Chapter 139: Chapter 139

“Pardon?” asked Freddy.

“What the- Freddy, that’s- What the fuck?!”

“Is something wrong?” The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the NoveI[F]ire.net

He looked at Elise with an expression of genuine concern as she struggled to formulate her thoughts. While Freddy’s punishment for the warg was certainly as cruel as the monster deserved, Elise couldn’t help but feel revolted. How had he even thought to do such a thing? Was this type of thing just something that he regularly did? Was long-term manipulation his go-to punishment?

“That feels… so wrong,” she finally said.

“But it is what he deserved, yes?” he replied. “And it’s much better than any corporeal punishment, as on top of being punishing, it also teaches a lesson, and will hopefully allow him to better himself. Didn’t you want him to feel what you felt? Now he has.”

“I didn’t- I-” Elise faltered.

She didn’t know how to respond. Logically, it was the perfect punishment. The warg had experienced the same suffering it had inflicted, and as Freddy said, it had a chance to learn and grow. Theoretically, there was no better punishment.

If she wanted to reform it, that is.

It hasn’t experienced all the suffering it inflicted.

Her thoughts returned to the night it attacked. Until that point, everything she experienced had been surreal. There had been some fear. Some pain. But ultimately, she made it to the cabin and lived a safe, cozy life for a few days. Then everything changed when the warg attacked.

She still remembered the terror of the warg standing over her. The immense mana it poured into its spells. The coppery scent as Corwin and Sylvanna died. The way their bodies went limp and their eyes became empty. The way the blood seeped into the floorboards beneath their unmoving forms.

The warg may have experienced the loss that Elise and the Grays had felt, but it hadn’t come close to fully experiencing the pain it inflicted. It didn’t know what it was like to have a stake shoved through its heart. It didn’t know what it felt like to fight a hopeless fight, knowing it had no way of achieving victory. It didn’t know what it was like to breathe its last, not knowing if its children had made it to safety.

No, the warg, had a long way to go before it truly understood what it had done, if the monster ever could. If anything, Freddy hadn’t gone far enough.

Despite that, the thought of what Freddy had done still made her mouth taste bitter. She acknowledged the hypocrisy, given her own thoughts, but she felt that there were some subtle, intrinsic lines that shouldn’t be crossed, and Freddy had crossed multiple. Without being able to put it into words herself though, she had no hope of convincing Freddy of anything though, so with a deep breath, she calmed herself and decided to drop the subject.

“Alright,” she said. “Where is it now, then?”

“I’m not going to tell you,” he said. “When he is ready, I will bring him to meet you. Before then, I would rather that you didn’t run into each other.”

That made sense. If they saw each other at that moment, Elise was certain that she and the warg would be at each other’s throats. It made sense, from Freddy’s perspective, to keep them apart. That only made her marginally less annoyed though. Now that she knew it was not only alive and well, but unharmed and being protected, she felt anger bubbling up inside her. She pressed it down though. There was no point in getting mad at Freddy. It wouldn’t do anything.

“Do you have any other questions for me?”

“I was with an old friend,” said Freddy. “I had to fulfill some contractual obligations that unfortunately required my complete and utter attention for the duration of my time away. It was nothing overly serious though. No need to be worried.

“That does remind me though, I actually had a question for you as well. Do you remember that black box from the Everspring Underground Auction.”

“You were the one to purchase it, but it was purchased with Oberon’s money, as far as I am aware. Who is currently in possession of it?”

“Then Oberon took it?”

“I told him to get rid of it, and to not let me know where he put it. We both agreed it was too dangerous to leave lying around.”

“We don’t know, but we came to the conclusion that there were only two possibilities in regards to what was inside. Either it is so incredibly valuable that it needed the tightest of security measures to be able to keep it safe, or, it is so incredibly dangerous that it needed to be sealed in a way that it could never see the light of day again. We didn’t want to take that gamble.”

“Well, I’m sure you didn’t, but-”

“No, Oberon didn’t either.”

“It’s the only time I’ve ever seen him serious.”

The importance of that statement needed no explanation, and the weight of it killed the conversation for a moment.

“But why did you trust Oberon to dispose of it then? I don’t see you as the type to be willing to leave that matter in the hands of someone like him.”

You are absolutely correct, Elise thought.

