Somewhere Someplace

A tinted one-way alley, squished between two buildings with a dead-end at the far end. The corvid landed atop the roof of one of these two buildings, cawing and pecking away at its edge.

« … » the foreigner stared blankly. Ah…truly, what a convenient location for her to be boxed in and cornered; she could only so wonder what would happen as soon as she stepped into that deep and rather dark alley.

Though, with the corvid pecking away with an indication of go in—probably—she sighed, stepping into the alley. She walked all the way to near the end, her back facing against the entrance…naive and defenseless, intentionally so. She wondered what game was being played.

« Oké… ecca hîc est jo » thus she announced indifferently, shifting her attention to the corvid above; « …itaque: ubí est éllos hemonculos de te, corve? » she interrogated, cold and deadpan; so…where was he?

The corvid, however, stared…not even cawing a response.

« Spero pro te quod me nê tractas hûc ut gașpaelles modo lù tempor aeternù de me, corvocule » she said rather coldly to the bird staring above; this thing better not have dragged her here just to waste her eternal time.

Yet the corvid simply continued to stare at her while she continued to stare in kind.

« Nolí diçhere mî quod éllom voraște? Sícne’st? Verë? Papae ita’ta, qualem stomachos oi tébi’st! Hmm…ben’itaque, și síc est…supposo dunc quod oporteat me ad aghendù grațias tébi. Çhanqua dubito quidem quod façhents talidre’st bonù pro tuad vitalitate vero, sed éd est quaeda sacrifiçea quae memorafatùr af omnibos d’ex la Federația…síc sícque: bonlabor, corve crassissime » thus she said to the bird with such extreme blandness, the dry sarcasm bleeding from her voice.

Don’t tell her that corvid had devoured him? Did it now? Really? Wow, wow, rather the stomach indeed. Hmm…well, if so, then she supposed that she ought to give thanks. Although doing such a thing was surely not good for its health, but such was a sacrifice that would be remembered by all of the Remnant, so: good job, fattest corvid.

Abruptly, however, something came running…from atop the roof, followed by a jumping hop…as the sounds of boots hitting the ground behind and near…radiated around.

A previously shadowed presence…suddenly became noticeable and…vaguely detectable, having gone completely unnoticed by the foreigner’s and her essence’s own sensitivities. The suddenty and surprise of the arrival…caused her to instantaneously shift her attention with some alarm, and straight towards the entryway of this alley…only to see…nothing yet…something.

Foggy and vague. Truly…it was hard to describe what exactly she was seeing; it was…simply a shadowy…blob of incomprehensible blindness and inattention. Almost impossible to focus on and attend to.

She was staring at it; it was right there—it was not invisible—it was as if a perpetual hole…a blind-spot…in the visual field, one that could be seen by the eyes…but not thoroughly processed by the brain; thus, it could not be acknowledged as existent even if seen.

It was similar, essentially, to when one would be searching around a space for an object, unable to find it, only to realize that the object had been right in front of them the entire time. The object, in fact, had likely been seen multiple times in their peripheral visual field, but was not directly focused on by their…‘spotlight of attention’, so to speak, thus escaped any detailed processing and was consequently missed.

This blob of inattentive blindness was somewhat the opposite of this phenomena: it could perhaps be…vaguely discerned in the periphery of the visual field, but not at all when directly attended to.

Indeed, it was rather the anomaly. Would that the foreigner were a denizen, for an average denizen would have no doubt stared into this shadowy blob of inattention with…well…inattention—incapable of recognizing its existence despite being right in front of them. The foreigner, however, was perhaps too accustomed to dealing with such…cognitohazards and other forms of information processing face-fuckery, not to mention her essence’s own encoded safeguards; so, she was able to...at least…acknowledge the blob’s vague existence.

Hmm…oddly enough, though, this…shadowy blob of incomprehension…seemed rather…familiar, as if she had seen it before. Yet, owing to the nature of this blob’s effects, such was hard to really…remember.

Panting…the blob was panting…as if it had been running late and rushed here as fast as possible. The blob stepped forward; the foreigner’s guard increased as she stepped backwards, attentive to the blob of inattention.

“Calm…this spell takes some time to wither…sorry” so spoke the blob of inattention…a voice equally hard to process; “and…also sorry for the…surprise and…suspicious meeting place, but it was necessary…” the voice of inattention said rather…awkwardly.

The foreigner remained silent and guarded with stiffened stance, her defensive protocols having been triggered by the sudden…undetected arrival, a cold inhibited focus taking hold.

