Heads up, I initially didn't include a section at the end of the last chapter. I fixed it a few days after publication, but you may have missed it. It's the bit about the Magical Miasma Stones.
Shadows flickered past as Subaru walked forward through a world of grey. The only hint of colour came from the light of the fire spirits, hovering close by his side. His own clothes had been chosen for their nondescript appearance, in muted shades of brown. They didn't stand out at all against the harsh darkness.
"Um, let's see… Sol, can you make out that mansion?" Subaru asked, straining his eyes to try and focus on a silhouette looming out of the shadows. "I think this left is the start of the street into the lower strata, but it's so hard to make out landmarks…"
Sol glanced over, then shook from side to side, and jerked down the right fork in the road.
Next one.
Subaru looked up at him. "Ah, really?" He glanced at the building again, then shrugged "Well, I'll trust your judgement. I haven't been out in the city in over a month, after all."
He continued moving through the world of shadows, following Sol as if the Yang spirit was a guiding star.
Huginn and Muninn stayed close by his side, examining everything they passed with unbridled curiosity. That was par for the course for Muninn, and it was Huginn's first time accompanying Subaru as he used the shadow-walking technique.
Truthfully, it was Subaru's first time going such a long distance as well. He had, of course, known that travelling through the shadows would cut down on the distance he needed to go, but actually experiencing it was another thing entirely. The shadowy forms of gnarled trees would flicker and vanish behind him with every step of his feet, and mansions moved past like lumbering mammoths. It hardly felt like Subaru was moving at all.
No wonder those bastards are so hard to catch. Subaru thought. I'm just going at a walking pace, and I'm going to reach the lower strata in minutes! If they can all use something like this, no knight could keep up.
It was greatly versatile as well, in ways that weren't immediately obvious to Subaru. He had expected to have some difficulty sneaking out of the cult's manor without being noticed, but the shadow-walking technique had allowed him to simply float down from the window. It should have been a five meter fall and broken at least one of his bones, yet it had felt like nothing more than stumbling on a single step down stairs.
Even that mild discomfort had probably been a fluke, or a mishandling of the technique on Subaru's part. The ground and walls felt 'spongy', for lack of a better term. It almost felt as though he'd be able to push his way right past them, if he put in the effort.
Exactly seven steps later, he reached the next fork in the road, and he turned right, the road beginning to slope down the hill towards the commoner sections of the city. Three more steps brought them to the first obstacle they would face that night, one that Subaru wasn't sure how to deal with.
A lamppost.
It stood there tall and proud, as if mocking Subaru, bathing the area in its light, blotting out the darkness.
"It's way brighter than you were, Huginn," Subaru said. "I won't be able to maintain the technique if we pass by it."
He tilted his head up to the spirits, and asked, "What do you think? Should we risk becoming visible?"
Affirm. Sol stated. The light was no issue, they were far enough away from the manor to avoid notice.
Denial. Huginn argued. They could have been tailed, it was better to remain in the shadows until Luna met up with them and gave the all-clear. They could just go around the light, through the tree-line.
"Are you sure, Huginn?" Subaru asked. "We could get lost really easily with how fast we move, and it's quite difficult to make out landmarks. We might have to leave the shadow early anyway."
With a mild sense of bemusement, Huginn flicked his attention toward the lamppost. Landmark.
"Eh? You want me to stay close enough to see it?" Subaru asked. "But it's really hard to keep the technique together in light like this. I might not be able to while moving."
Even without moving, he was struggling to keep the loops of mana stable. The loop going through his body was fine, and strangely enough, the one going through his Od was better than ever. On the other hand, the one going out through his gate was wavering as it cycled, and the shadows around them trembled in his grasp. If they got any closer to the light, he'd lose his grip entirely.
Yet, Huginn's idea wasn't without merit. The lamppost did stand out, and it shouldn't be that hard to find if they overshot it.
Not to mention, Subaru didn't want to leave the shadows just yet. There was something comforting about the dark world he found himself in, something so familiar about the way the shadows roiled around them, though he couldn't place exactly why.
"Alright," Subaru decided. "Sol, keep an eye on the light, make sure we don't get too far away from it. Huginn, you look ahead of me. Let me know if I'm going to run into… Well, obstacles probably won't make a difference, but I don't want to end up inside someone's house or fall off a cliff."
Both spirits bobbed.
Subaru took small steps as he moved, trying to stay close to the light, but as it turned out, he needn't have bothered. The light's grasp slowed him down, so much so that he was travelling mere meters with each step. It was almost trivially easy to circle around, and make their way back onto the road.
"Luckily there aren't too many of those in the city," Subaru said, looking back. "It's mostly these decorative ones on important roads and intersections. I don't think I've seen a single one in the lower strata."
He sighed. "Not that it helps us, since those crystal lamps are so cheap and convenient. They're too bright to risk shadow-walking through the built-up areas."
Acceptable. Sol reassured him. Far away, no pursuers.
"Yeah, I'm just twitchy," Subaru admitted. "Come on, the sooner we meet up with Luna, the happier I'll be."
Subaru wasn't sure how long they waited at the edge of the densely packed buildings of the lower city. He had told Luna to only watch for pursuers for a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity before the Yin spirit showed up.
See? Sol declared. Patience.
"I wasn't being impatient!" Subaru protested, finally letting the shadows recede so Luna could find them. "I'm just jumpy, alright?"
