Edge Cases

116 - Book 2: Chapter 53: Definitely a Progression Fantasy

Vex sat uncomfortably in the caravan. The windows were all locked and spelled shut he could have dispelled it rather easily, but chose not to. Ingress had said something about taking them somewhere secret, and was sitting in the caravan with them; it was a bit of a tight squeeze with five people, but Vex didn't figure it was a trap.

Or, well, they'd discussed it and figured there was a chance it was a trap, but Ingress had been genuine when he'd agreed to help with food distribution. Vex suspected this was a step that was even further than what he was planning to do initially.

"Ingress is kind of bad at keeping secrets," Misa said dryly, adjusting her relay charm to hide what she was saying from him.

"He's bringing us to a meetup for some kind of rebellion, right?" Sev said.

"I think it's likely." Vex glanced at the blacked-out windows again, wondering exactly what was so secret about the route there weren't many places to hide in the kingdom. "I remember hearing rumours about a rebellion even back when I was living here. They never really seemed to go anywhere, but..."

"I imagine it would be hard to rebel properly, in a place like this," Derivan said. "Power does not appear to be distributed evenly, for all that the system makes it easier to gain power."

"The Guild's the only means for most people to safely get into combat situations that will help them raise their level fast enough to matter," Vex said, nodding. "Probably part of why they want to gain the Guild as an asset. And even then, you haven't seen how the Julia enforcers fight. They're strong, and really loyal. It's like the delve team thing."

"Emotional suppression?" That was Sev; the cleric leaned forward, an irritated furrow in his brows.

"That's so fucking shitty," Misa grumbled..

"Yep." Vex sighed. "I hope there's something more we can do. Julia recruits people by promising them power and a lot of pay a lot of people join them because it's one of the most consistent ways to get pay. They know they're going to be emotionally suppressed, but there's the promise of money going back to their families..."

"What about Vale?" Derivan asked.

"Same thing, more or less," Vex said. "The enforcers and the military do almost the same things Julia and Vale even pretty much always vote together. The only reason they're separate Houses is because they have a different Principle; Julia's is the loyalty thing, and Vale has the enhanced leveling and training program that their enforcers and agents go through. And delve teams, when they decide to train one of those."

"Sounds like we need to break both of those Houses," Misa said bluntly. Vex winced.

"Don't let any of them hear you say that," he said.

"Will glyphs actually help the rebels?" Sev asked. "Assuming we're right, and that's where Ingress is taking us, as opposed to some noble-operated trap."

Vex hesitated. "I'm... not sure," he said. "I think Ingress got some of the idea; he understands that I have a secret that can be applied broadly enough that we can make multiple noble houses out of it, enough to mess with the voting bloc."

"He also believes that won't work," Misa said. "And he's probably right. Sorry, Vex. It's a good idea, but in practice..."

"Yeah, I know," Vex said, sighing. "I got a little excited. I want to get this done with as little bloodshed as possible, but... I don't know. We'll see what they say, I guess. And then we can figure out what we want to do about it."

There was a small silence for a while.

"We need to get ahead of the game," Misa said softly. "We're keeping up for now, but if we get a chance if we get to the dungeon, somewhere else where time is stretched out we need to figure out everything we can do, and make sure we're ahead for the next disaster. We're surviving for now, but we're doing it through tricks, and even if we plan on sticking with that plan... We should have more tricks. What would happen if we fought the Julia enforcers now, Vex?"

"We'd lose," Vex said firmly. "I hate to say it, but we would. None of them really have rare classes or anything, but they're all at least Gold in terms of level, and the sheer number of them on top of the raw stats we can do a lot, but we can't do enough."

"The more we understand the system, the better," Misa said. "It's another reason to get into the dungeon as soon as we can. We need more time."

"I have many things about my status that I must study in detail," Derivan agreed.

"There's more I can figure out about glyphs," Vex said. "There's something about the way my sign works..."

"I feel like all of you guys have something," Sev said. "I'm not sure where I'm gonna go. Gain more levels?"

"You have your connection with Aurum," Vex pointed out.

"If only he would respond to me," Sev said with a sigh. "But... yeah, I'll try something. Maybe he's caught up in something. There's Onyx to worry about, too. I think the Guildmaster sent a message about Velykos going to investigate that. I'll have to keep up with what they're doing."

"So," Ingress said, startling Vex, who had sort of forgotten that Ingress was in the cabin with them at all. "Who are you guys, anyway? I mean, I know your names now, but not really anything about you. Why do you care about Elyran politics?"

"Vex is Elyran," Sev said, giving Vex a significant glance. Vex winced a bit.

"I'm from Ashion, actually," he said. There would only be problems if he tried to hide that; he would have mentioned it earlier, but he'd forgotten.

"You're what." Ingress' voice was flat, and his eyes turned flinty and hard; Vex saw his hands poised over an invisible keyboard, like he was ready to send off a message and call off the whole thing.

"Victor should've mentioned it, right?" Vex said, trying to head off the impending conflict; he saw Ingress relax slightly. "I was trying to get away from my House, and Victor helped me."

