"We had them. The plan worked flawlessly. They were cornered like rats, and our mage was burning them out. Then we were attacked from behind. Dozens of large chimeras swarmed us, allowing Ser Presley to slip through. I deemed it too costly to pursue."

"You deemed it?" Vincent asks with scorn, his horse prancing about anxiously as if sensing its rider's tension. "You deemed a few of your mercenary lives were worth the orb?"

"No. I deemed I would not succeed either way and that it would be pointless to throw away useful assets when your allied viscount was supposed to be guarding the entrances. Speaking of, where is he? There's no sign of them, even their corpses. Meaning they never showed up."

"…Yes, I suppose you're right. That is odd. Fret not. I will get to the bottom of this, and punish those who failed me corporeally…Ah, look. A clue arrives." He motions to the rider that he sent to the manor galloping up to them.

"My Princep," the rider says, "I have spoken to the viscount's daughter. She said her father took the entirety of the household guards to the entrance after they were signalled as instructed. She watched them go up the hill and arrive at this ridge. She stopped watching to break fast, but when she looked again ten minutes later, they were gone. She assumed they had just moved out of sight, but when she sent a servant an hour later, they could find neither her father's group nor the one at the alternate entrance."

"Well then, it seems we have a mystery." Vincent spins his horse around to address his mages. "Would you lot kindly divine the Viscount for me." He orders.

The mages all pull out their various tools and work them one at a time, growing more anxious as they do. After several minutes of Vincent staring at them, the lead one finally reports. "Your highness, the Viscount has vanished."

"You mean he somehow countered the divinations of my so-called elite mages?" Vincent asks scornfully.

"No, your highness. I mean there is no longer such a person for our divinations to find. The only two explanations I know of are if a god snatched him up, or, much more likely, the body is no longer in a state that our divinations can recognize as him."

"You're saying that a Viscount and his armed escort were not only killed, but their bodies completely destroyed without trace of even blood in the time it takes for one to have breakfast without anyone noticing?" Vincent scoffs.

"That is one explanation, your highness," the mage says with bowed head.

"And another explanation is that you're all incompetent!" Vincent shouts the last few words and throws something at them, but whatever it is simply bounces off a shield spell.

The mage reacts calmly, not flinching at the impromptu projectile. "That would be much less likely, objectively speaking, your highness. Even a diviner of modest ability should have found sign of being resisted. We're all highly certified diviners. It's not impossible to luck one's way into a certificate, but it is unlikely. The odds of a random selection of seven certified diviners to all be secretly incompetent would be staggeringly low."

"So, you're saying it's my fault for choosing servants poorly?"

"Wha… No, your highness. I merely mean…"

Bart interrupts. "Your highness, they're right. It seems we have a third player."

Vincent glares at him, then rolls his eyes visibly even from here and sighs with a tension cutting smile. "Yes, of course we do. Your Ser Presley couldn't have done this after all."

"Nor I think would if he could."

One of the knights moves out of formation. "Your highness, if I may speak. I think I may know what happened."

"Well spit it out," Vincent says.

"I… This land, it's wrong. I've seen it before…No, forgive me. I cannot bring myself to speak of it unless I am certain. I wish to consult with one of the mages who was there with me." His voice cracks as if under some great duress or remembering a time of one. Vincent waves his hand to grant his request, and the knight pulls one of the mages out of the group for a conference.

"What is it, my old friend? What has distressed you?" The mage asks in a near whisper, but still loud enough for my coin, only a few paces away, to detect.

"Don't you see?" The knight asks, growing more distressed. "Or am I going mad? The way the terrain curves too smoothly. How the grass is half-submerged in patches, or strangely absent in others. How much muddier it is than other parts of the hill, despite the direct sunlight. Does it not remind you of a place? Of a time?"

The mage grows distressed as the knight speaks, turning their horses around to observe their surroundings, growing anxious as they do. "Chance dancing leaves. Can it be?" they whisper, dread in their voice.

The knight sighs, half in relief, half in resignation. "If you see it too, then it is so." He turns to Vincent. "Your highness, I recognize this spell effect."

"What spell effect? There's no sign of a battle." Bart asks.

"The spell's aftermath is subtle, but the effect is not." The knight says, growing more confident in his assessment. "Your highness, three years ago, I partook in the initial conquest of Caethlon. As is well known, near the end of that campaign our forces found a …" 'CRACK-BOOM!'

He's interrupted by my recently learned lightning bolt spell smashing into his face. Fortunately, it seems my guidance spell is capable of guiding the somewhat imprecise bolts, and I was able to hit both the knight and the mage at the same time. I doubt I could have penetrated both of their defences normally, but, empowered as I am, the blue bolt tears apart the shield and armour and leaves them charred on the ground.

"Where in Vanocaur's halls did that come from!?" Vincent shouts, his knights dragging him off his horse into cover and his mages erecting layered area shields around them.

