I instructed. They obeyed, their eyes blank. "This is Min-Su's remnant," I said, handing the construct to one of them. "You successfully completed your mission, but she managed to kill one of you before she went down. Go and report back to your superiors. Take the body with you."

    They made no acknowledgment, simply obeying. One of them bent down to pick up his dead comrade, and they filed out of the room in silence. I waited until they were a ways down the hall, then release my grip on their minds. They stuttered for a moment, then continued walking more naturally. "Still can't believe she managed to get Chun-Hwa," said one of them. "Didn't think she had it in her."

    "Chun-Hwa just got cocky, that's all," said another. "A crippled Underlady is still an Underlady."

    They exited the building, collecting the two Truegolds they'd left outside on their way. I frowned slightly. That had been… easy. Too easy. I'd barely needed to exert any pressure on their minds to make them susceptible to my orders. The Shadow Icon allowed me to implant false memories, but it was the Crown Icon I'd felt most strongly when I spoke. I felt sure I could have made far more drastic and longer-lasting changes to their minds if I'd pushed myself. The potential for abuse was staggering. I'd have to take time to consider the new abilities I'd gained, and decide exactly where the line was. I didn't want to emulate the Silent Servants any more than I already had.

    Min-Su was staring at me with awe and more than a little fear. "Who are you, really?" she asked.

    "For now, all you need to know is that I'm a friend," I said. "Come on. We should get moving before anyone comes to check on the disturbance."

    I forged an inferior copy of the Umbral Mantle over her, and we invisibly left the tenement. I didn't take her too far, just a couple of caverns over. As rabidly isolationist as the Dark Moon Sect was, there weren't exactly a lot of hotels in the city, but there were rooms that could be rented for short periods of time. Clans and sects often needed neutral ground to meet on even when they were negotiating openly, and of course there were also always meetings which needed to be kept more discrete.

    The establishment I chose was nominally a restaurant, expensive, but not too expensive. I let myself become visible as we approached, but kept Min-Su hidden. The host at the door saw my uniform and simply bowed as I passed. I walked up to the front desk, completely ignoring the small line. A waiter scrambled over, managing to get behind the desk just as I arrived in front of it. "How can I assist you, honored guest?" he asked with a deep bow.

    "I need a room to conduct private business," I said, slapping down a high-grade scale.

    "Certainly," said the waiter, swiftly making the scale vanish. "How large of a room? Will you require any extra amenities?"

    "A small room will do fine. I require nothing except privacy."

    "Of course. We have exactly what you need. And how long do you expect your business to take?"

    "As long as it takes. Was my payment insufficient?" I raised an eyebrow imperiously.

    "Perfectly sufficient, I assure you. I simply wished to avoid shortchanging you. If you'll follow me, please?"

    He led us up, through the open section of the restaurant and to a hallway with many doors leading off. He stopped next to one and unlocked the scripts with a small key construct, opening it to reveal a small room with two plush couches and a low table. "Is this to your liking?"

    "It will do."

    "Very good. You have the use of this room for the next week. Please don't hesitate to ask if you require anything else."

    "That will be all for now." The waiter bowed and departed. I closed the door behind me, engaging the privacy scripts, and reinforced them with my authority. Then I made Min-Su visible again. "I'm not sure exactly how long this will take. Will you be alright here for up to a day?"

    "I'm sure I'll manage."

    "Good," I said. Then I forged something smaller than a simulacrum but with more endurance than just a scarab, shaping it into the form of a spider. I placed it on the wall, and it scurried up into a corner. "I'll keep an eye on you through this technique. If you need anything, just say so."

    "Right," she said, eyeing the spider nervously. Honestly, I couldn't the only person in the world who appreciated spiders, could I?

    I left invisibly, giving the impression that I was still in the room. My presence would have been noted, of course, but it wouldn't draw any interest when I wasn't a real Dark Moon Truegold; I didn't have any rivals keeping tabs on me. I headed back towards the inner sect, but I didn't actually enter, instead simply taking up position in the cavern outside and observing. Not knowing exactly what was going on inside was irritating, but it wasn't worth going by the guards again when I didn't actually need to do anything.

    It only took a couple of hours for Dae-Jong to emerge from the sect, less than I'd expected. Tae-Seong must not have wasted any time rubbing Min-Su's alleged death in his face. I followed as he strode down into the city, carefully noting the various others who were also following him. He made his way all the way down to the city's entrance, and there requisitioned one of those wagons pulled by huge dogs. Then he spent twenty minutes or so causing a fuss, demanding various supplies be loaded or unloaded while workers scrambled back and forth before finally departing down the tunnel to the city's main gates.

    This next part would be tricky; I had to make sure the right information reached only the right ears, but not too quickly. I was fortunate on two accounts. First, Dae-Jong had done a good enough job acting obviously suspicious that all of his tails decided it was worth going down and questioning the workers. Second, I recognized one of the tails as Elder Sang-Jun's secretary.

    There was some friction when the tails from various rival factions encountered one another, but after a few minutes, they decided to simply ignore each other and work separately. They spread through the warehouse and accompanying stables, grabbing workers as they passed and asking if they'd seen anything unusual. After about half an hour, the first of them started getting frustrated, deciding there was nothing to find after all. Sang-Jun's secretary seemed a bit more determined, so I waited a few minutes longer before making my move.

    "E-excuse me, honored Lord," I said, keeping my head down and doing my best to put a tremble in my voice. I'd exchanged my Sect uniform for the plain clothes the workers were wearing, and since I didn't need to pass through any security scripts, I'd also altered my appearance with illusions.

    He turned from the last pair of workers he'd been questioning. "Yes?"

    "They said- they said you're asking if anyone saw anything unusual or out of place?" I asked with a deep bow.

    "That's right. You have something to share?"

    "I- I'm not sure? I thought I saw something, but it was only for a moment, I thought I might have just made it up."

    "It's alright," he said encouragingly. "Just tell me what you saw, as well as you remember it."

    "I… I thought I saw a woman. I don't think anyone else saw her, he'd just sent everyone away, but I was unloading another wagon a little ways away. I- I'm not sure where she came from, she was just sort of there all of a sudden, and then she jumped into the back of the wagon."

    "A woman?" asked the Underlord sharply. "Describe her."

    "She was wearing a gray cloak, and she had black hair," I said. "I'm sorry, that's all I saw. Like I said, she was only there for a moment."

    "I see," he said. "That is most helpful. Speak to no one else about what you saw. For your trouble." He flipped me a scale. I caught it, bowing deeply and thanking him, but he was already gone, charging off back towards the sect. I quickly made myself scarce as well, becoming invisible once again and following. I paused before reentering the sect and forged another simulacrum. I needed a way to keep watch outside so I'd know when to strike; if everything went according to plan, the next time I left the sect would be the last time.

    Inside, my scarabs caught up to the Underlord just as he was approaching Sang-Jun's suite. One followed inside, observing as he made his report to the Archlord. When he was finished, Sang-Jun frowned. "No one else could verify the Lowgold's claim?" he asked.
    "No, Elder," said the Underlord, shaking his head. "At least, none that I questioned. I thought it was more important to inform you immediately, rather than spending more time verifying it."

    "You did the right thing. Even if the source isn't reliable, it explains too much to discount. Why Dae-Jong's behavior changed so radically, why he would take a wagon at all when he'd travel far faster on his own. Impressive, that he managed to fake Min-Su's death thoroughly enough to fool Tae-Seong. But I am slightly surprised that he'd give up on obtaining the Four Phase Elixir for her. I suppose…" His eyes suddenly widened. "Damnation. He's planning to defect."

