Adamant Blood

Mark did not take the tram into Mage Society, even though it looked like Eliot had fixed it up. He flew through the illusion overlaying the place instead. One moment the lands below looked deserted, and the next something tried to cling to Mark's body, to illuminate him against the world. But a Protect fizzled that action and Quark was already queuing up another Protect, and now that he was beyond the illusion Mark saw people down there.

Some looked up in alarm, but when they saw it was just Mark a few did double takes, and a few walked away as quickly as possible, not wanting to be anywhere near him.

Fear was everywhere.

Everyone was unstable and worried.

Mark proceeded down Magic Street to the arcanaeum, and then went inside. He ignored protocol.

"You need to use… the scanner. Ah, nevermind," said a guy manning the front doors.

Another guy manned the detectors and pretended not to see Mark on a warpath.

… Did Mark look like he was on a warpath?

Probably.

He still had his full armor on, and his scales were probably sharp right now. It was fine. Rekaro knew Mark was here now, and so did Lola. They were in Rekaro's office up ahead, along with someone else. Rekaro was terrified. Lola was furious. The third person was unreadable.

Who was that third person?

Mark didn't know, but he already fucking hated them.

Mark went there.

When Mark arrived at Rekaro's offices, there was a secretary, and she did not try to stop Mark at all. She mumbled something under her breath, fear tainting her world. She still maintained her post, though.

Mark purposefully smoothed out his scales, but he did not remove his mask, and then he opened the door to Rekaro's office and went inside. He closed the door behind him before he said anything else, not trusting himself to not blow a hole through the third person in the room right then and there. There were some wards on the walls to hide sounds, and those wards were needed right now, for sure.

Lola stood to the side, looking proper.

Rekaro was on the other side of the room, scared and annoyed, and it was hard to tell which emotion was more present.

Inquisitor Saikou Jawo, Sentinel of Aluatha, was also there. The third person in the room was the one who had spearheaded Mark's almost-capture back in Memphi, months ago. He was one of the main overseers of all Inquisition-activity in Aluatha, and he was directly higher up in the oversight over Addashield, back when Addashield had oversight, before his near-Fall. Saikou had only survived Addashield's purge of his actual oversight because he was too far up the chain. Mark had invited the guy to a talk about the safety of ITLKR and worldwide deployments yesterday, because Mark was worried about all of that. Walter and Lola had shown, but Saikou had decided not to show, because he didn't much care for Mark at all.

Saikou was looking much the same as Mark remembered. Purple-tinted with bright blue hair and a severe expression.

Mark scoffed. "So now you choose to show up, huh?"

"I do choose now, yes," Saikou said. "Are you choosing to remain in the settlement? In Aluatha?"

Just like back in Memphi, Saikou knew everything about everything. He had known Mark was adamantium blooded back then, and he had coordinated efforts to put him into a farm, even though he knew it was wrong. And now he knew that Mark had been targeted for assassination by Doomo, and he was going along with that anyway, as 'also the right thing to do', or whatever.

Mark kinda really fucking hated this guy.

A lot.

More than he expected to ever hate a person.

"I can kinda respect the trade," Mark began, trying to think straight. "One life for an end to the goblin menace? Sure. I can ALMOST understand that. Walaria even explained that the witches could actually enforce such a trade, for if the goblins broke faith then the witches could pounce and kill them all. I doubt that would work, but sure. It could work. And so, as the thoughts swirl and settle, I think I'm only really taking great exception to the void bullet sniper team that was there to ensure I died if I escaped the goblin trap. Was Doomo really that scared of my vengeance against 'whoever tried to kill me', like I promised I would do?"

Lola hadn't known exactly what Mark was talking about at first, but then she caught on fast, and deep. She turned livid.

It seemed that whatever they had been talking about in here had not been about Mark.

Rekaro turned truly fearful as Mark spoke, all thoughts of the previous conversation with Saikou and Lola vanishing. When Mark mentioned Doomo, Rekaro went cold.

Saikou simply asked, "Are you still a soldier of Aluatha? Or are you running?"

"If the Empire is an ally then I am staying."