"Manor roof!" Bart shouts, taking cover beside him.

"Blast it!" Vincent shouts in boiling frustration, and his mages comply, sending a volley of fireballs streaming towards my location… Did he mean for that to be an order?

I jump off the roof before they're done chanting, and dive under a cart right before the balls hit. The concussive force of the consecutive detonations shears off the top two floors of the manor, leaving only the base intact and on fire.

There's a good chance that Vincent just wiped out a Viscount's direct line – not exactly a good look for his desired career path.

The last thing I hear through the audio link before cutting it off is Vincent shouting at his chevaliers to find me. It would be advantageous to keep listening in, but the mages should quickly figure out that they're being spied on, and I can't risk them discovering the coin by them inverting the Eye while it's active.

By the time the chevaliers reach the town, I've already left it and gone partway up one of the southern hills. It's a group of four, the two wolf riders and two horses, galloping at full speed. There's another group of riders coming down at a cantor, which seems to be comprised of knights and three of the seven mages.

I watch from above as the chevalier group meets with a group from the town led by a noble woman covered in soot; I would guess the viscount's line survived after. I didn't leave any tokens, but I can hear the tone of the shouting from here. She's obviously furious at the destruction of her home and servants, while the chevaliers are aggressively maintaining a 'we did nothing wrong, there was a threat on the Princep's life' attitude.

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The two groups get tired of arguing rather quickly, and the wolf riders muscle past to try to find my trail. Unfortunately for them, they won't find much. They're no doubt sniffing for ash trails going farther than a villager would, but I'm completely covered in self-cleaning cloth.

The mages, when they arrive, are harder to deal with, if only as a formality. From what I learned about being on the other end of my concealment spell in Count Vithal's research group, I doubt they'd be able to recognize when their divinations homed in on me even if I did nothing. Still, I pull out the rod and do all due diligence countering their efforts, including using my newly acquired illusion spells to create ghostly images of myself at various points miles away.

This is all really unnecessary, as I could easily dispatch any of the search groups after me if they caught up. Still, that might provide Vincent more clues, and I would really rather he didn't have any. In fact, I'm still uncertain if killing those two was the best course. But no matter how many times I play it back, the more I'm certain that they were about to reveal they were in the group that wiped out the Anar cult in Caethlon, and that they've seen the liquifying beam in action.

…I'll need to find some way to destroy the ground where I used it. Something that won't risk accidentally killing Vincent.

The mages report back to Vincent and I deem the need to hear what they're saying to outweigh the risk of my token being discovered. I expect another outburst from him, but he just nods silently at what they say, then calmly starts giving orders.

"Mages, erect whatever barriers you can, using any expenses you need, but let neither rain nor wight disturb this land indefinitely. Chevaliers, two of the horse riders will go to my nearby clients and request more troops to guard the site. Two more will go to the capital and find anyone who remembers fighting in Caethlon with those two." He points to the charred husks. "Bring everyone you can find back here until someone can see what they saw. I'm staying here until reinforcements arrive, then head back to school with a minimal honour guard."

"Your highness, is that wise?" A knight asks. "If they attack again, you could be in danger."

Vincent calmly shakes no. "If whomever made the attack was willing to kill me, they would have done it. Obviously, they're scared of Father. So, I'm staying here to prevent them from attacking indiscriminately to destroy the site. But once we have enough troops, that shouldn't be necessary."

I groan at him doing the exact thing I didn't want him to. I only have another day with the boon and reinforcements will doubtlessly take longer than that to arrive. As I am now, I'm sure I could kill anyone who he leaves behind. After it ends though? Almost certainly not.

I suppose I could try to extend it further, but the diminishing returns have already started making it tricky. I would need to kill at least the whole village to make it last for another day, and the reinforcements may not have arrived by then. So, I would have to kill another village to be sure, maybe more. The Biblio mentions that after a week, each sacrifice grants less time than it takes to make it.

But of course, killing the viscount and making him disappear is one thing. After all, he was engaging in shady military action that I'm sure Vincent does not want to report. But an entire village? Two? More? The residual power from that would likely put me at the level of an elite mage, but the empire has plenty of elites, and some even more powerful casters. There's no way I could survive the hunt that would bring. Not alone at least. No matter how powerful I get, I can't fight another Caethlon by myself in their home territory.

…I may have made a mistake in killing the viscount. I didn't see another way to make sure Ser Terry could escape, but I also didn't look for one. I let the power do my thinking for me. All I needed to do was cause a distraction like I did with Bart, and I wouldn't be in this mess.

Well, it wasn't just the power. I suppose I was also upset that they planned to kill Ser Terry and wanted to punish them.

But what to do? I need to draw them away so I can blast the area, but how? I could attack the village or create sightings for them to pursue. But Vincent seems suddenly too smart for that. Even if I burn the entire village to the ground, he'll realize what I'm doing and stay put, or at least send no more than half his forces.