    "Defect?" asked the Underlord.

    Sang-Jun nodded. "Before he left, he took a great deal of information from the archives. Maps, outpost locations, records of sacred beast migration routes and concentrations of aura. All things that could be at least conceivably justified if he really was intending to hunt a peakback mammoth, but also information which would be incredibly valuable to the barbarians. He must be hoping he can trade it to them for a Four Phase Elixir, or some other means of healing Min-Su."

    "Would he really dare betray the Great Sage like that?" asked the Underlord.
    "It's happened before, and in similar circumstances," said Sang-Jun grimly.

    "We must warn the Great Sage immediately!"

    "No," said Sang-Jun, holding up a hand. "We have no proof, and I am not currently in her favor. I'll stop him myself. He can't have gone too far yet. If Min-Su really is alive, that will be all the proof I need." He stood. "I need to leave immediately to have a chance of catching him. Keep an eye on Tae-Seong. He's planning something."

    "As you command, Elder," said the Underlord, bowing as Sang-Jun swept out the door.

    I nodded in satisfaction. Getting Sang-Jun out of the city wasn't absolutely critical, but it would make things significantly easier. From a purely practical standpoint, it would have been even better if he'd told the Moon Sage and she'd gone with him; in that case I could have struck immediately with almost no risk. But the Sage also stood a much better chance of actually finding Dae-Jong. I'd told him to abandon the wagon and hide as soon as he was out of sight of the city, which should keep him safe as long as it was only an Archlord looking for him, especially if Sang-Jun assumed that he'd abandoned the wagon to move faster. My oath didn't extend to protecting Dae-Jong, but I'd still rather not have his death on my conscience.

    Now the only thing left to do was wait, and potentially poke a thing or two if it took too long. That ended up not being necessary. Around an hour later, Tae-Seong left the sect as well. My simulacrum outside followed him from a distance as he made his way to a large tower near the middle of the city, a building he seemingly owned. He made his way up to the top floor, to a room sealed with enough scripts that I didn't bother trying slip any scarabs into it. For another couple of hours, nothing happened, and I began to worry that I might have actually overestimated him. If he only managed to cripple himself, the Moon Sage would still likely be distracted, but not to the degree I needed. Then the side of the tower exploded, and an Archlord-level remnant burst forth.

    Advancing to Sage was generally considered to be more difficult than to Herald. An Icon couldn't be forced, whereas the Herald advancement could be attempted at will. The tradeoff was that Herald was by far the most dangerous advancement a sacred artist could make, and failing often had spectacularly bad results. Manifesting your own remnant and then fusing it together with your physical body required absolutely perfect control over your spirit, and any mistake could permanently cripple you. But even more important was the will to subdue your remnant and force it to obey. A remnant was a twisted reflection of the sacred artist who produced it, and it rarely had any interest in allowing itself to be subsumed.

    I had, of course, forgotten to mention that danger in the scroll I'd arranged for Tae-Seong to find. I'd given highly detailed instructions on the process of manifesting your remnant, as detailed as I could without having undergone the process myself, but I'd left out entirely the fact that it would then need to be subdued in a contest of will. I'd slipped in other lies, as well: That strong aura would interfere with the process, prompting him to leave the sect rather than attempting the advancement in his own rooms, and that the process could take multiple days, prompting him to begin as soon as possible so as to finish before the Rite of Adoration.

    I hadn't known exactly what his remnant would do when he failed to control it, but given his obsession with the Moon Sage, I'd had my suspicions. It seemed Tae-Seong must have had quite a bit of buried resentment, because the first thing the remnant did was reduce a nearby statue of the Moon Sage to rubble with a thick beam of dark blue madra, along with the tower behind the statue. People screamed and fled as the tower began collapsing, but the spirit ignored them, instead searching for more statues to destroy. As for Tae-Seong himself, a scarab found him slumped against the wall of the room he'd attempted to advance in, still alive but heavily wounded. He'd no doubt tried to fight his remnant conventionally, an impossible proposition; your remnant was your spirit. As long as it was outside your body, you couldn't use techniques.

    I was already moving, becoming invisible and hurrying towards the upper levels of the sect. Everyone in the city would be able to sense the tantrum the remnant was throwing, even the Golds. It took less than a minute for the Moon Sage to react. She stepped out of space near the roof of the cavern where it was rampaging. As soon as it sensed her, it flung itself at her with an inhuman screech, lashing out with another beam. "Stop," she commanded. The spirit faltered in the air for a few moments, but then threw her working off. Still, its technique had been weakened sufficiently that the Sage deflected it easily.

    It wasn't deterred, rushing towards her again and unleashing a barrage of ice crystals, but there was only one way the fight could go. The Moon Sage was pulling her punches for now, maybe to avoid collateral damage or maybe to avoid damaging the remnant itself and crippling Tae-Seong's spirit, but I couldn't count on that continuing. My simulacrum inside the vault had acted the moment the Sage had appeared, unleashing Dream Parasites at specific points in the security scripts. It only had the power of a Truegold and the scripts were Archlord level, but they'd never been meant to defend against an attack from inside the vault. It still took almost a minute to disrupt the flow of madra enough for the scripts to fail, but that gave me time to get closer.

    The security was multi-layered, defending against every conceivable kind of attack. It was strongest at the vault's door, so that wasn't the part I'd sabotaged. Instead, I'd disabled the scripts blocking spacial travel into or out of the vault. The moment the scripts fell, I said, "Move." I vanished, then reappeared an instant later inside the vault. It had been a short jump, just a few hundred feet, and I quickly checked to see if the Moon Sage had sensed anything. She hadn't.

    My first priority was retrieving the Grand Oath Array. I found it in a case near the back of the vault. Each case had additional security scripts on it, not nearly as strong as the ones protecting the vault itself, but nothing to scoff at. It opened at my command, and I retrieved my objective, allowing myself a small smirk as I tucked it into my void key. Next was the Four Phase Elixir, so I could fulfill my oath. I considered the Moon Sage for a moment, finding her still struggling to contain the remnant without damaging it. Could I afford to get greedy? I thought I could.

    I opened my link to Hera a touch wider, calling on her greater ability to manipulate aura. I burned a significant amount of soulfire, carefully exerting control over force aura in the room, then released it. Every glass case in the vault except for the ones containing remnants shattered. I manipulated wind aura, and treasures began flying into my open void key.

    On the other side of the city, the Moon Sage, suddenly jerked, whirling to look back at the sect. I felt her spiritual senses pass over me, dulled by the defenses on the sect and the vault, but she'd still clearly realized that something was amiss. She couldn't deal with it immediately, though, because the remnant took advantage of her brief inattention to nearly nail her with another Striker technique.

    Snarling, she produced a greatsword from her soulspace, its blade seemingly made of dark ice. "Enough!" she said, and the remnant again staggered in the air. The blade of her sword glowed blue with an Enforcer technique, and she swung it one-handed, sending a crescent of blue madra slamming into the remnant. That wasn't enough to kill it, but chunks of madra were blasted out of it, dissolving back into aura. She darted forwards, striking it directly with a furious series of slashes until it was reduced to a quivering, shredded lump of madra. A hole opened in the air next to her, either a void key or a true void space, and she shoved what was left of the remnant into it. Then she vanished.

