218 (II)

Gaslight

He looked over the giant boy's shoulder and took in the rest of the group. The other two were clearly related to the first one, probably brothers. One had a stag or a goat or something, and the other one had an eagle tattooed over his eyes. Shifter Clan members too? Adam wondered. I can't tell for sure. I'm not getting any of those animal smells from them, not like with Magnolia.

Speaking of Magnolia, the older woman loomed in the background, her face masked beneath dark shadows of fury. She was like a storm lurking just over the bend of the horizon. And even more than the boys, she was on the verge of doing something violent and stupid.

Of everyone present, Adam understood why she was here the most. Marcus had impregnated her daughter—her daughter who'd died. She also seemed to despise the crippled boy for other reasons. As far as these kinds of disputes went, at least the former seemed like a relatively reasonable justification to hate someone. Adam couldn't fully judge, especially considering his past with Shiv. But he'd never tried to kill him, not even when he was the Omenborn.

Magnolia was a different story altogether. She was inches away from a mental breakdown or an attempted murder.

"She's fragile," Shiv said.

"What?" Adam replied.

"She's not just angry, she's terrified too. I can feel her fear. It's heavy. Be careful around her. She's in worse mental shape than I thought."

The final member of the group stood a few meters away. She held her midriff, and there was a slight bulge there. Adam had a hard time looking at her. The Gate Lord had heard that underage pregnancies were quite common among Low-Tier Pathbearers and the poverty-stricken. But with the life Adam lived, he didn't much associate with those Low-Tier or poverty-stricken.

There were underage pregnancies in the nobility, of course. But those were usually handled by means of quiet delivery, followed by a hush adoption or a deposit to an orphanage. In other cases, an application of Biomancy could see the pregnancy resolved quickly as well. The nobility didn't wish for their bloodlines to be sullied, after all. Especially since a great many of them still believed in such things as genetic dynasties.

But for such unfortunate matters to occur among the nobility meant that either one or both parties were being unwise. Contraceptive enchantments were quite common in the Republic by this point, especially for those of sufficient wealth and privilege. Pair that with the fact that Pathbearers who had too much of a Physicality Tier difference usually had issues copulating successfully, and then bringing a child to term thereafter, you were faced with what most demographers within the Republic called the Descending Slope of High-Tier Fertility.

As the bear-eyed boy let out a final rasp of effort, he reached up, jamming his hand and his fingers against Adam's eye. The Gate Lord turned his face away, and the first flickers of genuine anger crawled up inside of him. But his anger was a calculated thing. It wasn't explosive, and he didn't retaliate as a first resort. These were simple boys, and they were wounded inside.

He was a Gate Lord and a noble of Blackedge, and he had a responsibility as Pathbearer to administer justice and rightful judgment for those weaker than him and those who couldn't protect themselves.

He reached up and used his Hydromancy to pull the boy's hand away. Adam wrapped the bear-eyed student's hand in a dense weave of water magic. "Stop."

The bear-eyed boy growled and tried to strike Adam with his other hand. His fist moved at the speed of a slug crippled by salt after it was stomped on. The Gate Lord tilted his head and sighed. The punch missed. He pinned the bear-eyed boy's other hand as well.

"Bastard!" the eagle-eyed boy cried out. He and the goat-eye joined in, barreling into their brother, trying to add their strength to his and push Adam aside. Adam still didn't move. After all he'd faced over the past months, after the nightmare that was the Umbral Wilderness, the rogue Dragon-Knights, the Recollector, the Tarrasque, and the prison, this was practically a vacation.

A shitty one.

Adam sighed. "That's enough." He slowly turned the first boy's hand, who let out a rasping gasp. He watched as the boy turned his hand into something made of stone, but then the stone crumbled away as he failed to concentrate long enough on his Geomantic spell. Terrible focus, Adam chided internally. Undisciplined, lacking in practice.

