As you consider the question, you find you cannot help your thoughts spiralling back to the core values championed by the Golden Goddesses, and how they relate to a ruler's task.
Ultimately, the style of leadership one embraces isn't what's truly important. Whether selfish tyrant or just monarch, elected official or self-proclaimed dictator for life, a king - a leader - must have the Wisdom to know what is best for his country and his people, the Courage to work towards that outcome even in the face of disapproval or opposition, and the Power to make it come to pass.
There's really no question. More than anything else in the world, you would wish for the destruction of the Curse of Demise, so that it could never again twist the souls of the powerful or bring suffering to the weak.
...of course, since the Goddesses have been unwilling or even unable to take direct action against the core of the Curse, a wish would not be enough to fix the problem. Even something like the Grail, were it not cursed to high heaven, would likely not suffice to grant that particular wish.
But it's still a nice goal to dream about, and work towards.
After the discussion about the Banquet of Kings, Ambrose moves on to the Battle of the Mion River, covering the opening phases of the clash between Caster's titanic demon and the other Servants. Assassin was already dead; Lancer, Avenger, and Archer had taken their shots, to no avail; Berserker proved more interested in attacking Archer than anything else; and Savior - perhaps appropriately - could not act until the very last minute, with no guarantee of success even then. Barring the possibility of direct intervention from Ruler, it fell to Rider or Saber to do something, or for Caster's Master to be found and killed, and his anchor to the world removed.
The latter proved futile, for while the Magus Killer did locate and shoot Uryuu on a bridge overlooking the battle, it failed to dispel his Servant or the demon. The defenders concluded that the abomination was being sustained by the immense energies of Caster's Noble Phantasm, Prelati's Spellbook, and that - fused with the horror as he was - Caster would not fade from the world until it was destroyed. The truth proved to be otherwise, for when Lord El-Melloi secured Uryuu's body to confirm the kill and begin removing the evidence, its distinguishing features melted away, leaving behind only a faceless, fleshy doll - a crude homunculus, which consumed itself in a burst of blue flame.
With the demon drawing ever-closer to shore, the King of Conquerors charged it and pulled it into his Reality Marble-
You check Ambrose's notes to find out what that is, exactly.
Gained Arcanology B (Plus) (Plus)
-where his army could hold the nightmare at bay and buy time for the other Servants and Masters to come up with a plan. What they ultimately decided upon - over Lord El-Melloi's objections - was for Diarmuid to break his second spear, Gae Dearg, that the cursed wound it had previously dealt to Saber's arm could be healed, thus restoring the strength she would need to call upon the full power of her sword.
As hoped, Excalibur's Anti-Fortress rated attack destroyed the demon, but Lord El-Melloi's discovery that Uryuu had not been killed called the victory into question - for if Gilles de Rais could create a body-double for his Master, despite nothing in his legend suggesting such an ability, then they could not rule out the possibility that the "Servant" they had just faced was nothing more than another puppet. The claim was supported by Ruler and Irisviel von Einzbern, Emiya's wife and partner in the conflict, who were both able to confirm that Caster's spirit had not entered the Lesser Grail, as should have occurred with his death. Worse yet, Irisviel revealed that Assassin's soul was also missing. She had previously considered the Hundred-Faced Hassan's lack of a detectable presence to be an artifact of his relative weakness as a Servant, compounded by the manner in which his Noble Phantasm divided his essence among his multiple personalities, but the outcome of the battle with Caster pointed to a different conclusion - namely, that someone was stealing the souls of the fallen Servants.
Akasha lets out a strangled noise of recognition. "Soul Steal?!"
"I see the Dark Lady has figured it out," Ambrose notes. "For the rest of you, the foundation of Dracula's power was his possession of the Crimson Stone, an alchemical artifact that was essentially a tainted Philosopher's Stone. It held the ability to convert the soul of a vampire into power for its master, at the cost of turning him into a vampire himself - and Dracula built upon that ability, as well as his contract with Death, until he could steal the soul of ANY dark creature that died within his domain. It normally wouldn't work on ordinary humans, but as Servants are essentially extremely powerful ghosts, existing in defiance of the natural order, they were vulnerable to Dracula's Power of Dominance."
Savior evidently reached this conclusion as fast as Akasha did, taking a swing at Avenger, only for the Servant of Vengeance to be revealed as another imposter - not a homunculus, but a Doppelganger, capable of mimicking Mathias's powers as well as his appearance. A follow-up investigation would reveal that not all of the disappearances and deaths plaguing Fuyuki to that point had been the work of Uryuu and Caster; Avenger and his Master were collecting sacrifices, using the other team's activities as a blind. Moreover, while everyone was distracted by the spectacle of the river-battle, Avenger sent some of his army of monsters to the Fuyuki Church to capture the elder Kotomine, so he could steal the bounty of unused Command Seals the priest had been entrusted with at the end of the Third War.
"He didn't go in person?" Lu-sensei wonders.
"The younger Kotomine was a Church Executor, and a damn good one," Ambrose tells your master. "He also had magus training, and was evidently just as competent there as he had been at purging the witch, the demon, and the undead. Putting him up against a semi-vampiric heretical sorcerer might have been enough to overcome the difference in ability between human and Servant all on its own; doing so in the presence of his father, who was ALSO a highly skilled martial artist, and had a dozen or more Command Seals he could freely invoke against a Servant violating the Church's recognized neutrality... well, Avenger might have been as mad as a bag of badgers, but he wasn't stupid. He sent monsters that wouldn't share his vulnerabilities to the Church - though it turned out to be an unnecessary precaution, since Kirei was at the river himself - and then directed his own attention to the Matou residence, where he abducted the six-year-old Matou Sakura before burning the place to the ground."
"I honestly can't blame him for that," Archer mutters. When you and the rest of the audience turn to regard him curiously, he glances at you before replying, "Let's just say that Matou Zouken is a monster in the worst sense of the word, and anybody who set him on fire deserves a medal."
"Unfortunately, Zouken was out watching events at the river as well," Ambrose notes.
"Damn," Archer curses.
"So, did Avenger take the girl to protect her?" Grandmaster Wen inquires. "Or did he have a use for her?"
"Possibly a bit of both," Ambrose admits, "but definitely the latter."
As the wizard explains, Avenger had the ability to summon Demon Castle Dracula, complete with the army of darkness that stalked its unhallowed halls. The limitations of his Class container and the mana reserves of his Master imposed considerable restrictions on this ability, such that Avenger could summon large numbers of minor monsters - strong enough to be dangerous to humans, but trivially brushed aside by all but the weakest Servants - for days at a time, bring forth a squad of stronger beasts for a few hours, or call up one of Dracula's lieutenants - legendary monsters on par with Servants themselves - for a few minutes. Summoning the Demon Castle was a feat sustainable for no more than a matter of seconds, and would likely exhaust Avenger in the bargain.
That being said, Mathias was a master alchemist, and so well-versed in the exploitation of existing systems, the principle of equivalent exchange, and the practice of sacrifice. If the Grail System would not give him the power to summon his army, he would simply have to acquire that power elsewhere. And so he'd spent the months between his summoning and the proper commencement of the Grail War stealing lives, souls, and demonic essences, hunting down certain relics, and recruiting or otherwise "acquiring" individuals with very specific traits.
Once he had secured Kotomine Risei's Command Seals to counteract those held by Ruler, Avenger moved to the next phase of his plan, performing a series of "human sacrifices" in a mock-version of the Servant Summoning Ritual. Rather than kill his kidnapped victims outright, he bound them in a magical slumber that would help keep them alive as their spiritual and magical energies were drained off. Each sacrifice had been chosen for having a particular affinity with one of Dracula's greater vassals, and for whatever reason, young Sakura proved highly compatible with the Gorgon Queen, Medusa.
Archer winces. "Yeah, that would make sense. Sakura is the Matou Representative in every version of the Fifth War I've seen, and she always summons Medusa - usually in the Rider Class, although she's turned up as a Lancer, an Archer, a Caster, or a Berserker a few times." The man in red shudders, adding, "And if I never see Berserker Medusa again, it'll be too soon."
You can only imagine.
Gained Grail Lore D (Plus)
When Ambrose brings up Avenger stealing Command Seals to use against Ruler, you quickly ask for clarification: "By 'countering the ones held by Ruler,' do you mean that Avenger could use them to command Ruler himself if he could get the order in first, or do you just mean that Avenger could sacrifice one of his Command Seals to cancel each one Ruler tried to use on him?"
"The latter," Ambrose says firmly. "Masters can only use Command Seals on their own Servants, or as a supplementary power source for their own spellcasting. The fact that a Ruler can use his Command Seals on other Servants seems to be a built-in function of the Class container, rather than any special property of the Ruler's Seals; even if that wasn't the case, Rulers are supposed to have high Magic Resistance, which would blunt the effects of any Command Seal used on them against their will." The wizard frowns. "It's not clear if Avenger kept the Command Seals for himself, or if he entrusted some or all of them to his Master. Either approach would have had advantages and drawbacks."
"Were they all accounted for?" you ask. "Or are some of them potentially still out there?"
"I don't know," Ambrose admits sourly. "When Avenger's treachery was revealed, Ruler used a Command Seal to force him to appear before the assembled Servants; the failure of that command was their first clue that something had happened to Risei, and accounted for one of the stolen Seals. Ruler used another three Command Seals against Avenger over the remainder of the War, and each of them was countered, but those four are the ONLY stolen Seals whose disposal was ever confirmed - four, out of at least twelve."
"'At least'?" Gyokuro repeats.
"Avenger's Master had no Command Seals left when he was killed near the end of the War," Ambrose informs her. "He might have spent them all, or he might have given some over to his Servant; the only way to confirm it would have been with a detailed postmortem examination, and unfortunately, Dracula has been fitting his followers with the sorcerous equivalent of spoilsport charges for centuries now, to prevent just that sort of analysis."
"...practical of him," Gyokuro concedes.
The wizard's account of the Fourth War continues.
Having seen Excalibur in action, Avenger chose to delay summoning his castle, and instead spent the day after the Battle of the Mion River laying low, summoning his lieutenants and elements of his army. That night, they marched forth, striking at the remaining strongholds of the other parties in the War - and in most cases, doing so with a very deliberate irony.
Diarmuid was confronted by a Dullahan, accompanied by a train of banshees, the latter of which evidently troubled him far more than the former.
A swarm of Fleamen harassed Alexander and his Master, endangering the elderly couple with whom they'd taken residence. Tracking the seemingly endless flood of diminutive murderous acrobats to its source, Rider discovered that one of the local trees had somehow been replaced by the Wak-Wak Tree, a legendary Persian monster that grew human heads in place of fruit - or in this case, entire warped bodies. Alexander had encountered the Tree in life, and its hanging heads foretold his death in a far distant land, which they did so once again.
The Einzbern Castle in the forested outskirts of Fuyuki was besieged by an army of undead knights, led by a zombie dragon.
For Ruler, a mob of mummies riding on the backs of gryphons.
And at the Tohsaka Mansion, after cutting through dozens of monsters taken from the ancient Mesopotamian myths, Gilgamesh found himself face to face with a great golden bull, covered in heavy armor and breathing clouds of pure poison.
As for the two Belmonts, Avenger may have been inspired by Savior's comment at the Banquet about training his descendant-turned-Master, because they were mobbed by enemies numerous enough that Simon could not keep them entirely away from young Julius, yet not so strong that the teenaged vampire hunter could not defend himself. Skeletons and bats, ghouls and disembodied flying heads, rabid dogs and disciplined guardsmen - all enemies faced by Belmonts past.
Avenger's minions were summarily crushed on all fronts, but the intent of the attacks had not been to defeat any of the other Servants, merely to keep them distracted for a time.
While Diarmuid was fending off the amorous advances of a swarm of she-specters, Lord El-Melloi's fiancee was kidnapped by Berserker.
While Gilgamesh was demonstrating the depths of his displeasure upon the mocking mimicry of the Bull of Heaven, a dark priest traveled outside of Fuyuki to pay a visit to the home of Tohsaka Tokiomi's parents-in-law, where his wife and daughter had been sent to wait out the Grail War in supposed safety.
And while Saber was busy putting down the dragon and its forces, Avenger personally penetrated the Einzbern Castle's defenses to abduct Irisviel.
Hostages secured to ensure that Saber could not unleash Excalibur against his domain, and that Tokiomi would likewise strive to prevent Archer from using any similar weapons he might be holding in reserve in his infinite treasury, Avenger summoned the Demon Castle over one of Fuyuki's major leylines. In response, his enemies entered to hunt him down.
"At that point, the accounts get confusing," Ambrose says. "The Demon Castle's known to change its layout between appearances, and manifesting as one of Avenger's Noble Phantasms caused the architecture to become ACTIVELY morphic, splitting up the invaders almost as soon as they set foot inside. Not everyone survived to give an account of their experiences: Lord El-Melloi was found completely drained of life; Matou Kariya suffered fatal magical exhaustion supporting Berserker's last battle, so it was never clear whether he'd willingly allied with Avenger or been coerced into it; Emiya's assistant was killed protecting him; Tokiomi encountered the Gorgon while separated from Gilgamesh; and Kotomine Kirei died rescuing the kidnapped Tohsaka heiress, Rin."
Archer chokes.
"More than that," Ambrose continues, eyeing the red-clad Servant askance, "Dracula and some of his minions are capable of influencing the mind in a variety of ways, so the accounts of the survivors are questionable. Still, young Waver states that Rider fought the Minotaur, who countered the Reality Marble of the King of Conquerors with one of his own, scattering Alexander's army throughout the Labyrinth and then picking them off individually and in small groups. Rider was able to kill the beast using his chariot, the Gordius Wheel, but his next major encounter was with Frankenstein's Monster, against whom the chariot's electrical powers proved... counter-productive. Archer's only 'noteworthy' encounter was with Astarte, who was possessing the Tohsaka girl; fortunately, Kirei was present and managed to exorcise the spirit from the child, though as I said, he died doing it. Savior went through the Demon Castle like God's own wrecking ball, taking out the Bat Company, the Hydra, the Monster, a Greater Succubus, the Dark Priest Shaft, another Doppelganger using the form of Richter Belmont - supposedly the strongest member of the Belmont bloodline to date - the Demon Knight Slogra and his partner Gaibon, and of course, the Reaper. Ruler destroyed some sort of Tutankhamun-wannabe, but was spending most of his power to keep the people in the parts of Fuyuki that HADN'T been absorbed by the Demon Castle from noticing the Fortress of Doom hanging over the city; what he had to spare, he used to track down and reunite the scattered Masters and Servants, after which he took charge of the recovered hostages and disqualified or dead Masters. And Saber slew a LIVING Dragon, one of the Final Guard, and Berserker."
Sheesh. Busy night.
Ambrose is just about done with his account of the Fourth Grail War, and How It Went To Hell. Before he gets on with the climax of the event, do you have any questions or comments about what he's said so far?
"You alright there, Archer?" you ask, turning to the man in red as he seemingly chokes on air.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just... incredibly surprised to hear that Kotomine, of all people, died doing the right thing for once."
"Not your usual experience with the man?" Lu-sensei ventures.
Archer grimaces. "Not even close. Every version of Kotomine Kirei that I've encountered has had the talent to excel in almost any field he tries his hand at, while at the same time being completely unable to find satisfaction or meaning in anything that doesn't involve human pain and suffering. Most timelines have him acting as the Church's overseer for the Fifth War, but in all of those, he's also trying to bring about Angra Mainyu's incarnation."
"...why?"
"The handful of times I've been around to hear him explain it, the priest compares the thing to an unborn child, and claims that as a man of God, he has a duty to see it safely into the world, even if it IS the embodiment of evil." The white-haired Servant scowls. "Considering that his heart was literally MADE out of the same solidified curses that the blackened Grail spews out whenever it approaches full manifestation, I'd take that claim with a grain of salt."
This statement is greeted with looks of astonishment and distaste. "How did THAT happen?" Issa asks.
"I've only got pieces of the puzzle, but as near as I can tell, in those timelines, Kotomine betrays and murders Tohsaka Tokiomi, becomes Gilgamesh's Master in his place, and goes on to face Emiya Kiritsugu and Saber for the Grail. While the Servants are duking it out, the Masters have their own little deathmatch, which ends with Emiya blasting Kotomine's heart out with a high-caliber handgun. Then the Grail manifests, and both of them get swallowed in that black mud, which somehow revives Kirei, before Emiya uses his last Command Seal to have Saber blast the Grail with Excalibur."
Nobody seems to know quite what to say to that, and Ambrose gets on with recounting the casualty lists from both sides of the battle within the Demon Castle.
"Avenger wasn't sitting idle during all of this, of course," the wizard continues after a moment. "It turns out that he hadn't taken Irisviel hostage solely to ensure Saber's 'good behavior,' but also because he'd realized that she was the Lesser Grail, and he wanted to modify the design to suit his own needs. When the other surviving Servants and Masters stormed Avenger's quarters, they found that he'd incarnated the Grail as a black iron chalice full of blood. He'd also managed to do it while leaving Irisviel alive."
"...master alchemist, right," Archer says after a moment of surprise. "That's the 'how,' and I suppose the 'why' was still 'keep Saber from blowing up my castle.'"
"That and a certain amount of showing off," Ambrose replies. "In any event, while Ruler was handicapped keeping the mortals safe and/or ignorant, Saber and Savior were both still in fighting form. Gilgamesh was without a Master, but being summoned in the Archer Class had given him the Independent Action Skill, making that loss less crippling than it would have been for most other Servants; more to the point, he seems to have been determined not to die until he'd beaten Avenger's face in. Three-on-one odds were bad enough to force Avenger to pull out his trump card and turn into the Dark Lord Dracula, which triggered the paradox that destroyed his body here, and did no small amount of damage to the Demon Castle, either. Ruler evacuated the Masters and recovered hostages, and they watched the rest of the fight from a distance."
Between the three of them, Archer, Saber, and Savior did enough damage to put Dracula down, only for his "Black Grail" to immediately revive him, catching Simon off-guard and letting the Dark Lord score a fatal blow on his old enemy. Saber retaliated by attempting to destroy the corrupted chalice using Excalibur, but Dracula got enough of his oversized demonic body into the path of the strike to spare his creation, which started to regenerate him a second time. At that point, Ruler used a Command Seal to order Dracula to "stop healing," while Emiya used one of his Command Seals to eliminate Excalibur's usual charge time, so that Saber could attack again right away. That sufficed to destroy the Black Grail, though the strain of using Excalibur twice in rapid succession, on top of all the fighting she'd already done that night, was enough to exhaust Saber's reserves and cause her to disappear.
"Given that his still-forming body disappeared along with the Black Grail, and that the Demon Castle began collapsing immediately afterwards, the survivors assumed that Dracula had been destroyed along with his creation," Ambrose states. "Ruler's report also mentions 'a tide of black blood pouring from the shattered cup'" - the wizard glances at Archer, here - "but Savior threw himself into the path of the muck and spent all of his remaining strength in an overcharged version of his family's ultimate technique, the Grand Cross. The resulting explosion of holy energy appears to have neutralized the flood of corruption, though it's also possible that manifesting inside Dracula's domain prevented it from spilling out into the rest of the world; either way, it seems to have vanished with the Demon Castle."
"How long did all of that take?" you ask, wondering at the sort of endurance, pacing, and supply of mana potions you might need to perform a similar feat.
"What, the fight with Dracula, or the whole storming the castle bit?"
"The latter, Max."
Ambrose grins. "One night... which lasted about two and a half days on the outside."
As you blink at the wizard, Akasha chimes in that this isn't all that unusual. Castle Dracula WAS swathed in perpetual night whenever its lord was in residence, and that sort of phenomenon tended to throw off most guests' sense of time, even among the creatures of the night.
"The Castle also had a habit of throwing 'endless hallways' and swarms of really annoying little monsters at intruders," Lady Bloodriver recalls with a faint smile. "Or even at the residents, when it or they were feeling particularly bored. Add in the trapdoor pits, false walls, all the underground areas, and how difficult some places would be to get into or out of for anyone that couldn't fly, teleport, or at least scale sheer rock unassisted, and it was pretty easy to lose a few hours without realizing it."
...that's great. Really.
Officially, as the only Servant other than Ruler to walk away from that final battle, Gilgamesh was the winner of the Fourth Fuyuki Grail War. Ambrose was unable to find anything to indicate how or why the King of Heroes and the King of Kings continue to walk the Earth to this day, only that they do, and are working together - to what extent, and for what purpose, remain a mystery.
Out of nine Masters, six had died, all of them within the walls of the Demon Castle - the single greatest number of fatalities for any one event in the recorded history of the Fuyuki Grail Wars. Uryuu Ryuunosuke's body was not recovered until the clean-up phase, when it was found cold and still on one street, the cause of death a spear-thrust to the heart. Tohsaka Tokiomi's death was a blow to his wife and daughter, but they had some small consolation from the fact that the man had been foresighted enough to pass on the family's Magic Crest prior to the War, ensuring his legacy survived. Kayneth Archibald had been less wise, and though the recovery of his body allowed for his Magic Crest to be salvaged, his death via soul-drain had caused irreparable damage to the relic. The subsequent loss of prestige for the Archibald Family was considerable, particularly when rumors spread that decades' worth of their cherished research had been reduced to a mere snack for a hungry succubus.
As for the sacrifices and hostages taken by Avenger and his Master, who are estimated to have numbered fifty or more, just ten lived. Irisviel lost much of her magical ability when the nascent Grail was removed, and Kotomine Risei's right arm, former vessel to the Command Seals of Grail Wars past, was left scarred and crippled from their extraction. Tohsaka Rin was returned to her mother, seemingly none the worse for wear after her brief possession by Astarte, while Kayneth Archibald's now-ex fiancee was recovered without injury. The remainding captives all had sufficient potential for the magical or spiritual arts to have survived the intense drain forced on them by Avenger.
"I notice you didn't mention what happened to Medusa or the Matou girl," you say to Ambrose.
"What happened to those two is a bit fuzzy," the wizard admits. "None of the final four Servants or the surviving Masters encountered the Gorgon or the girl on their trip through the Demon Castle, and by the time Ruler tracked down Tokiomi's body, the only evidence Medusa had been there at all was the petrified state of the remains, and pools of poisonous blood on the floor that were spawning snakes."
"Do you suppose Lancer got her?" Archer ventures.
"It seems likely," Ambrose agrees. "Particularly when you take into account the nature of Lord El-Melloi's signature Mystic Code, Volumen Hydragyrum - an amorphous mass of enchanted mercury, weighing a couple hundred pounds and capable of free-form shapeshifting. Since it wasn't a living thing, it wouldn't be affected by the Gorgon's gaze, and mercury is reflective enough for the construct to have acted like a mirror in certain configurations."
So the Magus took cover behind his "mirror shield," and perhaps provided a degree of covering fire, while his Servant used the Gorgon's reflection to guide his attacks? That seems plausible enough, though if Lord El-Melloi and Diarmuid killed Medusa then, how is it that the Goddesses told you she's still alive? And what happened to Sakura?
"The means of Medusa's survival is a mystery," Ambrose says, shaking his head. "Considering the number of Servants still walking around Fuyuki, I haven't tried divining the truth, and I wouldn't recommend you poking your nose into the matter, either. As for Miss Matou, she turned up at a local hospital, basically unhurt. Zouken collected her the next day, which was just about the LAST thing he's on record as doing before his name turned up in the obituaries."
"Good riddance," Archer mutters. "At least if it's true."
"I can corroborate it with information from the Association," Ambrose assures him.
"What about the other survivors?" you ask. "What happened to them?"
"Full details in the packet," Ambrose informs you. "But to sum up..."
The Emiyas returned to Germany to report to the Einzberns, then moved back to Fuyuki with their daughter, Illyasviel, and a few homunculi, to oversee the family's part in the post-War restoration efforts. They're still there, the Magus Killer having been retained by Kotomine Risei on behalf of the Tohsakas, to help police Fuyuki's supernatural side until Tohsaka Rin is old enough to handle the job herself.
On that note, the Tohsakas are doing well enough. Tokiomi handled most of the family's finances himself, so his death put them into a bit of a tight spot until Kotomine Risei stepped in to help Tohsaka Aoi sort things out, acting as a proxy while the recent widow dealt with her grief; he's been handing over more and more of that responsibility of late, though, as Aoi gets used to managing the estate on her own. Risei is also officially tutoring young Rin in the things she'll need to know as the Second Owner of Fuyuki - mostly diplomacy and politics - while giving her martial arts lessons on the side. The state of the nominal Tohsaka Head's magical education is unknown: the Clock Tower's equivalent of water-cooler gossip paints an unflattering picture; but Ambrose has reason to believe otherwise.
Sola-Ui Sophia-Ri took her fiance's body back to his family in England, spent a few months being questioned by the Archibalds and her superiors within the Clock Tower as to what happened in the Grail War, and then took a six-month sabbatical "somewhere sunny, warm, and as far from Japan as possible." Since returning from that trip, she's been getting on with her life, doing the usual things unmarried young women from powerful, wealthy Magus families do, while also hexing the crap out of anyone that mentions the word "engagement" in her hearing.
"Given how the first one turned out, I can't say that I blame her," Gyokuro observes.
