Hope

“I am heading there,” Elizabeth stated, staring at the location while almost shivering with fury. It was a far stronger reaction than Irwyn would have expected but a single look told him there would be no stopping her.

“All right, I will follow if you want me to,” he nodded. “But you will need to calm down along the way. Anger clouds judgement.”

She glanced at him with a frown but seemed to bite back whatever retort had sprung to her tongue - considering the anger in her eyes, probably nothing polite - and extended a hand which Irwyn took with what was essentially practised ease at that point. Time/Space shifted and then they were somewhere else. Irwyn had no idea where except it was a non-descript metal room enchanted to the Void and back. Elizabeth did not stop for so much as a moment as she walked towards an indentation into one of the walls which, upon her approach, folded to the side to let them through, re-sealing behind the duo. Whether that was another feature of her wondrous dress or something else, Irwyn had no idea. Leaving the metal box did not actually help Irwyn much in ascertaining their location though as they seemed to enter into a half-empty warehouse of some kind.

“Do you know which way we are headed?” Irwyn questioned as he kept up with the angrily stomping Elizabeth.

“Somewhere South,” she said the obvious, not breaking her stride.

“Well, obviously,” Irwyn nodded agreeably. She was clearly not thinking too straight. He had planted that first thought earlier, better to steer her without conflict. “What I am wondering is if you know the fastest way to the crater or which routes will let us avoid the no-doubt panicking masses.”

That got Irwyn another glance as if such an obvious thing did not occur to her in the rush. Well, anger tended to do that to people. Irwyn did not understand Elizabeth enough to know why she had been thrown into such a fit of fury but it was rather self-apparent the attack, or whatever else it could have been, got her emotional. She finally stopped her march after a few more steps, took two deep breaths and turned to Irwyn.

“Alright, you have a point,” she was still frowning, her lip thinner than usual. “I am just…,” she gestured in the general direction of probably South.

“Angry,” Irwyn nodded.

“Yes, angry,” she confirmed.

“I can take the lead for now if you need to calm down,” Irwyn suggested, wondering if pride would even let her.

“Yes… Thank you,” she said hesitantly. “I will get my head in order before we get to the site.”

“Then follow me,” Irwyn headed straight out of the warehouse, meeting no personnel along the way. From the height of the surrounding buildings, he could immediately tell that they were somewhere relatively close to the edge of the city. A single look around obviously allowed him to spot the three gargantuan spires of Abonisle which served as a rather decent landmark. That much was enough for Irwyn to do the rough calculation of in which direction they had to go. It took them less than 5 minutes to come upon the first disturbed crowds. They were not fleeing, far away enough from the event to not panic, though they had likely seen enough to form such an interlocked gossip circle.

“Excuse me,” Irwyn immediately approached the first tall person he could find. “Which way?”

“Over there,” the young man replied, pointing in a direction. It was rather obvious what Irwyn could be asking about. Taking a second glance at the bundled-up people, it would clearly be troublesome to get through them without resorting to crowd control and would only get worse the closer they got. It had been only a few minutes since the event and things would be in chaos.

“Alright, I have a question,” Irwyn returned to Elizabeth who seemed to be in a much state of mind after having time to calm down a bit. “How discreet do we need to be with our approach?”

“Not particularly?” Elizabeth seemed confused by the question.

“Fine, I will ask it straight,” Irwyn shook his head. “Can we approach through the airspace?”

“Oh,” Elizabeth blinked. Then her expression turned slightly awkward. She seemed to be in thought for a moment before she sighed. “Alright, I might not have been completely honest with you in some things. Please don’t take it as a sign of malice merely my own… willfulness,” she then waved her hand, an insignia appearing in it. Two blocks of magically darkened black, stacked on top of each other seemingly forming a reversed T, except at the top of them were distinct ramparts and inside were small square windows, giving way to the gray background. In other words: The heraldry of house Blackburg which Elizabeth with one quick motion attached to just below her shoulder.

“In all honesty, I am almost insulted you thought I did not put that much together,” Irwyn gave her the blankest stare he could manage.

“You… what?” Elizabeth gaped instead.

“Not to be rude but you are so blatantly high nobility you would call a dragon’s hoard ‘a meagre amount of wealth’,” Irwyn just shrugged with a light smile. “If there was ever a safe bet in history of betting, it would be you belonging to at least a Branch of House Blackburg,” the only other possibility was frankly some obscure incredibly influential household that Irwyn was simply not aware of, but the high-end of politics seemed to be basically dominated by the countless branches of house Blackburg; created through centuries of traditional polygamy.

