Chapter 10-14 A Cage of Thoughts (I)

Chapter 10-14 A Cage of Thoughts (I)

Zein. What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you trying to expose us to the Guilds?



Hm. Oh. Yes, Cas. What woes do you wish to bleat to me about today?



Listen: I understand you find human life to be nothing more than a joke, but Firmament is considering burning the Column. The numbers are still rolling intwenty-four million dead. Five times that number nulled. What the hells



Calm yourself, boy. The Firmament threatens, but they are toothless all the same. Besides, I did nothing. Point fingers at the Hungers and their slaves if you wish to direct your ire. Besides, our Voider allies will quite like what I have planned.



...What the hells have you done now?

The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

Oh. Just created an opening for us to seize Highflame from the inside.

[Disbelieving laugh] Holy shit. I mean holy shit. All this effort. All this time and thats what youve been planning? Youre scheming to one-up your daughter in a pissing competition over old slights.



Im scheming to ensure the stabilization of the Saintists and thereby the entire situation on Idheim. The feud between me and Veylis is but a bonus. Oh, but that girl needs to learn how to run her house better. Her father will be so very disappointedah. Youre glaring hatefully at me again. Is this because my



Lack of fucking empathy. Yeah. Did you hear the part when I mentioned over a hundred and twenty million people snuffed and nulled? Because your pet rotlick just had to



If this makes your mettle quiver then I suggest you steel yourself, child, for before the desired reality can come to fruition, pillars must break and the fuel that is death must flow.

-Cas eldCanduir and Zein Thousandhand, Ninth Column

10-14

A Cage of Thoughts (I)

We have an hour, Avo said, springing into motion. Instinct propelled him even before his mind had a chance to settle. Zein is distracting the Bloodthanes. Think shes bombing Nu-Scarrowbur. Need to take this chance. Mirrorheads cut off from the Nether. Ignorant. Vulnerable. He paused thereafter, taking in the confused faces and blinking eyes.

Too fast. Zein's little trick had left him with whiplash. More fascinatingly, he could sense a faint volumetric quiver outlining the forms of Draus, Essus, and Chambers. Thousandhand slashed at him with her sword over twenty times. Whatever that did, it connected them, and would keep them protected.

Somehow.

He swallowed a growl. Dealing with the old woman was like trying to chase a nu-cat: The resultant chaos was always on her terms. He needed to start thinking about how to change that. Draus. Need to talk with you first. Need to talk. And then plan attack after.

Her uncertainty shone through her stare. This about whatever Thousandhand just did?

Hard to tell whats not about Thousandhand. Avo paused. He shot a look at Essus and found the father wavering, his eyes scanning about, lost with regard to the situation. Yeah. That was an appropriate response to Zein. But this is about you. She wants something from you now. Not even sure if I should tell youif me telling you is one of her schemes.

Spit straight, Draus said. She turned and leaned against the table, cocking her head up to meet him face-to-face. What I do might kill me, but what I dont know can kill me anyway without earnin my death straight-up.

Draus was a pure creature of simple wants. Perhaps this did fall into Zeins machinations, but it was better that the Regular knew. That way, she could at least possess some choice with regard to her own thoughts. Zein wants you made a Clad.

The Regulars right eye twitched slightly. Her lip curled for an instant. That it?

Wants you to claim Mirrorheads Frame. Make you seem like the one to snuff him for good. Ingratiate you back with the Meritocrats. I think. Use you as an entryway back into Highflame.

A troubled look clouded her expression as she listened to his words. Draus went still. Deathly still. Her heart, however, accelerated, its beats slow rather than sparse. That all she showed you?

Yes. He paused, thinking on his next words. Didnt infuse the paths into me this time. But I think she wants to use you. Blame everything on Mirrorhead to bring down his father. Drive the Chivalrics against each other. And make you a hero. Highflame worthy. Settle their issues before they even begin.

Draus nodded. "Yeah." She ran her tongue along the sides of her cheek. Yeah. That oughta do it. Scoops and medias will eat that shit up. Meritos too, but theyll do anything to stomp the Chivs by this point. Her face darkened. Godsdamned maybe Santanado was one of Zeins? Maybe she planned this all along, had him in place to be the big hero and nows just pivoting because Im what shes got on hand.

Avo didnt know, and he hated it. Zein was playing and looking down from a scope beyond his. That was what he hated most about her: How she left him grasping at shadows, wary of being strung along, in fear of being leashed to her whims.

Dont know if me telling you is part of her plan, Avo said. Took me out. No reason to do it. Unless she could use me to influence you. Plant the seeds in your head. He studied her. Mightve suceeded.

Her face twisted into one of disgust and exhaustion. Avo. Remember what I told you when you offered to burn a Frame into me?

Remembered it made you angry.

She let out a sharp breath. You asked me about limbo. Yeah. Right. I admit it. This is limbo. But I was perfectly fine snuffin half-strands and dyin right and proper in these here Warrens. No need for greater hope. No need for a way back to honor. Me and the Golds? Were never gonna be whole again.

Curiousity spurred his next words. Loathe as he was to admit it, part of him did desire such an outcome for Draus as well. Her ascension would increase her capabilities exponentially, and allow her to apply her skills on a far greater level. It would also alleviate what he thought might be lonesomeness. He was still figuring that one out.