As he emerged from the ground, Subaru noticed that the sky was much lighter. The sun had well and truly set, and yet a trace of twilight remained. It was bright enough that Subaru, adjusted to the darkness of the shadow-walking technique, could clearly make out the road and buildings down their intended path.
Success!
He turned to look at Luna, her slight glow against the fading twilight making her appear as if she were some kind of ghost. "How did they react?" he asked. "Did they notice us leaving?"
Luna shook from side to side. Avoid room. Afraid.
Subaru sighed in relief. "Well, I guess being an Archbishop has its perks."
He looked down the road, eyes drawn to the lanterns carried by those who still wandered around the area. Any one of them might take note of someone walking alone late at night, especially one with rare black hair. If they looked closer, they'd see his nasty eyes, and then rumours about him might begin to spread, especially if Subaru was successful in his gambit to put the guards on alert.
Subaru sighed. There was no choice.
"It's a bit early," he said, "but I think we should put up our disguise now."
The majority of the city had settled down for the night. In most areas, the streets were empty aside from the occasional dragon carriage slowly making its way by lamplight, or the stragglers hurrying home.
But not everyone was heading for the comfort of their beds. From the less reputable parts of the city, various crooks and ne'er-do-wells emerged from their haunts to skulk the alleys, while guards patrolled the streets to ward off any opportunistic crimes.
But of most concern to Subaru, some bars ran late into the night, and the streets near them were still lit by the occasional drunkards, stumbling home with lanterns in their hands.
He strode through the streets, giving said drunkards a wide berth whenever he encountered one. Drunks could be unpredictable—he knew that too well from Otto's benders—and he didn't want to risk one undoing his disguise.
Poison? Muninn asked curiously, drawing closer to one of the fallen drunkards to get a better look. All four spirits were currently invisible, so as not to expose Subaru. They'd still be noticed if they happened to run into another spirit arts user, but those were rare enough that Subaru felt it was worth the risk.
He shook his head, and muttered under his breath, "Technically no, but some people think it might as well be. Regardless, they're okay, probably. You don't need to worry about them."
He drew closer to an open doorway, a sound of many people emanating from it.
He glanced up at the sign above the entrance, a rat laying on a bottle, and flicked a glance at Sol and Luna.
They bobbed. Here.
He turned into the doorway, and strode inside, immediately coming face to face with a large, burly man. He stared down at Subaru, in a manner that was clearly meant to intimidate. Subaru couldn't muster up much in the way of fear though. He had seen worse than bouncers.
The man grunted, and stepped aside. "You're new," he commented. "Stay out of trouble. Start anything, and you'll be out on the street."
Subaru nodded respectfully, and squeezed his bag by the man. The bouncer paid no attention to it. Whether that was due to the fact that the bouncer didn't care what he brought into the bar, or the fact that he had attempted to cast an unnoticeablity spell on it, Subaru couldn't say.
The bouncer didn't spare a second glance at Subaru's face. He didn't comment on his rare black hair, nor did his gaze linger on Subaru's nasty eyes.
And why would he? At the present moment, Subaru had neither of those features. His hair was now a dull red, and his eyes were brown, without a trace of their usual nastiness. The illusion that currently covered his face had changed his look entirely.
It did take some concentration to keep it up, as he wasn't yet capable of anchoring it to his face, but it was minor. The biggest worry was that something would jolt him suddenly, and make his face flicker. Hopefully if that happened, Subaru would be able to brush it off as a trick of the light. And if not… Well, there was a reason he had brought his spirits.
He stepped into the room, and was greeted by the sight of a wild crowd.
There was a variance between the qualities of bars in the city. Some were priced higher and kept cleaner, appearing more refined for clientele from the upper classes; merchants and nobility. Some, like the Broken Wheel, were more like restaurants, places for the decently well-off to get a meal, or for the down on their luck to drink away their problems.
The Rat's Bottle catered to much lower quality guests. The alcohol was cheap and nasty, the people were rowdy and chaotic, and even the newest tables had been through one too many bar fights.
The atmosphere of the room was peaceful for the time being, but for all Subaru knew, that could change in a heartbeat. It was best to get his business over with as soon as possible.
He carefully made his way through the maze of tables and people, towards the far corner of the room. It was prime real estate for a mysterious hooded figure to sit, preferably one that sat with his legs crossed on the table, a mug in hand, ready to help out desperate country bumpkins on their way to destroy magic jewellery.
The man sitting at that table fulfilled none of those descriptions. He sat up straight, paying rapt attention to the other denizens of the room, and though his helmet was currently resting on the table beside him, he looked ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.
As Subaru approached, he flicked his familiar blue eyes to look him over, and he let out a slight sigh.
He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair as Subaru reached the table. "If you've come with 'an offer I couldn't refuse', I'll have to deny your request," he said, his voice firm. Subaru felt a shudder as something blanketed his mind, calming his jitters. He smiled despite himself. With that particular trait of his Divine Protection, Alexander would be a terrible negotiator.
"Ah, bu—but I have no offa' for ya," Subaru told the golden haired guard, almost choking on his words as they spilled out. The technique Velia had taught him to distort his voice was not particularly comfortable at the best of times, and Subaru was using a half-finished version while concentrating on the illusion over his face.
It felt like a rag had been stuffed into his mouth, making him have to force out every word, as if he were trying to speak while underwater. At least it would change his voice enough that no one would recognise him. As he was now, even his parents wouldn't be able to recognise Subaru.