Adam started to bend the first boy's left pinky. His eyes were on Magnolia now. "I'm not going to break his finger, but please get him away from me, him and everyone else."

The Master-Tier Shifter lifted her head and observed him quietly. "Who are you?" she asked. "You are no first-year."

"Oh, but I am," Adam replied, scowling internally. He hadn't wanted to play this card, but he really couldn't come up with anything better. "I'm a first-year under special request."

She blinked, then pressed her lips together as she understood what he was saying.

"Under special request" was Republic nobility code for declaring oneself to be of the Inquisition. And now Magnolia was starting to look worried, for in their hunt to avenge themselves on Marcus, they wandered into the den of a beast that was far larger than they.

"Holy shit," Shiv breathed. "Yeah… yeah, I think we can work with this. Why didn't you mention this before?"

"Because people talk, and even hinting that I'm an Inquisition plant might actually draw actual Inquisitorial attention to us," Adam replied, sighing.

"Kareth, Murad, Kenneth, back," Magnolia declared with a grimace. "He's not here."

"But you said—"

"Back!" she barked, and all three boys flinched away from Adam.

Standing in the hall nearby, Adam noticed the large green arm of an ogre. He poked his head beyond the rim of the door, and he saw the green-skinned student looking on, scooping spoonfuls of what smelled like chili from a massive bowl. Adam slowly pulled his head back in.

"That's fine," Shiv said. "He heard you. He's probably going to keep his mouth shut. No one wants the Inquisition on their ass."

"Or he's going to tell everyone," Adam replied.

As all three boys huffed and puffed, Adam regarded them with indifference. Instead, his main focus remained locked to Magnolia and hers to him. "I apologize for interrupting your evening," he said.

"However—" She hesitated, and she didn't leave.

"However?" Adam helped her so that she could continue on with this farce, and they could get this thing concluded. "Keep going. You have something to say, citizen."

"However, we were hunting someone, someone who's done our family a grave wrong. I followed his scent here using—"

"I know what you are, Shifter," Adam cut her off before she could go into a long explanation. "And I know who you're looking for. He's not here right now; he is temporarily in questioning."

Magnolia's mouth fell open. "I do not understand."

"You don't need to," Adam said with all the severity of an inquisitor. "We understand that you have already had an encounter with our suspect, and we don't care for you to have another."

Magnolia's surprise only grew, as did her trepidation.

"Yeah, keep pressing on that," Shiv whispered in the back of Adam's mind. "She's getting pretty scared now. You go down this angle, and maybe you'll be able to make them apprehensive about approaching Marcus for good."

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"What you need to know is that we have a few things to ask Adept Unblood. It does not concern your expedition specifically, but it does have something to do with his quote-unquote miraculous resurrection."

"I didn't smell the taint of Necromancy on him," Magnolia said, trying to seem helpful to Adam.

"Oh, you didn't smell that," Adam replied with a sneer. "How wonderful, how glorious. I suppose that the Inquisition is no longer necessary. Every Risen can be detected by your nose, after all. So what's the point of this?"

"That's not what I meant," Magnolia quickly said, trying to defend herself. "You understand—"

"I understand nothing," Adam said, taking a step forward. Everyone before him stumbled back. "Nothing at all."

"In fact…" The Gate Lord looked each of them over. He hesitated. "In fact what, Shiv? In fact what?"

"Bring them in for questioning."

"What? Where? Inside the room?"

"Yeah. I want to know why they want Marcus dead so bad. It can't just be because he knocked a few people up, right? They're causing a scene right on Academy grounds for this. It's a lot of noise for something that should be handled quietly."

"I don't know, Shiv. These are Shifter clans and Wilderfolk. They treat family honor like nothing else."

"Yeah, alright, alright. Just let's figure this out so that we can try to make it right. Or at least put it to an end."

"Come inside," Inquisitor Adam said. He gestured for them to follow. And this time they didn't. They all lingered outside. The boys seemed petrified. Their faces were pale. Magnolia was frozen to the spot.

