Jane confirms that for us. When she asked a few guarded questions of the other servants, all she got in response was that it was out of bounds. With a side order of creepy, haunted feeling.
I checked with the watchers I left behind the night before. No one had turned down either hallway. Not even the night guards. The entrance hallway is so short that you can see the whole thing clearly. Just a dead end with a tapestry. I doubt anyone knows or cares that there's a door behind it.
Addie told me she's been playing around with her new tactical map. She can see an overlay of everything my ESP makes me aware of. That includes the extension of senses that I've been exploring with my Spirit creations.
She's developed a limited ability to replay movements on the map. I suspect that this is tied in with Rio's Mind Palace somehow. The map data is recorded in the Mind Palace and she is just now learning how to get info out of it.
Sorry. This is just blowing my mind. Our abilities as a party are going to be out-of-this-world OP. Let alone how OP we're becoming as individuals. We're still far from it, but the writing's on the wall. Not sure I really want to go there, though. Put's a target on your back. Best keep it secret if we can.
Addie gives the new hideout her stamp of approval and takes off on another mission. I sit there for a while, working on my Spirit/Mana/Primal senses coupled with Spirit energy manipulation. It seems strange to me that there are three energy systems - Spirit, Mana, and Primal. Oh, plus Demonic. Different energies but they do similar things. Weird.
How to practice? Mesmerize is a skill that I'm getting pretty good at. At least with people I know. I've been practicing a lot. However, I need to take it to the next level.
For this operation to work, Mesmerize needs to have two effects. First, I need to influence the decisions people make. Second, I need to alter existing memories and/or create false memories for people.
Couple this with the fact that I need to do it on the fly without being noticed by them or the people around them and I'm feeling a little pressure.
So I list out the specific cases for this specific plan. This is a big help because I had imagined some big nebulous task but in reality the list is quite short:
- Make Sir Aldo and his two assistants think that they don't have to deal with us. I will do this by making Sir Aldo believe his assistants are doing the job, while at the same time making each assistant think that the other assistant has full responsibility. Something I can probably do even without Mesmerize.
- Make Tara and Jane's supervisor believe that they are doing their job properly and don't need anyone checking on them.
- Make the guard patrols stay away from the area we move to. Or at least make them think that our activities there are normal.
Still a bit nebulous but it looks like I just need to do my magic on a few specific individuals. I get up and go searching for innocent victims to practice memory alteration on (in a safe, fun, and non-psychiatrically debilitating way, of course).
I sit at a table drinking tea. Surrounded by book shelves and other normal library furniture. Perfectly normal. If I didn't know better, I would truly believe that it's real.
But it's not. This is the Library of the Aedificium. I’ve been exploring here for some time. My real body is sitting in meditation on the bed in my chambers.
The Aedificium is more than just a library. There are meeting rooms, training halls for both magic and martial arts, laboratories, living quarters, and more. A complete, self-contained clan house.
Which is 'pretty cool', as Nix would say.
I reach out and open the book on the table in front of me. An old book on Dark magic. I read the first page of the first chapter. The writing is crystal clear. Every page seems complete, even though I've never read the physical copy in the library.
I can't because the writing is too old and faded. I like the implications of this. When I went to the Palace library first thing this morning, all I did was touch this book. I like the implications of that as well.
Instant access to any book I touch, regardless of physical condition. I am soooo going to have the best Library ever!
Nix and I leave Rio behind. It's funny how intense he gets, watching the guards play a game. I make fun of Rio about being a horndog, but honestly he's more complex than that. Not that I’ll ever admit that I know it.
We walk in an old-fashioned style with my hand resting on Nix' arm inside his elbow. After we've walked for about five minutes, Nix stops me. "There are some people I want to identify," he says quietly. "My ESP says they’re hostile and I want to know who they are."
We figure out a way for him to communicate with me non-verbally and then move on. The first hostile person we identify is one of Sir Aldo's two helpers. Sir Aldo bailed pretty early on in our stay and left us in the hands of two rather indifferent assistants. We see both of 'em talking to each other as they walk down the hallway. They greet us and move on. According to Nix, one of them, Lutatz, appears to him as very hostile while the other one is pretty much indifferent.
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The only other hostile person we run into is one of our old classmates.
I come around a corner and almost run into two people I hadn't expected to see. Two of our broken classmates. Honestly, why are those people still hanging around? They told us they were going to be gotten rid of.
I'm the Great Hero Ettiene. I don't have time to spend with Cursed losers. I brush past them without saying anything.
Note from Saki to Addie
RE: Wards on hallway.
Hi Addie,
I've looked into warding the new area according to the objectives you gave: Protect against unauthorized entry, discourage movement in the two dead-end hallways leading to the new area, and make the wards difficult to detect.