But damn, was his mouth dry. The air tasted like sawdust with every breath. The sooner this exchange was over with, the better. He let his grip on the technique loosen up slightly, just enough that it would be easier to get the words out.
He sat down in the chair opposite the guard. Luckily, Alexander didn't seem phased by his stuttering. He had turned his eyes away to sweep the bar again, keeping watch for any signs of trouble.
"I do, however, have a warning, Patrol Vice-Captain Alexander," Subaru said. He still had a trace of a drawl in his voice, but he couldn't loosen up any further without risking his voice becoming identifiable. "A warning for you, for the guards, and for the city."
Alexander met his gaze for the first time, then raised an eyebrow quizzically. "You know me? Was that a threat?"
He held Subaru's gaze for a moment, eyes narrowed, then sighed. "No, my apologies. I should not have leapt to conclusions."
He relaxed his posture momentarily, then immediately went back into business mode. "If you have information you wish to convey to the guards, it would be faster to bring it to a guard station. If, however, you wish to remain anonymous, you may send a letter to headquarters, though I doubt they'll read it. We're a little short-staffed at the moment."
He scanned the bar, then turned back to Subaru. "If you want me to deliver this 'warning' on your behalf, I will do so, but I doubt…"
He trailed off and Subaru reached into his bag, his fingers resting on the pommel of his blade.
"Don't worry, it's not a weapon," Subaru said.
He paused. "Well actually, it is a weapon, but I'm not going to use it."
He pulled a small bundle of cloth out, and laid it on the table between them.
Alexander quirked an eyebrow at him. "What's this?"
"Proof," Subaru said. "Something to show you should take my words seriously. And if it's not enough, I have more."
Alexander tilted his head, and pulled the bundle over to his side of the table. He unwrapped the cloth carefully, as if searching for any magical traps. When he found none, he pulled it off completely, to reveal a finely-crafted cross-shaped dagger.
It was one of several the cult had given Subaru as part of his wardrobe. He had no idea how to actually use a dagger properly, but he had kept it anyway. It was for precisely this moment.
For a few moments, Alexander just stared at the dagger in confusion. Then a flicker of recognition crossed his face, and he frowned, trying to recall exactly what it was.
Then he went very still, and slowly lifted his gaze to meet Subaru's.
"Where did you get this?" he asked, his voice low, barely audible over the surrounding din.
"I can't say," Subaru said, lowering his voice to match Alexander's. "But I can tell you where it came from."
Alexander frowned, and a trace of anger entered his voice. "I'll tell you plainly, if this is a joke, confess now. If there are cul—" he caught himself, and his eyes darted around the bar.
When he seemed confident no one had overheard him, he turned his burning eyes back on Subaru, and lowered his voice to a whisper. "If there are cultists in the city, the guards… no, even the knights need to be informed. If you've had information, you should have—"
"If a tip about the witch's cult is given at a guard station, it'll be discarded," Subaru interrupted. He above all people would know, as he had already tried that in a previous life.
"Proof given at a guard station would compromise me…" Mora was paying particular attention to the guard outposts, so the cultists that scoped them out might pick up on Subaru's scent if he visited one.
"…and if I sent an anonymous letter? What was it you said? You doubt they'd read it?" Subaru finished, leaning forward onto the table.
Alexander remained silent for a moment. He looked back down at the dagger in front of him, then glanced around at the other patrons, and covered it back up with the cloth.
"Alright, talk," he said. "I don't believe you yet, not fully, but I'll relay everything you tell me to the higher ups. But if you're lying—"
"As I said, I have more proof," Subaru said, pulling a small notepad out of his bag. "Keep this safe, and make sure it gets to someone with the power to make decisions. It contains all the information I've gathered about the cult's forces in the city, and their plans for the next month."
A lie, of course. Subaru hadn't written everything he knew, just most of the cult's staging grounds and primary hideouts. He wanted to kick the hornet's nest and see what Mora would do, not burn down the hive with him in it. Notably, the book lacked any information about the main manor, and Mora's residence.
Subaru laid it on the table, and slid it over to the guard. Alexander caught it with one hand, but made no moves to open it.
"Their forces in the city?" he whispered, a distant look in his eyes. Contrary to the optimistic, reliable guard Subaru had interacted with previously, the Alexander in front of him seemed completely overwhelmed.
I suppose anyone would be, if they heard their city was infested by those monsters, Subaru thought. I guess this means he's convinced. Or at the very least, he believes it's possible. Well, it doesn't really matter so long as he brings it up the ranks.
"What are they doing?" he asked, frustration evident in his tone. "They've hidden for so long…"
A look of horror dawned on his face.
"Unless… no way… have they been here this whole time? They've been hiding under our noses, right here in the capital?"
Subaru nodded. "Well, it appears that you understand the majority of the situation. Give that a read, and bring it to your commander."
He paused, remembering the helmeted man who had sat beside Alexander in the emergency meeting in the previous loop. From what he remembered of what Otto had told him…
"Strike that, bring it right to the top. I'm sure that the Captain of the Guards would be delighted to have a chance to prove his worth. Just be sure to leak it to the knights if he obstructs them, I don't have the capacity to get to them directly."
Alexander brought his eyes to Subaru again, and this time, there was a tension as they made eye contact.
"How…? How do you know so much? And how did you get that dagger?"
