Hope

There was a certain nervous energy permeating the air as the soldiers departed to their probable deaths. Most were grim, the rest either too hard to read or just oblivious. They went in groups of four, usually with one or two people from the penal platoon, bearing that distinct mark on their foreheads. Five such bands had been gathered and sent out around the same time.

“Now we wait,” Elizabeth watched dispassionately. Irwyn was feeling a bit conflicted. He did not like sending the people to very likely perish… nor did he particularly hate it. The feeling was closer to slight dislike. An irritation rather than outright compassion. From the looks of it both Alice and Elizabeth seemed even more detached from it than him, both simply calculating the worth of each soldier in the plan rather than considering that each was, in fact, a living human being with a life. Waylan… Waylan had left a while ago to ‘keep an eye out’. Irwyn opted to afford him that time alone.

“Run me through all… this?” Irwyn suggested, waving his hand around the piles of equipment Elizabeth ordered brought to the large meeting room. They were far from alone, though everyone besides her was clearly busy keeping track of whatever information they were getting.

“Is now the time?” she bit her lip.

“Are you actively keeping any of it running?” Irwyn questioned.

“You are just trying to distract me.”

“Yes,” Irwyn nodded. “So, what does that one do?”

“Fine,” she sighed, following Irwyn’s hand. The devices were mostly mimicking the appearance of machinery: Large boxes with displays showing data Irwyn was unsure how to interpret. He did wonder how difficult it actually was to understand.

“What is this one called?” he had chosen one at random.

“Soul link stabilizer,” she said. “With the help of a Soul mage we created a spring-like binding between the Souls of the soldiers and the device. While they are alive this has almost no effect, however, the instant their flesh stops acting as an anchor the soul will be flung back towards us.”

“And captured?” Irwyn guessed.

“Their Souls are not resilient enough to survive such a journey - they will disperse along the way,” she shook her head. “It does mean they cannot be corrupted by necromancy nor interrogated though. And we will know exactly when it happens.”

“Don’t you have those life-marks for that?” Irwyn wondered.

“More than one measure,” she shrugged. “Makes it less likely they can counter all of them at once. The life marks are based on Life magics, this is Soul.”

“Predictably,” Irwyn nodded.

“You would be surprised how often people use ‘void’ in the name of things that do not use any Void magic,” she shook her head.

“What about this then?” Irwyn turned to the next contraption.

“Yes, this…” and Elizabeth explained. Speaking seemed to relieve some of her nervous energy. At least at first. As minutes went by the air of anticipation intensified. Everyone was expecting something to happen, they just did not know when or where.

Live reports from the soldiers were being transcribed, each group equipped with a limited-use communication crystal and instructed to speak the moment anything seemed awry. Their locations were being tracked in real time, projected onto the map - which in hindsight was notably outdated in places as the soldiers would seemingly sometimes walk through a building or need to detour around an empty spot.

A different kind of mood enveloped the hall though when the groups reached their destinations without being accosted. Each had to investigate a tip of some kind provided by the Guild. Something suspicious that could be associated with undead, after some filtering.

One group went after a desecrated small graveyard. No signs of necromancy nor magic were detected there by their equipment - apparently there was plenty of single-use consumable for this kind of thing in supply. Nor were any corpses missing. It seemed to be a graverobbing inspired by avarice rather than heresy.

The second group checked up on a bad-side-of-town bar with reports of a faint rotten smell crawling up from the basement. It turned out to be ‘merely’ a poorly covered-up murder by the owner. Still a grave offense but not what the soldier had been dreading to find.

The third barged on a group of mortal, and certainly illegal, alchemists. It was possible to create some very mild magical medicines, poisons, and chemicals even without magic - Irwyn knew that much. And completely mundane concoctions were still very effective against non-mages. The soldiers checked upon their workshop and found any rumours of the Rot fully unfounded.