“I… don’t know what to say,” a light blush came to her cheek. “I might have been overthinking this a bit.”

“We can talk later, better to get moving now,” some people in the crowd were also already whispering. Not everyday you could see someone flashing the Blackburg insignia on the street. “Do you know what the hit place was? Will the first arrivals shoot anyone approaching down on sight?”

“I have been to that particular place many times before. Enough to recognise the surroundings at a glance even from that far away,” her lips thinned again, no doubt reminded of her earlier anger, “It was a military facility. Regular protocol in a situation like this dictates confirming everyone’s identity but no blind shooting unless something is blatantly hostile,”

“Well, then the solution is obvious,” Irwyn immediately diverted her attention away from possibly dead acquaintances as he began to manifest stairs of solid but contained Flames. If the streets were not passable because of the crowds, he could just improvise a bridge over them. “I assume that etiquette dictates you go first.”

“Oh, yes,” she nodded hurriedly as they quickly swapped positions, her leading the way across the manifesting Flame bridge and both walked towards their destination best Irwyn could navigate. Irwyn could make even solid flames at most slightly warm to the touch and Elizabeth was naturally resistant to Flames as well - if not nearly to the same degree as Irwyn - causing no risk of burns. “It should not be a problem considering your usual demeanor; however, some people might take offence on my behalf if you behave too… casually with me.”

“I have hardly any right to complain about the insistence on politeness,” Irwyn grinned lightly. “Do not worry your Ladyship, I believe I can handle such a task.”

“Let’s hurry,” Elizabeth probably rolled her eyes. Unfortunately, Irwyn could only guess as he was staring at her back as he moved a couple of steps behind her and a bit to the right. Though they did quicken their pace a bit, Irwyn could keep up with building the platforms at the pace of a light jog without any issues.

The only thing Irwyn would have normally had a problem with was the inherent danger of running towards the big magical disaster. However, those he dismissed for a simple reason: He was now even surer Dervish was shadowing Elizabeth everywhere she went. And that man was like a force of nature. Well, not really nature considering the Void magic and obsession with bladed weapons but the idiom worked in principle. Of course, Irwyn would do his damn best to keep himself and Elizabeth safe if trouble came calling but he had no doubt Dervish would be ready to shred anything they couldn’t quite handle.

As they hurried forward - people down below pointed up at them and sometimes shouted, though nothing more - Irwyn could feel the blast zone before he saw it.

It was strange and not much like anything he had felt before. It was a bit like… magic was frayed in the area, a thousand cuts spanning across its canvas as they quickly healed and closed. But it wasn’t really magic itself; something else was hurt. That impression only got stronger with every step they took closer.

“Do you know what that actually was?” Irwyn asked. Their bridge of fire turned a corner and Irwyn could see the edge of the crater, the rest still hidden behind buildings. He noted that using solid flames continuously to walk on consumed significantly more mana than the spells took to manifest, he assumed that was to compensate for bearing extra weight against gravity. Irwyn mitigated that by reusing most of the magic from the parts of the bridge that were vanishing around them and frankly, the expenditure was not that bad in comparison to his reserves.

“Some kind of Time/Space magic most likely, based on just the appearance,” she said loud enough for Irwyn to hear even as she faced the other direction. “I am not proficient in those, someone who can tell us more should be rushing to the scene as well though.”

“Fair enough,” Irwyn nodded. They were almost there. Several people already gathered and on guard, some even hailing the duo. “I will start making steps down, try not to stumble,” Irwyn looked at the surroundings. The buildings around the crater were all still standing but Irwyn noticed that they all had… indentations for the lack of better word. Countless large chunks of debris seemed to have shot straight into the nearby structures at unknown but significant speeds, imbedding many into walls while other crumbled, fell down to the ground after apparent impact, or probably managed to shoot into the buildings through windows and such. However, Abonisle’s architecture was exceptional. Even in these relatively lower-class districts it seemed to be holding without an issue, none of them on the brink of collapse from the damage; but maybe the disaster location was just important which elevated the surrounding structures. If Elizabeth had been here repeatedly it could not have been a completely mundane place.