“Well, seeing from your…reaction, I can tell you can…actually see through this spell…somewhat; that’s impressive… most can’t; you really are…something…” so the blob remarked…with a voice becoming more…familiar…as the spell slowly faded and withered.

Finally, the shadowy blob of inattention vanished…as a comprehensible figure abruptly emerged and popped in her visual field.

Dark and black; obscured, hooded, and fully cloaked, the tips of the hood…almost resembling a beak of sorts; lightweight protective gear and tunic underneath; face obscured by a full-mask…one stylized in an avian or…rather corvid fashion—in fact, their entire appearance…was thematically ‘avian’ and ‘corvid’. Knives, small bombs of varied sorts, strange darts, and a sharp lethal dagger.

‘Spy’, ‘assassin’, ‘agent’, ‘enforcer’, this figure invoked all such related categories. Though, the foreigner could immediately infer such from reading the mask alone.

“Relax, we know each other…or kind of” the figure stated…somewhat awkwardly as they approached closer…cautiously, a feminine voice that was…so very…familiar, even if not heard in rather the time.

The foreigner’s guard, however, only increased…due to this familiarity; “I know.” thus she replied sharply; “that is why I am attentive and vigilant” she stated bluntly.

The figure paused…posture attempting to convey nonthreatening intentions; “I did not come here to…hurt you, or…actually be hurt by you; I am with your sponsor…and the Bureau” thus the figure tried to reassure.

The foreigner…sighed; indeed, from the voice alone…she was able to instantly identify who this figure was. She…relaxed, somewhat. “I thought that you were…supposed to be at the Collegium by now, no? ‘Prodigy’…or is it better to say ‘spy’…” she said coldly.

The figure…looked down and away…evasively; “Yeah…I guess it was sort of that obvious…” they remarked, before taking off their corvid mask and lowering their hood, revealing a familiar pair of potent, though slightly signa-burned, hazel-amber eyes, and straight light-maple hair; a black face-covering of sorts…obscured the rest.

“Hey… it’s been awhile, ‘Nilia’…nice name…you picked for yourself…” thus the figure, now explicitly revealed to be that very prodigy from all those months prior, said…with evasive eyes and…an awkward gentle wave.

Yet the foreigner stared, unamused, having merely visually confirmed what she already knew. Ah…so much suddenly made so much more sense. “Ah, so I was being stalked…but not by him, but by you and your bird and…what was that? The shadow magic? Interesting…” thus the foreigner remarked rather coldly.

The prodigy continued evading eyes; “Yeah…I didn’t want to meet again like this…either” she remarked…rather lowly.

The foreigner sighed yet again…her guard lowering more as her posture loosened. “So, spy, what are you supposed to be, then?” she interrogated.

The prodigy retained her…evading eyes, before…looking at the foreigner, albeit evasively; “I am…just a birdie, your birdie…to be exact, a Raven…of the Bureau of Scribes and Documentation…to be precise” she answered; “and…I cannot say…what I do…in detail…but it is…a lot of things, not just…stalking” she added…somewhat lowly.

The foreigner coldly nodded “of course”; “and for how long…have you been stalking me, then, spy?” she interrogated further.

The prodigy—or rather the ‘Raven’ now—evaded eyes; “Again, I cannot…tell you that, but…I guess to say…every-now-and-so for a while, well before…you directly met your sponsor; it’s how he and…the rest knew…certain details about you…” she answered…rather timidly; even now, she was perhaps saying…more than she ought to.

The foreigner sighed; “Of course” her cold breaths remarked. “So, I assume, then, that all of you that was at the Collegium place was…a deception? A simple pretending in order to interact with me? To get things from me? Or…since you were stalking me before, I assume that you were to follow me to the Collegium if I went that way?” she remarked and interrogated.

The Raven only became…more mellow and nervous; “Well…I wasn’t actually…supposed to interact with you…too much, but…yes, had you enrolled into the Collegium…I was supposed to shadow you there—I am…your birdie, after all” she replied…as honest as permitted.

Yet…abruptly, the Raven’s eyes snapped straight to the foreigner, no longer evasive; “Though, that is a real funny thing to be asked by you, ‘Miss Queen of Emotional Lying and Pretending’…neither charming nor friendly, cold as ice on the inside” she remarked more bluntly.

Though…quickly, this spur of sudden confidence withered, as her eyes…stared at the foreigner…before anxiously evading again…breaths aheming.

