“So, you will have a week here in the city and a humble allowance,” Tobba concluded his explanation on what they already knew. Alice had almost scornfully showcased how the Republic had no real countermeasures against magical eavesdropping. They couldn’t be too obvious about what they were doing, but a small portal in the ear that let them listen in had been covert enough. “The Principal was really insistent that you head to his Academy afterwards.”
“That is agreeable,” Elizabeth nodded. They had not really coordinated yet but as ever, she took the lead. “I am also curious about how this wizardry works. It is not practiced where we come from but perhaps there are some insights to be gleaned.”
“In the meantime, you will be staying near the city center,” the captain said. “There are some government-owned flats there. I will try to visit but no promises, my duties resume from tomorrow.”
“You have already helped us more than enough for a stranger,” Irwyn sincerely said. Tobba had argued on their behalf after all. Otherwise, they may well be already halfway to this Academy without even a chance to have a look at the City... If they even bore with such treatment.
“Yes, well…” Tobba said and hesitated.
“Something on your mind, captain?” Elizabeth smiled, not quite sweetly.
“I heard a lot about how your magic was dangerous over the last few hours,” he said after a moment of silence. “You don’t look it, but how can I not worry for you?”
“Naturally there are dangers to magecraft,” Elizabeth nodded agreeably, “Does a person not undertake some hazards in whatever profession they choose? Smiths may suffer injury by the forge, hunters may lose their lives in an afternoon due to bad luck. Does anyone claim a carriage driver is inherently a danger to themselves?”
“I have been told it was a fair bit worse than that.”
“Perhaps without guidance,” Elizabeth shrugged, raised her finger, then pretended to focus for a split second. A wisp of Void magic rose above her nail, almost like black smoke. Tobba tensed. “There are ways to reduce risks. Save methods and hard-earned wisdom of pitfalls. And talent. More than in any other craft, talent.”
She let the wisp of Void zip to the side, drawing a circle around the room in a flash so fast a human eye could barely see it. To the point it seemed like an illusion. Then she let it hover next to her ear as Tobba realized what had just happened. His widening eyes marked the moment Elizabeth let the meager spell dissipate. “I am in perfect control of my magic. So are my companions. It may not seem like it to you, but even implying otherwise is a grave insult.”
“If you say so,” Tobba shook his head, slightly disbelieving at what little he had just beheld but not quite commenting on it. “Let’s get you out of here then.”
Cars were fascinating, Irwyn found. Boxes of plastic on wheels, essentially carriages, but powered by neither horses nor magic. The sound of the engine pumping under the hood was a hint at least. Though Irwyn had no real idea how it all worked.
“You have never seen one?” Tobba was surprised. The captain was still accompanying them, driving said car. It was painted red with reflexive stripes which apparently made it apparent that a firefighter would be the driver. Much like noble houses plastering heraldry over their carriages, Irwyn surmised, or like large merchant groups marking theirs – just distinct in a different way.
“They are not really made in the Federation, I don’t think,” Alice said, then looked over at their expert on ‘why does the Federation not do this’.
“Cars have high demands on production and road quality,” Elizabeth explained. “Chests or whole containers with expanded space fulfill the need for transporting large volumes of goods and the Beacons surpass them in speed easily when it comes to personal transport. There is, simply put, not enough demand to make cars worth the trouble.”
“Your Federation sounds like a very different place,” Tobba noted. “What are these Beacons, for example?”
“They are a very old and unique creation of magic that allows for… long-range teleportation between a very few specific large cities,” Elizabeth hesitantly downplayed, still wanting not to speak on the full extent of magic the Federation was used to.
“Sounds convenient,” said Tobba with a nod. Alice grinned at that wording. But Tobba did not know anything about Finity or half a dozen other magical laws that made teleportation over great distances impractically difficult. It was likely that no one did. Otherwise, their cover story would have been much less believable in the first place.
“How do you make engines without metal?” Elizabeth changed the topic. “And a lot of other things for that matter.”
“Camalan’s Ceramic,” the captain said.
“Those should not be able to handle the pressures,” Elizabeth frowned. “Am I just wrong in assuming that?”
“That’s why we have them graded,” Tobba nodded. “There is a special clay mine not far from the capital. What comes from there is much more difficult to process as far as I understand but the final product has special qualities – we call it Camalan after the city’s founder who had also first discovered the mine, a contemporary of the Founder. You would need to ask someone else for the details. But it’s used all around the place.”