The fourth went to one of the warehouses near Road street. After inquiring, Irwyn found with some amusement that the owners were cooking their books concerning how many goods they actually received. Except, their contacts in the underworld found out that their supposedly real secret ledgers did not match up either. Irwyn had some doubts about how likely that was to be connected to the Lich War, but Aaron had screened their clues. The chance had to be higher than zero. Eventually, all the soldiers found were living people being smuggled – slaves, apparently. Serious enough Elizbeth opted to command this was absolutely not to be overlooked as many other smugglings had been.

The army was working with the Guild on this after all, and as far as Irwyn understood many of the Fowls and higher-ups had made deals with House Blackburg. The exact details of that agreement he was still fuzzy about, though there were definitely lines that should not be crossed. Outright slavery was, at least from what he was seeing, taken seriously. He recalled Elizabeth once telling him that in most Duchies such practice had been completely banned since their founding, so it made sense to him.

The last group was a decoy. Well, all of them were, but the fifth did not go to verify any rumor in particular. They were merely meant to walk in a circle around much of the city, ensuring that the undead would definitely notice them if their surveillance options were limited.

None were accosted during their tasks. Not so much as a trace of a threat had been seen during the whole day. The first soldiers returned, relief visible in their eyes as they passed the gates. They were quarantined for the moment as they reported in - looking for any major discrepancies in their memory - though nothing seemed wrong with them according to all the equipment. Then the second was back. The third, fourth. When the fifth returned unharmed and healthy, Elizabeth was downright befuddled.

“Not a trace of anything awry,” Elizabeth sighed.

“Maybe the undead just left the city?” Irwyn suggested. “You know, realized they had been noticed and scrapped their plans.”

“Or this is just a bluff to make us drop our guard,” she bit her lip. “It would not be unprecedented.”

“I can see why my grandpa called dealing with the undead maddening at times,” Alice noted drily.

“We cannot let our guard down completely,” Elizabeth decided. “But we cannot keep on full alert forever. I will consult with the Lieutenants but it seems likely we will mostly have to return to how things were before the attack. Except we will not be leaving the camp.”

“Because they might be assassins lurking about,” Irwyn guessed.

“Exactly,” Elizabeth nodded. “Well, there always could be. I have never left other way than by the teleportation for that reason. Now though, the threat remains much more realistic for you two as well. Young talented mages are always a good target of opportunity, even without blood ties to House Blackburg. It would be exactly what I would expect - making us lower our guard by pretending to be long gone only to strike at someone more valuable than regular troops.”

“No visits for me then,” Irwyn sighed. He had hoped that he would be able to start visiting his friends again, though that seemed unrealistic with undead of unknown power quite possibly lurking nearby. A risk not worth undergoing for a social occasion.

“You could start writing letters,” Alice suggested. Irwyn and Elizabeth gave her very blank stares. At first confused, then embarrassed when the realization struck her. “Oh, right, you can’t. Eh… I could write for you?”

“I will keep the offer in mind,” Irwyn smiled slightly. “I could just tell Waylan what I want said and pray he doesn’t twist my words too badly.”

“He wouldn’t do that,” Alice shook her head with a grin. “He would just make up a different message entirely.”

“Talking behind my back?” Waylan revealed himself. He could have been there for a while or might have just arrived. After months of his antics, everyone took it in stride.

“Of course not, you are facing us,” Irwyn immediately countered. “Such accusations are thus baseless.”

“Fair,” Waylan nodded. “Everyone alive, eh?” the apparent results had put him in a better mood.

“As far as we know,” Elizabeth nodded. “There will be quarantine for a few days just in case but it seems like nothing at all happened.”

“Not what you were hoping for?” Waylan asked, glaring a bit again.

“I am not sure what I was hoping for,” Elizabeth shrugged, not rising to the provocation. “This is far from the worst-case scenario at least.”

“I will be sitting around for a while longer still though,” Irwyn sighed. For an indeterminate time, actually. “I am thinking, maybe it would be possible to stay in touch with some of those communication magics. They cannot be that rare since we sent the soldiers out with them.”

“Hmm,” Elizabeth hummed at the request. “Something better than single use is not too hard. Sufficient encryption though, that is a different matter.”

