MiP B2 Chapter 23: Pulling At Strings

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Carlos paid very little attention to his surroundings, or even his actions, during the move. He mechanically packed up his tent, which was a rather abbreviated job with the auto-packing enchantment on it, took his seat on Esmorana's flying transport, and set up in the new Level 17 campsite, and almost didn't even remember any of it. He was too absorbed in thinking about his new discovery and what to do with it.

We brainstormed, discussed, and agreed on a list of 12 soul structures for each theme, with the last one being a bit tentative. We didn't consider that 13 might be possible. So, what do we add? For the soul theme, since that's what we're finishing up right now… He chewed his lip. We got the analyzer enchantment to stop detecting our current soul disguise, but I don't know if that's actually the top end of what we might have to fool. Who knows how good Crown Mage Felton's personal senses are? The one potential giveaway that we know of is how hard and inflexible the really big superstructures are, so maybe something to make our souls and their contents more flexible? Can I make the synergies on that work?

Carlos reviewed the list. A lot of these automatically have synergy with everything. For the rest… Soul disguiser and soul scan falsifier are trivially obvious; the reason I came up with the idea for a soul flexibilizer in the first place is to improve the disguises and falsifications. Soul hardener synergy… Hmm. That one's meant to make our souls more resilient, and in particular resistant to erosion, such as from too-powerful aether. A saying about bending rather than breaking comes to mind, though. Hardness and flexibility are both improvements to resilience, and I think I can make that work for synergy.

That leaves the soul decoy defense; essentially the same kind of thing we made to neutralize the Black Blades' sleep spell, but more capable and properly prepared instead of jury-rigged on the spot. It will protect against hostile attempts to attack or influence our souls by presenting a fake for the attack to hit without affecting anything that actually matters. Carlos considered briefly, then nodded. Yes, the ability to make things more flexible should be applicable for improving the decoy. And that's the last synergy in the group, so it'll work for the 13th structure.

Now for the final step before actually making it: Discussing this with Amber.

___

Amber enthusiastically embraced the idea of making their soul disguises even more impenetrable, of course, almost to the point of ignoring the discovery of being able to add a 13th structure. Carlos insisted on rechecking the analyzer's report after each addition beyond 10. With the soul flexibilizer finished, the magnitude of the difference turned out to finally be enough to convince the analyzer that the superstructure wasn't tier 9 anymore, but its report seemed confused by the readings. "One 'unified structure' at tier 10, and the other at tier 10 with a question mark?" Carlos laughed. "I can just imagine the designer of this thing, trying to think of how best to handle results he thought were impossible."

At 12 component structures, making a tier 12 superstructure, the analysis changed to something more interesting, warning about an anomaly and that the reading of a "tier 11+?" structure could be spurious or artificial. When they finished the final one to max out the soul-themed superstructure at tier 13, they got a surprise.

***
Adult royal soul, in development.
Level: 17.
Second stage, advanced.
Unified structures: Royal tier, tier 10.
Basic structures: 8
Archetype probabilities: Mage 92%, Mystic 8%.
***

Carlos saw the listing of "Royal tier," exchanged a wide-eyed look with Amber, and without a word, both of them disguised their souls as the mere tier 10 and tier 9 that would be expected of them.

Amber double-checked and triple-checked that their disguise was holding fully, then took a deep breath and considered the next item on their todo list. [Carlos, are we really ready to try building a whole pre-merged superstructure, especially one at, apparently, "Royal tier"? We can't make that many parallel minds at once yet, and I don't think making the component structures 3 at a time would work; not without having essence so potent that 3 would be enough to merge. I agree that going ahead with it makes sense, since the highest-tier structure is the bottleneck on leveling up anyway, but I don't know if we can.]

Carlos grinned. [That is what the mental context switcher and storage structures are for. Let me tell you about how computers handle multitasking. It's called multithreading.]

___

Half an hour later, a thread of Amber's mind contemplated how her current activities felt. Her 3 minds - or her 2 other minds at the moment - were each focusing on a different component of the superstructure she was building, continuing for just 1 second, then switching to another. Instantly and seamlessly, each mind would go from focusing on one concept, with the very existence of anything else not even remotely on her mind, to focusing on a different concept and feeling as though she'd been focusing on that new concept all along. Then 1 second later, each mind would switch again.

She'd gotten used to having simultaneous memories from different minds already, but this was even stranger than that. Her memories of working this way felt both fragmented and completely continuous at the same time, despite how contradictory that seemed. The weirdness was further magnified by the fact that she knew that, most of the times that a mind picked up a mental context to further its work, it was a different mind from the one that had last held that mental context. Her "threads," as Carlos called them, were getting constantly shuffled around from mind, to storage, to different mind in a repeating rotation.

Amber shook her head and mentally shrugged. As strange as it is, I can make sense of it in my memories by grouping the memories of each thread into its own cohesive sequence. Perhaps more importantly, it's working. Spreading the development so evenly is building up cohesion for the whole assemblage strongly enough to prevent it from tearing itself apart. Each component is being built at effectively only about a quarter of the normal speed, but touching them up with another 1 second of progress so frequently is preventing any decay from the 3 seconds interval of neglect.

She considered how it was proceeding for a moment longer. As interesting as the process is to think about and analyze, I should let this thread stop so I can keep all 3 minds on the task. It will take until past midnight to finish, best not to prolong that even more.