“Ah, a Source of somewhat supernatural clay,” Elizabeth said with a slight nod. “I can see that working. Is there enough, though, to support a country?”
“Rural areas have a lot less technology,” the captain admitted. “But it’s enough for our few cities.”
Speaking of cities, this one was much more interesting up close rather than from above. There was a decent number of cars on the streets but that was not the most fascinating part. It was the glass. There was so much glass in all the buildings. Massive windows on every storefront but even many of the houses which had looked just like concrete cubes from above had wide views - even if those only led into the streets.
“Well, we are here,” Tobba eventually said, the car stopping.
They were definitely in the good part of the city, Irwyn reckoned. Actually, on the same street as some kind of government establishment. The apartment building was not particularly distinctive. Erected from concrete, no taller than the others around. It was split into several entrances, whereupon Tobba led them to one of them, a stairway leading them up afterwards. The two apartments assigned to them were numbered three and four, both on the second floor and facing each other. Everything seemed rather… formulaic about the building. Like everything was made from the same cast. That included the insides.
It was not too long before noon by then. Tobba said he would visit them if he could but actually needed to head back home to his own family. That left them with not that much to do after settling in. They didn’t exactly have anything they needed to unpack. Then it came down to their options. Everyone else wanted to have a look around the area. Meanwhile, Irwyn was more inclined to figure out how inscribing a Concept into his flesh would work. They eventually convinced him that it would be best to not split up yet, which was a fair point. Their entry into the country was not exactly subtle, so it was best to be careful.
And assume they were under watch. Elizabeth reiterated that many times. No matter what the local military thought, it was unlikely they would be freed of suspicion so easily and wholly. First such spy was actually literally trying to listen in on them as they were speaking, Alice pointed out. That was fruitless, of course, given the magically enforced privacy Elizabeth had erected but it was something to be aware of.
“They are actually almost leaning against the door,” Alice looked towards the front entrance. “Quite young for a spy? I think?”
“Yeah, they are probably getting nervous hearing nothin’,” Waylan nodded. “Would weird me out too in their sues. Gimme a second.”
The sneak then very quietly but still visibly moved towards the door, having Elizabeth dismiss her magic. A few steps in front of it, Waylan paused, straightened up, then pulled at the doorknob. In one swift motion, the prankster opened the door and stepped through it, pretending as if he had just been fast walking distractedly. He even looked back at the rest of their group, as if he hadn’t been paying any attention to what might be behind said door.
“Wa…!” a voice was raised in alarm a split second before Waylan inevitably collided with her. A woman, or perhaps a girl, their age, tried to awkwardly avoid a collision. This was made difficult by Waylan making no such efforts. A situation that lead to them collapsing into a heap.
“Careful,” Waylan said sagely as soon as they were on the ground. Not surprised since he had caused it, he was quicker to stand back up. “Eavesdropping is a tripping hazard.”
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“Are spies usually this… straightforward here?” Irwyn asked.
“I am not a spy,” she immediately defended herself. The clearly military uniform she was wearing – much the same as the ones they had seen at the base - did not help her case. Nor did the stumbling when trying to get back on her feet.
“In the same way as we have not caught you?” Elizabeth gave her a very unconvinced raise of eyebrows.
“It’s just… I got curious, alright?” the girl flushed. “A whole group suddenly moves in here? I was wondering what was strange about you all.”
“Strange?” Elizabeth picked up on the word.
“No one normal gets put into this building,” the girl snorted, then seemingly realized that might have been taken as an insult, flushed, and began apologizing. All with admirable alacrity. “That is… we all have some special circumstances, ehm. So, as I said, curious.”
“We are foreign agents determined to undermine the government,” Waylan said with a straight face.
“Or take it over,” Alice added. “Whichever is easier.”
“I… see?” the newcomer became somewhat visibly nervous.
“We are just from very far away and thus automatically suspicious,” Irwyn spared her. “I didn’t catch your name?” not that he would likely remember it.
“Alice,” the stranger said, giving a slight bow. “Hello.”
“Well… this is a bit awkward,” the other Alice groaned. Everyone quickly introduced themselves making the coincidence apparent.
“Look at the positives,” Waylan grinned. “Irwyn will probably remember your name because of this.”
“Probably,” Elizabeth nodded alongside him seriously.
“Probably,” Alice did not miss the opportunity to add her own dose of mockery.
“So, if everyone here is somewhat strange, what about you?” Irwyn changed the topic before indigenous Alice could wonder what that was about.