Adam looked over his shoulder and scowled.

"You tell them that it's not a request, it's a statement," Shiv suggested.

"Oh," Adam said internally, "that sounds damned vicious. I think I'll use that myself sometimes."

"Yeah, feel free to."

"That's not a request," Adam said with as much venom as he could muster. "That was a statement."

At that, a slight breath of terror escaped Magnolia as she filtered in along with the rest of the group. Quiet sobs came from their rear as the girl tried to keep herself composed. She felt bad. Adam felt bad. They felt bad together. It seemed no matter what they did, someone was going to suffer for it a slight bit today.

"Inquisitor," Magnolia began, waiting for Adam to give her a name. He realized he was quite young looking due to Helix's Biomantic modifications, and so trying to sell the image of a full inquisitor was likely folly.

"Interrogator," Adam corrected. "And that is all you are getting. We are not here to be friends. We are here to discuss why you are so intent on pursuing my suspect. My suspect, who is currently undergoing interrogations at the hands of my colleagues."

"Good," the bear-tattooed boy hissed. "I hope you make him suffer."

Adam eyed him briefly until the boy wilted before his glare and stopped talking. The Gate Lord sat down on his chair and regarded the assembled group with a disdain that only a High-Tier noble could muster. "Well, who wishes to begin their account of grievances? You've already stumbled into my operation, so you're going to be included in the report."

Magnolia trembled.

"If you have nothing to hide and your grievances are valid, then you will have nothing to worry about. We are here to protect you, citizen, from all dangers, including yourselves."

Magnolia's jaw was clenched tight, but the bear-tattooed boy was on the verge of exploding. "It was his fault!" he blurted out. His fists were clenched, and roiling waves of stone crawled across his body. His Geomancy was uncontrolled. He wasn't a well-trained mage, but he was powerful for his age.

Powerful for his age, Adam thought to himself. Who knows if he's actually even younger than me? And what is he compared to me? System… It's like we're not even the same species anymore.

As Adam stared into the rageful eyes of the Brunswick boy, he saw some hardship there, but there was also a softness as well. That was the kind of softness that came with youthful arrogance, with the assumption that they knew enough of the world, and that through will and the strength of their arm, they could chop down any foe.

That softness had died in Adam. Sometime after his engagement with the Dragon-Knights, sometime after the Recollector and that eldritch madness. Both times, he came so close to death that he could practically feel the void pulling at him. When he returned, a part of him was missing, and a part of him had been kissed by the emptiness that waited beyond. Adam would never know that feeling of invincibility again, that assumption he was special, untouchable. That war was a ballad, and he was the hero in the lyrics.

"You think you've been wounded," Adam said, speaking from the heart.

The bear-tattooed boy was surprised. "I—"

"You don't know what lurks beyond, do you? You think the frost giants are the worst of it. You think because you lost a few people that you know pain. Do you know what it's like to watch millions burn? To know that the people you trusted were liars and that everyone you counted on was a fraud, and that someone you assumed to be a monster became your closest ally and friend in dark times?"

The Brunswick boy said nothing. Neither did Shiv.

Adam shook his head. "It's beyond you. You don't understand. But you can help me understand. Why was it all his fault?" The Gate Lord gestured at the girl behind the group. "Is she his fault?"

"No, she's my sister, Caradah. She was deceived. She was seduced and impregnated by a vermin! A lout!"

"Is that it?" Adam said, sounding utterly bored with the whole matter.

"It's not just that. It's not just what he did to her and Opal. They… It was wrong. It was beyond wrong."

And suddenly, Adam stilled. He leaned in. "Was any of it unwilling?" he asked, voice low.

"I—" the bear-tattooed boy began.

"No!" the girl cried out. "It was—it was not—I just thought—I thought he cared." She touched her abdomen harder, and her eyes grew misty. Brown eyes. Too soft. Too young. Too hurt.