Waver Velvet almost dropped off the face of the planet after the Fourth War. He has no living family, and the circumstances of his entry into the War - involving the theft of the catalyst used to summon Alexander the Great, from Lord El-Melloi, no less - made an immediate return to the Clock Tower a risky pospect. Ambrose poked around a bit, and found evidence of the boy - most of a decade older than you, but to Ambrose, yes, still a boy - visiting parts of Asia that had been subjugated by the King of Conquerors, long ago.
As for the mundane individuals who got dragged into the Grail War, it's a mixed bag.
One young man had distant monstrous heritage - either an ox youkai or a lesser minotaur - which woke up cranky due to Dracula's meddling. He was placed in the custody of a certain smirking Exorcist for the next year or so, during which he appears to have gained enough acceptance of and control over his awakened blood to be judged as not a threat to society, and released. He's currently attending a police academy, and is on-track to join the Fuyuki Municipal Police Department in a couple more months.
Another captive also had non-human heritage, but was unfortunate in that her distant ancestor was demonic rather than merely monstrous. Having been used as the anchor for Gaibon, her latent demonic traits ended up expressing themselves in a major way, leaving her stuck in what is basically the form of a fire-breathing gargoyle. Mikogami took charge of the poor woman as well, but that's the last Ambrose has heard of her.
A witch from the Middle-East ended up becoming a permanent resident of Fuyuki. Ostensibly, she was hired to be a magical tutor for the Tohsaka heiress, but between Rin being a former vessel of Astarte and Ramesses and Gilgamesh both still walking around town, Ambrose is pretty sure there's more going on there than made it into the Association's files.
The last two captives were a single mother and her son, both of whom possessed unusually high magical potential for a pair of non-practitioners. Aside from that, their only other outstanding trait was their shared pigmentation; auburn verging on red hair and golden-brown eyes-
Ambrose's summary is interrupted by the sound of Archer facepalming.
-both of which are extremely unusual among the predominantly dark-haired and dark-eyed mundane population of Japan.
"I knew it," the Servant groans. "I KNEW that idiot kid would get mixed up in this somehow. Ah, why am I even surprised anymore...?" Archer looks up at Ambrose. "At least tell me they were able to hypnotize him and his mother and send them back to a boring, ordinary life."
"...that would be a no," Ambrose says after a moment.
"Of course. Why would it be that easy?" Archer sighs. "Alright, what happened?"
"The Masane family don't appear to have been used as anchors for any of Dracula's minions, just as mana batteries to help him maintain the horde and the Castle, but that was more than enough to open their Magic Circuits. On top of that, the emotional trauma was enough to engrave a mental trigger into both of them - in short, if they sensed unfamiliar magical energy, they activated their Circuits."
"And that makes hypnosis unreliable," Archer finishes sourly. "Wonderful."
Gained Local Knowledge (Fuyuki) D
Well, it appears you have found the elusive "Emiya Shirou," as well as the reason why no one of that name turned up in your previous search.
That brings Ambrose's presentation to an end. Aside from the minor details that you can get when you read through his hand-out later, there's one major issue that wasn't answered: namely, how Dracula is still hanging around despite his defeat. When you bring that up, Ambrose says that while he has no proof of it, he suspects Avenger possessed three Noble Phantasms: one to embody Mathias Cronqvist's dark ascension from man to vampire to Dark Lord; one to represent the Demon Castle Dracula and its endless army; and finally, something that echoed Dracula's well-established history of returning from the grave.
"It wouldn't have been the Black Grail," he notes. "Not only is there no prior association between Dracula and the Grail, but that was regenerating him on the spot, fast enough to be a serious problem for three other Servants. No, this would be something much slower and longer-term."
If that's the case, shouldn't you try to get the Belmonts involved in this little conspiracy to save the world? They do have all that prior experience dealing with Dracula, and if he's going to come back YET AGAIN, getting advice from the experts only seems sensible.
"It's definitely on the agenda," Gyokuro says. "But even after their young champion fought alongside Akasha during the eclipse, relations between our family and the Belmonts are... delicate. Our own findings on the matter wouldn't have convinced them without Ambrose's information to support it. Speaking of which..."
When you first discussed "Emiya Shirou" with Archer, months gone, the Servant admitted that he didn't know what the boy's original name was, the fire that ended another timeline's Fourth Grail War having destroyed all traces of that information. Yet Ambrose just mentioned a family name, Masane, and if he found out that much, then surely...
You flip through the hand-out, looking for the pages containing information on the survivors, and after a moment, two red-haired, golden-eyed faces appear. Masane Kaede and Masane...
"Toushirou, huh?" you muse.
"What was that?" Archer asks, looking your way.
"I was curious about the guy's given name," you reply, holding up the page containing the information. "Turns out it's Toushirou."
Archer blinks at you, and then stares at the sheet in your hand.
"...huh."
He falls silent after that.
When Gyokuro speaks up about the Shuzens' "findings," she signals to one of the two staff who've been standing quietly by the door this entire time. You hadn't paid them much attention beyond a quick, casual assessment when you entered, but you take a closer look now.
The man - who remains standing by the door - is just one of the many liveried servants that populate Castle Shuzen. Fit without being excessively muscular, good-looking without being exceptionally attractive, features that are mostly Japanese with just a hint of something else, and an aura that's similarly mostly human with a shot of youki. It may be a bit mean to say it, but the truth is, you've seen half a dozen more like him in your visits to the Castle, and they all sort of blend together in memory. This one's no exception.
The woman is a different matter. For one thing, she's not dressed like one of household staff, and instead wears a business-formal skirt-suit and low-heeled shoes. The pale peach hue of her skirt and jacket emphasizes her tan skin tone, which is closer to - though still short of - Gyokuro's darker coloration than the pallor of Issa or Akasha. Her eyes are a slightly reddish shade of brown, set in a face that lacks Japanese features and is framed by two locks of brown hair; the rest are gathered back into a ponytail, which hangs off the back of her head. Overall, she looks like she's somewhere in her early- to mid-twenties, but the small silver cross hanging from her neck and the aura of vampiric youki suggest she could be quite a bit older.
Gyokuro introduces her as Shirley Cruz, an employee at one of the branch offices of Fairy Tale - the conglomerate which Gyokuro leads - who is "something of an in-house expert on Emiya Kiritsugu."
"I wouldn't call myself an 'expert,' ma'am," Ms. Cruz demurs nervously. "I just... have a certain insight."
"How so?" Archer inquires curiously.
"I was his friend, and his father's assistant," she replies. "But that was a long time ago, before..." She trails off for a moment, before taking a deep breath. "Before a lot of things."
Ambrose regards the woman with sudden interest. "Alimango Island?"
It's a name that means nothing to you, and from a quick look around, only the four vampires recognize it.
Ms. Cruz nods, once.
"You have my condolences, madam."
The tale that gradually comes out is this: About forty years ago, Emiya Norikata, the Fourth Head of the Emiya Family, was given a Sealing Designation by the Mages' Association, "in recognition of his outstanding achievements in the field of temporal Magecraft." Seeing as how this "ultimate honor" involves being locked away as a specimen within the secure levels of the Clock Tower, unable to further pursue their work, it's commonly rejected by any Magus who happens to receive it - which, Ambrose notes, is one of the reasons why they maintain the Enforcers.
Norikata was no exception to the rule, and when the Designation was handed down shortly after the birth of his son and heir, he took the boy and fled. The two of them would spend the next decade wandering the globe, staying one step ahead of the Enforcers. What happened to Norikata's wife is unclear: Ms. Cruz says he never spoke of her; and Ambrose says that while the Enforcers sent to "acquire" Emiya reported the wife's death on the scene, the details were in files he couldn't get access to.
Gained Knowledge (Mages' Association) E (Plus) (Plus)
When Kiritsugu was eleven or so, the Emiyas moved to Alimango Island, which is located in the Philippines. At the time, it was home to a community of about fifteen hundred people, mostly fishermen and farmers. Shirley drew Norikata's interest because, despite never having been able to attend school, she'd managed to earn a Master's degree via correspondence courses by the age of thirteen. Such a mind was useful to the Magus, and he hired Shirley to help him with his experiments, while also having her run various mundane errands - fetching food and supplies, cleaning up the house, keeping an eye on Kiritsugu, and so on.
The Emiyas' stay on Alimango lasted for a little over a year, the longest they'd spent in one place for all of Kiritsugu's life. To all appearances, the Enforcers had lost their trail - Ambrose confirms this - and if they weren't precisely well-liked among the islanders - they weren't, Shirley admits sadly - they were far from being driven out with torches and pitchforks.
But then something went wrong, and a formula that Norikata had been working on - one derived from vampire blood - got loose among the population.
The Mages' Association has a long history of Magi experimenting upon themselves in various ways to extend their lifespans and preserve their hard-earned knowledge and abilities against the ravages of time, and while some of these methods can be horrible in their own right, they're tolerated, or at least overlooked.
Vampirism, however, has been a major taboo amongst Magi since before the Clock Tower even existed, largely because magically toying with vampire blood inevitably ends badly. Sometimes an enraged strigoi storms the Magus's workshop, seeking recompense for the theft of his or her blood; other times, a team of Enforcers is dispatched by the Clock Tower to capture the offender, dead or alive; and not-infrequently, an horrific abomination that USED to be a Magus goes on a mindless rampage until someone burns it to ash.
Yet despite hundreds of years' worth of documented evidence of what a colossally bad idea playing around with vampire blood is, some arrogant fool always tries again.
Whatever Norikata had intended for his formula, the result was the entire population of the island transforming into a swarm of infectious ghouls.
"It's one of the risks of introducing vampire blood into a human body," Akasha sighs. "Sometimes nothing happens. Sometimes the blood is rejected, the same way other intruders would be; depending on the body's condition beforehand and the severity of the reaction, that can be anything from merely uncomfortable to fatal. In rare cases, the body accepts the blood, and is strong enough to establish a balance; that creates a temporary state where the human has vampire-like strength, senses, and healing. If that's handled VERY carefully, and the human allowed to adapt to the blood over an extended period of time, it's possible to transform them into a new vampire. But if the body is too weak to balance the blood, or takes to it too well and too quickly, it creates a ghoul, with all the physical prowess of a vampire, none of the exotic weaknesses, and an unquenchable thirst for blood and violence - and then everyone in the area dies. And to make that condition INFECTIOUS-!" The Dark Lady catches herself, exhales sharply, and shakes her head. "That man was insane."
Ms. Cruz winces, but doesn't argue the point.
Accounts of what happened next on Alimango Island are rather confused - understandable, given the miniature "vampire apocalypse" that was going on - but it appears that the local priest saw one of the earliest infectees before he or she had been completely overtaken by the change, recognized the signs, and called in assistance from the Church. The Enforcers caught wind of that report through their own contacts, Fairy Tale picked up on it as well-
"Keeping an eye on human organizations with the power and motives to be a threat to monsters is one of the things Fairy Tale was originally set up to do," Gyokuro explains. "When the Church and the Mages' Association start moving together, let alone in our proverbial backyard, it gets noticed."
-and there were even some independent contractors that became aware of the situation, and were either close enough or in possession of the necessary resources to involve themselves.
For all of that, no one got to the island in time to prevent the outbreak.
"There were two silver linings in the whole tragedy," Ambrose notes. "One is that Emiya's serum degraded as it transferred between multiple victims, producing weaker reactions with each successive... generation. They got stronger and more properly vampire-like over time and as they consumed more blood, but only a handful of individuals approached the capabilities of true ghouls when the first responders arrived; the majority were more like bloodsucking or flesh-eating zombies. That not only made the outbreak easier to contain, it allowed some of the islanders to survive by taking to the water. Even so, the final count had something like a ninety percent fatality rate."
"So only mostly horrible, instead of completely." Archer shakes his head. "And the other silver lining?"
"Norikata didn't escape the island," the wizard says frankly. "A mercenary named Natalia Kaminski sold his body and Magic Crest to the Association. She also took custody of young Kiritsugu, who started working with her a few years later. He'd more or less become her full partner before she died - taking out another idiot Magus messing around with vampirism, if a different strain - and went on to establish his own reputation afterwards." Ambrose then turns to Ms. Cruz. "I take it you never made contact?"
Shirley shakes her head sadly. "Fairy Tale's investigators found me. I was... changed enough, by then, that they thought I was a young vampire Norikata had managed to capture and experiment on, and they wanted to take me back alive to get me help, or at least to try and figure out what was done to me. I wasn't in any state to correct them, and by the time the truth came out... well." She gestures at herself, and in particular, her necklace. "It took years for my transformation to completely stabilize, much less for me to get control over myself and earn my place with Fairy Tale, and by then, Kiritsugu had dropped off the face of the Earth. Until word came down that Mrs. Shuzen was looking for information about him, I thought he was dead."
There's not much you can say to that.
In any case, once she realized that her long-ago acquaintance was still alive and being actively investigated by Fairy Tale, Ms. Cruz got herself assigned to the project. This quickly brought her to Gyokuro's attention, which in turn led to her presence here today, along with a head and accompanying briefcase full of all the information the Shuzens have been able to pull together about the semi-retired Magus Killer, the Fourth Fuyuki Grail War and its fallout, and your own predictions about the impending Fifth War.
From all of this, two plans are taking shape.
The first regards your suggestion about the Belmonts; by combining Ambrose's information with the Shuzens', and reaching out through the Reinhardt family - specifically, Amelia's grandfather Adrian Tepes - it should be possible to convince the Belmonts that trouble is brewing in Fuyuki, and that Dracula may have one last trick left to play.
The other plan involves taking advantage of Emiya Kiritsugu's current affiliation with the Tohsaka Family to arrange a formal meeting, where the same information can be delivered to representatives of two of the three Founding Families, and hopefully get them on-board with preparing for the Fifth War.
Is there anything you'd like to contribute at this time, or other questions you feel the need to ask?
Months ago, you retained Batreaux's services for a promise that you would gather Gratitude Crystals, and look around for a demon that genuinely wanted to become human. And now, Ambrose has alerted you to a woman who got turned into what sounds like a half-demon against her will.
If Gratitude Crystals can cause a full demon to become human - or Hylian, or whatever - it follows that they should be able to do the same for a half-demon, and likely for less effort.
You'll have to discuss this with Batreaux before you go making any promises, though. Not that you can see the Risen Demon objecting to your helping this woman, but it's only good manners to inform him before you go using his "fee" for something. Plus, you need to make sure of the particulars: how many Gratitude Crystals it would cost; whether or not Batreaux would count helping a half-demon as his full fee or only part of it; that sort of thing.
While Ambrose and Ms. Cruz start comparing notes to figure out how best to present their respective findings to the Belmonts and Fuyuki contingent, you separate from Lu-sensei and move to speak with the Shuzens.
"Something caught your attention, Alex?" Akasha wonders.
"Yes, but there was also another matter I wanted to discuss, concerning Miss Jasmine and my last visit to Karakura."
"Old business first," Issa notes, gesturing for you to take a seat and speak.
You do so, quietly catching the three vampires up on your meeting with Urahara, the price he set on a high-quality gigai, the discount he was willing to offer if he was allowed to assist in the "fitting" process, and his interest in helping you create a Clone, assuming of course that Batreaux was able to find a source for the spell in question, and that the Shuzens opted to go with it over a gigai.
Gyokuro, Akasha, and Issa discuss the matter among themselves for a time, weighing the costs and benefits of both approaches: the gigai is more immediately-convenient, but for optimal results, they would have to allow an unknown third party with demonstratably high spiritual abilities into their home for a time; the Clone Spell, meanwhile, has both the uncertainty of Batreaux's success and the amount of time a new body would take to grow against it, but would minimize the involvement of outsiders in what is very much a private matter.
You notice that the actual monetary cost of the two approaches to the problem barely comes up, despite the gigai running for $5,000 to $10,000, and the Clone being likely to go for around $40,000, once the costs of tutelage, materials, and production are all taken into account.
It must be nice, to be able to treat four- and five-digit sums as a minor concern.
In the end, what decides the matter is your previous statement about the risks of leaving Jasmine's spirit floating around disembodied. Even if you could cast the Clone Spell right this instant, the time it would take for the body to grow - months, by Batreaux's estimate - would leave the girl's soul in danger the entire time. Urahara mentioned that he has spare low-quality gigai in stock, and gave no indication it would take him more than a few weeks to produce the higher-quality model. That's simply too good an advantage to pass up.
"Besides," Gyokuro says practically, "if it turns out that the false body doesn't work for some reason, we should still be able to use it as a stopgap measure, while you grow the clone."
...you're not sure if Urahara would take offense at that statement or not.
In any case, you've covered most of the matters you intended to deal with on this trip. Aside from giving Jasmine a second dose of the Spell of Restoration - which you rather pointedly WON'T be aiming at her heart this time - is there anything else that urgently needs doing today?
As you have nothing further to add at this time, you leave Ambrose and Ms. Cruz to their work, and go looking for Akua, to get on with the second attempt at healing Jasmine.
It goes without incident. You set up in Akua's spellcasting chamber, and - taking your cue from the last attempt's accidental near-awakening - focus the restorative energies of this casting of the Spell of Restoration on the sleeping spirit's arms. While the bloodstains in her dress are once again unaffected by your magic, the arms underneath the phantom of worn and patched material look much more... intact in the wake of spell than they previously did.
Jasmine sleeps through the entire process without even a hitch in her remembered breathing, and as you assess her condition in the aftermath, you judge that she's probably about as healed as you can make her. She still seems too small and thin for her age, gender, and Asian ancestry, but if the quality of her attire is any indication of what her too-short life was like, then that's not something that the Spell of Restoration is really going to help with.
There are enough diamonds left on Akasha's Earrings at this point to fuel one more casting of the spell, but you decide to hold off on that for now. Since the Shuzens have decided to allow Urahara to get involved in re-embodying Jasmine, you might as well give him a chance to examine the girl, and then ask if thinks any further healing is needed. If it is, you'll be ready. If not... well, then you can give Akasha back some of her jewelry.
Used Akasha's Earrings; one use remains
Although you are tempted to stay at Castle Shuzen for a while, your promise to Ishida Souken to make a second attempt at scrying on the Wandenreich on Tuesday leads you to decide it would be better to head home early. Even after a full night's rest, your reserves are barely a quarter full, and while you're confident in your Restful Blankets' ability to restore your strength, there's no point in tempting fate by getting into one of your usual high-energy spars. Plus, you did want to get in touch with Batreaux, so you might as well get all of the day's remaining spellcasting over and done with as quickly as possible, so as to max out your recovery time afterwards.
After making your farewells and seeing Grandmaster Wen on his way, you, Briar, and Lu-sensei return to Sunnydale. You and your master part ways not long after reaching the town limits, and you head straight home and down to your Mirror Hideaway to call up your tutor in DARKEST SORCERY.
As you expected, Batreaux has no problem with you spending some Gratitude Crystals to help out a distressed half-demon. He also clarifies that your original "half-demon, half-cost" estimate was right on the money, meaning that you only need a couple more Crystals before you'll be able to aid the woman in question.
The only downside is that, for metaphysical reasons having to do with the structure and "worth" of souls-
"I do dislike the materialistic implications of that term," Batreaux sighs, "but the FORCES OF DARKNESS will insist on it."
-transforming two half-demons into two non-demons is not equivalent to doing the same for one full demon. You would have to convert FOUR half-demons to equal Batreaux's original price.
That's annoying.
While you're on the topic of Gratitude Crystal-related transformations, you inquire of Batreaux if it would be possible to use the solidified emotions to reverse an unwanted vampiric transformation, specifically of the same species as the Shuzens belong to.
"I think it unlikely," Batreaux replies with a shake of his head. "For better or worse, your vampire friends are sufficiently far removed from their unholy ancestors to count as mortal creatures... well, more or less. They are born, they grow, they eat and breathe, they can and do die - if mainly from violence or starvation - and once they have passed on, they don't normally come back. Those that they have taken into their lineage... it would be a supernatural transformation, yes, but not a demonic one." He pauses, and then adds, "I suppose something might be possible if the afflicted were of the Lady Bloodriver's lineage, but I suspect that is not the case."
For better or worse, no.
Since you've got Batreaux here anyway, you also bring him up to speed on developments in the Jasmine Affair. Hearing that the Shuzens have decided to go with Urahara's gigai merely draws a nod from your tutor.
"As anticipated, limiting the search for a master of the Clone Spell to those who are in the good graces of the Goddesses has shrunk the pool considerably," he reports with a frown. "Finding one among those few who does not risk setting off that TERRIBLE Curse has proven... particularly vexing. BUT I REMAIN HOPEFUL!"
That's all you can ask for.
After sending your tutor on his way, you exit your spellcasting chamber, and spend the rest of the evening doing things that will let your mana reserves recover: playing with Moblin and Zelda; watching TV with the family; and just taking it easy. A late-night reading session sees you push through another chapter of Vampyr, and several much more enjoyable chapters of the Book of Kitsune Legends, before you hit the sack around midnight. When you awaken four hours later, the magic of your Restful Blankets has once again proven itself, nearly tripling your mana level.
Monday passes without incident, as does most of Tuesday. That afternoon, with a full tank of mana, you leave town and teleport to Karakura.
You arrive in the Kurosakis' backyard, and are admitted by Ichigo, who's got a backpack slung over one shoulder.
"Not sure if your timing is good or bad," your orange-haired friend says, shifting his arm and the bag of books. "We were just about to-"
"Hurry it up, Strawberry!" Tatsuki bellows from the front room. "We're going to be late!"
"Don't call me that!" Ichigo yells over his shoulder.
"No yelling in the house, you two!" Misaki warns from what sounds like the kitchen.
"Sorry, Mom / Sorry."
Ichigo turns back to you, looking sheepish. Before he goes, he advises you that you might want to use some magic to hide yourself while you're out on the streets.
"I've heard things about the truant officers," he says frankly. "And even without them, there's a lot of older jerks who cut class."
Hm.
While truant officers and punks are hardly what you'd consider threatening, they do have the potential to make you waste time and energy better spent elsewhere. Not to mention that you don't want to be the sort of "friend" who disregards well-intentioned warnings from others, just because you think you know better.
That's a bad habit to get into, considering the world you live in, and especially so when you're dealing with a place like Karakura, which is approximately as supernaturally weird as Sunnydale, merely lacking the evil and chaotic nature.
Besides, you've got a full tank of magical gas; you can afford to cast a quick spell or two to deal with the problem.
And you have just the magic in mind.
While you could cast the Spell of the Threefold Aspect to take on your adult form, you don't have a silver crescent on you at the moment, and taking the time to conjure one would mean Ichigo was long gone when you were finally done, largely ruining the joke.
Besides, you don't need to spend that much mana to get the effect you want.
Instead, you settle for casting the Spell to Disguise A Person, making it appear that an older and larger version of yourself stands where you do. Due to the limits of this particular bit of Illusion Magic, you only gain a foot of height - but then again, you're about five feet tall normally.
Ichigo's eyes widen as he looks slowly upward, following your apparent growth. "What the he-"
"Ichigo," Masaki chides from out of sight. "Language."
A mother's ears are fearsome things.
"How do I look?" you ask.
"Old," comes the prompt reply. Then Ichigo frowns. "But you still sound like you?"
"Limitation of the spell," you explain quickly, before casting a modified version of the Spell of Vocal Alteration, the usual range reduced in exchange for greater duration. "What about now?" you ask, in a deep baritone.
Before Ichigo can say anything, Tatsuki calls out again. "Come on, Ichigo! Move it or lose it!"
"Actually," you say, as the other boy starts to scowl, "why don't I join you?"
Ichigo's expression shifts into a smirk. "Let's do that."
You pick up the shoes you removed at the back door, and then gesture for him to lead the way.
As the two of you pass through the kitchen, the twins look up from their breakfast and gawk in astonishment. Karin actually lets out a squeak and starts to duck down out of sight, before Yuzu calls out in disbelief: "Is that Alex?"
"Good morning, girls," you greet them. "Mrs. Kurosaki," you add with a nod to Masaki, who's over by the phone, blinking at you.
"Ah, good morning, Alex," the lady of the house replies after a moment. "I was just about to call Uncle Souken to let him know you were in town. I take it you're heading straight to Urahara's?"
You nod.
"I'll let him know to meet you there, then." She smirks an awful lot like her son as she adds, "Try not to spook Tatsuki too badly."
Speaking of...
"Hey, Ichigo, hey, Al-WHOA what the heck happened to YOU?"
Maybe not the "who the heck are you!?" you were shooting for, but you'll take it.
As you and Ichigo put your shoes on, you explain to the youngest Arisawa your reasoning behind this particular appearance.
"Yeah," she mutters, "some of those punks need a good butt-kicking. I'd do it, but, well..." She gestures at her own height, or lack thereof.
Yeah, you can see how that would be a problem. Not that you doubt Tatsuki's ability to thump any typical high-school thug - or any five or ten of them - but it would draw way too much attention if a girl whose ninth birthday is still a couple of months away went around picking and winning fights with guys twice her age and at least twice her size.
A certain puckish corner of your mind starts speculating upon the potential outcome of loaning Tatsuki a magic item with shapechanging properties, but it's an idle thought.