"The Empire is not an 'ally', Mark. The Empire is the ruler, and you are the servant." Saikou continued, "I could say it softer, with more tact, but tact doesn't exist right now. Just cold, hard truth."

Truth was good, Mark found himself thinking, holding onto, like it was a liferaft in a stormy ocean—

Wait.

Mark narrowed his eyes. The asshole was Unionsensing Mark again, just like he had back in Memphi.

Mark glared.

"You're such a fucking bastard for reading me like that."

Saikou nodded, saying, "I'm sure you have harsher words for me than that, but if you would let them go I would speak about anything else. We have a goblin war coming and—"

"No. No changing the subject to whatever you want. I need to know about sentinels and loyalties and the Pantheon." Mark asked, "Would Drakarok move against Doomo for selling out a superhero to an eternal enemy? Or was Walter bluffing his ass off, trying to get me aligned with him?"

"Probably all of that. I suppose you won't know for a while, if ever, because Walter is being removed from the settlement and I'm coming in, instead."

Mark scoffed. "They just kicked him out! Like 10 minutes ago! How can— Oh." Mark realized something about governments at that moment. "This shit was planned. Walter knew he was getting kicked and that was his last ditch effort. When was it planned? While I was interviewing Goofy? All these moves made by Empire to remain in control, all when I was trying to work against an actual Enemy of Humanity, huh?"

"Correct."

Mark almost asked about witches, and free will, and maybe even something about being a subject versus being a free agent, but he chose not to speak those words. Mark looked to Rekaro and asked, "Know anything about the possibly-Xerkonan corruption ooze, yet?"

Rekaro didn't answer. He was just more fearful.

Saikou answered flippantly, "Nothing that we can tell you. You might fly off the edge!"

Mark closed his eyes and had a small fantasy.

- -

Mark hit Saikou with Entropy/Energy, shutting him off, and Saikou's eyes went wide and fearful as he opened his mouth to complain, but Mark was already there and punching an adamantium-covered fist straight through the guy's abdomen. Adamantium became a blender. Guts exploded out of Saikou's back, showering Rekaro's desk and a bookshelf with blood and viscera.

And then Mark let him go, to fall to the ground, the guy's guts slicking down his fist. He was still very much alive. Mark healed him up, too.

Lola stood stunned.

Rekaro was even more fearful.

Saikou stared up at Mark as he struggled to breathe.

Mark helped him breathe, saying, "There we go. Breathe in and out. Breathe in the Good, and breathe out the Bad. There we go. Your guts are healing just fine. You won't die today. Probably not for a very long time either, Saikou. But I need you to know that I'm not trading barbs. This is very serious, and if the Empire only respects strength, then I suppose I will have to use strength."

Saikou gasped, "I'll tell you everything! About how we fucked you over and how we even killed your parents! You want resurrection magic? We got that, too! Killing the demons is as easy as saying <these words here!> we just don't do it because you can't make our people fearful and complacent without outside threats! It's all a propaganda thing! Hell, we even use mind magic on our people!"

"I knew it. I should just kill all of you."

- -

Mark opened his eyes and ignored the fantasy.

Saikou's solid demeanor cracked.

Rekaro looked truly fearful.

And Lola's vector was absolutely full of love and concern.

Mark suddenly felt awful for imagining hurting Saikou like that.

For a moment, there was more silence. More unsaid words. More vectors flowing everywhere.

And then Lola spoke up, "It's a true Xerkonan ooze. Rekaro and I don't know where it came from, but Saikou might."

Mark felt a quiet joy at the sound of Lola's calm voice, and also a mess of emotions at the contents of her words. Mark sighed, "That's concerning."

Saikou glanced at Lola, a quiet fury in his vector.

Lola glared right back.

"So the obvious questions are if it was a stolen ooze, or a real ooze from their…?" Mark wasn't sure what he was saying. "From there wherever? Headquarters? The Settlement of Xerkona doesn't even have headquarters, though, right? Except for some abandoned homelands in the middle of the continent of Sheorune. The biggest Settlements of Xerkona are somewhere in Okuana and Aluatha. So from one of those places? How would I go about finding out more?"

Saikou said, "You will be doing nothing. You will remain on alert and be content that your betters are taking care of these many varied issues."