    That had been a quicker reaction than I'd hoped for. I'd only just finished closing my void key with the contents of her vault inside when she appeared outside the vault door. Fortunately, she hadn't realized the spacial defenses were down, and so had to wait for the door to open. That bought me a handful of seconds to implement a contingency. My simulacrum was still next to me, so I reached out and modified it, changing its appearance. I left it near the back of the vault, visible, but with its nature veiled as strongly as I could. Then I darted away to the side and focused my authority on my Umbral Mantle just as the vault finished opening.

    As I'd hoped, the Moon Sage immediately sensed my simulacrum and didn't bother scanning the vault more thoroughly. "Who dares to-" she began as she rushed forwards, only to cut off abruptly as she caught sight of my simulacrum. "You."

    The hulking figure of Northstrider crossed his arms. "Dark Moon. I have come to reclaim what you stole from me."

    The Moon Sage sneered. "I see your arrogance has only grown since the last time you inflicted your presence on us. If you think you can assault me here, in the very heart of my power, I will be happy to correct you." A technique formed above her, an image of the moon forged of ice and shadow madra, and the temperature in the vault plummeted until drops of liquid oxygen began condensing on the walls.

    The spiritual pressure of the technique alone was enough to make my simulacrum begin unraveling, but I held it stable for a few more seconds. "As always, you think far too much of yourself. Be grateful your punishment is so light."

    She paused, narrowing her eyes. "You are not actually here. This is nothing but an illusion."

    "I have already retrieved what I came for. I leave you with this warning: Lay your hands on my belongings a second time, and I will not be so merciful."

    "Vanish," I whispered, and my simulacrum popped out of existence, leaving no trace for her to examine. Now, she finally thought to scan the vault more thoroughly, but I was already gone, slipping out the door she'd left open behind her. Her attention fixed on one corner, where a scarab was still lurking; I quickly made it vanish as well. She expanded her scan, catching another scarab in the hallway outside, but it too vanished the moment she turned towards it.

    "Reveal yourself!" she snarled, her senses expanding to cover the entire sect. If she'd known where to look, she might have managed to see through my Umbral Mantle, but instead all she found was a few dozen more scarabs. Each of them vanished the moment she tried to examine them further. Her frustration finally boiled over, and she released a scream of rage. Golds several levels lower huddled against each other as the pressure of her anger pushed down on them and the temperature dropped noticeably.

    The sect was in upheaval, parties of Lords and Truegolds still dashing out to deal with the chaos caused by Tae-Seong's remnant. It was easy to slip out unnoticed. I flew swiftly, back to the room where I'd left Min-Su. She jumped slightly when I entered. "What in heaven's name is going on out there?"

    "Just a small distraction," I said dryly. She stared when I opened my void key, and almost failed to catch the Four Phase Elixir when I tossed it to her. "That's for you. I suggest you take it now. We need to leave as soon as possible."

    "How- ah, I… I'm deeply grateful, of course, but wouldn't it be better to wait? If we're leaving, won't taking it now slow me down?"

    "I'll be carrying you anyway," I replied. Mainly, I just wanted to fulfill the conditions of my soul oath as quickly as possible.

    "...Oh. Um, alright then." She uncorked the elixir, hesitated for a moment, and then downed it. "You know, this feels a little less climactic than I'd imagined."

    "Life is like that sometimes," I said. "Are you ready?"

    "...I guess I am."

    I made both of us invisible, and she followed me out of the room. Once outside, I picked her up, then let my wings out and took off. I rushed through the city in just a few minutes. There wasn't a whole lot that could go wrong at this point, but best not to tempt fate. As soon as I passed through the city's main gate, I felt my oath loosen its grip on my spirit. I was still going to take Dae-Jong and Min-Su with me back to Moongrave, of course, but I was glad not to have that axe hanging over my head.

    Outside the city, little had changed. An aurora was still flickering overhead, and the wind was still bitingly cold. I headed for a mountain sixty or so miles from the city's entrance, where Dae-Jong had said he'd wait. I circled the mountain a couple of times, searching it with my scarabs, but didn't see anything. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing; if he'd hidden himself well enough that I couldn't find him, Sang-Jun probably hadn't either.

    I landed near the mountain's peak, became visible, and flared my spirit slightly, just enough to hopefully draw Dae-Jong's attention if he was within a few miles. A few seconds later, I felt a spiritual scan pass over me. A couple of miles down the mountain's slope, a pile of snow was pushed outwards, revealing a shallow cave with a rough script circle for concealment carved in the floor. I picked Min-Su back up again and flew down to meet him.

    The moment we landed, the two of them embraced. "Your spirit," said Dae-Jong. "It's already healing. She really did it, then?"

    "She did," said Min-Su. "I can still barely believe it. Everything happened so fast."

    "How are you feeling?"

    "Like I've got pins and needles in my entire body," she said, grimacing slightly. "But that's a small enough price."

    "I assume you didn't have any trouble?" I asked Dae-Jong.

    "None," he said, shaking his head. "And you?"

    "A couple of close calls, but nothing I couldn't handle."

    He nodded. "What now? You said you could take us somewhere beyond the Moon Sage's reach, but you never said where we're going or how we're getting there."

    I smirked slightly, pulled a gatekey from my soulspace, and said, "Open." Although I didn't have the skill to create a portal all the way back to Moongrave on my own, a well-made gatekey could be used even by a Gold. Modifying it to take more than one person was now within my capabilities. A swirling black portal appeared in front of me.

    "Amazing," whispered Min-Su. "The outside world must be an incredible place."

    "I suppose it is, in some ways," I said. "Now-" I froze, my gaze snapping to the side. "Ah. That's inconvenient. The two of you, go through now. Tell whoever's on the other side that there's trouble."

    "What-" began Min-Su, but Dae-Jong grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards the portal, having sensed the same thing I had.

    "No time. I'll explain-" He cut off as the portal swallowed them.

    I turned, looking up towards a rocky outcropping a few hundred feet away. "Impressive. Not very many people can hide from me. Since you gave up the advantage of surprise, I assume you want to talk?"

    Sang-Jun jumped down from the outcropping, flying forwards and landing a dozen feet away. I'd likely only missed him because his Enforcer technique blended in perfectly with the abundant ice aura, but then, that was probably the entire point. "Curious," he said. "When Dae-Jong hid instead of fleeing, I knew he had to be working with an outsider, but I was still expecting a local, and I certainly wasn't expecting a Sage. One of Malice's, I assume? I wasn't aware the Akura clan had produced a second Sage. Why have you violated the territory of the Dark Moon Sect?"

    This was less than ideal. I could escape easily; the portal was still open, and Sang-Jun couldn't stop me from just diving through. But now that he'd identified me, I couldn't let him report back to the Moon Sage. And even if I could kill him in my weakened state, I certainly couldn't do it without her noticing. I did have some advantages, though. He clearly didn't realize I wasn't a full-strength Archlady, or he wouldn't have been nearly so cautious. He also didn't seem to be aware that Malice was dead. I'd have to play this by ear, and play for time.

    "You seem quite a bit better informed than the rest of your sect," I noted. "I'm surprised you'd choose to stay, given the way the Moon Sage treats you."

    He raised an eyebrow. "And how do you think she treats me?"

    "Like a toy," I replied honestly. "Something she plays with until she gets bored."

    He sighed. "I suppose you're not entirely incorrect," he said. "But she does love me, as much as she's capable of it. I accepted centuries ago that I would never be enough for her. Tae-Seong will leave one day too, when he finally realizes the same thing, just like all the others have over the years. She always comes back to me in the end, because I'm the only one who always stays."