“But…I guess to answer…yes and no; admittedly, part of my…job is to…take on many names and become different people when needed…but, unlike you, none of it is…completely a deceptive pretending, rather it is more… different shades of me, though maybe exaggerated, but…still…all shades of…who I am” she answered; “…and not everything that happened was a lie…not even closely; I was actually…really surprised to find out that…I was so…gifted in the magical arts… it made me really…ponder how…different things could have been, but…ahem”

The Raven’s eyes suddenly became even more evasive; “…and…I was…genuinely surprised by…by you; you really did…surprise me there…and only…continued to do so…” she said, before looking at the foreigner…somewhat; “and…I really did…want to see you again…or speak to you…again, just…maybe not like this” she said…blushingly but also lowly.

The foreigner stared…her head tilting slightly as she observed this…peculiar display of affect. In a way, it was perhaps…reassuring to see that the Raven—that prodigy—was, regardless of clandestine pretenses, still that same nervous sort of denizen she remembered.

Though, still…that shadow magic was no joke. The fact that she had been stalked and trailed for so long…without her augmented senses and essence being triggered…was certainly a dangerous affair—not helped by the fact she already felt trailed and watched, always, which diluted her senses.

The foreigner sighed, her guard lowering fully, defensive conditioning…standing down; “I see, well…it is goodly seen that you are still the…what is the proper word? ‘Anxious’? Yes, the strange anxious person who I remember” she remarked.

“Honestly…only with you…” the Raven murmuringly replied, before aheming.

“And I understand it, then” the foreigner began to say, “that you have been that…weird shadow…thing which I have been seeing sometimes? The same one that…helped me when I…uhm…tripped…that day?”

The Raven’s eyes looked at the foreigner, albeit evasively so; “Yes…that was me, I carried you out when you randomly…passed out that night, and also was the one who…gave you that fresh pair of cloths…to cover…you know…ahem—and I also…climbed through…that broken window of yours to…fetch your mask… since…it is…obvious…to us why you…even wear it…ahem—to hide…those…eyes…” she replied…rather awkwardly.

The foreigner stared, deadpan; “So, I understand it that you saw my eyes?” she interrogated coldly.

“I mean…lots of people did…albeit, most don’t know that sparkle-eyed girl was you specifically, and most…probably don’t care enough to…even talk about it, besides a few murmurs of…some cloaked divinity helping” the Raven…evasively replied; “But—yes…I did notice them…kind of, I mean I wasn’t always following you…the whole city was…you know…burning” she added.

The foreigner nodded faintly; “Ah…so I understand it then, that this Bureau of yours…also knows about my eyes, because you told them?” she interrogated.

“…” the Raven simply averted her eyes down and away, silence being her response.

The foreigner sighed; of course, fantastic. Though, her permanent ignited eyes were…probably not nearly as strange to these denizens as her cyanic radiant blood, which the Bureau and Guild already knew about—her having such eyes…being a logical extrapolation from that, if anything.

Indeed, there was not much the foreigner could contest, deny, and protest…besides accepting the blunt reality and situation at hand.

Although she still had…so many questions, she opted to skip straight to the…business. “Fine…it is whatever it may be; so then, spy, what is happening? I see that he is not here” she interrogated and remarked.

“Your sponsor? Well, he is…somewhere else—cannot say…where, of course, but we’re still in contact…kind of” the Raven answered.

The foreigner sighed; “Of course. And, so, what is the point to this? Why am I here… or, more better: what is it that is wanted from me?” she interrogated; “It is clear that I was… ‘dismissed’ from the Company for a relevant reason, so speak”.

The Raven’s attention suddenly…sprung in a jolt; “R-right…of course, sorry…right to the purpose, then… how do I even…begin…” she began to reply…her mind struggling to find the words, flustering; “…sorry, first time…I’ve ever had to…take the…lead, and… ugh seriously?” she said out loud, becoming irritated by her own…anxieties; “I am not…normally…this…nervous, so s-sorry…again…”

Though, “I can already guess” the foreigner began to interlude, “I am to be going to that… ‘advanced selection’ wherever, now? Is that it?”

The Raven…paused, looking, her…thoughts reorganizing, having been given the opening…to actually begin this. “Well…yes and no…” thus she said, her posture straightening; “ahem: effective right now, bypassing…every single…one of our standard procedures, you are herby to be inducted as a…well…no designation…bird of the Bureau of Scribes and Documentation of the one and only Adventurers’ Guild…and I am to be your supervising other; and, as part of a joint-venture between…the United Central Trade Company and the Adventurers’ Guild…we are to head immediately—which is to say tomorrow—straight for the Huckleberry Dutchy…”

The foreigner’s neck snapped in a confused tilt…“Heh?” so mumbled out her breaths.

