Hope

Irwyn glanced at the empty inkwell resting on the table. The Fate of its contents had been… farther than he would have thought appropriate. Cruel even. And yet it was difficult to begrudge Elizabeth becoming furious on his behalf. Irwyn was not sure what to think and therefore did not speak before the conversation moved on.

“If everyone is on the same page, we are heading out,” Elizabeth announced.

“We?” Irwyn paused. “You are coming along.”

“With a domain mage, this close to City Black?” Elizabeth sighed. “You had a point that I need to put an end to my paranoia somewhere. This… this is more than safe enough. And since that is the case, I want to see it with my own eyes.”

“Then we best get going, I am expected to resolve things by noon,” Impression nodded. She seemed to have recovered from her ordeal very quickly, returning to her confident posture, for all it had lost some of the prior arrogance. Quickly they walked down the stairs, exciting through the front.

Irwyn was wondering how they would explain Elizabeth’s sudden lack of caution to the soldiers but they did not need to. No one stopped them. In fact, no one seemed to so much as acknowledge their existence.

“As if they cannot even notice us,” Irwyn wondered out loud, no one seemed to hear him.

“Yes, that is the point,” Impression nodded. “I am exceptional at hiding.”

“Is that Soul based or something else?”

“Why care?”

“Academic curiosity,” Irwyn shrugged. “And if I ever encounter someone like you it could prove useful knowledge.

“Answer,” Elizabeth inclined her head.

“Purely Soul based, yes,” Impression nodded with the slightest grimace. “I can exert influence on Souls in the vicinity to make them Forget whatever I wish. Here, they forget seeing us before their brains even register that such a thing happened.”

“Unlike conception mages, a domain allows this to be a persistent state rather than a spell requiring concentration and precision,” Elizabeth expanded. “Domain magic can affect even targets the caster is not aware of for example as long as they are in range.”

“How far does that ‘vicinity’ stretch though?” Irwyn pondered.

“It’s not really spacial proximity as you are thinking,” Elizabeth shook her head. “With most Soul domains, anything capable of perceiving her should be ‘close’ enough. Am I wrong?”

“With the exception of domains that counter the effect or more directly manipulate metaphysical distance… yes,” Impression confirmed.

“Domains can slightly nudge the rules and laws of reality. Targeting range is a common trick - as long as the magic doesn't butt heads with Finity overtly. Domains dedicated to range can target foes from outrageous distances.”

“So, you cannot be seen and even any disturbance of your passing will be forgotten,” Irwyn nodded. “That would make an exceptional infiltrator indeed. Especially with other tricks.”

“I was once an interrogator and a spy,” she slowly nodded. “My domain has been built on that foundation after decades of effort.”

“Interrogator first,” Elizabeth noted. “How does forgetting help someone remember something you need to know?”

“People can forget to guard their secrets,” Impression explained after squinting for a moment. “Forced to neglect maintaining the protections over their Souls, making them far easier to access with lesser magics. They can be also made to forget about reacting to such an attack, unable to even form the thought of questioning what is happening to them until I have long carved out every secret worth having – and then forget that they had lost anything in the first place.”

“I thought that you were not suitable for combat,” Irwyn frowned. “But couldn't you just make an equivalent mage forget to defend themselves? Or forget who is friend and foe even in a group battle. From the top of my head, I can imagine many ways you would be difficult to fight for an equal.”

“My domain is very powerful in combat,” Impression softly scoffed. “Merely…”

“It is far less useful against undead who exist with single-minded purpose,” Elizabeth explained in the Shadow’s stead. “It is much like making a zealot completely forget their cause - to erase the very reason for their being. Their hatred of the living infects their every though and action, making them ironically much harder to manipulate with Soul magic. That becomes even more so when the necromancers - along their usually significant mastery over Soul magic – interfere and erect defenses. Soul magic tends to be binary: Either it utterly overwhelms the victims or it fails to break through and is rendered near useless. Like in Abonisle, you might recall.”

“I suppose you have read my file,” Impression begrudgingly nodded.

“This much is obvious,” Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Your strengths and weaknesses are both glaring. I expect you will find a method to overcome them soon. Most Shadows don’t survive their first Lich War otherwise, or so I have heard.”

“I will… keep your advice in mind.”

“It is hardly something you would be unaware of,” Elizabeth shrugged. “Are you still not feeling anything?”