He hesitated. "Are you—?"
Subaru abruptly got to his feet, and stepped back. Alexander's hand was on his sword, and he looked ready to draw it at a moment's notice. The only reason he didn't attack Subaru then and there was the potential for the civilians around them to be hurt in the crossfire.
The spirits prepared behind him, and he felt the mild circulation of mana in the air as they readied for battle.
He leaned down over the table, and whispered. "Perhaps I am, perhaps I am not. Be confident, at least, that we share a goal."
"Regardless, I must ask you to come in for questioning," Alexander answered, his voice as quiet as Subaru's.
"And if I refuse?" Subaru asked.
They held each other's gaze for a moment, then Alexander's flickered to the civilians still in the bar. Some of them had begun to take notice of their confrontation, and the din was beginning to die down a little.
"Then it seems there's nothing I can do," Alexander said, relaxing his grip. He sat back in his chair, and picked the notebook and cloth bundle off the table.
Sol started, and let his preparations drop rather abruptly. He had been the most certain that Alexander would attempt to bring them in.
Subaru pushed his confusion away, focusing on his current situation. He had reached the end of everything he had planned to say, and Alexander didn't look like he wanted to continue their discussion.
No point in overstaying his welcome. He turned around to leave.
Some of the other patrons gave him a berth as he passed, but most of them hadn't seemed to notice his presence. That was good. Rumours would be unlikely to spread.
"Dragon above, Aleh—!" he heard one of the drunks whisper behind him, too drunk to keep his voice down. "Wha' was tha'? I nevah see you upset."
"Guard business," Alexander said behind him, and his Divine Protection washed over the bar, driving away whatever fear they might have had.
"Nothing to worry about," he said, sounding as if he was speaking to himself more than anyone.
Subaru allowed the illusion covering his face to soften as soon as he left the bar. It took a lot of concentration to maintain, and now that he was out on the street, he only needed to blur his features a bit. When combined with a mild unnoticeability technique, he'd be just another person, of rather average, unremarkable features.
True, anyone who looked at him for more than a second would realise something was very wrong about him, but he'd have moved on before anyone could examine him even that closely. It was night, and the crystal lamps being carried around made everyone's face look a bit funny.
A side benefit of using that set of spells instead was that Subaru could shadow-walk down less-occupied streets with less fear of being exposed by a sudden light. The unnoticeability should stop anyone from wondering where he came from.
It wasn't as safe as simply walking through the lower strata, but Subaru didn't want to risk being followed back from the inn. Alexander or anyone he sent would be able to follow a nondescript cloaked man, but not someone who seemed to teleport through the darkness.
The only issue was the mana consumption, but he didn't feel like he needed to save for a possible confrontation anymore, so Luna and Sol could use some of their reserves.
On that note, Sol had been rather quiet since they left the bar. Aside from Luna, all the spirits were tired, but Sol's silence seemed more introspective than normal.
Finally, he drifted closer to Subaru, and asked a question.
Why?
"Hmm? Why what?"
Didn't arrest. Sol projected, with the image of what he imagined their meeting looked like from Alexander's perspective. Subaru was a mysterious stranger, with ties to the evilest, most vile organisation imaginable, and yet Alexander let him go without requiring much persuasion.
Why?
Subaru tilted his head. "Well, because we could have been quite powerful? Or because he didn't know if I really was a part of the cult, or even because he didn't want to risk the surrounding civilians getting hurt."
He slowed down a tad as they got to an intersection, then looked directly at Sol. "But wasn't this our best-case scenario? Aren't you glad it worked?"
Sol indignantly insisted he had never believed the best-case would actually come to pass. While he didn't exactly disagree with Alexander's possible motives, he found them somewhat… tainted. Impure. Unknightly, for a lack of a better word.
"'Unknightly'?" Subaru asked. "What exactly would be the knightly thing to do? Try to catch me, and risk civilian lives if I put up a fight? Risk death if I was stronger? Refuse to work with me because I might be evil, and not use information that could save lives?"
Sol hesitated. He seemed at a loss for exactly what he expected.
Know, he eventually decided. A knightly person would know what the best course of action was, one that would solve all the problems, and stop evil. The fact that Sol didn't know yet was proof that he wasn't truly knightly yet.
To Subaru, the Yang spirit's earnest thoughts sounded naive. Naive in the way that youthful dreams usually were. It was like this part of Sol's understanding of the world came from out of a fairytale.
"Ah," Subaru said as understanding dawned on him. "I forgot, you're still a minor spirit. You've always seemed so worldly, but I guess you have your childish side as well."
Sol pulsed with irritation.
"No, no, hear me out," Subaru lifted his hands defensively. "Just think, isn't his situation nearly the same as ours? He's decided to work with a possible enemy to avert a calamity. We're working with the cult to figure out what their plans are."
Different, Sol insisted.
They had no choice, a direct approach wouldn't work. And it wasn't like Subaru was actually being any help to the cult. He had them draft plans, but in Sol's view, it amounted to little more than Subaru asking the cult about how to stop them.
In Sol's simplistic black-and-white morality, their actions were right, and the cult's were wrong. Alexander's fell into an uncomfortable middle-ground that the Yang spirit had never encountered before, given the life he had lived, sheltered in the palace, rarely ever leaving its confines.
His view of the world was shaped by the grandest and most virtuous of the knights, interacting only with each other, and the mildly less reputable officials of the palace.