    "And that's enough for you?" I asked skeptically.

    "The good times are enough to make up for the bad," he said with a shrug. "And even the bad times aren't so bad anymore, as long as she's happy."

    Of all the things I'd expected to feel for him, pity hadn't been one of them. "You deserve better than that," I said quietly. "Everyone does."

    "I appreciate your concern," he said, smiling slightly. "And I appreciate you helping Dae-Jong and Min-Su. It isn't good for her, when she hurts her disciples. But I still love her. A jewel is beautiful because of its sharp edges, not in spite of them."

    "Do you love her enough to die for her?"

    "If I must. But you are still young, I think. Sage or not, I don't believe you can kill me before she arrives. So I repeat my question: Why have you violated our territory? I doubt you came all this way just to recruit an Overlord, even one of significant talent. If you took something from the sect, return it now, and I will swear not to reveal your presence here. But if you've done permanent harm, I will have no choice but to tell her who was responsible."

    "I see," I said, nodding. "Then I'm sorry. I wish I could give you a happier ending."

    He narrowed his eyes, tensing, but the attack didn't come from me. He suddenly doubled over, clutching his head as his mind was assaulted by hallucinations of overwhelming terror. He immediately began trying to throw the technique off, but I said "Succumb," reinforcing it with additional authority. Perhaps another Archlord as old as he was might have been able to resist even that, at least in the bastion of his own mind, but Sang-Jun's will had been stunted by his long subjugation to the Moon Sage. He fell to his knees, still clutching his head.

    Charity faded into visibility behind him, holding her silver sickle with both hands. She slashed it down, and Sang-Jun's head tumbled to the ground, his body slumping sideways. Her mastery of space was significantly greater than mine, enough to both reverse the direction of the portal I'd opened and slip through it without being noticed. "Excellent timing," I said.

    She nodded. "I take it there were no further complications?" She opened her void space as she spoke, retrieving a construct to contain the rising remnant.

    "None. I have the Grand Oath Array, and most of their other Archlord-level treasure, as well."

    Charity quirked a small smile. "Exceeding expectations as usual, I see. I'll be interested to hear the entire story when there's time. For now, there's still work to be done. We should leave before we strain your gatekey further."
     
  • Threadmarks
    • I wasn't expecting for this chapter to make me feel the way I do, but Sang-Jun's co-dependency was surprisingly sad.

    Seeing Taylor be smart and sneaky was awesome, though.
     
    Mission Quite Possible.

    That Sage isn't being helpful to all the rest, and now she's basically crippled for a few decades with the loss of her loot and her Left and Right Hands. Just because you ignore the rest of the world doesn't mean the rest of the world will ignore you.
     
    derivativeoflife said:
    The Moon Sage practiced an ice and shadow Path, as did the majority of her sect. They were notable for their isolationism and their intense dislike of Monarchs poking their noses into Iceflower, which was why we hadn't approached them directly. Even if we'd gotten them to negotiate at all, no certain thing, they would have extorted us for all we were worth, and the clan simply couldn't afford that kind of expense anymore. So instead, I was going back to my roots and robbing them.

    If I'd been at full strength, and especially if I'd been an Archlord, I might have been able to simply walk through their defenses entirely unnoticed. Unfortunately, I couldn't justify spending as much time recovering as I would have liked. As it stood, I was currently somewhere around the level of a very strong Underlord or a very weak Overlord. My authority was also somewhat more difficult to wield than it had been before the battle. At a guess, I was around the level I'd been at immediately after manifesting the Shadow Icon, or maybe slightly weaker. That meant I was going to need to get creative.
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    Basically she's on a money and power limit which is forcing her to work harder which is how we know she'll make better results.

    derivativeoflife said:
    I stepped out of the portal on a barren mountainside. It had been mostly Charity's work, but Hera and I had helped enough that she was able to send us all the way to Iceflower in a single step. I hadn't had the chance to really experiment with spacial manipulation since the battle; it felt like my understanding had grown much deeper, but I was fairly sure most of that understanding was actually Hera's. I needed to understand it in my own terms if I wanted to grow my authority.
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    Basically she can borrow Hera's understanding to grow her own.

    derivativeoflife said:
    I took a moment to take in the stark landscape, and the vivid aurora flickering overhead. The wind was dense with ice aura and bitterly cold, cold enough that a baseline human would have frozen to death in minutes, but Lords could endure harsher conditions than this. Despite everything, it meant something to be able to stand here like this, appreciate this sight in a way that I never would have been able to in my first life.

    [CURIOSITY]

    "It's beautiful, isn't it?" I replied out loud. Despite her growth, beauty was a concept that Hera had yet to grasp; she saw value only in utility. I opened our link wider, letting her share my experience of it.

    [IMPATIENCE]

    "Yes, I suppose we should get moving," I said, my lips quirking slightly up. I narrowed our link so she wouldn't catch me comparing her to a kid who took one look at the Grand Canyon and asked if they could go now.
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    Hera likes the sightseeing but knows that business must be done.

    derivativeoflife said:
    I stayed invisible for now, letting my scarabs filter out into the city. The clan's knowledge about the Dark Moon Sect was fairly sparse, so my first order of business was gathering information. With my new, closer relationship with Hera, I found that my scarabs had changed slightly. She'd always been the one controlling them and processing their senses, but previously she'd needed to simulate countless copies of my own mind to actually interpret and understand what they saw. Now, she had at least some capability to judge for herself which details could be safely ignored, and which she should draw my attention to. That was especially true when we were looking for something she was deeply familiar with: conflict.
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    Good to see that Hera is able to make judgement calls.

    derivativeoflife said:
    I had no confidence in my ability to rob the Moon Sage under her nose, which meant I was going to need a distraction. I needed to at least get her to the opposite end of the city, or preferably out of it entirely. That meant I needed to find a mess which was already on the verge of boiling over, something big enough that the Sage would decide to intervene personally.

    As with any major city on Cradle, thousands of lesser clans, sects, and schools sheltered under the protection of the Dark Moon Sect, ranging in size from a few hundred Golds to million-strong organizations led by Overlords. The competition between them was endless, each constantly trying to increase their own power and influence at the expense of their rivals'. Just a few minutes after arriving, I saw a battle break out in the street between a dozen flame artists over which of their clans had the right to provide heating services to the neighborhood in question. It ended quickly, one side retreating with minor injuries. That sort of scuffle was commonplace, not nearly enough to draw the attention of any higher authorities. I was going to need to spark something much larger.

    I'd dealt with many hundreds of sects, schools, and clans over the years, from tiny backwaters ruling over a single village to Monarch factions claiming entire continents. All of them had certain similarities, but they also always had their own quirks. As I flew through the city in a rough zig zag, I couldn't help but notice the number of statues, all of the same woman; her arms were spread wide, and an image of the moon hung behind her head like a halo. It wasn't entirely unusual for sacred artists at the highest levels to be worshiped as gods, but it was rather unusual for them to actually encourage that worship. Malice had never had much use for it, so long as everyone obeyed her. The Moon Sage, on the other hand, clearly seemed to enjoy it. Every cavern had multiple structures which couldn't be described as anything but churches or cathedrals, each of them centered around one of those statues.
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    Taylor is a social expert and has a deep understanding of people, societies and power structures. Also looks like the Moon Sage has an ego.

    derivativeoflife said:
    I cracked two of the scales I'd stored in my soulspace, one of shadow madra and one of ice. I wove the two types together, careful to keep it separate from my own madra as I guided it down my channels, then injected the mixed madra into the token along with a sliver of soulfire. The token lit up with a slight glow, active but useless; even a casual inspection would reveal it as a forgery. Then I said "Mine," and the madra inside shifted slightly, turning from a simple mix of ice and shadow madra into true Dark Moon madra. Some of it gained potency, taking on the power of an Underlord, while the rest became more diffuse, weakening to a power appropriate for a Lowgold.