“Details…pending your…reaction to all of this—and also…just to quickly clarify, you were…dismissed from the Company’s…service here; officially…you’re still registered with the Company’s volunteer service…which is why you were allowed to keep the armband you’re still wearing; the Company is more-or-less…lending you to us, and you would be technically working on…behalf of both—their condition, not ours…ahem” she explained.

« … » the foreigner stared ever-blankly, all of that having been said…so quickly.

“…yeah, all of this…came suddenly to…uhm…me too, I only got…the message from the Citadel…yesterday, so…I’ve been scrambling to…finish up here…” the Raven said, somewhat…awkwardly, eyes evading; “things don’t usually…move this fast…”

The foreigner…nodded somewhat; “I see…” she began to reply, “…and what of that ‘advanced candidate’ and ‘selection competition’…I was supposed to do?”

“Oh yeah…that’s still…the agenda, but as you have…experienced, things have…changed a lot, and…your sponsor did say you might be annoyed early if something big…happened…” the Raven replied.

The foreigner sighed. Right, he had said something of that sort…and now she understood what he meant by ‘birdie’. Ugh… truly, she was in no mood to contest the desires of this…clandestine information apparatus, which she already had the hunch knew far more about her than was being implied. “Fine. I will play along with this…so, tell me the details” she acquiesced and bluntly requested.

The Raven…paused somewhat, staring; “…huh…I thought this was…going…to be harder” she mumbled out before aheming, organizing her thoughts; “rightly…always a straight-shooter—ahem—details…details…”

“Well, to keep this very brief…we are to, as I said, head to the Huckleberry Dutchy…which is where we believe someone of…interest is…somewhere within, Blossom of Coastfield-Sunnycloud…a teenage girl with thirteen-to-fourteen years on her and an ostracized bastard who’s been living…in exiled-hiding as a commoner; while…her exact whereabouts were kept more-or-less a secret by House Coastfield-Sunnycloud, the Bureau knows she’s somewhere in Huckleberry” thus she explained; “We are to…in cooperation with the Company…search for, locate, and…once found, escort her back to Coastfield safely—and there will be others after her” she said further.

The foreigner stared; “…I would prefer more details than that” she stated frankly.

The Raven…evaded eyes somewhat; “Well…I assumed that…you wanted…a straight-to-the-point…you know, briefing… and all that’s important to know is we have to find her quickly and bring her back…anything more would be…extra filler; not as…important” she said rather…awkwardly; “I mean, what…details do you want?”

“Everything of relevancy, regardless of the importance; I want to know the why” the foreigner replied bluntly.

The Raven nodded somewhat, clearing her throat, reorganizing her thoughts, trying to figure out where to even…start; “Well…to say what I can, as you might have heard, because of the attack and…following fire-tide, Coastfield…is without a sovereign—the former count, his immediate heirs, sovereign court, everyone important…were killed… I guess…nobody ever expected something this…brazen—ahem” thus…she began to explain.

“But…because of this, any realm with vague dynastical ties to House Coastfield-Sunnycloud…were given valid grounds to…make claim…enthrone their own claimant…and vassalize the entire county—annexation, basically; Oceanfield, Seashine, Boundless Sea, Warmful Smile, Sealight…I can name them all, but the most…likely of them to actually succeed is Sunflower…”

“And the problem for the Guild…is that, besides…Oceanfield and Boundless Sea, most of these realms…have either heavily restricted or have…as with Sunflower…have banned the Guild entirely; and…also, the Guild has traditional arrangements with House Coastfield-Sunnycloud, bounded by sovereign bloodline; this is why the branch here…not only survived, but ended up thriving once Coastfield became a major city; but because…these arrangements are…bounded by blood compact, they can only persist from a direct continuation of the sovereign line…a close dynastical blood-relative, in other words… Stupid, but it’s what it is…”

“Duhuh…” the foreigner…mumbled out; indeed, this was…quickly going over her head; though, she was the one who asked.

“So, essentially: if any realm enthrones their own claimant, those arrangements won’t continue…and if any Guild unfriendly realm takes over, we have no reason to believe the Coastfield branch won’t be immediately shutdown…which, if that were to happen, the Guild risks losing all of its remaining influence in the entire northwestern coast…since the other branches…rely on Coastfield’s as a hub-anchor, basically, and can’t survive without it” the Raven continued on.