“Not a trace of two conception mages,” Impression shook her head. “Not much of a hint of anything, really. This place is strangely barren.”

“Lack of mages seems to do that to a city,” Irwyn shrugged.

“No, there is more to it than that,” Impression disagreed.

“Elaborate,” Elizabeth frowned.

“Has either of you been to another more… provincial town?” Impression muttered. They both shook their heads - Irwyn technically had been but his senses at the time had been far worse, rendering the comparison rather pointless. “I suppose you cannot tell. The magic here is abnormally scarce even for that. Especially this close to City Black… it’s strange.”

“I would think this would have been pointed out in a report somewhere,” Elizabeth frowned.

“Maybe everyone presumes it’s obvious?” Impression suggested. “Bringing it up would be running the risk of giving insult. Lesser mages are usually warry of doing that.”

“Perhaps,” Irwyn nodded, thinking about the why. From the top of his head, three possibilities presented themselves: The Fae in the forest nearby, the old laboratory he and Waylan had uncovered some time back, or perhaps some secret magical project by House Blackburg – though that last one was more of his imagination than anything based on evidence. “Actually, do we know since when this has occurred? I cannot tell if this is recent or has been as such for years – my senses used to be so much worse when I lived here.”

“I can ask when we return,” Elizabeth nodded. “If such a development has come to pass not long before our arrival it might make sense why it was not brought up.”

“We are getting close,” Irwyn voiced. “Maybe just a few streets away.”

“Still nothing,” Impression nodded. “Just the many manaless.”

“Then we might need to go looking around,” Irwyn nodded. “If they are indeed not here, there are other places.”

The orphanage looked no different from the day prior when they entered. Elizabeth looked on with a certain degree of curiosity as it was her first time personally in the place while Impression looked on with professional detachment. They also remained completely unseen. The Shadow had insisted she would not allow herself to be seen unless directly ordered to and, frankly, she had a point. Elizabeth, for all she had taken a step out the camp, was not eager to be seen outside of it either. Eventually, Irwyn opted just to walk into Aaron’s office then ask Impression to reveal him.

“Are you becoming Waylan now?” Aaron raised an eyebrow. Thanks to their aforementioned mutual friend he did not so much as skip a beat at the sudden appearance.

“As full of tricks as ever,” Irwyn shrugged with a grin.

“I thought you needed to open the door,” Aaron pointed to it. Irwyn, belatedly, realized a tripwire had been set up there. “You did not trip it.”

“Long explanation, lot of secrecy, less time,” Irwyn shook his head. He also had no idea how they did not trigger the improvised trap. Did impression... make the very world physically forget their passing? “I need directions.”

“So can I presume...?” Aaron half asked.

“The two are not here right now,” Irwyn nodded. “Which leaves me worried as to where they might be.”

“But presumable they are not the hunters anymore,” Aaron inferred, already scribbling onto a piece of paper as he did so.

“Very much so,” Irwyn confirmed. “But saying more would not be appropriate, sorry. Bit of a code 9, if far less dangerous for us.”

“You already have the address of our decoy,” Aaron nodded, not showing any overt reaction. He just handed Irwyn the note. “This is for our away group, then a few other places our problems might possibly be hiding - though the Guild is more likely than any of those, I would reckon.”

“Thank you,” Irwyn took the paper. “Hopefully this will be solved soon.”

“Hopefully,” Aaron nodded.

It was not.

The unmemorable trio went to the false incursion house’s address next. Everything had indeed been setup to make it look like a family had been disappeared there, with the slightest remnants of long rotten flesh to sell the lie of an undead attack. It was the most likely place the two assassins may be hiding, observing the discovery. They were nowhere near, according to Impression.

At that point they shortly returned to the garrison at Irwyn’s suggestion. Elizabeth quickly organized a group to head out to their prior location - no point dropping the act as long as their foe was still on the loose. Impression did not approve of the ‘waste of time’ but did not grumble overly when Elizabeth glared at her. Of course, the soldiers themselves had no idea what they would find. Only the officers were briefly told it was bait – as to avoid any panic – and to not say a word of it to anyone.

The trio then exited with the same stealth as before, heading for the Guild’s bar. When the two were not present there, Irwyn worriedly hurried to the hideout that the other Tears had gone to, thought thankfully they did not uncover anything amiss there either. From there their best clues were the location of generic hideouts or out of place areas someone might have feasibly hid in. Impression appeared still rather dubious there were any assassins to be found, then she ceased mentioning it when Elizabeth had ordered her to stop. With no better choice, they kept walking around in circles, often double backing to the Tears orphanage or the Guild in case their enemies had deemed to show up.