“I don’t need utmost security for chatting,” Irwyn pointed out.

“Something slipping out could still be a risk. Or tracking of the source,” she pouted for a moment. “But I can arrange it. Just make sure both of you are mindful that anyone might be listening in on such conversations.”

“We aren’t children,” Waylan rolled his eyes, then reached into an inner pocket. “Anyway, I have a letter from Aaron. He wrote up a report about the observers on our side.”

“Thank you,” Elizabeth nodded as she took it, though she did not open it yet. “Anything interesting?”

“Not as far as I know,” Waylan shook his head. “I suppose he thanked you for your patronage.”

“You can have Trecha pay out your bill, yes,” Elizabeth smiled. “I am quite happy with this arrangement independent of Irwyn.”

“Always pleasure being paid,” Waylan nodded. And they were getting paid very well for Ebon Respite. Exceedingly well even. Irwyn did not know how much the Tears had been pulling lately but it was likely a lot less than what the army paid them for keeping an eye out and organizing the underworld collaboration. Funnily enough, Trecha was used to much higher labor costs to the point that he thought the army was getting a very good deal rather than being borderline fleeced. Irwyn was keeping to himself that most local gangs would do what the Tears were for a fraction of the price, if not quite as well. Trecha was, after all, used to collaborating with civilian mages when hiring outside help - not semi-completely mundane thieves.

“I will drop by tomorrow then,” Waylan nodded. “If you don’t need nothing else?”

“No,” Elizabeth shook her head.

“Moment,” Alice interjected. “I wanted to talk about something in private.”

“Al’ight?” Waylan raised an eyebrow but they quickly went a good distance away, Alice erecting her own privacy spells. Besides blocking sounds, their features became distorted meaning that their lips could not be read, even if Irwyn wanted to approach close enough to try that. He had never been very good at it.

“Any clue what that is about?” Elizabeth asked.

“None,” Irwyn shrugged. He felt like it was none of his business either way. “What do we do now?”

“Have tea, I suppose?” she sighed. “I wish there was an obvious solution to this business. Alas…”

“There is none,” Irwyn nodded. Waylan and Alice were done speaking quickly and his tattooed friend had already vanished while the Time mage walked back. “Tea does sound nice.”

Alice heard him and immediately turned around, heading to her lodgings, wearing a sudden perfect poker face. She did a poor job pretending the reason for her sudden departure was not related to boiling water and leaves.

Irwyn could only chuckle in amusement as Elizabeth pouted.

“It should be set up on our side,” Elizabeth frowned, staring at the device. It was half crystal, half a monocular, at least in appearance – all inert at the moment. The lenses, as far as Irwyn understood, seemed to be more decorative than useful, given the actual image would be projected by a metal box attached to the wall. Both Irwyn was feeding with his mana, the strain barely noticeable.

“Maybe they are struggling to get it running?” Alice suggested.

“The other node is designed to be trivial to use without any setup,” Elizabeth pointed out.

“They cannot troubleshoot anything magical being wrong,” Irwyn shook his head. “If it doesn’t work tonight, so be it. No need to be impatient.”

“We should have sent something allowing for better coordination to go with it,” Elizabeth sighed.

“Too late to regret,” Irwyn shrugged. It was just a few minutes past sundown, their agreed-upon time. There were many possible reasons for being late though.

“It’s working, I think,” Alice interjected. They were not in the large hall at the ground level but instead in the top floor. Things had been neatly rearranged in the sizeable corridor between the office areas, leaving plenty of space for just the three of them. And at the far wall Alice had created something of a perfectly flat panel, upon which the previously mentioned box had been placed. Finally, it stirred, an image appearing.

It was a rainbow. Or so Irwyn thought for a split second before figuring the shape was not right and neither were the colors. Sure, the vibrant shades were myriad but a rainbow required quite a specific order. And in the middle of all the top end of a large black dot disrupted the scenery.

“Would you step away please, Kalista?” Irwyn said, wondering if he could be heard.

