Shadows in the Smoke - 15 - Always the Last to Know

"When it became clear that, if left to their own devices, the King and so-called nobleborn would stamp out the People's power, Niklas Asplund knew that he had to act. He and his supporters moved in secret, arresting the King and many leading nobleborn in the middle of the night. The next morning, in a move that shook the world, Asplund proclaimed the abolition of the Chamber of Nobleborn, the abdication of King Tobin and the foundation of the People's Republic of Itria."

The Struggle for Freedom by Bjarne Midthun

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Velxe was sat at the desk in the room he had been assigned in the People's Palace, taking notes on the discussions he had been having earlier that day. A little tedious, but with every opportunity came chores, and the opportunities here were huge, for those ready to seize them. The Republic was crying out for resources and had plenty to offer in return.

His train of thought was broken when someone started knocking on his door. With a sigh he quickly moved his papers into some semblance of order and called out.

"Come in!"

Work never seemed to stop here, but Velxe could hardly complain. His uncle had honoured him by asking him to be the face of House Rutane on the delegation and the work was interesting, no doubt about that.

He stood and smoothed down his coat, plastering a smile across his face, ready to greet whoever was bothering him.

When Ester pushed the door open and stepped inside his business smile widened into a genuine grin.

"Lady Ester, it is good to see you."

"Lord Velxe," she gave him a vague bow. "I am sorry I have not seen much of you. I hope you are finding your time here productive?"

"Very much so." The Republicans were surprisingly cagey about many things, but far more open to trade than he'd been led to believe. "My uncle will be more than pleased with the results of this trip."

"I am glad to hear that."

She looked worried actually. To be fair, Ester often looked a bit worried, although she did not seem to realise. But today something was clearly bothering her. Velxe gestured to a chair.

"Please, have a seat. Let me get you some tea. Then you can tell me what is bothering you."

As she sat, he fetched a pot of water. Normally he would have had a servant do that, but he only had the one with him here in the Republic and summoning him would just waste time. Anyway, there was something wonderfully illicit feeling about having a girl in his room without a chaperone, even if it did not really count with Ester being a Mage.

Ester got the mulish look she sported when she wanted to argue about something and Velxe half expected her to deny that anything was bothering her, but after a moment she just sighed.

"Did you know about the Republic's war with the Lands of the Dead?"

"You mean before we came here? Not really, no. There were rumours and obviously they would have had skirmishes, as do we, but certainly no more than that. Why do you ask?" Was she thinking of going off and joining their fight or something? Ester was as brave as anyone he had ever met, but surely she would not want to fight with the Empire's mortal enemies.

"Lena, uh, an Arcanist in Nilrava's police told me about it."

Velxe nearly asked her what a police was, but maybe it would be better to let her keep talking. He did not want to look silly after all and he could always find out from someone else later. He put the pot between them and went to fetch cups and tea leaves.

"I see. Would you mind heating the water?"

"Of course." Ester waved a hand casually at the pot and a moment later steam started to rise from it. It was certainly useful having a Mage around at times. "Apparently they are fighting an all out war for survival. Lord Hatami told me it was true. I had no idea though."

She sounded rather more distressed by the fact she had not known about it than the idea of the Republic being at war with the undead.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, as I said, I did not know either. Contact with the Republic was limited until this delegation and Duke Marcni's purge meant we lost all of our contacts in the Republic. So, I only found out about it once we were in Nilrava."

A tiny bit of tension left Ester's shoulders. It made him want to give her a comforting hug. She really should not worry so much about things. Of course he never could, she would bite his head off if he even tried.

"Lord Hatami said that the war was much of the reason why the Empire was making overtures to the Republic. While they are our enemies, the Republicans are far better than the undead and the last thing the Empire wants is for them to be conquered by he Liche-kings."

Now that was interesting. Velxe gave himself a mental kick, he should have thought of that. "Of course." There was more to it than that though, there must be. "We suffer occasional raids from them, but no more than that…" He spoke slowly as he thought things through. "The Empire's own border with the Lands of the Dead is delineated by the Barren Peaks. That keeps our two lands apart because, even for the undead, crossing those mountains is a major endeavour. If the Republic was conquered by the Liche-Kings, then the Lands of the Dead would have no natural barriers with the Empire." That did not bear thinking about. Vass Karan, and his family, would be right on the frontlines.

Ester nodded and took a sip of tea. "I am actually worried for the Republic." She barked out a short, unladylike laugh. "What a strange thought. I have been helping Lena to analyse a magical poison they found on an assassin. It has necromantic aspects to it and it is beyond anything I have ever seen before. Lord Hatami also mentioned that there had been a number of suspicious deaths among Republican officials recently."