"Mark," Lola said, "The Union of Forced Truth is 'Integrity' and 'Falsity', and you can't do it yourself. You have to take in all the Falsity from the participants and force Integrity into them, and you can't talk or interact yourself. You can only watch. If you speak you bring Falsity back to the conversation. It is best used in long conversations, from a great distance and over long time frames, where questions are repeated over and over again." She added, "It likely won't be of much use at the moment since pretty much everything is now out in the open, no thanks to the 'Sentinel of Assassins' here, but I have a few questions for him now that I finally know what the fuck is going on."

Lola had said 'Sentinel of Assassins' like it was a title, but also like it was an insult. It probably wasn't a real thing. Probably.

Saikou frowned.

Mark started up a Union of Forced Truth, blasting everyone present with Integrity and drawing out all of their Falsity. Saikou easily fended him off. Mark tried to pry into him anyway, but Mark felt himself fade into the background, to lurk, almost, while Lola glared at Saikou and did some other kind of Union to force her way into Saikou's astral body. Mark piggybacked on that forcing, and like a 'falsity', Mark was insidious and everywhere. He latched on to Saikou, and Saikou could not dislodge him at all.

It was weird.

Mark recognized this kind of Union as particularly insidious. Saikou realized that Mark was influencing him, but he couldn't fend him off. Saikou soon stopped trying to fend him off.

Instead, Saikou glared at Lola and said, "This is a dark mark against you, Lola."

"I'd rather we never encounter any truly Dark Marks at all, but you do you and see where it gets you, Sentinel of Assassins."

Saikou responded, "It's hardly an assassination to use a soldier for their intended purposes."

"A soldier has the right to expect their commanders not to waste their lives chasing imagined wins!" Lola said, "The Aluatha Empire is either a stupid, shortsighted collection of idiots, such as yourself, or there is at least one very stupid, very shortsighted man in your midst that you should exile for this stunt."

"You take too many liberties with your accusations, Inquisitor."

"I think I don't take enough! For now I can finally see why Addashield was allowed to operate for so long as a murderer of Tutorial-takers, a creator of Hidden Dragons, and all the rest! It's because of you. You, as a pawn of the Empire, doing what they say, how they say, instead of operating as the Inquisitor you should be!"

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That hit Saikou way, way harder than Saikou ever expected it to hit him.

He imagined himself a monolith of strength.

The monolith cracked.

Saikou stared, his vector breaking. And then he was revealed. He had been doing a trick with his Union to stop his true emotions from hanging out in the open, but that trick was dead. And he was fucking terrified. Lola's words had hit him hard, as his failure to anticipate and control the Addashield situation came back and destroyed his composure.

He was just as scared as Rekaro.

Lola lashed into Saikou with, "Why are you so fucking scared, Saikou."

"Because world stability is failing, Lola, and if Mark had succumbed then we could force issues with the goblins, but Mark survived, and you have no idea how much more dangerous that makes everything."

"Then tell me!"

"I will not."

Silence.

Judgment.

Saikou had nothing he could say. He was trapped. But he slowly began talking anyway, saying, "I can't…" He realized he could say something. He reoriented, saying, "The goblins are a problem— They have been a problem for thousands of years, and they are coming in force, now. It will be Total War, across multiple continents. Grax is the reincarnation of Grax the Conqueror, one of the first goblins to be spawned by the Corrupting Forest. He's 1 of 5, and with him here again, they're at 5 of the 5 originals.

"Wongod was the first. The Greencaller.

"Grax was second. The Light.

"Greeplox was the third. The Flower.

"Tormpol was the fourth. The Storm.

"Sampo was the fifth. The Hearth.

"And now they're all back, and we have 5 other pillars they've gathered over the years, and Grax is the conqueror who calls for Total War, and he will have it. So that is why I am scared. We have no capability to bring our witches to bear against true war; it's just war! The last time the goblins tried true war was 250 years ago, back before the Reveal, and it was a devastation.

"So yes! If Doomo could have made that all go away? With one sacrifice! Even if the sacrifice wouldn't have worked? He had to try."