“Oh, damn, sorry,” his friend quickly stepped away, putting on her glasses which hid the colorful chaos of her sclera. Seeing it from the front for the first time, Irwyn had to admit the Honed change looked even more wondrous upfront than from the profile.

“It’s working now?” Aaron’s voice sounded. The magic made it difficult to distinguish directions. Though since he was not in sight, behind the device was a good presumption. Kalista stepping away revealed the inside of Aaron’s office. Rainer was sitting in one of the chairs, seemingly just concluding a conversation with Waylan. Maxim was nowhere in sight. The image moved around for a moment as it was seemingly just then hoisted back onto a wall.

“Yep,” Kalista nodded. “Hey, Irwyn, Alice. Elizabeth?”

“Pleasure,” Elizabeth nodded with a smile. Aaron stepped into the frame as greetings were quickly exchanged. Although the Tears had some justified weariness of Elizabeth’s background, the introductions went smoothly. Likely due to the many stories involving her that Irwyn had shared and her willingness to act half-casual - the most easy-going she was usually willing to be even in private. Not that he would ever say that out loud, since Waylan would likely force him to hear something along the lines of ‘Plot, meet mettle’ or such nonsense.

“Why the delay?” Alice eventually ventured. Refocused on the conversation rather than predicting Waylan’s next linguistic malfeasance.

“Something was misaligned and the cube wouldn’t connect,” Kalista replied, already tucked in on Rainer’s lap. “Faulty thing wouldn’t work.”

“Even I cannot requisition high-quality equipment in the middle of a Lich war,” Elizabeth sighed. Though this was already a lot more than the original plan had been. Also a lot more secure, which Elizabeth justified by personally partaking. Whatever measures she personally possessed were degrees above the communication devices themselves.

“More like at the start of one,” Alice corrected. “Not many major battles yet.”

“How did you even fix that?” Irwyn frowned. The devices were magic.

“Well, I could see what was wrong,” Kalista shrugged. “And Aaron found a back panel presumably added for maintenance...”

“The issue was solvable without magic through a bit of blind jerry-rigging, thankfully,” the man in question interjected. “Though maybe a backup is warranted.”

“The box you have is pretty disposable,” Elizabeth nodded. “It carries less than ten hours of use before it has to be re-enchanted. It’s designed with that in mind,” she then pointed to the half-optical contraption sprawled on the table on their side. “It’s this distributor that is the expensive part. Those that can receive from a significant distance without needing a mage on the other side are in high demand.”

“I can imagine,” Aaron nodded. “I heard that the Duchy of Black has the most mortal soldiers of all the Duchies. Say is that…”

“Let’s not talk about a war?” Kalista interjected.

“Agreed,” Rainer supported. “You can talk about politics when I pass out.”

“You are not even drinking,” Waylan grunted with amusement.

“Alas, doing so would risk subjecting the rest of you to politics.”

“Thank you for your sacrifice,” Kalista turned and hugged him. “I will remember it.”

“It's more policies, than politics,” Elizabeth sighed.

“Politics can actually be rather exciting,” Irwyn added. “Almost too much.”

“I am sure rumors about third cousins of third cousins are exciting,” Aaron said drily. “To my understanding, House Blackburg is very… connected.”

“A common concern. Most Houses retain a geneticist to smooth out the deficiencies of incest,” Elizabeth delivered with complete lack of emotion, everyone suddenly stared at her. “Though my mother has sidestepped the issue by being born far North. What?”

“Most people’s answer to a self-inflicted problem is to stop perpetuating it,” Alice laughed. “Not hire someone to repeatedly fix the issue.”

“Is it so strange to you?” Elizabeth sounded genuinely surprised.

“Yes!” Rainer and Kalista yelled in unison.

“I see,” Elizabeth nodded slowly. “I suppose it is inevitable dislike would arise among people without access to countermeasures.”

“I take it back, let's rather talk War,” Rainer interjected.

"It is considered an... uncomfortable topic," Aaron faked clearing his throat.