He'd never seen people forced to compromise on their ideals before. Subaru's actions had skirted the edge of what Sol found acceptable, but Alexander's were too much.
"Then…" Subaru said, racking his brain for anything he could say to help the Yang spirit. Morality was far from a solved topic, even after several thousand years of debates between the greatest philosophers of his old world.
If he was to explain the field to Sol, then the best place to start would be…
"The Trolley Problem."
This time, Luna and Huginn joined in with Sol's confusion.
Metal box?
"Er, no, it's… well, we don't usually call them 'trolleys', but they're basically dragon carriages. The problem is that there's one out of control, and it's going to run over some people, but you can switch the track—"
Track?
Subaru stared at them. Four expectant gazes stared back.
"You know what, forget the trolley. Er… give me a second, let me try and come up with a different version."
He took a few minutes to figure out a version that didn't involve anything his spirits wouldn't understand.
"Alright, so this is something like a test, but there are no right answers. You can think of it like something of a game. I'm going to tell you a story, and at the end, you decide what you would do in that situation."
He cleared his throat, and started, "There's a carriage at the top of a hill, and it's loaded with loads of heavy crates. It accidentally starts rolling down the hill, towards a group of five people at the bottom. If things are left as they are, it will kill them all."
His spirits bobbed, indicating that they understood so far. Even Muninn was paying rapt attention. She had heard the word 'game', and immediately focused entirely on Subaru. Games were her forte, she would never allow herself to sit one out.
"You're standing half-way down the hill," Subaru continued, "and there's a pile of… something, let's say more crates, next to you. You can push…"
He blinked, and glanced at them, all of whom were mostly intangible spirits. They wouldn't be pushing anything anywhere.
"You know what, forget the crates. You can use some mana to trigger a piece of earth lagmite on the road, and cause the carriage to swerve, but if you do, it will hit one person standing on the sidewalk. There is no one else around who can help. You have to make the choice. Activate the lagmite, or let the carriage pass."
Activate, Huginn answered without hesitation.
Leave, Luna answered in the same breath.
The two stared at each other with mild shock.
Kill! Luna insisted. In her opinion, activating the lagmite would be no better than murdering the person on the sidewalk.
Save, Huginn countered. Saving more lives was more important in the simple scenario Subaru had described.
They continued bickering with each other, while Muninn brightened, and flew over to Subaru.
Explosion! she declared happily. By overloading the earth lagmite, it would create a load blast, alerting everyone, and letting them run away.
"Em…" Subaru tilted his head at the fire spirit "that's not really the point of the dilemma though… and mightn't that cause the situation to get worse? What if everyone dies because they couldn't run away in time, with the added danger of falling rocks everywhere?"
Run faster!
That's harsh. Well, she's only a child. Perhaps it's inevitable that she'd figure out a way around such a simple problem.
Subaru turned his attention to the only one who hadn't piped up yet.
Sol was quiet, thoughtfully flickering as they travelled through the last stretch of the lower strata.
"Any thoughts, Sol?"
Sol met his eyes.
Kill, or let die?
Subaru nodded. "That is the idea, yeah."
Sol turned his attention away again.
Neither… knightly.
Subaru sighed.
"That's the thing. Sometimes, there just isn't a right answer."
Sol did not speak again for the remainder of the trip back.
Nothing was out of the ordinary the next day. Breakfast was served, and Griselda gave her standard report. The guards hadn't made a move, but Subaru would have been surprised if they had. It had only been a few hours since his meeting with Alexander.
He spent the day training with his usual regime, though he did have to ask Coen to acquire new Magical Miasma Stones. The young cultist didn't bat an eye at the order. He had grown steadily more used to Subaru since they had met, and he no longer feared that Subaru would bite his head off if he messed up.
Days passed, and Subaru made little progress. Sensing the mark of the Witch was apparently something that you 'grew into', and despite his efforts, Subaru could not detect anything at all. It was aggravating, but Subaru was unable to concentrate properly anyway.
He waited with bated breath, his stomach churning almost constantly, for the day Griselda's report would change.
Then, on the fifth day since he spoke with Alexander, it finally happened.
Griselda did not appear at breakfast that day. Subaru was left to eat alone, while he sent his spirits out to investigate.
The cultists in the manor were anxious. Some were hurriedly cleaning the top floor, moving various documents to the basement. Some were hiding in the attic, eyes glued to peepholes in the walls, looking out over the area surrounding the manor. Most paced around nervously, unsure of exactly what they should be doing.
I guess the guards have made their move. Subaru thought. Now he needed to find out exactly what had happened, and how big of a blow it truly was.
Find Griselda, he projected to his spirits. She's the one in charge, I want to know everything about how she reacts!
Affirmation came back, and the spirits raced off to her usual haunts. Well, all except for Muninn. Subaru wasn't sure exactly what the fire spirit expected to find on the roof, but he didn't think it would be relevant to their current situation.
Though, focusing on her antics did let him calm down somewhat. The turning of his stomach lessened, enough that he could swallow the last bite of his meal. It wouldn't do to appear nervous. He wasn't supposed to know anything yet.
It was Huginn who found Griselda first. All three of them had rushed to check the kitchen, but Huginn had been observing the ground floor, so he got there first.
He shared a brief flash of vision, and Subaru saw the maid, hunched over a small, open book, eyes darting to and fro over it. Her hands were white as she gripped the countertop, her eyes narrowed into slits.