If she had the choice, she would never have trusted Oberon with it. Even now, she wasn’t sure that he had actually disposed of it, or if he had “disposed of it” in a way that it would resurface and cause chaos later.

“It reacted to the Rune of Fate,” she explained. “It started draining my aether. We thought it was safest to not have it anywhere near me.”

“It reacted to your Rune?”

“Yes, that’s what I just said.”

“Why are you suddenly so curious about it?” she asked.

“My old friend was interested in it. He wanted to inquire into purchasing it, so I wanted to know if you had it before I went and spoke to Oberon himself about it.”

“You should tell your friend that he should give up. It’s most likely at the bottom of the ocean by now, or buried in a mile of earth, or launched into space, if Oberon is smart. And if not, he should still give up, or if he’s got his heart set on it, he should look at it, touch it, then dump it to the bottom of the ocean, bury it in a mile of earth, or launch it into space.”

“I will… keep that in mind,” replied Freddy. “Though I should let you know that my old friend would indeed be burying it under a mile of earth if he were to acquire it. He is a bit of a collector, but has no actual use for it. It would be stored in the most secure vault in the world in a location that even I do not know, and likely would never see the light of day, and it would remain that way for eternity.”

“Still…” said Elise. “I don’t think anyone should have it. I think it should be gotten rid of and forgotten.”

“I will let him know. However, I promised to him that I would attempt to purchase it from Oberon, and I cannot go back on my word, so I will still do that. I will make sure that my old friend is fully aware of the potential danger this item possesses though.”

Elise nodded in acknowledgement.

“Now, we’ve gotten a bit sidetracked, but is there anything else you wanted to ask me before the official proceedings start?”

“Yes, actually, but it’s not about where you’ve been.” The fact that he gave so few details meant he either didn’t want to, or couldn’t talk about it. “I was just wondering if I had anything specific I needed to do at the University. Or people to watch out for. Or other infiltrators to collaborate with.”

“Your only job at the University is to blend in,” he said with a smile. “And as for people to watch out for, anyone named Larcombe. We will be working somewhat closely with them, but they are the king’s eyes and ears in the shadows, and many of them are well-versed in aether. So long as you do not stand out too much, you should be fine, but I would be wary around the Larcombes if I was you.

“And about the other infiltrators, don’t worry about them. I have intentionally kept all your identities secret from each other so that you do not accidentally give each other away, nor implicate the others if you are caught. But you do not need to worry. They all have the same instructions as you. You can feel free to enjoy your time at the University acting as a student. If something urgent happens that requires your attention, we will let you know.”

Elise had already known most of that, but she still felt like it was all too simple. She was even a bit suspicious about whether there actually were any other infiltrators. Especially now that she knew what Freddy had done to the warg, she wouldn’t put it past him to have somehow found out that she liked magic academies, and concocted a whole false pretense just so she could attend. After all, he had told her before that he was explicitly trying to get on her good side, and that he was giving her special privileges in order to achieve this.

Then again, it wouldn’t make any sense to do that, since he could just get her in without all the smoke and mirrors. A disguise and an identity was really all she needed. Maybe that’s what he was doing though. The other infiltrators had real missions, and hers was just to attend school. If that was the case though, she didn’t really mind. She had only accepted his proposal in the first place because he had described it as such.

Elise has many more questions she could have asked him, but none were pressing, so she just shook her head.

“In that case, I believe I should return to the ballroom. I suggest you join me, but I also suggest that you refrain from using your stealth skill. It is quite effective, but two of our guests are those Larcombes that I mentioned, and sniffing out aetheric stealth is somewhat of a specialty of theirs. Your ordinary subtlety skill works differently, so if you don’t interact closely with them, they likely won’t notice, but should your stealth skill be noticed, it will only draw attention.”

“Alright, but won’t it look strange for you to return with me?”

“My office isn’t the only thing down this hall. You came in through one of the entrances this way, and we happened to run into each other as we were re-entering the ballroom. And as for your appearance, well I believe you’ll find when you return that most of the changelings will look somewhat different than they usually do. Now, shall we?”

He stood up and smiled at her, and Elise gave a small smile back and joined him on the way back.

“By the way, your new evolution seems to suit you well,” he said. “And you seem quite pleased with it. Congratulations!”