"Great Spirits…" No wonder Ester seemed tense. Still, Velxe smiled wryly, trust her to somehow find trouble within days of arriving in Nilrava.

"Why are you smiling?" Ester's nose wrinkled adorably when she frowned.

He thought fast, there was no way he could tell her the truth about why he had smiled. "I think you have just given me the key to why the Republicans are being so much more accommodating than we might have expected. They have no more love for us than we do for them, but think about it. If their war is going badly, they must be desperate for any help they can find. They would be willing to hold their noses and forgive almost any offence because, ultimately, the Empire is still better than the undead." Now the question was, how could he use this knowledge for House Rutane? And the Empire, of course.

Ester chewed over the idea for a few seconds before nodding. "Lord Hatami told me to keep on helping them, so I suppose that is what I will do, although I do not seem to be having much luck." She suddenly brightened up. "On the other hand, it truly is a fascinating challenge. I feel like I am trying to outwit a Master Mage's best work. You see, this poison has all kinds of interesting characteristics…"

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As Ester got going on the technical details of what she had been doing Velxe sat back with a smile to listen. He would probably only understand one word in three, but there was something infectious about her enthusiasm.

Eventually Ester trailed off, suddenly looking a little awkward.

"I am sure you will manage to break whatever defences are in there, you are the cleverest Mage I know after all." He rounded the declaration off with his most winning grin and was pleased to see her fan cheeks darken slightly.

"Do you actually know any other Mages?"

"Oh yes, loads. Well, some." None anywhere near as well as Ester, but no need to say that. "Anyway, if you cannot help them with your brain you could always go and be a Republican Battle Mage." He laughed at the thought, the very idea of Ester joining the Republic was ridiculous. "You know they let female Arcanists fight too."

Ester did not look at all amused, her nose was wrinkling again. "Why would I want to do that?"

Had he just touched a nerve? "Well," he needed to choose his words carefully. The last thing he wanted was to offend her by questioning her loyalty to the Throne. "I was only joking, but I thought given your tendency to end up in unfortunate situations, you would probably be better at killing undead than any of them." There that should do it. Another thought came to him. "Or maybe you could even learn something from some of them. There is one woman that they all seem to talk about, what was her name… Sima? Siga?"

"Sigrid Lindholm."

"Yes, her." Actually it was completely unsurprising that Ester had already heard of the woman. "Apparently she is one of their greatest heroes, a scourge for the undead. I bet the two of you could exchange notes. You might be one of the Empire's foremost experts on the practicalities of fighting undead after all."

Velxe felt some of the tension leave his body as Ester smiled. "I doubt that, but I appreciate your confidence. Now, enough about me, tell me about what you have been doing? Have you fleeced many people for House Rutane yet?"

"Fleeced?!" He gasped in mock outrage. "I will have you know that House Rutane is renowned for its fair dealings!"

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After a pleasant afternoon with Velxe, Ester was left with a few things on her mind. Of course she needed to do her duty to the Empire and the work on the undead poison with Lena was fascinating. Far more of an intellectual challenge than her day to day work in Vass Karan. However, she couldn't take her mind off one thing in particular. That was why she found herself outside Sonja's office after asking Citizen Ina to escort her there.

To her relief, the ageing Arcanist was there to invite her in when Citizen Ina knocked on her door.

"Ester!" She shuffled some papers away and stood with a welcoming smile. "It's nice to see you. How are things going with Lieutenant Enberg?"

"I am not sure," Ester's lips turned down slightly, "the work is fascinating and I'm happy to be able to help fight the undead, but it also feels like we are making little or no progress."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but I have full confidence that your skills in conjunction with Lieutenant Enberg's will find a solution. Now, what can I do for you? Were you thinking about another visit to the tavern?" Ester had to stop herself from wincing at the teasing in Sonja's tone.

"Thank you, but no." The memory of how miserable she'd felt afterwards was enough to make her want to curl into a ball. There'd be no repeating that. "I actually wanted to ask you about the Republic's war with the undead."

"Oh yes? Lena told you about that, did she?" How had Sonja known that? Ester dismissed the thought, she needed to make her request the right way.

"Yes that is correct. Obviously you have my sympathies and support for the war against the Liche-Kings and their disgusting crimes against humanity."

"Thank you."

Ester took a deep breath. "I was wondering, given our mutual enemies, would it be possible to meet some of your… Battle Arcanists? I am not sure what they are called." She nearly stumbled over her words. "What I mean is, I think there might be a great deal of benefit to be had in discussing how the undead can be fought."

"Oh." Sonja scratched her ear. "That is an interesting idea. I would need to speak to a few people." Ester's heart sank. "I don't see why it wouldn't be possible though. I'm sure it would be an educational experience for both sides."