Angry, the fire spirit commented.
"I figured," Subaru responded dryly. "Tell me if she does anything."
He sat back in his chair, and looked up at the ceiling, putting his hands behind his head to hide any shivers of nervousness.
"I wonder how long it will take for someone to come and inform me."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, not one cultist came to talk to Subaru. Several of them hung around, watching his door and fidgeting, but none had dared approach him.
He had eventually moved out to the main sitting room, and waited there instead. No one wanted to come and clean up the dining room while he was still in there.
Just how badly did things go?
When the door finally opened, it was Coen's face that appeared. He looked dishevelled, his normal butler uniform slightly awry, and his face was pale.
"L—Lord Pride?" he stuttered, stepping into the room. "I— er… Miss Griselda is busy, so…"
"I understand," Subaru replied, beckoning with his hand. He took some pride in the fact that he didn't tremble in the slightest with the gesture. "Come in. Tell me what's going on."
Coen carefully shut the door behind him, and walked over to give his report of the situation. Normally he would never be the one to give such important news, and the young cultist appeared totally out of his depth.
'Griselda, busy?', he thought. I know for a fact that's not true. Huginn has been watching her since this morning, and she hasn't done more than stare at her gospel and yell at cultists. She just doesn't want to be the bearer of bad news.
He held back a sigh. I suppose I should be glad I'm still so intimidating, but really… I kind of expected them to have seen through me by now. I barely know anything, and I have no major power over them. Is the witch's scent that strong to them?
"Um…" Coen started, then swallowed thickly. "Er… sir… I'm not sure that I—"
"Tell me," Subaru ordered, forcing some coldness into his voice. It was partially to play the role of an aloof Sin Archbishop, and partially to disguise any tremor in his own voice. "If it's something I need to know, I'd rather not be left in the dark."
Coen froze up, then braced himself, and said, "This morning, just before sunrise, several hideouts were raided by the city guards. We don't know how much they know, but… well… It's bad. We don't know how many were captured, or what other locations they might know about. We… um, we…"
He trailed off, still tensed up in his chair, his eyes unfocused.
Subaru had never before seen someone's mind go blank before. Whatever lines Griselda had given him had flown right out of Coen's head, and he was struggling to scrounge up replacements.
"I see," Subaru said. "Do we know what gave us away? What was it that led the guards to us?"
Coen snapped out of his trance, appearing grateful that Subaru wasn't going to shoot the messenger. "We don't know. This came out of nowhere. They might have noticed our movements in the city, or they might have known about us for a while. Right now we have nothing."
Really? Treachery isn't even being considered? Or did they just not reveal that possibility to him?
Rather than voice those doubts, Subaru nodded. "I believe I understand. I want a message sent to Mora immediately. I need to discuss these events with him. Once you arrange that return, and tell me what we know so far."
"Ah, right away, Lord Pride!" Coen hurriedly bowed, and retreated from the room.
Subaru watched him go, then turned his attention to his spirits.
Any changes?
Basement. Luna sent back. Arming. Weapons.
She flashed an image of cultists in robes, gathering and packing their distinctive knives.
Burning. Sol reported. The cultists had finished picking through the items upstairs, and they were gathered around the upstairs fireplace, right above Subaru's head.
From the images Sol sent to him, they were sorting through documents, either setting them aside to be packed, or throwing them directly into the fire. One cultist stood at the fireplace, constantly blasting the contents with bursts of fire, reducing the papers to nothing but ash.
"Paranoid, aren't they?" Subaru quipped, glancing at the fireplace of his room. It was connected to the same chimney, but there was no sign that there was an inferno blazing right above his head.
"Anything else? Huginn, what's Griselda doing?"
Unchanged.
Indeed, Griselda still stood in the kitchen, refusing to take her eyes off her gospel, biting at the nail of her thumb. A couple of other cultists were standing behind her, speaking in low tones that the fire spirit was unable to interpret.
Hide-and-seek! Muninn joined in with her report. She was playing out in the surrounding trees, flitting between clouds of butterflies and branches. She passed by unnoticed by the various robed figures that occupied the woods, standing in the shadows of the trees. They were only looking towards the road, not over their heads, which made it easy to—
"Hey, wait a minute, Muninn," Subaru interrupted her stream of consciousness. "Robed figures? Could you show me?"
Muninn was, of course, delighted to, and she shared half a dozen different views of robed cultists hiding among the trees. They weren't in good positions to hide from spirits, but they'd be impossible to see from the road.
"I didn't see them before. Muninn, where did they come from?"
Forest.
"The forest?" Subaru asked. "So they're from other parts of the city. Together with the ones that were already here at the manor…" He trailed off, counting them up in his mind.
"That's around fifteen? So two thirds of the cult's forces are guarding this manor right now."
He paused. "I suppose that makes sense. This is their main base, and they're currently hosting a Sin Archbishop here."
He chuckled dryly. "I just hope they don't expect me to help out with the defence. I get that Sin Archbishops are scary, but I'm not on their level."
He sighed, and laid back in his chair.
Looks like it's going to be a long day. I should get Coen to fetch me some Miasma Stones.
By evening, the situation had calmed down considerably.
There had been some casualties in the raids, but none of the cultists had been captured alive.
Subaru felt a little sick when he learned that piece of information. It was always grim, remembering that the people that surrounded him were willing to lay down their lives for the cause.
