031.003

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Astral Authority

Investigations

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“Message. Brakkt. Three guards at the south east city gate are dead. It looks like they slit their own throats.”

Alyssa would have misjudged the situation completely if it weren’t for one of them still gripping a bloodied dagger. Perhaps he had been trying to fight off an assailant, but it didn’t really look like that. Alyssa was not a forensic expert. She couldn’t even consider herself a forensic novice. But when a man slumped up against a wall had the tip of his dagger pointed at him and a blood trail leading from his throat to the dagger, it was hard to come up with other possibilities.

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…

“Message. Lisa Sharif Meadows. I hope you’re already at the blacksmith. If you aren’t, find somewhere safe and hunker down. Some guards were murdered.”

“Message. Ozheim,” Alyssa said as she pulled out a dozen more Message cards. She started sending warning after warning, making sure that as many people as possible knew. From Kasita and Tzheitza to Oxart and Trik. Even, somewhat begrudgingly, to Decorous. A group of guards murdered at the gate was bad news for just about everyone. The only people Alyssa could think of who might do such a thing were the Juno Federation and the Society of the Burning Shadow. She hadn’t forgotten her experience with the Shadow Assassins. They could easily have done this.

Though the why was a big question. Shadow Assassins could slip over the wall without making a fuss. In fact, Alyssa didn’t think the wall was anything too special. With a little bit of effort, most anyone could get past it without being noticed. With some magic, Alyssa could jump over. Draken could jump over as well. It wasn’t like there was barbed wire at the top, so simply climbing over a section would work easily. And with the city guard bleeding members because of the protests, there were probably plenty of places someone without invisibility could get over without being seen.

Whoever had done this was either stupid, a possibility she shouldn’t dismiss easily, or had something to move through the gate that couldn’t easily move over the walls. A horse-drawn cart full of illegal goods, or something similar. Which could mean that this wasn’t the Juno Federation, but some illegal organization. A gang like Waters Street.

As soon as she had finished sending her Messages out, Alyssa turned a glare on a certain feathered person.

“I can’t believe you won’t tell me what happened. I thought we were allies.”

“That’s not what I meant. I don’t know what happened. I don’t have Tenebrael’s book. You know how troublesome it makes trying to collect souls? I have to react rather than act.”

“Isn’t that all you do anyway? I don’t think I’ve seen an angel pop up before someone died.”

“What’s the phrase? It puts pressure on me? Not literally of course,” she said with a half-chuckle. “But I do miss knowing what I’m supposed to be doing.”

“You like being told what to do without having to think about it.”

“Exactly!” Iosefael said with a bright smile, not at all noticing Alyssa’s frown.

“Who is taking over your job on Earth anyway? Or are you jumping back and forth?”

“There was this short little Archangel who wanted to try her hand at being a Principality. Said she was friends with Tenebrael.”

“Kenziel?”

“Oh? It’s— I’ve wanted to say this one for a while and I think this is a perfect opportunity,” she explained with a pleased grin. “It’s a small world after all! You know Kenziel?”

“I wouldn’t go that far…” Alyssa shook her head. Which had a side effect of bringing her back to reality. There were dead bodies around. Iosefael had already taken their souls. She had been planning on sticking around until someone came by. More guards or Brakkt. Someone. But… No one had messaged her back yet. How long had it been since her Message to Brakkt? Or her first Message to Trik about Fela?

“Is there magic that blocks Messages?”

“Can’t answer that,” Iosefael said with a small sigh.

“Can’t or won’t?”

“I don’t know how Tene has her… magic set up. It isn’t natural. Humans shouldn’t have the ability to do the things they do in this world. Not without something like what you and Tene share.”

“Great…” With the amount of Messages Alyssa had sent out, not receiving even a single one in return had to mean something was up. Something besides three corpses.

Pulling out her phone, she sent off two quick texts. The first went to Jason, informing him of the situation and telling him to stay put. The second went to Chris. His inn wasn’t too far from the central garrison building. He didn’t need to get inside, but if he could inform someone that there had been murders at the gate and that Messages were being blocked, it would help a lot.

Both responded almost immediately. Chris was on his way to the garrison. Jason and Lisa were both down at the blacksmith. Safe. For now. That let her sigh in relief. She was tempted to rush down there, but…

“Izsha. Have you found anything?”