You accompany your two friends through the morning streets of Karakura, observing the traffic: lots of other students, ranging between six and eighteen years of age; some parents escorting younger kids; and various professional sorts, most of whom are heading in the direction of the train station. Pedestrians, bicyclists, a few drivers - most of those carpooling, you note - and one bus.
It isn't long before Ichigo and Tatsuki head off in a different direction to school, leaving you to travel the rest of the way to Urahara Shop by yourself.
Incidentally, you do see one of those truant officers Ichigo mentioned, or at least, you're assuming that's what the man in the vaguely police-like uniform was. He notices you in return, merely nodding as he goes on his way.
As for the punks, the early hour seems to be in your favor. While you see more than a few older boys who certainly look the part, they're all moving with the morning traffic, clearly intent on going SOMEWHERE if not to school. Some of them glance your way as well, their reactions ranging from speculative to dismissive to challenging, but none appears to want to bother you. At least not yet.
That might change when you're on your way back from Urahara Shop.
When you reach the store, Tessai is out front, unloading boxes from a white van and carrying them into the store.
"Good morning, Mr. Harris, Ms. Briar," he greets you, completely unbothered by your altered appearance. He's probably reading your aura, which neither of the spells you cast would meaningfully alter. "Mrs. Kurosaki called to let us know you and Mr. Ishida would be coming; you're the first to arrive."
This doesn't surprise you.
For a second, you consider just leaving Tessai to his work and heading inside. He IS the employee of Urahara Shop, and keeping the shelves stocked would be part of his job.
But as soon as that thought comes, it's dismissed, and you ask the big man if he would like a hand moving the inventory.
Tessai thanks you for the offer, but says he could hardly ask a guest to trouble themselves on his account.
You reply that it wouldn't be a problem.
He thanks you a second time, and then asks if you could get the other end of the box he's holding...?
There's only four boxes in total, and Tessai had already moved one of them inside before you arrived. The two of you make quick work of the rest.
A sleepy Jinta shows up, rubbing his eyes, as you're carrying the third of the boxes. "Mornin', Tessai."
"Good morning, Jinta. Be sure to greet our guest."
"Huh? Oh, yeah." The bleary-eyed redhead turns to you, yawning rudely. "Waaaalcome to UraharAAAA IT'S YOU!"
Well, he's awake now.
"How are you a grown-up!?" Jinta demands, pointing at you.
"Magic," you reply.
"...magic can make kids into adults," comes the flat reply.
It can make them LOOK like adults, anyway. The Spell of the Threefold Aspect represents the limit of your experiments in growing up ahead of schedule, and even that one is more of a simulation of your likely appearance and mindset at different ages than truly representative of them.
Before you can voice any of that - or anything else, for that matter - Jinta bursts out, "That is SO unfair!"
Another, somewhat deeper yawn announces the arrival of the shop's owner. "What's all the shouting about?" Urahara wonders as he emerges from the back, nursing a cup of tea.
"He's cheating!" Jinta accuses you. "He's usin' magic to make himself a grown-up!"
Urahara looks from the younger boy, to you, to Tessai-
The big man shrugs.
-and then back to Jinta. "I don't see the problem."
The redhead lets out a tremendous, "AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!" of frustration before he storms into the back of the shop, and from there, upstairs. You're tensed in anticipation of a slamming door before you recall that the apartment built over the shop is done in the same traditional Japanese style, with sliding screen doors. They don't slam the way Western doors do.
"Should we be worried about that?" you ask.
"Eh, he'll get over it."
"Not worried he'll vent his frustrations on Ururu?"
"She's already off to school."
...huh. You'd pegged her as older than Ichigo's sisters, but not by what must be at least the better part of two years.
Well, it's not really your problem.
You finish helping Tessai with the boxes, after which you find you've still got some time to kill before Souken arrives.
This strikes you as a good time to let Urahara know of the Shuzens' decisions regarding the gigai, but even as you're thinking that, you find your gaze wandering to the many curious contents of Urahara Shop. It occurs to you that you've got twenty dollars' worth of yen stashed in your pocket, and if the shop's wares are anything like the proprietor, there could be something quite interesting available for sale.
You find that you're not really in the mood for the Japanese equivalent of penny candy, so you turn your attention towards the shelves and their contents. Many of these promptly prove to be bags, small boxes, and otherwise packaged examples of more cheap snacks and junk foods. There are some familiar offerings among the lot - chocolate, hard sugar candies, gummies, candy cigarettes, and chewing gum, to name a few - and thanks to your previous explorations of Karakura with Ichigo and Tatsuki, you recognize a few of the brand names and other products, particularly the puffed corn snacks known as umaibo and the bottles of Ramune in the freezer section (sharing space with bottles of Coke and Sprite, incidentally).
These aren't the only things Urahara Shop has to offer. Two entire shelving units are filled with various sorts of trading cards. Of the eight shelves, one is given over to Magic: The Gathering, but the majority of the selection is of cards featuring characters you can only assume come from anime, manga, Japanese TV shows or movies, and more traditional literature. A separate set of shelves is filled with little plastic capsules that contain tiny figurines, mini-mecha, and other little toys; the same sort of stuff is available in the adjacent row of hand crank-operated vending machines, but you note that the capsules on the shelves are priced higher than their counterparts.
You suppose that's fair. The machines - gatchapon, if you're remembering the name right - have an element of random chance that, while providing some mystery and excitement, also means users won't always or even often get the toy they want. When you're dealing with a bunch of typical kids, that kind of thing can be a problem, as there's always going to be that one kid who has to have the "right" toy and will throw a tantrum if they don't get it. Providing the option to pay extra to head that sort of thing off and spare parents some stress seems like a good compromise.
There are also the magazines, which include a few manga titles and several more general publications.
You don't notice any spiritually-empowered goods on display, but that makes sense for someone who's trying to operate under the radar of the Soul Society. Whatever else Urahara sells besides gigai, putting them up front would be too likely to draw unwanted attention, whether from a passing Shinigami, a hungry Hollow, or some other spiritually-aware individual or entity - not to mention the impact a fake body hanging from a stand might have on his regular sales!
Would you care to buy something? Remember, you've only got $20 in yen.
As you look over the selection, you discuss the relevant bits of your Sunday visit at the Shuzens' with Urahara. He's pleased to hear that they've decided to make use of his services, twice-pleased to be told that they've agreed to allow him to take part in the "fitting" process, and thrice-pleased when you mention that you are still planning to acquire the Clone Spell. His smile doesn't even lose any of its shine when you mention that Gyokuro wants to have the Clone available as a fallback option, in case the gigai doesn't work out.
"It only makes sense to take precautions," the shopkeeper admits. "This will be the very first time on record that a vampire's soul has been housed in a gigai; the odds that things will go entirely smoothly are pretty long."
He doesn't appear at all troubled by the odds, whatever they may be.
In any case, Souken strolls into the shop not long after that, his spiritual energies humming in a way you haven't felt before.
"My apologies for the delay," the Quincy elder says. "I noticed a Hollow trailing a group of students." He follows that up by pulling a small arrowhead-shaped object out from under his half-cloak, and handing it over to Urahara. The thing gives off an aura of mingled Quincy and Hollow energies, the latter faint and fading, as well as just a hint of something Shinigami-like.
"A little something I've been working on in my spare time," the shopkeeper says, as he notices your attention on the item. "I'm trying to find a way to make Quincy powers stop destroying Hollow souls, without taking away their combat-effectiveness."
"Any luck?" Because twisted, insane, and cannibalistic or not, the outright destruction of a soul is a nasty bit of business.
"Still a work in progress," he admits, tucking the arrowhead away. "Anyhow, shall we be about our business?"
The gatchas are strangely tempting, but you end up turning back to the shelves with the cards, giving the purely-Japanese games a minute's consideration before focusing on the local translation of Magic: The Gathering.
While you don't play yourself, you've seen some of the kids at school having Magic duels during the lunch hour, and you're curious what their reactions would be like if you turned up with a pack of Japanese cards. You'd need more than that if you meant to play - the decks you've seen in use include something like fifty or sixty cards, while a single booster pack is too thin to have more than ten or so - but you could find a dealer States-side easily enough, and have a lot more money to spend there if you're that serious about this.
Right here and now, a single booster pack is enough.
Gained Magic Booster Pack
Spent $5 in yen
As you're paying for your purchase, you ask Urahara what sort of spiritual goods he carries, apart from gigai and analytical tools.
"Oh, a bit of this, a bit of that," the shopkeeper replies, smirking behind his fan. "Mostly, I do business with the unseated Shinigami assigned to local patrols, providing minor tools and supplies they might use up - or just break - while fighting Hollows: boosters to help recover spent spiritual energy; first aid materials for spiritual injuries; replacement communicators; that sort of thing. And of course, I rent out the occasional gigai and provide maintenance."
You inquire about, curious as to why a typical Shinigami would use one of those false bodies.
As Urahara explains, they come in handy for healing the spiritual cuts and bruises which low-ranking or simply unskilled Shinigami tend to suffer in the line of duty. Whether it's alive or a gigai, a physical body screens out a lot of the foreign energies in the environment, allowing minor wounds to heal more cleanly and with less effort. By the same token, a gigai allows minor Shinigami - who don't have all that much power to begin with, in the grand scheme of things - to conserve and more rapidly recover their strength between patrols. The stronger officers can find gigai useful for that purpose as well, depending on what kind of fights they've run into, but more often, they use gigai to muffle their own spiritual strength, hiding from the Hollows they hunt and helping to minimize any unintentional spiritual influence on the human population.
"And quite aside from all of that," Urahara adds, "at the end of the day, Shinigami are people, too. It's a rare individual who has the ability and the will to do nothing but patrol the streets around the clock for the entire length of their assignment; most of them like to take a break between duty shifts, grab something to eat, and get in a bit of friendly conversation, relying on their senses and alerts from headquarters to tell them if a Hollow has turned up unexpectedly."
That sounds reasonable.
Shortly thereafter, Souken arrives, and the three of you adjourn to the basement once again. Tessai remains topside to mind the shop and Jinta, who hadn't come back downstairs, while Yoruichi just sort of turns up when you're in the middle of making your preparations.
As you did on Saturday, you use the Spell of Major Creation to conjure a mirror of sufficiently high quality to serve as a focus for the Spell of Scrying, then place the Spell to Obscure an Object on top of it, the Communal Spell of Nondetection on the five people in attendance-
Much easier, a practical corner of your mind observes, than covering over a dozen people.
-and finally the Mage's Private Sanctum on the surrounding area.
Souken hands over the Key of the Sun, and as you begin casting the Greater Spell of Scrying, you consider where to aim it. The simplest approach would be to start at the guarded hallway outside the Royal Quarter of the Quincy fortress, but considering the security you saw there last time - especially the presence of that Sternritter - that might not be the best idea. Placing your first Scrying Spell a few corridors away, where the security is lighter, is more appealing; you've got enough mana that you can afford a couple of "skips," and the reduced odds of being spotted right off the bat do appeal.
There is still the question of how to handle the security around the inner sanctum. You already know that you can't scry through the walls, and trying to leap-frog your sensors through them is too risky. That leaves either staking out a single door for the next few hours and hoping it opens up, or circling the area and hoping you find a way in, without getting spotted by a roving Quincy elite.
You aren't thrilled by the notion of just sitting around for hours, watching this one door and waiting for a lucky break that may never come, all the while at potential risk of discovery from any passing-by Sternritter. An active search will, if nothing else, give you an idea of the size of the inner sanctum, as well as the number and location of any other access points.
...and you think you might have a way to swing the odds a little more in your favor.
Asking Urahara and Mr. Ishida for a few minutes, you sit down on the sandy floor of the underground room and turn part of your awareness inward, mentally and spiritually reaching for the presence of the Raging Boar.
In the depths of your soul, a great shaggy presence grunts in acknowledgment of your presence, and inquiry of your purpose.
"You know what I'm planning on doing today," you begin.
It wasn't really a question, but the Boar oinks in agreement.
"What do you say to helping me find a weakness in the Quincies' defenses?"
There is a pause, and then a rumble as your totem-spirit moves forward - a mix of motion and a wordless utterance of mild interest.
Returning to the waking world, you open your eyes, the presence of the Boar gathered about you.
Urahara is wearing his Science Face again as he regards you.
The Boar rumbles at the shopkeeper, this time in warning.
Urahara raises his hands in a pacifying gesture, but he doesn't stop smiling.
With your totem at your back, so to speak, you begin shaping mana.
As you complete the Greater Spell of Scrying several minutes later, the image of a vaguely-familiar white corridor appears within the mist-filled glass of your conjured mirror. You take a moment to look around, orienting yourself and making sure no one's around to notice the manifestation of your sensor - or more correctly, to make sure that no one capable of noticing it was around - and also waiting to see if the Raging Boar's manifest attention carries through.
No alarms break out, and none of the dozen or so Soldats you can see moving through the hallway below your vantage point start acting like they think they're being watched.
Your shortened spell lapses then, and you re-cast it, targeting an area at the far end of the previous casting's field of view. A third of these leap-frogging casts brings the guarded doorway that separates the Royal Chambers from the rest of Silbern into sight - doors still shut and heavily guarded.
When you cast Greater Scrying a fourth time, you restore some of the diminished duration and aim for a spot right across the hall from the closed portal. Here you sit for several minutes, porcine snuffles and snorts echoing in your head as the Raging Boar observes the area and the wards built into the doors and the stones around them with its own senses.
Eventually, your spirit-animal grunts in annoyance, indicating it cannot perceive any vulnerable spots.
Considering that the Raging Boar led you through the anti-scrying defenses of a nine-tailed kitsune, that says something about the level of power and thoroughness you're dealing with here.
Granted, where Lady Takara went with subtle, low-powered methods of deception and misdirection, the Quincies built a warded fortress. Those are very different approaches to the matter of security, and comparing them directly doesn't give the best idea of how they really compare...
Shaking that off, you look down the hall to the corner that Sternritter came around the last time you were looking in on this area, let your spell lapse, and then re-cast its short-duration form.
Step by step, you begin to map the corridors immediately adjacent to the Royal Quarters, the Raging Boar sniffing at the wards as you go.
You haven't seen a Sternritter yet, but what do you intend to do if one of the Quincy elites appears again?
One of the nice things about spying via scrying magic is that if someone notices you, or if you come to a dead-end, you can just cancel the spell and cast it anew with any previously-viewed location in mind, resuming your search without delay, danger, or any of the other issues that can potentially arise from having to physically cross the intervening distance.
You decide that, if a Sternritter appears, that is what you'll do. After all, the hallway that led you to the "Door of the King" - or whatever grandiose name the Quincies have given to it; Souken hasn't mentioned any such thing, but he may well not know it, and the fact that these folks call their portals the Gates of the Sun sets a certain precedent - ended in a T-junction. You turned right, and have been exploring along the wall in that direction ever since; it would be a perfectly simple matter to double-back and head left, should the need arise.
You pass multiple armed patrols and a number of lesser corridors as you continue to leapfrog your sensors down the major passage, but the former prove to lack anyone watchful enough to notice the intrusion of your invisible, immaterial investigator, while the latter all lead to your right, away from the Royal Quarter, and hence are of no current interest to you.
It takes over a dozen short-lived castings of Greater Scrying to finally bring you to a passage that leads to your left, and when you follow that one a few more jumps down, you find another of those large, heavily-defended double doors, in a position that by your reckoning exactly mirrors that of the first pair.
You have mixed luck: these doors, too, are firmly shut; but you do not see anyone wearing the personalized uniform of a Sternritter.
The Boar gives this portal a cursory inspection, before your Spell of Scrying lapses, but you aren't surprised when the big pig echoes his previous grumble of irritation. He was making similar sounds all the way down that long hall.
Rather than re-cast your spell right away, you let the mists fill your mirror and turn to your compatriots.
"Based on what we've seen of the fortress so far," you say, referring to all the unrelieved white stone, the militaristically uniform (and uniform-wearing) appearance of the Quincies, and the sharp, precise lines and angles along which everything is laid out, "it seems pretty likely that the other side of this block is going to be the same as the one we just observed."
Urahara and Souken both nod, the former commenting, "Seems like a safe bet, though I'd want to make sure of that, just to be certain. Confirmation trumps any amount of supposition, however likely it may be."
You don't disagree with that. However... "If I do that right now, it's going to bring my mana down to about a third of my maximum capacity. I could still recover all of that by this time tomorrow, I'm just wondering if there's anything else we'd be better served spending it on."
The two older men consider that.
The most obvious use of your energy would be setting up a pair of scrying spells, one for each of the doors, and then waiting to see if they ever open up. You'd call that the "boring but practical" approach. The main issue would be how long you set the spells to run for. Longer durations would be more efficient than constantly re-casting the spell, but they'd also be more likely to get noticed.
Another option that comes to mind, thanks to your Gerudo-influenced thinking, would be to find the servants. Your direct observation of the Wandenreich accounts for just a few hours' worth of information, most of it purely visual in nature, but nothing you've seen or heard so far contradicts Souken's description of them as a highly militaristic power - and cultures like that aren't usually big on having their proud warrior types do the daily chores, unless they're on punishment detail. Keeping themselves presentable and their own crap in good order, yes, but maintaining structures even a fraction of the size of Silbern - much less ones with such stark white walls and plush carpeting - is a task that requires a dedicated staff of professional caretakers, not the desultory efforts of a few soldiers with poor disciplinary records.
The only catch is that, in all your wanderings of the great fortress, you haven't seen anybody who wasn't wearing the uniform of a Soldat or Sternritter. This doesn't automatically mean that the servants aren't there: a mark of a good servant is to be unseen except when needed; and when Akasha was running around that booby-trapped recreation of Hyrule Castle during the Trials, you got a good look at the side-passages intended to allow the servants to go about their business, out of sight and out of mind of the hoity-toity nobility. Silbern could have a similar set-up, perhaps down those side-passages you chose not to investigate earlier?
Or they could just be using some scaled-up spiritual equivalent of the Spell of the Unseen Servant to keep the place clean.
Urahara is on that same train of thought, as he asks Souken what, if anything, the Wandenreich had in the way of servants. The older man confirms that there is a "household division" within the fortress, made up of a mix of descendants of common civilians from the fallen Lichtreich, and more recent Quincy from the "outsider" families who were somehow disgraced and lost their military rank and privileges.
"If they have a route to the Royal Quarter, it will be on one of the floors below this one," Souken tells you.
And here you are, without Navi to cast the Spell to See Through Stone on you. You could correct that, of course, or you could fall back to that stairwell you made use of the other day; it kept going down past this level of the fortress, so you could start scrying from there to explore the next floor down.
You can't go running to Navi for help with every obstacle you encounter, particularly not the ones that can be dealt with using other methods.
With that thought in mind, when you cast Greater Scrying again, you focus on part of the Wandenreich fortress that you haven't seen yet today - namely, the stairwell that you "descended" on Saturday, as you made your way to the room containing the Gate of the Sun.
As an image of the - currently empty - stairs fills the mirror before you, Briar says, "Not going to scry on the doors back there?"
You shake your head. "Too risky. If there was just the one door, I might be able to get away with leaving a sensor there to see if the way opens up while I'm poking around on the lower level, but two of them? In a place we've seen at least one of the most powerful and skilled Quincies roaming around? That's just asking for trouble."
A reasonable argument.
Eh, maybe. But it's REALLY frustrating to know that little things like a wall or a couple of doors are getting in the way of- oh, US.
...that's a moment of enlightenment if I ever saw one. Care to share?
This... this is how Ganondorf felt, isn't it? Every time he walked into a temple.
Well, that and the urge to burn it all down and salt the ashes...
Briar nods, and neither the Quincy nor the Shinigami present raise objections with your decision.
Another short-lived casting of Greater Scrying takes you down to the next floor, where you begin using a combination of Souken's advice, Urahara's growing map of Silbern, and *ahem* animal instinct to make your way back to the Royal Quarter. As you navigate this level, you start seeing people who aren't wearing the trench coats, pants, hats, and heavy boots of the Soldats on the floor above; their outfits are still predominantly white, but the men are wearing lighter waist-length jackets and shoes, while the women are dressed like old-fashioned maids.
Where the Soldats stationed around the Royal Quarter were keeping their mouths shut in the tradition of high-disciplined guardsmen who do not speak while on duty, save to relay or acknowledge orders and intel, there's a constant murmur of conversation down here, punctuated by the occasional raised voice.
It's all in that particular dialect of German used by the Quincies, and since you don't have the Spell to Comprehend Languages up at the moment, you only recognize a few words here and there. Mostly the loud ones.
"-be CAREFUL with that-"
"-cannot BELIEVE you-"
"-supposed to get FIFTY CRATES-"
"-another word about BEER-"
Gained German F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
While you can't make out anything useful through the language barrier and the noise, you allow each of your spells to last as long as their limited duration will allow, giving Souken a chance to eavesdrop. This leads to him borrowing Urahara's rock-top computer and making several notes on a text document; you're tempted to look, but decide to keep your attention on what the mirror shows for now.
There are no major landmarks on this level of the fortress, but eventually - after twenty-three repeated castings of your Spell of Scrying - you find yourself in a corridor that has a heavily-warded wall on one side, and within that wall, a guarded door.
Which happens to be open, as a group of servants slowly wheel what looks like a dozen crates past the watchful eyes of the guards, each box being opened and searched before it is allowed to pass.
Your mana is low, but even if the Boar weren't grunting eagerly in the back of your mind, you wouldn't hesitate; you focus on the area inside the door, let your spell lapse, and then re-cast it.
And like that, you're in the Royal Quarter of Silbern.
"Always follow the servants," Urahara observes with an expression of satisfaction.
You pause here, your mana reduced to a sixth of your full capacity. If you were to stop casting now and head home to rest and recover, you'd be back to about five-sixths of full strength by this time tomorrow, which would still be enough to explore a good-sized chunk of the Royal Quarter - assuming that you were willing to skip a lesson at Lu-sensei's and keep spying with less than a completely topped-off tank. Alternately, since it's just Souken and Urahara here, you could call out Shadow Alex to effectively double your available mana, not to mention the rate at which you could map the inner sanctum. Waiting until Thursday, so that your magic has fully recovered, is also an option, but so is doing a little more exploring right now.
You've found your way into Silbern's Royal Quarter; that feels like a good high note to end today's exploration on, rather than pressing your luck further when your reserves are so low, and your ability to respond to sudden developments reduced accordingly.
After making sure to fix the image of the area inside the doors in your mind, you allow your Spell of Scrying to lapse once again, and the face of your conjured mirror to return to normal.
Talking things over with Urahara and Souken, you broach the subject of using Shadow Alex's assistance to speed up the search. This involves summoning your dark-is-not-evil side and introducing him to Souken, who takes the experience well enough - and by "well," you mean that he starts and has a finger-twitch like he wants to "draw" his spirit-bow, but doesn't let his reaction go beyond that. And when you've explained how calling your counterpart effectively doubles the amount of magic you have to throw around, the old Quincy is all for it.
As a bonus, he's not especially bothered by your decision to keep this particular capability a secret before now.
"I believe you noticed that my grandson is a bit uncomfortable with the idea of supernatural phenomenon that aren't of a spiritual nature," Souken says with a faint smile. "Even Kanae might have decided to shoot first, upon meeting your... forgive me, do you have a particular term you prefer to refer to each other by?"
You and Shadow Alex trade glances.
In any case, Souken agrees that the prospect of having two overpowered mages on hand to scry out the heart of Silbern is well worth waiting a couple more days. Though just to make certain of that, you cast Greater Scrying one more time - focusing some way down the right-hand servants' corridor you'd left off at - give your alter-ego a look at the place, and then have him cast the spell himself.
Shadow Alex has no more trouble directing his magic around or through the Wandenreich's spirit-based defenses than you do - something which you note has Urahara shaking his head.
"I'm starting to wonder if they put in ANY defenses against magic, or if you're just that ridiculous," the Shinigami shopkeeper sighs.
"I vote for ridiculous," Briar declares.
You'd like to object to that, but your partner probably isn't wrong. From what Souken's said, the original Quincy empire, the Lichtreich, stood for centuries before Yhwach's defeat, which you know was the better part of a thousand years ago. That dates the founding of the so-called Empire of Light to well before the injunction against overt divine intervention put in place by the Powers That Be, which means the early Quincies almost HAVE to have had contact with Earth's ancient magical traditions. If only because you can't see all the OTHER special interest groups that would have made up the supernatural side of Europe back in the day meekly rolling over and accepting the rule of the new god-king on the block. On top of that, thanks to your eavesdropping on those grumpy, beer-deprived, corpse-demon cursing Soldats, you know that the modern Wandenreich still has contact with the larger Moonlit World - so magic can't be an outside context problem to them now, either.
And yet, despite the fact that Silbern MUST have some defenses against magical scrying, here are you and your Shadow, casually casting spells through the walls and wards of the Hidden Empire like they aren't even there.
So, yeah. Either the Quincy got some really substandard work done on their defenses - which, given they've survived for most of a millennium BECAUSE of those defenses, seems unlikely in the extreme - or you're just ridiculous.
Shaking your head, you dismiss Shadow Alex, your conjured mirror, and your defensive measures.