    Still invisible, I descended back down the tower until I found an empty room where I wouldn't be disturbed. Retrieving my stolen outfit, I changed into it and stored my original clothes in my void key. I dropped my Enforcer technique and withdrew my wings, then focused my authority on my own spirit and said, "Conceal." A powerful veil covered my core, strong enough that removing it would take a moment of real effort on my part. Next, I broke more of the scales in my soulspace and began carefully replacing all of the madra in my channels. The foreign ice madra was unpleasantly cold, but it wouldn't actually do any harm unless I tried to take it into my core. I wouldn't be able to use any of my own techniques until I expelled it, but it would make me completely indistinguishable from a Dark Moon Lowgold to anyone below the Sage herself.
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    Damn that's an incredibly impressive cover, Taylor has gotten good at her specality.

    derivativeoflife said:
    "It is," he agreed, nodding. "But let me offer you a piece of advice. The Great Sage is divine," he paused to make seemingly religious gesture, making a circle with his thumb and finger and putting on his forehead, then continued. "But Her disciples are still only human. Some of them, ah, haven't cast aside their worldly concerns as much as they should have."

    "Careful with that kind of talk," said the Lowgold behind me. "Her Chosen are an extension of Her will. You're not suggesting She chose incorrectly, are you?"

    "Of course not," said Pyong-Ho. "But the aspirants haven't been chosen yet, have they? Most of them won't prove themselves worthy, and they're the ones you have to watch out for. The best thing you can do inside is keep your head down and do your job as well as you can."

    The other Lowgold grunted, but didn't argue the point. It was good advice. It sounded like the Dark Moon sect was similar to other sects at least in this regard, which meant the large majority of inner disciples who failed to reach Underlord would eventually be kicked back out to the outer sect to make room for a fresh crop of potential talent. That type tended to be the most eager to use and abuse their status while they still could. Of course, I had a completely different reason to want to avoid attention, but it was convenient cover. "O-okay," I said, using my hood to hide my expression so I wouldn't need to fake that as well.
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    Man is trying to be kind.

    derivativeoflife said:
    I began carefully letting my scarabs out one at a time. Insects weren't exactly abundant in the frigid environment, so they'd be immediately out of place to anyone who noticed them. On the other hand, they were extremely difficult to notice visually or spiritually, more so than their small size alone could account for. I'd have to be cautious with them around Archlords, and particularly the Sage herself, but I doubted anyone below that posed much of a threat as long as I was circumspect.
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    She knows how to use her bugs really well and carefully in a wide variety of circumstances.

    derivativeoflife said:
    I was looking for two things. First and most importantly, I needed to know exactly where my target actually was. The worst case scenario would be if the Sage actually kept the Grand Oath Array in her own rooms. I wasn't willing to scout out her rooms without knowing for sure that she wasn't there, but I located a promising lead just below, in the Archlord level. The heavy metal door was sealed with scripts even more powerful than the ones on the front gate, the most secure vault in the entire complex.
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    Grand Oath Array is the loot good to know.

    derivativeoflife said:
    The people here were nearly as cut off from the outside world as Lindon's people had been in the suppression field. They genuinely believed that the Moon Sage was the most powerful being in existence. They'd been taught that the world outside their city was nothing but an endless expanse of frozen wastes, inhabited only by barbarians, and that she'd created the sole bastion of civilization. At least some of the higher-level Lords had to know better, and I was curious to see exactly where the cutoff was between the true believers and the cynical manipulators. At least it made things a bit easier for me; since no one was going to recognize me from the Uncrowned King Tournament, I wouldn't have to bother concealing my features, which were close enough to the norm to not stand out.

    The Dark Moon Sect still had external enemies, of course, the "barbarians" who were no doubt actually disciples of other powerful sects elsewhere in Iceflower. But with the vast majority of their territory's population residing in a single city, border skirmishes were surprisingly rare, only breaking out when two scavenging parties happened to stumble on the same cache of natural treasures or valuable remnants simultaneously. It seemed that in the absence of major outside threats, the sect had directed most of its hostility inwards.
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    Man she's really playing god with these people.

    derivativeoflife said:
    Eventually, the boy once again stammered out a confession for a variety of supposed crimes. None of the other disciples looked at all surprised at what they were seeing, suggesting it was a regular occurrence. But the public humiliation still wasn't the end of the ordeal; the boy was next given a choice between having his "sins" purged or being dishonorably expelled from the sect, something which would condemn him to a life of poverty at best. When he obviously chose the first option, he was shut in a tiny cell which was then flooded with ice aura, dropping the temperature well below what his Enforcer technique and Iron body could protect him from. Within a minute, he was curled up on the floor, shivering violently.

    He was let out after around twenty minutes, but that was still plenty of time for frostbite and hypothermia to begin setting in. The moment he was let out, he was met by applause and praise, the same group of disciples who had accused him now congratulating him on overcoming his weakness. He was then given a low-quality healing pill which would reverse the damage he'd suffered slowly and painfully, and sent off to his room to meditate on what he'd learned.

    It was a struggle not to interfere, even though there was nothing I could realistically do. On the upside, I now had a much better idea of how to approach things. It was never hard to start a conflict in an environment where everyone was already looking for an excuse to turn on each other. And although the Moon Sage's indoctrination was no doubt highly effective, there would inevitably be a few people who held onto bitterness and resentment. I had yet to catch a glimpse of the Sage herself, but I found myself wondering just what kind of personality would create something like this.
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    It's a horrible horrible system that Taylor hates and she's going to use it's faults against itself.

    derivativeoflife said:
    Apparently she hadn't found any of the offerings worthy for the last few years. The Dark Moon Sect had two Archlords, both of whom were seemingly always allowed to audition. But this year, a young Overlord named Dae-Jung had swept his bracket, defeating opponents decades his senior, and caught the Sage's eye. I located him in the sect's archives, pouring over dream tablets. It was easy to see that his talent wasn't the only thing which had drawn the Sage's attention; he had the kind of chiseled, rugged face which wouldn't have looked at all out of place on a magazine cover.
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    Ah so it's like that.

    derivativeoflife said:
    It took me only a couple of minutes to locate his office. Some of the cabinets were locked and sealed by scripts, but the ones containing records weren't; on Cradle, the only information considered to have any real value were secrets on the Sacred Arts. Unfortunately, there was a lot to go through, and I only had one scarab. It crawled through reams of paper detailing sect membership, contracts with lesser sects and clans, ledgers of supplies purchased, and more.
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    These people have no sense of the value of information, Taylor very much understands it.

    derivativeoflife said:
    "Then what are we supposed to do?" he asked. "I hoped if I could thread the needle perfectly, give Her an offering good enough to avoid offending Her but mediocre enough to bore Her, She'd lose interest. But now if I give an offering at all, Tae-Seong might hurt you anyway."

    She turned away, crossing her arms. "I'll figure something out," she said. "You should give the Great Sage the best offering you possibly can. This is the chance of a lifetime, something everyone dreams about. Don't… don't throw it away for my sake. It's better for both of us if you just let me go. I'm only holding you back."