The draken had taken to smelling the ground around the crime scene. Unfortunately, Izsha turned back and shook its head in the negative. Without being able to properly communicate, she didn’t know exactly why Izsha hadn’t been able to find anything, but she had guesses. This gate was likely the least used gate in the entire city. Merchants traveling in and out of Lyria used it as well as anyone heading to the river to fish or visit the blacksmith. But there wasn’t much in the way of farmland immediately outside. Even without a few hundred farmers going in and out, there were still enough people, enough different scents, that it wouldn’t be easy to identify something suspicious among all that.

Alyssa had been hoping for something. Iosefael had only arrived a moment ago. The deaths had only occurred a minute before that. Whatever caused it had to have been fresh, but…

“Nothing, huh?”

Izsha shook its head again.

“I wanted to talk to you more,” Alyssa said to her angelic companion. “I saw a Kindness today.”

“Y-You did? What happened?”

“Tenebrael killed it.”

Iosefael perked up, eyes illuminated in the darkness. “She came out of hiding?”

“No. Her statue fired a laser beam at it.”

“Oh.”

“Unfortunately, with all this,” Alyssa said, waving a hand around the gate, “I don’t know that I have time to talk. Unless you can stop time? Tenebrael did that on occasion.”

“That’s not something I can do,” Iosefael said. Her wings slumped in disappointment as she spoke. “I’m just a Principality.”

The very first time Alyssa had met Iosefael, the angel had failed to send her back to Earth several times. Alyssa distinctly remembered thinking that the angel was useless back then.

And that thought hasn’t changed.

“Hmm…” Alyssa glanced down at her own hand, thinking. But, despite the urge, she shook her head. It would have been convenient. She would have had all the time to do whatever, whether that be finding out who did this, checking in on her mother, or just grabbing a snack from an inn. Yet it almost certainly would have drawn more of the Astral Authority. Not to mention the fact that messing with the fundamental forces of the universe was probably not a good idea… without supervision.

She had seen every episode of the original Twilight Zone. Messing with time without the guarantee of being able to fix it again was bound to go poorly.

Clenching her fist, Alyssa looked back up to Iosefael. “Has anyone else died a violent death in the city tonight?”

“Not so far,” Iosefael said, looking around. “But two people did just die on the other side of the world. Probably not related, but…”

“But you have to go.” Useless though she was, Iosefael was an angel. She was about the only person around that Alyssa could actually speak with regarding divine matters. “Come back when you get a moment or two. I want to know what the likely response of the Astral Authority will be, among many other things.”

“The problem with not having a book is not knowing when I’ll have time between deaths,” Iosefael said with an extended sigh. “But I’ll see what I can do.”

With a wave of her golden-gloved hand, Iosefael vanished into a flurry of feathers.

“Do they really have to molt so much,” Alyssa grumbled, waving a hand back and forth in front of her face. It was always irritating to stand so close to a disappearing angel. “Alright,” she said as she turned to address Izsha. “Chris is headed for Oxart. Knowing how she reacted when the trolls attacked, she’ll likely send out riders to check other gates and to alert everyone who needs alerting. And she’ll know who those people are better than me. So what do we do?”

As she spoke, she couldn’t help but glance off toward the smithy. It was clearly occupied. The forge belched black smoke at regular intervals. Even looking through her binoculars with Unseen Sight active, she didn’t see anything to be concerned about. As long as they were down there and whoever had done the killing was inside the city, they should be safe. That didn’t stop her from wanting to check in on them.

She perked up as she realized that she had the perfect excuse.

“They might have seen something.” They couldn’t have passed through the gate long before the guards had been murdered. Whoever had done it might have been coming up the path as they were leaving.

Whoever had done it was lucky that they hadn’t gotten her mother caught up in the killing. A flash of pure hate ran through her body as she realized just how close her mother had been. She couldn’t say what she would have done, but…

My fingernails are black, Alyssa noted with surprise. She took in a deep breath. After holding it for a count of three, she slowly let it back out. With the exhale, the color of her fingernails returned to their usual, unpainted state.

“Come on,” she said, hopping into Izsha’s saddle. “Let’s go see if they noticed anyone coming up to the gate. Maybe we’ll have a description for when Oxart’s people arrive.”

Izsha didn’t disagree. Together, they took off, flying across the path that led straight to the blacksmith. What would normally have taken ten to fifteen minutes to walk passed underneath them in an instant.