Lola simply said, "You are only 60 years old, Saikou. You did not live in those times. I know you live in a world of ancients, moving around people who live in the past, all of them full of fears sometimes right and sometimes not, but Doomo had no right, cause, or reasoning, to do what he tried to do to Mark, and there will be a reckoning when the goblins are gone. We have gods now, Saikou, and a System that isn't a Thresher. Earth exists, and Daihoon isn't alone."

"The fears are not unfounded. We will lose millions of lives, Lola. Ten of Millions."

Silence followed, and the world seemed darker.

Mark let his Union fade.

Mark said, "Maybe it's time for a dragon and some summoned kaiju."

"Even less of an option," Saikou said, without hesitation.

"And why is that?" Mark asked, thinking he knew the reason.

"You know why," Saikou said, confirming the reason.

"Because the Empire can't let go, huh?"

"NO, THE EMPIRE CANNOT LET GO. Okuana would devour us alive, piece by piece," Saikou said. "Do you even wonder why Okuana wants you so much? Why we're allowing them here in the settlement at all? And don't give me the shit you were told. Think bigger, Mark."

Mark glanced at Rekaro, and the Grand Mage looked truly old at that moment. His face was haggard. His beard was more grey than salt-and-pepper. His eyes were deep, and his vector quiet. It was the 'freeze' response of the flight, fear, fight, and fawn possibilities.

Saikou said, "He has not been read in."

Mark decided not to play this game with Saikou. He said, "I don't know what you're talking about Saikou. Maybe one day you can tell me directly instead of trying to lead me down a path of your own making, while making me think I came up with everything all on my own. Very insidious of you. Anyway!

"How about this:

"I can turn off Powers.

"Your government tried to give me to the goblins, to make me one of them. You say it was a terrible thing that I survived, and that I 'have no idea how much more dangerous that makes everything', but I think the much more dangerous path is the one you all tried to walk," Mark finished with, "So THANK FREYALA that this shit failed, because I'm still here on the side of humanity, and this…

"This is not going to be a war with the goblins, Saikou.

"As long as I have support, this is going to be a goblin slaughter."

Lola stood tall and proud.

Some of Rekaro's fear abated, his eyes staring at Mark but seeing something that was beyond the present. He was still deep in the fear, though.

Saikou softly said, "You shouldn't rely on that."

"Are you going to tell me why?"

Saikou was silent.

Lola was furious again.

Rekaro frowned.

Mark waited, and when Saikou remained silent Mark said, "Of course you won't tell me, because if you did tell me then I could prepare against it, but the Empire needs its tricks to use against me… Fine. Whatever. Lola. Can you bring up… whatever happened here with the Collective?"

"Of course, Mark," Lola said, "I was planning to. If you would like to be there for it, then I can make that happen."

Saikou winced.

Mark said, "Thank you. I will be too busy to do that, but I look forward to hearing the outcome."

Lola did a small curtsy.

Mark continued, "I would like to move on to the reason I actually came here: What did I do to Goofy with the Purity/Corruption Union? Why does he look 'handsome' now? His jaw and teeth are a lot more human-shaped now, too."

Rekaro was suddenly much happier. Was this familiar ground? Was this what they were talking about before? Probably, yes. Maybe. Rekaro was not actually happy, of course. He was unwilling to talk. But familiar topics were still a comfort.

Saikou frowned.

"I have no true idea about what happened to Goofy," Lola said, "But it concerned me, so I went looking. I searched the Collective records and nothing came up. I asked Citadel of Freyala resources and they said they could not help me, and so I came here to speak with Rekaro," Lola said, as she looked at Saikou, "I got waylaid."

Rekaro sighed a little as he said, "It's an Emperor's Seal secret, Lola."

Saikou was coming to terms with his life decisions right now, so he remained silent.

Lola continued, "That is what you said, and yes, I agree that it should probably be a secret, but we're here now, headed into Total War, and some secrets need to be revealed."

"No they don't," Rekaro said, "Not this one."

"Do you even know it?" Mark asked.

Rekaro said, "I have heard rumors, and I'm not about to speak on rumors."