As you're about to shimmy up the ladder and leave Urahara Shop, you pause and consider an alternative. If you're going to be visiting this place again without members of the Kurosaki and/or Arisawa families in attendance, do you really need to teleport to either of their homes, first? If Urahara doesn't mind you using his backyard as a teleport site, you'd save a little time coming and going, not to mention dodge potential encounters with the Karakura truant officers and high school punks Ichigo warned you about.
Heck, depending on how the shop's wards interact with your teleportation - or more precisely, how they don't - you could just blip between the basement and your landing areas back outside Sunnydale. Urahara might appreciate not having a seventh-circle spell signature flare on his property for every passing magic-sensitive to notice, and for that matter, so might the Kurosakis.
"None that comes to mind."
Or perhaps it is more correct to say, none that particularly outweighs all the others. You've called your Shadow your dark half, your alter-ego, a reflection, "other me," Shadow Alex, a doppelganger, and various other things in that vein, each as imprecise as the next.
You are not surprised when Urahara's eyes are once again brightened from within by the light of Scientific Curiosity.
"You're correct that I would like to avoid having a major magical signature show up in my backyard," he says. "Keeping a low profile is... important to us here at Urahara Shop. The testing area is another matter, assuming of course you can get in and out in the first place...?"
"Give me seven minutes to perform the ritual, and we'll know," you tell him.
"I only need five to set up!" Urahara replies with a grin.
Shaking your head, you add a request that, if this works, Urahara will call the Kurosakis to let them know you went directly home. Once that's settled, you begin gathering your power, keeping one eye on the mad scientist as he does mad scientist things: calling his assistant for some extra sensors to be sent down; setting those up around you; doing things at his rock-top computer; and all the while, muttering to himself.
Seven minutes later, you invoke the magic, Urahara and his basement training ground disappear-
*Whu-BUMP*
-flying/falling/sinking through a strange space/medium/awareness filled with familiar shapes/alien geometries and faint/loud chorus/discordance and a near/distant green energy/presence and surprise/wincing/sympathetic/ouch that looked/felt/sounded rough/awkward/painful are you functional/intact/okay?-
-and you materialize in the woods north of Sunnydale, laying face-first on the grass.
"...ow," you say intelligently.
"Ugh," Briar replies insightfully from where she lies, not that far off.
A minute passes as you take stock of your condition. Nothing hurts - or FAILS to hurt - in a way that would indicate serious injury; on the whole, you appear to have suffered the equivalent of bumps and bruises. The question is, why?
Thinking on it, you conclude that Urahara's wards - which probably include some mechanism for stopping Hollows, Shinigami, and other ethereal entities from simply phasing through or "around" the earth that separates the subterranean chamber from the surface - are a bit more effective at impeding trans-dimensional travel in general than anticipated.
Not enough to STOP you, but enough to turn what otherwise would have been a smooth ride into a rough one.
Gained Summoning A (Plus)
You voice your speculations to Briar.
"Sounds about right," she groans.
"...do you think we blew a hole through his wards?" you ask after a moment.
"...on the one hand, I kind of hope so. On the other, I'm worried he'd make us pay for the replacement."
You hadn't gotten that far in your musings yet. You have to admit, with what you know of Urahara's personality, it seems like a distinct possibility.
Groaning for a reason that has nothing to do with physical or mystical stress, you pick yourself and your partner up and make your way home.
In light of this unexpected development, how will you be returning to Karakura on Thursday?
Yeah, even leaving aside the potential risks to yourself and Briar - which you're definitely not doing - you should probably check with Urahara in person about what happened before you try teleporting into or out of his secret underground testing/training room again. Not to mention the fact that blowing another hole in the wards on that place mere minutes before you mean to USE it would be highly counter-productive.
At least this way, Urahara has a couple of days to work on fixing whatever damage you did.
While you're still a bit sore in places when you get home, the lingering aches of the mishap have faded enough that you can keep your family from worrying. You refrain from using magic the rest of the evening, instead doubling-down on your reading. Because of that, you finally finish the overly-dry but informative Vampyr. There was a wealth of information on the demonic undead breed tucked away within those nigh-impenetrable pages, and while most of the details about Vampyrs Throughout the Ages are probably never going to be useful to you - many of the parasites involved having since been staked, decapitated, immolated, brought to daylight, or otherwise destroyed - there are still a few "big names" that the new reprinting notes are either still active, or were "last seen" close enough to home for you to take note.
Luke, of the Order of Aurelius, favored by the Master of that Old One worshipping vampire cult for his fanatical loyalty and combat prowess.
Darla, also of the Order of Aurelius, also favored by the Master - perhaps his very favorite - and another member of the Scourge of Europe, alongside William the Bloody and Drusilla the Mad, who you've previously a little heard about, due to Gyokuro's interest in killing Spike. Darla was evidently the oldest member of the four-vampire walking apocalypse, directly siring the last member, Angelus, who in turn sired Drusilla, who later sired Spike. And speaking of the Whirlwind, Vampyr notes that the other three members are all still walking the earth as well. Spike and Drusilla have been keeping their heads down for a while, but were spotted in Bucharest during last summer's Eclipse of Doom - surprisingly NOT joining Dracula's horde to kill all humans, but rather taking on who- or whatever offered them violence as they fought their way out of the city. Odd, that. As for Angelus, he was last seen on the East Coast, doing... a whole lot of nothing, which appears to have been his M.O. for an entire century. Doubly weird.
The other big name Vampyr brings to your attention is the Master of the Order of Aurelius himself - though no actual name is given - who was last seen in Sunnydale in the year 1937, and is credited as being responsible for a string of deaths noteworthy even by the warped standards of the Hellmouth. Said killing spree came to an abrupt end when an earthquake rocked the town, after which the Master was not seen again, and his disciples split, some scattering to the winds, and others putting down roots. As none of them have even attempted to claim leadership of the Order, Vampyr's writers believe that the Master survived the earthquake, but has been keeping a low profile since - for what reason, they cannot say.
Gained Demonology (C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus) corpse-demons)
Gained History
American (E (Plus) corpse-demons)
Ancient Earth (E (Plus) (Plus) corpse-demons)
Chinese (F (Plus) (Plus) corpse-demons)
European (E (Plus) corpse-demons)
Japanese (E (Plus) corpse-demons)
Gained Literacy C (Plus)
Gained Local Knowledge (Sunnydale) D (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Tactics (B (Plus) vs. corpse-demons)
It was originally your intention to use the heavy tome in group study sessions, with an eye towards arming your family, friends, and their in-the-know relatives with that most vital of weapons, information, so that they'd be better-able to detect, avoid, and/or deal with the local corpse-demon infestation. Given the slog you've had getting through the dull, archaic text, however, that idea has become decidedly unattractive. Perhaps you could create a summary of the useful and relevant points for your peers? One written in plainer language?
As valuable as the information in Vampyr is for improving quality of life - or even just its continuation - for residents of Sunnydale, you simply can't see most of your friends and family managing to slog through the sometimes-archaic vocabulary, dense prose, and constant cross-referencing to get at the critical data.
You'll still recommend that they all read the book, someday, but for the time being, it would be far more efficient for you to write up a smaller document that summarizes the relevant bits in language your above-average, going on or actually nine year-old friends can follow, and hand out copies of that.
You spend most of three hours before breakfast on Wednesday morning plotting out a first draft for your self-imposed writing assignment, figuring out what needs to be included, and what can be left out. Some of it's easy enough. A quick run-down on the verified capabilities and weaknesses of the typical corpse-demon is definitely required, and given that the Order of Aurelius is the dominant local faction, a more specific assessment of their bloodline's capabilities would be wise. "Surviving the Vampyr" was focused on avoidance strategies and escape tactics; that can go in. "Hunting the Vampyr" covered methods for tracking and exterminating the filth; that can be ignored for the time being. "Vampyrs Throughout the Ages" is largely unnecessary information, with an exception for the Aurelians, while the section on "Vampyrs and Magick" isn't something anyone except the Madisons could make use of right now.
There's only so much you can do in three hours, of course, particularly with your stomach grumbling about a lack of food, but you make the most of that time.
At school that day, you let Cordy, Amy, and Larry know that you've finished reading Vampyr, and are working on a more accessible summary for general reading. While you add that they're always welcome to borrow the book itself, if they're interested - you mention the chapter on anti-vampire magic to Amy - all three turn down the offer.
"Maybe in a few more years, when we've caught up with your magical super-brain," Cordelia says.
In a few more years, you'll likely be reading college textbooks or something.
"You are such a geek."
Classes, both at Sunnydale Elementary and Lu-sensei's place, go without incident. When you return home from the latter, you spend the remainder of the afternoon reading two more of the stories in Kitsune Legends for Zelda, noting in passing that you're just about done with this book. After dinner, you withdraw to your workshop for a five-hour crafting session with Kahlua's Gauntlets, finally calling it a day as the midnight hour approaches.
When you pull the Restful Blanket off your head several hours later and stretch, you notice that you feel slightly different on the mystical side. It's not just that your reserves have returned to full capacity, but they've changed somehow.
Interested, you wake a grouchy Briar and pad downstairs to your Mirror Hideaway for some magical testing.
Gained Mana Recovery D
Well, then. It would appear that your recent bouts of energy-intensive spellcasting provided the last push your body and soul needed to send the rate at which your internal reserves of mana are replenished over the next major threshold. Running some numbers, you figure that if you were to empty the tank right before bed, you could recharge to full in a little under 46 hours - or a bit less than 39 hours, if you weren't counting the "extra" capacity you've trained into yourself.
And that's without using your Restful Blankets. Factor in the accelerated recovery rate those allow for, and the "four hours actual, ten hours effective" nightly sleep plan you've adopted, and you'd reach your original maximum mana capacity in under 29 hours, while filling your reserves to their actual limit would take less than 34 hours.
It's with a certain sense of renewed confidence that you return to Karakura that afternoon-
-flying/falling/sinking through a strange space/medium/awareness filled with familiar shapes/alien geometries and faint/loud chorus/discordance and a near/distant green energy/presence status/condition/feeling okay?-
Focusing your mental energies, you attempt to telepathically project a response: "I'm fine, thanks."
-acknowledgement/understanding/relief/good to know!-
Gained Telepathy E
-where you are once again greeted at the Kurosakis' back door by Ichigo.
He looks confused. "I thought you were going straight to Sandal-Hat's place now?"
"I tried going straight home from his place the other day," you clarify. "The ride got... bumpy... so I figured I should stick to stopping by like this until I could check in with Urahara in person, and find out if I broke any of his stuff on my way out."
"...what did you do, punch a hole through his ceiling or something?"
...that's not a bad analogy, really.
Speaking of Urahara, you got an okay from Souken to call up Shadow Alex to help with today's scrying. Would you like to wait to call up your darker half at Urahara Shop, or would you prefer to do it right now?
A part of you would like to call up Shadow Alex now, if only to deny Urahara another opportunity to monitor the process, but you decide that it's probably for the better that you don't have two nodes of Power walking around Karakura. You've had something of a lucky streak when it comes to avoiding Hollows or on-duty Shinigami, and you'd like to keep that going for as long as possible; letting Shadow Alex out to roam the streets would only increase your odds of attracting unwanted attention, whether he was off on his own or walking with you.
So you restrain yourself and head inside, greeting the Kurosakis as you pass through their house. You pause in the genkan to put your shoes back on, and also to wrap yourself in Illusion Magic once again.
Your disguise is just taking shape when Isshin walks out of the kitchen/dining room, on his way to the clinic, and does a double-take in your direction.
"What the-"
"Ichigo mentioned truant officers and high school punks the other day," you clarify. "I passed both on my way to Urahara's, but this" - you gesture at the illusion - "seems to be enough to keep them off my back."
"As long as you don't speak," Isshin notes dryly.
...yeah. And as long as you don't let any of them touch you. Efficient and effective as they are, purely visual illusions do have their shortcomings, and those are two of the big ones.
Saying your goodbyes, you exit the Kurosaki home-
"GAH!"
-apologize to Tatsuki for startling her, and head on your way.
Due to some quirk of the morning's traffic, you don't cross paths with that group of older boys you saw on Tuesday. The truant officer does make an appearance, though he's halfway down the street from you when you catch sight of him, and walking away besides.
Then you cross paths with a certain black cat. For a moment, you wonder if Yoruichi will join the ranks of those fooled or simply startled by your choice of appearances, but his low, casual, "Good morning," puts paid to that notion.
Since there's no one else in earshot, you return the greeting, and ask the feline Shinigami what brings him by.
"Nothing much," comes the casual reply. "I was just on my way back to the shop after a long night when I noticed a couple of familiar auras."
Another area in which the Spell to Disguise One's Self offers no real help.
Shrugging that off, you ask Yoruichi if Urahara has been keeping him up to date on the results of your scrying sessions-
"He has."
-and if anything unusual happened at the shop after your last visit.
The cat pauses and tilts his head to one side. "Define 'unusual.'"
...right, he lives with Urahara.
You explain about the rough teleport you experienced when trying to travel home from the warded basement, and the possibility that you'd damaged Urahara's defenses in the process.
"He hasn't mentioned anything of the sort," Yoruichi replies after a moment. "Plus, Tessai usually gets depressed when the shop needs a sudden repair job like that, and he hasn't - so I would presume nothing was broken. Then again, both of them have been a bit distracted with their research and preparations for that 'custom order' you talked about, so you might want to check directly to be sure."
You make a note to do that when you arrive. Being able to teleport to and from Urahara's secret underground training room would be useful, but if you're going to damage the protections on the place or just get banged up every time you pass through them, then...
In any case, you're still a few minutes out from Urahara Shop, and Yoruichi seems to be in a talkative mood. Is there anything you'd like to speak about?
Since you're already talking about Urahara Shop's anti-detection wards, you decide to ask Yoruichi just what the shopkeeper's policy on secrecy IS. After all, while it's clear the man puts a high value on privacy - witness the secret underground testing area - he also operates a public business and, by his own admission, sells to the local Shinigami patrols besides.
"Nothing special," Yoruichi replies. "'Don't say or do anything out of the ordinary in front of ordinary people, unless Hollows are involved - and even then, carry a kikanshinki.'"
'Account-Replacing Spirit Device'? What the heck is that?
"Have you seen that American movie, Men In Black?"
You have...
"It's something like a Neuralizer. Just annoyingly random, and useless on anyone with more than baseline levels of spiritual awareness."
Your eyes widen as a certain conversation in the Arisawa kitchen over hot chocolate comes back to you. Akkiko DID mention that the Shinigami have the ability to erase memories; she just didn't go into specifics at the time.
Yoruichi returns to the original subject. "There's also, 'Don't say or do anything to make the Shinigami on the street suspect we're anything more than an oddball collection of exiles,' and 'Don't do anything in public that would attract attention from the Hollows or Soul Society.'" The cat pauses, and adds, "Though we're going to have to at least bend that last guideline, thanks to this business with the Quincies."
You nod at that. It would be rather difficult to warn the Soul Society about a hostile army - and make them take it seriously - without attracting their attention in the process.
There isn't any away around it, though. Taking on the Wandenreich is a task for an army, and even if you went all-in with your Summoning Magic, you have your doubts you'd be able to call up creatures individually powerful enough to face the Quincy army, in sufficient numbers so as not to be overwhelmed by the enemy's massed forces, for LONG enough to do something about them,
Shaking that off, you deliberately change the subject, and ask Yoruichi what it's like being a cat.
This earns you a golden-eyed blink of lazy amusement. "Why, hadn't you heard? Cats are perfect."
"Perfectly evil, maybe," Briar says, sotto voce.
"Is that the voice of jealousy I hear?"
"Why would I be jealous of something that gets distracted by little red dots?"
Yoruichi's ears go flat. "I do not."
"Oh? So if I were to cast a modified Light Spell-"
"Don't make me come up there, Tiny."
You spend the rest of the short walk to Urahara Shop defusing the impending fight between your partner and the cat.
Tessai isn't unloading boxes when you arrive today; instead, when you venture inside the shop, you find Urahara sitting behind the counter with a cup of tea, writing something into a notebook laid out before him. He looks up at your entry.
"Ah, my favorite feline and favorite sorcerer return together! Come in, come in! You as well, Miss Briar."
"Gasp!" your partner exclaims. "You mean I'm not your favorite fairy, Mr. Urahara?"
"Sorry, but your mother brought me data."
"...eh, that's fair. Mom's pretty awesome."
Yoruichi excuses himself and heads down the hall to the back of the building, saying something about a platter of milk and a warm bed calling his name. Before the cat is completely out of earshot, however, he looks back.
"By the way, Kisuke. The kid asked me about the state of your wards - something about whether or not his departure on Tuesday did them any damage?"
"Really, now?" Urahara turns from his cat to you. "I take it your trip home was a little rougher than usual?"
Considering that an eldritch entity on the Astral Plane asked you if you were okay while you passed through its realm? Yes, you could call that trip rougher than usual. ...not that you say this to Urahara; Goddesses only know what he'd do with that bit of information.
And not even all of us.
At your wordless admission of difficult travel, Urahara merely nods. "The readings I got did suggest a somewhat more violent transdimensional shunt than I was expecting to see, given how often you've been using that spell to visit Karakura. And to answer your question, there was some stress on the wards, but they held." Under the brim of his hat, Urahara eyes you speculatively. "Will you be leaving that way again after today's business?"
"I could give it a go," you say. "Second time's the charm, right?"
Having said that, you add that you attracted attention from the friendly local eldritch being with the impact you suffered going through the wards.
It's at this point that Urahara, who HAD had been smiling appreciatively at your decision, suddenly twitches.
The sight is accompanied by an unhappy yowl from down the hall.
"...what kind of 'eldritch' are we talking about, here?" the scientist asks cautiously. "Just the standard tentacles and slime, or something more... concerning?"
"And how local?" Yoruichi adds, as he marches back into view.
You proceed to describe the green light/presence that dwells somewhere within the Astral Plane, your ongoing encounters with it, and the mostly benign, even friendly interest it seems to have taken in you.
"'Mostly' benign?" Yoruichi questions insistently.
Without naming any names, you recount Cordelia's less-than-positive reaction to her first, unshielded encounter with the entity, your mother's later moment of shock and/or confusion, and the comparatively large number of passengers you've taken along with you who HAVEN'T had similar reactions, whether thanks to your use of simple mental wards, or - as in Lu-sensei's case - prior experience with the weird.
...though honesty does compel you to add that your dog didn't really enjoy his first meeting with the green entity, either, wards or no wards.
Yoruichi surprisingly makes no comment about that.
In any case, the presence doesn't appear to be deliberately attempting to drive people crazy, it's just bizarre enough that encountering it seems to scramble regular people's brains for a bit.
The matter of the entity's location is a bit harder to explain. Urahara is familiar with the Astral Plane, and Yoruichi has at least heard of it, but nothing in either of their experiences mentions a talkative mass of sapient emerald light hanging out on that layer of reality.
You tell your audience that you did try to send a divine messenger with extensive experience in transplanar travel to speak with the being directly, only to discover that its location wasn't accessible from the wider plane.
"Would it be possible for you to call this messenger here?" Urahara asks. "I'd like to get his account of that incident, to try and put together a better idea of what this entity could be."
You have no real objection to summoning the Postman, but there is the matter of paying him for his time. Providing eyewitness testimony about his almost-an-encounter with a mysterious being from beyond the bounds of logical space-time isn't one of his duties, so the cost of this service wouldn't be covered by your agreement to have him deliver letters and packages for you. Taking into account the Postman's going rates and generally helpful personality, you figure he'd request the equivalent of 150 silver pieces - 1.5 gold coins, 19 Rupees, or $250 American, you absently calculate - to sit down and chat with Urahara for a quarter-hour or so.
Souken arrives near the end of your conversation, and after Yoruichi disappears into the back of the shop - for real, this time - and Tessai emerges to take over the counter, the rest of you descend into the cellar once more. Here, you good-naturedly give Urahara a minute to set up his toys - including a couple of devices you know he didn't have out the other day - before you summon Shadow Alex.
"My, my, my," the scientist mutters through a broad grin, as he stares at his readings. "What have we here?"
Souken adjusts his glasses and studies your counterpart for a moment, spiritual senses lightly probing at your doppleganger's aura.
"-similarities to an artificial soul, yet-"
"I still find this capability a touch unsettling," the old Quincy admits.
"-an almost perfect match for the original-"
"I think the only person so far who hasn't been at least a little bit bothered by it is my younger sister," you reply.
"-potentially completely independent!"
Shadow Alex has been watching and listening to Urahara during your brief chat, and now he turns to you. "Should we be worried about that?" He indicates the mad genius by the rock-top. "Because that sounds like something we should be worried about."
Although you consider yourself a reasonably generous sort, particularly when it comes to use of magic on behalf of others, there are limits to such things - and a thousand dollar an hour retainer definitely crosses that particular line, at least when it comes to someone you still don't know all that well. Not to mention that you doubt your relationship with Urahara would be well-served by putting him into mystical and financial debt with you.
You let the shopkeeper know of the price that invoking the Postman for this purpose will likely carry, and his preferred mediums of exchange.
Urahara has never heard of Rupees - barring the Indian currency, which is not the same thing at all - and he's fresh out of gold and silver coin.
You COULD act as a money-changer in this situation.
It's fine. You're sure Urahara won't try to dissect you.
"No, no, definitely not," the mad scientist in question interjects, as he looks up from his computer screen. "I make it a policy never to treat a business or research partner as an experimental subject. It sets a terrible tone for the whole relationship, and discourages future transactions or cooperative ventures."
You look at Shadow Alex, and gesture towards Urahara. "See?"
"...score one for enlightened self-interest, I suppose."
With that out of the way, the two of you go about setting up for the day's scrying. While you perform the Spell of Major Creation to call up another mirror - extra-wide today - and then cast Obscure Object on that, Shadow Alex takes care of casting the Spell of the Private Sanctum and covering everyone present with the Communal Spell of Nondetection. Then the two of you stand before the mirror, you holding the Key of the Sun in your upturned left hand.
You go first, calling up the image of the area within the doors on the servants' level of the Royal Quarter. As you re-orient the sensor, you notice that the doors in question are closed, and that only two guards stand watch on this side.
"So they do close them, sometimes," Urahara murmurs. "I wonder if yesterday was a regularly scheduled supply run, or if they randomize it...?"
"Did you happen to record the time we found the doors the other day?" you ask, glancing at the man. "One of us could check back on them later."
As it happens, Urahara did do that, and says he'll let you know when the time approaches.
Leaving that for later, you get back to scrying, using your current spell to refresh your memory of what the hallway inside and to the right of the closed doors looks like, and then spinning the sensor around to let Shadow Alex get a look in the other direction. The spell lapses not long after that, but it lasts long enough to do its job; when the pair of you cast your spells - Shadow Alex resting his right hand atop the Key that you hold in your left, and both of you touching the fingers of your empty hands to the frame of the mirror - separate images take shape within the glass.
Bit by bit, you begin to explore the high-security section of Silbern. You quickly discover that there are few Soldats and no Sternritter down here on the servants' level, and as long as none of the former are in earshot, the servants feel free to talk among themselves. Given that following the servants has already given you something of an intelligence windfall, eavesdropping on their conversations could prove similarly profitable, though it would slow your exploration of this floor a bit. There's also the question of which of you should take care of it, or if you should both try to listen in; the main problem with the latter is that you'd have two separate "conversations" going on at once, which would make both of them harder to follow. You're fairly confident in your own ability to do so, but Urahara and Souken could be another matter.
Perhaps it's because of your relatively recent deal with the Shuzens providing you with an abundance of precious metals to work with, or maybe it's just a desire to reserve your hard-earned Rupees for your own purposes. Whatever the reason, you offer to help Urahara pay the Postman for his time, by converting the necessary yen into gold and silver.
"I may just take you up on that," the man replies, tipping his hat.
Both of you should try to listen in.
Having two scryers has doubled the rate at which you're mapping this part of Silbern. While having both of you listen in on the servants won't automatically increase the amount of USEFUL information you acquire, it will increase your chances of overhearing something more than gossip, grumbling, or purely work-related.
You let Shadow Alex know of your conclusion, and he agrees that the potential intel is worth slowing your search and risking a bit of confusion. Urahara proves to share the sentiment, even as he acknowledges the difficulties involved, and Souken doesn't appear especially bothered by bowing to the decision of the majority.
And so, over the next half-hour, whenever your remote exploration of the servants' level brings words of that strange Germanic dialect to your ears, you look about for the source, re-cast the Spell of Scrying with a longer duration while aiming at one of the people involved in the conversation, and spend the next several minutes following them as they go about their work. As you expected, both you and Shadow Alex are able to shut out the sound of the other conversation(s) being transmitted through the mirror, in order to follow whatever your chosen targets are discussing, and a quick casting of the Spell to Comprehend Languages resolves your still-rudimentary grasp of the Quincy dialect. Urahara doesn't try to listen in, focusing instead on keeping an accurate record of where the two of you end up going as you tail your chosen marks.