Adam looked away. And he thought of Isabella. His own insides grew twisted with grief at the thought of her. He didn't even know if she was still—he didn't know where she was and what he would say to her once they met again, if they met again. After what her father had done, after the Ascendants had left Blackedge. What was there to say? Too much.

"So, he's simply avoiding responsibility, is that it?" Adam continued.

"It's not just avoiding responsibility! He's the reason we got attacked by the Jotun!" The bear-tattooed boy looked aside and barely bit back a cry of rage. "We think he planned it."

"Planned it?" Adam leaned in again. Now he was genuinely interested. "You think that Marcus Unblood planned your ambush at the hands of the Jotun?"

"I know he did," the boy seethed. "How else would they have known we were on that path? How else could Master Magnolia be caught in one of their traps? Master Magnolia, she's... Her... She can sense anything. Her senses are so sharp."

Now Adam was looking at Magnolia, but she wasn't looking at him. No. Her gaze fell downward. Despondent. Miserable.

"I think I know what this is," Shiv said, sounding a bit dour himself. "I think she genuinely screwed up, got some of these kids killed. But then she probably found out that her daughter was pregnant after she died, and she found out Marcus was probably the father afterward too. Now Marcus is suddenly back and alive. The other girl was also attached to him by pregnancy. The boys probably hate him already because of that. He was already Cursed, so probably ostracized from the village, and the easier story to stomach is the story that the freak among you who already impregnated two girls, cheated on both of them, was also the reason so many of the expedition died."

Adam was inclined to agree, though he wasn't entirely certain yet. There were still many pieces missing, but the Deathless had an intuition about people sometimes, and a cruel insight.

"Won't call it cruel, it's just everyone I use my Psychology on is practically an enemy."

"Your Psychology was born from orcs," Adam replied.

That made Shiv noticeably wince. "Yeah, it was."

"It might not be a bad thing right now. I have a feeling that this situation is just as bleak and ugly as it seems. Gods. What a mess. Shoved right into our faces. Fucking System."

"Fucking system," Shiv agreed.

The Gate Lord didn't press. He let Magnolia have her dignity. "But you have no evidence."

"I—I—" The bear-eyed boy sputtered as he tried to master his anger.

"He was Cursed, Master-Interrogator," the other boy with the eagle tattoo over his eye said. "Cursed by the Ascendants themselves. Surely that is a sign of the foulness in his soul."

"I didn't ask you for a theology lesson. I asked you if you had evidence that he led the Jotun to attack you. That would be grounds for something else," Adam grunted. "If you do not, then how do you wish for me to conduct this?"

"You can put him to the question," the eagle boy continued. "Break him, and the truth will follow."

"And what do you think is happening right now? And how much do you think a boy with potential brain damage can break? You have to take that into account as well. He's been without oxygen for some time. Actually, what am I doing? All of you out. All of you except for her and her." Adam gestured toward Magnolia and Caradah, as Shiv instructed.

The boys looked uncertain and even willing to fight. There was a doubt in their body language. They knew they couldn't beat Adam, but even so, they didn't want to abandon their sister or their master.

"Leave," Magnolia said softly. "For now, just leave. Wait outside, please." It looked like she had aged a decade, and she was utterly worn. Caradah, meanwhile, was shivering as if the room had dropped a good 30 degrees.

The retreat of the three boys was as slow as it was awkward, and as they got to the hallway again, they all looked back. They waited outside attentively, like hounds told to sit and linger by their masters.

The door was shut by Magnolia, and she whispered something to them, just before she closed it entirely. When she turned, she faced Adam once more, and there she stood, reluctant to approach him, fearful of what might follow.

"I want you to look me in the eye," Adam said, pointing to his eye, "and tell me that it was his fault, and not yours. Tell me Marcus Unblood caused the Jotun attack, and not your carelessness and inability. Tell me Marcus Unblood is at fault for your daughter's demise, and not you."

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