"Oh." Ingress deflated a little. "Right. He didn't exactly say that, but he said something about wanting to help your little brother."

"The practices of House Ashion are not... particularly pleasant on their children," Vex said. "Part of the reason we're a smaller House, really."

They could have partnered with Julia and created loyal mages; Julia had even pushed for that on a number of occasions. It would have made them a bigger and more influential House, even. Karix had refused. For everything else that was wrong with his father, even he disliked the emotion-cutting magics that Julia used to ensure loyalty.

"I see," Ingress said, and he looked down for a moment. "Not even their kids get away with it unscathed, huh."

Vex chuckled, though it wasn't a happy chuckle. "Not particularly, no."

The caravan rolled to a stop, suddenly, and Ingress glanced up. "We're here," he said. "Come on."

He pushed the door open, revealing a small, cramped room that the caravan had somehow maneuvered into; it was lit by a number of ghost-blue enchanted torches. Vex recognized the design, even; they were a fairly expensive brand of torches that enhanced illusory and anti-perception based magic.

Which made a lot of sense, considering the amount of magic Vex sensed around them; it was cleverly obscured for anyone with basic mana sight, because it was colored just the same way as the walls, and distributed evenly through them. Anyone not paying attention would sense that they were like any other wall in the city. The entrance to the room was obscured with this illusory magic, making it look like they were in a dark, empty room lit only by flickering blue light.

"Kinda creepy lighting," Sev remarked. Vex had to agree. "Not very encouraging."

"Sorry," a light voice resounded; Vex blinked once, and realized that a tall lizardkin was standing in front of him, her head almost scraping against the ceiling. He recognized her, even it was the librarian that would often help him with his spellbooks. A snap of her fingers, and the ghost-blue turned into the regular orange light of a torch, though mana sight helped him see the same blue still hidden in its flickers. "It is usually simpler to keep it blue."

"The magic's more effective that way, too," Vex said, and the older lizardkin smiled at him.

"I am glad you still remember your lessons."

"I paid attention," Vex said, preening just a bit, and the old lizardkin chuckled.

"You made some friends, I see," she said. "Came back to fix this broken old kingdom?"

"Came back for a few reasons, actually," Vex admitted. "One of them is my brother. Another is to get into the dungeon. It's... a work in progress. Wisfield is kind of forcing our hand here, though."

"They want you to do something for them?" another person spoke up this one was a grizzled-looking orc, leaning against one of the walls. He stood with his arms folded, a scowl on his face that looked like it had been etched in. "And you got out of it?"

"We tried," Vex said. "Like I said, it's a work in progress. They want me back in the Ashion household and they want the Guild to join the nobles. Both of those things are"

"Quite bad, yes," Ingress said with a frown. "They're angling to get the Guild as a puppet."

"Is this everyone?" Misa asked, frowning slightly. "This is some kind of rebellion, right? There's just three people here."

"I don't know if we're a rebellion, dear," the old lizardkin-librarian said with a kindly chuckle. "But we needed a place to meet up and discuss what was happening to our kingdom, away from prying eyes... this seemed as good a place as any."

"You said you need a way to get into the Elyran dungeon?" the orc asked. "We can get you in there. But we'll need something in return."

"I assumed that was why you brought us here," Sev said. "You want to know more about Vex's plan?"

"Not exactly," Ingress said. "Like I said, it won't work the nobles control too much already. But you must have some kind of powerful secret, if you were planning on creating so many noble houses."

"So we want to propose a trade," the librarian said. She smiled. "I am glad it's you, Vex. I was a little worried someone had tricked poor Ingress. He can be a little easy to fool."

"Hey!" Ingress protested.

"But if anyone was going to figure out some deep secret of magic, I would have imagined it to be you," she continued, completely ignoring Ingress.

"We aren't just going to ask you for your secrets for free," the orc said. "If you believe this secret can help us get a leg up on the nobles, then we will pay you for it. You need to get into the dungeon, yes? We have a way in for you."

"Wisfield thinks they have a monopoly on information, but they don't." The librarian smiled again, this time with a certain smug gleam in her eyes; Vex recognized that look, even. "They're too selfish about their Principle to have agents everywhere, and they only read surface thoughts. So if you think this will help us, we can get you in. That's our promise to you."

Vex was silent for a moment. Part of him was just a little bit stunned; they'd had the relays to help them communicate without Wisfield looking at their thoughts, and these Elyrans had just been... doing it, without even a skill to help screen their thoughts. There was always the chance that Wisfield knew, but they were arrogant; if they knew, they would likely have come down on the rebels already.

"I have the beginnings of something that will help," Vex said. "It won't be enough yet, but I think it will be, eventually."

"And what exactly is it?" Ingress peered at him closely.

"A way to gain strength without the system," Vex said. He almost added more almost said that it might be a way to talk to Victor again.

But... no. No false hope; he didn't know for sure if he could do it. When he was sure, he would speak to Ingress again.

No sooner.