Speaking of which, you find that you don't lose as much time or mana with this approach as you feared, for even when they're griping about their least-favorite superiors, the staff of Silbern go about their duties with a professional speed and efficiency. A trio of maids lead you on a room-by-room sweep of one hallway as they chat about their favorites among the Sternritter, repeating a couple of names you already knew - Haschwalth and Bazz-B are apparently fairly popular - and a couple more you didn't. Shadow Alex finds a group of porters in the middle of hauling crates like the ones you saw on Tuesday, save that they're now empty; they lead him to a set of double-doors on the opposite side of the Royal Quarters from where you entered, which prove to be open a little ahead of the time Urahara recorded. While the porters' conversation dies off before they get into earshot of the guards, the tentative confirmation of a daily resupply period is useful data all on its own. Shadow Alex jumps from the group of porters leaving the Royal Quarter to the ones making their way in with fresh supplies; while this results in a certain amount of backtracking, it also leads him to the main storage area for this part of the fortress, as well as the kitchen.
Gained German E
Gained Listening B (Plus)
Gained Quincy E
It's the kitchen that provides the real windfall, for while there's too much general chatter to follow any part of it, your Shadow Self spots a servant hefting a tray of high-quality dishes and cutlery and some VERY well-prepared food.
"I think I just found someone about to head upstairs," Shadow Alex advises you. "Think it's worth the risk of following him?"
Shadow Alex is the one who found this lead, so it only seems fair that he be the one to run it down. There's also a valid tactical reason for putting your Shadow on the job: if something starts to trace his scrying, he can dismiss himself. That wouldn't just cut the link between spell and caster, it would render the caster non-existent, and impossible for most forms of counter-scrying (at least those you're familiar with) to locate or identify.
Your doppelganger is fully aware of all this, so you don't bother to repeat it aloud. In turn, he acknowledges your instructions - and the unspoken addendum - with a wordless grunt, before casting a new Spell of Scrying that's aimed at the servant with the tray.
With that out of the way for the moment, you shift your attention back to your own efforts. The maids' discussion of the Sternritter has shifted over to "more attainable" men, and the conversation is turning into the sort of thing that you've vaguely overheard from middle-school and high-school girls: who's dating whom; who broke up recently; who's getting back together; and so on. Such information strikes you as being... unlikely to have much tactical value, so you leave them to their daydreaming and gossip and resume exploring the corridors.
Four short-lived castings of the Spell of Scrying later you come to a proverbial and literal crossroads. You've found a staircase that goes to the next floor, which a quick glance at your counterpart's half of the mirror confirms is not the one his chosen target is leading him up. You've also found two servants who are heading past the stairs, deep in discussion over the contents of the clipboard that one of the pair holds before him. The man not holding the board wears a uniform of a slightly different style than you've yet seen, one that seems designed to make the wearer more impressive, while still retaining the overall servant aesthetic.
The monocle definitely adds a certain something.
Making a mental note of the appearance of the stairs for later investigation, you recast your spell, focusing on the Quincy with the clipboard.
"-running low, sir," the man says, words becoming clear as his image expands. "Given the rate of, ah, consumption, you'll need to authorize a release of additional stores by next week."
"Refresh my memory, Deckard," the better-dressed servant inquires in a Voice of Official Displeasure, as he adjusts his eyepiece. "Did we or did we not have this precise conversation just three months ago?"
"We did, sir," the junior servant admits with a wince and a sigh. "But Sir Valkyrie insists on celebrating every deployment that sees combat, and, well..."
"And he not only indulges in unseemly bouts of gluttony and drunkenness for a prospective Sternritter," the might-be-a-butler says bitingly, "he encourages his peers and the Soldats that serve under him to do the same."
"It is as you say, sir."
The senior servant scoffs. "I cannot fathom why in the worlds Lord Haschwalth tolerates some of these candidates..."
You're briefly distracted from the Quincy's complaints by the sudden shift in Shadow Alex's magic, and the way his half of the mirror suddenly goes opaque and misty.
"Sternritter?" you guess.
"I actually got all the way to one of the apartments without seeing anyone," Shadow Alex reports. "When the servant started knocking on the door, it seemed like a good time to break contact."
You can't really argue with that. It's one thing to risk discovery by a random roving Sternritter as you explore the halls, and quite another to effectively walk right up to one. That said...
"Did you find the corridor that leads to Yhwach's room?" you ask.
"Not yet," comes the reply. "But I think I've got the general direction."
Well, then.
You could continue following the butleresque Quincy: if he's the head servant within Silbern, or even just in the Royal Quarters, you could potentially get some very interesting information out of listening to him; but at the same time, he might just fill your ears with his grumbling and talking about food. Alternately, you could observe Shadow Alex's next scrying spell and start helping him map out the "main floor" of this part of the fortress; the primary goal here is to find a direct route to Yhwach's chamber, and the sooner that's done, the better. As a third option, you could scry your way up the stairs and come at the task from a completely different direction - a glance at Urahara's partial map puts your sensor's current position at some distance from Shadow Alex's last spell.
Maybe it's an unwillingness to let the potential informational gold mine that a senior member of Silbern's staff represents just walk away, or maybe you're merely another victim of popular media, conditioned by decades of cheap detective thrillers and made-for-TV mysteries to believe that the butler did it. Either way, you decide to keep following the man.
Besides, you have every confidence in Shadow Alex's ability to finish mapping the route to Yhwach's resting chamber; you literally could not do a better job yourself.
The monocle-wearing man and his clipboard-carrying subordinate are still discussing food supplies, though they've moved on from the matter of one over-indulging would-be Sternritter's bad influence on others, and onto a more general review of the Royal Quarters' supply situation.
From what you overhear in their conversation, the central section of Silbern seems to maintain three separate stocks of food. You've already seen the evidence of daily supply runs, which are mostly meant to keep the elites housed on the floor above happy with their personal favorite meals, though they also provide fresh perishables for the Soldats and the servants themselves. Next are the freezers, which get resupplied every couple of weeks, and then - apparently in the "basement" for this part of the fortress - there's the long-term stores, including various preserves, dry goods, and forms of alcohol.
By the sound of it, the Royal Quarters could be cut off from the rest of Silbern and still hold out for months, provided this "Valkyrie" person had the good sense to stop throwing feasts and drinking parties.
The butler seems to have his doubts about that.
You also catch a reference to other storerooms, reservoirs, and even gardens within the greater fortress. Although neither of the servants mention anything about the number, size, or location of these facilities, they've apparently got the capability to grow their own GRAIN. How much isn't mentioned, but if they're producing any kind of meaningful quantity, it'd require a fair amount of space, wouldn't it?
The image springs to mind of a field of wheat, surrounded on all sides by stark white walls, underneath a ceiling covered with giant sun-lamps.
You're just shaking that image off when the butler's course leads him back to the kitchens, where the head chef takes one look at him before he starts waving his hands in the air, roaring about ridiculous demands, ungrateful masters, and uncultured fools with no sense of fine cuisine. Once or twice, he points at one of the other chefs - who have, for the most part, been keeping their heads down and their hands busy - calling them out to air their own complaints in support of his own. They do so, albeit reluctantly, and are promptly drowned out by the resumed rant.
The servant named Deckard cringes at the volume, but the butler weathers it with an air of patient experience, nodding, occasionally interjecting a word into the tirade, and otherwise letting the chef carry on.
You find yourself wishing there was an option to mute scrying spells.
"Damn," Shadow Alex curses, as his magic suddenly cuts out.
You immediately look his way.
"A Sternritter came out of her room right after I started scrying on that part of the hall," he reports. "I don't think she saw the sensor, but..."
There is a pause as both of you look to your ongoing spell. The chef is still bellowing, if more red-faced than when he started, but he's not so loud that you wouldn't hear an alarm if one were going off. By itself, however, that lack of a siren wail or other alert means nothing. It's only been a few seconds; the Sternritter might still be getting in touch with security, or she could have set off a silent alarm. It's also possible that the servants wouldn't be informed of a security breach, or at least not in that fashion.
If you were in Shadow Alex's position, what would you do?
Keeping one ear on your own findings - the cook is still going strong - you observe Shadow Alex as he considers his next move. If it were you in his position, you think you would wait for half a minute or so before casting another Spell of Scrying, aiming not for the location you were just looking in on, but instead falling back to the position of the last scrying spell before that.
Your doppelganger IS you, but at the same time, he's different enough that he might take a different approach.
It's been a little over ten seconds since Shadow Alex hastily aborted his last spell, and as much time passes again before he takes a slow breath and begins gathering his mana. When your conjured counterpart casts the Greater Spell of Scrying a short time later, the image that comes into view in his half of the mirror shows another red-carpeted white stone hallway, lined with doors and the occasional statue. It differs from the passages you've seen before mainly in the number, placement, and style of the doors; instead of huge and heavily-guarded gateways that stand alone, dominating an entire corridor, or comparatively plain wooden ones that line both sides of a hall in their near-dozens, competing for space, the doors here are separated by considerable distances, and staggered so that no two directly face one another. You count six in all, three to each side of the passage, as Shadow Alex spins his sensor about.
Four of those doors are guarded. The one nearest to the focal point of your darker twin's Spell of Scrying is flanked by two female Soldats, both of whom are hunched slightly forward and snickering softly. Two lifetimes of experience with girls leads you to suspect that their amusement is directed at their male counterpart stationed near the far "end" of the spell's visual range, who is standing ramrod straight for some reason; at this distance, you can't make out anything else about him, nor about the other three guards you glimpse when Shadow Alex looks the other way down the hall.
"Well, she certainly didn't hang around," Shadow Alex mutters, as he shifts his spell's field of view back to its original position.
"At least the guards aren't acting like there's been an alarm," Briar offers.
That earns a brief, vaguely positive hum of acknowledgement.
You turn your attention back to the scene on display in your half of the mirror, where the chef continues to thunder denunciations that never quite cross the line of open disrespect; you're a bit impressed that he hasn't had to stop for a breath this entire time, though you do notice that he's getting rather red in the face. The butler just continues to weather the storm, clearly having heard it all before.
Beside you, Shadow Alex's spell cuts out and is recast, and a moment later, Urahara comments, "Now that is the look of a soldier who's just been chewed out by a superior officer, and knows he deserved every word of it."
You glance to the other side of the mirror, and yes, that Soldat is definitely showing the sort of rigid-backed, wide-eyed shock and guilt you can recall seeing in a few of Ganondorf's memories, when warriors on guard duty got caught slacking off by a captain or elder who didn't have time to deal with them just then, but made it clear that she had every intention of handling the problem in the not-too-distant future. And apparently, the unseen Sternritter managed that in less than thirty seconds.
In spite of everything, a part of you has to give a nod of approval.
Another minute goes by, Shadow Alex advancing through the Royal Quarter in fits and starts, while angry chef noises continue to emanate from your side of the mirror. Finally, however, the cook either mistimes a breath or gets too enthusiastic about expressing his culinary fury, and has to pause to recover.
In that moment, the butler strikes. "Your concerns are noted, Garcon, and as it happens, I am in full agreement with you regarding Sir Valkyrie's excesses. I mean to bring the matter to the attention of the steward later today. As always, however, I can offer you little support in the matter of culinary preferences. Ours is not to dictate personal taste to the Sternritter, merely to ensure they find no fault in their respective repasts. If one of them should wish to dine exclusively on American-style hamburgers-"
Garcon swells in offended culinary fury, and you yourself frown slightly at the butler's derisive tone. You happen to LIKE American-style hamburgers, thank you very much.
"-and English take-out-"
And now Garcon pales in horror, making a gesture of warding.
Never having had English take-out, you can't comment either way. If the butler had said "English food," you might have had to protest, as the food you've occasionally partaken of while visiting Altria has been quite good.
...then again, the Drakes DO live in Wales.
"-then that is simply what you shall have to prepare for them."
Garcon wilts, bowing his head in acquiescence.
The butler adjusts his monocle. "Now, unless there are any other matters that require my direct attention...?"
"No, sir."
Gained Quincy E (Plus)
The butler nods. "Then I shall leave you to your work. I have a meeting with Mrs. Adler, and it would not do at all to keep her waiting."
Those last words are uttered with a hint of unease, Garcon and Deckard fervently agree.
With that, the butler and his attendant depart the kitchen.
Glancing over your shoulder at Souken, you ask, "Does the name 'Adler' mean anything to you, sir?"
"Nothing comes to mind," he replies, shaking his head. "Though if a butler feels intimidated by her, she's unlikely to be anything less than the head maid, if not the steward herself."
"Either that or she's old enough to have been in charge when the butler was young, and he's never stopped thinking of her that way," Urahara adds.
Hmmm.
While you wouldn't say that you've gotten any game-changing information about Silbern or the Wandenreich out of listening in on the butler, you've only been following him for about eight minutes, during which he's been talking to lower-ranked members of the staff. Those conversations have revealed a few interesting details to you, of which the state of Silbern's internal food stores and sources is probably the most valuable so far, and now you have good reason to suspect that the butler is going to speak with a lady who holds a comparable or even greater station than he himself does. What interesting things might two high-placed servants discuss? And what else might you learn once you know what Mrs. Adler looks like, and can follow her around for a bit?
Besides, you're kind of curious to know why she intimidates three grown men, two of whom have no compunctions about voicing their dissatisfaction with certain Sternritter in the hearing of others.
As the butler leaves the kitchen, you make ready to re-cast your Spell of Scrying, just in case Deckard - who the current spell is anchored to - goes off on his own, but it proves an unnecessary precaution, as the man with the clipboard continues to follow his superior, relaying information for the butler's consideration. Where before they were discussing food, the topic shifts to personnel, with Deckard listing such things as who's out sick, complaints-
"The newest batch of Soldats assigned to the punishment detail are proving to be considerably less quarrelsome than the last few groups," Deckard notes.
"They're getting off lightly for not handling that mess in Germany better, and they know it," the butler replies. "We'll see how long their newfound humility lasts."
-one request for maternity leave, and notices from three members of the household staff who wish to register for training as Soldats.
The butler shakes his head at that. "Just five years ago, I wouldn't have thought to see such a thing. Soldats have a long history of disliking mere servants who try to rise above their station, and we all know it. But His Majesty's impending awakening has the entire city in high spirits, and so we have things like this happening all over."
"Should I deny the applications, sir?" Deckard inquires.
"...no, send them through. If they're old enough to enlist, they're old enough to live with the consequences of their choices. And who knows? Perhaps the recruiter that processes their applications will be in a good mood himself, and decide not to make a few overconfident young fools' lives hell for their presumption."
...okay. Masaki did mention that the Quincy are traditionally a classist bunch, and Souken said it was even worse in the Wandenreich, but beyond the obvious divide between the military ranks and the "civilian" staff, this is the first real indication of it that you've seen.
Shadow Alex's magic cuts out abruptly again, but he's already gathering mana to cast anew.
Catching your sidelong glance, he says, "Found a dead end."
Ah.
The two servants you've been following take about two minutes to reach their destination, a modest doorway that is nonetheless clearly of some importance, given that it only has to share its wall with two others of its kind.
Here, the butler pauses to straighten his coat and his eyepiece before raising one gloved hand to knock.
Before his knuckles have even started moving towards the wood, a woman's voice emerges: "Stop preening and come inside already, Elias."
The two men trade long-suffering glances.
"How does she always know?" Deckard murmurs.
"I've stopped asking," Elias the butler sighs, as he opens the door.
The room on the other side looks like nothing so much as a living room. There's a fireplace set up to one side, warm and appealing in spite of the stark white stone that has the entire fortress giving the impression of a hollowed-out iceberg or glacier; you credit that to the colorful- and complexly-patterned rug, wall hangings, and blankets that cover much of the stone and the furniture set before the hearth. Said furnishings include two well-worn and really very comfortable looking plush chairs, a matching couch, and a low table in between them, where rests a Western-style tea service.
In the chair facing the door sits a woman who you suppose must be Mrs. Adler, wearing a dress that is to the outfits of the maids you've seen thus far what Elias's uniform is to those worn by the lower-ranking manservants, with a colorful shawl - much like the other woven items in the room, you note - pulled over her shoulders. She has the "Quincy look" that you've gotten used to seeing around the fortress, although her black hair - pulled back in an almost severe bun - is shot through with grey, while her eyes seem slightly cloudy behind her old-fashioned glasses. Those are the only obvious signs of her age, however: whether through good living or skillful cosmetics, her face appears unlined; she doesn't exhibit the thinness or sense of diminishment that you've seen in some elderly sorts; and she holds herself with a straight-backed, no-nonsense air.
As Elias enters the room, Mrs. Adler regards him for a moment, nodding wordlessly before her gaze passes to his companion, the motion catching the light of the fireplace so that her glasses - or the eyes behind them - suddenly seem to be glowing.
"And will you be joining us, young Deckard?"
"Ah, no, ma'am; I have some business I should be seeing to." Deckard holds up his clipboard, perhaps for emphasis, perhaps simply to shield himself against that seemingly-incandescent stare.
"Off with you, then."
As Deckard quickly bows and reaches for the handle of the door, you cast the Spell of Greater Scrying-on the room.
It might be because you just saw her identify someone on the other side of a fairly heavy door and walls of thick stone. It could be that you've met enough intimidatingly competent older women in your various lifetimes to give this one the benefit of the doubt. Or maybe you're simply wary of poking at a mystically-empowered individual in what is pretty clearly her place of power.
Regardless of the reason, you decide to avoid scrying directly on Mrs. Adler.
Elias hasn't given any hint of noticing the sensor you've had trailing him by proxy for the last ten minutes, but after a moment's consideration, you decide not to aim your next Spell of Scrying at him, either. There's a difference between simply being in the field of view of an active scrying spell and being the intended target of such magic, and you don't want to risk losing the ability to track the butler just yet - not when your advanced mastery of Divination Magic allows you to simply scry on the room itself instead.
As for the current spell...Leave it running, to see where Deckard goes.
As you cast your latest Greater Spell of Scrying, part of your mind wonders what to do with the last one. You could simply dismiss it and let Deckard go about his business, but even if the... clerk? Scribe? Even if the man is no longer following the butler around, his association with Elias and especially his possession of the Royal Quarter's inventory and personnel records mark him as being fairly important in his own right. As such, you decide to let the magic run its course, and see where Deckard goes and what he gets up to in the meantime.
Rather than split your attention when you're already keeping one proverbial eye on Shadow Alex's progress, you ask Briar to take over monitoring the junior servant, while you listen in on the butler and the (presumable) head maid.
For the first couple of minutes, Elias and Mrs. Adler sit and make polite small talk while the older woman serves the tea. Among the small nothings, you learn that Elias is not married, that Mrs. Adler finds this quite unacceptable, and that she is perfectly willing to point out various young ladies whose families, station, skills, and temperaments would not make for a poor match to the status of a butler's wife.
It's more than a little embarrassing, especially when Mrs. Adler gets onto the matter of Elias's future progeny, and assessing which of her proposed bridal candidates have large families, the best skills at child-care, the right sort of hips-
"Aunt Katherine!"
"Oh, don't even try to play the offended gentleman with me, Elias," Mrs. Adler scoffs. "I heard all about that business with the Henderson girl."
Elias sputters. "I told Mother about that in confidence!"
"And she was happy that you trusted her enough to admit it without prodding, but really, Elias; did you honestly think she hadn't known about it beforehand?"
The butler groans and buries his face in his hands.
You honestly feel sympathetic for Elias, and if the look on Souken's face is any indication, you're not alone in that.
Urahara, meanwhile, just snickers.
Gained Quincy E (Plus) (Plus)
During the frank discussion of Elias's prospects, Shadow Alex has to drop his own scrying two more times: once when he caught sight of another Sternritter; and the second time because he actually lost track of where he was, and upon consultation with Urahara's map, realized he'd managed to wander back to an already-scanned passage. By that point, your counterpart has used up enough of his mana that he's starting to feel hints of instability in his conjured form. He says he could manage three more Spells of Scrying, maybe four if they were all short-lived, but beyond that, his part in today's work is done.
You, on the other hand, have roughly two-thirds of your maximum mana still in the tank, plus over an hour before you need to be heading home, which leads you to wonder whether or not you and your shadow ought to trade off. Neither Elias nor Mrs. Adler have given any indication of noticing the sensor you've been observing them through, so all Shadow Alex would have to do is take over watching them, and maybe renew the Spell of Scrying if their conversation runs long or Elias leaves. For your part, you your conjured counterpart's option to "unmake" yourself to avoid being counter-scryed if an alert Sternritter notices your intrusion, but honestly, the risk of detection is one you've been taking ever since you started poking around Silbern. The Quincy elites are just more concentrated in and around the Royal Quarter.
As weirdly fascinating as it is to watch a grown man have his marital prospects and past relationships assessed by an older female relative, it's not exactly the most productive use of your time, particularly not when Mrs. Adler sounds like she's just getting started.
With that in mind, you opt to swap tasks with Shadow Alex. Your double takes a minute to consult with Urahara, double-checking against the partial map on the shopkeeper's computer screen, and then casts the Spell of Scrying one more time to show you what he thinks is the best point for you to take over the exploration of the Royal Quarter from. Once that's done, you budge over to the opposite side of the mirror, allowing Shadow Alex to slip into place to take over monitoring the conversation between the butler and the head maid, just in case they start discussing something more relevant to your interests before your magic lapses.
You stare into the mirror for a moment, familiarizing yourself with the location depicted. No Sternritter are visible, just a squad of Soldats who move past the sensor in dutiful silence, their booted footfalls muffled by the thick carpeting. Once you're sure you have the image of your next target fixed, you murmur for Shadow Alex to dismiss his spell, and begin casting your own.
One Spell of Scrying becomes two, and then three, and then fo-whoa!
"Sternritter?" Shadow Alex asks in a literal echo of your own inquiries, as you hastily cancel your latest spell.
"They're just coming out of the walls in here, aren't they?"
The Quincy in question was a man who seemed to be in his late twenties or early thirties, with short, pale brown hair, shallow cheeks, the beginnings of a mustache, and thin-framed glasses. He was wearing a largely unaltered version of the standard uniform, but had a dress shirt and a tie on underneath and a silver briefcase in one hand, making him look very much like some kind of office worker. If you hadn't seen him coming out of one of the rooms in a manner that just screamed "man leaving home to go to work," or gotten that brief read on his spiritual power through your spell, you might have taken him for one of the Soldats who just hadn't put on his cap yet.
You start silently counting down from thirty, only beginning to re-cast your Spell of Scrying around "twenty-four" so as to give the Sternritter time to go about his business, and yourself a chance to calm down from that brief shock. You didn't get a good enough look around with your previous spell to leap ahead, so when the image reforms, you're still seeing that stretch of the hall outside the pale-haired man's apartment. On the positive side, he's moved on.
You manage two more scrying spells before another Sternritter appears, an extremely tall and powerfully-built man with black hair and beard, wrapped in an aura of bloodshed that your magic has no trouble picking up on. Even though the color and style of his hair are all wrong and his skin far too pale, for a second, that build and brutal presence remind you of Ganondorf - which is reason enough for you to cancel that scrying.
When you resume scrying, you have to cancel it again almost immediately, because TWO Sternritter are converging on that same stretch of hallway. One of these is another mountain of a man, blond, clean-shaven, and dressed like he walked out of the pages of Thor comics or something; if THIS isn't the "Valkyrie" that Elias was complaining about, you'll be very much surprised. The other Quincy elite is a hunched, elderly woman with the sort of pinched, sour expression that says she is just done with everything.
Though that might have something to do with how the Viking-looking behemoth raises a hand in acknowledgement and greets her with a cheerfully-thunderous, "Hail, Grandmother!"
As you cut your spell, you turn to your companions and ask, "Is it just me, or does anyone else get the impression that we've walked into the Royal Quarter's equivalent of the morning rush hour?"
"It does seem suspicious that you've run into this many of the Sternritter in one place," Souken agrees. "There were less than twenty of them, actual or candidates, during my time in Silbern, and while it's certainly possible that they've added new members since then, my understanding is that there are never more than twenty-five Sternritter."
"Any significance to that number?" Urahara wonders.
"It has to do with the Western alphabet," Souken explains. "Each of the officially-recognized Sternritter has a specific title that describes their power in some manner, and to the best of my knowledge, no two of them start with the same letter. Grandmaster Haschwalth is 'the Balance,' Bazz-B is 'the Heat,' and Yhwach himself is referred to as 'the Almighty.'"
Oh, REALLY? We'll just see about THAT...
...well, then. You certainly can't say that Yhwach lacks for self-confidence.
You DO have to wonder what relations between the Quincy and the Christian Church were like a thousand years ago, though.
Speaking of the Sealed King, three more castings of the Spell of Scrying bring you to another of those great guarded and warded doors, which features a double-dose of guards, statues, and starburst banners. If Urahara's record of your progress is accurate, the door is located directly between the two main entrances to the Royal Quarter, and while it's not at the center of this sector of Silbern, it's close enough that what lies on the other side can't be anything but Yhwach's private chambers.
The Boar rumbles, satisfied at having tracked your quarry to his resting place, but frustrated to find another layer of those heavy wards blocking the way.
You understand the feeling.
You understand the Boar's feelings of satisfaction and frustration, for you share them to a certain degree.
You also know that the door before you now, like those that separate the Royal Quarter from the rest of Silbern, cannot stay closed forever. There were a couple of Soldats stationed to guard the room where Yhwach lies in sleep, and nothing you saw or sensed suggested that they were anything other than normal Quincies. Spiritually-stronger than most of the non-Sternritter you've observed in your sweeps through the fortress, yes, but nothing beyond that. So at the very least, the doors must open from time to time to allow a changing of the guard; you're just not sure if that's an event that happens several times a day, as it would in any other military, or if the Wandenreich treats the task of watching over their Sealed King as some kind of religious vigil, in which case they could be in there for longer.