As soon as Elizabeth touched the ground a big chunk of the people present gravitated towards them. Most wore uniforms of two kinds: A smaller group seemed more like guardsmen - light armour padded against knifes and crude, blunt weaponry as well as simple batons or manacles visible at their waists - while the rest were clearly soldiers. Or at least Irwyn was pretty sure based on the squiggly lines on patches sewed into a specific spot of their uniforms. The uniforms themselves were not even armoured, though Irwyn could feel minor enchantments instead. They were also each carrying what was undoubtably rifles of some kind on their backs and half of them also had a sidearm holstered to their waste.

“Your Ladyship,” a single one of the soldiers stepped forward while they all saluted Elizabeth’s arrival. It took one look at the heraldry and she was immediately in charge, no need to even verify it. Considering how vindictive house Blackburg was, Irwyn supposed that there were no people mad enough to actually fake these.

“Captain, status report,” Elizabeth did not give the man so much as a nod, instead immediately turning towards a well-practiced commanding tone. At a second glance, the man had visibly the most lines on his uniform’s marking which Irwyn supposed implied the captain being in charge here just moments sooner. He would probably need to learn all the military ranks at some point in the future.

“We have employed Finity amplifiers to secure the area and are keeping the public away. No trace of any further attacks or possible perpetrators as far as mundane senses can tell while teams search the nearby buildings for any wounded. We have deployed our Stitchers on that task. Reinforcements are on the way. Two associated mages have already begun their inspection,” he pointed towards two robed people standing at the edge of the crater. “With your leave, I would continue leading the mundane rescue and panic suppression.”

“Very well, you may continue captain,” Elizabeth gave the man the slightest nod and then gave him no more mind as she walked past him straight towards the mages. The man did not seem to have any qualms at all with the blatant dismissal and instead immediately returned to giving out orders to the soldiers. No one seemed to pay any attention to Irwyn silently following Elizabeth either.

“Ladyship,” Irwyn and Elizabeth got rather close to the duo of mages before they noticed their approach. They both gave Elizabeth a respectful, if not particularly deep, bow

“Is this in either of your areas of expertise?” Elizabeth did not even open with a greeting this time around.

“Yes, Time/Space is both our specialty, which this is,” the left one spoke with a firm nod.

“Then by all means, what are your first impressions?”

“As we have said this is work of Time/Space,” the second mage said. “We concur this has been caused by several identical spells used by a single mage at precise locations. This magic aimed to damage space in particular, causing tears in its fabric. Because of its calculated nature, or by a very lucky accident, it was able to cause a destructive spacial cascade, greatly amplifying the area affected.”

“Yes,” the first mage nodded. “The building, as well as part of its foundations and everything in it, had been split into tens of thousands of pieces which were then haphazardly shuffled around because of the cascade. A good amount of it was launched away or crushed to sand, however, most settled back into the leftover crater. Because of Abonisle’s potent temporal beacon the fallout has already practically receded, I estimate that under normal circumstances there would be spacial cracks in the air for at least the next few hours.”

And indeed, the crater was full of rubble, almost overflowing. Irwyn was not sure how he had not spotted that when the event itself happened, he had been quite sure the crater was empty, but he assumed it was either because of the distance or because of the magic in the area obscuring things somewhat.

“What of the building itself? Any alarms sounded?” Elizabeth asked, just as cool-faced as before, though Irwyn thought her shoulders went a bit stiff.

“We would not know your Ladyship,” the first mage spoke again. “We happened to both be spending time off duty just a few minutes walk away from here when we both felt the spell's intense power and rushed over, though I do not believe either of us had missed any outgoing alarms; they only triggered moments after the attack itself.”

“Any traces of the perpetrator or perpetrators?”

“This place used to have a teleportation hub,” the second man shook his head. “There are no blatantly suspicious traces of whoever caused this and everything is distorted because of the cascade. Tracing every individual teleport back will take days and a dozen more mages,” they paused for a moment. “However, I believe this had to have been caused by one powerful mage working alone. The level of precision required to achieve a cascade like this… finding two Time mages capable of such perfect cooperation would be a miracle, much less any more.”

“I see, thank you,” Elizabeth nodded mechanically, “Continue your observations. Please keep in mind that you will still be required to fully report to your direct superiors.”

“Thank you for your time,” the first mage said again while they both gave Elizabeth a slight head bow as she departed, followed by Irwyn.