“Of course…obviously, the United Company took over before any of the others; even though they…established their own regency government, without even a…minutely legitimate sovereign, it will never be recognized as valid, especially by Sunflower and the other…interested realms; the only reason why they haven’t tried anything is because of the Company’s direct occupation…which, the problem with that being, that’s not going to last forever…”

“The Empire claims this entire continent and won’t tolerate an illegitimate Far Western occupation…even this far out, and…considering recent…events, we don’t think Rainbow and the Coalition will either… Eventually the Company’s going to be forced to withdraw, and when that happens, their illegitimate government won’t survive long before Sunflower comes gate-knocking… So, beforehand, the Company wants to establish a passably legitimate sovereign court…friendly to their interests, and the Guild wants a direct continuation…”

“Soo…even though the Guild and the Company…aren’t exactly…friends, we share mutual interests and…this is one of them; so, the Bureau has opted to assist the Company in finding…the only viable candidate who can…fulfill both of our interests… though, the problem with Blossom is that…she’s a…well…a she, too young, and…a bastard, so…hardly a legitimate claimant, but still more so than any pretender…and she is blood-related enough to be a direct continuative one…”

“She probably…doesn’t want to be found…and I can’t blame her…but…it isn’t just us looking for her, Sunflower and the others are too…and if they find, they will kill her…at best—so, we have to find her first” thus the Raven…finally concluded.

“Ahem…my throat” she mumbled, indeed…her throat was rather battered after that monologue. She turned her eyes to the foreigner; “…did…any of that…make sense…to you? It…doesn’t…look like it… Just…tell me if it was…just gibberish… since…it probably was, wasn’t it?” she…asked…rather lowly and nervously.

The foreigner sighed; “Yes, it is understood; you explained it finely; we are to locate and bring back this ‘Blossom’ person so that she can become the next ruler of this city so that both the Company’s and the Guild’s interests are protected; others want to eliminate her to make their ‘claims’ better and take control, so we have to protect her too” she repeated in summary.

Indeed, at the very least, she could understand a basic search-and-extract mission even if their politics went over her head…though, such contextual details were still useful to know.

The Raven…nodded away; “Alrightly…goodly heard…” she replied, her nervousness…withering slightly; “Though…still, I wasn’t…really expecting you to follow along with this…without any… I don’t know…bickering, you seem awfully cooperative…” she remarked.

“Well…you speak of interests…and it is my interest to cooperate with this Bureau that seems to know more about me than you imply…and to ensure that certain secrets are…kept secret” the foreigner replied coldly; “and besides…you and your Bureau have your interests, and I have mine…and it happens to be that I am interested in this Bureau as much as it seems interested in me; so, there is…a mutuality” she added…even more coldly.

The Raven…stared; “…wow…really are just frozen ice on the inside” she blurted out, not at all in a negative sense. She ahemed, snapping out of it; “Well—ahem—that’s that, then…uhm…as much as I’d love to keep…chatting…I have a lot…to finish up here… again, stalking you was…not my only—ahem—so, just…be prepared and readied and…meet me back here…tomorrow, sunrise, got it?” she said and instructed.

The foreigner nodded; “It is gotten; I will prepare for tomorrow” she acknowledged.

The Raven…stepped back, redonning her corvid mask and lifting up her hood. Her corvid seemingly responding with more…energy, as it seemed she was going to depart.

“Oh…wait, one more…few more things—ahem” she began to say, “be sure to…have that advanced selectee badge your…sponsor gave you, you’ll be needing it…eventually; and also…”—she eyed the foreigner’s appearance, blushing somewhat—“granted…cute as is—ahem—but if you…can, try to…look the…part, if you know what I mean; not required, but…being a bird…of the Bureau…our appearances can speak…more than words, so best to start separating bird-you from…you-you, if that…makes sense; a simple cloak or something like that…should work for now” she suggested…somewhat awkwardly.

“Anyway…be seeing you, Nilia…uhm…hopefully…this time we can…get to know each other more…genuinely” she said lowly and mellowly…with a faint wave. Swiftly, the Raven climbed up the wall, onto the roof of a building near, and began to depart away, hopping roof to roof with rather the speed as her corvid followed along.

The foreigner immediately sighed; well, that just happened. Her brain was still wrapping itself around…earlier events, it barely had the room for this, to be frank. Yet regardless, thus it was so…now she had to prepare for leaving this locality…entirely. But before any of that, there was still that one other important affair…needing to be finally concluded, having been delayed…long enough.

She began to make way once again, heading for the Guild hall. Though…hmm…her mind lingered, ‘Huckleberry’…why did that name seem…familiar?