___

Far away in the border city of Lasoth, Captain Granlan lounged with his feet up on a table and his hat pulled over his face. He rolled his right shoulder a little, trying to get more comfortable while he continued unobtrusively listening to the common tavern's chatter. He almost snorted at the thought of the image he was presenting. Captain Granlan, leader of the infamous Black Blades mercenary company, master of lightning, premier deniable asset of high nobility… napping in a cheap tavern's common room like a homeless peasant drunkard.

Of course, that's nothing compared to High Heir Loralia Briston two tables over from me, masquerading as a common adventurer with her party of hired guards. He held back a laugh. Pretending to be poor adventurers, no less. She's a lot more thorough about disguising her nobility than most. Too bad for her, she couldn't quite hide that habitual swagger and disdain for her lessers that so many nobles have. Now if only the Crown would stop waiting. Just keeping an eye on her is boring as hell.

Hours later, long after Loralia retired to her rented room for the evening, a familiar voice spoke in Granlan's ear. "Captain Granlan, report."

He shifted to rest on his side, his face toward the wall, and cupped a hand over his mouth. "Nothing significant. We got another small job offer yesterday, told our mystery supplier, and they didn't respond. Are you still sure you don't want to create a more interesting job to lure them out? Or trace the message sent to them?"

"Princess Lornera's directive stands unchanged. We will take no unnecessary risk of discovery by our quarry's unknown advanced capabilities, and haste in this matter is not necessary. Confirm your compliance."

Granlan mentally shrugged. "Confirmed. Anything else?"

"Confirmation acknowledged. New orders for you on the other matter. We have confirmed the presence of Loralia Briston in Lasoth, as you reported. Continue tracking her. An incognito royal guard will rendezvous with you tomorrow morning. Follow the guard's orders."

"Where will I meet up with this guard?"

"We can track your precise location. He will come to you. Make sure you can lead him to Loralia."

Granlan nodded. "Got it. Everything all tied up on the other other matter? My bad client?"

The voice, always firm, turned downright cold. "High House Tostral will be taught their lesson in due time. Your part in that is done."

"Understood. If that's all, Granlan out."

___

The next day, Loralia Briston was briskly journeying through the Wilds, impatient to finally get to an area with dense enough ambient mana for her to absorb. Every step moved her a dozen yards, thanks to her enchanted boots, and every bush or vine in her path conveniently leaned aside to clear her way as she approached. It's unfortunate that enchantment can't handle things the size of actual trees. Or people. Though yes, I'd have to not use that in town while I'm disguised anyway. She rolled her eyes, remembering the lengthy lesson on blending in that she'd had to learn before she left home. Out here, on the other hand, there's no one to see me but my guards. Now, how much longer until we get there? She squinted up at the sun. Isn't it about noon? Should be any minute now, then.

Suddenly, an unfamiliar man in gleaming full plate armor was directly in front of her, and she jerked to a stop. "What the hell? Who-?"

Loralia's angry question was cut off by a flare of gold-orange light that bracketed the man on either side. Her eyes adjusted in a few moments, and the flare resolved into a pair of beautifully detailed translucent wings, stretched wide as though for flight. She glanced from one orichalcum-colored wing illusion to the other, and felt her eyes widen and the blood drain from her face. Her instinctive utterance was quiet, but heartfelt. "Oh. Shit."

The armored man's expression was hidden by his helmet, but his firm declaration fell upon Loralia with pitiless finality. "Loralia Briston, heir of High House Briston. By order of the Crown, you are under arrest for trespassing on Wilds outside of your jurisdiction and for suspected conspiracy to commit treason. If you surrender and cooperate, you will not be harmed until your degree of guilt is determined and the Crown has decided your sentence."

Stunned and almost numb with shock, Loralia slowly dropped to her knees.

___

Over a hundred miles away, in another part of the Wilds, another flare of light announced the presence of another royal guard, in her role as deliverer of a Crown decree.

"Pol Kettet, 4th scion of High House Kettet. By order of the Crown, you are under arrest for trespassing on Wilds outside of your jurisdiction and for suspected conspiracy to commit treason. If you cooperate, you will not be harmed until the Crown decides your sentence."

___

In the frontier city of Torin, in one of the city's most expensive inns, the front door slammed open, and an image of orichalcum-colored wings flared into existence. The crowd of people eating lunch stared in surprised confusion.

"Barla Vonmil, 2nd scion of House Vonmil. By order of the Crown, you are under arrest for trespassing on Wilds outside of your jurisdiction and for suspected conspiracy to commit treason. If you cooperate, the Crown may show you mercy."

The crowd's confusion about who the royal guard was addressing gradually faded as a fearfully shaking young woman stood from her table, knelt, and bowed her head.

___

Across the kingdom of Kalor, the same scene repeated dozens upon dozens of times. Meanwhile in the private chambers of the royal family, Princess Lornera paced back and forth restlessly. "Have I… done the right thing, father?"

King Elston Kalor, watching calmly from a chair made entirely of mythril with incredibly detailed engravings covering every surface, raised an eyebrow and smiled. "You have done a thing that you have the right to do, my child. What the consequences will be remains to be seen, but you are a true scion of Kalor. I have no doubt you will be up to the task."

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