So, I need to force him away… aw! All I need to do is make the area too dangerous for a reason not tied directly to me. Conveniently, there just so happens to be a source of danger beneath their feet. It'll be a bluffing game, one in which I give up control to gain it. Like a game of chicken* where one driver suddenly drops their reins.

I rush around to the side entrance and find it unguarded. Looking closely, I can see the quality in the ground that gave the use of my spell away to those who knew to look. It's as if the ground was formed out of wax by a grand sculptor and then transmuted back into soil. I burn it all with a firestream, obscuring the quality with cinders, then cast a few lightning bolts to churn up the earth just in case. Vincent likely hears the effort, but won't move from his spot.

Going into the tunnels, I quickly find chimeric bodies. Not yet in a rush, I stoop and do an exploratory dissection, looking for whatever gland produced the Knightkiller serum. Cutting around the mouth, I quickly find it, but accidentally penetrate the first one. No matter, there are others. I mess up the next one too, but successfully extract the glands from the next three. It should be enough. One for experimentation, two to have on hand.

I go back to the second to last chamber where the fighting happened and chase away several chimeras eating the bodies of Bart's mercenaries and reestablish a connection with the pack leader. He's still rather cross with me, but accepts my dominance and moves away as I grab the most intact corpse.

I carry the body to the first entrance, stopping every so often to paint runes of accumulation on structural-looking rocks as I go, using the blood from the body. It's beginning to coagulate, but it's still fresh enough for use. Eventually, I find a rock that I divine to be directly under Vincent's camp. Satisfied with the first part of my plan, I paint one more rune on the wall then rush back to the orb chamber.

I spend about ten minutes studying the symbols on the walls until I'm near certain I can cause a reversal of the attraction effect by erasing one particular symbol. Noting it, I turn around and try to figure out the security array.

First, I place a rune of accumulation on the floor, using the last of the viable blood from the corpse. Then I try to figure out what symbols Carlyle erased. Fortunately, it's rather easy, as they left one of the diagrams they made to figure it out. It's simple. I just recarve the symbol, take a silver coin and melt it in the hole, and the latent magic, well accustomed to the function, forces the enchantment back into operation with the glow suddenly resuming.

Now for the tricky part. I take a ten minute breather to regain my focus and to give the accumulation runes time to work, then I look at the diagram again. It's rather conveniently labelled, with lines drawn between linked symbols and marks to indicate volatility.

I quickly find which symbol will cause the greatest feedback loop when erased, then paint a rune of decay next to it using my own blood. It won't be as potent as lifeblood, but that's actually better since I'm using it as a delay timer.

Now in a rush, I erase the wall symbol which causes a reversal in the chimera luring effect and shout to the pack leader to take them out the second entrance. No reason to waste them if they can hurt the empire, and their best chance to escape will be now.

Then I run back to the first entrance and paint decay runes by each of the accumulation runes I placed earlier. Once I do the last one, I rush back to the second entrance, down the hill and up another one to watch.

About halfway up, the explosion happens. Just a rumble, no rocks being flung into the air, but it knocks several of Vincent's party off their feet. Good, I judged that about right. I was worried that the first blast would be too powerful.

Curious about his response, I activate the listening token.

"What was that?" Vincent shouts.

Bart calmly explains. "We believe there was a security array that Ser Pressley spent considerable effort to disable. Perhaps this third party decided to repair it and then set it off."

"Why?" Vincent asks, but then the second blast shakes them, sending rocks and loose earth down the hill.

"Your highness!" One of the knights says, riding up to him. "We cannot stay here. The entire hill could collapse at any moment."

"It's a bluff!" Vincent shouts. "If they were willing to harm me, they would have…" he's interrupted by the third blast shaking more of his troops from their feet and sending more debris down the hillside.

"They may have forfeited the ability to stop whatever they are doing," Bart says, taking the Princep's reins and staring at him.

Vincent flinches, then nods. "Fine! Retreat! Down the hill! Leave the supplies!" He waits for the troops to line up and march before joining them with his cavalry, though I do note that one of the mages has cast an advanced flight spell on themselves and is hovering behind, ready to grab him off the hill.

Several more blasts hit, sending dust out of the entrance and mud sliding down the slope. I count down until the last one, exulting as the largest landslide yet tumbles down… then curse as I see that only half of the vital area has collapsed.

Sigh, I'll have to do the rest myself.

I cast lightning bolt repeatedly at the remaining area, churning it up to be unrecognizable. Vincent's mages of course send fireballs at me, but I move away each time before they hit. Eventually I'm satisfied and move to the other hill where I have my main stash and make to leave.

I send one last message to the pack leader before I go, giving him instructions on how to best survive the outside world. Just the basics. Attack at night and avoid people dressed in the style of mages and knights. I end with one singular overriding command, "Have fun." Then I cut off the connection and leave with the intention of doing just that.

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