"Really?!" Ester clamped down on her excited exclamation. "I mean, thank you, I am sure that would be mutually beneficial."

Sonja's amused smile didn't help the heat in Ester's cheeks. "Let me see what I can do. We don't have any of the Empire's prejudice against women fighting here." She winked. "Obviously we would need to be a little careful, about security, but in principle I see no reason why not."

"Thank you, Sonja." Ester bowed slightly. "I'm sure we'll all have a lot to learn from each other."

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The next couple of days saw little progress for Ester and Lena in their attempts at working their way around the poison's defences. Whoever had made that splotch of paste must have been a true master of their craft and it was more than frustrating.

Ester sighed deeply and Lena threw her hands into the air as another analytical array's runes blackened and distorted.

"Absolutely nothing. Ice and steam! We're throwing everything at it and we're getting absolutely nowhere." Lena delivered a savage kick to her chair, sending it crashing to the ground.

It was an inappropriate loss of control, but Ester couldn't help but sympathise. "Who could have done this? It seems completely impossible." It was nothing she hadn't said before."

"Fucking necromancers. It's just another disgusting perversion of magic. Nothing special about those bastards, they've just found another way to ruin things."

Ester winced at Lena's language. "You are no doubt right about them, but that cannot be all that there is to it. This is sophisticated. It goes beyond just using different techniques." If it wasn't for the subject material, she'd be relishing the challenge of working it out. "Look," Ester sighed, "I have a few more ideas that we can try. Maybe we will get something out of them."

"Fine." Lena gave herself a shake. "Sorry, I'm just frustrated that we can't seem to solve this. Let's hear it. What are you thinking?"

Ester breathed a sigh of relief at the woman's calmer tone. "The first thing I wanted to try was freezing the magic in place before it can be corrupted. Maybe then we can see at least some results and it might give us a clue on how to get round whatever it is that's ruining our attempts at analysis."

Lena slowly nodded. "That makes sense, but how do you plan to do that? It's not like you can manipulate time or something." She paused. "Can you?"

"No," Ester shook her head. She certainly couldn't and there was no need to talk about Master Tabasi. If only he was here. He'd probably have cracked this poison's secrets within hours. "I was thinking that we could try to make a temporary Schema to do it. Something using disjunction." She spoke slowly as she articulated her thoughts. "If we could use disjunction to disrupt the formation of the analysis, so that all of the magic stops without falling apart, that might work." It wasn't something she'd ever done before, or even heard of, but they needed something new.

Lena gave her a sideways look. "I don't see how that would be possible. Disjunction will just tear the analysis apart before anything can form, it'll do the necromancer's job for them."

"Maybe, but I don't see why it couldn't be modulated. Magic is flexible is it not?" She had no idea if it would actually work, but it was better than swearing and kicking chairs across the room. "Anyway, what is the harm in trying?"

"Well, fine. I think it's a waste of time, but I can't say that I've got any better ideas. What do you want to do?"

"Well, maybe we should work out a temporary Schema for it." Ester slumped slightly. She could already tell this was going to be more difficult than she'd thought. "Let us take the chalkboard and we can start plotting the array."

After perhaps an hour of repeatedly sketching out arrays of runes and then deciding they wouldn't work, Ester's head was starting to hurt. It was tempting to suggest a break, but despite her initial scepticism Lena had thrown herself into the work, making suggestions and pointing out flaws with equal enthusiasm. Her determination was infectious, keeping Ester from throwing her hands up and calling a stop to it.

"Maybe…" Ester trailed off and then pointed to one of the moderating runes. "Maybe if we moved that one so that it connected to…" She trailed off again as someone knocked urgently on the door.

"Come in!" Lena looked up from their chalkboard.

A moment later the door swung open and a young man stepped inside and hurriedly bowed.

"Citizen Lieutenant," he didn't wait for any acknowledgment to speak, "you must come at once there's been another m…"

Lena coughed loudly. "Excuse me, Citizen, I was just speaking to Mage Mazar here."

The man glanced at Ester and his pale cheeks reddened slightly. "My apologies for the interruption. Captain Gondahl has requested your presence to uhh discuss some matters."

Ester frowned at the two of them even as Lena nodded and started putting things away.

"Of course Citizen, please could you find an escort for Mage Mazar here and then I will go with straight away." She turned to Ester. "I'm afraid duty calls and we'll have to cut our session short."

"Oh." Ester glanced at the man and then back at Lena. "I hope it is not serious."

"I doubt it," Lena smiled, "I'm sure we'll be back to this in no time."

"Yes, of course." Ester couldn't help but wonder why they were so obviously lying to her. What had happened?

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