It seemed like there was no one else to talk or any trace to immediately follow. So, Elizabeth walked a fair bit away from the two mages who returned to their work until both she and Irwyn stood at the edge of a debris-filled hole. Elizabeth seemed to stare somewhat wistfully at it.

“So, what was this place actually,” Irwyn decided it was probably time to broach the subject. Elizabeth glanced at him, sighed lightly, and Irwyn felt some kind of bubble manifest around them before it completely vanished to his senses. If he had not felt it form he would have no idea there was anything at all here. “I assume that’s for privacy?”

“Yes, anyone watching from outside will just see us standing in silence,” she nodded slowly, still staring down at the debris. “As for this place… it was a repository of sorts, I suppose, for a variety of middling magical equipment and weapons; at the edge of the city so that if someone managed to actually steal something the collateral damage would not be too big before they were apprehended. Well, originally it had been all the way here as an outpost before much of the city was built.”

“In that case, they probably stole some of those weapons,” Irwyn frowned.

“It is not that simple,” Elizabeth shook her head. “This place was part of a network with intense security protocols and redundant enchantments. Breaching any one of the Vaults without the proper credentials, which is bound to the magical signatures of the limited few people entrusted with it, would have triggered an alarm immediately.”

“Maybe it was disconnected from that network?” Irwyn suggested. Disabling any alarm mechanisms sounded like the first thing someone would do.

“The network was designed specifically against that. It sends an uninterrupted stream of sequenced codewords to several locations while also receiving other sequences back. Disrupting that unnoticed… a mage capable of bypassing all the measures in place would have absolutely no need for anything stored here.”

“Perhaps they just earned a few seconds,” Irwyn’s mind was already trying to figure out how he would have overcome the issue. “Maybe abused a redundancy meant to prevent false alarms? With accomplices they probably could have accessed one or several of these vaults, evacuated the contents and then, when the alarm system inevitably noticed the abuse and started triggering, they destroyed the whole place to obscure what exactly they had actually stolen,” he said. A few seconds to crack a vault, empty it, and escape was a bit of a stretch, at least for a mortal thief. But he was dealing with mages now and at least one of them was proficient with Time/Space. Elizabeth frowned as she considered the explanation.

“I am… not sure whether that would work,” she said after a few moments of thought. “I will suggest to whoever is assigned with leading the investigation that they should figure out whether there is such a vulnerability in the network,” which meant it was as good as done. She then glanced back at the rubble, still clearly wistful.

“Do you want to… talk about it?” Irwyn asked carefully. It was clear to him that Elizabeth had some kind of attachment to the place.

“There is not much to talk about,” she blinked in surprise and then sighed. “I just… used to come here a lot as a child. Years ago, while the Spires were just being erected. As the city was just being rebuilt from a small fortress town. It had dedicated training halls which I would frequent for years, when I was a complete novice barely able to use any magic at all. I am not sure why I feel so… attached, I suppose.”

“It must have been important to at least to some extent,” Irwyn nodded. That would have made her… around 7 or 8 years old at the time? If he remembered the vague timeline correctly. Irwyn himself could remember being taken in to the Tears around that age - little else before then - and those memories were also quite important to him.

“I suppose I learned I could be something more here,” she shrugged stiffly. “Not just the child of my parents, sister of my brothers and sisters but a mage of my own. That I could be more than just someone hiding in a shadow of a smile and strings. If that makes sense…”

“It does,” to an extent. Irwyn did not know her exact life story but he could guess some things. For one, Elizabeth had been dedicating a lot of time to him, even if that continued her own training. Which meant, at the very least, she was avoiding her own family somewhat. He could not guess how bad it was but it certainly did not sound particularly warm. If she wanted to earn the strength to break away from their shadows, whoever her closest blood-kin actually were, it certainly explained her drive for personal improvement.

“I am just being sentimental,” she shook her head, eyes turning resolute. “My mother always said that sentiment was a weakness, ripe for abuse.”

“You need some good memories to not be miserable,” Irwyn tried to suggest gently. That did not sound like healthy advice.

“Yes, but I can make new ones,” Elizabeth acknowledged, her gaze growing more resolute by the second. “I will not let old memories control me. Never,” she paused for a few seconds, glancing around. More and more people were arriving at the scene though none bothered them. “There is not much we can do here for now. Let’s head back, the sun will be setting soon.”