While the guards had launched further raids, they had been delayed enough during the first wave that most of their next targets had already been evacuated, and fires had been set around the city, further straining their ability.
They had been operating without the knights, which made Subaru grit his teeth in annoyance. The scale of the raids had been nothing like what Otto could have orchestrated with that information.
It was not an ideal result, in Subaru's eyes, but he could admit that it should be more than enough to galvanise Mora. Not that the old man needed much encouragement. He had been practically fuming when he had stormed into the manor.
He hadn't come to see Subaru yet, but Sol was keeping watch over him. He was helping the cultists upstairs with their documents, sorting them at an incredible pace.
Subaru glanced to his side, where Coen sat waiting. The day had not been kind on the young man. He had been run ragged, ferrying messages to and from Subaru to rest of the cultists. He was constantly pale, and his hands were twitching.
Every so often, when he had a break, he would pull out his own gospel, and flip to the middle of it, and his face would soften, as he took comfort in whatever was written there.
Subaru found it strange. Coen was the least cultist-like of the bunch, and it seemed like he would at least hesitate to die for the sake of the cult, and yet he owned a gospel. The item that supposedly brainwashed people into becoming cultists, the item that Subaru still hadn't risked reading.
He brushed his jacket, feeling the small rectangle hidden by his clothes. He had started carrying it around, just in case he needed to reveal it. Not one cultist had yet asked for him to, but now that the raids had begun, there was no telling when another Sin Archbishop would turn up.
He glanced back at Coen. The cultist was pouring over the words within, though from the way his gaze would wander occasionally, Subaru figured he had already read the words on that page enough that he had them memorised. It would be nice to try and glean some information about the books, and Coen was the perfect target for such an inquiry. He'd have to remember to talk with him after things had calmed down somewhat.
That said, he couldn't put it off too long. It was a mere week before the beginning of the Royal Selection, and all the chaos that would bring.
It was possible that the Council of Elders would postpone it until the cultists in the city were dealt with, but Subaru thought that outcome was unlikely. A few cultists in the city hadn't stopped them before. Hopefully the guards' rather lacklustre effort to uncover them would be enough to keep Reinhard and Roswaal in the city.
Well, the knights will probably get involved now. Once they start poking around, they're sure to see how serious it is.
The door opened, and Mora stepped into the room.
Coen immediately jumped to his feet, and excused himself. Subaru let him go without comment.
Mora walked to the chair opposite Subaru, and collapsed into it.
"I apologise for the events of today," he started. "I'm very sorry to say, I have no idea what happened. This is entirely my fault."
Subaru tilted his head. "Fault doesn't matter."
Because it's mine. Sorry, not sorry.
"It has happened, that's all that we need to know," he continued. "Do you have any clues as to the cause?"
Mora shook his head. "Very little. There has been some unusual movement among the higher ups in the guards over the last few days, but they're hard to track, so our observations were inconclusive. Quite a few of them were dismissed early yesterday, and some patrol routes weren't run, but it matched up with some of their previous celebrations."
He sighed, and rubbed his forehead. "This is quite unlike anything the guards have ever thrown at us before. In the past, we've always been able to misdirect them away from any real leads they do find on us. But something like this?"
He shook his head wearily. "They knew where five of our safe houses were, and they knew their information was accurate. While we haven't been able to confirm first-hand, their movements indicate that they've discovered at least seven of our supply caches. We had five casualties in the initial attack."
He grimaced as he mentioned them.
"Since this operation has been so different from their past actions, I can only assume that they were informed of our presence by someone else."
Subaru's blood froze.
Don't worry, don't worry. That's a reasonable conclusion, in fact, it's the truth! So don't be alarmed, he doesn't necessarily suspect you! Just don't act suspicious!
"We were betrayed?" he asked, doing his damnedest to disguise the tremor in his voice as a tone of disbelief.
Mora hesitated. "I don't believe so…"
Subaru barely managed to hold back his sigh of relief.
"If we had been betrayed by one of our own, we'd have noticed them missing, and all are accounted for," he said, clearly not even considering the possibility that said traitor could have returned to their side. But to be fair, why would they? Subaru would be 'safe' no matter what happened, but a random cultist wouldn't be.
"Some of our 'hired help' may have been tempted to, but the breadth of the knowledge the guards possess is too great for it to have been any one of them," he went on. "And they only knew about two of the raided safe houses between them."
He pursed his lips. "No, the most likely culprit is this man."
He pulled out a roll of paper, and unfurled it, placing it on the table between them.
Subaru leaned over to get a look at it. It was a simple pencil drawing of a handsome man with a neatly trimmed goatee. Subaru narrowed his eyes. The face seemed familiar, and after a moment's thought, he remembered why. The man in question had offered support for Subaru in the emergency meeting. In fact, he was pivotal in directing the city toward preparing for the cult's attack.
"Russel Fellow," Subaru recalled, looking up at Mora. "The kingdom's Treasurer."
More nodded grimly. "Indeed, that is his public position. But he is also—"
"The spymaster," Subaru finished. From what he remembered, Velia respected the competence of Lugunica's spy agency, though Subaru didn't know how much faith to place in her evaluation. After all, they had missed the largest cult attack the kingdom had ever seen.