However, you also realize that you don't actually NEED to map a path all the way to Yhwach's bedroom. It would satisfy a certain sense of completion, but it isn't truly necessary for your purposes here. You've found two routes that link one of the Gates of the Sun to the King's chambers, which is one more route than any competent infiltrator should need - at least, that's the impression you get from the memories of a certain King of Thieves.
It COULD just be Ganondorf's professional pride talking.
The point is, the longer you leave scrying sensors hanging around inside the Royal Quarter, the more likely you are to get spotted by a wandering Sternritter. You've been remarkably lucky in avoiding their notice this far, and that's with the half-dozen near-misses you and Shadow Alex have experienced between you; the information you stand to gain by further tempting Fate just isn't worth it.
With that in mind, you let your Spell of Scrying lapse, and turn your attention to the spell that Shadow Alex is still monitoring.
Elias and Mrs. Adler have moved on from the matter of matrimony, and are discussing the matter of "Sir Valkyrie" and his fondness for excessive feasting. The butler appears to be trying to talk his aunt into backing him up when he goes to lodge a complaint with the steward, and the head maid isn't arguing the point, so much as she is coaching her nephew in how to phrase the protest in a manner that will get the problem the attention it requires, without bringing the annoyance of the Sternritter down on the staff in general and the kitchens in particular in the process.
Leaving them to that for the moment, you turn to Urahara and Souken. "Okay, so we've got a route through the main floor, and we've got a route through the servants' quarters - but they both start from the same point. Is that a problem that needs addressing?"
"Depends on whether or not Mr. Ishida's borrowed Key can reliably access that specific Gate," Urahara replies, "or if any party using the Key would get bounced randomly between the Gates, whether by chance or design." With that, he joins you in looking at the old Quincy, waiting for an answer.
"The former is definitely possible," Souken confirms. He draws your attention to a set of symbols along the rim of the Key - stylized characters from the Latin alphabet, you realize with a moment's surprise. You've gotten so used to seeing runes, glyphs, and letters from ancient languages on magic items that the presence of such "mundane" symbols is actually a little jarring, but you push that feeling aside as Souken explains that each letter primes the Key to access a corresponding Gate.
The catch, of course, is that you don't know which letter identifies the Gate you've found. Souken's sure it's not the A, B, C, or D Gates, as those are the most commonly used portals and are located at cardinal points on Silbern's ground floor. That leaves another twenty-two possibilities, however, and Souken can't narrow it down; he never knew where most of the portals were to begin with, and time has dulled his memory for the few he was familiar with.
Fortunately, you know the Spell of Communion, are on reasonably good terms with the Goddess of Wisdom, and even have some of that expensive incense the Shuzens let you keep for just this kind of use.
It takes a little time to set up, but being able to just ask Nayru, "What letter identifies the Gate of the Sun whose location I know?" and get a straight answer-
"J."
-spares you a whole lot of hassle.
Incidentally, are there any other questions you'd like to ask the Goddess of Wisdom (or her sisters) while you've got her on the line?
Now that you have an infiltration/attack route and know which of the Quincy Gates you need to hijack to make use of it, is there anything else that you feel needs doing to plan a raid on Silbern? Or are you satisfied with this information, and willing to leave it up to the locals to decide when and how to make use of it?
It seems a waste of time and magic to contact Nayru and limit yourself to just one question, when you have the skill and power to keep the Spell of Communion going long enough to ask as many as fifteen.
With that in mind, you ask the most important question first: "Is there anything I can personally do to protect the Kurosakis and Ishidas from Yhwach's awakening?"
Personally, huh? Good question...
Any ideas, Smart Girl?
If Yhwach were just a mortal, it might be possible to hide the families from him, but as it stands, there's only two things the boy could try that have a realistic chance of success.
"Greater Spell Immunity. Death Ward."
You wince at the logistical complications of that answer, but manage to muster two critical follow-up questions: "What spell would I be protecting them against?"
"Auswahlen."
"When would I need to cast Spell Immunity on them?"
As an eighth-circle divine spell, Greater Spell Immunity is one that is just within your ability to cast in its standard form, which would last for about two and a half hours - meaning you'd need to be in Karakura the same day that Yhwach makes his move to stand any chance of countering him. And considering that you can't hope to hide spellcasting of that magnitude, you'd need to borrow Urahara's basement again.
"June 17th."
You suck in a breath, air hissing around your suddenly-clenched teeth. Yhwach is waking up that soon?
With an effort, you press on. "Is it worth the risk to map Silbern more thoroughly?"
Definitely!
Loot?
Loot.
You two DO remember that the boy isn't going there himself?
So he gives the people who are going in a route to the treasury, and benefits from their appreciation.
...how do you know there's a treasury?
Please. There's a King involved; they ALWAYS have treasuries.
Your logic is compelling.
Oh, for goodness' sake...
"Possibly."
Okay, then...
"Is anyone living in Silbern, aside from Yhwach, aware of our scrying on them?"
There is a pause.
Um...
Er...
"Not yet."
Whew!
That makes six out of a possible fifteen questions asked and answered. Do you have any more?
Right after Nayru gives you a date for Yhwach's use of this "Auswahlen" technique, you ask for a specific time. The reply you get places it late in the afternoon (by local time), somewhat shy of four o'clock.
So, about midnight back home. That's... you're going to have to check a calendar to confirm what day the 17th of June falls on this year. If it's on the weekend, great, no problem; you can just arrange a sleepover or a full-day visit or whatever you want to call it, and lean on your Restful Blankets to make up for any sleep lost. If it's a weekday, you're going to have to send Shadow Alex to school in your place or just get permission to skip entirely.
A perfect attendance record is NOT worth the half-dozen lives potentially riding on the outcome of that day's events.
No sooner have you entertained that thought, than a particularly grim follow-up crosses your mind.
"How many people will be targeted by Auswahlen on June 17th?"
...Sis?
That bad, huh.
"Nine hundred and ninety-nine."
...
...you take a deep breath, thank Nayru for her time-
"You're welcome."
-and then cancel the Spell of Communion.
Then you turn around and kick the nearest of Urahara's rocks.
The weight and flat bottom of the roughly soccer ball-sized stone grant it enough resistance to the force imparted upon it by your almighty foot that it only shifts back an inch or so.
Also, ow.
"Bad news, huh?" Urahara comments.
"You might say that," you reply in a tight voice, before turning to Souken. "Mr. Ishida, how many Quincy would you say there are on Earth?"
"I am aware of less than thirty still living in Japan," Souken says after a moment. "That includes all of us here in Karakura, though my knowledge of those who carry the bloodline and lack the training is admittedly limited to Masaki's children and a handful of other relations. As a youth, I was told that Quincy were always rare this far east, and that our distant relatives are more numerous in Europe, but even so... if there are more than a thousand of us who still practice the spiritual arts in the world today, I would be very surprised."
Yeah. You would be, too.
With a sigh, you recount the information you received from Goddesses.
Finding out that Yhwach is due to awaken in a little over a month's time clearly disturbss the two men as much as it did you.
Learning that Yhwach will kill just under a thousand of his people when he wakes forces Souken to venture some distance away, manifest a bow of bluish-white spiritual energy, and start shooting arrows of the same stuff at some of the larger rocks, roaring imprecations in Japanese, Quincy, German, AND English over the ensuing explosions.
Gained Archery E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained English C (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Quincy E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Spirit Shot E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Spiritual Imbuement D (Plus)
You give the old man the time he needs, taking the opportunity to ask Urahara if his rock-top computer has a calendar on it. It does, and it turns out that June 17th will be on a Saturday this year, meaning that you can visit Karakura without the hassles of missing school. You make a note to talk to the Kurosakis before you leave today, and to speak with your parents about visiting on that day.
Once Souken has vented his temper - and offered an apology to Urahara for the damages, which the shopkeeper waves off as "completely understandable" and "downright restrained compared to some people I know" - you broach the subject of the Spell of Greater Spell Immunity.
Spell Immunity is not a magic you've ever used outside of practice sessions in your Mirror Hideaway, and even then, you only cast it rarely - enough to keep a degree of useful familiarity with it, but nowhere near enough that you'd consider yourself a master, or even particularly adept. It's a spell that has the potential to be quite potent under the correct circumstances, but it requires very precise knowledge of an enemy's capabilities to make it worth using, and you've never been in a situation where you had the necessary information in advance.
Even now, you're not entirely certain that it will work. Nayru's tone when she named the spell didn't exactly fill you with confidence, and you know that pitting your power against Yhwach's is going to incur the usual drawbacks of trying to overmatch an adult, and for once, without a clear advantage in raw power to tilt the odds in your favor. The fact that you'd be pitting magic you're not the most practiced at against a spiritually-based technique you've never seen before, invoked by a guy who may or may not be a god, does nothing to reassure you.
But if it's the only other thing the Goddess of Wisdom thought you could contribute, you're going to listen to her and give it your best shot.
Urahara and Souken agree that trying out a defense with uncertain odds of success is preferable to doing nothing at all, though they would both like to see the Greater Spell of Spell Immunity in action before then, to see if there's any advice they could offer to tweak the odds.
You've still got around half of your maximum mana left in the tank, and another hour or so before you need to be on your way, if you're going to be home before dark - less, if you mean to visit the Kurosakis and/or stop by Gen's to pick up some mana potions. You can't see any reason not to make use of that time and energy, although in order to put Greater Spell Immunity through a proper trial run, you're going to need a test subject to host the magic.
"...I don't like that look in your eye," Shadow Alex says flatly, as your gaze falls on him.
He really is the ideal candidate, though. As a summoned entity, he's in no danger of permanent harm if something goes wrong, and he knows everything that you do about magic and the spiritual arts, meaning he can offer expert testimony about what the interaction between Spell Immunity and the various effects you throw at it look like from the inside.
At your current level of skill, each individual casting of Spell Immunity can be attuned to three, possibly four separate spells or effects. Having seen Souken's arrows in action, you ask him not to tell you their proper name just yet, so that you can try to attune your spell to their aura and see how much difference that makes in Spell Immunity's effectiveness. The old Quincy is a bit reluctant to shoot at your doppelganger, but speaks of a class of technique he calls "ginto" - basically the Quincy equivalent of spellcasting, by the sound of things - and in particular, individual techniques meant to restrain and bind the target, which he would have no problem employing. The one he has in mind is called Gritz, as it doesn't carry any secondary effects, and he has the materials needed to cast it with him.
Urahara mentions a couple of low-powered Shinigami kido he could use, specifically the binding spell Sai and the attack spell Sho, which he describes as "basically a telekinetic shove."
You consider your options, and decide to have Urahara and Souken use their respective binding spells first, to see how Spell Immunity holds up against their respective "flavors" of spiritual power before you go throwing destructive forces at Shadow Alex.
"Gee, thanks," your twin snarks.
You'll follow those up with two spells of your own, one purely arcane and the other divine, and then re-cast Spell Immunity with attunement to your rudimentary telepathic power, your Spirit Shot and Ki Shot techniques, and... maybe a low-end Power Ball?
"No," Shadow Alex says flatly, crossing his arms in an X pattern.
It would help to establish a baseline for a wider range of effects-
"Nothing doing."
-and Power techniques are another form of quasi-divine power that you have on tap, so they're another potential point of comparison to weigh against Yhwach's own energies.
"I am not going to stand here and let you fricassee me in the name of Science!"
You'll pull the shot!
"It'll still sting!"
Quit being such a baby!
"If I'm a baby, what does that make you?"
Don't try to confuse the issue!
"Here's an idea!" Briar shouts as she flies between the two of you. "How about you let ME cast a harmless spell on Shadow Alex instead, and add 'fairy magic' to your list of samples?"
...okay, that's an option, but you'd still like to test a Power technique.
"Then cast Spell Immunity on yourself, throw a Power Ball at me, and let me volley it back at you," Shadow Alex says.
...um.
It's one thing to ask someone to do something that you can't, whether that's due to a lack of capability on your part, because you have one or more committments that have to take precedence, or simply because they're in the right place at the right time, and you aren't. It doesn't matter if you're a leader delegating tasks to skilled followers, one member of a team of peers dividing jobs according to personal ability, or one of the aforementioned followers taking up a burden on behalf of the greater organization to which you belong - the core of it all is respect, and trust. Respect for others and their skills; trust that you're not being given a greater load than you can bear, that others are pulling their own weight, that if circumstances were different and THEY were the ones in your place, they'd do what you're being asked to.
All of that is fine, but it's something else again to ask someone to do something that you're fully capable of, and simply don't want to. At best, that's laziness, and more likely arrogance or hypocrisy. At worst? Evil. Self-serving, exploitative, uncaring evil.
This is hardly a worst-case scenario, but you don't have any particular desire to be seen as lazy or a hypocrite.
All moral considerations aside, you're honestly just curious to see how this works out, or doesn't.
Gained Science D
Since you're starting out with low-level effects, you cast the lesser form of Spell Immunity on Shadow Alex, dialing its duration down to about ninety seconds so as to avoid needlessly wasting mana. You program the spell to deal with your telepathy, a Spirit Shot, a Ki Shot, and a divine spell - in this case, the Spell of Doom - and then pop each of those off to see what happens.
Telepathy fails to make contact with Shadow Alex's mind. You're still sufficiently unpracticed with this skill that it COULD be a problem on your end, but you think it was a legitimate success of Spell Immunity.
The two Shot attacks - which you hold back on so that they manifest as single, small projectiles rather than a spread of projectiles - connect with the aura of Abjuration Magic surrounding Shadow Alex and shatter. He flinches a bit, but you can tell that it's just the reflex to dodge and his conscious restraint of it; he confirms that he didn't feel a thing from either shot.
The Spell of Doom has even less effect than that.
Urahara monitors the entire process, and when he tells you he's got the readings for the last one, you cast Spell Immunity on yourself, priming it to withstand Gritz, Sai, the Spell of Doom again - just to see if there's a difference between how YOU mimic true divine spellcasting and how your shadowy twin does it - and finally, Power Ball.
Souken goes first, pulling a small silver tube out from underneath his cloak, unscrewing the cap, and then splashing the luminous blue-white contents at you with a call of, "Gritz!"
In response to the command - and more likely, the pulse that runs through Souken's aura - the spiritually-charged liquid spreads out as if to engulf you, darkening and solidifying. You don't get a chance to see what shape it's trying to form, as when it comes into contact with the magic wrapped around you, the substance cracks, smokes, and melts away into the air.
Urahara goes next, pointing a finger at you from where he stands in front of his computer and declaring, "Sai!"
Spiritual energy surges towards you, only to shatter along the edge of your spell, much as your more offensively-oriented efforts did.
Urahara immediately turns back to his computer screen, making noises of interest.
Shadow Alex casts Doom upon you, to exactly as much effect as your atempt to cast the spell on him had.
Finally, you hold out your right hand and focus, gathering ki and mana together over your palm and PUSHING - and as soon as the baseball-sized mass of crackling golden Power has taken shape, you toss it towards Shadow Alex, with just enough force to ensure it makes the trip.
He swings his sword, sending the Power Ball right back at you, and you experience a brief impulse to focus Power through your arm and backhand the attack away; instead, you fight down that reaction and the urge to dodge, bracing yourself for the sting as you allow the attack to connect.
...
...where's the sting?
You cast Spell Immunity twice more, programming it to deal with one low-tier spell from each of the separate schools of arcane magic, in order to give Urahara and yourself as many data points as possible. A third casting adds a druidic-style spell, a sample of Gerudo witchcraft, and some of Briar's magic to the list.
Seeing that Souken is still a little reluctant to shoot at Shadow Alex, you cast Spell Immunity a fourth time, programming it to defend against the Quincy's as-yet unnamed arrows, the Spell of the Lightning Bolt - one of the more spectacular direct-damage magics in your current arsenal, at least at the level of power that Spell Immunity can withstand - and something that Urahara calls "Shakkaho," which proves to be a mixed concussive and fire-elemental blast.
Shadow Alex still isn't thrilled to have to stand there and let people shoot at him, but at least none of the attacks get through, right? Even Souken's arrow of spiritual energy fails to punch through, despite three separate attempts: one at low output, just in case; one at a greater output that is nonetheless lesser than the blasts Souken was throwing around while venting earlier, and which you guess represents the normal level of power for this technique; and finally, one of those very overcharged attacks.
The name, it seems, isn't strictly necessary for Spell Immunity, as long as you have a reasonable idea of what the effect you're trying to defend against looks and feels like. It might not be enough if you were going by appearance alone, though as different spells can have identical visual manifestations - see the School of Illusion for numerous examples.
"That is a hopeful sign," Souken muses as he lowers his bow, the glowing weapon dematerializing and leaving a small silvery starburst medallion dangling from his fingers. "However, I wouldn't begin to claim that my Heilig Pfeil are anything like a match for the sort of power Yhwach must command."
'Holy Arrows', huh? Talk about your false advertising; while they weren't giving off demonic energy or anything like that, there was nothing holy about those attacks, either. They're just raw spiritual energy.
Still, Souken has a point.
To get a better idea of how well Spell Immunity would hold up to Yhwach's power, you need to use the Greater version of the spell and hit it with the highest-level spells and effects it's (theoretically) capable of withstanding. As you rifle through your mental spellbook, you are reminded that you don't know a lot of eighth-circle spells - only about a dozen, in fact, though you have been studying several more with Batreaux, and are just about at the point where you can use them. Even then, several of your "known" spells wouldn't be useful for the tests you have in mind: Greater Spell Immunity can't be used against itself; Shadow Alex isn't a valid target for Mass Umbral Infusion to begin with, on account of not being a mindless undead; and Greater Planar Binding, Summon Monster, and Summon Nature's Ally similarly wouldn't be able to target him directly, although indirect applications - such as, say, summoning Batreaux? - could be useful.
A part of you is tempted to throw an energy-draining spell at Shadow Alex to see how that works out, but you hold off for a few reasons. For one thing, Yhwach's Auswahlen technique almost certainly isn't what you'd classify as an "energy draining" attack, which is to say, one that utilizes negative energy to suppress or destroy the victim's life-force; if it were, Death Ward would be able to no-sell it, and Nayru would have just told you to cast that spell on June 17th with no worries. Quite aside from that, the only energy-draining spell you currently know is Enervation, which is merely fourth-tier magic and has strictly temporary effects besides; even if you could scale it up, it wouldn't provide the kind of stress-testing you're interested in. And if you did know the Spell of Energy Drain, it's ninth-tier, above and beyond what Greater Spell Immunity can block.
In the end, you figure you have enough time and mana left to call up Batreaux and see if there's anything he could contribute to this testing period, whether it's a spell or some advice.
You check with Urahara, to see if he has any objections to meeting your sorcery tutor.
"I would be DELIGHTED to meet the gentleman in question," the shopkeeper replies.
You figured as much, and get on with setting up for the summoning. Twenty minutes later-
"WHO DARES SUMMON- oh, young Alexander."
-the world TREMBLES in AWE, or possibly repressed laughter, as your tutor in DARKEST SORCERY reappears.
You make the introductions, and then bring Batreaux up to speed on your discoveries for the day. He was already aware of your "side-project" of investigating Silbern and the reasons for it, and is completely supportive of your desire to prevent a lot of innocent people from getting killed or worse. The news that you have a Goddess-confirmed date for Yhwach's awakening, as well as the number of lives on the line, are new to him.
"Is there anything you could to help us out, Master Batreaux?" That's a rather more formal method of address than you normally use with your sorcery tutor, but the situation seems to merit it. "A spell, some advice, anything?"
"...ah." Batreaux fidgets uncomfortably. "Well, spiritual manipulations are not my FORTE, you understand - there is DARKEST SORCERY, and then there is DARKEST NECROMANCY, which, ugh." He makes the Face of Abject Disgust. "HOWEVER! I do happen to know ONE eighth-circle spell capable of affecting souls. In a manner of speaking."
Wait, what?
Why, that sneaky little-!
An eighth-tier spell that affects souls, but ISN'T part of the School of Necromancy? You wrack your brain for what that could be, and the answer comes.
"Trap the Soul," you and Shadow Alex say in unison, having reached the conclusion at the same time.
WHAT?!
"Trap the Soul," Batreaux admits.
"Trap the Soul," Urahara repeats slowly.
You, your darksome clone, and Batreaux nod.
"...I think I'm going to have to ask for an explanation of how that works," the shopkeeper says levelly, his cane back in his hand.
Since you don't know how to cast the spell yourself, providing that explanation falls to Batreaux, who explains that, despite the name, the magic doesn't involve separating the soul from the body. It traps BOTH, sealing them into a prepared vessel - specifically, a gemstone whose type and value reflect the nature and power of the intended target - within which they may be held indefinitely in a state of suspended animation, until such time as the caster releases them, the spell is undone, or the vessel is broken.
Despite Batreaux's admission that he COULD theoretically use the Spell to Trap the Soul to seal someone away for eternity, Urahara actually seems relieved by the description, relaxing out of the guarded stance he'd assumed.
"Not a spell to use lightly, then," he observes.
"No, it is not," Batreaux agrees. "Still, it has the potential to end an argument VERY quickly, and there are always individuals DETESTABLE enough that a successful casting is well worth the effort of the necessary preparations." He smirks, fangs flashing. "It also makes for quite a good bargaining chip when dealing with THE POWERS OF DARKNESS."
You can see why. Demons and their ilk aren't exactly known for their generous natures or for sticking to the terms of their deals, which makes them difficult to bargain with, but if it was known that a summoner had the ability to lock the summonee up in a little crystal prison for a few centuries if they started misbehaving... well, that does seem like it would encourage good behavior.
In fact, now that you think about it, demons would be PARTICULARLY vulnerable to Trap the Soul, on account of being considerably less malleable than mortal creatures. Barring certain individual outliers, mortals live, grow, wither, and die in a matter of decades, whereas demons are immortal and almost unchanging. Depending on what a mortal gets up to, the gemstone someone picked out to contain their essence just a few months ago might no longer be suitable for the task, whereas a stone attuned to a demon is likely to remain effective against them for centuries, or even millennia.
Putting all of that aside, if Batreaux knows Trap the Soul... is it possible...? Could you, maybe, leverage that in your current situation?
I know what you're thinking, and I'd like to go on record that I think it is not the wisest idea, even if it does have a pretty good chance of working.
You raise your left hand, index finger pointing upwards, and announce, "I just had an idea."
"Oh, boy," Briar sighs.
Here we go.
"It may or may not be a GOOD idea," you go on, ignoring the commentary, "but for the sake of argument: what if, instead of - or, in addition to - trying to ward both families against Yhwach's influence, Batreaux were to cast Trap the Soul on them and take them back to Hyrule with him on June 17th, and then bring them back to Karakura when it was safe?"
...huh.
Souken takes off his glasses and rubs at his eyes.
Normally, I would object to the idea of sealing people in magic crystals. Bad historical precedent and all.
Batreaux hums thoughtfully.
That's part of the reason why I said it was a bad idea.
Urahara says, "I was actually wondering about the possibility of that myself."
However, in this particular case, I could be convinced to agree to it.
"It would depend on a few factors," your sorcery tutor muses. "First and foremost, obtaining the necessary gemstones. The Kurosaki twins would not be very difficult to... accommodate, in that fashion, but finding a suitable jewel to house their brother's spirit would take some work, as would one for their mother. I believe Mrs. Kurosaki has absorbed a Heart Container since my last encounter with her?"
You confirm that.
"I would also need to meet the Ishidas, to get a proper estimate of their strength and the type of focuses required for them," Batreaux goes on. "Once I actually had the crystals, however, the process of enchanting them would be quite straightforward, particularly if everyone agreed to ALLOW themselves to be entrapped. The main catch would be whether or not this 'Yhwach' creature was capable of detecting and reaching them from across multiple planar boundaries... but as it happens, I also know the Spell of Mind Blank."
You can confirm that; he's been teaching it to you, with demonstrations of what it's supposed to look and feel like.
"And what does that spell do?" Urahara asks.
You speak up. "It basically no-sells any attempt to locate or gather information about you using Divination Magic or similar abilities, while also providing a hefty boost to your resistance to mind-affecting effects." You consider the matter of Yhwach's soul fragments, and add, "It wouldn't break Yhwach's sympathetic connection to the parts of his soul attached to the families, but I don't think he'd be able to tell where they were, either. Not when he's in a spiritual sub-plane attached to Earth, while they'd be all the way out in Hyrule."
There are LIMITS as to how powerful this guy can be, especially when he'll have just woken up from a ninety-nine decades-long coma, and would be intruding on the Goddesses' turf besides.
"...I cannot believe I am actually considering this," Souken mutters under his breath, before raising his voice to ask, "Would this... entrapment... be at all dangerous?"
And that's the other reason I objected.