The building had larger doors than most houses. Perhaps to move larger projects in and out of the building. They were definitely large enough for Izsha to fit in. Alyssa almost went and pulled them right open, but she hesitated.

Having warned her mother that there was trouble afoot, she had a slight worry that she would walk in to find herself riddled with holes. Her mother, to the best of her knowledge, hadn’t ever been a shoot first kind of person. But this was a whole different world. It operated under different rules. And her mother was good at adapting.

So Alyssa paused outside, sent a text to Jason letting him know that a draken and a human were about to enter, and waited for a response.

Apparently, Guillem had traps in her workshop. It took a moment for her to disable them.

So it was a really good thing that Alyssa hadn’t barged in.

The door creaked open, just a thin little crack. Enough to see an elvish eye staring back at her. “Huh. I do recognize you. Barely.”

“What?”

Alyssa jerked back as the door slammed in her face. She glanced toward Izsha and got the draken equivalent of a shrug in return.

A heavy-sounding latch moved on the other side of the door. Once again, it creaked open, this time far wider.

“Welcome! Welcome!” the elf said as she moved out of the way. “Or should I say welcome back?”

Ugh. Alyssa had only met the elf once. It had been a fairly memorable visit. Mostly because of how the elf acted. Frankly, she was just a little too overactive to mesh well with Alyssa’s personality, but… well, if she was keeping people safe, then Alyssa wouldn’t complain too much.

Speaking of keeping people safe, Alyssa felt her muscles relax upon seeing her mother in the workshop. Everything was fine. No assassins, shadow or otherwise, had attacked. And her initial worry of the Astral Authority fluttering about seemed unfounded as well. Given that it had taken them two weeks to locate a giant portal next to the giant statue of Tenebrael, Alyssa doubted that they were truly investigating mortal affairs. At least, they hadn’t been. Now that they were, they might spend some more time around humans and Teneville in particular in an attempt to locate Tenebrael.

Alyssa could only hope that they would wait until the current crisis was over before they started causing trouble.

Speaking of the current crisis…

Lisa was toward the back of the room and she did indeed have her pistol out. Though her finger was nowhere near the trigger. It was good that she had taken the threat seriously, but… “I did tell you about Projectile Reflection, right?”

“You said it was a relatively rarely used spell because of its limited applications.”

“But one of its applications is deflecting bullets. And the kind of people who might target us are also the kind of people who will know what guns are. Especially if this is the Juno Federation.”

“Then why carry a pistol yourself? Why offer one to Kasita?”

“First of all, Kasita can’t be hurt by a gun. A reflected shot is more likely to hit the people behind her. Which I definitely warned her about. Secondly, I’m just saying that you do need to be discerning in your targets.”

“Of course.”

“Good.” Alyssa nodded.

Noticing Guillem paying rapt attention to the conversation, Lisa holstered her pistol, turning to the side to keep it mostly out of sight. Did that mean that she had only drawn it when Guillem went up to open the door? The text messages could be trusted. Even if someone else got their hands on someone’s phone, no one in this world except Kasita and maybe Irulon knew how to send text messages. Then again, if that prudence kept her safe, Alyssa really shouldn’t complain.

More importantly…

“Did you see anything?” Alyssa asked, looking between her mother and Jason. “Those men were killed only a minute after you passed by. Even if you only saw cloaks or horse colors or anything, it might help the city guard identify them sooner.”

Even Guillem might have seen something if she had been looking outside her workshop at the time. It was a bit of a distance to see without binoculars, but Alyssa wouldn’t put it past the elf to have invented a telescope. Just looking around the workshop, Alyssa could tell that she had been hard at work on Jason’s farm tractor. There were three little models roughly the size of remote control cars. Two were in motion. They sat on a pedestal placed under the main body to keep the wheels from touching the ground. Alyssa didn’t notice a difference between the two, but the wheels of one were spinning far faster than the other.

The third model was leaking all over the place.

“There was a cart headed toward the gate when we left,” Jason said, nodding his head. “I think there was only one person with the cart? Someone sitting at the reins of the horses.” He had sounded certain about the existence of a cart. His voice was far less certain about a possible rider.

Alyssa glanced to her mother, hoping for confirmation.

Lisa had her brows furrowed, deep in thought. Slowly, she started nodding. “It was a covered cart. Like Oregon Trail wagons. There could have been more inside.”