By the evening, Irwyn decided to inform Aaron they would need to carry on with the plan they had made up as an act. Elizabeth in the meantime would also play along to sell the events, coordinating the officers so that no false alarm would actually be raised outside their camp. For all of Impression’s insistence that the two assassins had likely left the city, Irwyn was not convinced they were simply not hiding exceptionally well. Therefore, he would act as if their actions kept being observed until the deadline came.

The two had insisted that Irwyn update them with a detailed plan in two days after all. Of course, it would be preferable if their hunt was concluded sooner - twice so judging by Impression’s mounting impatience – but that did not seem likely.

In the end, the two never appeared. Not until the meeting they had originally set, at least.

So, it was a full day later that Irwyn, Elizabeth, and a very irritated Impression, waited by the abandoned bookstore. The sun was beginning to set as the Shadow seethed at the ‘waste of time’ and how it would ‘reflect poorly on her’. Irwyn sympathized with that a bit, Elizabeth seemed to stand more on the schadenfreude side of things.

“Ah, they were indeed not in the city,” Impression suddenly interrupted idle chatter. Her scowl finally withdrawing. “I was right about that much.”

“You can feel them,” Elizabeth nodded.

“Just a faint trace, coming from far away,” the Shadow confirmed.

“Which direction?” Irwyn immediately inquired.

“Moment,” Impression said, already halfway through the motion of taking out a pendulum from her pocket. She extended her hand with almost blurring speed and let it hang from it. In a moment it began to pull in a direction.

“You cannot tell the direction?” Irwyn frowned. “Yet you can tell they are coming from far away.”

“Space and Soul operate independently at certain point,” Impression squinted at him with a frown. “Except Finity and other laws enforce that my senses and magic have to dull with distance and Time. That does not mean they are operating based on how far away something is, I can merely tell when something is further because of the proportional ‘dullness’ of my perception. I lack the affinity with Time to properly parse that back into directions, so I use a tool. Also, West to North-West. Anything interesting there?”

“Just a forest,” Elizabeth inclined her head.

“An old road,” Irwyn realized exactly where the pendulum was pointing. “It leads to Drathsol. I had mentioned it when making up the false plan… perhaps they were scouting their own path of escape?”

He decided not to mention the local Fae. It was certainly not the time to bring it up in front of Impression. He couldn’t be sure how tight lip the Shadow might be about secrets, for all it was Avys who had sent her to them. Nor was he sure it was a good idea to even inform the Duchess in case she did not already know.

“No, they were looking for something else,” Impression shook her head. “I don’t quite know what yet. Disciplined minds, these two.”

“You are already reading their thoughts,” Irwyn noted.

“I am a spy,” Impression scoffed. “There are other people who could kill these two with ease. Only I will also learn everything there is to know about them in the process.”

“How long do you need?” Elizabeth asked.

“Depends,” Impression shrugged. “I am just looking for any surprises while they come closer. A more thorough interrogation can be carried out after they are captured. Ideally, with Time dilation, these two feel like it might take a bit of effort to utterly shatter open.”

“Tell us what you are reading so far,” Elizabeth nodded.

“They have some kind of countermeasure for Soul magic,” the Shadow smiled. “I will be looking forward to their expressions when they realize it's useless. Also, they are almost sure that the entire act you put up is a lie.”

“Why play along then,” Irwyn frowned, trying not to think about what that could have meant. “And why head back here.”

“Ego, probably,” Impression paused. “Ah, they think you had accessed them wrong, not realizing they possess concepts. Apparently, they had been coming off as merely middling intention mages.”

“Really?” he shrugged. “It seemed unmistakable to me.”

“You are just more than they could ever expect,” Elizabeth chuckled. “So, what are they planning now?”

“To interrogate the boy with their inferior Soul magic just in case he was not lying. They consider it likely that their target - still thinking those are two separate people - would want to personally come and set an ambush for them due to their own ego. Well, they are technically not wrong.”

“Now we cannot have that, can we?” Elizabeth smiled, though the hint of anger in it was clear.

“No, we cannot,” Impression seemed to be on the same note with her for once. She certainly channeled all her frustration over the delays into her voice. “I think we will both enjoy this, your Ladyship.”