“Any history is riddled with unpleasant truths,” Alice spoke up. “The writers often want to avoid including their own embarrassments. And the propagandists who then spread them obviously seek to avoid what a common person would find diminishing.”

“News to me that anyone high up cares what a common person thinks,” Waylan scoffed lightly.

“Maintaining public opinion is an important part of governance,” Elizabeth answered. “It is not about the individuals though, it is about a majority. Widespread public unrest is highly inconvenient in peace time and potentially dangerous during a Lich War. Cases of the latter are recorded as leading to devastating consequences.”

“No one would possibly rebel during a Lich War,” Kalista frowned.

“You would think so, but how does the common person know there is such a thing occurring? Few see the horrors first hand and live,” Elizabeth shook her head. “How does a cobbler know what a Lich War even is? Where does the illiterate housewife hear that undeath is objectively evil? They are simple facts that anyone in the know takes for granted. Yet it is in that wrong assumption that disaster can be seeded. Opinions must be managed.”

“I don’t want to sound rude, but I have heard of exactly zero times someone took the ‘official’ stance at face value,” Rainer said.

“Propaganda is not merely what is said or written,” Elizabeth shook her head again. “It is what is thought. Ideally, desired ideas become self-perpetuating, spreading through habit and word of mouth. Competently done, the majority of the population will agree on the core principles. Isn’t your Guild an example of such? Your every member fears House Blackburg and its authority even though they distrust anything we might ever say."

“That dread is very much enforced,” Aaron commented, unamused.

“Perhaps, yet never outright stated by the nobility,” Elizabeth seemed ready and eager to defend her point, not noticing that perhaps the topic was not ideal.

“Is it a part of this grand strategy to name every other institution ‘Something Black’?” so Irwyn changed the topic. “And every first one as well while they are at it.”

“That is… more of a tradition, I suppose,” Elizabeth paused. “I believe that at the time most of our institutions had been first founded there was something of a rivalry with the Duchy of Yellow to the West. Patriotisms lead to overindulgence of themes related to the Void and such, even by people who had practically nothing to do with them. Since then, such naming and esthetic convention has been preserved through the sheer momentum of tradition, something the Duchy of Black always desperately clings to.”

“So other Duchies are not so… obsessed with their color?” Irwyn dared hope.

“Nope,” Alice answered in her stead. “It applies to the biggest buildings and the most important mages, yeah, but normal people just wear… clothes. Any color… if they can afford the pigment. Magic and mundane people are less separated, at least in White and Teal, but at the same time the common people obsess about magical symbols less. The Duchy of Black is the weird one.”

“Don’t celebrate too early,” Elizabeth rushed to correct. “On official occasions, the color scheme is still strictly followed, and you will likely be visiting other Duchies mostly on those. What Alice means is that casual dress code in other Duchies tends to be far less constricted.”

“So you are telling me the Duchy of Green is not full of people living in a forest in green overalls?” Rainer chuckled from beyond the screen.

“I have never been to Duchy of Green, but I would presume that no,” Elizabeth replied. “Their famous nature cabals are known to opt for a total lack of clothes instead.”

“I am sure it is still the land of infinite forests you have envisioned, dear,” Kalista laughed, stroking Rainer on the chin.

“People always assume that there are many forests in the duchy of Green,” Elizabeth frowned at the comment though. “It has always puzzled me.”

“What do you mean? Green, forests? Hello?” Rainer seemed befuddled. Everyone else was lightly frowning too.

“It is Green because green is the color of Life, it has little to do with vegetation,” Elizabeth shook her head. “Chloroplast matching such is the sign of it copying green of Life, not the other way around.”

“If not forests, what do they have?” Irwyn wondered out loud, ignoring whatever that word had been for the moment. He could look it up in a dictionary later.

“Animals,” Elizabeth smiled. “Lots and lots of animals.”

“Oooh,” Kalista perked up. “Is it too much to ask for a house-sized cat?”

In the end, that comment definitively derailed the conversation.