"As I said, once sealed within the crystal, the target enters a state of suspended animation, until such time as they are released; as long as that persists, they're quite safe. The spell is also designed to fail safely, whether while it is being cast or when it is cancelled, so as to prevent harm to the target." Batreaux pauses, and then admits, "It IS possible for individuals blessed with certain magical, mental, or spiritual abilities to retain some awareness of their surroundings, and other methods allow for communication between the occupant of a crystal and the one who holds it. That CAN be a problem, depending on the people involved; a certain Dark Lord from Hyrule's storied past once trapped a generation of Maidens descended from the Seven Sages in this way, leaving their prisons guarded by his most powerful beasts. The Hero of the day DID rescue all of the girls, but he also took them along on his ongoing adventure, which MAY have been a bit more excitement than they really wanted."
Huh. The things you forget between incarnations...
Gained History (Hyrulean) E (Plus)
Okay, so there might be a slight risk of Ganondorf's influence spreading if you go through with this plan, even if you wouldn't be casting the spell yourself: you're advocating it; you SUMMONED the guy who'd be doing the actual work; and you can't ignore the possibility that Ganondorf might have used Trap the Soul via proxy.
He actually did it himself, at least in this timeline. But in the OTHER timeline...
Ugh, don't remind me. Using Dark Link like that was just... rude.
Any further consideration of this new plan is put on hold, as Souken is quite firm that it needs to be brought to the attention of the people who would actually be subjected to Batreaux's spell before any decisions are made.
You have no problem with that, but it doesn't mean you couldn't commission Batreaux to start looking for the needed gems...
While there is something to be said for preparing for a worst-case scenario ahead of time, you can at least do the Kurosakis and the Ishidas the courtesy of waiting a few days and hearing out their decisions regarding the plan to temporarily entrap their souls and relocate them to another world.
In addition, while there is a part of you that is willing to risk increasing Ganondorf's influence on you, if it means being able to protect Ichigo and his slightly-extended family, you've put enough effort into NOT doing this sort of thing that the greater part of you would really rather keep that in reserve as your absolute last-resort option, for when all other possibilities have been explored and exhausted.
And you DO have a couple of potential paths that haven't been explored yet.
If there's anyone on your list of Earth-native contacts outside of the Karakura residents that can help throw a wrench in Yhwach's agenda, it's Ambrose and Balthazar.
Worse comes to worst, the two of them should at least be able to make it easier for you and Batreaux to find gemstones of a suitable quality to serve as focuses for the Spell to Trap the Soul.
You float the idea of getting extra help to the three gentlemen. Having met both the Wizard and the Sorcerer of the Seven Hundred and Seventy-Seventh Degree at your recent birthday, the Risen Demon has no objection to seeking their assistance; Batreaux is also able to support your claims of the power of the two men, their (generally) benevolent natures, and the fact that the Kurosakis and (some of) the Arisawas have also met them.
Urahara and Souken both display a certain degree of hesitation at the prospect of getting complete strangers involved in their affairs, which leads to the both of them agreeing to head back to the Kurosaki home with you after you finish testing Spell Immunity, so they can get Isshin and Masaki's opinions about the two magic-users.
On that note, you slap Greater Spell Immunity on Shadow Alex, and then hit him with Greater Shout-
With a seasoned eye, Batreaux looks over the fifty-foot cone of upturned sand, splintered stones, and cracked boulders that your magically-empowered yell blasted into the floor of Urahara's training room.
"Good progress," your sorcery tutor declares, "but it still needs work. Greater Shout should be able to reliably hit targets out to SIXTY feet, and SHATTER boulders of this size and composition."
-with Batreaux tossing in a Greater Shadow Evocation-
"LET THE DARK FIRE CONSUME YOU!"
-Urahara following that up with an ENTIRELY excessively-named kido-
"Hado Eighty-Eight!" he declares, one arm braced by the other and aimed palm-first at Shadow Alex. "Hiryu Gekizoku Shinten Raiho!"
"Flying Dragon WHAT?" your doppelganger manages to get out, before he's briefly blotted from view by the blue beam of crackling spiritual energy and its impact-triggered explosion.
-and Souken testing out another, rather more directly-destructive Ginto-fueled technique, which he names, "Heizen."
As the dust from the last attack clears, an unharmed Shadow Alex says, "And with that, I am officially DONE for the day," and dismisses himself.
You, Urahara, and Batreaux spend a couple of minutes reviewing and analyzing the data, which shows that you've got a good enough grasp on Spell Immunity for it to work as intended against purely mana-based spells and effects. You're relieved to see that the spell was also fully-effective against purely spiritual techniques - though Urahara's appears to have been pushing the limits - a result that was likely helped along at least a bit by the spiritual energy you infused into the magic, using your quasi-clerical casting style.
It's still possible that this Auswahlen technique could bypass Spell Immunity, whether by dint of raw power, by being formed of quasi-divine energy, or because Yhwach is using his soul fragments to cheat and slip the effect through his victims' natural resistance to hostile energies. But given that the barrier was able to negate Urahara's blast when Shinigami have their own slightly-divine essence, you're rather less worried about that aspect of things. As for the other two...
Well, fingers crossed.
Dismissing Batreaux, you restore your disguise and accompany the two older men up the elevator. Urahara informs Tessai that he needs to make a quick trip to the Kurosaki residence, and is borrowing the van.
Tessai trades glances with Yoruichi, who is lounging atop one of the shelves, and then sighs and rises from his seat behind the counter. "Give me a minute to close up."
Urahara huffs. "Tessai, really. I AM capable of operating a motor vehicle."
"Of course, Manager," the big man says, without stopping.
You and Briar trade glances. There's a story here.
You waver between indulging your curiosity and respecting Urahara's right to privacy, but in the end, you decide to say nothing.
Briar, on the other hand, drifts over to Yoruichi and says, "So what's the story, here? Your boss have a bad history with motor vehicles, or what?"
"He's not my boss," the black cat replies. "And yes, he does."
"I do not," Urahara protests.
Yoruichi gives him a disbelieving look. "Kisuke, the first time you tried to get a license, you drove into a wall-"
"That was only because the accelerator pedal got stuck."
"-the second time, you got arrested and ended up with a five-year ban-"
"I still maintain that the judge was biased."
"-and who could FORGET the time we had to use the Kikanshinki on the poor man administering the driver's test."
"Now THAT was totally not my fault," Urahara says firmly. "That Hollow came out of nowhere."
"You rammed it with the car!"
"It was the fastest way to put it down!"
"Wait, that actually worked?" you exclaim.
The cat and the man in the hat turn to you.
You quickly clarify. "You managed to hurt a spiritual entity by hitting it with a physical object?"
"It can be done," Urahara admits. "Usually because you're channeling spiritual energy around or through the object in question, whether consciously or instinctively, but there are some objects that retain enough of a spiritual charge all on their own to do the job. In this case, though, I'd reinforced the car with a modified barrier kido. Completely harmless, normally, but with a couple thousand pounds of metal pushing it along at forty miles per hour... well, score one for Sir Isaac Newton."
The conversation is interrupted as Tessai returns, having hung up his apron and fetched a keyring with a green-and-white striped fob attached. "Shall we be off, then?"
The Urahara Shop's van only has proper seats for the driver and front passenger; you, Briar, and Souken pile into the back, where Tessai unlatches and swings down a bench of sorts for you, apologizing for the conditions and assuring you that he won't drive recklessly. Yoruichi tags along as well, casually admitting to being curious about why everyone's heading to visit Isshin and Masaki.
The morning traffic has died down a bit, now that all the kids are at school and the workers at their places of employment, so it doesn't take long at all for Tessai's careful driving to get you back to the Kurosaki Clinic. Now wearing a white labcoat, Isshin sticks his head out of the front door of the clinic, catches sight of the van, and groans.
"We don't need any of whatever you're selling, thank you!" he calls, signalling with his hands.
"Now is that any way for a member of the medical profession to behave?" Urahara gasps.
"Knowing the sort of trouble that you and the kid get up to, I could say that I have an ethical duty to keep you both as far away from my patients as I can." Despite this statement, Isshin ushers you all inside, where Masaki - wearing a nurse's uniform, you note - asks if anyone would care for a drink.
Over tea and a saucer of milk, you, Urahara, and Souken discuss the day's findings with the Kurosakis, and explain where you stand in your efforts to protect their family and the Ishidas from Yhwach.
"You want to do WHAT to my little princesses?!"
Isshin has some misgivings about the notion of using Trap the Soul on his daughters.
Masaki doesn't exactly look thrilled with the idea, either.
You assure the Kurosakis that, despite its ominous-sounding name, the Spell to Trap the Soul should be neither risky nor unpleasant - no worse than, say, moving an anesthetized patient from a hospital that's at risk of a natural disaster to a safer one. It's just that in this case, the "anesthesia" would be magic, and the "vehicle" doing the moving would be an enchanted crystal instead of an ambulance.
"Oh, sure," Isshin grumbles. "Use my job against me..." Sighing, the man tugs on his labcoat, puts on his Doctor Face, and starts asking you serious questions about the possible risks of the 'procedure' you're suggesting.
As Batreaux already explained to Urahara, there aren't many, and the twins, at least, are ordinary enough that the odds of them being able to sense the passage of time while they're under the spell's effects - much less being aware of what's going on around them - are basically nil. You don't think you can say the same about Uryuu, Masaki, or Kanae, who are not only stronger than the twins, but have actually received at least some training to use their Quincy abilities, and then there's Ichigo and his ridiculous overflowing soul, which you pretty much have to assume is going to have abnormal interactions with Batreaux's spell. Even then, though, you can't see anything harmful happening. As your tutor said, the magic is designed to fail safely at all stages of operation.
And since the Kurosakis are still visibly uncertain about the whole idea, you add that it wasn't and isn't your intended first course of action, but rather a back-up plan, in case the attempt to take out Yhwach before he can use Auswahlen fails. Even then, you have another option besides shoving everybody into magic gems and taking them off-world, it's just somewhat less likely to work.
In any event, they've still got some time to think about their options, and talk it over with the Urahara Shop crew and the Ishidas.
On the subject of whether or not to get Ambrose and/or Balthazar involved in this matter, Isshin and Masaki agree that they'd like to know if the older and more established magic-users have anything that could help out. Souken still needs to talk to his son and daughter-in-law for their take on further outside involvement - Masaki mentions going to talk with Ryuuken and Kanae in the next day or two - but you at least have the go-ahead to speak with the Wizard and the Merlinean Master about the threat of Yhwach and how they might be able to help the Kurosakis survive it.
With this, you've not only reached the limits of what you can reasonably accomplish today, but also the time. The clock hanging in the Kurosaki kitchen makes it just shy of ten in the morning here, which is about six in the evening back in Sunnydale; you were planning to swing by Gen's before going home, and when you factor in the travel times, shopping, and conversation, it'll probably be past seven by the time you get home.
As such, you start saying your goodbyes to the adults and withdraw to the backyard.
Urahara and Tessai tag along.
"I would like a chance to see what your teleportation magic looks like when you aren't forcing your way through wards," Urahara says easily.
"I would also appreciate the opportunity," Tessai admits sheepishly. "That is, as long as you have no objections."
...even if you did, you have the feeling Urahara would stick around anyway.
"Ah, such suspicion! ...but yes," the man in the hat and clogs admits shamelessly, fan out and waving.
Five minutes of chanting later, the Kurosaki backyard disappears-
-flying/falling/sinking through-
-and is replaced by the hidden corner behind Gen's shop.
Seeing as how it's mid-morning, you spend a minute waiting in the shadows, cautiously reaching out with your senses to determine if there's anyone around who noticed your arrival or might see you sneaking around the grounds. The coast seems clear, and you head inside, bell ringing above your head as you enter the door.
"Hello, and welcome to Gen's!" the old man greets you from where he stands among the shelves, a basket of goods tucked under one arm. "How can I help you, good..." Gen trails off, peering at you with a frown. "Hang on a minute. Alex, is that you?"
...oh, right. You cast the Spell to Disguise the Self before leaving Urahara Shop, and just didn't turn it off.
"I'm in disguise," you advise your partner.
"Anything I should be worried about?" Gen inquires, as he goes back to restocking his wares.
"No, just dodging truant officers."
In the middle of exchanging a full jar of greenish powder for a mostly-empty jar of the same, Gen laughs. "Those must be some truant officers."
Well, if Ichigo is to be believed...
Anyway, you came here to see if Gen had some mana potions in stock, and a quick inquiry tells you that he does. Is there anything else you'd like to look for, talk about, or do while you're here?
You clean out Gen's supply of mana restoratives.
Gained 4 Spring Dew
Gained 1 Smoke Water
Spent $350 in store credit
"That's quite a bit of extra magic," the old man observes with a concerned frown, as he hands over the clay bottles and makes a note in his ledger. "Are you planning a major ritual, or is there an upcoming apocalypse that I should be worried about?"
...you suppose most normal practitioners would consider everything you've gotten up to at Urahara's over the last week to constitute a "major ritual," if only by dint of the sheer amount of mana you've spent in the process. As for the apocalypse, Gen isn't a Quincy, and neither are the members of his family you've glimpsed at a distance or interacted with directly during this partnership. You haven't sensed that common aural trace among his customers, either, so from a certain perspective, this entire business with Yhwach doesn't really concern the man.
On the other hand, you don't know everybody that Gen knows, and Auswahlen WILL result in the deaths of just under a thousand people, not to mention leading to Yhwach regaining his full power and trying to take over the world another decade down the line, if the Song of the Sealed King is to be believed. So if Auswahlen isn't an apocalypse in and of itself, it's definitely laying the groundwork for one, and as of right now, you're one of the only people outside of the Wandenreich to know of the danger. Common courtesy would dictate that you warn people, so that they have a chance to take action about the danger, but paranoia says that such a warning could be traced back to you, which could end rather badly.
Mana potions aside, you're also interested in laying in a supply of gemstones, and not just because you may need to supply Batreaux's castings of Trap the Soul. A number of your more powerful spells call for precious gems as material components or focuses - the Spell of Limited Wishing, for example, requires a fairly valuable gem-quality diamond - and they're useful for different sorts of item crafting as well - your experiments with Mana Gems definitely come to mind. Your finances haven't really supported the possibility of large-scale purchases of precious stones before, but now that you're looking at the prospect of doing regular item-crafting business for the Shuzens, on top of the income from your other business and trade deals, you feel that you can at least look around for potential future suppliers.
So you ask Gen if he has any contacts you could talk to about acquiring gemstones suitable for use as spell components, on a semi-regular basis.
"That depends on just what sort of gems you need," Gen replies after a moment. "I do know a couple of places that trade in small, common stones suitable for various magical purposes, but their stocks of larger and rarer specimens are very sparse. Part of the reason why it took so long to get that ruby eyepiece you ordered a while back. It's one thing to deal in crystals and semi-precious stones that go for tens or hundreds of dollars" - Gen gestures to his own shelves, where a few mineral specimens towards the lower end of that price range sit - "but once you start talking about gems that retail for thousands or more just in mundane terms, carrying them is honestly more trouble than they're worth. Your average magic-user on the street can't afford the financial costs OR the kind of attention that comes with purchasing such things on a regular basis, and the wealthier types have their own sources."
Gen is not only willing to give you the names and addresses of the two mystical gem dealers, but to tag along to make the introductions, or just to call ahead and let them know to expect you. You won't have time to investigate the places today, of course, and if you mean to stop by tomorrow - after class at Lu-sensei's and dinner at home - Gen won't be able to go with you. If you visit on the weekend, however, he'll be available.
Assuming that you do end up going, when would you like it to be?
"I'm making preparations to help out some people in a bad spot," you tell Gen. "I can't name individual names-"
"Of course not," Gen says promptly, nodding in approval. "Never reveal the client's confidential information without their consent."
"-but in a more general sense... have you ever heard of a Quincy?"
"I take it you don't mean the fruit?"
...there's a fruit?
After a brief divergence regarding the quince - a relative of the pear and apple - you get back on track, giving Gen a quick summary of the existence and abilities of the Quincy, the legend of the Sealed King, and your recent discovery that he exists, is due to wake up next month, and is going to spiritually-cripple or outright kill nearly a thousand people when he does.
Gen sighs and drops onto the stool hidden behind his counter. "Why is always tidings of doom with these ancient prophecies? Did the ancients never have any happy visions, or did they just not pass them down to us poor modern souls?"
Well, part of the problem with trying to divine the future is that events get harder and harder to see as they become more "distant" in time, smaller in scale, less significant to the world as a whole, and/or just more unlikely to take place. Your average apocalypse is "noisy" enough that a competent seer can perceive the echoes of its potentiality from decades or even centuries in the past - longer, if it's one of those deals that gets interrupted in progress rather than prevented outright, to say nothing of when it actually comes to pass in its entirety. Even the happiest of events doesn't really have the same impact as hundreds, thousands, or MANY thousands of people dying horribly when the nearest Gate of the Damned blows open and all Hell breaks loose. Then there's the fact that the "noise" of all those potential and actual doomsday events tends to drown out lesser and/or more positive occurrences.
"...well, THAT'S depressing."
You don't make the rules, you just try to bend them in your favor.
"So, returning to the topic at hand, I'm guessing you found a few of these Quincy and decided they didn't deserve to have their souls chewed on by their ancestral god-king?"
In a nutshell, yes.
Gen nods, and then adds, "Have you taken your findings to the nearest kami? Because this sounds like the sort of thing they should be informed of."
Considering that the Goddesses have had your back every step of the way since that mark on Masaki's soul started acting up, and that you've had four Shinigami involved as well? Yes, you would say that the divine forces are WELL aware of what's going on.
...though at the same time, you know enough about Soul Society to guess that they are somewhat divorced from the other divine powers of Japan. Separate organizations providing different services within the same territory, rather than different levels of the same hierarchy. The Goddesses, meanwhile, are even further outside things.
...oh, yeah. I should... probably go tell Ammy about all of this, shouldn't I?
Perhaps you should stop by the Hakuba Shrine and let their kami know about this?
That might be wise, yes.
Deciding to take advantage of Gen's generous offer and the benefits that a formal introduction from a known business associate would bring, you agree to come back on Saturday so that your partner can personally introduce you to the owners of these stores.
With that done, you spend a few minutes just talking business with Gen, updating your knowledge of recent shifts in the magical market so that you have a better idea of what to summon and trade for (or not) the next time you swing by. After perhaps a quarter-hour of that, you excuse yourself and head home, reaching the house at about ten to seven.
You spend the next couple of hours in your workshop, continuing the adjustments on Kahlua's Gauntlets, but call a halt to that around nine and spend the rest of the time until midnight reading and relaxing. You finish off Kitsune Legends fairly early on and move on to the Book of Koans that Emiko got you, but after about half an hour of brain-bending philosophical riddles, you decide that this might be the sort of reading better done after a good night's rest, rather than before going to bed. Instead, you move on to Kitsune Legends, the Romantic Edition.
You quickly realize that Emiko's sisters were either unexpectedly canny in their choice of gift, or else they were trying to prank you and managed to undermine themselves. The Romantic Legends are just that, tales of love in the face of adversity, of enduring separation, loss, and tragedy, with the odd happy ending sprinkled in for good measure - all of them involving kitsune. While nothing about the stories is inappropriate for someone of your tender years, if you WERE actually nine years old, or even the twelve-year-old you appear to be, much of the book's contents would be going over your head, at least where they weren't coming across as boring, icky, or full of mushy stuff.
With the decidedly more mature perspective afforded to you by Ganondorf's memories, you're actually able to appreciate the legends.
After a few hours of magically-assisted sleep, you get up around four, head downstairs, and settle on the living room couch with a glass of juice on the nearest table while you try to make some headway with the koans. Although being rested definitely helps, you still find yourself metaphorically scratching your head over some of the riddles, and by the time your parents start getting up, you find yourself wondering if this is really the best approach to the Book of Koans. Perhaps instead of trying to plow through all the riddles in a few sittings, you should instead read one each morning, and spend the day contemplating it? Or something like that.
Regardless, Friday passes mostly quietly, save for pop quizzes and follow-up homework assignments in Math and English that have the rest of your class grumbling that your teachers are in cahoots, and dedicating to ruining weekends for everybody.
Personally, you don't see what the problem is.
There are people you want to contact about the recent developments in Karakura, and you spend a good part of Friday doing so.
Between your early-morning reading and breakfast, you take advantage of the time difference and your Magic Cellphone to call up its creator. You spend most of an hour on the line, answering Ambrose's questions regarding the Quincy doomsday prophecy and your efforts to defuse it.
As it turns out, the wizard already knew of the existence of the Quincy, and has encountered "a few" of them over his lifetime. The bad news is that he doesn't have anything so convenient as a detailed analysis of the spiritual energies common to all Quincy (and so, one would think, to Yhwach).
"I did try to find a volunteer or three willing to let me run the usual array of diagnostic spells," Ambrose sighs, "but these people are extremely proud and protective of their heritage and skills, and their techniques work almost as well against most corporeal entities as they do against purely spiritual ones."
"Only most?" you query.
"I didn't get a chance to test it out, of course, but based on what I've been able to observe over the years, higher-order golems should be as resistant to Quincy techniques as they are to most other mystical threats. Anything with magic resistance likewise ought to have a measure of protection, although spirits and outsiders would be somewhat most vulnerable due to their nature."
Purely spiritual force wielded against entities composed entirely of spiritual "matter?" Yeah, without a body of true physical matter to act as a buffer, it would be a simple question of which side had the greater power and/or the better control over it. Though based on what you've observed from Masaki and Souken, there's another danger; Quincy are able to absorb and utilize ambient spiritual energy, meaning that they could theoretically break down any purely spiritual existence in the area, and use it to replenish or even increase their firepower. Corporeal living beings wouldn't be in much danger from that because of how their bodies anchor their souls, and pure spirits would be... safe-ish... as long as their sense of self persisted, but something like the leavings of an exorcised ghost, the body of a slain outsider, or the fragments of a shattered soul would be so much raw material for a Quincy to exploit.
Which is exactly what Yhwach is going to do.
The bad news continues, with Ambrose admitting that he can't think of any spells or countermeasures that he would guarantee could completely shut down Auswahlen. This isn't to say he doesn't have access to magic that could make the Kurosakis safer - and the Ishidas with them, though you've not mentioned them by name yet - it's just that none of those spells, alone or in combination, are objectively better than your plan to wrap the Kurosakis in protective spells and (possibly) shift them to a far-removed plane whose sole reigning deities are not subject to Earth's injunction against divine intercession.
But extra layers of protection aren't exactly a BAD thing, and Ambrose adds that he'll go through his supply of gemstones to see if he has any that "feel" like Masaki and her kids, should your plan to use the Spell to Trap the Soul get cleared.
"Oh, and while I've got you," the wizard says as an afterthought, "Roderick Pritchard has been in touch about that ruin in Germany."
"What did he say?"
"The spring rains have passed, and the little expedition he's put together with help from Arthur and Eric has moved in and started excavating. They're going slow to keep the archaeologists happy and the noise down, but he thinks they'll have cleared the main doors by the start of July, give or take a couple of weeks."
Right. So, with a little luck, you can get on with fulfilling your promise to the Memorians, AND not have to worry about it creating a scheduling conflict with your attempts to save the Kurosakis and Ishidas. Good to know.
After speaking with Ambrose, you break for breakfast, then check the clock and figure you've got enough time for one more short call before school. As such, you dial the Arcana Cabana.
*Ring*
*Ring*
*Ri-*
"Arcana Cabana, Balthazar Blake speaking," the man himself answers.
"Mister Blake, it's Alex Harris."
"Ah, Mr. Harris," the sorcerer replies in a tone of voice you don't think you've ever heard him use before, but which immediately makes you think of Urahara in Shopkeeper Mode. "How can I help you this morning?"
You don't have time to discuss this over the phone, at least not in the sort of detail you got into with Ambrose, so instead you ask Balthazar if he'd be available for a mystical consultation later today - say, around seven or eight o'clock, New York time.
"I can fit you in," the Merlinean master replies easily. "What's the topic?"
"Does the name 'Yhwach' mean anything to you?" you ask.
"...been a while since I heard that one," the Sorcerer of the Seven Hundred and Seventy-Seventh Degree says after a moment. Lowering his voice, he adds, "Last I knew, he was supposed to have died almost a thousand years ago."
"He was only mostly dead," you explain. "And he's been getting better."
There is a pause.
"You have definitely been hanging around Ambrose too much," Balthazar sighs.
You spend a couple of minutes giving Balthazar a quick summary of events, dropping names-
The Song of the Sealed King, Wandenreich, Silbern, and Auswahlen, to be specific.
-a date-
June 17th.
-and a few other useful pieces of information.
Balthazar says he'll see what the Encantus has to say on the subjects in question, and do a little Divination of his own.
"See you this evening," he concludes.
"Until then," you reply, before hanging up.
There are good arguments to be made for not contacting Marcus yet.
The excavation of the Memorian Base has only just begun, and there are no guarantees that it will go as smoothly as Mr. Pritchard obviously believes. A big part of the reason for why it's taken all this time to get to work unearthing the place is because that part of Germany sees a lot of rain; the fact that the heavy rains of spring are now past doesn't mean that the site couldn't get a summer storm that wipes out weeks' worth of work.