Freddy was once again swarmed as soon as he entered, but his excuse for being with her worked beautifully, and she was able to slip away largely unnoticed. She wove through the crowd to grab a plate of snacks, then stood in the corner as she waited for the special guests to arrive.

When they did, what happened after was much more… tame than she had pictured. It was tense, but that was about it. Three humans, an elf, and two giants entered the room, guided by Firona. They looked nervous and apprehensive, but soon calmed down. As the meeting went on. It seemed that the whole thing was legitimately just a social engagement to begin fostering good relationships. A few of the Chairs and other more important members of Ostra personally spoke with them, and Jerry even managed to get two of the humans to drink with him.

Overall, the event seemed to be a smashing success, to the point that some of the humanoids stayed beyond the duration of the party to keep up their conversations. The elf specifically was locked in a deep conversation with Pyotr the tiny bear. Curious, Elise drifted close enough to overhear and found that they were saying some kind of academic mumbo jumbo that almost entirely flew over her head. Then, she remembered that Pyotr was an anthropologist by trade, so it made sense.

It also made sense that the elf would be the one interested. Elves in this world weren’t exactly the same as they were in the fantasy books that Elise had read back on Earth, but they were somewhat similar. All elves aged normally up to around 20, then stopped indefinitely. This would have made them incredibly powerful, but was balanced by the fact that they did not have access to anything beyond the most basic features of the System—or in other words, they couldn’t level up—until that point. Even after that point, they could not access the System unless they chose to, but if they did so, they would resume aging normally again.

This helped keep elves more in line with the other humanoid races, but they still tended to be quite powerful. After all, with an eternity to prepare, they could spend a great deal of time coming up with the perfect Class evolution path. Apparently there was a saying among the humanoids that went something like “never mess with an old elf.” If an elf was old, that meant that they had been confident enough in their path to choose to age, and convicted enough to sacrifice their eternal life to chase after some goal that required personal strength.

That tidbit had made her wonder exactly how Corwin managed to swing an elf wife, but from what she saw, he was an excellent husband. It also made her a bit sad to know that after giving up eternal youth to have a family, she hadn’t even gotten to see Sophie make it to adulthood.

The two humans who were drinking with Jerry also stayed behind, and even began teaching some of the monsters drinking songs. The last human and the two giants left on schedule though. Elise recognized this man as Duke Larcombe himself, though thankfully, he didn’t recognize her. The two giants were new to her, but she could hardly sense any mana or aether from them, so she could only assume that their physical stats were immense.

Elise left shortly after this. The gathering was almost disappointingly uneventful, and she didn’t want to worry the Grays by being out too late. She also wanted to get back to her books. She still had a few more series she wanted to get through before classes started.

After waving goodbye to Freddy, who was preoccupied watching over the gathering, she went back down her private path, and up the stairs to the Gray’s basement. She found Sophie and Irylax in the sitting room as usual, so she joined them for a little while as she read, then went up to her room when she started yawning.

As she lay in bed, preparing to fall asleep, her thoughts went back to her conversation with Freddy about the warg. She still agreed with the conclusion she had come to during the conversation. Freddy had gone too far, but also not far enough. There was more to be done, but without his location, there was nothing she could do. It wasn’t like she could get his location.

Something about her being in bed must have triggered her memories, because she thought back to her conversation with Maggie two months ago about dreams. Elise had had a few dreams of others, but none really of any importance. She saw Sophie sleeping, she saw Oberon playing cards with himself, she saw Irylax picking her nose, and so on…

But now that she could sense Aether, maybe there was a way to control her dreams? When she dreamt of others, it was because she had aetheric connections with them, right? And she most definitely had one with the warg. Maybe if she could find a way to tap into that, she could locate it.

Unfortunately, she had no idea how she would make this work. She was not a lucid dreamer. Her dreams just happened and that was it. How could she control them? She remembered seeing a few tricks back on Earth on how to start lucid dreaming, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember any of them.

She did have one other option though: soul meditation. She had admittedly been slacking on it, but whenever she did it, she could feel her soul much more clearly. She hadn’t sensed any aetheric connections, but she didn’t see why she wouldn’t be able to while doing it. That was much more controllable than lucid dreaming too.

She sat up in her bed, then crossed her legs and closed her eyes. Irylax had explained that no pose was necessary, but Elise found that sitting helped her focus. Not long after, she successfully reached her soul and began searching for the connections.