    "Now you're the one being an idiot," said Dae-Jong gently. "You know I only fought so hard in the first place for your sake. I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it." He paused for a moment, but she didn't answer. "How are you feeling?" he asked eventually.

    "Fine," she said, shrugging.

    "The pain hasn't gotten any worse?"

    She shook her head. "It's fine," she said again. "I'm used to it."

    "You shouldn't have to get used to it. I will find a way to get the Four Phase Elixir for you."
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    Ah cripple love interest a classic.

    derivativeoflife said:
    He slipped back out after making sure the hallway was still empty. I watched him go, considering. Although the Sage had yet to reveal herself, I'd already learned a great deal about her. To put it plainly, she was an utter narcissistic bitch. I strongly suspected that she would pick Dae-Jong as her consort unless his offering was outright offensive. The offerings were nothing but a way to stroke her ego; what she really wanted was a new toy to play with, having grown bored of the two she already had. The fact that he was in love with someone else probably only made him more desirable in her eyes. She wanted the validation of seeing him leave his partner for her, and I doubted she'd take it well if he refused.
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    She's that kind of person the god stuff and playing games with lives kinda informed it but the NRT fetish made it even more obvious.

    derivativeoflife said:
    Tae-Seong, on the other hand, clearly had greater ambitions. I watched him spend a couple of hours cycling, hardly unusual, except that he would periodically make odd statements aloud. Most of them had something to do with the Moon Sage, and several of them made me physically cringe. It reminded me of a peak Truegold struggling to find their Underlord revelation, but he was already an Archlord, so that made no sense. I also noticed he kept moving his madra in different patterns, as though trying to work out a new technique.

    Only when he rose with a scowl and retrieved a scroll from a sealed safe did I realize what was going on. Tae-Seong was trying to advance to Herald, but didn't know how. He must have assumed it was the same process as the Lord advancements, requiring a revelation. The Moon Sage certainly had to know, so the fact that she hadn't told him was revealing. She didn't want him to advance. She wanted a partner she could control, not an equal who could potentially threaten her power. He seemed completely oblivious to that, and was convinced that she would make him her permanent consort if he could advance. Another piece of my plan slotted into place.
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    Someone that arrogant will tolerate no rivals or equals.

    derivativeoflife said:
    "A bit cramped," I remarked, "But I supposed I've slept in worse."

    He'd already whirled before the first word was fully out of my mouth, preparing a technique. Normally that would have drawn the attention of every sacred artist within a mile, but I'd already veiled the room in my authority. Finding me leaning back in one of the chairs with my legs crossed, he refrained from actually releasing the technique, which would have been much more difficult to hide. It might have been safer to avoid surprising him, but I wanted to set the tone for the conversation immediately.
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    Taylor really knows how to be scary.

    derivativeoflife said:
    "Outsiders are blasphemers against the Great Sage." It sounded like a reflexive response.

    I chuckled slightly. "I intend to do a lot more than just blaspheme against the Moon Sage."

    "...Whatever madness this is, I want no part in it," said Dae-Jong. "The Great Sage's will is absolute. Anyone who defies Her dies."

    "The Moon Sage," I corrected him. "There's nothing particularly great about her. She's done nothing but hide in her little corner and play god for centuries. The Winter Sage could probably thrash her with one hand behind her back."

    "The… Winter Sage?" he repeated, looking thoroughly lost. "What…" He trailed off, unsure of what question to even ask.

    I leaned forward, becoming more serious. "Sages are neither unique, nor the most powerful beings in the world. You've been lied to your entire life. Tell me, do you trust the Moon Sage? Does she act as though she has your best interests at heart? Or does she act like a cruel, petty tyrant with too much power?"

    That one struck home at least slightly. "This… This is insanity. I shouldn't even be listening. Is this some kind of test?"

    "I suppose I am asking you to take a lot on faith," I mused. "Let me do you a little favor. This room would look much nicer without this ugly table, don't you think? Vanish."

    The table obediently winked out of existence. Dae Jong stared at me, his mouth actually hanging slightly open. "You… You can work miracles like She can. How?"

    "I told you. Sages are not unique."
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    Out here shattering this man's world view.

    derivativeoflife said:
    When I was finished, he stared at me for several long seconds, then shook his head. "Even if I believed everything you've told me, this is… this is too much. You're asking me to put both of our lives in your hands. How can I trust you when I barely met you five minutes ago, and you've openly declared yourself to be an enemy of my sect?"

    I nodded. I hadn't expected things to be quite so easy. "I swear on my soul that if you accomplish the task I've given you, I will protect Min-Su until she can safely leave the city, and see her spiritual injury healed." Soul oaths were always risky things, but I'd worded this one carefully to minimize any factors out of my control. The oath settled lightly on my spirit, waiting for him to complete it.

    "...Why?" he asked after several seconds.

    "Mostly because I'm on a tight schedule, and the most efficient way to accomplish my goal here is with your help. But also because I find what the Moon Sage is doing abhorrent, and I have the opportunity to do something about it."

    "And if I still refuse?"

    I'd never really considered myself a people person, but if there was one side of human interaction that I understood, it was the darker side. Any reassurance I offered that of course he'd be free to go would have rang false, because it was. "If you refuse, then I'll require a soul oath from you not to reveal my plans or my presence here. If you refuse that as well, then I'll have no choice but to kill you. But I'd very much prefer if it didn't come to that." Ironically, I was actually bluffing; I couldn't kill him without alerting the entire city to my presence, which would make it pointless anyway.
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    Taylor really does the whole kind but ruthlessly pragmatic thing really well and it gets her what she wants.

    derivativeoflife said:
    The Archlord nodded slowly. "I could do as you've asked," he said. "But are you sure this is the course of action you wish to take? Perhaps I've grown sentimental, but it brings me no pleasure to see a promising young sacred artist ruin their future even under these circumstances. The Great Sage has taken Overlords as her consort before, and every time she has tired of them within a few years at most. I understand your position, but consider whether it might not be better to simply have patience rather than doing something drastic. Min-Su will forgive you in time, I'm sure."

    That was surprisingly decent of him, in a twisted sort of way. I'd learned that there were two ways to open the vault: the Sage could open it herself, of course, but the Archlords could only open it if they were together. It was a security measure based on the fact that they hated each other too much to collaborate, but I was hoping they would set that aside if it meant removing a third rival from the picture.
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    Man is trying to be kind in his own messed up way.

    derivativeoflife said:
    "You have pleased me," she said, tracing his jaw with her finger before letting it drop. "Your act was masterful. Even I briefly believed that you were doing something exceptionally foolish. I am glad to see that your devotion to me is in fact stronger than ever. But tell me, why bother with the deception at all? As amusing as it was, I would have gladly opened the vault for you had you simply come to me and told me what you desired."

    "I wanted to accomplish it without needing aid from you, Great Sage. I want to prove myself worthy to be your consort. And, ah…"

    "You wished to humiliate your rivals?" she asked, laughing musically. "Well, consider your goal accomplished. Now, shall we retrieve your prize?" The case containing the sword opened at her touch. She removed the sword, handing it to him. "A fine choice. It suits you."

    "Thank you, Great Sage," he said, bowing. "Forgive me, but I have much work left to do, if I hope to present you with a suitable offering."

    "Well, I suppose I can wait a little longer," she said, pouting. She moved closer, almost whispering in his ear. "Do be sure to impress me, won't you? I promise you will be… well rewarded."

    "Of… of course," said Dae-Jong, swallowing.