What were you going to do? After we killed Mirrorhead?

Sending more than a few gargoyles scattering from his path, Avo regarded the time in his cog-feed and kept things quick. They still had over fifty minutes to pierce and secure the Conflux megablock thereafter.

Things werent ideal, but that went for everyone else as well, and much of his subversive architecture remained. The greatest task ahead was to disable and defeat Mirrorhead without exposing themselves. If they let the Guilder escape, there was no telling if they would ever see him again, and if their vengeance would ever be granted a proper end.

This was why he kept the Blockcrawler with him. And Chambers. They could get back into the Megablock through the mem-con contaminated area. Despite the Nether being down, proximal infection from cognitive or memetic vectors still remained a danger. At least to your standard enforcer.

For Avo, it presented an opportunity to utilize the new properties imbued in his Heaven.

But that was a thing for later.

Twisting around the back alley of the Second Fortune, he pulled the Blockcrawler out from his Yondergales and deposited it just before the rearmost doors.

Two bioforms approached, grafted guns and chambered spores extending from their shoulders. Reforging his mortal body from the surrounding winds, Avo didnt break stride as he fired his Celerostylus and threaded two tendrils of blood out from his wrist.

As the locus channeled within his ichor struck the bedrock that was their minds, he drove his ghosts through their thoughtstuff and blended their near-term memories into a slurry of madness. Leaving them clutching their heads and moaning with incoherence, Avo extended his Whisper along a scouting thread of blood. A dozen accretions flashed behind the door, approaching him at a steady pace. These ones were better warded than the bioforms. Guests.

He cut his reflexes for now. Time resumed.

Behind him, Kae emerged from below the Blockcrawler an interesting greenish complexion, slightly ill from the turbulent trip. Skittering back over to her using his Echoheads, he caught her before she could fall just as Draus emerged right after.

Shit, consang, Draus muttered. Gotta work on your flyin.

Flyings fine, Avo snapped. He shot Essusstill clinging to the sides of the Blockcrawlera look. Dont let Chambers leave. Kill him if he tries.

The father grimaced, but nodded. Avo wondered if the man could actually commit uncoerced murder, but he also doubted that Chambers was brave enough to make a run for it.

Entering the establishment, the halls and rooms were packed to the brim with people. Most looked to be local Lights Enders with some imps to burn and a cheap place to use them, but there was a not-insubstantial presence of possible street squires as well, hard eyes scanning the crowd.

Avo let Draus lead, slinking behind and playing the role of ignorant bioform as he closed the plates around his head. It wouldnt do to leave an impression here and now.

Draus? A voice called out. Avo turned. Bright-Wealth squeezed along a dozen or so holocoated figures packed near the front entrance of the establishment. She slithered over to them, seeming both surprised but also wary. I thought you all left? Green River said

We need a favor, Draus said, putting a hand on Kaes shoulders and thrusting her towards the snake woman. She needs a place to stay for a couple a days. Nice place. Tell River that if she does this were more than square, that Ill make it up to her after.

Bright-Wealth froze. The suddenness of the request threw her off, but this wasnt the first time Draus gifted her with an assignment. I see. And will you be returning for her afterward?

Kae turned, swallowing as she stared at the Regular and the Ghoul. Well do our damndest. Best anyone can.

Bright-Wealth bowed her head slightly, understanding. Smuggling a glance over at Avo, she slithered past him whispering, Ai, yao-guai. All this your fault? You trip some kind of wire in the Nether and bring everything down?

He glared at her. Why was she

She drifted right along his ear. Green River might have some information about our mutual problem. Find a time to speak with her once you finish whatever the fuck youre doing right now.

He grunted in affirmation. Hows the ma jiang?

Terrible. Losing all the time. She looped back around and gestured for Kae to follow her.

I-I, the Agnos began.

Well come get you after it all gets done, Draus reassured. Avos got some ideas about how to fix that mind of yours. Right, Avo?

Still watching the shadows in the room, he offered Kae a slow but sure nod.

Swallowing, the Agnos took a step away and followed after Bright-Wealth.

Alright, Draus said, shrugging her shoulders as if trying to shed tension of her own, lets go get this run done.

Turning back, they made for the rear entrance again, but mid-step, Avo found himself momentarily stunned.

There, behind the front desk alongside another Sang girl stood a girl he once bought a steamed bun for.

Lucille.

They had stripped the mods from her skin, returning her flesh to a more amber tone. She helped arrange a folder of papers then, and emerged from behind the counter to walk across the crowded room.

Draus noticed her too by this point, halting momentarily to watch the one they saved walk past them. A distant call went up from the other room, the voice pitched high with more than a hint of histrionics.

Lucille, hearing the dreadful bleating of her name, threw back her head.

And laughed.

Im coming. Im coming! Youre going to scare the guests. Muttering her apologies, she slipped past two holocoat-shrouded bodies and disappeared from their sight.

Draus let out a breath. Nice work.

Yeah, Avo said. With honesty, he was surprised as well. He expected more than a little lingering trauma. A longer road to recovery, regardless. But here she was. Still surviving. More than surviving. She was alive.

Walton would have been proud.

Come on, Draus said. Lets get gone. We got a massacre to start.