"You are well informed," Mora said, raising his eyebrows. "Yes, he leads the kingdom's network of spies, the Six Tongues. But they're not the kingdom's anymore, not entirely. He has twisted them, installed his own puppets across the organisation. Now they serve his ends, rather than the kingdom's."
Subaru perked up. He did what? That seems… bad. Like, possibly terrible for the kingdom, bad. What happens if someone he dislikes becomes the ruler?
Subaru knew almost nothing about the man, but he did remember that Velia had a rather low opinion of him. Even Otto had disliked him, though that could be because of his debt.
If he's going to be a problem… no, I'll deal with that if it comes up. Just because someone's shady doesn't mean I need to poke my nose into trouble.
"As the Treasurer, he has a lot of access to knowledge of the capital's administration. He may have discovered us from the records pertaining to our properties and cover businesses in the lower strata. It's possible that he's been aware of us for a while, and is only now making a move. I don't know why he did not involve the knights, but his thought process is opaque to us. It's possible that such an action was impossible because of internal politics, or that he feared the information spreading through the aristocracy."
He paused, stroking his chin. "At a guess, he did not want to introduce more instability to the upper ranks of the nobility. By having the guards attack without knight support, the nobles will first hear of our presence in the city along with the news of the raids. The situation will appear to be under control, and they'll be less likely to panic."
"I see," Subaru said, keeping his face blank. He already knew Russel had nothing to do with the goings-on in the city, but this was vital information to know. In his previous attempt, had that been the solution they had come to? That Russel discovered them early? If so…
"What next?" Subaru asked. "How do you intend to proceed from here?"
Mora brought his eyes up to meet Subaru's.
"We've pulled back to older locations, but for now, while we still don't know the full scope of their knowledge, I believe them to be unsafe," he said. "I've ordered a general retreat from the city, at my own digression. I apologise, but this will hinder our efforts to follow your guidance. If you believe a different course of action would be appropriate…"
"No," Subaru interrupted. "These are unforeseen circumstances, and we must adapt to them."
Mora nodded, a trace of a smile reappearing on his face. "As you say. Might I ask, how does this situation change your orders? Are we still to avoid contacting those outside the city?"
Subaru pretended to ponder Mora's question, but he had already known what his reply would be. He had been planning his conversion since he had met Alexander.
"Let us put my own mission aside for the moment," he said. "What would you do in this situation, under normal circumstances?"
Mora hadn't expected that answer. "Normal circumstances? Er, at first, I believe I would order the majority of our forces to hide. Most of us have ways to avoid notice independent of our organisational structure. Then I would have our own spies begin infiltrating key administrative positions. Once we have a better idea of what the kingdom is up to, we'll know how to respond."
"Key administrative positions?" Subaru asked. "So you'll target the nobles?"
Mora shook his head. "It's difficult to slip in people that high up in the hierarchy, and our spies are not usually capable of such tasks. No, we'll bring in reinforcements from the surrounding regions, and have them spy on the lower levels of the civil officials."
At Subaru's confused look, Mora chuckled. "Ah, my apologies. As a Sin Archbishop, you act in a similar role to those at the top of the kingdom's administration, so you are not in a position to understand that strategy effectively. Let me see…"
He paused, then went on, "While we aren't able to know what the upper levels of the administration are thinking or saying in confidence, by watching their underlings, we can get a grasp of their orders. By listening to rumours in their ranks, we can work out what they want. An organisation's mood trickles down from the top. 'By watching the ground, one learns the weather'."
Subaru's eyes widened in understanding. I see… It's like an inferior version of my own strategy. Get in close and see how they act. Damn, that's going to be really hard for me to interfere with. If they remain hidden in the rank-and-file of the kingdom's administration, there's no singular spy that I can oust to cut off their intel. But if it's so useful…
"Why are spies not already in place?" Subaru asked. "How was this allowed to happen in the first place?"
Mora winced. "Lord Pride, you must understand, while this plan has been used effectively in the past, it's not something the cult can undertake lightly. The manpower requirements to get useful information are more intense than we can support long-term. Many among our number have other missions that must be fulfilled."
"Hmm," Subaru voiced, leaning back in his chair. "Would you consider this situation reason enough to begin such an operation?"
"Yes," Mora answered without hesitation. "While we can recover over the next few years, this is a grievous blow to our reach in Lugunica. The cult has to know how and why this happened."
Subaru nodded. "Then, you have my permission to do what you need to do in order to carry it out. Act as you see fit."
Mora rose to his feet, and bowed deeply. "As you wish. It will take a few days to set up, but I will return to report as soon as we learn anything new."
Subaru held back a shudder as he watched the elderly cultist go. From the sinking feeling in his stomach, and the heat rising around his head, he knew.
This was the beginning. The beginning of the end.
Within the next two weeks, Subaru would die. The only question was how much he'd be able to learn in that time.
AN: Well, that took a while. I've been dealing with a few personal things, which still aren't quite over, so updates might still be sparse for a while. I do have a significant chunk of the next chapter already done though, so hopefully it won't be too long until my next update.
Also, the new cover art is by Animayson! (u/Json25 on reddit)
It's Subaru's meeting with Luna, after his first death of Arc 2.
The full version is somewhere on reddit, and I'll also put it up with this chapter on AO3.
Shoutout to raj for beta-ing again, I wouldn't have felt confident enough to post without him checking it over. I'm going to start posting the chapters on discord a bit early just so I have a chance to see how they're taken. Feel free to join in if that interests you.