    She laughed again. "Well, come along then. A treasure you might be, but I have no desire to see you locked in a vault." She led him out, sealing the door behind her. "I look forward to our next meeting," she said, before turning and walking off towards the sect's highest level, making sure to put a little extra sway in her hips.
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    Props to the man for his acting, also damn that lady is creepy.

    derivativeoflife said:
    Tae-Seong glared for a moment longer, then stepped aside and jerked his head, allowing the Underlord to enter. "Well, what are you waiting for?"

    "Of course, Elder," said the trembling Underlord, producing the scroll from his soulspace and handing it over.

    The Archlord unrolled the scroll and glanced over it, then went back and examined it more thoroughly. Slowly, his scowl faded, replaced by a smirk. "This… This may be exactly what I've been looking for all these years," he said. "You've done well, very well. Perhaps today won't be such a disaster after all. I must study this more thoroughly. Go, and ensure no one speaks of this."
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    Taylor is cooking something up.

    derivativeoflife said:
    I smiled slightly. I always preferred the direct ones. "We should have a few minutes," I said. "To put it simply, the Dark Moon Sect has an item in its highest level vault which I need. I'm here to relieve them of it. Dae-Jong agreed to help me in exchange for keeping you safe, retrieving the Four Phase Elixir for you, and providing both of you with a way out of the city."

    "You're… You're going to try and rob the Great Sage!?" she demanded. "Are you out of your mind?"

    "It seems to be going quite well so far," I said. "There was a bit of a close call earlier, but luckily for us, the Moon Sage is surprisingly unobservant for a Sage."

    Min-Su sputtered incoherently for a few seconds. "You'd better explain exactly what you mean by that."

    I did, as much as I was able. She took it… moderately well. I could tell she certainly wanted to believe me when I told her that the Moon Sage was far from omnipotent. There was, however, one sticking point. "You took advantage of Dae-Jong," she accused me.
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    She catches on quick.

    derivativeoflife said:
    "Of course I know that!" she snapped. She was silent for a while, but then she spoke again. "Did he tell you how I crippled my spirit?"

    "I didn't ask. It didn't seem like my business."

    "...I tried to advance too soon," she said after a moment. "Dae-Jong is a year younger than me, but he still reached Overlord before me. I just… wanted to keep up with him, and tried to advance before I was ready. None of this would have happened if I'd just been a little more talented."

    With how easily the Sacred Arts came to me and all the other advantages I enjoyed, it was easy to forget that for the vast majority, it was a mountain they would spend their entire lives climbing without ever coming close to the peak. There were pitfalls at every level, any of which could end your Path. "You're wrong about one thing," I told her. "Dae-Jong would almost certainly have caught the Moon Sage's eye eventually, probably within a few years, even if he hadn't pushed himself so hard for your sake. I know her type. She enjoys taking things away from other people."

    "...Maybe," she said, shrugging. "But it still would have been a hundred times easier to deal with if I wasn't just dead weight."

    "There's always someone more talented than you," I replied eventually. "Any sect or clan in the world would consider you a bright talent. You have the potential to reach Archlady yourself someday. Maybe not as quickly as Dae-Jong, but I don't exaggerate when I say that fewer than one in a billion reach that level. As long as you learn from your mistake, you won't be left behind."
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    That was really kind of Taylor to do.

    derivativeoflife said:
    "It wasn't a technique. I suppressed their dream aura directly. They left two outside to cover the exits, but they shouldn't be able to sense anything important." I broke a pair of scales in my soulspace, carefully weaving the madra together. Using techniques with foreign madra was difficult, slow, and weak, but my madra control was easily refined enough to manage it. A dark blue comet launched from my hand, striking an unconscious Truegold in the chest. As usual for techniques with a shadow aspect, it was insidious; the bolt sunk into her body, freezing her heart and lungs. She convulsed once, then went still. A moment later, her remnant began rising.

    I seized the remnant with aura, and it thrashed wildly as I began reshaping it with my will alone. Parts of the remnant became denser, the madra composing it becoming more powerful. Other parts splintered and fragmented, leaving it misshapen and ruined. "That should do," I said. I reached down and plucked a construct from the belt of an unconscious Truegold, activating it. The remnant was sucked in, still struggling ineffectually against my grip.

    I eased the pressure on the surviving Truegolds slightly, but still maintained a grip on their dream aura. "Stand up," I instructed. They obeyed, their eyes blank. "This is Min-Su's remnant," I said, handing the construct to one of them. "You successfully completed your mission, but she managed to kill one of you before she went down. Go and report back to your superiors. Take the body with you."
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    That's a useful way to fake a death.

    derivativeoflife said:
    They exited the building, collecting the two Truegolds they'd left outside on their way. I frowned slightly. That had been… easy. Too easy. I'd barely needed to exert any pressure on their minds to make them susceptible to my orders. The Shadow Icon allowed me to implant false memories, but it was the Crown Icon I'd felt most strongly when I spoke. I felt sure I could have made far more drastic and longer-lasting changes to their minds if I'd pushed myself. The potential for abuse was staggering. I'd have to take time to consider the new abilities I'd gained, and decide exactly where the line was. I didn't want to emulate the Silent Servants any more than I already had.
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    Messing with minds is something she has a knack for.

    derivativeoflife said:
    "You did the right thing. Even if the source isn't reliable, it explains too much to discount. Why Dae-Jong's behavior changed so radically, why he would take a wagon at all when he'd travel far faster on his own. Impressive, that he managed to fake Min-Su's death thoroughly enough to fool Tae-Seong. But I am slightly surprised that he'd give up on obtaining the Four Phase Elixir for her. I suppose…" His eyes suddenly widened. "Damnation. He's planning to defect."

    "Defect?" asked the Underlord.

    Sang-Jun nodded. "Before he left, he took a great deal of information from the archives. Maps, outpost locations, records of sacred beast migration routes and concentrations of aura. All things that could be at least conceivably justified if he really was intending to hunt a peakback mammoth, but also information which would be incredibly valuable to the barbarians. He must be hoping he can trade it to them for a Four Phase Elixir, or some other means of healing Min-Su."

    "Would he really dare betray the Great Sage like that?" asked the Underlord.
    "It's happened before, and in similar circumstances," said Sang-Jun grimly.
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    Sang-Jun is the clever old monster of the bunch and apparently once people climb high enough they leave because the Moon Sage is horrible.

    derivativeoflife said:
    Now the only thing left to do was wait, and potentially poke a thing or two if it took too long. That ended up not being necessary. Around an hour later, Tae-Seong left the sect as well. My simulacrum outside followed him from a distance as he made his way to a large tower near the middle of the city, a building he seemingly owned. He made his way up to the top floor, to a room sealed with enough scripts that I didn't bother trying slip any scarabs into it. For another couple of hours, nothing happened, and I began to worry that I might have actually overestimated him. If he only managed to cripple himself, the Moon Sage would still likely be distracted, but not to the degree I needed. Then the side of the tower exploded, and an Archlord-level remnant burst forth.

    Advancing to Sage was generally considered to be more difficult than to Herald. An Icon couldn't be forced, whereas the Herald advancement could be attempted at will. The tradeoff was that Herald was by far the most dangerous advancement a sacred artist could make, and failing often had spectacularly bad results. Manifesting your own remnant and then fusing it together with your physical body required absolutely perfect control over your spirit, and any mistake could permanently cripple you. But even more important was the will to subdue your remnant and force it to obey. A remnant was a twisted reflection of the sacred artist who produced it, and it rarely had any interest in allowing itself to be subsumed.