“I am also from abroad,” the girl confessed. “From the Western Kingdom, actually.”
“Isn’t that a neighboring nation?” Elizabeth frowned. Meanwhile, Irwyn was realizing that he would need to pick a different adjective since his first go-to had been technically incorrect.
“It is rare for commoners to be able to leave,” Alice the semi-local said hesitantly. “And mine was unusual even for that… anyways, I should introduce you to the other neighbors! It’s been a while since anyone new came around.”
“Why not?” Elizabeth shrugged but looked at everyone else for a different opinion. Since no one objected they followed the girl out the door. “Who else is here?”
“Jonathan is a chemist… technically,” Alice2 explained. “He got into trouble with their ministry over something and ended up forbidden from using his license commercially. But then the military wanted him instead so now he is kind of stuck in-between? He is kind of keeping a low profile so that the people up high who hate him don’t get angry at him still having a job. Then there is Calamita - yes, I know, but she won’t tell me her real name. She is some kind of Ecologyst but like, angry. Ugh, she is not around much. Be careful you don’t let her see you squishing a bug or something. I think she tried to poison me for that at least twice.”
“Good company,” Waylan summarized. “I do prefer neighbors that will do me harm. That’s why I always lived near some.”
“Oh, no, she knew I would be fine,” Alice(4minus2) shook her head. “I used to… well, I am hard to poison. And do some Honing, actually, if you know what that is.”
“Not the slightest clue,” Waylan nodded, attracted her attention, then smoothly disappeared as she was looking at him.
“What?”
“Don’t mind Waylan,” Irwyn explained. “That is his way of saying ‘me too’.”
“Oh, sweet!” she seemed quite happy to hear that. “We can compare notes? Most people here are super weird about it.”
“Who else lives in this building?” Alice1 asked.
“Just the three of us and you now,” her namesake answered. “Used to be a few more but they got caught up in the blue fire thing. It’s… better not to speak about them.”
“What is this blue fire about?” Irwyn asked. They had eavesdropped on Tobba and that intelligence officer mentioning it. “We quite literally arrived yesterday in an airship but it sounds like a big deal.”
“It’s definitely been a huge thing,” Alice [other] nodded. “Strange blue flames appeared in the Century Mall one day and refused to be extinguished easily. Anyone who so much as touched it died or worse. No one seems to understand it though. I haven’t even heard whether it was an attack, an accident, or some kind of natural disaster. Actually, Jonathan might know more. He has been researching it, I think.”
“You meant to introduce us to him anyway,” Irwyn suggested. They had stopped in the hallway floor down.
“Oh, yeah, I got distracted,” she nodded, then turned to knock on the door they were already standing by. Her voice raised. “Natnat, you in there?!”
There was no answer. To which Alicen’t sighed, reached for the knob, then lifted the door from its hinges in one smooth motion. Irwyn stared in some surprise at how a lock had not stopped that from happening but quickly recovered to notice that the door seemingly had a wall lock instead of one built in - which the unhinging neatly bypassed. Irwyn noted that much as they were let in while their guide put it back in place with suspicious amount of practice to the action.
“At least take us to lunch before we commit burglary together,” Waylan chided.
“It’s fine, Jonathan just gets too focused sometimes,” she shrugged. “Just dodge if he throws anything.”
The apartment they found themselves invading was seemingly also built off of the same template, yet lived in by someone who did not believe in regular cleaning. Clothes in various states of wash were layered around the furniture, together with a lot of paper. Mostly schematics and technical documents from what Irwyn briefly glimpsed. Too complex to make sense of with just casual inspection and maybe even an indepth one.
“His lab is in the back,” she noted, then walked towards there. A door corresponding to where one of the bedrooms should be was indeed closed. “No sock on the handle, that means he is not doing something that dangerous.”
“How have you found that out?” Waylan joked.
“He started putting it up after almost spilling some acid on me,” she nodded with full seriousness while oppening said door. “I probably would have survived it but he was pretty freaked out.”
Inside was indeed a laboratory. Many glass vials and a rather complex set of equipment that instantly reminded Irwyn of an alchemist’s workshop were arrayed on several sturdy oaken tables. And by one of the tables sat a pale middle-aged man in a long white coat with more than one stain and a visible hole near the hem.
“Natnat, we have new neighbors!” Alice2 - had he already used that one? - exclaimed making the man carefully stop whatever he had been doing and put his tools down.
“Please, do not call me that,” he said, the voice soft. “And what have I told you about bringing people here? Please, do not touch anything. Some of it is very dangerous. Or at least scalding hot.”