Protecting against unauthorized entry. I can place an enchantment on the (locked) front door that will prevent anyone from opening it, even if they have the key. The ward will be affixed to the back of the door so it can’t be seen from the outside. A mage will be able to detect this ward but I don't think it will be seen as unusual for an enchantment like this to have been placed on the door to a sealed area. On the rear doorway, I will place a ward that activates a lock when any unauthorized person attempts to open the door. The ward will be inside the door and virtually undetectable until it activates.
Discouraging movement in the hallways: I considered a number of options for this, but most of them are beyond me at this time. I refer specifically to magic fields that have direct neurological effects on people.
For the front hallway, I believe we should not put any wards in place. The hallway is too short to do anything without significant risk of detection.
I'm not convinced it’s necessary to take any steps to discourage movement. Plus setting wards to do so comes with considerable risk of detection. My suggestion for the back door would be to just cast a darkness spell in the hallway. I have studied how to do this and will be able to set the level of darkness to give it a gloomy atmosphere. It's my belief that anyone looking down the hallway will be discouraged to enter a place that’s not well-lit. This magic will be undetectable unless someone is standing within the darkness field and specifically looking for it.
These are my thoughts. I have been studying and practicing so I can put these wards into effect within ten minutes of getting the go-ahead from you.
Regards,
Saki
I asked Sir Aldo to meet me for lunch at our normal conference room. He agreed and came alone.
We chat about a lot of things. I stress our need for more time but also our desire to be less of a burden on him - busy man that he is.
He falls for it hook, line and sinker. After planting those ideas in his head, it only takes a little push to get him to dump all responsibility for us onto his two assistants. He promises to talk to them about it that afternoon.
I also plant a suggestion that I hope will lead to him gradually forgetting about us over the next few months. Not completely, but enough to make sure he won't suddenly pop up on our radar unexpectedly.
Go me! Strike a victory pose and then eat some chocolate!
Or better yet, anybody got a cuppa blood?
I ask Addie how she talked my favorite maids into helping us out with our dubious and shady plan. She laughs and says it was just our particular situation aligning with human nature.
When Tara and Jane first met us, we were in pitiful circumstances: handicapped, thrust into an unknown situation, and at the mercy of those around us. We are learning and growing, becoming stronger and more in control, but that first impression is still there in their minds. And we still really do need them and depend on them for a lot. Jane, especially, has a tendency to mother us.
Then throw in the maids' needs and wants. First, they need to remain employed here as long as possible. This particular gig is probably the best they will ever have as temporary maids and they want to prolong it. Second, they’re being bullied a little bit by the other staff members; even the other temps. This is because they're assigned to the 'useless ones' who will 'never be Heroes'. Helping us will feel like a well-deserved comeuppance for those bullies.
And finally, she mutters something about an ongoing snog-fest with some horndog. I guess that is directed at me. Only too happy to help!
Nix' ESP is pretty awesome. I drag him with me on my quest to befuddle the assistants. I can see people on my Situation Map (that's what I'm calling the visual overlay that appeared after I linked to Nix' ESP), but I don't know who they are until either Nix or I identifies them. After that, I see their name above their colored dot. I can even access more information about them by thinking about it. Only information someone in the family knows, though. I guess this is all linked through the Library record systems? What we had started calling the Akashic Records (formerly known as Rio's Mind Palace).
The Aedificium, the Library, the Family Inventory, and the Akashic Records are all clearly Blood Family constructs. We all seem to contribute something to it. Are we now all just peripherals attached to a central processing node and database?
Nix easily tracks down the location of both assistants. They're in the office they share. We stake it out and wait. One of them leaves within a half hour of when we find them. I target him first.
The man's name is Strogan. I call out to him and he turns to me. "Ah, Lady Addie. How may I help you?"
"Sir Aldo told me that you and Lutatz would be working with us from now on."
"Yes, that is true. Sir Aldo is a busy man, so feel free to come to us with any issues or requests."
"It must be hard to keep track of things with both of you helping us. I talked to Lutatz earlier and he suggested that we come to him and he could handle everything."
"Really?" His tone of disbelief indicates he clearly knows Lutatz for what he truly is, a lazy back-stabbing bum.
Now time for some Mesmerize razzle-dazzle. "Yes. You've agreed that Lutatz will deal with us and you don't need to worry about us, or even think about us any more..."
"Ah, yes. I see. Then I'll bid you good day, then."
"Have a good evening, sir.
He wanders off and Nix and I head for our next victim. Lutatz, the other assistant, is just as easy to handle. Even easier, in fact, since he's hostile to us (according to Nix' ESP) and actively dislikes dealing with us. The stage is now set. Sir Aldo plus both of his assistants all now believe that someone else is responsible for us.
Everybody's been really busy today. Between training and working on our new plan, I've had a pretty busy day too. I exercise with my Spirit creatures a little bit, then go to bed early.
As I fall asleep, I find myself thinking about how Tia came to read to me today. She smelled so nice....