    I had, of course, forgotten to mention that danger in the scroll I'd arranged for Tae-Seong to find. I'd given highly detailed instructions on the process of manifesting your remnant, as detailed as I could without having undergone the process myself, but I'd left out entirely the fact that it would then need to be subdued in a contest of will. I'd slipped in other lies, as well: That strong aura would interfere with the process, prompting him to leave the sect rather than attempting the advancement in his own rooms, and that the process could take multiple days, prompting him to begin as soon as possible so as to finish before the Rite of Adoration.

    I hadn't known exactly what his remnant would do when he failed to control it, but given his obsession with the Moon Sage, I'd had my suspicions. It seemed Tae-Seong must have had quite a bit of buried resentment, because the first thing the remnant did was reduce a nearby statue of the Moon Sage to rubble with a thick beam of dark blue madra, along with the tower behind the statue. People screamed and fled as the tower began collapsing, but the spirit ignored them, instead searching for more statues to destroy. As for Tae-Seong himself, a scarab found him slumped against the wall of the room he'd attempted to advance in, still alive but heavily wounded. He'd no doubt tried to fight his remnant conventionally, an impossible proposition; your remnant was your spirit. As long as it was outside your body, you couldn't use techniques.
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    Man Taylor just straight up ruined this man and distracted the Moon Sage.

    derivativeoflife said:
    My first priority was retrieving the Grand Oath Array. I found it in a case near the back of the vault. Each case had additional security scripts on it, not nearly as strong as the ones protecting the vault itself, but nothing to scoff at. It opened at my command, and I retrieved my objective, allowing myself a small smirk as I tucked it into my void key. Next was the Four Phase Elixir, so I could fulfill my oath. I considered the Moon Sage for a moment, finding her still struggling to contain the remnant without damaging it. Could I afford to get greedy? I thought I could.

    I opened my link to Hera a touch wider, calling on her greater ability to manipulate aura. I burned a significant amount of soulfire, carefully exerting control over force aura in the room, then released it. Every glass case in the vault except for the ones containing remnants shattered. I manipulated wind aura, and treasures began flying into my open void key.

    On the other side of the city, the Moon Sage, suddenly jerked, whirling to look back at the sect. I felt her spiritual senses pass over me, dulled by the defenses on the sect and the vault, but she'd still clearly realized that something was amiss. She couldn't deal with it immediately, though, because the remnant took advantage of her brief inattention to nearly nail her with another Striker technique.
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    LOOOTTTTT.

    derivativeoflife said:
    The hulking figure of Northstrider crossed his arms. "Dark Moon. I have come to reclaim what you stole from me."

    The Moon Sage sneered. "I see your arrogance has only grown since the last time you inflicted your presence on us. If you think you can assault me here, in the very heart of my power, I will be happy to correct you." A technique formed above her, an image of the moon forged of ice and shadow madra, and the temperature in the vault plummeted until drops of liquid oxygen began condensing on the walls.

    The spiritual pressure of the technique alone was enough to make my simulacrum begin unraveling, but I held it stable for a few more seconds. "As always, you think far too much of yourself. Be grateful your punishment is so light."

    She paused, narrowing her eyes. "You are not actually here. This is nothing but an illusion."

    "I have already retrieved what I came for. I leave you with this warning: Lay your hands on my belongings a second time, and I will not be so merciful."
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    That's some useful psychological warfare.

    derivativeoflife said:
    "I'll be carrying you anyway," I replied. Mainly, I just wanted to fulfill the conditions of my soul oath as quickly as possible.
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    Very pratical of her both for the carrying and getting the soul oath out of the way.

    derivativeoflife said:
    "You seem quite a bit better informed than the rest of your sect," I noted. "I'm surprised you'd choose to stay, given the way the Moon Sage treats you."

    He raised an eyebrow. "And how do you think she treats me?"

    "Like a toy," I replied honestly. "Something she plays with until she gets bored."

    He sighed. "I suppose you're not entirely incorrect," he said. "But she does love me, as much as she's capable of it. I accepted centuries ago that I would never be enough for her. Tae-Seong will leave one day too, when he finally realizes the same thing, just like all the others have over the years. She always comes back to me in the end, because I'm the only one who always stays."

    "And that's enough for you?" I asked skeptically.

    "The good times are enough to make up for the bad," he said with a shrug. "And even the bad times aren't so bad anymore, as long as she's happy."

    Of all the things I'd expected to feel for him, pity hadn't been one of them. "You deserve better than that," I said quietly. "Everyone does."

    "I appreciate your concern," he said, smiling slightly. "And I appreciate you helping Dae-Jong and Min-Su. It isn't good for her, when she hurts her disciples. But I still love her. A jewel is beautiful because of its sharp edges, not in spite of them."
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    Ah this poor abused simp.

    derivativeoflife said:
    He narrowed his eyes, tensing, but the attack didn't come from me. He suddenly doubled over, clutching his head as his mind was assaulted by hallucinations of overwhelming terror. He immediately began trying to throw the technique off, but I said "Succumb," reinforcing it with additional authority. Perhaps another Archlord as old as he was might have been able to resist even that, at least in the bastion of his own mind, but Sang-Jun's will had been stunted by his long subjugation to the Moon Sage. He fell to his knees, still clutching his head.
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    Man has been kneeling for far to long.

    derivativeoflife said:
    "None. I have the Grand Oath Array, and most of their other Archlord-level treasure, as well."

    Charity quirked a small smile. "Exceeding expectations as usual, I see. I'll be interested to hear the entire story when there's time. For now, there's still work to be done. We should leave before we strain your gatekey further."
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    Charity is so proud of Taylor for being so good at what she does.

    Endymion said:
    Mission Quite Possible.

    That Sage isn't being helpful to all the rest, and now she's basically crippled for a few decades with the loss of her loot and her Left and Right Hands. Just because you ignore the rest of the world doesn't mean the rest of the world will ignore you.
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    She got absolutely wrecked in a day.
     
    I suspect she'll have a lot of questions about all sorts of things. The constructs she couldn't quite see, why and how tae-sung tried to advance, why and how Sang-jun got executed without a fight on a random local mountain, where the fuck dae-jong went. For a narcissistic like her, to have literal centuries of her private little games so thoroughly fucked... it's delicious. Hopefully she does try to fuck with northstrider.

    Let this be a lesson to never try to get in a control contest with hera's best host.
     
    derivativeoflife said:
    Only when he rose with a scowl and retrieved a scroll from a sealed safe did I realize what was going on. Tae-Seong was trying to advance to Herald, but didn't know how. He must have assumed it was the same process as the Lord advancements, requiring a revelation. The Moon Sage certainly had to know, so the fact that she hadn't told him was revealing.
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    Does she? Seems to me that if she knew how to reliably advance to Herald, she'd be the Moon Monarch.
     
    Boss Hoss said:
    Knowing how to advance doesn't make one able to do so. Also old sages pretty much can't advance. They get stuck.
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    After I posted, I realized she might know how but be too afraid to try. She seems the type to either rush into risks with blind confidence that she can't be stopped or preserve herself with extreme cowardice when she runs into something that she realizes actually could hurt her.
     
    Taylor is really enjoying collecting "xianxia protagonists" and adjacent individuals, swooping in from the background to help them and guide them while being all cool and mysterious.
    You know, like a real Eminence in Shadow.
     
    *snerk* She had so many people killed during this chapter, directly or indirectly. Pretty ruthless, while still trying to be kind where she can.
     
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