That just made the contents more suspicious. While she had seen a few carts with tarps thrown over top, they were few and far between. To have one roll up to the city gate right as the guards were murdered… What would be inside? Monsters? There was almost certainly a Shadow Assassin. Oz and his party had destroyed the fairy oasis and she and Irulon had destroyed the outpost, but perhaps the Juno Federation had a few locked up in other locations.

Alyssa doubted that they would try failed tactics again. The gaunt and the shadow assassins could have accomplished more and would probably be a valid threat a second time. Especially the gaunt. If not for Alyssa and her overcharged Spectral Chains, that one could have been particularly bad. But a gaunt was far from the only scary thing out there. Alyssa had heard mentions, mostly from Oz, about things whose names sounded terrifying, let alone what they actually did. Mind flayers, shadowlurkers, gardens of eyes, and whatever a deep accursed was supposed to be.

And what if it was something other than monsters?

Working for Tzheitza had given her a fairly intimate knowledge of just what potions could accomplish. From fumes that would put people to sleep to incendiaries as strong as thermite, there were definitely some dangerous things that could be hidden away in a large cart. No direct bombs, however. Nothing Tzheitza made had an explosive element to it. Dragonsfire would bathe an area in extremely hot flames, but it wouldn’t apply the concussive force needed to topple buildings.

That wasn’t to say that such devices, magical or otherwise, didn’t exist. But even without them, damage could still be severe.

Alyssa typed out the description of the cart and… “Do you remember the horse colors?”

“There were two. Both brown, I think?” Jason said, looking to Lisa for confirmation. She nodded an agreement.

With the colors in the text, Alyssa sent it off to Chris. Brown horses were basically every horse in the city, but hopefully there wouldn’t be that many covered carts with two brown horses. The real worry was whether or not Oxart and the guard as a whole had enough people to search. If the cart was just headed straight to a high priority target, it might be easier. The garrison, noble manors, the palace, and the Observatorium were the most obvious targets that Alyssa could think of, but if it was a bomb or worse, poison, they might try to get to the aqueducts or some other vital infrastructure. However, if the cart was headed to some secret chambers underground to wait for a later attack, it would be significantly harder to locate quickly.

“Alright. If you think of anything else useful, text me.”

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Izsha and I can make our way around the city much faster than most others. Messages are blocked, but phones work. With the phone, I can stay in contact with you. Chris is with Oxart, so we can coordinate and such. I have experience fighting shadow assassins among other things. I can’t just stay here. But you can.” Turning toward Guillem, Alyssa looked the elf in the eye and said, “Keep them safe.”

“You’re trusting an elf?” she said, cocking her head to one side.

“Are you going to do anything to them?”

“No! No!”

Alyssa shrugged and looked back to her mother. “Just stay safe here, okay?”

Lisa stared. For a moment, Alyssa thought she would say something about how this wasn’t her duty or that the city guard would handle it. Instead, she looked straight at Alyssa and said, “Wouldn’t it be better to have three phones out in the city instead of having one locked up in this workshop?”

“I could take it to Kasita or—”

“I’m saying, dear daughter, that I will be going too.”

Alyssa bit her lip, wondering why her mother had to make everything harder for everyone. But before she could say anything, her mother continued.

“We can meet up with the city guard or perhaps Oz and Catal. I’ll split off, going with some of them. There is no point in keeping two phones together, so we will have to split up. Don’t worry. I know how much you would complain if I said I was going to wander alone.”

Tapping a finger against her thigh, Alyssa eventually nodded. She didn’t have the time to argue all night. Not if she wanted to be of some use. “Fine. We’ll join up with the guild. But you listen to them, alright? They know more about magic and monsters than you do.” That was a lesson that had almost gotten her killed learning. She couldn’t let her mother make the same mistake.

Luckily, her mother wasn’t the type to head off into things without thought. She would listen to Oz’s advice.

“Of course,” Lisa said with a smile.

“Um. I’ll stay here, shall I?” Jason said, holding a single finger in the air. “Have to make sure our prototypes don’t get stolen.”

At least he was being sensible. He still had a bit of an inflated opinion of himself, but he wasn’t thinking he was the main character of some cartoon anymore. Not being able to use high level magic had been something of a blow to his confidence. If only Lisa was the same.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

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