Even if everything goes right on that front, you'll still have to explore the place and make safe whatever of its original defenses still survive, while making sure nobody on Earth gets any funny ideas about taking the place for themselves or destroying it. While some of Earth's native deities are on decent or even friendly terms with the Golden Goddesses, you know quite well that there are others who are less sanguine about having a trio of outsiders - and one of their Chosen Ones - running around the planet sticking their noses into things which aren't any of their business, ignorant and even defiant of the rules and agreements that enforce the status quo. You wouldn't put it past such entities to meddle with the "archaeological dig" in Germany when they become aware of it, if indeed they aren't already.
And then there's the simple question of how secure a Spell of Sending would be. Ambrose's Magic Cellphone is one thing; pain in the neck he may be, the old man has proven his chops when it comes to item-crafting, and you're sure that his creation is reasonably secure while in use. But a spell cast into the aether is another matter, and you haven't forgotten how some of the darker Powers managed to hijack your line to the Goddesses. Can you really take the risk of a repeat performance?
But even as the idea of keeping your peace for the time being wavers on the brink of becoming a confirmed choice, you think back to your first meeting with Marcus, of hearing the tragedy of the Last Battle of the Fifth Legion and its thousand-year aftermath, and of fighting alongside the revived legionaries. You remember the sense of purpose in their movements and mannerisms when you visited with all the priests, of the hope that the return of one of Mars's priests brought to the phantom faces of his long-abandoned sons.
You think of your birthday, and the enchanted banner the Memorian ghosts assembled as your gift, and the implications that such a thing carries - and you find that questions of timing and security are less important than letting your brothers-in-arms know that the end of their long, restless vigil is finally in sight.
You don't have time to make that trans-planar call this morning, but you make a mental note to take care of it before you head out to New York that afternoon.
On that note, once Lu-sensei's Friday class lets out and you've convinced your mother to let you have a light snack to tide you over until a late dinner, you head out of town. Today's semi-random choice of routes sees you going somewhat to the northwest of Sunnydale, eschewing the west-leading highway and your usual teleportation site at the abandoned gas station to head deeper into the desert. After traveling for roughly the same length of time it would have taken to reach the gas station, you put a fairly tall and broad pillar of rock between you and the sight of the town, and begin gathering mana.
Ten minutes later, you speak: "Alex Harris reporting in, Captain. The Earthside location has been found. Excavation has begun, and the estimated time to completion is six weeks."
With that, you fire the Spell of Sending off and wait to see if Marcus sends a response.
A few moments later: "Message received. Six week timetable acknowledged. Keep me posted, Alex - and thank you."
And then the magic fades.
Nodding in satisfaction, you begin gathering power for your trip to New York.
-flying/falling/sinking through a strange space/medium/awareness filled with familiar shapes/alien geometries and faint/loud chorus/discordance-
When you arrive at the skyscraper-top teleport point, the first thing you notice is how low in the sky the sun sits. It's not dark yet, but there can't be much more than half an hour left until the day's end.
It belatedly hits you that wandering the streets of New York City at night is apt to be almost as bad a decision as walking around Sunnydale after dark. The Big Apple isn't built on a Hellmouth or anything, but it's the largest and most densely-populated city in the United States, it has BEEN a city for a bit over two centuries and a settlement for over three, and an international harbor for... basically all that time. Even if New York is still an upstart child by the standards of some of the world's truly ancient cities, there is still a LOT of history on and under these streets, which is further compounded by the sheer quantity and variety of life and living beings - human, monstrous, demonic, and other, from all over this world and even places beyond - that have called the city home over the decades. Such is that sheer, prolonged concentration of energy that the Moonlit side of things is probably even busier than New York's mundane night-life.
In short, if afternoon/evening visits like this are going to become a thing, you're probably going to want to talk to Balthazar about setting up a teleport location a little closer to the Arcana Cabana.
Speaking of the Merlinean Sorcerer, he's sitting by the door, just looking up from a thin book.
"Welcome back, Alex, Briar," Balthazar greets you as he closes the book. "Just the two of you tonight?"
"Lu-sensei had a class to teach," you respond.
You experience only a fleeting curiosity about what Balthazar was reading, but you're rather more interested in the absence of a certain fellow American sorcerer.
"No Dave tonight?" you inquire, as you head for the door.
"He's spending the night at a friend's house," Balthazar says. "They're working on their end-of-the-year project for science class together."
Huh.
"What's the project?" you ask.
"That's what they're trying to figure out."
Oh, it's like that.
"I suspect Dave will hold out for something involving electromagnetism, though," Balthazar adds. "He's shown a knack for conjuring, projecting, and deflecting plasma bolts in training; it would make sense if that carried over to the physical side of things."
For a moment, you envision Dave doing his Emperor Palpatine impersonation in front of his science class - which looks a great deal like the science room at YOUR school - cackling like a madman beneath a hooded black robe while lightning flies from his fingertips.
...nah, he wouldn't do that.
Probably.
...
...though if memory serves, he DID mention some problems with bullies, so maybe...?
The conversation dies off as you reach the elevator, and join a pair of weary-looking office workers in the car, shoulders slumped under rumpled suits. They glance at you and Balthazar for a moment, but fortunately, you cast the Spell to Disguise the Self on your way down from the roof, giving yourself the look of a man closer to Balthazar's age, on the logic that two grown men would draw less attention at this hour than one man and one kid who doesn't look a thing like him.
It appears to have been the correct decision, or perhaps the two salarymen are just too exhausted by a long day's work to spare you more than a token glance. Either way, with the exception of a few mumbled acknowledgements, the ride down to the lobby is quiet.
Balthazar's Rolls-Royce Phantom is parked in the same place as it was on your visit back in the fall, and while there's little enough foot traffic that you don't lose any time getting to the vehicle, the roads are busy enough that the drive to the Arcana Cabana takes almost twenty minutes, rather than the ten or so you remember.
Another point in favor of getting Balthazar's permission to set up a teleport spot closer to his shop.
Speaking of the Arcana Cabana, the interior lights are off when you arrive, and the entire building feels curiously blank. True, the last time you were here, you couldn't sense the wards until Balthazar "unlocked" them to allow you, Briar, and Lu-sensei to enter, and even then, it was a brief, there-and-gone flash of energy that you didn't have time to make sense of. But when the Merlinean master opens the door this evening, you don't even sense that much. To all your passive senses, the Arcana Cabana feels entirely mundane.
You wonder what Balthazar did. You can think of several possibilities, ranging from a large-scale but comparatively simple application of the Spell of the Magic Aura, to a highly advanced effect like anchoring the Spell of Mind Blank to the wards so that the entire building is impervious to scrying.
Thinking on it a bit more, you decide that you're worrying needlessly. Dave's got a pretty good head on his shoulders, and for all his nervous energy - particularly around monsters - you've yet to see or hear about any public mishaps involving magic; his first meeting with Balthazar is the closest to such an incident that you know of, and most of the mess Dave described was pretty clearly the work of the two adult sorcerers.
In fairness, you can't say you would have done much differently in their places.
Balthazar was trying to deal with a peer or near-peer level opponent that had just gotten out of the magical doll he'd been sealed in for the last three-quarters of a century or so, who was only going to get more dangerous the longer he was allowed to run around freely. On top of that, he had a helpless bystander and a shop full of valuable and potentially volatile magical objects and raw materials to be concerned about. Putting Hovarth down fast and hard was the surest shot at avoiding further trouble.
Hovarth, meanwhile, was looking at getting shoved back into the Grimholt if he didn't act quickly and decisively, and he had basically zero prep time or resources to call upon beyond his native power and skill. Violence was pretty much his only shot at preserving his freedom, and you'd be something of a hypocrite if you condemned him for it: the fight never left the Arcana Cabana; and even now, when he's been loosed upon the world for a year and more, the Morganian has been decidedly more restrained in his behavior than a certain other dark magic-user with a propensity for getting shoved into and escaping from seals.
All of that aside, while Dave does a lot of exasperated grumbling about Balthazar's teaching methods, his heart's rarely been in it; two minutes of conversation on the topic ought to make it clear to anyone that Dave loves learning about magic and how to wield it. The only truly genuine complaint you've heard from him about the entire business has been in regards to the social fallout of having to wear old man shoes and a fancy ring where other kids can see them, and alternately shun or hassle him for being weird.
Going Full Sith on his playground bullies might provide a certain sense of satisfaction, but it would be fleeting, especially since such a course of action would almost certainly make Dave even more of a social outcast, not to mention the threat it would pose to his continued magical education. You can't see Balthazar OR Mrs. Stutler taking that kind of outburst lightly, and that's not even getting into what the authorities' response would be, whether from the Moonlit World or the mundane.
Dave is smart enough to have realized all those risks, and if he hasn't metaphorically or literally blown up at the various intimidating to terrifying monsters you've seen him around, you think you can trust him not to wield his powers against his classmates - or at least to keep from zapping anybody that doesn't genuinely deserve it.
Because you know, some bodies really do.
There is a time and a place for magical research. Standing on a street in a slightly run-down New York neighborhood at the hour of twilight is, perhaps, not the best choice.
Besides, you can always ask Balthazar about it later, provided your scheduled chat about Quincy-related topics (including reagent-grade gemstones) doesn't run too long.
With a glance at the city skyline and the darkening heavens beyond, you head inside the Arcana Cabana.
As you cross the building's threshold, the auras of the items scattered about the main room appear on your awareness like lights emerging from a fogbank. The process is gradual enough - and Balthazar's normal containment measures sufficiently strong - that you wouldn't be disoriented by the appearance of so many auras, even if your mystical senses were a great deal less practiced than they actually are.
"Give me a minute to fetch the Incantus, and we'll get started," Balthazar says, as he turns and heads for the back of the shop.
Left to your own devices, you look around, seeing what else has changed about the Arcana Cabana since your last visit. The blue hat with the crescent moon and stars is still there under its locked-down bell jar, the whispering books are still chained to their shelves-
won't you read us?
-and still tempting the unwary, and the fake Grimholt is still in its place. Everything else seems to be more or less the same, the differences too minor for your limited familiarity with the shop to pick out.
It occurs to you that you've got a $250 gift voucher that you haven't yet used.
Is there something you'd like to look for?
Balthazar returns with the shrunken Incantus in one hand, and as he begins unfolding the tome of sorcery, you notice that the whispers of the other books swiftly quiet down.
we'll be good
Setting the massive true form of the book down on the shop's counter, Balthazar gestures for you and Briar to come join him as he starts leafing through the ancient pages.
"-Quor'toth, too far... quaggoth, quickening, quicksilver... Quincy."
He turns the Incantus slightly, giving you a better view of a page with the by-now familiar star-like emblem at the top of the page.
And then the two of you start comparing notes.
While Balthazar is out of the room, you turn your attention to his collection of non-enchanted books.
oh, those are so boring
Given your current project to upgrade Kahlua's Gauntlets and the associated prospect of setting up a long-term item-crafting contract with the Shuzens, you're interested in any texts that would help you improve your Magesmithing skills. You're exceptionally capable in that field for someone of your physical age, but you've still got plenty of room for improvement, especially if you mean to make a serious career (or at least a part-time job) out of it. You'll be in competition with other crafters if that comes to pass, and right now, you're at a disadvantage against anyone who's got more than a couple of years of practical experience under their belt.
are you sure you don't want to read us?
You also keep an eye out for books that discuss the using magic and modern technology together in a constructive manner. You're not thinking of "technomagic" so much as you are curious to get a more detailed breakdown of how Earth's established magical traditions deal with technology - and how they don't.
we're much more interesting
Fetching the Incantus doesn't take Balthazar very long, so you only get a chance to look over titles, but you make a mental note of some names that seem promising before the Merlinean master returns and the ensuing discussion of Quincy matters becomes the focus of your attention.
It turns out that Balthazar has met "more than a few" Quincy over the years. He used to travel quite extensively before establishing the Arcana Cabana, wandering the world on the trail of rumors, divinations, and unruly magic-users of assorted natures and intentions.
"There are parts of Europe where the Quincy bloodlines have been established for most of a millennium," the senior sorcerer informs you, as one page of the Incantus unfolds into a map of the continent in question. "Up until a couple of centuries ago, you could find neighborhoods and villages whose inhabitants were either entirely Quincy, or else made up of Quincy bloodlines and their mundane relatives." Tiny points of light scattered across the map glow with the same blue-tinted white hue you've seen in the souls of the Karakura Quincy and their active powers. "They were always cautious around outsiders, and didn't exactly go out of their way to share their history and legends even when they considered you a friend. Sometimes, though, not being part of the group makes you the perfect person to talk to."
That kind of makes sense. The Gerudo were a fairly insular bunch, too, but one of the consequences of living so close together and so on-guard against the rest of the world was that everyone in the tribe knew everybody else's business. There were times when gossip seemed to cross the village faster than teleportation - and that without Koume or Kotake's involvement - and it was generally known that if you wanted to keep a secret, you told no one, or at least no one that could betray it. You dimly recall Ganondorf going for a number of rides as a boy, just for the sake of venting his frustrations where no one but his horse would hear them, and while the young king never sought out a humanoid confidant-
In hindsight, a possible contributing factor to his going off the deep end.
-looking back, you can see how and why another member of the tribe might have chosen to do so.
After all, most people can't talk to their horses and get intelligent conversation back.
Similarly, most Gerudo wouldn't talk to outsiders, who were a mix of potential marks, possible threats, and known enemies - or at least, that was the common perception. But if there was a single outsider was demonstrably not a danger, not worth robbing, and not afraid to lend an ear to one of the fearsome desert bandits... well, who would ever know?
Balthazar is a bit cagey about when, where, and from whom he acquired the information in the Incantus, stating only that it's a mix of personal experience and secondhand or more distant accounts, but all verified or at least strongly-supported by means of divination. It includes a copy of the Song of the Sealed King, a very rough map of the long-fallen Lichtreich, and a timeline of the major events in Yhwach's war against the Shinigami - referred to as "Japanese psychopomps," you note - as well as more detailed accounts from a campaign of extermination about two hundred years ago, when the Shinigami wiped out the majority of the resurgent Quincy population. He's even got a list of names, residences, and phone numbers for Quincy living in and around New York in the modern day, who seem to number in the low double-digits.
It doesn't sound like much, until you consider that Souken only knew of about thirty Quincy and Quincy descendants living in all of Japan, which has a population of more than one hundred and twenty-five million people. Even accounting for the elder Ishida's admission that the number of Quincy in Japan was on the low side compared to some other parts of the world, as well as the fact that he might not have personally known ALL of the Japanese Quincy, finding a dozen members of the bloodline in a population sample of "just" eight million people still skews the curve.
Then again, Karakura's at least as bad. Maybe Quincy just gravitate to areas of major spiritual activity, sort of like how demons are drawn to the Hellmouth? And WOW, that comparison sounds bad even in your head.
In any case, the real gem is that Balthazar has an analysis of Quincy spiritual energies, and has no problem with giving you a copy of the data to compare and contrast with your own findings - though he wants a copy of THAT data in exchange.
Is there anything you'd like to say to Balthazar at this point?
You make a point of asking Balthazar if he knows which Quincy are considered impure. It's not the distinction between Echt and Gemischt Quincy that you're asking about - that was one of the details included in the Incantus - but rather, whether or not he knows which of the New York native Quincy population would be most at risk for the upcoming Auswahlen.
Balthazar admits that he's not sure.
"I've done some business with the families in question over the years, but they were cautious of me to begin with, and only interacted with me through one or two representatives - and once those people had known me long enough to realize that I wasn't aging, they got downright suspicious." He shakes his head. "I had a 'fun' couple of weeks back in the Fifties, convincing them that I wasn't eating souls or sacrificing people to a demon to stave off old age, and while that's long since been cleared up, I've never exactly been on their Christmas card list."
You nod, slowly. High-level magic allows for various methods of life-extension, the nature of which can vary quite widely depending on one's power, training, and resources: necromancers tend to become liches or some other form of high-functioning undead; summoners form pacts with higher (or lower) powers to add years, decades, or centuries to their lifespan; alchemists create clone bodies, elixirs of longevity, or the infamous Philosopher's Stone; and so on.
Whatever the method used to obtain it, an enhanced lifespan always has the drawback of not applying to the people around you, which gives rise to certain... interpersonal issues. As a boy, Ganondorf saw how Koume and Kotake were simultaneously respected by and yet isolated from the rest of the tribe. They had no peers, no close companions, no relatives save one another, and of course the young king himself, and for all that they were an important part of the tribe - the keepers of its wisdom and magic - there was always a certain wariness from others. Some of that was undoubtedly the fact that they were a couple of scary old witches, but some of it wasn't.
It's hard for regular people to understand someone they KNOW has outlived their ancestors and will likely outlive them and their children, much less to trust them or call them friend. Nor is it easy on the other side of the coin, outliving your friends and family again and again, and becoming more misunderstood, envied, and feared by subsequent generations.
You shake off that uneasiness and ask Balthazar if he thinks he can warn his Quincy contacts about the approaching danger. More than that, would they be willing to let you help them?
"I can certainly pass on the message," Balthazar replies, "but whether or not they'll believe me is another question entirely. Like I said, we haven't had that close a relationship, and this warning is kind of coming out of nowhere. That aside, I think I have to point out that the New York Quincy COULD be involved with this 'Wandenreich,' in which case telling them that someone on the outside knows about their big prophecy and is trying to undermine it would be a bad idea."
He's got a point, there. Oh, there are plenty of ways to mitigate that potential risk - investigating the New York Quincy before making contact, using a summoned messenger to make contact, communing with the Goddesses to ask if it's a bad idea or not, and so on - but the point remains that the more Quincy you try to warn about Yhwach's plan, the more likely it becomes that word of your activities will get back to the Wandenreich, and put them on alert. That would, at the very least, make any attempt to storm Silbern and neutralize the Sealed King before he wakes up that much harder, and would rob your other plans of the critical element of complete and utter anonymity they currently enjoy.
There's a part of you that says you should forget about warning the New York Quincy, that the risk of the Wandenreich being alerted to the fact that someone is plotting against them and their king is too great to chance. There are, after all, nearly a thousand Quincy lives on the line in this affair, which is far more than you and Batreaux can possibly hope to save by your own efforts; even bringing Ambrose and Balthazar in as you are isn't likely to make up the difference. No, the best chance that all those people have at surviving is if someone takes out Yhwach before he can drain their powers, and that little voice in the back of your head says that you cannot risk nine hundred and eighty-odd lives for the sake of a mere dozen, especially when you aren't sure whether or not any of the latter will betray you to the Wandenreich.
The rest of you concedes that the little voice has a point about the stakes and security concerns - and then decides that you'll warn the New York Quincy anyway.
Just, not yet.
After all, your course of action is far from finalized. You've identified the main danger and the options at your personal disposal for addressing it, but you're still sorting out what your allies can contribute to the matter, and there's a big chunk of this mess labeled "Soul Society's involvement?" that is out of your hands altogether. Until all of those factors get nailed down, you don't truly have a "plan," per se. More like an objective, a mess of options to throw at it, and good intentions.
You'd probably be better served by having something a LITTLE more concrete when you approach the New York Quincy.
Besides, if you hold off on warning them until your plan is in motion, it won't really make any difference if there are traitors in their ranks or not, because it'll be too late for them to act. Granted, that might also make it too late to convince them you're telling the truth... well, you've got a few weeks to consider this further.
For now, you tell Balthazar that you'd like to hold off on making contact with the New York Quincy, until you have a solid idea of what exactly it is that you'll be offering them, and when it'll be safe to do so.
On that note, you proceed to discuss your existing, tentative plans with Balthazar.
Balthazar doesn't even blink when you mention that Nayru told you that using Spell Immunity and Death Ward would be your best bet of blocking Yhwach's Auswahlen. When you bring up the possibility of using Trap the Soul, however, he does a double-take.
"What was that?"
You explain how you called up Batreaux for advice, and how he - somewhat reluctantly - admitting to knowing the spell in question, and how it struck you that just moving the Kurosakis (and the Ishidas, not that you name them just yet) off of Earth for the duration of Yhwach's purge would probably be the simplest method of protecting them. Particularly since you'd be sending them to Hyrule, where the Goddesses would have free reign to interfere with any attempts to attack their "guests."
Balthazar listens to all this in silence.
"...I'm still getting used to the idea of divinities being that free to intervene on the mortal plane," the elder sorcerer says after a moment. "And that's definitely a use for Trap the Soul that I'd never considered. Too much time spent safeguarding the Grimholt, I suppose."
He seems to be implying that there's a connection between the spell and the relic in question.
Balthazar nods at your words. "My understanding is that they work on similar principles, but I've only ever known the Grimholt to be used as a prison, never for anything so... positive. And before you ask, I wouldn't recommend using the Grimholt to try and save any of the Quincy. I've never been inside of it myself, but all the Morganians I've locked inside of it have reacted as if being captured was... unpleasant."
You see. And from Dave's description of how he accidentally released Horvath, getting out of the thing doesn't seem to be a particularly enjoyable experience, either.
"Horvath was definitely not in the form of a swarm of cockroaches when I trapped him," Balthazar agrees wryly.
Just to be sure, you ask Balthazar if he knows the Spell to Trap the Soul, but he tells you that he doesn't.
"Magic involving the soul falls into the Forbidden Domain of the Merlin Circle," he explains. "It's the most difficult and dangerous field of Merlinean Sorcery, and even Merlin himself never truly mastered it. My own talents in that area are a bit limited."
That's fair. Frustrating in these particular circumstances, but fair.
That said, while he doesn't know Trap the Soul, Balthazar does keep a small supply of reagent-grade gemstones in stock, and he knows a few places where he can acquire others. If you can get him a list of the kind of stones needed to contain the people Batreaux will be casting Trap the Soul on, Balthazar can probably obtain them for you, at least up to a certain level of value.
You make a note to get back to him on that.
Do you have any questions at this point?
You figure you've given Balthazar enough information to work with for a while, and received enough in return - especially those details about Quincy energy signatures - that this would be a good point to put the whole discussion of anti-Auswahlen plans on hold while you both absorb the data. Plus, a glance out the front window of the Arcana Cabana shows that it's now officially after dark: you don't want to be out on the streets at this hour any longer than you absolutely have to; and Balthazar doubtlessly has other things he could be doing, even if those things are merely to close up shop and go to bed.
Speaking of the shop, you ask Balthazar if he's okay with doing a little late business.
"I've been known to keep irregular hours before," he smirks. "What's caught your eye?"
You turn to the shelves of non-magical books, explaining your interests and naming the volumes that caught your eye earlier. Balthazar listens, clarifying a few details as you go.
"Magic of the Smithy" is indeed a book that discusses item-crafting, and if it's limited to metalworking and the enchantment thereof, well, those are skills that are directly applicable to your current project, to say nothing of the long-term prospect of giving Kahlua a complete set of armor. Balthazar does note that it isn't a true introductory work, as it assumes that the reader is either a skilled mundane smith already, or else is working with such a person. You don't fit the first category, and while you could certainly summon up a smith - between Archer and the Gorons, you may already have - you don't have anywhere for them to work their craft. So this book might not be the most useful purchase for you at the moment.
"Weave of Magic" and "Toil and Trouble" are similarly straightforward treatises on producing magical goods, and ones which you'd be able to put to use almost immediately. The former discusses how to imbue magic into various textiles, comparing how different types of fabric take and retain different forms of energy, and how to use patterns in the material to reinforce or disrupt spells; the latter is a book on potion-making, with a decidedly more alchemical bent to the subject matter than its Shakespearean title would suggest.
"Twentieth Century Sorcery, Volumes One Through Nine" looked like an encyclopedia at first glance, and turns out to be exactly that, with each volume compiling the significant supernatural individuals and events over the course of a different decade in the last hundred years. While they do mention various spells and techniques discovered or developed in the relevant period - the Car Spell is in Volume Four, Balthazar tells you - they're extremely light on the details of how to perform them. Not really what you were looking for, then, even if it might make for interesting reading material otherwise.
"Volume Ten not out yet?" you ask.
"I wasn't expecting it to be out until the end of the year, myself, but a friend of a friend at the publishing house tells me it's been 'unavoidably delayed,'" Balthazar replies. His voice shifts on the last two words, as if he were quoting someone. "The company is based in London, and they got hit during Dracula's rampage."
There's not much you can say to that.
"Electrical Enchantments" is a title somewhat more relevant to your interests, as it discusses the interactions between various forms of magic and modern technology, as well as how to combine the two - though only to a limited degree, Balthazar cautions you.
"You won't find anything about 'programming spells,' 'casting over the Internet,' or 'creating digital familiars' in there," he says, with the air of a man who's had to explain this before. "What you will find are things like how to apply a Spell of Light to a fixture, so you can turn it on and off by flicking the switch; how to ward your home's electrical wiring system against magical interference, and how to set up such a system so that it becomes PART of a ward scheme; and for the particularly skilled and technologically-keen electromancer, how to temporarily run home appliances and other devices on magically-generated current. If you do buy that one, be sure to read ALL the warnings BEFORE attempting any of the spells in the book, and keep a fire extinguisher handy."
...well, then.
That seems to be the bulk of what Balthazar has in stock as far as non-magical guides to item-crafting go. He explains that most practitioners dislike sharing proprietary information, to the point where they either refuse to write any of it down - sometimes entrusting it to chosen apprentices, at others taking it to the grave with them - or else commit the knowledge to tomes empowered to keep it out of "unworthy" hands.
heeheehee
Looking at the available selection, what appeals?