Lola frowned, and then she told Mark, "I have heard rumors, too. Not about goblins, but about other creatures where Purity shifts them out of a corrupted state. A corrupted human can monsterize rather easily, but it's not a simple switch from Human to Other. It is a spectrum of downfall. There are histories of corrupted people during the Reveal looking more monster than man, with multiple arms and legs and gaping wounds and eyes where there should not be eyes. You have seen the end-point of all that; we call them malformations. But, if you can find a human that is only mostly corrupted, you can fix that corruption and heal their bodies back to full. Castellan did this all the time, back then. So, with that idea in mind, I think I can safely say that the goblins are corrupted people." Lola looked at Saiko and Rekaro, who were eyeing her. Lola strongly added, "But! The fact that these two can't just say that means that my conclusion is so far off base it would be a lie. Despite the politics at force here in this room, clouding all judgment, at least I can continue to believe that these two aren't lying, at least. So the goblins are people —which is something we always knew, but from a sociological perspective— but they're not a people that the Empire is willing to lie about, or talk about."

Mark nodded as he took that in. Goblins were people of some sort? Well yeah, they are people. As in currently-people. Corrupted people? Or something else. 'Something else' seemed like the more correct solution, as per Lola's call-out. If they were just corrupted people, then the Inquisition should know about them, though.

The Inquisition probably did know, but Lola didn't have high enough clearance, or whatever.

"Okay," Mark said, "Next issue: Do we have rituals ready to go to perma-kill various goblins? What needs to happen there?"

Saikou easily said, "None of them can be permanently killed. They can only be sent deeper into the Dark, in the hope that it takes them longer to resurrect. Soulcages can't even trap them."

"But there is hope," Lola countered, "There is hope, and we have power, and we can send them packing for a while. Years or decades, Saikou?"

"… Yes," Saikou conceded. "Timeframes vary from years to decades."

Rekaro found he could talk again, saying, "Locations for the perma-kills will have to be outside of the settlement, and it will be dangerous, but we can kill them for a while. We're getting together the stuff for Goofy, but… if Goofy is an asset then we should keep him as an asset."

Saikou frowned.

"You will have to watch him, Mark," Lola said. "Derek can be trusted, but he's more of a warning system for a failed containment than an actual defense."

"Of course." Mark said, "You can count on me to shut them all down— Not BiggestBaddest. That didn't work. He's too diffuse. His Power isn't actually in the body I targeted. Does he have a main body?"

"He has no main body," Saikou answered. "We have captured and killed most of them before, but BiggestBaddest, Wongod, and Sampo have never been permanently captured. Wongod has never been captured, or killed."

Mark nodded. "Thank you for the talk. I have places to be."

Lola curtsied. Rekaro bowed.

Saikou was unsure, and then he did a tiny bow.

Mark left them to discuss whatever they were discussing. Probably topics a lot different than those they had started on, for things were not okay. But things weren't devolving, either.

Mark walked swiftly to the tunnel in the middle of the arcanaeum, to walk into the gloom that twisted downward, into the dark below the arcanaeum. To the Vault. Soon Mark stepped into pure darkness that parted all around him, light shining down from above, pushing back the nipping gloom.

The Librarian stood behind his counter up ahead, also bathed in light from above.

Mark expected a trick of some kind.

This place was connected to the capital, Crytalis, after all. Walaria had access to Mark's personal vault. There might be a trick down here. But maybe, if Mark was quick enough, he could do what needed to be done here.

The Librarian just bowed as Mark passed.

That was a good sign.

Mark walked through the dark to his personal vault and found the room undisturbed from the last time he was there.

"Book copying time," Mark said. "So how do we want to go about this..."

Quark was able to move his little arms and legs just fine, and so he climbed the shelves, grabbing books and toppling them to the floor, to then open them and read them quickly, flipping through pages as fast as his little hands could go. Mark made him a special page-flipping set of limbs, just for the task, to make it go faster and easier.

"You got enough memory for this?" Mark asked.

"I certainly do, sir!"

Mark managed to last 10 minutes before he crashed hard, laying down on the big couch and surrounding himself with an adamantium shell. If someone needed him, then the Librarian could come get him. Otherwise it was off to dreamland.

And so, he slept, and he dreamed of better times.