“They wanted to hear about the blue flames,” she explained. “I thought you would know a bunch.”
“We are from far away abroad,” Elizabeth said the important omitted bit. “We just learned about the event and got naturally curious.”
“I don’t have anything more interesting to say. I have made no real progress in learning anything beyond what is already widely known.”
“That would actually be of interest,” Irwyn chimed in. “And maybe we could help - I have an understanding of Flames.”
“I am sure,” the man nodded, failing to hide his dismissiveness. “But this was no ordinary arson. In fact, it barely behaved like fire.”
“Flame is still Flame,” Irwyn disagreed. “No matter what, I will have some insight into it you probably cannot.”
“Well, I was hardly making any progress either way,” the man sighed. “I suppose I can look for a shift in perspective. Fine, so I have been doing everything and anything I could think of, trying to figure out what set these flames and how they could have spread. But no chemical or alchemical compound I try comes even close, even in laboratory environment. I have found and tested a few that will not extinguish when water is poured on them but none of those can spread like those blue flames had. Nor any of the other properties for that matter. I am not even looking at the distinctive color yet since that has been a dead end. Frankly, at this point I am starting to think it had little to do with chemistry.”
“If not water, how were they originally put out?” Irwyn asked, looking around. “You must have a way to do that here since you are experimenting with some. Do you just starve them of food?”
“As ridiculous as it sounds, they were extinguished by direct sunlight,” Jonathan pointed at his shuttered window, clearly ready to be opened. “Or running out of fuel, as you guessed. Weird as they were, the flames could not feed off of just concrete. But small patches went out in seconds under sunlight.”
“Why are you so sure it must be some kind of compound in the first place?” Irwyn questioned.
“A fire must burn something or it will get extinguished.”
“It could simply be burning magic,” Irwyn said.
“Yes, very funny,” the man seemed distinctly unamused. “Simply create unextinguishable fire from thin air.”
Feeling slightly insulted, Irwyn raised his palm and did exactly that, a crimson plume sprouting above. “It is actually quite simple.”
“Is this… wizardry?” at least Jonathan was at least given pause by that. “Don’t you need those symbols or something?”
“This is magecraft,” Irwyn said. “Different from what you call wizardry, though I am not yet sure how exactly yet. But I don’t need any ‘symbols’ for one. It is simply Flame, I wield and feed it.”
“There are more kinds of magic?”
“Yes?” Irwyn seemed as surprised as his counterpart.
“Damn it,” the man muttered, closed his eyes, then let out a very long sigh before continuing. “How was I supposed to figure that out? The academies announced that ‘it was not wizardry’, so I assumed like any sane person that this would not be just pure magic. No wonder I have been bashing my head against a wall this whole time. Trying to figure out a half-magical compound that would make sense.”
“How would they even know?” Alice [original] cut in. She and Elizabeth had been listening to the conversation, though left the speaking to Irwyn for the most part. “Any evidence would have been burned, right?”
“There might be ways wizards have of detecting the work of others,” Elizabeth guessed. “I would need to understand them better first to have a better guess.”
“It will be hard for me to deduce anything without seeing these Flames,” Irwyn returned to the topic. “But I am assuming there are not exactly samples left, are there?”
“What about ashes?” Jonathan asked. “I requested some to examine but they seemed ordinary.”
“I cannot promise success but maybe there could be something,” Irwyn shrugged. He did not mind trying.
“All right,” Jonathan nodded, quite enthusiastic for any lead it seemed. Irwyn’s brief display seemed to have changed his attitude completely. The man got up and walked to the corner of the room where a wooden chest sat beneath some tarp. There the chemist undid the clasps, took out a sealed vial, and promptly brought it back over.
“I can definitely feel a hint of magic lingering in it,” Irwyn said, seeing Elizabeth also nod from the corner of his eye. It was miniscule but given how magic-deprived the environment was, it was still possible to feel it, if barely. “Can I take a closer look?”
“I have plenty,” Jonathan nodded and gestured for him to go on ahead.
Irwyn removed the cork and was about to pour some on his palm. Then paused. Almost involuntarily, a whiff of a smell had reached his nose. So he breathed in again, deeper this time. Then three more until he was sure. They did not smell like ashes should. Instead, there was something putrid to it. The barest hint of rot. Or Rot.
He looked at the chemist and realized something he had not put together before from the details. “What exactly happened to the people killed by the flames?”
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